Clement's Blog

2011-09-29T03:11:00.002+01:00

Soooo… nothing much has happened during the past few days except that I’ve completed my thesis draft and sent it to my supervisor. This frees my time up and will allow me to spend more time with people who are important to my life (yes, you know who you are, otouto, Maxwell and Pudaruth). The past week has been by far one of the busiest weeks of my life. Aside from voluntarily officiating an event, I’ve also been to two youth events; the integration charity and a party organised for the youth in the church I go to. Me and Aaron, another youth leader, managed to walk a new kid to the event, and he seemed to really enjoy himself despite the fact that it was a Christian gathering. Will try and convince him to come more often and perhaps attend our Sunday service if he isn’t too inundated by the intricacies of daily life.

Today’s photo:

Okay, I was too lazy to get up and put a shirt on. Excuse the surprised face; I was shocked by my own hotness.

Sometimes I sit back and think of how far I’ve gone since I first started living in the UK. It was a gloomy, lonely night when I got onto the plane and departed from Kuala Lumpur International Airport, to a new life in a new country where I was suddenly supposed to know EVERYTHING about independence and providing for myself. Fast forward four years and two universities, and now I’m placed in a quiet little city near the coast of the East of England. I must admit though, before I actually stepped foot in Norwich I was dubious about the amount of friends I would make, and thought that my masters would consist of me just spending half the year in my room (half the year going to lectures, of course…), sitting for exams, and then leaving to seek greener pastures in London/ rest of Europe. How things have changed. I’m sure I don’t really need to re-mention all the amazing friends I’ve made over my time here as well as finding a family in Proclaimers church under the capable ministry of Tom Rawls. It will be a very sad day when I (hopefully not) leave Norwich.

Over the past few days I’ve sort of gotten to terms with my job situation. While I’ll exhaust all opportunities in my effort to stay in Norwich, I’ve accepted that if the time comes and I haven’t found a job in the area, I’ll go to London and create a new life there. This doesn’t mean that I’ll forget everyone here. Thomas (both of you), rest assured that you will always be my best friends and I’ll always come to see you whenever I get the chance. All those nights spent eating curries that nearly defeat us, along with cibainess (Maxwell) and those days spent in church just talking about random things, me teasing you relentlessly (otouto). These memories will remain forever engraved in my mind. Just sayin’, if you happen to stumble across this blog (I link quite explicitly on my Facebook wall), just know that you will forever be in my heart.

Okay, let’s cut all that sentimental emo crap. I had a relatively eventful week, with the downer being that my bike suddenly decided to hate me and snap its brakes and puncture a tyre. An angel was definitely watching over me on Monday; I had such a close brush with death in the form nearly being sandwiched by a truck and a car that merely thinking about it makes my heart pound again with the revelation of all the things I haven’t done in my life yet forever remaining unfulfilled because of a single brake wire. To top that up, I lost all of my saves in Deus Ex: Human Revolution, and will have to start all over again! So all in all, Monday just wasn’t a day which I care to relive ever again in my life.

Tuesday was a little better though, boosted significantly by nearly completing my dissertation draft and having an opportunity to get some exercise as well as spend some quality-time swimming with otouto and his dad, Dave. Otouto's got a good swimming form, but I think he needs to push himself slightly more to up his fitness level; he’s in shape at the moment but can do so much better, methinks. I really had a good time swimming my laps like I used to do so such a long time ago it seems now. After spending approximately an hour in the swimming pool we decided to call it a night and head home. All was good except for the fact that I had forgotten to eat before swimming and got stricken by the worst case of gastric when I arrived home later that night. Quite a successful day, I think you’ll find. I might join them on a more frequent basis depending on my schedule, if they’ll accept my intrusion. Plus, I really had fun swimming in the heated pool, and I’m sure that if you’ve ever been to my condominium in Kuala Lumpur, you’ll know immediately that this is a relief from the freezing pool that I have back home.

On Wednesday, I finally submitted my thesis draft to my supervisor. Am due to meet him on Friday; hopefully he’ll have read enough of it to get the gist of the whole idea. I’m actually really excited for myself. I’m approaching a transitional period in my life which I know will be much more significant than all others; forget leaving home to go to university, forget my internships. What I do in the next few months will determine where I pave my career path for the next five years. Will I travel half the world doing short-term projects? Will I stay in an office all day long working my way up the ranks? Ideally, I’d like a job where half of my time is spent outside the office, but I realise that sometimes your dream job won’t come immediately unless I’m really lucky and manage to secure a position somewhere in a development consultancy firm with a really good package. By the way, I’m looking for intelligent people who are able to offer valuable feedback on my dissertation. Just need you to read the first three chapters and the conclusion and then tell me if you understand what the whole thing is about. If you have some spare time over the next week, please let me know as soon as possible before I submit my final piece on the 4^th of October.

Also, I have managed to secure a good part-time job with a local security firm which will offer me a good rate for doing doorwork. That’s right; I’m back in black, and ready to resume my bouncing duties. I just hope I won’t have to break any more wrists and knees (in self-defence) before I move on to a fulltime job. Anyway, just thought I’d update you guys (right now the statistics on my blog show that there 50 unique visitors to the site. That’s quite enough really; don’t want everyone knowing the bits and bobs of my life) with this little snippet, before I catch my beauty sleep and awaken to a brand new day. Carpe diem!

P.S. "otouto" means "little brother" in Japanese. Used as an affectionate term by an older male to a younger male who's close to them.

Hello there!

2011-09-23T00:49:00.000+01:00

Hi guys,

It’s been a long time since I’ve graced the keyboard with my fingers. So many things have happened in my life over the past six months that I haven’t really had time to update this little (not so) secret corner of mine. Sometimes I quail to think of how many people have access to my personal thoughts and the intricacies of my daily life; it certainly is a bit of a nerve-racking experience sitting behind my keyboard pouring out my heart into the internet. Nevertheless,

Picture of the day:

This was taken after I came back from work today; it was a long day working near the city centre followed by volunteering at a local youth charity. The kids loved my uniform; they thought I worked for the police but I very quickly corrected them. So here I am sat in front of the pc, alternating between typing out my thesis, typing this out and listening to movie soundtracks by John Powell (has anyone realized that the OST for “Paycheck” really brings out the mood in you?”.

However, as much as I would like to proclaim that all is well and that I’m having a really carefree time in Norwich, I can’t. There are extenuating problems with my visa and I’m not sure whether I’ll be able to stay in this country for long. Basically, the university issued me a wrong Certificate of Acceptance of Studies (CAS; bit of a mouthful) letter, stating that my course would end on the 1^st of September; the correct date is on the 30^th of the month. This meant that the UK Border Agency (UKBA) issued me a visa which ends on the 1^st of November. At first, I thought this would not be a problem. However, I found out not too long ago that my results would come out on the 15^th of November: a full two weeks after my visa is due to expire. This means that I will not be able to apply for my Post-Study Work (PSW) visa because I need my results to affect the process. So… here I’m placed in a situation where I’ve been doubly screwed by the university AND the UKBA. I guess the most frustrating thing about this whole situation is that no one can help me sort this problem out; the university cannot reissue a CAS and the UKBA can only work with the (incorrect) information that they have been given. They will not change their ruling for a small-fry immigrant like me. There have been a couple of instances when I’ve felt like just giving up and going home. Even asylum-seekers and chavs get better treatment than the aspiring foreign-skilled worker.

However, it has become clear to me that I must not throw in the towel. Over the past year, I’ve been very involved in the youth sector, volunteering with a mentorship program for asylum-seekers and taking part in the youth section in my local church. It seems slightly bizarre for this to happen, but instead of me becoming really close to my mentee who I parted ways with after the six-month program, I’ve become almost inseparable from one of the youth in church. Very strange. I never thought that someone else let alone a child (a very intelligent one though…) would share exactly the same interests as me, and be as witty as Michael McIntyre on a good day. Okay, maybe not that last part about Michael McIntyre, but enough of the sop for now. I think the main thing that’s compelling me to remain in Norwich is the pleasure of seeing this child develop into the great person that he truly is inside. He takes on a timid demeanor when meeting strangers, and often hangs about in the background, but when people who understand him (friends/family) engage in conversation, his eyes light up and suddenly you see a different person. Thomas Maxwell, if you’re reading this, you know EXACTLY who I’m talking about as he’s your twin. I’ve been trying really hard to bring out this character in him by taking the initiative to organize university lecture sit-ins and attempting to invite him to events that would really boost his communicative and social skills, but nothing seems to be working at the moment. He is really such a wonderful person and I see him really going far in life in both education and profession. I will never give up though; if you’ve met me in person I’m sure you can testify as to my determination and steadfast focus on an objective. I’m sure one day he’ll come round to discussing things other than just computer games and funny but obscure videos on YouTube. I just hope that he finds out what he wants to do soonish because I can’t guarantee that I’ll be able to stay for long. I sure hope I made a difference in his life though.

To be honest, I’m scared. I’m scared that I won’t be able to continue to enjoy the life that I’ve gotten used to in this country. I’m terrified that all of this will end and I’ll go back to my mundane life in Malaysia. Don’t get me wrong; I love my country and all my people. But it’s different in my case. I don’t think I could ever settle down with an Asian-cultured girl. Years spent in the international school system have geared me toward the European/British way of living and I don’t think I ever could be happy anywhere else. What I’m most afraid of is leaving everyone I’ve ever made important in my life here, and retiring to my old life back in Malaysia. I’m afraid that I won’t be able to pay my brother’s medical school fees, and that all these years of education are going to be wasted on me if I can’t get a job. I’m absolutely petrified. But I know that in spite of my uncertainties, there are other people that are depending on me and that there are other things that must take priority over this. I will do my very best not to disappoint, and hope that you will trust and believe in me.

I was trawling Facebook (as usual), and discovered that Katelyn had gotten engaged to her high-school sweetheart, Eric! Unfortunately I found out a few hours slightly too late and missed out on being one of the first people to congratulate her. I’m really happy that such a close friend of mine has discovered true happiness and her perfect partner, and while I don’t think I’ll realistically be able to make it to the wedding, I’ll definitely send a gift to take my place! It’s been such an honour meeting you, Katelyn. I wish you the best in your marriage and your life. We should keep in touch; you never know, there might be the slight off-chance that I’ll be in California on a random business trip (if I’m that lucky!).

This year has been an interesting year to say the least. I’ve been all the way up in the Prime Minister’s office in Malaysia to all the way down working a gritty nightclub in Norwich. Moving to Norfolk after spending three years in Manchester was definitely a choice that I do not regret making. I’ve met so many wonderful people in Norwich; even more so than in Manchester over the period of less than a year, and have made a few more friends for life. You know who I’m talking about don’t you, Raj, Aneel, Harbi, Tom and Katelyn?

But anyway, the time has come for me to sign off and try to get some rest; the whole day tomorrow will be spent volunteering. I don’t even think I’ll have time to work on my thesis. It’s nearly complete… just need to add the conclusion and references as well as a table of contents. I’ll be sending drafts to selected people to read over the next few weeks. Btw, my word count is exactly 1337!

A Chai Latte at The Forum and the Left Hand of God

2010-12-22T03:08:00.005Z

Woke at 2:45 in the afternoon after receiving a text from Kirsty inviting me for a meet up in The Forum for a coffee and also to return her books that she left behind yesterday after dinner. Yes, 1445 hours. I did however get to sleep at about 0700 hours, having spent most of the night reading novels. I’ve been going to The Millennium Library quite often to borrow books for casual and professional reading. So far I’ve almost read the whole of the Andy McNab and Chris Ryan military series that they have written. They both used to be in the same SAS squad which got ambushed in the early 90s in the Middle-East, and were the only two to survive (as far as I can recall). It was a quick bath (I used the shower gel that Harbi bought for me) and an equally brief teeth brushing and then a brisk walk to The Forum. I ended up arriving about twenty minutes late, but we managed to have a good chat for about an hour and a half.

The Forum in its glory.

The ceiling caught my eye

Outside view

It’s always nice meeting new people; I find that my life is vibrantly coloured by my closest friends, and I make new ones everywhere I go no matter what I am doing. Kirsty used to work in the charity sector. She worked in the British Skin Foundation (which according to her inside scoop has approximately SIX full-time staff working on projects in the whole of the UK!), but wanted a more meaningful insight and experience in working with street children. She also was acquainted with Laura Hillier, who I used to volunteer with in Manchester. It’s funny how small the world is; one moment you’re laughing it up in Manchester drinking copious amounts of white wine with Laura and getting slightly tipsy and another moment you’re sat on the opposite end of the country chatting with someone about her! I think I am starting to become a believer of the theory of the “six degrees of separation”: the theory that everyone on this planet is connected somehow or another by six steps of friendship (friend of a friend e.g.). At first I was slightly dubious about it, but compelling evidence is starting to arise.

The church directly facing The Forum

After our rather long conversation which involved the makings of a plan to go bowling on Thursday with the usual suspects, I decided to head to the library to return my war books and borrow some more! This time however I chanced by the graphic novels section and randomly picked up a comic. It just so happened to be a graphic adaptation of “Prototype”, a computer game that I used to play back home in Malaysia. Of course, it went without saying that I immediately clutched it to my breast and borrowed it in addition to two other books from McNab as well as a book called “The Left Hand of God”.

Behold: the Millennium Library!

“The Left Hand of God” is a fantasy story involving a young lad of fourteen years who has been brought up in the vilest of conditions; in a religious sect where Christianity is twisted to become a horrible conviction. The people who you would normally call “pastors” or “deacons” or “priests” in real life were called “Redeemers” in the story. They absolutely reeked of depravity; torturing and hitting the boys for even the slightest mistake and feeding them loathsome food made out of random body parts and fats of animals. Anyway, this kid called Cale escapes from the Redeemers and saves a damsel in distress (classic!), and goes about learning for the first time what it is like to trust someone, to live in society and to carry one’s self in an appropriate manner. The story however is rather dark in essence; the writer encroaches on elements of death, violence, sex and the perverted aspect of human nature. Definitely not for under-18s, unless you feel somewhat curious in your young life and would like to know more about torture in the olden days of bows and swords.

Anyway, enough of the book reviews; Katelyn has missed her flight after the poor excuse of British transportation made it so that she arrived considerably late… too late as a matter of fact; by the time she arrived, getting on the flight was about as likely as me writing a dissertation in 20 minutes. So, off she headed back to Norwich. I managed to invite her for dinner tomorrow along with her new friends Ikki and Derald. I’m thinking maybe curry chicken (I won’t be so brash to say “Malaysian curry” for fear of being called out by Derald who is also a Malaysian).

The worst thing happened to me when I returned home. I was thinking of a lovely bolognaise for dinner, and of course went about buying the suitable ingredients from Tesco. Imagine my great dismay when I returned home and found out that I had bought everything to the dot except for the chopped tomatoes! It was another trip to Tesco in a grump and a brisk self-checkout. At least I left the kettle on boil when I left, so it wasn’t a total waste of productivity.

The facial products that Harbi has purchased me have worked absolute wonders on my skin; already my acne is starting to go down and previously stubborn cysts have started draining. I know, I know… I really shouldn’t be talking about my face as a guy much less so my pus-ridden cysts, so I won’t dwell too much on that. But I will say thanks Harbi, and hopefully see you in London should transportation prove efficient enough for me to make a safe trip without delays or derailments!

WORK

The security firm I work with has not offered me any new shifts as of two weeks ago at Knowhere. They must be really full on staff at the moment, or maybe I’m just a crap doorman! I’m fine with both though; as much as I like arguing my point with surprising thick-headed people and drunken students, I find that I have more pressing things to attend to such as the family I have in Norwich. I received two emails from my future course conveners for next term; surprise surprise, we have preliminary readings to do during the holidays! Am I glad we start on the 17^th of January so I can have a look through all of them to ascertain as to whether I’m really suited for the courses I have chosen (Contemporary World Development, Conflict Peace and Security and Industrialisation and Development). Actually, the only module I can change my mind on is Conflict, Peace and Security; the other two are compulsory modules, so I guess I’ll have to grit my teeth and get to them if I find out I don’t flow with them. I’m sure I will however; I have enjoyed all my modules so far including Governance, Democracy and Development (although I’m not too sure how I did in the essay but would be very happy with a pass).

Lo and behold, it’s three in the morning, and I don’t feel sleep whatsoever. Looks like I’ll be going to bed at seven again. I hope I get up in time to procure the necessary ingredients from Sainsbury for tomorrow’s feast. No worries though; I’ll have other late night stragglers for company and I have my novels!

And finally, I leave you with something I painstakingly created last night:

My Bike Ride down Avenue Road two months ago.

Stay safe,

Goodbye 2010 (Part 2)

2010-12-21T01:31:00.000Z

I had an absolutely fantastic night on Friday! Got up at about one in the afternoon and proceeded to waste the day away by watching TV shows on my computer until a terrible sense of realization hit me; I had provided my Manchester student ID instead of my UEA ID when submitting my three pieces of coursework on Wednesday. Mini Heart Attack! I hastily pulled on some clothes (outer clothing mind you; I’m not a naturist) and cycled with great fervor to campus, where I raced to the teaching office in the Arts Building; all three floors up and announced my spectacular mistake to Penelope Thimbleby seated at the teaching office reception desk. It turned out that she was just about to email me inquiring as to the strange number that I had written on my submission sheet. An overwhelming sense of relief flooded me. The papers had been collected and the pertinent adjustments made to the ID discrepancy. It was then when I received a phone call from Harbi Jama, who enquired as to my availability at half six; he was having a pre-drinks session at his place before heading to the city centre for the ball. I said I would come, but my hunger started gnawing at me big-time so I returned home and cooked myself some nice pasta bolognaise. By the time I had finished eating, it was already ten minutes past six. There was no way I was going to walk there in time to make myself comfortable, have some beverages and then catch a cab back to square one: the city centre (I live very close). I decided to take a nice bath and then dress up and make my way to Assembly House where the event was being held. I arrived in good time, and bumped into Aneel Piryani as I was taking a photo of the place.

Behold: Assembly House in its Glory!

Sparking Chandeliers inside!

Along with a gothic-style candlestand!

I could not have chosen a better place to hold the End of Term Ball: truly a beautiful place with Victorian-esque pillars and high ceilings. We entered the venue and grabbed our welcome drink of Buck’s fizz (a combination of sparkling wine and orange juice for the uninformed) at which time Katelyn turned up, wearing stockings with snow boots which I found quite absurd. She was also carrying a backpack, which had her bridesmaid shoes in them (mind you, they’re EIGHT years old), and rushed to change into them after we pointed her in the direction of the lavatory/bathroom/restroom/watercloset/toilet/loo/e.g.

I would have to say I enjoyed myself thoroughly during the party, especially when Adetola showed up wearing a flashy white African outfit with an equally gaudy golden hat! I actually stole that hat for about half an hour, photobombing and dancing with it perched precariously at an angle. Am yet to find photos of myself in precarious situations! We took turns pushing each other into the centre of the dance floor and watching them squirm in discomfort and embarrassment before breaking out into a random dance of flailing limbs finally ending with a long-suffering leer at the person who pushed them in. This continued in the same vein until I remembered that I had to go and see Ikki (my Japanese friend whom I met during the first term in UEA) in the Bell Hotel. So I excused myself and off I went, trudging along the icy footpaths, slipping and sliding all the way to the venue. The atmosphere was pleasant enough when I arrived, and I spent the next 30 minutes congratulating him and chit-chatting with the rest of his friends (who happen to make up a large part of the South-East Asian Society’s Committee). It was then when I met a fellow Malaysian by the name of Derald, who was studying Actuarial Science after spending a year in INTO. He knew Johnathan Beechey too, which I found quite amazing (which I really shouldn’t because he does Acturial Science too). It’s funny how small the world is. One moment you’re sitting at a mamak stall in Kuala Lumpur sipping teh ais (iced milk tea), eating roti canai (Malaysian style bread) enjoying the air-conditioner while complaining about the heat, and another moment you’re sitting in a nice warm lounge ten thousand kilometers away in a foreign country, while snowflakes gently flutter down outside the window conversing casually with a fellow Malaysian about winter plans. Brings about a sense of euphoria, methinks.

We made plans to meet at his place for sushi dinner on Saturday, and then we went our separate ways; Ikki’s gang heading for Mercy and myself in the direction of the Dev Ball to complete our merrymaking. Everything was as I had left it; Raj was still dancing in his nice grey Cambridge suit and Harbi had ditched his cummerbund for higher dancing efficiency. Eventually, the fun ended at about half eleven, and I went outside slightly ahead of everyone to catch some fresh air with Aneel. Suddenly, mischief struck me. I made two absolute monsters of snowballs and lay in wait for the next person I knew brave enough to leave Assembly House. It happened to be Adetola, and I pelted him twice successively, ran around like a headless chicken trying to avoid his revenge, made peace with each other, and subsequently made the decision to ambush Raj as he came out. It was a success; we assailed him with a flurry of snowballs, and Ade took the opportunity to sneak up behind him and rub snow into his hair, which brought about screams of rage from said victim and a chase across the snow-covered lawn. I would gladly have done that over and over again just to hear his scream!

Just before I shaped the two gigantic snowballs

Frozen Fountain

We went to a club called Mustard, and got free shots of Vodka but didn’t spend too much time there. After that, Harbi and Raj really wanted to go to Havana but I was a bit reluctant as the security company I work for has a contract with the club and I know some of the staff there. I decided to go and grab a bite to eat at a Kebab shop down Prince of Wales Road, and Katelyn as well as Camille decided to join me. We had to pass Havana to get to the Kebab shop so we decided to stick with the main group and say our goodbyes there. However as luck would have it, Adetola got refused entry because he hadn’t brought his passport with him, and Raj, being in a somewhat inebriated state, tried to argue incessantly with the doorman, who I recognized as one of my colleagues! He looked over at me; we made eye contact and smiled at each other. It was then when I decided to talk to Raj and tell him to calm down before he got himself into trouble. There were also two police officers patrolling the street as well, getting up and personal with drunken people and I really didn’t want poor Raj to get on the wrong side of the law! I ended up asking Harbi if he could take care of Raj while three of us headed to Prince of Wales.

After a satiating meal of a Donner Kebab and a side order of chips, we decided to head home. A brief moment of panic was observed as Camille spotted her bus and ran toward it, only to have it leave her in a wake of ice-chippings as it pulled away without a shred of consideration for a young lady stuck at a bus stop at about two in the morning. Katelyn walked out of her way just so that she could have more time to talk with us which I thought was pretty sweet, but we parted right outside Marks and Spencer’s. I then walked Camille to her bus stop and we spent the next twenty minutes waiting for the next bus and talking about random things. Then it was off home and a nice sleep in bed.

Dinner at Ikki’s

After a very fulfilling slumber, I woke at approximately twelve in the afternoon and proceeded to spend the next three hours watching TV shows and reading books in bed. It was only when the sky started turning blue that I thought it would be good if I actually got up and freshened up before dinner at Ikki’s place. I texted Harbi and Katelyn but decided not to contact Raj as he probably had a hangover from hell and would be working on his essays (poor fellow!). Harbi was burnt out after work and couldn’t make it so it was just me and Katelyn. I met her at the Forum at about six in the evening and we proceeded to Ikki’s place. We got a bit lost; my GPS simply refused to work, and we ended up going round in circles until we finally arrived at his house on Bury road.

Derald, Faisal and Anya (L to R)

Side profile of Ikki engrossed in his monopoly!

The sushi was absolutely fantastic! I regret that I forgot to take pictures of the food; so engrossed was I in consuming it. I must have eaten my weight in food that night; had so many sushi rolls and Japanese radishes and Chinese bread (mantou) followed by ice-cream for dessert; it’s amazing that he didn’t ask us for any cash! We played monopoly deal, which is basically a playing-card version of monopoly, and many laughs were had. We stayed till about midnight, and I decided that we had better make a move lest we overstay our welcome. It was a nice trudge back to Mary Chapman court, where I said goodbye to Katelyn for the year 2010 and a idyllic walk back home.

Church!

I woke at about two in the afternoon today; so fatigued was I after staying up till six in the morning reading a novel. I readied myself for church, and just managed to catch the bus after saying bye to Harbi in his workplace. He gave me a Christmas present of a nice facial cleanser, moisturizer and shower gel! Thanks to him, I will be able to enjoy many acne free months. And also, it’s not the gift but the thought that counts J.

Today’s sermon was about how our relationship with God is that which requires maintenance, such as a normal relationship with another person. Pastor Tom Rawls was on the ball as usual, delivering a vibrant and motivating message. After the service, I was milling about in the foyer when I got invited to spend Christmas Day at a family’s house. I found that extremely generous and selfless of them because what person would simply invite a complete stranger over to their place to spend the day? And to top it off, Pastor Rawls himself came up to me and further invited me to his place on Boxing Day! I have to admit I was very touched by this gesture of thoughtfulness and compassion, and will never forget it. It’s my first Christmas away from home and I think I’ve mentioned it to a lot of people; John Lee I think must have gone and spread the word. Thanks to him I get to spend Christmas with lovely company and good food!

I'll just leave this here Mr Novak

I think this term’s passed very quickly; it seems only a few weeks ago when I stepped out of the train into Norwich rail station, into a whole new world of possibilities. After twelve weeks, I feel as though I have done everything but comprehend the subject of what International Development truly is. Applications to internships, jobs and placements are the norm of my life now as well as spending copious hours in the library doing readings for seminars and lectures. Now it’s going to be 2011 in a little over a week, and I’ve made so many great friends (some I would even call family). I’ve also managed to purchase cheap tickets to Reading to see my uncle and cousins who I haven’t spent enough time with ever since I came to the UK. Looks like we’ll be spending New Year's Eve together!

2010!! Part 1

2010-12-14T16:36:00.000Z

No photo of the day for this post.

