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| hi there, chuck taylor. |
Well, well, well. *sips coffee like a baws* ;D
After a whole month of gruelling, mind-blowing exams
(finger-breaking, I might add) and a heck lot of focus vibrations, final exams
are FINALLY over for the year! I actually feel like I did pretty good in some
of the papers and of course, some of them, well, just horrid. It was like those
awkward moments when you clearly remember the oh-so-creative mind map you have drawn
to make yourself keep in mind the facts better but instead all I could recall
was the apple I drew beside Adam Smith's name because it sounded like Granny
Smith's Green Apples and too, an observant eye which I forgot what it was
supposed to symbolize. So much for helping memory via mind-maps, Mr Tony Buzan!
Well, I guess he did me some good after all lah, I
remembered the apple, didn't I?
With exams away from the great picture now, I finally have the time and
the mood to blog about stuff and life, in a whole. Since my last post about
bowling, I figured I should definitely write more stuff 'cause my vocab and
grammar kinda is going to the downs. "Gutterballs gives identity"?
GAWD. Lemme rephrase that, I meant "Gutterballs give identity",
thank you very much. Clearly, you guys kinda need to write more too 'cause it's
either you guys didn't notice which I don't blame you OR nobody's reading this
lame blog of mine! LOL Oh well ! Don't mind the self-pity there, told yo' so I
blogs random stuffz...dawg... == PHAIL!
Shit. MUET exams are next Saturday and if I were to score at least a
Band 5, to hell with ghetto talk! And hello, Queen's English. Sigh, I miss the
Royal Wedding :')
Okay enough of today's daily dose of life crappings, now to what I
wanted to blog about since last week!! LIMA LIMA LIMA !!! hoyeah. LIMA is short
for the Langkawi International Maritime and Aerospace Exhibition 2011,
happening in Langkawi, Malaysia (DUH?!) on the 9th to 11th December and I'm
gonna be one of the volunteers!!! As you might have notice from the amount
of exclamation marks in this paragraph, YES I AM FREAKIN' EXCITED!!!
Why? Cuz 1: I knew about this from Aunty Daphne (Mumsy's long-time
BFF) from Thales long before time and now that I'm of age, PERFECTO! 2:
When I decided to apply and check out stuff about it, the closing date for
registration was what? Five days from then? And it was a hectic week, I must
say. Guess it's a hectic week, worthwhile! 3. I managed to grab the two
other two black widows along and they are excited about it too! We are so gonna
make FULL use of this whole experience 'cause we know, 2012 is gonna be just
fried. 4. It was a loooooong shot to be chosen as we were one of the
youngest, I believe and there were over 500 applicants! And to think that I was
one of the 110 volunteers chosen out of 500 applicants, mind-blowing. Hence, the
title of this post, 110/500 :D
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| Ze other two robots. |
Last week, we didn't have papers to sit for on Thursday and Friday.
And coincidentally, those two days were the days for the LIMA Volunteer's
Briefing! I thought, WOW, God really wants us to be in this thang, huh? Oh
righteousness! So everything was planned and next thing we know, we were off to
KL at 9am sharp on Thursday, all smiles. Gup got the bus tickets beforehand and
I must say, the bus was pretty decent except that I felt quite insecure with
all the smileys on the seats winking at me 24/7! Haha! #justsaying, really. The
journey was slow in the beginning but once we hit the highway, we flew off like
a bird. Gup and I sat together, leaving Nay to her 'chop'-ed single seat and
her lil' notebook with that Hush Puppies' dog. We chit-chatted the whole way,
well, most of the journey and laughed at every single thing till' we eventually
forgot what it was that was so funny. The junk food we bought during the break
in Spg Renggam (i think) didn't contain us, AT ALL! I think we kinda annoyed
the balding man who was in front of me 'cause he kept giving Nay 'the look'
when we laughed like hyenas from Lion King.