Despite the fact that I have enjoyed three very memorable years in Manchester and made so many friends for life, I am compelled to say that these past three MONTHS have been absolute heaven for me in Norwich. I have not looked back since I left Manchester, and even though I still miss everyone there especially my Wing Tsun partners and my mentee Bradley, I am finding Norwichian life extremely relevant to my interests! I have made a few good friends from the US, Northampton, Nigeria and London/Kenya and I am so glad that I chose UEA as a perfect base to do my Masters. Term one has been challenging, and it’s probably not going to let up in Term Two, but I say bring it on! These past three weeks have been spent huddled in a special corner in the library, working fervently on my readings and subsequent essays; the lack of a personal computer meant that I had to do my first essay on university computers, which had the atrocious Internet Explorer installed on it, which INSISTED on hanging the computer every time I chanced upon a PDF file. However, this was soon circumvented by the timely assistance of Christopher Portway who suggested that I install Firefox in the U:\ drive, which worked. Fortunately, my new charger arrived, and I popped down to The Forum (Norwich Central Library) yesterday to do my last essay, and plugged in my laptop as well as my phone charger. Was working solidly for two hours, when a librarian walked by and happened to glance at my various electronic appliances plugged into the electrical sockets by my feet. She came up to me and told me that I had to disconnect it immediately for fear of catastrophic failure and explosion! I very patiently, trying not to laugh, explained to her that I felt at no risk from an adapter that I had purchased 4 days ago, and that my phone charger was unlikely to blow up. However, she was adamant! She insisted that I took these appliances and got them PAT-ed (Portable Appliance Test) for $3 each. I got annoyed and said that there was no way I was going to pay for my phone charger to be tested, promptly packed up and left. I appreciate that the United Kingdom has health and safety procedures put into place to stop idiots from possibly self-harming, but I could not help feeling that today, somehow these rules had made a joke out of the system. I left in a huff and completed the rest of the essay at home, eventually going to bed at about six in the morning. I woke up at about eleven, mucked about in the house playing computer games and then tried to access my web print at about 2pm, only to find out with panic that it simply would not respond. Flustered, I rang the university, who told me that there was a 24 hour deadline extension due to the fact that the IT system was down. I was overcome by relief, and am sat here now typing this post, in the hope that I will finish it before I need to go at half four to meet my mentoring supervisor. The UEA website and webmail are still down; what a day for it to occur! But enough about university for the time being; I have done my best and do not wish to bore you with any more Tales of UEA.

Christmas is nearly upon us! I really hope that the gifts that I purchased on eBay for a few special people. The youth section of the church is running a Secret Santa occasion, and I really hope that the gift that I purchased for my secret… recipient (?) comes on time from a different continent. I know it’s going to be really, really obvious who sent it them when they open the present, but meh. I am seriously considering taking the next train up to Manchester and spending Christmas with my friends there; everyone in Norwich seems to be going away and I don’t fancy spending Christmas and New Years on my own. Yi Xuan Woo and Fariq are all returning to Kuala Lumpur, so much for a meeting in London, Ben Bradley will probably be busy at work so don’t want to bother him, Thomas Maxwell got girlfriend (sic) lor. It seems that the only people available for spending time with are Chun Wai Sin, Kit Perry, the Aus and the Rusties (If the oldest dog returns from the Navy in time). Plans for hiking up Snowdon in the wake of Boxing Day are being set in motion and I hope they are engendered in due time; I would not like to think that all my winter equipment (balaclava, hat, microfleece, waterproofs, etc) have been purchased in vain. As a matter of fact, I think I’d better go order some winter gloves because my leather gloves are just not cutting it in this weather. And also someone let out the tires in my bike again! I wonder who is doing this, and praise the lord that I have a hand pump in my possession, lest I miss all my essay submission deadlines for hindrance of cycling to campus. The snow was good, but unfortunately only lasted two weeks. I would have liked to see some more white, and I don’t mean skin colour. Hopefully this year we’ll have a White Christmas, although that will probably mean that I won’t be able to cycle as fast as I would like to.

I really, really hope that I get a positive reply from the Overseas Development Institute regarding my application for a two year fellowship. I sent off my application with the scrutiny and subsequent approval of Dr Ed Anderson; a job in this organization would bring me absolute buckets of joy. The ODI is an independent commission on international development and humanitarian aid. What it does is review policies that international bodies undergo and give its best suggestions about poverty alleviation and sustainable development. It does a lot of work in developing countries. The Fellowship (of the Ring, NOT!) I applied to basically gives me two years work in a developing country of their choice (I’m not really too fussed; as long as I get the pay and more importantly experience, I would be delighted to go to any hole in the Earth). However, now is not the time to worry! I shall be sending off job applications and internship applications to various international bodies in the hope that perhaps one will see imperfect me as a suitable candidate for their program. Hope for Latvia is still very much on my books; I am hoping to slot in perhaps a 2-3 week voluntary expedition in order to gather information for my dissertation and ultimately experience.

Right, I think I’ll be off now. I need to be at the mentoring workshop for 5pm, and it takes 15 minutes to get there. I might continue later at night, but adios for now.

Clement.

Sorry for the absence.

2010-12-10T15:37:00.000Z

Hi guys, really sorry for not updating in over a week and a half. It's just that my computer's adapter failed and I had to wait for a new one to come. Also, I was royally screwed by Royal Mail because of a mix-up in their redelivery system. Thomas Maxwell knows more about this in our little expedition to Roundtree Close: The Royal Mail's lair.

Things have been very hectic for me. I have officially canceled my Wing Tsun classes because I found that I was unable to cope with 3 nights of my week being taken away, and $80 a month for it. I think I spread myself too thin over my time in UEA, with mentoring, Scouting (which I may stop soon), volunteering, youth group at church and the Masters degree. I have 3 essays due in for the 15th of December and have completed one and a half at this point of time. I really hope I can score good marks for Perspectives on Globalisation and Development Perspectives, however for GDD I will be exuberant with a mark of 60 as I am not so good with that module. So far it's been manageable with my level of understanding on par with the rest of the students. Sometimes I feel like I know nothing when people in lectures and seminars talk about things outside the reading list. I guess I'll have to work very much harder if I want to get a distinction this year round.

I have applied to the Overseas Development Institute with the blessing of Dr Edward Anderson, who has been a significant source of help and support during my time at UEA. Officially, my personal tutor is Dr Jonathan Pattenden, who is the programme adviser, but I feel that I am closer to Ed in personal and academic terms. This does not in any way reflect in Dr Pattenden's capabilities in being a personal tutor; it's just that I went to Ed first for help and developed a rapport with him. Also, the fact that he is more grounded in Economics and that I did my first degree in exactly that adds to the connection.

I dyed my hair 2 weeks ago, and donations have been flowing in albeit at a staggered rate. Once this overly busy week is over I will be approaching people individually with fundraising requests. Sorry to impose, but I'm sure the loss of 1 or 2 pounds won't hit you as much financially as the rise in tuition fees. I think it's possibly time for me to stop and return to my essay writing after this very short update. Just letting people know that this blog is not dead, and will continue to exist for many more months until I go for my internship (should I be lucky enough to acquire one). I would be very happy if i got an internship either with Hope for Latvia or the Consumer Unity and Trust Society, but will concentrate on more important things for the time being: essays. By the way, to the person who blatantly plagiarised Aneel's work, I bid you caution wherever you step academically this year. You will not go unpunished for your sins.

I will leave you here with a curt good bye and good luck with essays and exams (if you are a student reading).

Clement

My Weekend!

2010-11-22T22:12:00.001Z

Today's photo:

A bit early, but meh XD.

Grandfather passed away

My grandfather of eighty-odd years passed away peacefully this morning. I received the message from my mom as I was on the way to church, causing me to miss the minibus because I had to text back frantically. He was always kind to me and my brother, and treated my family with love. I am happy that he went this way, living till a ripe old age, but when I think of my grandmother having to live without her partner of more than half a century it really tears my heart up. I will remember him carrying me when I was a child, walking in and out of our house in our village, and will always remember him giving me saga seeds and palm seeds as a toy to play with when I was about seven years old. He will forever have a special place in my heart, and I am glad that I managed to meet up with him before I left to the UK this summer. No father should have to witness the absolute sadness of the death of their child, and that’s what my granddad did when my own dad passed away of a heart attack six years ago. I am so happy that now he and his son will be able to be reunited finally. I just wish I had the chance to say something to him before he went, and now that chance is gone. I will never see him again but he will always remain in my memory and heart. Rest in peace grandpa, I hope you’ll meet with dad in the afterlife to a happy and tearful reunion. We miss you over here already!

Taken before we left for the UK in 2004. This was the last time my grandfather saw his son (my dad) before my dad passed away in the UK.

The last time we saw him before he passed away. Taken summer 2010 before I left for the UK for my Masters.

Less morbid details

I thought I would take my mind off things by writing (or rather typing) about my weekend and the Friday before. Friday was an awesome day! Woke at about 1100 hours and did a bit of memorizing/reading on the Washington Consensus, and managed to form an idea of how my introduction to the 2500 word essay due in December will turn out. After a few hours of doing this, I felt rather proactive and texted Raj and Katelyn confirming our dinner date for that day. Katelyn of course being her very efficient self replied almost immediately but Raj was silent on the wire. Later I found out on Katelyn’s very accurate guess that he was still asleep when he received my text, because he actually told us that he woke at 3pm and saw the text, apparently jumped straight into the shower, dressed and got the bus to the city centre with great haste! Took some photos while waiting for Katelyn to arrive.

Some steampunk engine.

The church opposite The Forum

Merry go round

The Christmas tree they set up in town hall. Couldn't get the whole thing in the frame, it was that big!

Katelyn and I actually met at about 4pm and went over to Harbi’s workplace, L’Occitane. Bit of a weird name for me because not knowing French, I had no idea what the shop purveyed. Of course when we arrived, we found out that Harbi was a fully fledged cosmetic consultant! He gave me some good advice on dealing with my acne, which he thought wasn’t too serious (phew) and recommended me a cleanser with a RICE base! That’s right, a RICE base. This will certainly be interesting should I acquire it once my existing cleanser is depleted.

A bit of a wander round the city centre, and then Raj finally arrived. We went to Malaysian Delights, a nice hidden restaurant located somewhere off the street near Castle Mall (thank you Thomas Maxwell for bringing me to this wonderful establishment 2 years ago) and realized that we were early by an hour! So it was back to Harbi’s workplace and off to Greggs just round the corner, where some interesting photos were taken by yours truly. Nothing much really happened in Greggs, just a lot of general banter and suggestions for a social on an Ed Anderson scale (which means pretty damn awesome because Dr Anderson is AWESOME!). Then it was accompanying Harbi to his bus stop where he had to catch a bus down to the train station. Arguable because the train station is actually walking distance from L’Occitane and we actually walked all the way up to near Chapelfield for his bus! Pointless no? Harbi don’t argue, you know as well as we do that it was walking distance mate, you were just lazy haha.

Katelyn and Me

Raj looks a little confused there!

Better photo taken!

Then it was bang on off to dinner at Malaysian Delights. The food was good, but it wasn’t really authentic other than the Satay Chicken and Chicken Curry on service (really should have taken photos here but was too hungry, so decided to just eat instead and afterward forgot about photos altogether). And then, there was talk about an authentic cook up at Harbi’s place (sorry we invited ourselves to your house Harbi. Hope you don’t mind!) and international development matters which are slightly too complicated for the average blog reader. Although if you are actually reading my blog it probably means that you’re interested in my life, and therefore know that I am immensely interested in International Development (I spelt it with capitals as testament to how serious I think it is) and International Organisations’ roles in facilitation of regulation and economic policies. But yes, I shall reserve a post for that in future blogs focused on development studies when I develop (see what I did there) a keener sense of the world around development.

Near the end of our meal, the restaurant owner and a scroat/chav (scruffy-looking gentleman dressed in classic chav uniform of baseball cap, sports clothing and trousers tucked into socks) had a bit a disagreement. It seemed that the chav went and ordered a couple of beers and refused to pay, saying that he already had. Of course, this wasn’t lost on the restaurant owner who told him in no uncertain terms to not come back. And of course Mr. Chav had to respond with his own vernacular, and a very interesting scene would have folded out but the restaurant owner was at least 2 heads taller than Mr. Chav, so of course he left without incident (although not quietly. Shouting all the way downstairs more like it!)

Malaysian Delights.

After dinner, we went outside to such a thick fog that I had to take a photo of the street!

And thus, a good end to a good evening was observed, with us parting ways and saying our farewells till Tuesday where we have Development Perspectives, where I’ll be customarily late by 5 minutes and shuffle to the front row wearing hi vis, and Rajiv to follow after 15 minutes.

Sunday!

Helena was very kind to give me a lift to church, effected by John Lee after I rang him in half a panic asking if there was any way I could possibly get to the Space having missed the bus and expected to attend Ignite (which is the Youth Group for church which I have recently gotten involved in). And of course I arrived 2 minutes before the service started which was quite a relief. Out we went: 5 mature adults and a bunch of gangly, rambunctious and violent teenagers. Jonny Novak (our youth leader) was on the job as usual, delivering the message in a quick and concise way, and then we played a couple of games which the complicity is too complex to be described here!

After the session, I hung around the group killing time because I had to check my CRB forms with Sue Spooner. Joshua Barton was getting involved with my phone and searching random videos in YouTube which involved him falling over while on a bike while I, perhaps being more civilized, decided to have a conversation with Tom Walpole instead. Found out he was an anime fan as well, and he introduced me to an anime series called Katekyou Hitman Reborn! Basically it’s about this kid in high school who finds out that he’s actually the heir of the head of a mafia gang after all the rightful members ahead of him have perished, and the gang has sent over a midget assassin to train him to be a killer. I fib you not; a midget hitman! Ridiculous, but it’s an anime. I’ve seen worse in Naruto and Bleach. Given that it is based in Japan, I found it a little bizarre that a Japanese kid with red hair had any Italian connections until it became apparent that his dad had moved away from Japan to Italy and started up his crime syndicate there. Complicated, and I still find it slightly dubious, but have since told myself not to critically analyse it like university students do. I am now hopelessly addicted to It, as you may have seen on my Facebook status comments. Possibly the last time I listen to a 13 year old who’s equally into anime as me.

My life is now over.

Will have to divide my time up watching Reborn!, typing this blog, Ignite, Hope for Latvia, Work (did I mention that I haven’t actually been fired from the security agency which I had that little disagreement with over a certain nightclub, so I’m still on their books apparently), mentoring and my own little fundraising project. I am getting my hair done tomorrow, and am so excited. Unfortunately I’m running out of cash, and will have to conserve money until my mom returns from my dear grandpa’s funeral in the countryside.

The rest of the day was spent at Sarah Week’s house and I managed to call my grandma to offer my condolences and find out what was going on. It was then when she told me he died a peaceful death and not to worry about her. I still could not help crying on the phone, though. He was dear to me and I will never forget him (gosh I’m going on like a broken record aren’t I?).

Just before we left for the evening service, I found out that Katelyn had decided to come and see for herself the wonderful church that is Proclaimers. She texted me and told me that she was able to make her way to the minibus pickup place and managed to get to the Space in time for the evening service. I’m so glad that she actually came to see what it was all about. As Pastor Tom Rawls was away for a funeral of a loved one, the message this time was mainly about spreading the word through normal walks of life. Found it fine, but it didn’t have the same familiar vigour that Pastor Rawls radiates when he gives his sermons. Hope he gets back fine!

It was off to the pub after the service, and Matt Webb suggested that we take advantage of Orange Wednesdays to go and see Harry Potter. I don’t usually watch movies in the UK because they’re really, really expensive and because I can easily torrent them off the internet. Yes I said it; I download movies and music off the internet. And so do the rest of the country although they won’t admit it as readily.

So… it’s a Monday night but I’ve not actually done anything interesting today save my essays and reading, and walking all the way downtown just to find out that the bike shop had closed. Looks like I’ll be walking to UEA tomorrow. Will have to get up extra early. Damn!

Clement

Such a weird day today!

2010-11-20T02:01:00.000Z

Important Fundraising News!

Okay before I start talking about my insignificant life in a interstellar capacity. I would like to bring to your attention important details about my fundraising effort.

Basically, I went and got my hair tested for bleach blonde, and it appears that my hair is too dark and strong for the pigment to really dilute in the peroxide. I was truly gutted, until the girl suggested that I dye my hair bright red instead for Father Christmas/Santa instead of White for Snow. What an excellent idea! The salon insisted that I take a peroxide test which to put it succinctly involved me having a patch of peroxide on the crook of my arm for the next 24 hours. This effectively postpones the dyeing till Tuesday, as the salon was shut today when I went, and I don’t get a student discount during the weekend. Also, they were only free 3pm on Tuesday of all times. This means I have to cycle from university after my Development Perspectives lecture, bleach my hair, dye it, drain it, and wash it with nice shampoo, trim it and cycle back before 5pm, where the video session of Governance, Democracy and Development begins!

Thank you for the support you have given me so far. I know a lot of you are waiting for me to actually get the dye done before you donate to make sure I am true to my word so I won’t disappoint. Now, onto the main content! I’ll start off by filling you in on the past two days before moving onto today. Please keep reading till the end because a lot of interesting events happened over the timeframe of 2 hours to me today!

Today's picture

Taken just after I came back from Scouts

Yes, I know I look like a Chinaman coolie in the early 20s working for the French.

Yesterday and the Day Before

Nothing much happened yesterday. I went and collected my Development Perspectives coursework and was pleased with my result, but felt ever so slightly miffed because I was 2 marks away from a distinction and have a crummy merit instead. Will have to work really hard if I want to get the marks I want for a better chance at getting a good job after my Masters. Found out that most people also got 60% and above for Development Perspectives and no one failed so well done everyone!

Here’s a pointless chart showing the statistics for those who aren’t in UEA (gosh why aren’t you? It’s an awesome uni!) and who are interested in my equally pointless ramblings about life in general.

Wednesday was a slightly more productive. I got up at about 2pm (very productive I think you’ll find), and had a nice bath and some coffee, before donning my new trenchcoat (with a shirt underneath. I’m not a stripper) and heading to the Forum (the city centre) to meet my mentee. I arrived a bit early and decided to get a chai latte. Then, my attention was drawn to that lovely grand piano which was absolutely calling out to me to be played! I got permission and sat down at the piano, promptly to be told off by the manager of Café Marzanno because she didn’t know that I had asked permission to play but simply graced the leather piano seat with my bum. Everything went well after that, I managed to get a few tunes going until I spotted my mentee seated at a table patiently waiting for me.

I ended the piece with a swift improvisation and joined him at the table where we discussed his education prospects with UEA and in life. I won’t go into it here because it’s a private matter but UEA have been very kind and offered to let me bring him into lectures just to get a feel of what it is like in a university environment. Problem is, my CRB still hasn’t come back (it’s the 8^th CRB that I’ve applied for since coming to England) and I need to wait for that to come through before I can bring him into uni. I think UEA are afraid that I might commit sexual acts with an underage in a LECTURE THEATER FILLED WITH PEOPLE. Ahh… the bureaucratic machinations that the United Kingdom adopts. I shall never understand why I need a new Criminal Check for each new job sent by POST. Shouldn’t they have a system where (god forbid) if I do commit a crime, my details are updated on the database? Surely it would be more effective in deterring criminals from working with kids but most importantly it would certainly speed things up for the rest of us who aren’t actually guilty of any crime! I think I’ll actually give the Criminal Records Bureau a ring some time and suggest this to them if the idea hasn’t already been.

After meeting with my mentee, it was a brisk walk to the exterior of The Forum where I met Laura Miles who had previously very kindly offered me a lift to the youth church group, Ignite. It was a pleasant hour and twenty minutes’ drive picking kids up and Aaron Baker from UEA and driving to The Space (That’s the building where the church is run). The rest of the evening was spent discussing the message on Sunday, which incidentally is about LISTENING CLOSELY to what people have to say and talking half as much as listening (because I have 1 mouth and 2 ears, therefore I must listen twice as much as I speak), and playing games which involved getting into sleeping bags and crawling from one end of the church to the other. The kids were very interested in Wing Tsun and I demonstrated to them its merits (sorry Ste, I know only a Master should do this but they were curious!). Then it was back home and sleep!

(Friday, 19^th November 2010)

Today was a bit of a downer for me. I awoke quite early in the morning and decided to do my readings on the Washington Consensus and Post-Washington Consensus in order to prepare for the essay question I will start tomorrow. After a nice few cups of good proper coffee and a bath (the habit of having a shower/bath every day has been ingrained into me even though I now live in a colder climate), I set to work. After a few hours into the job, I sent off a few emails pertaining to internships and tried to set up a meeting with my dear lecturer Dr Edward Anderson with regard to advice and what firms to apply for.

Midway throughout the day, I decided to text my supervisor at the security agency I work(ed) for. I was duly informed that the club that I work(ed) in (M3rcy) did not want me to come back because I “struggled during an ejection”. I hope it has nothing to do with the fact that I complained about one of their bouncers kicking a guy flat out in the face with his boot while he was on the ground defeated, and made it clear to him that I did not agree with that. Without being arrogant or precocious I’m sure that all of you who truly know me will know that I am very capable of handling myself in a fight because of my last 3 years of Wing Tsun and previous two years of Chinese Kickboxing. I texted my supervisor back asking him whether he would consider me for shifts at other venues but got no reply. I think this is the end of the line for me for Regency Security. I hope they find someone else who is more capable than me… and also more tight-lipped. Time and time again, I keep having to remind myself that I don’t actually need to work because I get a huge financial support from my dear Mum with regard to any expenses. I want to work for the extra cash and to build up my confidence dealing with new people. If getting work from this company means that I have to act like a thug and kick peoples' faces in then I think I'll do without them. No thanks! Not my loss!

At first, I felt I was being treated unfairly and to be honest, depressed because this probably meant that I was doing an absolutely terrible job in nightclubs in Norwich compared to when I was working security in Manchester. However, I soon discovered that when a door is shut, it makes way for another door to open. This came in the form of another security agency which I applied for 3 weeks ago and was told that there were no vacancies at the moment but to try and apply anyway, and Norfolk Constabulary calling me to say that they would be sending me an application form to be a Special Constable! I admit that I am a skeptic when it comes to things of faith and prayer. I have never once felt in my life that I needed God for anything, other than good health and my family and friends’ safety. This was the quite the contrary today. I actually sat down and prayed to God and asked them for help in the next decisions I was to make. 30 minutes after that, the phone rang and I received the two pieces of good news from the police and the other security firm. Believe what you will, but maybe God did answer my prayers this time with regard to this version of events. I hope my next set of prayers will be answered with regard one of my closest friends’ family member’s health.

I am actually half considering taking the Special Constable job even though it’s voluntary. This might mean that I have to give up my security badge and do stewarding with the security agency instead but the benefits of that might outweigh the costs. Will do some cost-benefit analysis later to see what the best decision is for my good.

In a nutshell, I'm done with this:

And am looking forward to this:

Or this:

Yes... I know it's the Met but I couldn't find a good Norfolk Constabulary pic.

Anyway, as you might have guessed, I was suitably relieved after the two phone calls and got round to doing more work and cooking myself some pasta and cheese. Got round to reading Dr Anderson’s publication entitled: The Challenges of Economic and Social rights, and found it very interesting especially the bit about econometric analysis, while being an essential tool for the evaluation of a country’s policies and macroeconomic framework, can also be very misleading in the form of poor data quality, overestimation… generally effects that came about from the imperfectness of information.

After that somewhat enlightening afternoon, the time came for me to go to Scouts. But before, I was supposed to attend a potluck that the International Development Society was organizing at 7pm. Unfortunately, when I got on my bicycle and trundled out of the apartment, I was duly dismayed and very much annoyed at the fact that my front tire had been punctured. I hastened to St Stephen’s street and got the 35 bus to university, and jogged the rest of the way up the Avenues to the Scout Troop near Colman Road shops.

The Avenues at night. Creepy huh?

Scouts was very entertaining today. I learnt how to light a paraffin burner (it’s a complicated process of kindling the wick with methylated spirit before pumping the paraffin up through a pressurized hole, and then adjusting the wick so that the fire burnt blue) and well as a petrol lamp (this was slightly less dubious as petrol does burn very easily). After that, the kids wanted to have a dodgeball game, so we gave them a sponge ball (what is it with health and safety in this weird country? In Malaysia we used BASKETBALLS to play dodgeball) and let them get on with it. A couple more other games were played and then it was time to go home. I managed to hitch a ride with the Scout troop leader who was very generous in going out of his way to make sure I returned home. It was then when I found out that this coming winter is going to be a very bitter and bad one; possibly even worse than last year’s. Hooray for camping in Snowdon when in reality I’ll probably be in Manchester doing something with ReachOut!, hanging out with the Scouts in Norwich or attending some event in Proclaimers. Still, there are better things to worry about than Christmas just at the moment. I have 3 essays due in for the 16^th to the 18^th of December and I am starting my first one on Saturday. I think I’ll do it on the Washington Consensus and whether the World Bank coupled with the International Monetary Fund have actually done anything to change the original prescriptions of the Washington Consensus and truly adopted the Post-Washington Consensus. My general consensus (a bit of an overdose of the C word there) is that they haven’t, and obviously I’ll have to explain that. I’m thinking lots of Stiglitz and the bailing out of banks rather than poor people as recently observed during the 2008 Global Financial Crisis and the current talks between the Irish Central Bank and England bailing it out. Old mistakes being made over and over again by the uninformed minds of today… sigh… all these things remind me of why I chose to do International Development in the first place. To make a difference! By the way, Katelyn and Raj, I AM holding you true to that request for dinner tomorrow! Even if I have to kick down your doors and drag you out physically!!

Stay safe,

Clement.

Request For Beavers

2010-11-17T23:43:00.001Z

This is what I received in my inbox from the Manchester Scouting Association.

I would be glad to provide some beavers, but unfortunately I'm in the Scouts at the moment. Rude!

Will post more tomorrow, am burnt out today from testing hair for bleach, meeting mentee to discuss tertiary education and then wrestling with violent children from youth church (not that it was all we did during youth group). Yes, in that order.

Clement.

My Snowy White Christmas

2010-11-17T02:35:00.000Z

Weather: Chilly
Mood: Mild

Today's face:

I've become a bit of a camwhore. Rediscovering my Asian roots!! Oh dear!

^_^

guys, I have some SERIOUS BUSINESS:

My White Christmas - My little fundraising effort.

It's officially decided, fellas! I have made the oh-so-important choice of dyeing my hair snowy white for charity! Having been unable to find Hope For Latvia's justgiving page, I opted for my former Mentoring Charity, ReachOUT!. I was planning to register first with Reachout as my charity and then ask the CEO whether I could fundraise for them, but apparently Justgiving email the charity if someone registers to fundraise for them. I received a very touching and relieving message from Xavier.

Hopefully I'll go from this:

to this:

I think I look slightly fatter in this photo. And also my hair would be whiter and slightly shorter than that!

Obviously I would like to keep my facial features (although turning into a Korean pop-star wouldn't be such a bad idea after all if only possible.

If you haven't already been linked to death on Facebook by yours truly, here's a link to the page:

CLEMENT'S WHITE CHRISTMAS

I would greatly appreciate it if you could contribute. I'm setting a target of 100 pounds for Christmas. Even a small amount like 50p or a pound really makes a difference. Think about it: if 100 people donate 1 pound, we're able to sponsor a minibus for a month. If the same amount of people donate 2 pounds, we give a young person a friend for life! Hopefully with your help we'll be able to do all these things in the near future. Just think about what a pound means to you. A bottle of coke? A packet of crisps? It's not even enough to buy you a pint! But what it will do is fund a healthy relationship based on trust and lots of fun!

Below is a list of costs that ReachOut has to pay every year, taken from here:

Mentoring relationship: one Mentor for one Mentee= £200 per year. We have 200!

The Minibus: costs £1,000 per school year: £100 per month. We have 2!

Summer projects: £6,500 per project. We have 4 projects!

Materials per session: £5 x 25 sessions is £125 per year per project. We have 9 projects!

Training for Mentors: Accreditation fees £21 per participant. We have 200!

Study Aid: £10 to convert 10 hours studied by Manchester students into pounds, which will then help to realise aid projects in developing countries.

I am doing this to finance part of the charity's operating costs and also importantly to raise awareness of the importance of having a mentor/role model in a young person's life when their parents are either incapable of being exemplary people or if they are simply not around to do so. I am involved in mentoring in Norwich but I feel that many UEA students are missing out on the opportunity and satisfaction of mentoring because they are simply not aware of such a project existing. As of now, the number of mentors from UEA is below 20.

Friends, family and strangers, if you want to give me the perfect Christmas present, donating to my fund would be the best thing you could give me.

P.S. If you live in London or Manchester and would like to get involved with mentoring, please register here and pop Dr. Xavier Bosch our CEO an email. His contact details can be found here.

P.P.S If you are in UEA and would like to get involved with mentoring but would like to find out more about mentoring in Norwich, please go here. Alternatively, drop me an email, so I can contact our supervisor (I don't really want to put her email down here for fear of spammers).

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The Rest of My Day

Now that the serious business of immense importance has been concluded, we can move on to duller things such as my day. We had a new guy this time in Development Perspectives instead of Ed Anderson; Dr Luciano Esposito from Italy! Absolutely smashing fellow of a lecturer, made me laugh many times when describing the the evils of the Washington Consensus with a reference to water bottles and perfect information of markets. He mentioned Malaysia, and that pleased me. Too often have we stood unnoticed by the wider world, while our economy flourishes and our wealth grows! But enough about that.

I finally managed to fall into slumber at about 0530 hours, and awoke (promptly it seems) at 0830 hours. Surprisingly enough, I actually got on with it and arose with little panda/zombie problems. Unfortunately, I only had 30 minutes to basically get dressed, brush teeth, pack bag, make coffee and cycle to UEA (not necessarily in that order). So of course I left the flat at 9am and arrived at 9.15 to a truly excitable lecture regarding the Post-Washington Consensus.

The way to UEA.

After that, it was a trot to the library a failed attempt at printing out a p60 form to stop the damn government taxing me 23.5%; I got very frustrated by the PCs generally not working and got ticked off at people who need to go for lunch or somewhere for more than half an hour, blatantly leave their stuff on the computer, and then come back at that opportune moment when you try to sign into your account. I'll do my form digitally and send it off.

Went to a wellbeing fair with Harbi Jama and got my BMI taken. Apparently I am cutting it close at about 18.5; probably need to put some more weight on but eating my weight in food does NOT help. Scheduled a "Shamanic Massage" on Thursday before going to the GDD lecture; hopefully that will be some sort of destress for Natalia Alvarez's exhilarating lectures. Also, I bumped into the Human Library. Basically they are an organisation composed of volunteers with a unique characteristic (self-harmer, senior management, e.g.) who give people the opportunity to borrow them as Human Books for up to half an hour to find out more information about their uniqueness.

I selected a rather dubious title: Senior Management of UEA.

It turned out to be the Academic Pro-Vice Chancellor of UEA, and we basically sat and chatted for 30 minutes non-stop about everything! UEA, Manchester, Malaysia, International Development and Volunteering were among the topics we covered. I enjoyed it a lot and I would hope the Pro-Vice Chancellor did as well because we talked up to 45 minutes! Sorry Harbi, I know you were waiting for me and I just ran off because I assumed you had abandoned me...

I think photos were promised yesterday night. As I have a free day tomorrow and will most probably spend it doing notes on my other modules, I will indulge you, my children!

Dinner with Thomas Maxwell and Christopher Portway

We duly met at Wagamama's outside Chapelfield at about 1800 hours and had a lovely dinner. I ordered pork dumplings in sauce and absolutely died and went to heaven in that dish. Kinda wish I'd taken a photo of it but I was too busy eating (and dying but coming back to eat some more because death will not take me from food).

After that, we went on quest to find a coffeehouse around the city centre, traversing the lean and mean streets of Norwich until we finally ended up at The Forum (the heart of Norwich if you must). There we finally obtained our much deserved coffee.

Excellent

Chris being half-emo after coffee.

Yes.

After which I spotted this absolute beauty of a Yamaha Grand and simply HAD to play it.

Waiting on Thomas for the remainder of the pics which actually show me on the piano.

After that, it was home for all of us (Thomas met up with his partner Amy and got a lift home in her car while Chris had to walk all the way back to Earlham road) and straight to the computer for me. Organised all I needed for my study tomorrow and started today's post. Man it's been an absolute MASSIVE post I've done today. I actually feel slightly proud of myself. Stay tuned for more treasures in Norwich!

Stay safe,
Clement.

15th November 2010

2010-11-16T02:03:00.002Z

Today was a day of little occurrence. I arose from my slumber at around 11 in the morning, proceeded to have a nice hot bath and then it was toast and Italian coffee while listening to Joseph Stiglitz totally decimate President Obama’s welfare and bank policies. He also brings into context the behavior of the IMF and World Bank in this current age, stating that it is still very much the Washington Consensus although with updated ideologies.

I could go on and on about the fallacies and the utmost failings of the IMF’s Structural Adjustment Programmes and its vile machine known as Conditionality but if I did, this would probably bore a lot of people just looking for a relaxing read at home. Managed to complete the Post-Washington Consensus reading for Development Perspectives; very good ideas by Stiglitz but we do need to get the IMF and the World Bank to listen to them before they bring the rest of the world down in a spiral of bad debts, collapsing central banks and currency deregulation.

Inflation: is it really such a big issue that takes priority over all others? The IMF and World Bank certainly seem to think so. They would rather force people out of their jobs and increase the rate of unemployment for the sake of forcing down an already low inflationary rate. The World Bank itself has conducted studies and has discovered that aside from very high levels of inflation (20-40%), pushing down a very low inflation rate will have little to no beneficial effects on economic growth. I could go into financial systems and the bailing out of banks but I will just leave it at that for the moment, lest I dedicate an essay for the purpose of a blog post.

Met up with people from church today, had fajitas for dinner and discussed the message on Sunday. Basically, pastor Tom emphasized the importance of listening, and after a long rant about today’s youth and how they never LISTEN to their parents, proceeded to once again provide us with an enlightening anecdote from his childhood regarding himself and his dad, and the many mistakes he made as a result of not listening. I find some truth in those words; there have been many occasions whereupon while I’m participating in a conversation, I sit with my words at the edge of my tongue, so intent on voicing my opinions and ideas, that I no longer listen to the other person’s words; rather looking for a gap in the noise to say what I want to say. I feel that I sometimes need to take a step back and really listen to the people who are most important to me instead of having the brash arrogance of youth that I openly admit flares up sometimes within me.

It has been quite some time since Regency Security has offered me any work whether at nightclubs or at student type bars. I wonder if I have somehow offended my colleagues through action or words. Meh, I could do with the extra time reading and essaying at home/university. I do have to say, after that altercation with the three tattooed chavs two Thursdays ago, I can’t wait to get back on the job. I know I make myself sound like some sort of a violent guy, but I’m really just a chilled-out, calm and eloquent guy just out for a bit of fun.

Hope for Latvia

Alright, down to business! As I have only posted regarding this project on the International Development Postgraduate wall, I feel that this worthy cause warrants more attention. Short of posting it on my wall (because there would be too many words and people would generally tl;dr) I am now promoting this on my long-abandoned newly-revitalised blog!

Hope For Latvia is an aid organization run by our church. What it does is try to improve living conditions in Latvia in a small-scale scope by educating the locals and providing food and shelter to those in need. Unfortunately, the situation is dire. We get no funding whatsoever from the government and we have utmost reliance on donations and voluntary efforts.

You can find out more information from the website at

HOPE FOR LATVIA

Please show your support for this noble effort by either volunteering your time and efforts or donating. Every little bit does count, and although this is a poor effort given to fundraising (using my blog, for heavens’ sakes) it is a sincere one.

Am really looking forward to tomorrow’s lecture on the Post-Washington Consensus; there are some questions I would like to ask Ed Anderson about regulation and fair-trade. Will post an update to this tomorrow when I have the time. Also, our ever-elusive Thomas Maxwell has confirmed dinner with me; he suggested Wagamama’s just outside Chapelfield Shopping Complex. If any of you would like to join, and live in Norwich, give me text if you know my number, or just comment on the post. I receive updates on my excellent 3G Smartphone if you comment, so I’ll be able to provide a swift and prompt response.

Man, I should really start adding photos to my posts again just to spice up things. And videos. I actually managed to record my trip to UEA on my minicamera; just haven’t gotten round to editing it and posting it, what with the atrocious speed my 5 year-old computer is operating on.

Stay safe,

Clement.

Guy and Guy Update.

2010-11-15T03:31:00.002Z

It has been a long time since my fingers have graced the keyboard; indeed two years have passed since my last update in 2008 where I was still a second year in university in Manchester. A lot has happened in my life so far, and I am making an active effort to keep my blog alive. Unfortunately, it has come to such a point where I can find nothing more to talk about other than economics and developmental related issues. I feel I am getting very old, and I suppose it doesn’t help when I work with young people on a firsthand basis. However, I feel duty bound to provide you with an update as to what happened after that last post in April 2008.

I graduated in July 2010 with an honours degree in Economics and Development Studies. I then applied to the University of East Anglia for a Masters in Globalisation and International Development and got the place with a 10% scholarship with tentative full scholarship during April should I prove my worth in both academic and personal skills.

Sadly, I was unable to remain in Manchester for my Masters and I would have dearly loved to stay. I made many friends for life in Manchester, including the whole youth mentoring team I worked with, executive branch included. I will never forget Xavier Bosch, the CEO of ReachOut, Brendan my project leader and most of all little Bradley who I had the pleasure of watching learn and grow in personal character; although we didn’t start off on a good foot, we managed to overcome our odds and become the best of friends during the short time we knew each other. I would like to head back to Manchester sometime next month to see how everyone is doing. But, I do not regret my decision to move to Norwich.

The University of East Anglia has not disappointed so far; as a matter of fact it has proved quite the contrary. I have a network of support from the teaching office and I have managed to rouse the interest of a couple International Development lecturers who have expressed their pleasure in being academic referees for my internship and job applications.

My arrival in Norwich

I arrived on the 24^th of September in fair Norfolk, where the wind blew true and the skies shone blue. East Midlands Trains, traditionally known for being atrociously incompetent in their transportation skills surprised me with good service and a relatively calm journey (though it still took five and a half hours to travel from Manchester to Norwich).

After settling in my rented flat near the city centre, it was off to dinner with a Thomas James Maxwell in nearby Nandos, where I required suitable guidance traversing Norwich city centre. Bear in mind even though I possess the world’s most awesome sense of direction and cartography, I need some time to familiarize myself with my territory of abode. Indeed, the streets of Norwich are well-known to me at this current point of time due to my handy Samsung Galaxy-S' GPS and my trusty minute bike which has lasted many trips to UEA and back.

After a hefty meal of ½ a chicken and copious amounts of coca cola I was once guided back from the treacherous streets of Norwich to my place for the year where I very quickly settled into bed (after sending Mr. Maxwell off with a smile and a farewell), tired after a day’s long journey.

University life in Norwich

My initial thoughts on my postgraduate degree were that they would involve a great deal of contact hours and coursework. Imagine my great surprise when told that I was going to be taking only 3 modules per term, with a maximum of eight contact hours a week! This astonishment was soon curtailed by the rather alarming amount of reading that each module contained. Most of my nights are spent doing notes on readings and preparing for seminar presentations. I have even started on one of my final essays for December.

I may have been suffered and rightly deserved to be called lazy during my three years in Manchester, but I am certainly not guilty of this vice in Norwich. I am heavily involved in volunteering; four evenings of my week are spent dedicating my time in Scouting, Mentoring and Youth Church. I have gotten involved in a ministry by the name of Proclaimers, and I would like to think that I have been accepted as one of their own. I have managed to get myself absorbed in the youth group and its International Development project, Hope for Latvia, which focuses on Microfinance. More on this in future posts.

My typical day consists of waking up at set time of 0730 hours, setting the alarm on snooze, and then arising at 0815 hours in a panic, throwing on some clothes, brushing my teeth and biking to campus in a flurry of frenzied pedaling. I usually arrive 2-3 minutes before the lecture starts, although at times I have stopped for coffee delayed myself (I am sure that Ed Anderson remembers my name solely from the fact that I usually burst into the lecture theatre 5 minutes late, hi-vis vest on, cup of coffee in hand, grab slide notes from the desk and proceed hurriedly to the front row where I sit and stare attentively).

After the two hour lecture, it’s usually a chat with the lecture about issues touched in the current topic this week, and depending on whether I have lectures later in the day, either a meal in the cafeteria followed by a bustle up to the IT sector to do internship applications/reading or a cycle home where I spend the day doing notes and watching Dexter (it’s usually a Tuesday when this occurs, and Dexter comes out on Monday, so what better time than to sit in the comfort of one’s home and indulge.)

I have discovered a study aid which has the potential to become my life’s blood in the next few months. It’s called “Anki” and what it does is convert all your notes into flashcards, which it tests you on repetitively until the message has been ingrained into your brain. I can now state from memory Joe Stiglitz’ Post-Washington Consensus notions and his rightfully disdainful views of the IMF and World Bank. It seems to be working so far, and it’s a free download from the web as well, so if you’re in college/university/school, google ANKI and download it. It’s really simple to use and invaluable as a study aid when it comes to memorizing raw data. Unfortunately, it doesn’t do much in helping with analytical and evaluative skill; these tend to come with experience and wisdom over time. If only I was able to use this software when mentoring last year, sigh…

My new friends

I know I sound like such a little kid from the subtitle “my new friends”. I bet you’re half expecting me to continue with something along the lines of “today I met someone at university. Her name is Katelyn, she’s really sweet, intelligent and funny, and she’s from the United States”, and frankly I can’t think of any other way to proceed! By the way, “Katelyn” really exists and she’s all that I said she is. We have had quite a few interesting conversations in our Development Perspectives module where I usually turn around on my seat, and have an impromptu chat during our short break, nonchalantly intruding into whatever conversation she’s embroiled with and getting involved.

Another chap I met was quite a charming young fellow who graduated with a degree in Natural Science Tripos from Cambridge University. Get down on your hands and knees and worship, people! It’s not every day we meet someone from such an esteemed educational institution (his personal character and habits have nothing to do with the fact that he’s such an awesome and unique guy, no no…) doing International Development of all courses in East Anglia! Rajiv at your service, ladies and gentlemen.

These two people I would say are my closest friends I have made in Norwich so far; we have had dinner together after several failed attempts and are involved in volunteering with each other. Of course I have made many more friends from my course and from church, but that’s another story for another day. As it is currently a little over 0330 in the morning, I’m feeling ever so fatigued and bless Monday because I have a free day. More notes, coffee and garlic bread to come later in the day. And also possibly a meeting with Thomas Maxwell on Tuesday for dinner.

Stay safe,

Clement.

Inside is all kosong.

2009-03-23T00:40:00.000Z

Goodness me, I believe it has been a little less than a year since I last updated (not counting the semi-emotional note in facebook)! Plenty of things have occured, and I’m sure you’re absolutely dying to hear all about them. First of all, I proclaim that I am not dead, and everything about my anatomy is absolutely fine although I wouldn’t mind NOT having a super-fast metabolism. I can’t get fat, and without fat, I can’t build any muscles no matter how many times I do weights, although the ab crunches have produced some sort of a pseudo eight-pack.

Second year at university has proven slightly less challenging believe it or not. Sure, there are more assignments, but I’m actually free to do my own research at home as four out of five of my modules this term require me to submit an assessed essay which accounts for one hundred percent of the marks. I’m by no means an exceptionally smart person, and I managed to scoop up a 68% aggregate for my first term, which satisfies me to some extent, but also disappoints on the other because another 2% would have got me a first-class. That’s equivalent to an A* in the A-level’s new system for the younger years who are reading which is quite unlikely because who in their right mind, in the prime of their youth, would actually read the ramblings of someone who’s actually become an *gasp* adult?! Despite the fact that two years ago I was still bumbling along in sixth form, invoking the wrath of Physical Geography teachers, I seem to have added to my wide expanse of knowledge in basic skills. Culinary and general people skills seem to have improved for the better ever since I’ve been thrust out into the wild wide world. And also paintballing skills have made a turn for the win. I now see the fear in my opponents’ faces as I lay down a line of coloured balls in their general direction. It’s beautiful really, when you know defeat is not in your general consensus. You don’t even bother to duck as you hear the whistle of those plastic balls filled with vegetable oil narrowly missing your head. Which reminds me, I really need to get the buttstock of my marker replaced pronto. It seems to have broken off during a particularly violent skirmish which involved two foul language spitting scallies and me lighting them up three feet away and them not liking it. Well, I’ve duct-taped the stock, and it seems to hold so far, but for how long I don’t know.

Lately, I’ve taken to actually reading my course readings. Surprising, isn’t it? I used to base all my exam preparation on the miniscule content of lecture slides without even a decent sitting down of reading. That was first year, though, and I came out of that the worse for wear. Failures and resits are something I most certainly would not want to carve my way through again. Especially further mathematics! Ugh, how I loathed (and still do) that module. Nearly did my head in, but then again it was just differentiation and integration with a cocktail of Hessians and minimum points. I’ve just finished one of my assessed essays due for submission on the 20^th April, and I think I’ve made good time for that deadline. Now time to start on the other assessed essays. I feel guilty to some extent because I haven’t been attending a lot of lectures, instead choosing to bask in my room, borrowing Chun Wai Sin’s internet periodically, and downloading the lecture slides off of the social sciences intranet. I guess it is true; you do pay for the piece of paper that has your name on it at the end of three short years. I have however been attending tutorials, except for a few which I absolutely refuse to because of the absolute crappiness of the presentation of the tutors. Don’t get me wrong; I like most of them, but this one tutor in Politics of Development doesn’t seem to know what she’s doing. What she does is she gives us a “topic” to go research during the week, and the next week, we voice our views about it. Fair enough, but one does expect some feedback for the effort that has been undertaken. But NO, she sits there like a mute toad, not even uttering a word of response, if you don’t count “I think that was very well done” every single time. Everyone else, though, fortunately, is competently if not exceptionally good at what they do. Tutors are PhD students who volunteer some of their time during the week to give support to undergraduate student during tutorials. It is of no surprise that some of them are only in for the dosh, but most of them are alright. The university seems to be turning into a money making business. Business would be the most appropriate word to describe it. I’m no activist or anything like that, but such an obvious issue presenting itself in front of me cannot be ignored just like that.

Besides that, I am very happy with where I am now, and I’m doing what I like doing: Development Economics. I’d like to think Mr. Nick Weaver, my personal tutor played a huge role in my choice of specialising in Economics and Development Studies this year. His course last year “Introduction to Development Economics” really got my heart (and mind) into this particular discipline of economics. Someday, I dream of working in the United Nations, making loads of cash and helping countries out. Of course, the critics will go “Oh, but the UN is hypocritical, another veil for the foul foreign policies of the USA and other developed countries!” but I say you can’t make an omelette without breaking the egg. Pareto efficiency tells us that an individual cannot be better off without another individual being worse off. A similar rule is present in Development Economics, although I can’t remember the exact quote and page of the book.

My course modules this year are a healthy mix of politics, sociology and economics. The most interesting module by far is Racism and Ethnicity in the UK, where the course examines the notion of the definition of “Race” as an existence biologically and sociologically. According to the course, there is no such thing as Race, because to be of one “race”, you would have to be biologically different from the human “race”. Anyone for an extra ear? Or perhaps an extra hand, yes I think I would like that. Scratch plenty more other places I would be able to.

Another interesting module is Globalisation and Developing Societies. This module really ties in with the Politics of Development module in the areas where globalisation affects the development of “third-world countries” and also the study of Development theory as well as Agri-business (See Thomas Maxwell for more info). The method of assessment for this course is a 66% assessed essay and 33% tutorial report, which I am the self-elected group leader for. Hey, don’t ask me why; the rest of the team members just nodded their heads when I laid out the plans for the 4000-word report. We’re doing a report on MNCs (multinational corporations) and Child Labour in Developing countries. So far, we’ve managed to work well for a team, not counting a couple absentees, but they’ve emailed me of all people with the reasons for their not being there. We meet every Thursday at 10am, which has proven to be a problem in the past which has been solved by imbibing copious amounts of caffeine in the form of Red Bull and Rockstar, boy don’t I love the orange flavour that Rockstar has. I think this will turn out well, to be honest. We’ve got a team of eager young students who are prepared to bring out the best in themselves!

But enough of boring you with trivial university stuff. After all, it’s only my future we’re talking about here; let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Accommodation this year has been slightly less enjoyable than last year. In one hand I have the company of Chun Wai Sin and his girlfriend Chew Yeu Ting, in the next room, but on the other hand we seem to have forest boars living upstairs (I exclude pigs because pigs are actually very clean creatures) who never seem to be physically able to clean their own things in the kitchen. I know I shouldn’t be nasty, but there’s this one Spanish guy living upstairs by the name of Alberto, and by golly, I don’t know whether he’s got a maid in Spain or something, but he treats this place as if it were some sort of garbage dump! He seems to lack kitchen utensils, and therefore resorts to using our utensils, including my prized Japanese sashimi knives, one which has gone missing to my great anger. Normally I wouldn’t have a problem with it, but this guy never washes up! One morning I come down and find ALL my knives scattered everywhere with the traces of pasta and onions on them, and of course Mr. Spanish’s saucepan has pasta in it, as well as my plate which has the traces of guess... PASTA! On it! And the thing that really, really ticks me off is that he never admits to it. He goes and says “Oh, no I didn’t use this, I didn’t use that...” in very bad English, and we all know that he does it. I remember a few months ago he actually IN COLD BLOOD stole Chun Wai’s porridge that his girlfriend made for him. God damn it! He actually stole MY BOWL, used MY SPOON, and picked the porridge from CHUN WAI’S wok, and brought it upstairs. When confronted, he said that someone had stolen his chicken, and stood there as if that was the answer to all the problems that plagued the flat (and even the world for that matter). I later found out that I had mistaken his chicken for mine, and offered my own chicken to him, but regardless. If someone stole my beef, and you happened to be cooking beef that day, would it be right for me to just steal your beef and eat it with your utensils and bowls? Also, things have gone missing from the kitchen e.g. mugs and bowls, only to come back weeks later unwashed in the sink with the traces of pasta as well as that nasty chocolate drink that he prepares late at night.

I know I sound like a little bitch for saying all these things, but I dunno, it’s really got to my nerves. Also in the wee hours of the morning, he watches some Spanish show and puts the volume up really loudly so I get awakened by frantic Spanish chattering by some excitable man in a TV show as well as Spanish music, which is rather nice to hear, but not at 2am when you’re trying to get some sleep. To pay him back, I’ve taken to blasting Nightwish, Dreamtheater, Metallica and Children of Bodom during the day when I know he’s sleeping. He came in at about 5pm today and said that “Someone told you to turn it down.”

Yeah right, because other people are as weird as you and sleep at 5pm in the afternoon. I played it cool and said “Yeah sure”, turned it down a notch and continued typing my assessed essay. The rest of the day passed pretty alright, had a good dinner, and now I’m starting to prepare material for tomorrow’s meeting about the tutorial report. I hope everyone’s done what they need to do and turn up without major incident.

Got a Facebook message from Jefri Abdul-Rahman, who informed me that he would be staying in London during mid-April. So yes of course I went and booked a train down to London for about £20 and booked a return for the amazing price of £9! Messaged James Bradley on MSN but he didn’t reply, wonder what he’s up to anyway. I hear he’s trying out for the Olympics or something major like that.