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| You have no idea how long we took to get this fairly good shot. Note: See that humongous luggage on the top part of the picture? Yup, that's Nay's one-day luggage of her precious 'bantal busuk'. |
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| This is what you get when you get junk food at highway stops: Tasteless Twisties, MSG-less Mamee and well, the Super Rings are pretty decent. |
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| Gimme my daily dose of culture and I'll be on my way. |
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| Sometimes, it's the littlest, simplest things that normally doesn't mean anything, most meaningful. |
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| This, was my upfront view. The majestic island. |
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| Check the outdoor elevators. Oh, I was on it. |
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| Bandar Tasik Selatan. |
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| Told you so, it looks like a freakin' airport, with all them arrival/departure screens! WOOTT! Don't mind the shaky picture. I was excited. |
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We headed straight to the KTM Commuter station to grab tickets for the
earliest train to our first stop, MidValley, to meet Nay's sister, Michelle for
lunch and a window-shopping session. On the way from the MidValley Commuter
Station to MidValley itself, we were followed by this African guy who was
pretty scary. Well, I'm sure he wasn't following or stalking us but he was
certainly going where we were going at a point. We got slightly paranoid and
walked faster and imagine, Nay with her HUGE luggage bag. Funneh. When we got
into the building, we were kinda relieved 'cause that dude wasn't behind us
anymore.
I know I'm all for equality and I am definitely not racist against
anybody, don't get me wrong. And I strongly believe that people should not
be judged by their skin colour or where they hail from. But, people are still
people. We get influenced by the vast media and cases like robbery and
sex-traffickers would, one way or another, be stereotyped towards a person with
aggressive features or is of a certain skin colour. It is basically like high
school where people are constantly stereotyped or thought of to be a
certain person. The world is so corrupted these days and you'd never know when
or what might happen to you, in a flicker of light. Better safe than sorry,
they say. :)
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| Note: Women's Coach translated to Bahasa Melayu is Koc Wanita. Done laughing yet? Well, I'm sure we didn't. |
We met up with Michelle and had lunch at Madam Kwan's. It was my second time there and the food was deliciously filling. Though it was quite expensive, I was satisfied with my lunch. We window-shopped after that, really just walking aimlessly around the what-used-to-be the biggest mall in Malaysia like lost tourists.
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| Madam Kwan's Ipoh Hor Fun. |
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| Michelle. Check her blog here. |
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| Tres |
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| Goofing around, scaring cars away, just for Michelle! LOL |
It was 3.30pm and we decided to get going before KL rush hour peaks. So, back to the KTM Commuter station we go. And little that we know, KL rush hour starts at 3 plus, close to 4. I was like "WTF, you've gotta be kidding me!” Bad thing about being at Malaysian commuter stations at peak hour is that people do not, I repeat, do not care whether you came first or you came last. We were there at 3.45pm or so and as the commuters get delayed, over and over, it just made common sense that more people are gonna be waiting for the same commuter as we are. Being the Johoreans that we are, ignorant to rush hours and commuter craziness, we just sat and hanged around till' the commuter arrived. And to our surprise, everyone was rushing towards the commuter door and into the commuter, without even allowing a tiny little space for people who are coming out of the commuter! I found that so ignorant of Malaysians. it was horrid. Sad and embarrassed to say this but it was like lil' lost Malaysian scrambling sheep whose just let out of the kandang after years and years being trapped in there! Ruthless! As long as they get to squeeze their way into the commuter, either the normal coaches or the women's coaches, no one ain't got nothin' on 'em!
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| Sulky faces while waiting for the commuter for over an hour. Gup's just fake smiling. Now THAT'S lethal. |
We didn't want to squeeze our way into the jam-packed commuter and didn't want to be separated while doing that, so, being all prim and giving, we missed two commuters. It’s not like we didn't try to get on one, but it was more of 'well, we're not exactly in a hurry and maybe they needed to get home to feed their children or something'. On the bright side though, while waiting for the next commuter which we eventually got on after letting people inside out first (ain't the world a better place if we are just that tad bit more patient?), I got to realise that people nowadays are actually reading while waiting for the commuters. I really didn't think I would see this scene in Malaysia, really. I expected to see more people meddling with their phones than to read a book! LOL Guess I thought wrong, no?