I’ve just come down with some sort of mini-flu thing which I’m sure Menzie Kee has passed to me after I visited him for a fraction of a minute the day before. Oh well, at least it is not rabies. And I also successfully organised his paintball event on Wednesday, should be a day of coloured fun with vegetable oil and my paintball marker.

Kit Klitoris Perry may be coming down later today (Monday) to join us in Manchester. He’s in some sort of aircraft carrier purportedly headed toward Newcastle, and may get a train down to f33d in badminton. Okay, time to get to bed. By the way, today’s match (MCFC vs Sunderland) was absolutely crap, and to top it off my sickly self was ticked off by my manager for taking off my tie during the debrief, therefore resulting in incomplete uniform. Cunt.

20th April

2008-04-20T16:18:00.002+01:00

Feeling quite guilty. I was supposed to attend church today at 9.00 in Wythenshawe, that's the place where the Stake Conference was being held. I woke at 0700 hours and realised that I hadn't a clue as to where I was going! There I was, dressed in white shirt, black tie, suit jacket and dress trousers, just standing in my room. What a bother getting up as well. Finished watching Shaman King yesterday, yes, call me childish. Or bored.

Anyway, exams are coming up. 15th May is my first exam, and I believe that's Development Economics, easy peasy. The ones I'm worried about are Maths Statistics and Fundamentals of Finance. Everything else (MacroEconomics, Sociology, Development and Social Anthropology) are alright because I've got the required material. Fundamentals of Finance requires a £126 book that I need to purchase from Amazon. Worth it for 3 months of classes? I think NOT. Also, the catering firm I'm working for, Gilds, hasn't paid me yet. I called them up and they said that there was something wrong with the timesheets. Perfectly forgivable, I suppose. But I don't appreciate having to wait one more week in order to receive what I'm due for. Besides that, everything will be alright. I've scheduled paintball for the 5th June; fun fun day that'll be. That's also 2 days after my final exam, so what better way to release tension. I still have to decide between that and going to London to see the Passion World Tour. Renowned Christian musicians will be playing at that venue, so it's something that does not happen very often.

I have managed to construct 2 spectacular mind-maps/spider diagrams on Investment and Development Economics. I paste them on the mirror and on the ceiling respectively so I look at them while I'm brushing my teeth and when I'm going to bed/waking up. I'll probably upload them on later so you guys can have a look at them. My table is in a terrible mess now. Need to clean it up soon so that I can properly be at peace. Part of the reason why I do my revision in the common room is because there's not enough space in my room and it's all clutter clutter clutter. Borrowed Menzie Kee's Battlefield 2 and accessed my old accounts. Now I'm owning with the Sniper and the Assault Kit. I may purchase Battlefield 2142 from Ebay for like £5 or something because I miss playing it. After all, sometimes I do need a break from my furious revision for examinations. However, I'm sure of one thing, which all of you should be as well:

Everything will be alright.

Stay Safe.

17th April 2008

2008-04-17T11:11:00.002+01:00

Yesterday I went to the City Of Manchester Football Stadium to steward the FA Youth Cup, Manchester City vs Chelsea, Under 18s. For under eighteens though, they looked absolutely HUMOUNGOUS! I swear one person was like 6 foot 3 or something. And all these kids are younger than I am! Whoa. Anyway, it was a pretty awesome match. I'd like to say that the City Youth Team play better than the real MCFC but that would just be taking the piss. I won't provide a commentary like most people will, because you can just read about it here

Today I got up early, and went to Crawford House, that's Manchester Business School area, and did the presentation that we were preparing a few days ago, I think you'll find when you read my previous journal posts. It went generally well, but we did have a slight problem with the projector not working. I had fortunately brought Fariq's thumbdrive (Which I forgot to return to him while we were in London), and transferred the slideshow onto there. Also, one of our teammates who vanished off the Earth while we were preparing for the slideshow suddenly turned up THIS MORNING ITSELF, the DAY OF THE PRESENTATION, and asked us : "Right guys, so what am I doing?"

Lucky I was late by a few minutes; I would have had quite a few words to say to him. You disappear right before we start preparing for the presentation, you ignore our phone calls, you ignore our messages despite us sending them incessantly, and ON THE DAY ITSELF you bleeding turn up and say "Oh what am I doing?" with an excuse of "Right.. I lost my phone, so I didn't have any of your numbers with me."

Sad to say, he was the only person who failed the presentation earlier today. Everyone else did their presentations fine. The last slideshow was a bit awkward. It was from a couple of students from the PRC (People's Republic of China) and they were highlighting the "Truths" about the Tibet and China conflict. To be honest, it seemed like they were actually advertising the strengths about China. Random photos of the capital and the great wall kept popping up during the slide, and the ending words of the presentation were "Welcome To Beijing 2008." I won't go any further, but it was quite a humourous experience.

In the middle of the presentation, I noticed that both of my teammates had sort of increased the pace at which words were escaping from their mouths, so I decided to compensate for that. I was the last speaker, so I asked the class questions like "Do you know what the Big Mac Index is? Are we clear on what the PPP is? Do you know what contestable markets are?", therefore bringing up our total time of the presentation to be about 12 minutes.

And guess where I'm stewarding next?

14th May 2008

Yes, I think you'll find that it will be quite an entertaining match indeed. Don't get me wrong. I don't steward just because I want to watch the match and for money, although the latter is quite true (Money). I steward because I actually like doing the job. It's quite nice when people come up to you and ask you about the match, who's playing, who do you think is going to win (I have to be careful there, and find out which side of the stands I'm stewarding, home or away.) so some prior knowledge of the game is important.

After my exams (which we all know I'll pass except for Statistics, which is very gay, and therefore doesn't count), I'll be training for my SIA badge. With the badge I get paid a minimum of 9 pound an hour for normal work, while for football events I get paid 14 quid an hour for doing the same thing. Sounds pretty good eh? The sad part is? I need to pay 245 pounds for the license PLUS an addition 140 pounds for the training. So it's 400 quid I need to fork up in order to get this.

However, I've spoken to a lot of my supervisors who have the badge, and they all say it's well worth it. Basically, during the holidays, if I work for 52 hours a week, that's 52 x 9 = 468 pounds. So... everything paid for in a week, providing I get up and work from 9 to 5. We all know that's not going to happen, so I give it 2 weeks at the most. Life is getting good. The catering agency I'm still contracted to can contribute to paying for the badge. Then after that it may be a fond adieu as I move on to greater heights. Everyone's very nice in the stewarding/security business. They talk to you nicely and don't yell at you like the bleeding chefs or the catering agency staff do. I get as much respect as I give to my peers and supervisors, and most will stop for a little chat with you while you're on duty. Plus, you're allowed to talk to each other while doing your job, as long as you don't move from your position.

Right, it's nearly 12 pm now. Suppose I'd better start revising again.

Stay safe!

After a long break.

2008-04-16T16:35:00.002+01:00

Yes I know I haven't been updating the blog but things have been quite hectic during the past few days. I've been stewarding at the M.E.N Arena for the FINA world championships (Chris Ho you'll probably be interested in this), and now I'm getting ready to steward Manchester City vs Chelsea.

I'll probably post some photos IF I can obtain them from the stadium without being caught by the supervisors.

Till then,

Alright, I'm off to the game now. See ya soon!

12th April 2008

2008-04-12T16:46:00.001+01:00

I managed to meet up with my friend from Wesley Methodist School on Thursday, and it was quite a delightful meet, I must say. It was nice being told what other people were doing and how they were getting on with life. We ate at Moso Moso, a Chinese restaurant opposite my accommodation, and the meeting wasn’t as awkward as I thought it would be. After that, we went back to Chun Wai’s place to check his flat out, and I went and retrieved my Bluetooth headset which I left there a couple days back. Then, I just had to go to the music room to play my new Military Polonaise Op. 40. Spent about an hour and a half there. The piece isn’t actually as hard as I thought it would be; it was refreshingly simple and played with basic chords, not as difficult as some of the Etudes that I’ve previously tried to learn but failed. When we went to the room, I heard some jazz being played from the person who was in the before us. He was playing a saxophone, so I just had to get his contact details and insist that we practice together one day. It’s a bit boring, playing classical all day long, and one does desire some variety in one’s life, but classical piano will always be my bread and butter. Overall quite a successful day I think you’ll find. At the end of the night, Chun Wai SIN invited us to dinner tomorrow for his birthday, and “invited” me to cook for them as well. I sent my friend to bus stop and bid her a good night as she was boarding her 142 Bus to Victoria Park.

I think I’ll most probably have to postpone paintball till the 5th of June, because I realized the date I set for paintball (17th May) just happened to be on the day of my Sociology exam, and also just happened to be smack dab in the middle of the examination period. Sorry, Thomas. Time to suck it up with your boss again. It’s your fault, choosing contractual work instead of an agency. That means you can’t join us that often during summer, and be stuck in Norwich with grandpa and grandma, which isn’t such a bad thing, I suppose. Still, I AM eager to field my paintball rifle which has been sitting in my room for the past one and a half months. Own some noobs I will. Anyway, I made the mistake of watching “Holby Blue” on BBC iPlayer (what a marvelous invention), and went to bed at 0300 causing me to ultimately miss my statistics lecture at 0900 hours as I woke at 1023 hours. The next four hours were spent revising for a Development Economics mock exam, which I passed quite well indeed (I believe). Then it was buying ingredients for Chun Wai’s birthday at 1720 hours. We bought bucketloads of frying beef and turkey frozen veg. Then, the long trudge back to accommodation, and the wait for two of his flatmates to come back from the gym to help us with the food preparation, because I hate cooking alone and without any help. Chun Wai also invited my friend over for dinner, so she arrived at about 1830 hours and hung out in his room while I was engaging in the blending of food molecules for ultimate consumption over a electric device which produces high temperatures via a metal conductor, or electric stove.

The food for that night was Teppanyaki Beef with Tom Yam Fried Rice. Came out quite successfully, I think you’ll find. I myself was quite impressed at my skill, not to get over my head, of course. Then, Chun Wai SIN and his roommates decided to go over to a pub, which I politely declined because I was cheap (£3 entry fee) and because I generally don’t drink, and already had more than I could handle during dinner. So, we bid them a fond adieu, and it was back to the music room again, because I wanted to practise some more of my new music. Then, it was off to McDonalds, and a Big Mac Meal, because I got hungry again. During our meal, we saw an African British teenager wearing SUNGLASSES (mind you it was 2240 hours) and asking a poor bloke for money in a very threatening way. God damn puke. Have you no respect for older people?! He stared at everyone in the restaurant in a very threatening manner, and then stormed out. Everyone tried not to burst out in laughter, but I was seething with rage. Anyway, we finished the meal, and I sent her back to the bus stop again, bidding farewell with a promise that I would come and see her in Sheffield one of these days, and possibly teach her how to play the piano.

It was off to Menzie Kee’s place then, and I spent the good part of four hours in his room, just talking and talking and talking as well as looking at videos on YouTube. I showed him a video which scared the shit out of him (look below post for the accursed video), and he refused to watch the rest of the movie, hahaha. Hope you had sweet dreams, Mr. Anjing Besar as Kit Jimmy Koay Perry says.

Today (12th April 2008), I had a couple of people come over for a study group for a presentation due in next week, about Purchasing Power Parity and the Big Mac Index. Yes, all development studies stuff. Went well, and spent about half an hour explaining the theory to them (why do I always have to do all the work?) and promised to meet them on Monday after Macroeconomics. Well, Enough for now, I want to practise some more piano and the finish my Sociology Essay.

Signing out,
Stay Safe.

The Video.

http://jasonyks87.blogspot.com/

2008-04-10T17:35:00.002+01:00

I stumbled upon this blog while I was moderating my comments. Worth checking out, I believe. Deals with the life of a student in tertiary education Malaysia and provides useful insight on everyday doings in the life of a typical Malaysian (AND NO I DON'T MEAN YOU RICH GIS PEOPLE.)

April 10th, Thursday.

2008-04-10T17:05:00.006+01:00

At the time I’m typing this sentence it is 1514 hours, Thursday, April 10, 2008. I’m taking a break from revision as of now. I got to bed at 0400 hours again due to my flatmate’s music again. He’s got some annoying screensaver which plays rap music at absurdly loud levels. To add to that, his sound system has a subwoofer integrated into it. And to salt to the wound, he WASN’T IN, and had conveniently locked his room door, which prevented me going in and disabling the system myself. So… I had to move my bed to the other end of the room and play Rachmaninoff and Chopin at a reasonable volume in order to drown out the “Boom…. Boom… BoomBoom…” sounds coming reverberating around his room and therefore finding their way into MY room via conduction with the wall that separates our rooms. Anyway, I woke up at 0840 for a 0900 hour tutorial which lasts for 120 minutes, and was located across the university campus, a good 10 minutes away. I showered with haste, got dressed, put on contact lenses, donned sunglasses and headed off at great velocities toward the general direction of the tutorial. Turns out, I was 20 minutes late for that one. However, they were actually not too far into the class, as I later found out that everyone had arrived at about the same time I did, being first week of university and all. The topic for the day was the discussion of the writing of reports, how to write them, what to include, etc. Our coursework for that particular module (Social Anthropology) was a fifteen minute presentation on an Economics topic of our choice. There are officially four people in my team (hooray, I’ve been picked as team leader again…), but so far I have only been able to liaise with ONE person. The rest have gone all AWOL and my attempts to contact them for the past two weeks have proven unsuccessful. Fine, if you really don’t want to contribute to this topic, don’t bloody call me up on the day before the presentation and ask me what you’re supposed to do, you lazy bastards. We’re supposed to meet on Saturday to discuss why a Big Mac meal is cheaper in the USA than in the UK, calculated to Purchasing Power Parity US$. Analysis into the exchange rate and various government (monetary, fiscal) policies are topics that are open for consideration, although I’ve got it sorted out. I’m not going to do ALL the work and just let everyone sit back and read from the paper. I’ve insisted that my other team member READ UP on Purchasing Power Parity in order to gain some understanding before our scheduled meeting at 1340 hours Saturday, April 12, 2008.

Right now, I’m in the common room, having just finished a 2 hour long session of revision on Development Economics. There’s a mock exam tomorrow and I think I’m fully prepared for it. Immediately after the Social Anthropology tutorial, I had a Development Economics seminar. The tutor was well impressed because I managed to answer all the questions he had set for the class that day without any external (textbook, lecture notes) help. Straight off the top of my head. I also managed to partially own him by talking about distorted markets and saying that sometimes monopolies had the power to drive prices up and therefore the distribution of wealth and income would not be as moderated as we would have liked them to be, in the context of using GNY (Gross National Income) as a suitable method for measuring a country’s development.

Which reminds me, I really ought to finish that 1500-word essay on the Jobseeker’s Allowance and Unemployment. I have 500 words left, and that should take me a grand total of thirty (30) minutes to finish. I intend to do that tomorrow after the mock exam, when my mind is clear. So far, everything is great. I still need to revise Maths Statistics for Economists, though. And Fundamentals of Finance is looking quite shabby at the moment. Lucky my lecturer uploaded past year papers onto the web. I can practice on those papers in preparation for the exam. I’m not planning to score any firsts for this module. It’s a 3 month module and does not count toward my final grade. And more importantly, the textbook that I was recommended to purchase was well over a hundred pounds! Not worth it for 14 lectures and 3 workshops, I don’t think.

For Sociology, though. I’m not at all prepared, but I will be soon. Basically, it’s revise 6 topics, and a definite First. Fordism, Taylorism, Workfare, Motivation, Post Fordism and Unemployment are the topics I plan to delve into in the coming month. My exams start on the 15th of May and I know, most of you people think “Yeah, it’s a month and a half away. PLENTY OF TIME.” But NO. I have 6 modules to study for, and Time Is Running Out (Muse). Economics is easier than most sciences such as Aeronautical Engineering such as the revered Christopher Ho and Menzie Kee are studying, and medicine which the sturdy Maevis Tan and Chun Wai SIN are reading. However, it does require some effort on the part of the student. Plus, Mr. Ben Bradley and Joel Lee Weng Yew as well as Lee Weng Hon respectively study and studied Economics in their tertiary education. As long as I follow in their footsteps, the Win is confirmed, or “FOR THE WIN” as Yi Xuan WOO very graciously puts it.

Today, I turned down two jobs from my catering agency, because I’m meeting with one of my friends whom I haven’t seen for up to 5 years. She’s in the University of Sheffield, and she’s working in Manchester this week, so I only have ONE chance to meet her before she goes back down to university, where Matthew Ng is coincidentally currently residing. I have invited Chun Wai SIN to come along to break the ice, so hopefully tonight will turn out to be a successful one in the occasion that I don’t make a fool of myself, which I don’t, really, with the exception of being around Ben Bradley, Thomas Maxwell, Christopher HO and Yi Xuan WOO. Anyway, the catering firm I worked for wasn’t too happy about that. The bloke said “Is she dying of a deadly disease?”

To which I replied “No.”

“Well, see her another day then.”

“I can’t, she’s leaving Manchester today.”

“Ok, alright, alright.” And he hung up. I was like -_- oh well. At least I’ve got a proper job football stewarding and getting paid £7.90 and training to get paid £11.00 minimum wage. You can just piss off if you think you can treat me that way. I don’t NEED to work for you. I CHOOSE to work for you, and at the end of the day, I’m getting a degree, and getting a proper job, so you can treat me how you want for now. Just don’t be an arse when you’re serving me in a posh restaurant next time and I ask you to polish my boot and bring me the manager because your service is crap.

Outside, it’s pretty sunny, although the photos don’t do the weather justice. The photo below shows the view of the main road, Oxford Road, from outside my dorm.

As you can see, someone’s taken some onions from my abundant source of roots and placed them on the windowsill, where onion springs have started to sprout from their ends. Good, then I won’t need to buy any more spring onions for the near future. I’ll just *snip* and use them for my latest recipes. I probably should start posting pictures of University Cooking 101: How to effectively sustain yourself by self-subsistence. I recently learned how to make Pad Thai; that’s a Thai dish (Surprise surprise), which consists of vermicelli, Pad Thai sauce (bean sauce with added spices and herbs), egg, peanuts, spring onions, soy sauce and chilli flakes. Successfully made that yesterday for dinner, with some vermicelli and beef leftover for future ventures into the world of cooking.

And here is my study table. Well, it’s actually the common room of our flat. I don’t use my own table because it’s too small to fit all my study material on. I bring my laptop out, and plug it into the radio to play my favourite Chopin, Nightwish and Dream Theater pieces of music. And Behold:

My new music book, Chopin Polonaise. I intend to put my accommodation’s piano to good use in the next few months leading up to the exam and then post examination period where everyone’s gone home and it’s all quiet save for Thomas Maxwell and Ben Bradley coming over and eventually Matthew Rust and Kit Jimmy Koay Perry for the camping trip and for paintball. Good fun good fun. Okay, I’m due to meet my friend in an hour’s time so...
Signing out,

Waking at 3pm.

2008-04-09T15:11:00.003+01:00

I didn't set my alarm today, just to see how long I could sleep till. I went to bed at about 4am today, and didn't wake till 3 in the afternoon! Whoa, proves I was pretty tired eh? Anyway, what was I doing till 4 in the morning the previous time I was awake? Simple, really? First of all, I got up in the morning at about 0700 hours and showered, e.g. had a quick breakfast. Then, I went off to my Statistics lecture at 0845 in order to arrive at 0900 am. As I expected, I didn't understand most of what was going on, so I think I'll have to take some time out and really decimate my statistics to get a passing mark this year. Did I mention? I need 40% to pass a module, and I have 6 modules this year. I have so far passed two, but I need to pass two more (80/120) to get to the second year. The best thing about it is that the marks I get this year don't count toward the final mark that I'm going to get when I graduate. Still, I'm prepping myself by studying at least 2 hours everyday. I know, I know, doesn't seem like a lot when you think of it. I will start studying more as exams loom closer in the next 2 months.

Oh, btw, Izzy Bloy's father appeared in Reuters today : Click to read the article

Wednesday is a free day for me; I just don't have any lectures on that day due to it 1. Being sports Wednesday (although that doesn't seem to be going well as it's absolutely pissing down outside), and 2. Because I simply do NOT have any lectures.

Anyway, like I was saying, after my Maths statistics, there weren't any more lectures that day (except for Business Finance which I skipped because the lecture theater is far away and the lecturer uploads the slides WITH the slide notes onto the university intranet, and also because it happens to be an excerpt from A-level Finance and there is very easy), sooo I went and called up the stewarding agency I'm working for, and tried to book work. Unfortunately, the firm didn't inform me that I had to give the "Front Page" of my Passport to them, and that I would be unable to work for them until I posted it to them, in Leicester. So, that's what I did. I took the next 20 minutes of my time scanning my passport page into the computer and printing it out in grayscale because they wanted a "photocopy" of it, then I walked down to the post office nearby, bought an envelope, wrote the address on it and sent it off. Also happened to be the first time I ever mailed a letter. Hooray!

Yes, I mailed one of those.

Anyway, after that, I went back bought myself some McDonalds (healthy food, eh?) and today they had some weird deli of some sort or other, so fine.. I went back and ate it. Then, I revised from 8 pm till 10 pm, and decided to bring Chun Wai SIN's guitar strings over to his place to string his guitar whose lower E string was broken by myself when I first gave it to him a month back.

Bought some new Ernie Ball acoustic guitar strings and we restrung the whole guitar, taking nearly an hour and using the internet to do so. Then we opened up the guitar case and found... voila: New strings! So instead of ordering strings from the net we could have just restrung it there and then a month ago. But these Ernie Ball strings are the best in the world, so there's barely any chance of them snapping in the near future.

After that, we tuned the guitar using an online tuner, although there was a pitch horn in the guitar case. All in all, success in a most positive manner. After that, it was three hours of learning how to play the guitar. Identifying crotchets, minims, quavers, rests, time signatures, learning the basic notes. As a matter of fact, I'll pay a visit to Mr. Sin again just to check whether he's practised.

Anyway, I just went and checked my mail, and it appears that there is no mail for me. Either that, or my flatmates have taken the envelopes back into the apartment kitchen, in which I'll check in a couple of minutes' time after publishing this post. It's quite hot in Manchester now, about 10-11 degrees celcius I would say (don't quote me on that, but I went out in just a shirt and shorts to collect mail and buy food in the time I took to type this entry).

Anyway, I'm probably going to revise for now, and then go for dinner, then revise some more, then get to bed. I've got work tomorrow at about 4pm but I think I'll cancel because I'm supposed to meet a friend whom I haven't seen for 5 years for dinner.

Alright, signing out.

First Day of Uni

2008-04-07T12:26:00.003+01:00

After a long weekend of training, I'm now back into the usual routine of lectures and tutorials. What was I taught during steward training, did I hear you ask? Nothing much, really. We started off discussing the role of a steward in football matches and in festivals. We're supposed to maintain a peaceful and controlled "situation" while we're on duty. Simple enough, I suppose. Then we went onto health and safety and what we should do prior to opening an area up for the general public to enter. Basically, nothing but searching the area and removing any "hazardous" objects such as cigarette boxes (apparently people can make bombs out of them), and various other obstacles that may cause injury or harm.

A steward's role is never an individual person's role. We get backup wherever we are, and always have more than two people looking out after us. That means, whatever we do, our actions are witnessed by another steward, so that no charges may be brought against us by unscrupulous people. Then, we went onto body searching. How to check for hazardous items, firearms, pointed objects, e.g. I hope the next time you guys go watch a Manchester United match I don't meet you at the entrance. It would be awkward asking you whether you'd like to be searched.

Then, we went onto dealing with dangerous situations, like fires, bomb scares and other related aspects. We learned loads of stuff which I cannot be inclined to discuss here, but will happily divulge to you if you ask me personally. This included the notion of a citizen's arrest, and restraining of a potential person who would cause harm to oneself and others around. I'm due to collect my hi-visibility jacket and other personal protective equipment from the office sometime during the week. Apparently the M.E.N's arena has a uniform of a bright ORANGE blazer and black tie. Eww I'm never going to work there unless I work inside the concert area or as a traffic steward, where I will wear the hi-vizzie and black tie. I'm saving up to get a stab vest for when I work at football stadiums. Football hooligans are scousers, and I'm not having ANYTHING happen to me that would stop me from getting my degree and thus acquiring a PROPER job, no matter how small the chance that a person would be able to smuggle in a sharp object to the pitch. Old Trafford: 75 000 people attending. 3 guesses to how many people will be able to smuggle in unauthorised objects.

I call in for work on Tuesday. If I'm lucky I will get to steward on Wednesday, but I'm not sure where Man U is playing. Photos will be uploaded if I get the chance to take them using my camera's phone. If they're playing away then obviously I can't go for that one, coz I have university work to do. I am also typing out a 1500 word essay while typing out this blog post, haha. Don't worry, I have the ability to multitask unlike most men. I'm also singing the lyrics to Coldplay's "The Scientist" and attempting to read from John Sloman's Economics. Unemployment and the JobSeeker's allowance is the topic that I'm reading now. Such is uni life; a squeeze of part-time work and a combination of assignments and revision as the finals loom at the end of May. I still haven't gotten my timetable yet, not too sure what the university's up to, but I'm revising feverishly (not) till then. Joke's aside, though; there are only a few subjects I haven't revised on, and those are puny business and sociology modules that take less than two weeks to master. Economics and mathematics are the clinchers, I'm afraid. Bloody statistics kills. Period.

Oh, and I've scheduled paintball for the 17th Of May, one week before finals, haha. That should give us a good break from revision and enough time to go absolutely wild on that day. Then back to the mundane world of study. There are two things that annoy me a lot.

1. When you speak to someone in this country, and they ask where you're from, you answer accordingly : Malaysia. They then proceed to say "Oh, but you speak such good English!". What do they think Malaysia is, a place where uncivilised, uneducated, tree-huggers live?

2. When it rains. We had good snow yesterday, but when it's pissing down you generally do NOT want to be outside.

Right now's alright, though. Below are some pictures of what it looks like outside my dorm.

Pretty alright, I think. I'm due in for "Bar and Wine Waiting" at the Lowry hotel at about 4.45 pm, and it's only 1.30 pm now. Revision anyone?

I'm going to go "Ben Bradley" in the next few weeks I swear and do like 1532453245 hours of revision straight. I'm no Lee Weng You (misspelling intended) who doesn't study till like 2 weeks before exams. Kk I'm off to bash someone's head in with my flashlight. Yum Yum. No actually I'm going to do Gross Capital Formation. Interesting, eh?

Oh, and go to giseye. We got plenty of Shizz there that'll blow your brains out. More will come soon, we promise. Okay okay this is clementchew.blogspot.com not giseye.blogspot.com so work related stuff must be kept separate from personal life. Kthxbye.

Signing out.

Yawn

2008-04-05T20:14:00.007+01:00

Been quite a long day today. Had to wake up at 7 in the morning to go for my stewardship training, and ended up having to wait 1 hour before it actually started due to some inconsiderate people turning up late. The worst part about it is that the night before, I couldn't sleep till about 4am, and ended up getting less than three hours of slumber before the harsh cry of my phone playing "Ghost Love Score" violently jolted me from my rest.

The training was nothing much; the instructor talked about health and safety at work, the importance of communication as a team and how to respond to an emergency. Pretty useful, although majority of people who clubbed and partied the whole night yesterday didn't seem to think so. There was a plethora of people nodding off during the 6 hour lecture, but a cheery mood was buzzing in the air as the instructor tried to add some humour into the otherwise drab atmosphere.

We still haven't gone into self-defense yet, although I suspect that topic will be touched on tomorrow. Dealing with unruly spectators at football events and making arrests as appropriate. Should be interested at the very least. Then at the end of the day, Hooray, a multiple choice test! I wonder what that's going to be about. A total of 21 questions depicting what we have learnt over the 2 days of our course.

Assuming I PASS the test, I'll be ready to work effective from Tuesday. This firm is a non-contractual job agency. This means I call them every Tuesday for work for the week. The only thing different about this company compared to the other catering firm I work for is that this company pays monthly instead of weekly as the other one does, so this should help me manage my finance a lot more efficiently. Lately I've been spending quite a lot especially on the London trip and then subsequently my SureFire flashlight, and THEN a holster for the flashlight which cost about £15. That's 50 quid down the drain already although I wouldn't really call it a waste of money; I NEED the flashlight, and it's not going to jiggle about in my pocket. This will help my in saving for our upcoming supreme camping trip during the summer in which Matthew Rust, Thomas Maxwell, Ben Bradley (tentatively!) and myself shall be participating in. One must hope that one estimates the total cost of the trip accurately, or be in eventual trouble when the time for spending comes.

I suppose I'd better start exercising more often; lately I've been slacking out and just studying, eating and sleeping. Hopefully stewarding and paintball will help me more hahaha. Rusty and myself were discussing the notion of Thomas Maxwell having a blog, and I believe both of us found the theory quite amusing indeed. Definitely worth a go yeah, Thomas?

Also, Mr Chun Wai SIN has returned from Italy with plenty of footage for GISEYE. I can only hope that he's recorded the footage in something OTHER than .VOB format, because all the converters require cash for total unrestricted operation instead of only converting 30% of the whole blooming file and then asking for like $23.95 for the other 70% which makes me wonder why the bloody hell did you even allow me to download the seemingly "free" file in the first place?

Overall a successful day, although I overslept in the afternoon and therefore missed my dinner invitation by a fellow Malaysian in Manchester to go to Chinatown to partake in consumption of Asian food of an Eastern nature. As I'm typing this, a surprise flurry of snow is hitting my window (and everywhere else outside) which is quite weird considering it's halfway into Spring. When will it get hotter so I can walk about without a jacket like I used to do in September? Also, I have Wing-Tsun classes starting from the next Monday onwards. And then on Wednesday I have to meet someone from the Royal Northern College of Music for rehearsal for some sort of a musical item for the church I attend.

Also, I have purchased Chopin's Grand Polonaise. Of course, it will not be an easy piece, and I hope that I will be able to eventually complete it without much difficulty, but that's as well as wishing all wars in this world would end right now and forever. Oh well, there's always my piano teacher back in Malaysia for consultation if anything unwanted happens i.e. I totally total the piece and screw everything up. I've downloaded the music for the piece, and will be doing my best to concentrate before the exams on Piano and Revision. So far everything is going well, but I'll let you know what happens tomorrow when I return from this mentally strenuous activity of sitting lethargically in a class while someone drones on and on and on. Part of the reason why I sometimes skive lectures and choose to download them instead.

I'll probably GTF to bed after this. Feeling quite tired and need to wake up again tomorrow for more training. And then on Monday itself I have work for my catering agency (which means I skip Wing-Tsun on that day and go for a 3 hour session on Thursday to make up for it).

Okayyy... signing out now.

After a long interval....

2008-04-03T21:12:00.002+01:00

After a long break in blog posting and seeing as everyone has restarted posting, with the exception of Joel Lee Weng Yew, who never stopped posting in the first place, I think it only appropriate that I update this blog and resurrect it from the depths of 2006. Holy crap it’s been more than a year since I last updated. A year and four months to be precise. Right now, I’m sitting in my university dorm, alone, after spending some time out with some elders of the church I go to. Now I’m not going to go into the sensitive topic of religion here, about which church is true, which blasphemes, e.g. The only thing that’s of prime importance is that you belong to one religion and stay true and focused in your way of life. I don’t care whether you’re Buddhist, Christian, Muslim, Hindu or whatever, but as long as you co-exist with me, I will then extend my other hand and co-exist fondly with you guys. Oh, and Kit, no more doing Jew Jitsu please and pping like some sort of a ... while we’re having a convo about our upcoming trip to the mountains of the UK. I suppose we’d better extend the invitation to Ben Brad otherwise it’ll be too late for him to reply.

SO… WHAT HAS BEEN GOING ON, that is the question. First of all, I’m in the University Of Manchester, and am quite happy there. The course has been fun so far, and the only problem I’ve had is with Mathematics but then again I wasn’t really born with the calculative and theoretical talent that everyone at GIS seems to possess. Thank you, Mr. Ellis, I have chosen Economics as my main degree now, and am specializing in Development studies for my second and third year, as well as Micro and Macroeconomics II. Things have been very quiet over Easter, mainly because after I returned from my fun filled trip to London, I was left with nobody but myself, my revision, and loads of imagination. That’s right; no one else was at my dorm. Pretty creepy going to bed by yourself and waking up to an empty dorm without the sounds of drunken wankers coming back from their nightly binge. I have since developed some sort of immunity; whatever you want to call it, I’m sure Chun Wai SIN would disagree, to loud music playing. And it’s not just loud music playing at any time, it’s loud music blaring out from my dorm mate’s huge subwoofer speakers when I’M TRYING TO GET SOME SLEEP. Seriously I should really load up my paintball gun and unload 19 balls per second onto him with finger on trigger 5 seconds straight (borrowed from YX’s “Next time my hand down on horn 5 seconds.” at an impertinent user of the road). Trust me, it WILL hurt. At 450 feet per second, you will be decimated with impunity. I also need to be careful though, he’s got an air rifle, although semi automatic. Might just don my paintball vest and put on the mask before the challenge, haha.

I have recently acquired a job at a stewarding agency. Basically, I get to be one of those people in yellow you see walking about the stadium presumably doing f*** all while watching the game.

Yes, I get to be one of em bastards.

My training’s this weekend, and after that it’s MORE stewarding at Old Trafford, Manchester City, and sometimes festivals, concerts and boringly enough, BANQUETS. For this purpose, I have purchased what is known as a SureFire G2-LED flashlight. This baby WILL light something up. With 80 Lumens of energy (that’s about 4 times the light of a standard three D-cell Maglight), the beam of this flashlight will be more than sufficient to blind a person’s night adapted vision, and allow for tactical takedowns. And it also has the advantage of lighting things up so that I can direct people to their seats. Below are a few photos of my newly received gadget.

Just before I relieved it from its plastic prison.

The flashlight in its Nitrolon Casing.

For the nerds, that's a P4 bulb, capable of producing up to 80 Lumens at a time.

The G2 LED in its Ultimate Glory. Notice how the rest of the room is illuminated even though it's out of the SureFire's line of sight.

Yes, beware, football hooligans. Your time is at an end. No more throwing things at other people, no more making those coshes out of newspaper. For I will blind you. And I WILL kick your arses.

And also, I’ve added new accessories to my paintball rifle. The photos below should suffice.

Now this thing here is an Aimpoint CompM2. Used by majority of the US forces in Iraq and other major deployments, this widget has proven to be rather nifty in the most bone jarring tactical situations. This one is a replica, of course. No way am I spending 300 quid on something that's going to be used like twice a month. It has 5 adjustment levels for brightness, level 5 being the highest, and I have it zeroed in for 60 feet.

Another angle.

The second thing I added is a foregrip to the weapon. With an added advantage. This little gadget here works as a bipod as well. All I have to do is press the button you see on the right side of the grip, and two legs spring out as if they've been sent by Lucifer himself. It helps to balance the rifle on the table when I don't want the rest of my accessories getting damaged.

The third thing I added is a laser sight. Now I know... it's not going to be worth it during the day. However, when it starts getting darker i.e after mid-day, that's when this little thing here brings out a whole load of fear and suppression. People WILL take cover when they see the beam of this 40mw laser hovering over their camouflage. Plus, it helps me in close combat situations.

Another angle.

Ah yes, the rifle in its ultimate final rampaging recline. One on One, anyone?

Anyway, I’ve recently taken to drawing mind-maps/spider diagrams whatever you wanna call them, for revision, and it’s been quite helpful to me. Now obviously revision should be focused on individuality, as Mr. Steven Ellis says, ”Revision should be a market niche of ONE.”

Hey, it’s just something for you guys who aren’t really study-oriented, like me, to try your hand at. It’s nice to use coloured gel pens and draw little figures on the paper, as well as figure out how to make the words more condensed and draw pictures instead of blatantly writing stuff down, which doesn’t work at all anyway (Ben Bradley will surely misquote me on this).

I’m no master at this, but this should help you start off. Yes I know i know it's nothing impressive. But hey, it helps me get a grip on things.

Also, I’ve been told by my agency to start wearing contact lenses while I’m stewarding. Wouldn’t want my lovely glasses to be knocked off by a scouser, would we? So, I decided to play around a bit, and finally ordered a pair of coloured contact lenses. Now before you go screaming “AH BENG! YOU IS AH BENG!! YOU IS WEARING COLOURED CONTACT LENS BLUE LIKE CIBAI BANGLA (no offense to Bangladeshis)”, I have selected a pair of Grey contact lenses for starters. Which means I therefore DO NOT LOOK LIKE SOME SORT OF A … . I don’t think even Thomas or Ben noticed it when we went to London, and most people thought I had grey eyes to begin with, without the thought of “FAKE” crossing their minds. Below are some photies.

Up close, it doesn't look too realistic. But then again I don't think anyone would ever get that close to me without first punching me, or kissing me, in which case they would close their eyes because it's rude to stare while you're kissing.

Another angle.

I also have a pair of X3 black polarized sunglasses just for the coolness factor and partly to stop those annoying spotlights in the stadiums beaming down upon my eyes. I’ll post up pictures of my stab vest when I eventually acquire it. Okay, now if you'll excuse me, I need to get back to revision.

Btw, GO TO http://giseye.blogspot.com NOW. AND I MEAN NOW! This is something you do not want to miss. I shall not spoil the plot for you. Just go. Now.

Dear Dad

2006-12-06T14:03:00.000Z

It has been two years since you died. Not one day passes where I don’t think about what we could have done together as a family, what we could have done with our lives, and finally, what would it have been like if you hadn’t passed away on that fateful night. What if the ambulance came earlier? What if you went for your checkup before we left Malaysia? What if you didn’t play badminton that day? There are so many what ifs that dwelling on them is a trip never finding its end. Not one day passes where I don’t think of how I could have saved you, but failed to. Even Dr. Najma, the kind doctor who tried to revive you with my help said it was such a waste. Such a waste that a hardworking man, who has known nothing but toil since his birth, who has worked so hard to put food on the table for the past fifteen years and finally succeeded in achieving his greatest dream: To bring his family overseas, away, away from the mundane life of a developing country, into a new life, had to die that night. Doctor’s words: exact time of death, 9.54 pm, cause of death: Acute Myocardial Infarction. We never had an inkling that this was to occur.

I remember that day as if it had happened today. The memory of that tragic yet illuminating night was etched into my mind as it happened, two years ago. I remember going to school the next morning, acting as if nothing had happened. Told a few friends of what had transpired with teary eyes, and went on with the norm. Came home, dropped my school bag, went upstairs to my room, and buried myself in my bed. I had to face the reality, though. Descended the stairs again in a dreamlike state, and greeted your colleague. Had lunch, and it was the very same meal that I had with you yesterday, just before your passing: salted vegetables.

I’m sorry I never had the chance to thank you for all the small things you did for me. Giving me a ride home from school because I wanted to stay back to play basketball back in Malaysia, although that meant you driving all the way from Damansara. (Malaysians will understand this.) I wonder what your colleagues would have thought. Always never failing to be there for us at all times, whenever we needed something, a ride, whatever, you were always there. And you ARE always there. I can feel your presence in this room. Getting on top of the BT Broadband people when they took such an awfully long time to set up the broadband connection, I never had the chance to thank you for all of this. I guess, to some extent, I took you for granted.

I wore black for you today, and I’ll wear black for you tomorrow. You always liked seeing me in a suit and tie, I am glad that I have been given the opportunity to make that happen. I appreciated all those years I had with you, although I didn’t say so. Wearing your kinetic watch that I loved to play with so much tomorrow, wearing your belt tomorrow. And guess what? I’ve got a flu as well, but it’s dying down.

For those of you who bothered to come here, thanks for reading this through. It means a lot to me to get this off my chest, and I feel even more appreciated if I get some form of feedback. I want you all, like last year, to think of how lucky you are to have both parents, if you do, and try to imagine life without one or both of them. I appreciate my mother a lot more now. Once bitten, twice shy.

Hee hee, I guess I need to wipe up the keyboard before it malfunctions. Tears dropping too fast. Do you know Ken actually spilt tea on the computer a couple of weeks ago? But these are not tears of sadness and sorrow; these are tears of revelation and happiness. You have found peace, I know it. It is impossible that such a good man, a hardworking citizen, and above all, such a great and loving father would not have found everlasting happiness and serenity. I know you’re looking down on us. Don’t ever stop looking.

Signing off,

The Third Day of Taman Negara

2006-07-19T16:46:00.000+01:00

What a day! This was easily the most tiring and hardest day of all, but we all enjoyed it immensely. Well, I did. And that’s saying something. I woke up surprisingly refreshed, and made my way down to the beach, where we prepared breakfast. I cannot exactly remember what we had for breakfast, but it was a far cry from what we had for dinner.

We went to check on our fish traps that we had set the day before, much pardons for not actually describing it in the post below. There is a lot to remember from this trip nearly a month ago. Below is a photo of us at the fish traps. I am sorry; this is the best image I can get from Ben, as we did not want to risk bringing the camera out of the boat for fear of it becoming wet and therefore useless.

As you can see, the photo above shows nothing resembling the fish traps, but this was the location at which they were set. Oh well.

Anyway, after a trudge in the relatively warm water, we made our way back to the boats with our catch (about four fishes, moderate in length, I’d say about 6-10 inches.) and were ferried back to the orang asli camp. There we prepared our lunch: Tapioca!

Now, tapioca is an extremely tasteless root, found in the ground, obviously. It is used as an ingredient in many types of food, and is commonly eaten with gravy. However, all we had for lunch was tapioca. Only tapioca. Now, imagine trying to eat nothing but potatoes with no sauce, no honey (Which I gracefully tried to obtain from Mrs. Purser, but was dissuaded by Mr. George.) and no side-dishes. To add to this insult, we had to make a fire by hand. That means no matches, you pyromaniacs. The orang asli showed us the precise method of creating a fire, though, so we weren’t totally lost at that. Basically it involved taking some intricately constructed wood and rubbing it against another piece of wood, thus creating sparks. We would then blow the embers from the hot wood onto sawdust, which would then ignite, hopefully. I am proud to announce that our group was the fastest group of all, and managed to create a fire much faster than the other teams. Behold:

Now, I know that there is nothing much to see here, but if you look closely, you can see the fine yellow lines that depict a fire. All thanks to Thomas’ and Ben Bradley’s hard work of course. I did not do much, neither did Yi Xuan, but I managed to bargain for some extremely big tapiocas to put on our fire, a mistake which I would later regret.

Tapioca is “Ubi Kayu” in Malay, which means “Wooden Potato”. I should have heeded those words carefully. Wood indeed was the food. I had no problem finishing my first tapioca, but Ian kindly offered me his share of the tapioca, so stupidly, I accepted. And there it was… absolute torture, urgh.

I finally managed to finish that tapioca with Ben’s HP sauce and tomato ketchup which I had the foresight to bring. And after that, the orang asli brought us up to a nearby hill, and told us which types of leaves to cut, in order to build our shelter. At first, I thought that we were just meant to build the shelter, and go sleep in our tents. On the contrary, however, it appeared that we needed to sleep IN the shelter, THAT night. So, a substantial amount of planning was in order. We were supplied “parangs”, swords by the orang asli, and told to cut palm leaves, which were meant for the shelter. One team was rightfully supposed to have one blade, but due to my excellent negotiating skills, our team had TWO knives instead. All thanks to Mat Leon, though. It was a tiring ordeal; cutting the surprisingly heavy leaves, de-thorning them, and then lugging them back to the campsite. It was all good fun, though. The photo shows the leaves we were supposed to cut. This is a young version of a leaf.

And then, began the gruelling process of folding. We had to weave the leaves into an criss-cross pattern in order for them to prevent the rain from coming in, if there was any rain that night. And so we kneaded and weaved. We weaved like there was no tomorrow. We weaved for two hours straight, and then began the gruelling task of constructing the shelter. First, we cut several sturdy, elastic sticks from the jungle, and stuck three sticks; the longest of them all, into the ground. Then, we bent them and tied them to the other sticks that we had pierced the ground with, opposite to one another. After that, we began tying the leaves to the sticks, eventually ending up with not a bad shelter.

The tool for tying was rattan that Mat Leon generously collected and gave to us. We cut it up into nice pieces and tied all the leaves to the sticks accordingly. The photo below shows our monument of primal civilisation. Behold:

It was about five thirty in the evening, as you can see from the darkness of the wood, and we were extremely sweaty and irritable. We rushed down to the river and dived into it… well, not dived, but ran into it, more like. We welcomed the cool and calm waters and went headfirst into it without qualms. It was then, after borrowing some shampoo and soap from Ann-Marie that I spotted Weng Yew leaning on one of the boats, not joining in the mud-throwing goodness. I took five as well, and sat beside him on the boat, arms bumping with every jolt of the boat. And then I inquired as to why he did not join in the fun. And that was where I found out that he was physically unable to swim. I thought this was not possible, but either way, I did not poke fun at this at all. It is simply uncouth and under mannered to do so. And there we sat, throwing random blobs of mud at people who were unsuspecting.

Even Mr. George and Mr. Matthams were coining in on the fun as well. It appears that, during my team’s absence, the entire host in the water was ganging up on Jackson Au Chee Ming. Surrounded by a mob of upraised fists of mud and sand, accompanied by wily grins on faces, Chee Ming found himself centred by this mass. He crept over to the teachers and claimed that they would support this injustice. He turned and cheekily grinned at the approaching horde, when both Mr. Mathams and George dipped their hands into the river, gripped a large dollop of mud, and flung it full force at Chee Ming’s head. Everyone then screamed with delight and apparently lobbed all the mud at him. The teachers then ended the fight immediately. To good avail, of course.

And then we had an incredible dinner of “Tempoyak” which is an absolutely delicious meal consisting of durians (Mmm) and fish, broiled into a chop-licking curry. The teachers detested it, Mr. George in the lead. I, on the other hand, loved it. I guess it is a love-hate thing. You either like it or you don’t. And that’s that. I was so hooked up on this dish that I went for a fourth round, much to the amazement and detest of Mrs. Purser. After that, we had to ready our equipment for our shelters. We could take a maximum of five goods, a water bottle being one of them. Compulsorily. I knew exactly what I wanted to take; some Famous Amos cookies that Ben had very kindly brought along on this trip. So we rushed down and got our things. However, I forgot one important thing; the carry mat that accompanied the sleeping bag. I was distraught; as the teachers would not allow me to return down to retrieve it. Rules are rules; they are there for a reason.

This reason for this was soon to be ascertained. They were meant to be bent. We had to go down for a dance around a bonfire that the aborigines had constructed for us. They taught us a song. It was primitive, some members of the group complained.

“You would have thought that after so many millennia of living, they would have thought of something more creative.” One member was heard commenting.
I thought inwardly. If I were entertaining a foreigner in my country, in my own environment, I would devise a song that would require the least amount of memorising. And so, we danced around the fireplace, singing that song. I shall not attempt to transcribe the song onto this blog, it would only humiliate me. But if you were to ask any of us, we would be delighted to perform our own version of it to you.

And then, we played our musical chairs, the orang asli joined in as well. It was good fun, Mr Matthams pushed everyone out of the way before sitting down on his chair, but he eventually lost to Thomas Maxwell, who was proclaimed winner of the event. Hooray!! We then headed out to the tall grass for a last minute piss before going to bed. It was then, when I decided on a reconnaissance mission. After my piss, I immediately grabbed my carry mat from beside the tent, in one swift motion, and tucked it under my shirt. I then ran as if the devil himself was on my tail, up to the shelter. Nobody spotted me. The rest of the team congratulated me on my brilliant effort and result. It was because of me, that the team had a good night’s sleep. Good old me.

Before we slept under the shelter that night, however, Ben suddenly began a “What If” game.

“What if the mountains suddenly expanded in size, and the moon was shrouded by the trees?” was the first question asked.

“That would be freaky.” Thomas answered. Then I started.

“What if you suddenly felt long hair upon your face, and you knew that there was nobody in the shelter who was a girl?”

Thomas started getting the jitters.

“Shut up, okay! I’m seriously starting to get freaked out here.” He exclaimed. Ben continued.

“What if you woke up on the other side of the river where Matt Rust was the other day, and suddenly saw blank faces staring up from that water at you? And it was pitch black. And then these people started rising out of the water?”

At that point, Thomas could not take it and told both of us to SHUT UP!!! And there it was, Day Three of our expedition in the wild. Day four coming up!

The Taman Negara Expedition, Day Two

2006-07-18T12:10:00.000+01:00

Day 2 of the Taman Negara Ordeal… errr… Expedition

*UPDATE*
I just realised that I forgot a vital part of our experience in Taman Negara. We had just come back from the river when I asked Thomas about some martial arts trickz. He replied, and demonstrated accordingly, when suddenly Kit Perry emerged. He then demanded a touch spar with Thomas. (Touch Sparring is based on the concept of real fighting, only that if one person touches a body part of his opponent which is not defended, he gains a point. Shoulders and knees not counted.) And then, I witnessed what could be described as one of the most hilarious fake fights in my entire life. I opted not to join in, for fear of damaging my spectacles. I could have removed them, yes. But I would have faced an unfair disadvantage in the aspect of visibility. Anyway, I really wish I could have taken photos of the incident, but it shall remain in my memory forever. Please pardon me, Thomas, Kit, for what I am about to relate is based on my own memory. I shall not be biased to a particular person. Forgive me. Only Mr. George and Matt Rust can accurately relate what happened, for it was only they, who bore witness to such a hilarious incident.

Kit adopted the basic fighter’s stance, with both hands to the head to protect it, and hopping about similar to the boxing matches you see on the television. Thomas, however, was using the classic Taekwondo sparring technique, which consisted of placing your hands to your hips, and leaning your head forward. And then the battle of the two warriors began. Thomas’ experience in Taekwondo appeared to have been wasted, as he attempted cheap slow roundhouses to Kit’s thigh, which were duly blocked. Kit, on the other hand, was attempting to get in close for punches, but failed, as Thomas kept backing up. All in all, it was quite a fair fight; i.e. no dirty fighting, eye gouging, choking. Kit even managed to land a decent punch on Thomas’ right shoulder, while shouting out “Kiaaa!!”, a basic Karate exhalation method. After the match, Thomas was insisting that Kit got his arse kicked, while Kit was saying that he owned Thomas. I for one could not determine the sole winner, because it was such an unguarded fight. No referees, no ring, and plenty of space for error. And there, the funniest moment of day one occurred. Now. Time for Day Two of our journey into hell.
*UPDATE*

Well, we woke up grumpy and sweaty after a whole night of unrest. Yi Xuan, was being particularly crabby that morning, and I arose to find Ben laid beside us, almost lying diagonally, due to his massive size. I was none the better with my mood as well. I had a tremendous headache, accompanied by dizziness, accompanied by the usual grumpiness that comes after one has had a long slumber.

So I got up, and headed out swearing to the stupid structure where I then politely asked Mat Leon for some breakfast, if he had any. In Malay, of course. Very generously, he offered me pieces of bread along with Milo and jam. I was elated, and rushed off to tell my team mates. No, actually I just wolfed down as much as I could, and waited for them to come out. After that, we had to pack our tents up and trudge BACK through the forest, out to the same jetty that we arrived at yesterday. Damn it, and I didn’t even see a bloody tapir. So… there it was… life sucked that morning. We dutifully packed the tent up; well, me and Yi Xuan anyway, and managed to fasten it onto my brand new rucksack. Of course, it did its job well by supporting the added weight, but I most certainly did not appreciate two more kilograms of added weight. All for the good of the team, however. Mrs. Purser and Mr. Saundercock were extremely concerned about the distribution of the weight, because it appeared to be focused on my back, when it was supposed to be centred on my shoulders. All corrected and rectified however.