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| Nice scene to witness, really. |
Anyway, you don't need to be a local to realise that the commuters are
not on time, at all! It gets delayed, big time! So, I advise you to either take
the LRT (Light Rail Transit) or bring a book. Trust me, I've been there and
it's definitely not the best feeling, at all!
When we eventually got onto the commuter, it was as expected,
jam-packed. I think some girl's luggage swiped my butt a few times. It was kind
of uneasy. We went on the women's coach and I must say, it's the best idea
ever! Not saying that we are totally free of snatch-theft, silent-stealers or
molesters as there were some lost men in the coach, just saying that the sense
of security is slightly higher than to be in a normal coach. But then, being in
a women's coach, there is also nothing less than a great deal of drama. In one
of the stops which was coincidentally no one's destination stop,
there's this woman who wanted to squeeze her way into the already full coach,
like literally! I bet half her body was still out of the commuter! Suddenly,
there was this standing woman who shouted: "Eh, Janganlah tolaklah, I
pregnant ni!" I was out of words. I mean, who would be so damn
inhumane to actually push a pregnant lady just to get into a commuter? Even to
do anything that might hurt a person just for personal gain itself disgusts me
and earns no respect from me. It was a ghastly scene to hear. First
and foremost, why was the pregnant lady even standing? Just for the comfort of
yourself, you let a pregnant lady stand and get pushed around? How would you
feel if I slap you in the face just so I can relieve my exam stress? Ugh.
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| H.E.L.P. |
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| enduring the smell of sweat + deodorant Looks like Nay's enjoying it a lot... |
I would say that was my worst and best commuter experience. Worst,
'cause we waited for probably an hour or so for a commuter and people nowadays
are so ignorant and selfish. Best, 'cause it gave me a different outlook on
people, in a whole. And I got to spread a lil happiness by doing the simplest
act of letting people out from the commuter first before entering. Way to go,
girls!
We got out at the Segambut Commuter Station as we were to meet up with
Gup's aunt, Manjit-pua, affectionately called by Gup. 'Pua' means maternal
aunt, we learnt later at dinner. It was quite a short but freaky journey from
the station to the place we were supposed to meet Manjit-pua. We had to walk in
really muddy situations and through an Indonesian township. Well, it wasn't
exactly a township, it was more like a squatter camp in South Africa. Probably,
it's called low-cost shelters or something here. we were so scared of being
robbed or worse still, raped and thrown into some unknown sewage river!
Touchwood, touchwood! LOL Climbed up a flight of stairs and we felt soooooo
much better seeing Manjit-pua at the end of the tunnel, I mean, staircase.
Haha!
Headed to the Manjit-pua's condo where we stayed the night before going
to the briefing next morning. Had a good dinner after showering and being all
freshened up. And of course, we made great use of the WiFi at the place. Hee! Manjit-pua
was really nice. We chit-chatted about school, moral school projects *wink
wink, Nay and Gup* and other stuffs. She insisted on paying for dinner when Nay
and I offered to give everyone a treat. Haha What a nice lady, eh? :)
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| TomYam BeeHoon and Apple Juice! |
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| Malaysia's Siamese Twins <3 |
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| In front of the condo. |
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| Silhouette. |
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| One of my favourite shots of the day =) |
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| "Dilarang Masuk, my foot! I'ma walk right thru ya, in yo' face!" |
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| It's a plane! It's a HUGE bird! Nope, It's Genting Highlands. |
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| The awesome resort-like pool. There were people having a barbeque at the BBQ pit at the side. Awesome. |
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| A very normal picture of us, you're seeing. and nope, it's not the left one i'm talking about ;D |
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| Last picture of the day, right before our girl talk sesh which lasted till 1+am |
***
Wow, I didn't even realise I was capable of writing so much in a couple
of hours, non-stop! Awesome. Bet you are drained of reading all my lame life
findings! Haha! I shall continue my mini expedition in a new blogpost =) Check
the sequel to this blogpost, 110/500 (Day II) soon!
XXOO.
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