And then we set off. The tiring trek through the jungle was only intensified by the morning sun become hotter and hotter, and that mosquitoes were present. Nothing much helped the situation a lot, except for mosquito repellent and some water to quench our everlasting thirst. I did not bother with anti-leech cream, although I’m not altogether certain that people brought it. Ben and I tried to add to the atmosphere by whistling, but Mr. George, I think, was a exceptionally grumpy that morning. We ceased at his command.

This walk surprisingly took only an hour and a half, compared to the two hour hike yesterday. We arrived there refreshed, nonetheless sweaty. Back at the jetty. Hurrah. The boat was already waiting for us, and ferried us over to an Orang Asli (Aborigine) settlement. Along the way, plenty of people got splashed by water from the rapids. A photo of such a torrent may be visible below.

Finally! Civilisation! We settled at a virgin white beach, and I spotted a family of Aborigines taking a bath in the river. Without clothes. Of course, being the open-minded person, I immediately assumed that this was their culture, not that they were oblivious to our customs, but on the contrary. This island was shaped in quite an astonishing way. On the far left corner of the beach, further up into the island, there was a wavy path hewn through the tall grass that surrounded the entire area. Up there, was presumably the orang asli camp. We made our way up the beach, taking care not to get sand in our shoes (Nasty) and then pitched our tents on the top of the hill. We did find out that the orang asli lived at the top of the hill, as seen by the huts and the fire that they had already kindled.

Our relaxation was short lived, however, when Mat Leon announced that the orang asli would take us deep into the forest for sightseeing and to demonstrate the method of building shelters to rest at night. Not after we had had some lunch, however. The orang asli were really kind: they prepared food for us to eat. And even though it was only bread and sardines, we cherished the taste like no tomorrow, as we had not had a good meal in days. Well, two days to be more precise.

While we were eating, I took the liberty to descend down the hill to retrieve some water for my team mates. When I got down there, I realised that Kit and his team were taking a little dip in the river. Much to my mortification, I saw a brown head bobbing up and down on the water, heading toward some rocks on the other end of the river. Now, we had been blatantly and severely warned by the teachers that we were not allowed to venture any further than a quarter of the river. And now, I saw one of our friends heading out into impending doom. Mrs. Purser spotted this person and summoned Mr. Mathams, who shaded his eyes for a moment, and exclaimed “That’s Matthew Rust, isn’t it!?”

And so it was. I admired the spectacle for a few more moments before declaring this white boy insane. He actually managed to make it to the rocks on the other end, AND return back to the shore, although he reported that he was facing a bit of a challenge on the return journey. I guess he was lucky not to have been carried all the way downstream to the tall grass which held various excretions and faeces of both the orang asli and surrounding animals.

Suffice to say, the trip that ensued after our lunch was informative and illuminating. I never knew exactly how many thorns each leaf that I touched held. I was duly rewarded by scratches on both arms and feet. And this was where a tiny little leech had decided that he would commit suicide by drinking my blood. So there it was. Yi Xuan claimed that I was “Owned” by a leech, when he spotted a miniscule blood patch on my sock.
I stand corrected, for the poor thing had already met its demise when I eventually shook it out of my sock. There we go! I remember saying. “No need for salt!”

It was a two and a half hour trek through the jungle, eventually ending at a tourist resort that I remember staying at five years ago. Again, more memories flooded through my mind as I walked through that area. We made our way down to the resort’s jetty and awaited the ferry, while we threw leeches obtained from various members of the group, of varying sizes, into the river for the fish to eat them. There was something immensely satisfying about seeing those little buggers get eaten by something out of the deep. Mrs. Purser was offering everybody menthols, and of course, being a large eater, I accepted gracefully.

The boat eventually arrived, and we headed back to the orang asli encampment for a much needed swim and bath. Along the way, our members were splashing one another with water from the river. I think sticking hands in the river in a moving boat should be illegal and the person doing it castrated. Ben and I were seated at the front, so we did not get the full brunt of the jokers behind. Poor Thomas got drenched by Kit Perry, who would not cease his relentless attack. I looked around when I felt a jolt in the workings of the boat and found out that Thomas had stood up, banging his head on the zinc roof of the ferry. He had an extremely serious expression on his face, signifying anger, and was looking daggers at Kit. He was annoyed that the bag that he was holding was wet in several places, and that the bag contained his phone. Much as I found that extremely hilarious, it was unfortunate that MY own phone happened to be in that bag as well. Damn it. Mr George called out to Thomas

“It would be wise for you to wait a moment and cool down before you do anything you’ll regret.”

That was cool. Besides the fact that Mr. Saundercock got drenched by the rapids, nothing else happened during the short boat ride. We hurried out of the boat, and could not wait, but flung ourselves into the water, clothes still on. We threw mud at each other; Andy was particularly aggressive, and Thomas was just being a sneaky little bastard, coming up behind you while you were occupied and messing up your hair with mud. We buried Rust in the ground, as the photos below showed. Thomas was being a woman and shovelling sand in defenceless Rust’s ear, and he was screaming about it. Ian Choong had a hand in that as well. We even made sand boobies and sand penises for this brown haired extremist. He later claimed to have sand scratches on majority of his body. Oh well, there’s always the black side of things. Ben took some excellent photos of the entire incident.

You can see Thomas kicking sand in Matt's face on the second photo.

The fun had to end, however. The teachers said that we were to go on a night trek after dinner. Fun, isn’t it? When you’ve just had a much needed bath and then informed that you’re about to sweat again. Priceless. Excellent. We cooked mushroom soup and baked beans along with tortilla for dinner. Yum yum. You can read about Thomas’ escapades with Matt Rust in his weblog : www.xanga.com/ohsoimba

I shall not bother to reiterate it here, but Thomas wanted some food, and decided to steal it off Matt, and of course, if you take food away from an eating dog, you will get bitten. And that is exactly what happened to Thomas. He was tackled to the ground and had sand shoved in his face. Even I, who is such a big eater, resisted the urge to ask for spare food, let alone steal it. I enjoyed my dinner and was content with it.

After dinner, we had to go for a boring old night walk. Not before we gathered around some candles and made small chat, of course. They were talking about things that happened before I was here. Made me feel extremely out of place, that conversation did. Chee Ming kept saying

“You know what would be funny, guys?” and proceeding to put out the candles with sand, engulfing all of us in the darkness. I had to rush up to the aborigines and ask them for spare candles. Not cheap, these sort of things.

And THEN, we had to go for the inevitable night walk. Pretty uneventful, except for some glow in the dark leaves that Mat Leon showed us. Said it was the chemical component of the leaves that made them glow like that. I took him to his word, never questioning, ever vigilant. I wanted to collect some of them leaves to take back to the camp, but it was near impossible to find them in the near-pitch blackness of the jungle night. Pity. I would have liked to take it back home and frame it up.

We returned, and had a great night’s sleep. Well, I did. I went straight up the hill to the tent, as I was absolutely knackered. And once again, found Thomas there, already slothing. Nothing else to say, except that we were soon joined by Ben Bradley and Yi Xuan, who promptly settled down and fell asleep almost instantly. I have to admit, sleep does not find me easily. I usually have to toss and turn for a significant amount of minutes before I finally drop off. In truth, I was a little jealous of all these sloths around me. But, I settled in nicely and managed to fall asleep in good time. Thomas once again screeched with anguish as he discovered YET another leech sucking its glory on his ankle, again. I contained my laughs and continued my peaceful rest. And thus, Day Two of this Expedition ends. Tar rah for today. I shall update this tomorrow. Thanks for reading!

Duke Of Edinburgh Award : TAMAN NEGARA, Pahang

2006-07-17T05:22:00.003+01:00

DOE: Taman Negara
Two weeks have passed since I have attended the best Duke of Edinburgh trip. “Taman Negara” literally means National Park, if translated into English. Quite a fitting name. It is a shame that some parts have been converted into tourist attractions. However, majority of the forest has been left untouched for practically thousands of years. This forest is even claimed to be the oldest rainforest in the world by the travel brochure, although I leave the benefit of doubt to anyone who wishes to.

I thought I had blown it, when I submitted my payment for this trip three days too late, as the memo had stated: All payments submitted after the above date (I can’t remember for the life of me.) shall not be taken into account.

However, the minor slip went unnoticed, and I found myself in a loaded luxurious school bus on the 28th of the month before, wondering what on earth had persuaded me to undertake this grisly expedition. Oh well, at least I packed up nicely for this trip. I was fully equipped; own rucksack down to a Teflon pot which was meant for utilisation of the team. This stellar team consisted of Ben Bradley, the brains of the operation, Thomas Maxwell, the “worrier”, Yi Xuan, the crabby handyman, Julie, the second in command, and Supreme ME. Can’t actually remember what I did for the team, but I guess I was the odd job person. “Too many cooks spoil the broth” was my favourite motto.

My part of the deal was to bring as much energy bars and sweets to sustain the livelihood and morale of the team. And that I did, and effectively as well, may I add. I brought approximately three packs of muesli bars, and 4 additional packs of granola bars, which Thomas devoured aggressively, rummaging in my pack whenever he had the opportunity. Poor fellow, I should have given him a pack to eat by himself. Only joking of course. I probably ate as much, if not more than him.

The bus trip was quite an illuminating and insightful three hour ride into wonderful Pahang. Reall? I hear you ask. Aren’t bus rides supposed to be excruciatingly drab and colourless journeys? Actually, it was an incredibly boring and uneventful trip into a vast wasteland of greenery and animal dung that nobody wanted to go to, only lightened a slight amount by the whistling orchestra that Ben, I and Ernest, an absolute genius of a sixth former, formed. I have a vague feeling that we annoyed a few people in the long trip to the area of operation, but all for the better good. We were kept occupied, and that is the most important thing of all. The teachers even looked behind in incredulity at our antics. We began with Pachalbel’s Canon in D and ranged all the way to the Blue Danube Waltz. My musical skills and talent must have been heightened ever since that little ensemble in the bus. However, this was soon interrupted by the proposal that we watch a movie. The teachers made an excellent (Not) choice of watching “Singing In the Rain”, a movie that was made probably before any of us were born. To add insult to injury, it was a musical as well. Oh, the joy. I fell asleep sometime during the movie, and awakened when it ended. Thank god. We then stopped at a random place, in the prospect of having some Kentucky Fried Chicken, but ended up walking pointlessly for twenty odd minutes, before declaring that there was no KFC. Damn, we all thought, and re-boarded the bus.

Well, we finally arrived at the location. By that time, it must have been at least half past six, judging by the dark blue sky. Ah, goodbye sweet civilisation, we thought. And then we found out that we would be pitching our tents on the campsite of the main tourist structure. Right. Before we took the ferry across, we had our last proper dinner for five days. We chose one of the floating restaurants because apparently it had the English flag on it. Hey, it was not my idea. I think one of the people with us (Kit Jimmy-Koay Perry, Matt Rust, Jackson Au and my team) must have somehow noticed the red, purple and white banner that signified the British colours. Please do not make inappropriate comments about my colour blindness, which is becoming somewhat of a hindrance nowadays. I cannot do my driving because of that. So leave it.

Food was excellent there, considering the food that we would be having over the next five days. I ordered some fried rice and a moderately sized bowl of Tom Yam Seafood, which Ben Bradley gladly shared, complaining that it was a little too spicy for his liking. The champion managed to finish his entire portion and ask for seconds, though. What a brave man. I remember offering Kit Perry some soup, but he refused, saying that “It’s red, It’s hot and I see chillies in it. Why should I eat it?” Typical white boy, eh?

We finished in good time, and headed out to a little stone walkway where we sat for about half an hour, commenting about the weather and making random statements. It was dull until Matt noticed sparks being created from the stones that Kit was chucking around. And then, we started experimenting with various rocks and trying to create sparks from them. I am not certain whether they were flint stones or not, but we had good fun with them.

Finally, we were summoned to one of the restaurants and were made to sit on a ferry, which then carried us across the river to the campsite. It was quite a tiring climb up a relatively steep staircase in the dark, after we arrived. We had to watch our footing, because any mistakes would bring us tumbling down approximately five to six metres to our deaths. I was one of the first on the scene, followed by Thomas and Ben. Yi Xuan was nowhere to be seen. He finally appeared, looming out of the shadows like a hunter in the night, clad in orange and white, and bespectacled.

We made haste, and pitched our tents up, taking into account the advice that the teachers had given us. We were to set up tents as quickly as possible, and to keep food wrapped or sealed in an airtight container. Reason? Wild animals, such as boars and monkeys, not counting the occasional tent-raider, tended to frequent the campsite, and if we did not want to suffer tremendous losses in sustenance, we were to set up quickly and precisely. And so we did. In ten minutes, both tents were perfectly erected. Thomas and Ben were to share an eight man tent, and Yi Xuan and I were to share a four man tent. Despite the fact that they had abundant space in the shocking monster of a tent, Ben and Thomas were dissatisfied, and complained about the heat. Oh well, guess you can’t have it all in life.

I hated the first night. I was extremely restless, and was sweating like a pig (If they do sweat as much as the saying goes) till about one o clock in the morning, when I finally fell asleep with exhaustion. We woke up a little more refreshed than yesterday, and were quickly assembled before the guide and the teachers after a quick breakfast of Granola bars and tomato soup, courtesy of me. The guide, who was named “Mat Leon”, a name which drew many comments to Leon Jala, another member of our expedition, explained about the dangers of the forest, and the many attractions of it. Finally, he informed us that we would be going on a jungle trek along with the famous canopy walk. Now, that made me slightly more excited and willing. We received free water in the form of “Sea Master” water bottles, and began the relatively short walk through the tourist resort before the hike. The entire group was split up into two teams, one to follow Mat Leon and another to follow a fellow guide that was at the location.

It was then, where I spotted the first spelling mistake of the entire expedition. Behold:

Camera!

The trip was uneventful, but informative. Mat Leon explained to us about the various dwellings of creatures in the jungle and showed us a tiny gecko sticking its head out of the tree, collecting power from the sunlight. Fascinating. Ben and Xuan took some excellent photos which shall be shown below.

The Gecko
It is a wonderful photo indeed that you must witness it in full size.

He also pointed to a random tree, so we thought, and stated that a bear had previously sharpened its claws on the bark overnight. Of course, we believed everything he said; there was no reason not to. I felt a strange sense of trepidation. A bear had been here less than twenty four hours ago, and yet… there was nothing to show that he or she was here, except a couple of bear prints and a few gouges in the bark of a tree. We moved on.

Mat Leon was an extremely hilarious person, scorning a few people’s meagre stamina as we trekked up the hill. It was quite a relaxing hike, with only a few bumps here and there in the form of slopes or intricate roots. We finally made our way up to the first pinnacle of the Tahan Mountain. There, we rested for a few minutes (Several Minutes, as Mat Leon pointed out.) and back-trekked downhill to our initial checkpoint, where we waited for the rest of our team to arrive. And then, we trekked to the highlight of the day; the canopy walk. I remember coming here before approximately five years ago. However, most of the memories elude me, attempts to delve into my rusty memories rewarded me by snatches of glimpses, and emotions of déjà vu every time we passed by a certain token e.g. structure, trees. Behold: Chilling out at the summit.

The Summit

After another twenty minute walk through the crudely hewn path of the jungle, we arrived at the exit of the canopy walk, where we encountered our very first experience of humans in the jungle. An international school, judging by the amount of foreign students, was at the location as well, apparently preparing to leave. We did not stop to chat, but hastened down to the entrance, eager to walk the walk. Pictures from the Canopy Walk Below.

Canopy One
Canopy Two

The canopy experience was something that everyone who went to Taman Negara should have gone to. Unsteady, swinging bridges constructed by wood and netting, with only a few metal supports holding it in place. I figured that if I did not fall down five years ago, why would I fall down now? So off we went. We practised our jumping skills on the bridge, and even Mr. Mathams joined in, vigorously jolting the bridge and causing people to shy to the sides. I cannot begin to describe how wonderful and exotic the little walk was. So, after half an hour of peaceful serenity, we made our way down to the exit which we passed earlier and walked back to the entrance, where we patiently waited for our team to return. I was tempted to go on the walk once again, but was dissuaded by Mat Leon, who said that we ought to be getting back to camp; we needed to pack up and head off to “The Hide”, a grotesque concrete structure in the middle of the forest, exceptionally hot, not mentioning the hundreds of geckos and insects.

Anyway, we headed back to camp, and Matt Rust and Kit Perry decided to show us a “lake” where we could take a last minute bath before heading off into oblivion. Ben Bradley, Thomas and Jackson Au came along. Yi Xuan decided not to come for some unknown reason. The “lake” happened to be a part of the river where it was somewhat shallow and full of stones. I remember yelping with pain every time my foot connected with a sharp object. Rust happily announced that he would take a much needed shit in the river, and squatted in the middle of the river for what seemed like ages, while we laughed our arses off and threw stones in his vicinity to distract him. Unfortunately, the urge went, and he returned to the shallow area, seemingly downcast. We then proceeded to splash each other with water and play a little game which consisted of trying to hit a large rock that was thrown up into the air with our own small rocks. It was good fun. Ben Bradley, Thomas and Kit Perry returned while the rest of us (Rust and I) remained, still playing with rocks in the water.

We then got tired of soaking in the river and returned to the campsite, where my team was in the midst of cooking our lunch. Sausages and Mash… mmm… this was heaven compared to Cameron Highlands and Belum Rainforest. Oh, I savoured the goodness and godliness of the meal. After we were done, we packed up our tents and headed to the ferry, which then took us to “The Hide”, which consisted of a two hour long trek into the wilderness, accompanied by leeches, and mosquitoes. Now, I have absolutely no problems with leeches. My blood seems to be a bane to leeches. Or maybe I’m just a leech friend. Throughout the whole trip, I only sustained one leech bite, and it was a miniscule leech who died as soon as he sucked a droplet of blood from me. Poor fellow, he didn’t see it coming. Anyway, we had to carry our rucksacks along with us as well, resulting in a very hot, sweaty and extremely tiring hike through the muddy jungle. The stay in “The Hide” was the worst experience in the entire trip, in my honest opinion. Chee Ming had a leech in his arse, of all places, and Rust seemed to be a leech magnet. I can’t remember how many leeches he had accumulated in his shoes, but it was a double digit figure, I swear. He claimed that they “Made Babies” in his shoes. I discovered another spelling error here.

Fire.

Well, there isn’t much to say after that. We pitched our tents outside the disgusting concrete structure, and had our dinner: Tortillas and SPAM with onions. I made the mistake of accidentally dropping the pot that was containing the cooked tortillas and hastily picked up all the tortillas in less than five seconds, remembering the five-second rule. Much to the amusement of the other teams, of course. After dinner, Ben Bradley and Yi Xuan kindly cleaned up, while I went to the tent. We were to share the eight-man tent that night, or so we thought. When I stepped in the tent, I immediately felt a soft sensation against the sole of my foot, followed by a scream of “CLEMENT! You’re stepping on my foot!”

It was Thomas Maxwell, of course, trying to get some shut-eye and sleep away his headache. Ooh, I pitied the poor fellow. I settled down beside him in the tent and used my rucksack as a pillow. All was quiet for a few hours. Until, Thomas let out another screech and held up a leech, which had been sucking for all it was worth on his ankle. I sniggered, and said “Never mind. Leave it. He won’t bite me anyway.” And then, I had a sudden feeling of nostalgia, back to Belum Rainforest, when Weng Yew discovered a leech in his underwear before adorning them. We had a good laugh then.

Thomas would not stand for this creepy-crawly and proceeded to douse it in insect repellent before throwing its wasted body out the tent flap. What a pity. Poor guy. I meant the leech. So, Yi Xuan joined us after a few minutes, and there we lay, boiling in the heat of the hide. I managed to fall asleep, but woke up in short periods of time, for short periods of time. Ben was nowhere to be seen, and we found out tomorrow that he had spent the whole night up in that concrete structure, spotting a few creatures, e.g. tapirs, flying squirrels, civet cats. This was the whole of day one in the wilderness. Day two will be published as soon as I finish it. Cheers for reading.

Marriage and Children.

2006-04-16T15:38:00.000+01:00

I gently pull the sheet over my oldest son’s sleeping body, gently caressing his short brown hair with streaks of blonde that I adore so much. Beside me, my wife sits, watching over us. He lets out a gentle sigh as I run my fingers through his hair and grip his bare twelve-year-old shoulder affectionately. Our three other children slumber in the next room, a clutter of hands and feet. I glance over at my wife.

“Beautiful, isn’t he? Can you believe we produced such a lovely person?” I ask, incredulous. My wife, being the typical Brit, nods with a smile playing on the side of her lips. I kiss him on his furrowed brow and he shifts, while groaning “Dad, stop. I’m trying to sleep here.”

“Sorry.” I mutter, and continue playing with his hair. What a lovely Saturday night. Typical British weather, of course. Rain dabbing the Earth in the irritating manner of intermittent showers. Why can’t the rain ever be like the rain in Malaysia? Back there, it’s just thunderstorms all day long. Over here, gloomy mornings seem to stretch on for hours, into afternoons, into evenings. Not to mention the blistering cold, of course.

My thoughts drift back to when I first met Kate. I was a young university graduate, brash and cocky, clutching my Masters degree after graduation. We met outside the campus. She had acquired her degree in music at the same time as when I got my own. It was love at instant sight. I had found a female who could take care of herself, without the use of other people, particularly her partner, for support. We dated each other, and found both flaws and flawlessness in the other. We worked through them. I abolished my habit of being absent-minded about dates, method which slips my mind, and she, on the other hand, started to appreciate the time spent amongst ourselves.

Time flew. It had not been one year when I decided to propose to her. I took her beautiful face in my hands and proclaimed my love to her, gently. She gazed back at me with those stunning green eyes and said that she would. After the hassle of the wedding, we finally had the time to ourselves. I expected things to change after we were married, but our style of life was not altered by a large amount. Until the time when we started having thoughts of a child. Then, things changed drastically. It was six months after our marriage when we decided to sire.

A year and three quarters after our marriage, our wonderful son Cody was brought into the world, bawling his grey eyes out for all he was worth. For the first time in the world, I knew what my father had felt when I was born, the joy and the love. For the first time in the world, I felt old. And I was never happier to be old. It somehow intrigued me how such a delicate organism could be created just by the sheer force of love. I looked forward to parenting.

Childhood for Cody was relatively easy. Kate composed and practiced at home, so our son had the benefits of both worlds; his mother in the afternoon, and both of us in the evening. He gradually learned to recognize the tunes that Kate played, and eventually took up the art of violin playing at the age of four. My heart loved him so much that it hurt every time I caught sight of him. My very own child. My son. I looked forward to coming home every day after work, to be greeted by those cheerful grey eyes, the dimpled smile, the perfect hug.

Obviously, there were times where his actions incensed me, because I felt that he could do better than the naught that he possessed. Many a time, I had to remind myself that he was a young person, and was bound to have fun once in awhile. I refrained from physical punishment, probably because of the fact that it would cause more harm than good. Bringing up children would be a challenge as well as a benefit.

First day of school. I remember the feelings I felt at that time. “Our son’s growing up.” I recall saying to Kate. He looked so smart in that jacket and tie of his, uniform as required by British schools. He gave both of us hugs before heading into school building, insisting that we shouldn’t follow. How I always prepared his hot chocolate for his after-school drink, once I started working from home. How I always watched the door in anticipation for his arrival. Oh, my beloved child. Always arriving in a noisy state of affairs. Tie and jacket off as soon as he entered the apartment, before bounding toward me for his afternoon cuddle and drink. He always used to sit on my lap while finishing his hot chocolate, detailing the makings of his day in intervals.

The years pass. More memories. Eleven-year-old Cody relentlessly prodding me awake on Christmas Day, the crack of dawn just visible on the horizon, demanding his overdue present. Settling down beside me when I refused to budge, cuddled up against both of us in the middle of the bed, soft breaths audible. I remember buying him a hamster for Christmas, to add to his laptop for his birthday. His elated grin of joy and yells of delight remain forever embedded in my memory.

Finally, I think about today. I remember Cody slamming the apartment door shut, after returning from swimming lessons, angry tears dotting that precious face of his. It is a quarter past six in the evening, pitch black already in the winter. Kate is in the showers. He makes a beeline towards me, sobbing softly into my jacket when he finally approaches within “crying” distance. I ask “What’s wrong?” and he replies “I don’t want to go for swimming anymore. The people there said I couldn’t swim to save my life.”

I reassure him, endeavouring to make him understand that opinions of third parties do not matter whatsoever, especially if they came from a peer of his age, who was not in the first league. He says nothing, but continues to press his face against my side, choking with sobs, tears staining my Pierre Cardin jacket. A sniff at his hair confirms that he has already taken a shower at the leisure centre. I say nothing else, and continue to watch the television. He tucks himself under my jacket. After the movie ends, I pick him up gently and carry him to his room, where I lay him down on his sheets and begin undressing him. I make sure the radiator is turned on. I tuck him into the covers, and Kate enters just as he drops off.

I’m back where I started off. I remind myself of my father, and how he suffered his untimely demise before he even watched his kids grow up and have children of their own. There will always be a special place in my heart for him. All the time I think of the things we would have done if only he had lived beyond my seventeenth birthday. I make a vow in my heart to watch my son grow. Just the way my father would have done.

Kate notices my pensiveness and plants a kiss on my mouth, which I duly return. She holds me close to her, oh how I love this partner of mine. A crash of thunder arouses Cody, and he stirs suddenly. He grips my arm, staring into my black eyes with his piercing grey ones.

“Sleep with me tonight, dad. Please?” he asks tentatively. I look over at Kate. She smiles and kisses me again before leaving the room and shutting the door. Tonight would be one of those nights where she would go off in a composing frenzy. Cody lifts the sheets for me to enter. And so I do, reveling in the warmth of the comforter. Cody immediately spoons himself against me, draping my hand over his shoulder. And so we fall asleep. I would rather be here than anywhere at the moment.

******************************************************

Above is the life I hope to have at least ten years from now. In my opinion, having children would be the pinnacle of my life. My own offspring to love, care, touch. What else could be more blissful than this?

Post your opinions at the bottom, I would love to read your responses.

A trip to Cameron Highlands; Steaming Bodies and SPAM nation, along with a couple of spelling errors.

2006-02-19T15:23:00.000Z

It was indeed a busy weekend that passed for me. I am currently doing the Duke of Edinburgh award in my relatively new school. It basically shows how much knowledge one can acquire about living outdoors in survival. And survival means no food, no clothes and no lodging. Of course, we brought our own essentials and they weren’t that cruel to deny us a nice bath. It involved carting us off to unknown locations in the jungle where we were to pitch our tents and cook our own food using synthetic materials. Our first trip was to the Belum Rainforest in Perak. To all the international people reading this article, Belum Rainforest is an enclosed rainforest in Malaysia, enclosed to prevent any further damage to the luscious natural life within. That trip lasted 5 days, five bliddy days of sweat-filled, bamboo cutting experiences in the vast forest.

However, the concern now is the second trip that this award required us to do. I’m sure you all are well aware of the Cameron Highlands that are located in Perak. It is a well known tourist attraction and also a local attraction, for Malaysians who require a break from the orthodox, frequent, blisteringly hot weather that blesses Malaysia. Of course, our next trip was to Cameron Highlands, very well guessed indeed! We were all exuberant about the trip, as it provided a much needed recess from the constant nagging of teachers and obviously, humans need to let out some steam once in awhile. And so we did, literally in Cameron Highlands.

We met in school on the 10th of February, Friday, last week to head off via bus to the area of operation. I jogged from my home, 5-10 minutes away, and arrived in the nick of time, with seconds to spare. I hauled my luggage into a couple of minivans that were to be driven by the teaching staff (yes, we need to be babysat at our age) and rushed off to the bus to secure a seat amongst the reigning chaos of cacophonic chattering and relentless shoe shuffling. I took a seat behind Ben Bradley and Yi Xuan, with Fariq beside me. All of these people are my schoolmates, for Non-GIS-ers. We played a Chinese gambling game for the first few minutes of the ride, and tried as much as we could, we were unable to sustain a good game without feeling nauseated.

The trip lasted about four rather boring hours through the Malaysian countryside and up the winding hill. We did stop for a single break for the last civilised meal that we would have for a couple of days; KFC. Yi Xuan, Ben, Fariq and I were getting a bit hyped-up about the "X-Meal" that KFC had to offer, and Xuan was telling us all about how he should have ordered the "X-Meal" instead of the crummy little burger he ordered. All in all, we were contented and full when we finally reached the campsite in Cameron. I must admit, I was a little dizzy when we finally stepped out of the bus, although not to vomiting extent.

The campsite was situated extremely close to civilisation, surprisingly. Walking distance to all facilities located in Cameron Highlands, except maybe a stay in a hotel, which we were not allowed (for obvious reasons). There was a group of people playing football in the nearby field, and I briefly remember Zim saying something about Menzie checking out guys in the field, thereby subtly hinting that Menzie was a gay-boy. But of course, I, with my liberal, open-minded views, disregarded that comment immediately.

We trudged up the gloomy path to our campsite. I was duly surprised: I had thought that the campsite would resemble one of Belum Rainforest, with nothing but grass and bamboo shacks awaiting us. Instead, there were neat little spaces for us to set up tents, along with a all-purpose building, which housed a toilet (Much to my relief), an area where we could bathe safely, without the fear of being swept downstream or the attack of leeches, and an area for dishwashing. One complaint though; the water was extremely cold. Bloody hell, when we took a bath the next day, I did not dare to douse myself in the sub-zero degrees water, instead allowing Ben Bradley and Menzie to test it out. And was rewarded, when I got a splash of the water on my face. Freezing cold. Even though I was not wet in any way, the whole of my body was steaming, in contrast to the cold air there. It was as if a ghost was present, haunting us with its icy breath.

Anyway, we did not do much for the first night, save for fooling around near the campfire and making meals. Wei Jean is a really strong woman, she carried me up on her shoulders and walked around the camp with me there, without wincing at all. Wow, I worship her mighty prowess. I cannot forget that memory till now. Also, Ms. Dixon almost sprained her ankle when she tripped over a tree-root and plowed into someone I can't remember. Bit of drama there.

We set up our enormous eight man tent, and explored its contents. Wow, pretty huge, I observed. We would have fun sleeping there that night, Not. It was raining heavily that night, and some water somehow found its way into the tent, either by means of condensation, or by some devious method of seeping through the seems in the tent, resulting a little pool forming at the sides of the tent. I stayed the terror and managed to fall asleep for short periods, waking up to the cold, damp air. I finally could take it no longer, and sat up. I glanced at the time on my cell-phone. 6.30 AM.

I yawned loudly and woke Ben Bradley up, who proceeded to shake Yi Xuan as a means of awakening him from his slumber. I got impatient and looted in the side pocket of the tent for our spectacles, pressing the cold metal against Yi Xuan's face, while squinting in the semi darkness. And, Ben Bradley managed to snap a photo of us at the precise moment. Behold:

And an absolutely wonderful day followed, which I shall describe in the following post(s), however long that may be.

The May 13th 1969 riot, for people who are unaware of what happened exactly.

2006-02-09T14:53:00.000Z

On formation in 1963, Malaysia suffered from a sharp division of wealth between the Chinese, who were perceived to control a large portion of the Malaysian economy, and the Malays, whom some perceived to be more poor and rural. However, it was foreign individuals and organisations, and not the Chinese, who held the largest portion of total corporate equity in the country.

1964 Race Riots in Singapore were a large contributing factor in the expulsion of the state from Malaysia, and racial tension continued to simmer, many Malays dissatisfied by their newly independent government's perceived willingness to placate the Chinese at their expense.

In the May 10, 1969 general elections, the ruling Alliance coalition headed by the United Malays National Organization (UMNO) suffered a large setback in the polls. The largely Chinese opposition Democratic Action Party and Gerakan gained in the elections, and secured a police permit for a victory parade through a fixed route in Kuala Lumpur. However, the rowdy procession deviated from its route and headed through the Malay district of Kampong Bahru, jeering at the inhabitants.

While the Gerakan party issued an apology the next day, UMNO announced a counter-procession starting from the head of Selangor state Dato' Harun bin Idris on Jalan Raja Muda. Reportedly, the gathering crowd was informed that Malays on their way to the procession had been attacked by Chinese in Setapak, several miles to the north. The angry protestors swiftly wreaked revenge by killing two passing Chinese motorcyclists, and the riot began. During the course of the riots, the loudspeakers of mosques were used to urge the rioters to continue in their actions.

The riot ignited the capital Kuala Lumpur and the surrounding state of Selangor, but except for minor disturbances in Melaka the rest of the country stayed calm. A nationwide state of emergency and accompanying curfew were declared on May 16, but the curfew was relaxed in most parts of the country for two hours on May 18 and not enforced even in central Kuala Lumpur within a week.

According to police figures, 196 people died, 149 were wounded and many women were raped. 753 cases of arson were logged and 211 vehicles were destroyed or severely damaged. Other sources place the number of dead at above 200, while some eyewitness accounts place the number of deaths at 700 to even 1000.
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Singaporean response

The May 13 incident also stirred up some resentment in neighbouring Singapore. The Chinese Singaporeans, feeling unhappy about what has happened to the Malaysian Chinese in Malaysia, started some riots against the Malays in Kampong Glam and Chinatown. Road blocks were later set up by the military force to prevent further violence, but the number of casualties was not as high.
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Repercussions of the riot

Immediately after the riot, the government assumed emergency powers and suspended Parliament, which would only reconvene again in 1971. It also suspended the press and established a National Operations Council.

The riot led to the expulsion of Malay nationalist Mahathir Mohamad from UMNO and propelled him to write his seminal work The Malay Dilemma, in which he posited a solution to Malaysia's racial tensions based on aiding the Malays economically through an affirmative action programme.

Tunku Abdul Rahman resigned as Prime Minister in the ensuing UMNO power struggle, the new perceived 'Malay-ultra' dominated government swiftly moving to placate Malays with the Malaysian New Economic Policy (NEP), enshrining affirmative action policies for the bumiputra (Malays and other indigenous Malaysians). Many of Malaysia's draconian press laws, originally targeting racial incitement, also date from this period.

The National Security Commission published an official report about the incident on October 9, 1969, pointing the finger at the Malayan Communist Party and illegal Chinese gangs for causing the riots.

The Rukun Negara, the de facto Malaysian pledge of allegiance, is another reaction to the riot. The pledge was introduced on August 31, 1970 as a way to foster unity among Malaysians.

Political references

The May 13 incident is raised during general election years to imply possible negative consequences to other ethnic groups if they fail to vote for the ruling Barisan Nasional coalition. However, as the people who lived through the incident are replaced by post 1969 citizens, many believe that there is less to be gained from such statements.

In 2004, during the UMNO general assembly Badruddin Amiruldin , the current deputy permanent chairman, waved a book on May 13 during his speech and stated "No other race has the right to question our privileges, our religion and our leader". He also stated that doing so would be similar to "stirring up a hornet's nest".

The next day, Dr Pirdaus Ismail of the UMNO Youth was quoted as saying "Badruddin did not pose the question to all Chinese in the country ... Those who are with us, who hold the same understanding as we do, were not our target. In defending Malay rights, we direct our voice at those who question them."

Deputy Internal Security Minister Noh Omar dismissed the remarks as a lesson in history and said that Badruddin was merely reminding the younger generation of the blot on the nation's history.

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Okay.. so the Chinese had a riot and the Malays retaliated, with the mosque spurring them on. I'm not a racist person here, but i do believe that equal rights SHOULD be given to all the citizens of Malaysia. However, the amount of Malays in the country should be taken into account as well. They may well be unemployed in the coming years, so I guess the quota system is reasonable.

Post your thoughts below about this article.

Increasing Interest Rates in USA May Kerb Economic Growth

2006-01-09T09:50:00.000Z

As you can see from the graph above, the official interest rates of the USA started off high, at about 5.7 percent in 2000 and rose to a rate of about 6.7 percent for majority of the year. After that, maybe as an effort to spark inflation, there was an unsteady but definite fall in the interest rates in 2001. Then, the interest rate fell to about 1.8 percent in January 2002 and remained in that position for most of the year. Then, it fell even lower to nearly 1.2 percent in November and stayed that way till July 2004. From then, the Fed has reported a steady rise in the rate of inflation.

Although it is a mere shadow of what it was in 2000, the pattern shown by the interest rates gives clear room for anticipation in the coming months and years. The interest rate may very well surpass its past highest rate of 6.7% if the government decides to keep increasing it. Alan Greenspan, the Chairman for the Fed has decided to increase the interest rates 13 times from 2004.

This bodes well for banks, because more people are going to be saving money instead of borrowing money, for fear of the high interest rate. But it does not look good for businesses that require additional capital for growth, as a higher interest rate also means a lower rate of return for the firm at hand, because of the additional money required to repay bank loans. Banks may see a lower rate of borrowing from firms at the current rate of interest rates.

Internationally, the capital account of the USA may suffer a deficit as consumers buy assets overseas and borrow from foreign firms, because of the high interest rates in the USA. They can probably get interest rates in borrowing overseas. After they switch to dollars, they get a better rate of return from other countries, like Japan.

Lower rates of borrowing may be observed in consumer spending patterns in the coming years, if it is not noticed now. How will the American economy fare in the coming months? Will the increasing interest rate kerb economic growth and cause the exact opposite : recession? Guess we'll have to just wait and see, right? Folks?

"Why put this here?" you may ask. And I shall answer. We have to keep an eye out on other economies because that will help us in our future. Most of us will have a job overseas when we eventually grow up and get our degrees. It is good to know what is going on in the world today, in different countries. You never know when it will benefit you.

For example, economists predict that China will have the #1 highest GDP by Year 2010. How will this benefit us, you may say. Well, if you know about this, you might wanna start brushing up your Mandarin and Cantonese skills just in case you happen to visit that country, or even better, open up a business in that country. We may even see a change in government policies there in the near future; Hu Jintao, the President Of China ( for the non-economists ) is preparing to maybe select a successor in 2006. This may mean that he's preparing for retirement, or is reaching the end of his life. (Evil of me, eh?). Things may change, who knows? Most important thing of all is to make sure you Benefit from these changes.

Oh, and All of The Above is My Own Work, and MAY be reproduced anywhere, anytime, with the exception of the graph, which I obtained from www.tutor2u.net

Have a good one, folks!

Christian Camp: Sciffies and Sermons

2005-12-30T17:50:00.000Z

It has been four very memorable days indeed since Monday. First of all, I managed to make plenty of new friends and second of all, I underwent an important transition.

As some of you may know, I am a member of the Glad Tidings Church in Petaling Jaya. I was first introduced there by one of my mother’s affiliates who is a born again believer. She persuaded my mother to take me to the church, as she wanted us to mix around and possibly make new friends. And so we went.

To my very great surprise, I met a couple of my friends with whom I knew since I was thirteen years of age. Ven Xhin and Li Yenn were members of that church as well! Praise the Lord?! I have yet to decide whether it was fate or divine intervention that brought us together at that place, at the exact same time, and for my mother’s friend to belong to that church at all, so that this meeting might have occurred.

Anyway, I was introduced to the youth pastor, Pastor Julie, after my second attendance at the church’s youth section. I found her speeches very anecdotal and spiced with humor. What she said I cannot duplicate exactly, but it was along the lines of “Very pleased to have you with us” and “extremely sorry about your father, will pray for him”. She seemed to be a very genuine person, and later sermons proved to confirm it.

However, this is beside the point. The church had a youth camp on Monday, and it was to last four days till Thursday, which was yesterday (DOH). I was a tiny bit tentative at first, I admit, but after four fantastic days, I have no regrets going to the camp, and would have liked it to last longer.

We met at the Glad Tidings Church in Petaling Jaya (It shall thus be referred to as “GTPJ” to save me the unwanted toil of typing this out) at about 9.30. Well, I met my friends there at 9.30 when they arrived, but I was exceptionally punctual at 9.00 am, sitting around doing nothing. Zhao Yuan, Ven Xhin and her bro, Yoong Jie, whom she refers to as “Jack” for pronunciation purposes and Li Yenn arrived at approximately the same time. He noticed my so called accent and commented on it, but Ven Xhin told him that I already spoke like that and always have. We took our seats and played Chor Tai Ti. My mother was very kind; she offered to send me to the church at such an unholy hour.

After we were assembled in the Parousia hall, we were then equally divided into “Bus Groups” to ensure stability amongst passengers, so that people would not change buses at their own convenience, thus stirring up Inconvenience amongst other people. By some weird twist of fate, Jack, Ven Xhin, Li Yenn and I were assigned to the same bus. Poor Zhao Yuan was transferred to Bus 4, and was thus separated from us. Li Yenn and Ven Xhin took two seats four rows from the back, and I sat with Jack. At first, I didn’t know what to say to him because I hadn’t seen him in nearly two years. But, I soon found out that we had a lot of interests and it wasn’t hard striking up a conversation with him, tearing his attention away from his Mp3 player. We talked about a lot of things non-stop, throughout the five-hour journey to Melaka, ranging from computer games to the simplest things such as personal habits and preferences.

We stopped at Ayer Keroh for lunch, and our group decided to have KFC for lunch. We made our way to the restaurant, and Lo and Behold! We gawked at the enormous crowd that was gathered there. And as chance would have it, Zhao Yuan was already halfway up the line, along with a blonde haired foreign male I immediately recognized as one of the fellow youth members. Zhao proposed sharing a chicken bucket as lunch. I agreed, but I was not too sure about how my stomach would take it, as I was feeling a tad queasy that day. In the end, the idea was discarded and we each got our own order. Zhao boobed up my order and got me a SMALL mashed potato instead of a LARGE one.

Anyway, we had a very uneventful lunch with the exception of Ven Xhin complaining about her chicken and offering to trade it with her bro, who promptly refused, and a brief visit to a sports store, where I bought a pair of slippers for use, which I regret doing now because it hurts when I wear them. We then journeyed back to the buses and got settled in, where we then continued our conversation of games, hardware and economic knowledge till we finally reached our destination a half hour later.

Melaka Watercity Resort. What a fancy fancy posh name, I thought. I half expected plenty of water parks and great water slides in which we could all enjoy, but well, for a hundred and forty bucks, what could you expect? We had three-star services at the resort, and it was pretty good, actually. We had an assembly in some hall when we arrived where we were introduced to the 10 camp commandments and were distributed amongst our groups. Again, with some twist of fate, I was assigned to the Sci-Fi squadron, which consisted of Li Yenn and Zhao Yuan, from WMS as well. Wow! Divine intervention or fate? I also noticed the blonde foreigner from before, as a side note.

Assembly was over quickly and we went up to our apartments to place our belongings. I chose a room next to the entire apartment’s noisiest snorer, which meant for the first night I could not get any sleep at all, drifting between dreamland and the world.

I chose to go out and play a bit of basketball in the court that was there. Sad to say, I didn’t put in the best effort that I could have, for fear of damaging my ankle again. Our team lost by 2 points to other team, out of five points. I returned to the apartment and took a cold shower before going down to dine in the main hall. The food there was good, compared to the amount we paid, but I did not enjoy it immensely. After dinner, Zhao, me and Jack went out to the lounge to play Chor Tai Ti.

We had settled down and were looking for a fourth player, when Zhao Yuan told me to invite the person seated behind me to have a game. I turned around to invite the person and, Lo and Behold! It was the foreigner from just now again! Divine intervention? Fate? Or just coincidence, I shall never find out, but I did invite him over and we had plenty of fun games.

I remember finding out that his name was Lewis, he was fourteen years old (although he did not look it, pardon pardon) and the first thing he did was comment about my accent (“You have a very English accent”) as Jack did, but I did find him a very pleasant person and so he joined us for each and every worship session that we went for, and also became the 4th person in our little party. Strangely enough, unlike most people, he was quite aware of what he wanted to do in the future. I was surprised to hear this coming from someone so young, and respected the steadfast attitude that he possessed. You see, I always admire people who have plans about their future like I do. It is not easy to find out what you want in life, and people usually decide what they want when it is too late, therefore anyone who can accurately describe their future plans for the next five years will gain my utmost respect.

Argh, it is getting a little late now so I will resume this post tomorrow about the next most interesting person I met. Goodnight, dudes!

ANOTHER DEATH

2005-12-12T12:27:00.000Z

It is with intrigue that i sit here typing. Why so many deaths within such a short timeframe? This just proves that life is so brief, and that its candle can be extinguished just like that. Rafael, of Year 10, was apparently playing tennis when he suddenly collapsed and passed away just like that. Of course, details are still unclear as to what happened exactly, but i trust we shall find out the truth in the coming future.

What a tragedy to befall us! Yet again we must and shall share the grief of another family. Personally i didn't know Rafael that well, but he used to frequently stay back after skool to play basketball, so i suppose that was the connection i had with him. Only today, i saw him playing basketball with the kids on the other end of the court and was half inclined to join, but missed the opportunity. Then, before i left school at about 3.50-4.00pm i can't remember, i saw him playing tennis with a couple of other dudes.

Then when i returned home, this i heard. Of course, i was a little skeptical at first, but after seeing everyone's msn, i just accepted the truth. Bloody hell, he wasn't a bad guy, why did he have to go like that? It pisses me off just to think of those other arseholes out there who have committed serious crimes to be just living like that. My condolences to the family.

In Memory of a Great Person

2005-12-05T17:25:00.000Z

In Memory of a Great Person
It is today, with a saddened heart, that I relive the events that happened exactly one year ago. The day seemed normal, but ended in tragedy. Please refer to my post a couple down. Ahh, the 6th of December 2004, it seems like yesterday when it was you. The day I lost the person that was always there for me, the person I always looked up to. If there was a way that I could turn back time, if there was a way I could relive the sequence of events, I would do it. Below is a dedication to my father.

Dad, its been 12 long months and one long year since I last heard your voice.
I'm 17 now, Dad!
You didn't get to wish me Happy Birthday!
Every single part of me yearns for your voice, your loving touch.
Every once in awhile I replay movies of what our life would be like, if yours wasn’t stolen from us that very night.
Now and again, I think.
I think of how we’re back in Malaysia, Instead of enjoying like we were in Britain.
Too late, what’s done is done.
Sometimes I wonder,
What’s beyond that great black abyss of death?
Is it a frozen embrace of darkness?
Or is it the exact opposite?
A Valhalla for fallen warriors.
Because I know you, Dad.
You fought like a beast for your life.
We revived you once.
The Grim Reaper that day was grim indeed.
You couldn’t escape the clutches of death twice.
Sometimes I feel guilty,
When I’m having fun, and not thinking of you
Is it right? Are you angry at me?
Mom recently bought me a new computer.
It cost ten thousand bucks.
I’d rather spend that money to bring you back
I’d rather give up all I’ve earned to bring you back
Sadly, that’s not possible.
I wish there was a time machine, a way to bring us back
I also know that you’re up there, Smiling down at me,
Watching me get on with my life,
The way it is without you.
Thank you, for the love and respect you gave me
May you forever rest in peace, away from the sufferings of the world.

My thoughts drift back to that fateful night, where all hell seemed to break loose. Why couldn't i revive him the second time? Why did it have to be the Aorta that was clogged up? It could have been any other artery in the heart.

I grip my hair in frustration with myself. When death's gentle embrace took hold of him, he looked peaceful. One really sad thing i remember is that his eye would not close until he saw my brother in the hospital. Then was he able to rest in peace and my mom closed his eye. I remember that fateful night when my mom told me "Dad Died". I remember looking at him on the hospital stretcher, unable to believe my eyes. I remember saying goodbye, dad, to him that night, before i left him there on the bed. I kissed his forehead. Cold as ice. I couldn't believe it. I remember standing in my bedroom thinking, JUST 3 hours ago, i had a living breathing father. Now i've got an empty space in my heart.

I am extremely sorry for this rambling. It's just that this is the First Anniversary of my father's passing and i am feeling a little down. I am sorry for wasting your time. Please be thankful for what you have got and cherish all the moments you have with your loved ones. Think about how lucky you are to be alive and to have loved ones.. that's it. I'm losing control of the flood behind my eyes. Good night, all...

A football game never to be forgotten

2005-12-03T10:05:00.000Z

A football game never to be forgotten
Yesterday’s football game between the Alice Smith teachers and the Garden International teachers was not a game to be missed. Plenty of excruciatingly intense moments in the field there combined with a handful of spectacular goals and mad dribbling skills by both sides made the game yesterday an incredible match to witness.

I stayed back yesterday to play some basketball, oblivious to the fact that there was supposed to be a match between the teachers of the two corresponding schools. Mr. Jones, during the first half, was totally destroying Alice Smith’s defense. As I am not familiar with the football jargon, I shall demonstrate what Mr. Jones did as one of his skills.

Mr Jones

This was about 10 minutes before half-time. He received a pass from Mr. Bromley and proceeded to fake out one of the Alice Smith people, quite a big fellow. He leapt over a few defenders who tried to slide him, and then finished off with a nice cross to the goal, where Mr. Mongare ALMOST scored an easy goal. But, it spun off to the right side of the goal, narrowly missing the post and went out. More updates to come as I work on more dribbling moves.
The first three goals weren’t very interesting, save for a nice header by one of the teachers; he was too far away for me to see clearly in the scuffle. There was a cross from the centre of the field by Mr. Mongare. Then the ball bounced once on the field, and he the teacher dived, connected his head with the ball, and sent it in the goal past the unsuspecting keeper. We were exhilarated with all the excitement, although in the past, I never really fancied watching football games. I watched after half-time Mr. Jones get substituted by Mr. Ellis. Chee Meng was riffed because they substituted a player who was on fire. I didn’t know how good Mr. Ellis was until he cleared the ball from the centre of the field to the goalkeeper’s area, resulting in a really nice pass and a great goal by Mr. Ruck.

It appears that Mr. Ruck was also on fire that day, as he scored about two goals, if I’m not mistaken. The second goal he scored, in my honest opinion, was the best goal of the game. About 5 meters from the centre of the field, he kicked the ball towards the goal. The keeper evidently thought that it was going to go out, because he did nothing whatsoever to prevent the ball from intruding into the goal. To be honest, I also assumed that the ball was going out, until I saw it take the form of an arc across the field, finding its way into the upper right corner of the goal. Wow, he bent the ball like Beckham!

I liked the way Mr. Bromley took the ball across the field while it was in his possession. He would have his hands spread out in front of him, almost like a tight rope walker holding the balancing pole, but with palms wide open. Below is a rendering of him, sorry about the hair color, will try to change it to brown next time. He was an excellent player as well, assisting in steals and getting past the defending using dash dribbles and great crosses to the goal. I remember he owned a defender when he received a pass from Mr. Bisby, the goalkeeper. A blonde haired defender ran up to him from behind, and he dribbled past the defender like nobody’s business just like that.

MR BROMLEY

Mr. Ellis was shouting out to the team, so we could hear occasional “Watch your man, Stuart!” and “Who are you marking?!” I found it rather hilarious when Ian asked whether he was the captain of the team, and Kit replied “Err. No.” The other team scored some excellent goals as well, when Mr. Bisby’s eye was not on the ball. There was a clean header by a brown haired teacher from Alice Smith when Mr. Bisby was out of the goal. Naturally, we all groaned at this but also realized that precise passing and spur of the moment led to the goal.

Finally at the end, Mr. Perry scored the last goal of all. There was a cross by Mr. Culverhouse, and out of the scuffle, Mr. Perry with his yellow shorts and yellow stocking rose, and headed the ball into the goal. Kit was like “YEAAHH DAD!” while we all jumped around whooping. After the match, there was a photo session of both sides, and then I decided to go home.

It turns out that at the same time I was looking for a taxi to send me home, Kit, Jack and Chee Meng were also finding a means for transit. I offered to share the taxi, but they were extremely kind and let me have the first taxi that came. Thanks, Perries and Chee Meng! I got home safely and finished off my business presentation. That’s it for today, hope you enjoyed this article as much as I enjoyed typing it.

The Best 20 NBA Plays of 2005

2005-12-02T09:34:00.000Z

Here are 20 best basketball plays of year 2000-2001, while i type up an enormous post about today's footie game between Alice Smith and GIS teachers. Kobe Bryant is my idol!

Click here to watch '2000-01-top-plays'

ENJOY! Typing typing now..

Observation and Interpretation of Students entering a classroom

2005-12-01T10:47:00.000Z

Before I move onto the main article, here's something i thought fitting for the past few days.

Khairul And Amanda. Love never dies.
Do download James Blunt's Click here to download 'James-Blunt---Goodbye-My-Lover41'"Goodbye My Lover" in order to respect their relationship.

THE OBSERVATION AND INTERPRETATION OF STUDENTS ENTERING CLASSROOMS.

Observed facts:
1. Students look into classroom door window.
2. Walk and then stop into the classroom.
3. Sit down at empty back of class.
4. Sit down at far wall.
5. Most subjects walk up the aisle of stairs closest to where they enter.
6. Subjects move more quickly to a seat if they arrive late, and spend less time looking around the classroom after they enter. As well, they choose a closer seat to the entrance.

Interpretation of fact:

1. Students try to avoid the embarrassment of walking into the wrong class. That is, the same classroom with a different attendance. They look through the window to recognise the professor or the students of the class that they have scheduled. They then, open the door and walk into the classroom. If they believe it is the wrong class they are looking at, they will walk away from the window, as not to be in sight of the classroom students, and casually possess waiting gestures, such as looking at their watch and pacing. The students want others to be aware of the reason they just peeped into a classroom window, that they are waiting for their own class to begin.

2. The student is searching for a number of elements. They stop for a full view of all the classroom seats to look for: a friend in the class; their usual chair from previous weeks; the seating arrangements around that one seat; or other empty seats with few students seated near. Students are social, but will feel discomfort if they are seated close to a stranger when many other clusters of seats are available. They want the room to move and to not feel they have selected seating beside any particular student.

3. This is to avoid discomfort during the lecture. They will feel a non-verbal interpersonal communication between the lecturer and themselves if they are close enough for eye contact. Also, fewer students are seated there, so there is more chance of an available seat with available seats to each side of that seat for physical space.

4. A student that sits at the far left or far right against a wall does so for comfort. Personal space is important to some people and the wall guaranties that no one will sit on that side and the wall also provides an area where it is acceptable to lean, as supposed to if there were a student seated directly beside. The student that sits near a wall will have a better classroom and learning experience, as discomfort is less likely to interrupt the thought process.

5. Most students do not cross from the left entrance to the right entrance of the classroom or vice-versa. Those who do, do so diagonally as they move away from the entrance door. The feel they cannot cross, as it is disrupting to others and they want to draw as little attention to them as possible in the time they are standing. Those who are seated all face the entrance. The students, who enter from the back entrance facing the back of the seated students, are more likely to cross sides of the classroom upon entering. They will not be as noticeable and will not feel the embarrassment of blocking people's views, or even being people-watched. 6. More attention of the classroom is on the student who enters late, as this is aurally and visually indistinguishable from other classroom activities at that time. The student feels uncomfortable with the amount of attention and visual contact, that he or she seats him or herself as soon as possible. This may result in the student taking an aisle seat. Sitting at the back of the classroom is not in the best interest of the late student. Through convention in schools and even in the media, the back of the classroom is symbol for students who do not want to pay attention in class. Lateness is one conventional attribute of that particular behaviour. The student does not want to associate him or herself with that conventional belief, then, will not sit at the back row after entering a classroom late.

Disgusted view of Malaysia

2005-12-01T10:22:00.000Z

Yesterday’s newspaper was rather a depressing read. I found out that the louts at the hospital that treated Khairul would NOT accept him into the operating theatre until they received FIVE THOUSAND BUCKS for deposit, and would NOT release the body until the family paid up. It hurt so much, too much, as a matter of fact, to relive the episodes. Below is the link to the article.

The Article

I am so angry about this. How could they do this to a person?! Did they not swear a Hippocrates Oath before they got their bloody degrees as doctors? What kind of people are they? Watching someone die in front of you like that for the sake of freaking MONEY, hell, don’t they have hearts at all?

I am sorry if the entry now seems a little unorganized with a little pent up rage. It’s just that he could have been saved, damn it, if not for these people. We are signing a petition to send to the hospital, hopefully others in future will not be struck by the misfortune that Khairul had when dealing with the same hospital.

Why does the world revolve around money like that? (Rhetorical Question, of course). When has the human race, Man, become so cold hearted that they would sacrifice a life for such a little thing like money? I am truly disappointed with the lack of initiative of the hospital staff. Couldn’t they see an injured young man, bleeding his heart out in front of them? How could they watch him die like that? HOW COULD THEY? He died because not because of blood loss, but because of the negligence of hospital staff. In Britain, he would have been accepted and transferred with haste to the Accident and Emergency centre in the hospital, no questions asked. Why couldn’t it happen in Malaysia? I’ve always had the idea that Malaysians were better than people in Britain, friendlier, perhaps a little more direct, but generally nicer people. Reading the article has made my view of the people in Malaysia disgusted beyond belief. I feel sick. I shall end this post now. If I have the mood, I’ll post something more interesting afterwards. Please read Chris Chin's blog for more details in words.

You Never Know What You've Got, till it goes away

2005-11-28T13:35:00.000Z

It is with a heavy heart that I type these words, sitting at this console here, mourning and admiring the passing of an extraordinary friend. Khairul Anuar bin Salim was, and still is, a very special friend to me. I say this not because of what happened a couple of days ago, but because of what he means to me.

I met this dude the second day I arrived in school. One of my closer friends, Chris Chin, whom I met for only one day, put it into his head to take me along for lunch with his gang. I entered the unfamiliar surrounding of Buddies Café for the first time in my life. Seated on the far end of the café were three people, who, in the short time I’ve been here, mean a lot to me now. Chun Wai, Fariq and Khairul were seated at the shiny metal table that is the uniform of Buddies. I introduced myself to them accordingly, and was thrilled to have acquired their acquaintances.

What followed after the weeks were more lunches at Buddies Café. I remember one Tuesday, when we had no free periods, only lunch, we went over to that café, and decided to have a quick lunch. I made the dire mistake of ordering Curry Mee for my lunch. Now, all of these dudes knew that Curry Mee would take strenuous time to finish, and a lot of personal torture if one, who was in a hurry, tried to eat it as if he were eating a plate of fried rice, for example. The result was a stomachache, and me arriving late in Mr. Moore’s geography class. To top that off, I encountered Mr. Ellis on my way up to class, and had to explain myself.

I also remember a couple of days, where Khairul would stay back to finish his art, during the short period in which he took up that subject (Eh I’m too sexy for art laa), while I would stay back to do CCAs. We would then use the common room’s basketball and practice street ball moves in the covered basketball court beside the 6th form common room. Argh, we would taunt each other about who’s moves were slicker and more “in your face-like”, and we would play 1 on 1’s just for the fun of it. He even went to the extent of persuading his sister to send me home one day, which I am eternally grateful for, and will never be able to repay him.

During the time he was courting Amanda, I always used to say to him “Jangan Dosa” just for the fun of it, and watch as they would give me a filthy look, and Fariq nodding his head in agreement to my statement. This especially happened during our CSLA courses after school on Tuesday. All those little things now build up to be big molehills which will fill my eyes with tears.

Yesterday, when I heard the news, I couldn’t believe it. No way. Not in a light-year. Khairul? Khairul, with whom I had lunch with only on Friday, was stabbed and killed by some inconsiderate people who were harassing his female cousin? Being the noble person he was, he went up to defend her, and those low-lives stabbed him with a weapon. It is bad enough that they outnumbered him, but they also had to bring it one level lower by using a weapon on an unarmed, harmless person. He did not die in vain, of that I am certain of. He will always be remembered by everyone who he has touched in one way or another in his short life.

He recently turned 17 nearly a month ago. What a short life. He wasn’t an old uncle; neither was he a bad person at all. He was the exact opposite and a very polite and kind fellow as well. It is such a waste that such a young and brilliant life should be brought to an end like that. I have never cried the way I did today, before and during the funeral, for a friend, and as I sit here in front of this console, I can feel tears beginning to prickle the sides of my eyes. Fate, it seems, takes a biased approach to the good. We sent him off today at his house. He looked the same as ever, with a slightly cheeky look on his face. I knelt down in front of him, paying my last respects, all the while thinking of the good times, and saying a personal prayer to him that he would be avenged.

And what a coincidence as well, that I happened to write an entry just like this one a just a few days before this tragic incident occurred. However, the message of today remains the same as the one that day. Think about how lucky you are to be alive today, and to have all that you love with you. You never know whether you will wake up the next morning to find someone that you love gone, or even yourself. Today is indeed a very bleak day of mourning.

I wish you a very safe departure, my friend. Farewell and here’s to the lost time we never had in friendship.

For Khairul.

The Future and Choices You Have to Make

2005-11-25T14:15:00.000Z

I’ve downloaded the blogger for Word processor integration. Not too sure whether it works or not, so here goes.

Ahh, Friday… the bliss, lush greenery signifying the end of the school week. Not implying that I don’t like school, however. Today was a particularly interesting day, if I dare to venture further. First off, I started off in the morning with Geography. I had a presentation about river forms, and my partner was Ben Bradley. Needless to say, our presentation was simply excellent, save for the fact that I overlooked researching a definition for a landform. Alluvial fans it was, I believe. But, putting aside all variables in the process, I read our teacher’s comments on our presentation and he wrote there “EXCELLENT PRESENTATION” in his neat, loopy handwriting. Ben’s power pointing skills are amazing, I have to comment.

Next up, we had another team presenting about another river form. Meanders, and something else, I imagine. Suzen, Thomas and Maevis were the people in the spotlight this time. I found the meanders part a bit rushed through, but they did an overall good job, ending with a crossword puzzle for an exercise, which we all found extremely entertaining and took it to competing with each other to ascertain as to who was the fastest. It was our teacher, Mr. Tighe, of course! Sad to say, I was the second last to complete the crossword puzzle.

Moving on, after recess, I joined my Maths Mechanics class, and Ms. English reminded us about our progress test on Monday. Guess I better revise a little bit harder then. Of all the subjects taken in the A-levels, I find Mathematics one of the hardest and most technical to understand. Mathematics was never my subject, but I took it because one has to have a competent level of Mathematics in order to excel in the Business and Economics environment.

After that, I went to business and was met with the familiar students there. Mrs. Jones walked into our class holding our test papers, which suspiciously looked as if they had been marked already. However, she assured, or rather, informed us that she hadn’t finished marking the Second Section yet, but had marked the first and the last section. I pondered about why she marked the papers in that order, but soon was revived from my train of thought by a piece of paper poking itself in my face.

“Do this exercise and explain why you think that way” our teacher continued. She then proceeded to read the entire extract she had placed on each of our desks and left us to our work. Thomas and Manisha had to extricate themselves from their seats and move themselves to another class in order to finish the test that they had missed on Tuesday.

The lesson was generally the orthodox one, all of us putting forth our ideas, expressing them, arguing for them, meeting each other’s opinions with firm rebuttals. I was teamed up with Chris Chin and Verun for this assignment. Verun and I were discussing the fine dynamics of mass marketing and niche marketing. I insisted that mass marketing was the strategy of targeting the entire market with a product, whereas niche marketing was the strategy of targeting a small group within a market. Verun, however, denounced my perfectly thought up definition and said that mass marketing was the strategy of entering a product into the market which is unique. Needless to say, he was OWNED by the Business Book he had conveniently opened up to prove me wrong. Sorry Verun, just not your day, is it?

Our test marks so far were read out to us. Out of the entire class, Anne was the highest scorer of 22 marks, Chris Chin was the second highest scorer of 17 marks, and I was the third highest scorer, putting 16 marks across my name. Apparently all of us did really well in Section A, but failed miserably in Section C, whose questions depicted the explanation of alternative methods in the Marketing Mix. Of course, we all knew that they had something to do with Product, Price, Place and Promotion, but we either lacked the time or the brainwaves to successfully fulfill the criteria. I found out that I scored perfect (10 out of 10) for the first section, but… well… got 6 marks out of 20 for the last section. Well, there’s still Section B to be marked, so there we go.
Time to move on to a different topic. What do you all think you want to be when you all grow up? Every individual has a different vision of their life later on in the future. Not all of the prophecies will get fulfilled, however. 90% of the current working population is where they least expected themselves to be ten years ago.

What I’m trying to say is that you need to expect change in your lives wherever you go. Because of that, I’d like to recommend a book for you, to illuminate the essentiality of adapting to circumstances wherever you happen to be. I moved back to Malaysia. I made the tough sacrifice of nice weather, a good culture, good friends, and free education. I had to adapt. I’m still in the process of adapting, you know. It’s not easy, but I’m getting there. Anyway, the book I recommend you all to read is “Who Moved My Cheese?” by Spencer Johnson, MD.

It is never easy familiarizing yourself in a new surrounding. This applies to all people, in all circumstances. It could be a change in your daily routine. It could be a change in location, if it were that drastic. This book outlines all the facts and puts them forward in straight, blatant, in-your-face comments in the left side of the book. It doesn’t take long to read, but in it is a wealth of information. I highly recommend this book.

Anyways, sorry if this topic wasn’t that interesting, I tried my best you know. Have fun! Signing off, Clement.

The loss of a loved one.

2005-11-24T09:38:00.000Z

I was born 16 years 2 months 1 day ago in the lush, tropical peninsular of Malaysia. 4am, i think it was, when i opened my eyes for the first time in my entire life. I had an extremely loving bunch of parents and my life was pretty much cut out for me.

In school, i was the quiet one. I finished all my work and handed them in without any complaints. Obviously, some people took my behaviour to be one of a weak mind and a weak body. I admit, i was bullied for a couple of months in school by an Indian fellow. I did find him hilarious at times though. But i thought it was time to put this to an end. I told my parents and they kicked the shit out of his arse.

Ok, time to skip a few years. 2004. A year of new dreams. I found out that we were to move to England as my father had found a good job that would sustain us substantially here. Torn between my life here and the opportunity to experience a new culture, leaving Malaysia was the hardest decision i had to make in my entire life. I decided to come. How could i abandon my father's dream??

We were extremely happy here for the first 3 months. Such a thing could not last for long.

6th December 2004
It was a wonderful day. i received a couple of results back from my school's mock exams. Did well in all of em. Monday, it was. As usual, i accompanied my father to my school's sports hall at 7.30 pm to play badminton at a club there. I remember that day as clearly as it happened every single day of my life.

I had just finished playing a game. Man, was it tough. I remember sitting down on a bench nearest to my dad and watching him play a hard doubles match. He looked tired and worn out, sweat beading on his forehead. The last thing i thought about before it happened was "Hey, what a nice backhand!", as he dropped the shuttlecock over the net.

Then it happened. I looked away for a second and he came hurrying over to me, calling for me. I asked him whether he had a cramp. No reply. There was a doctor on scene at that time. She was a badminton player as well. She told him to lie down on the ground. He lost consciousness after a few seconds.

I remember someone handing me a cellphone, already connected to the hospital's emergency line. I was describing my father's allergies to the receptionist when i heard someone beside me say "No pulse". My own heart skipped a beat. I couldn't bring myself to say the words so i passed it on to another person to relay the message. The doctor screamed for someone to administer artificial respiration so since i was nearest, i started pushing his chest in. I succeeded the first time in rendering him conscious. Turned out to be the last time i ever spoke to him. No last words, however. I didn't know his candle of life was about to be snuffed out that very moment. Told him that mom was coming, and you shouldn't stress yourself out like that. Then he went unconscious again. For the last time. My mother had been sent for. She came while i was sitting down on a bench, head in my hands, trying not to listen to the constant "BEEEEEEP" sound of the heartbeat monitor, showing 0 all the time. I felt useless.

Took a walk outside, trying to convince myself that this couldn't be happening, WAKE me up!! i didn't wake. Turns out that i had actually watched my father die in front of my eyes a few minutes ago. Not the dramatic ending that i expected. Definitely sooner.

Went to the hospital later. A kind paramedic told me that he had grave news. Followed him into the theatre. Met by my mother. She told me that he had died. Those 3 words, i shall forever remember in my entire life.

Strangely enough though, none of us cried very much that night. Sure, i shed a few tears, but i didn't burst full on. We just headed home, prepared the bed for sleeping, and i slept the place where my dad used to sleep. i was thinking... just 4 hours ago, i had a dad. Now i have a mom. Did i ever do anything wrong for this? I blamed myself because i failed to resuscitate him the second time. Maybe it was my fault. Just maybe, maybe I could have revived him and… well, who knows?

The funeral was held in Bracknell, about 20 miles from where we lived, a week later. During the weekend, I had the opportunity to see him one last time before they performed the ceremonies, to say goodbye. He looked peaceful, extremely peaceful. I didn’t say much; couldn’t think of what to say. After all, he was gone, no longer there. Instead, I just stood there and let my heart bleed its way out of my eyes.

It was a lonely Christmas last year. No celebrations, no poppers, candles, parties. Nothing like that. We weren't very familiar with the people in our neighbourhood so we didn't get much invitations. All of my friends had gone for vacation. Left alone. Pretty soon, exams came up. I had to study extra hard to catch up on one year’s work and revise for it as well. It wasn’t hard. All I had to do was think of my father whenever I didn’t feel like doing any work, and I automatically got the motivation and incentive that I needed.

It was during May, that we made the inevitable decision of moving back to Malaysia. We no longer had a constant source of finance, since the breadwinner of the family was gone, and we could no longer sustain ourselves in the country, not with the currency rate of 6.9 times the local rate. At first, I was reluctant to move back. I was unwilling to let go of the legacy my father left behind. But of course, I soon saw the fair side of it, so here I am now.

In the time that has passed, I have come to discover that one needs to live his or her life the way it is meant to be, without any morbid thoughts, or worrying about death and beyond. It can happen anytime, so enjoy your life while you still have the time. I no longer ask “WHY US?!” “WHY ME??” but revel in the thought that I am still alive, and I still have a family, all is not lost. I must recover from this ordeal and pick myself up, carry on living the way I am.

I must admit though, that it was a little harder re-adapting to the Malaysian way of living, which involved loads of homework, but I daresay that I am getting better, albeit some setbacks in my life over here. Life’s good.

It has now been almost a year since the untimely demise of my father. I sincerely hope that he is at peace wherever he is, and that I am at least living up to his expectations. It has been very hard living with ourselves during this time. So many things could have happened if time was not stolen from us.

What I want you to do today, after reading this post, is to just sit and think. Think about how lucky you are to be alive today, and to have all your family members. Dealing with a loss like that is not easy, I can tell you that. Getting into occasional squabbles with family members is a normal thing, but do not EVER hold grudges, because you never know what might happen the very next day. I guess I was lucky I wasn’t on my father’s bad side that day. The sixth of December is arriving soon. I wonder what I’ll do as an anniversary. Signing off, Thank you.

The Education in Malaysia Compared to The United Kingdom

2005-11-23T00:42:00.000Z

I recently came back from the United Kingdom after a year’s experience. One thing I can safely state is that there is no place like home. I did enjoy the British culture and the weather there, however. I left Malaysia on the 27th of August 2004 to resume my education in Britain. My father had recently acquired a job transfer to that country. As I started school at seven years old, like the orthodox Malaysian, I had to skip a grade in order to get into the Eleventh Year. The place that we were stationed was the town of Reading, about thirty miles West of London, and in the County of Berkshire. We rented a nice little semi-detached house in Lower Earley and set about our daily activities. First of all, we needed to find a school for both my brother and i. As our education had to be settled when we arrived, my parents had to make sure everything was in order before we even left Malaysia. The school that I was enrolled in was called, and still is, Maiden Erlegh. It was a state school, which is equivalent to the regular Malaysian public school, but with major differences. Firstly, we did not have to pay any school fees, or for any study material. It was all provided for by the government, owing to the large collection of taxes. Secondly, the education there was far superior to Malaysian public school standards. The students there were treated the way they were supposed to be treated; like proper pupils. There was a very healthy teacher-student interaction between the staff and the pupils. This meant that students were free to express their opinion without being cut off by the teachers. Naturally, this satiated a lot of curiosity from the students. The subjects that were available to students in Britain are similar to the subjects here; students were free to choose from P.E, Science, Geography, Music, and there even was a GNVQ scheme, which helped students that were not as academic as others.

Basically this scheme concentrates on the more vocational side of students. For example, carpentry and plumbing are valid options. The United Kingdom today is short of social workers, and labour workers, therefore such expertise would be paid quite a lucrative fee. Students are free to choose between doing A-levels or this scheme, which breaks up the blue and white collar working classes accordingly. A plumber on average would be paid very highly indeed, according to the standards of living over there. Of course, the people there were very nice indeed, based on my personal view. Obviously there were a few people who were looking for trouble, but suffice to say, none came my way. I remember the first day I went into my tutor group. I knew no one in the school and I knew nothing about the people there. I remember tentatively stepping into the room, and noticing more than twenty faces staring up at me. I remember walking across the room and shaking the teacher’s hand, a rather odd thing to do, according to most of the student body. They chuckled a little when as I shook the tutor’s hand and I later found out that nobody had ever done that before. I suppose affection to the teachers over there is not as intense as the affection that we have over here in this country.

Of course, me being a foreigner, it took some time for me to settle into the British lifestyle. The people there were extremely friendly, though, and I had no problem at all, save a small amount of rowdy people, settling in. I enjoyed the lessons very much indeed during my stay in England. I learned new things from the students and my friends, and I also learned that you can never trust somebody too much. There was many a time where I had my work copied from my classmates on the pretence of “looking through” my answers. Therefore, school life in Britain was rather exciting, if viewed from a non-biased perspective. Unlike this school, we had to dress like the Sixth Formers, but as a uniform, and with a blazer as well! That custom might have been sneered upon in Malaysia, but in Britain, it is rather colder than this country, so the blazers were extremely necessary and welcoming.

Unlike other students from that country, I was behind on my studies, as I migrated there when I was in the middle of Year 10, and had to skip to Year 11 without completing the full course of my Year 10 studies. Also, I was used to the Malaysian syllabus, which involved all work, no presentations and no teacher-student feedback. I had to work extremely hard in order to regain my position in the educative hierarchy. So, I started studying like no tomorrow. Homework would be finished after school every single day, and revision would be started almost immediately after. In the timeframe of 3 months, I had advanced 6 months in studies.

Quite an achievement, if you ask me. Of course, i will never match anyone in the current school i'm studying in, in terms of overall intelligence (Chris Chin, Julie Leong, Weng Yew, Ben Bradley, Argh, geniuses!!), but i did try my very best in my short stay over there. One thing i liked was the distribution of homework. Unlike our national counterparts here, we were given one piece of work per subject, to be completed and handed in next week. Usually, these piece of homework would either be graphs, for Chemistry, or maybe twenty sums for Maths, which would be finished extremely quickly. Funnily enough, some students couldn't deem it within their timeframe to complete such a miniscule piece of work, and got rapped accordingly by the appropriate teachers.

But, the workload i have to say, in the 6th form, is exactly the same as the workload over here. I just checked with my British affiliates and they have informed me that they receive the same amount of work as we do, relatively, of course. The only things they are lacking are monthly tests and progress exams. I'm not sure whether they go to the extent of having ALIS tests to gauge their capacities, but i will find out soon and post the results over here.

I was immensely disappointed when i found out that i lacked One year's experience to do Music. Of course, my level of comprehension was enough, but in order to attain the best possible mark, i had to catch up on one year's coursework in six months, anddo this year's coursework as well. I wouldn't have been able to cut it. However, to make up for it, i helped as much as i could in the Music Department and constantly participated in their activities, like Concert Bands, or just hanging around the department.

For Geography, we did a Decision Making Exercise early this January. I don't know whether the Year 11's over here do that or not, but it involved researching about a recent issue that is affecting the world, ie Globalisation, or GM Crops, and evaluating case studies, eventually coming to a conclusion as to whether it was good or bad for the environment and the people. This year, we did poverty. It was about how the world basically turned its back on all the people in Africa living in poverty, while exploiting all their workers and forcing them to export cheap products as cash crops, for example, coffee from Ethiopia. For the exam, i got 106 out of 120, 2 marks away from an A*, damn it. Second highest in the class.

Also, for Geography coursework, we had to research a certain area of choice, and decide what to do with that plot of land, whether to improve its standards or to design a new structure there, whatever fitted in the category. I got an overall A for that, and was quite pleased about it. I have the file on my computer, so if you're interested, MSN me for it, or i'll upload it somewhere, putfile.com, probably.

Well, except for Geography, there wasn't anything much different from the syllabus over here in Malaysia, in GIS. I hope you enjoyed reading this article, and will continue to supply more posts of the same calibre.

Clement's Blog

Hello there!

A Chai Latte at The Forum and the Left Hand of God

Goodbye 2010 (Part 2)

2010!! Part 1

Sorry for the absence.

My Weekend!

Such a weird day today!

Request For Beavers

My Snowy White Christmas

15th November 2010

Guy and Guy Update.

Inside is all kosong.

20th April

17th April 2008

After a long break.

12th April 2008

http://jasonyks87.blogspot.com/

April 10th, Thursday.

Waking at 3pm.

First Day of Uni

*Yawn*

After a long interval....

Dear Dad

The Third Day of Taman Negara

The Taman Negara Expedition, Day Two

Duke Of Edinburgh Award : TAMAN NEGARA, Pahang

Marriage and Children.

A trip to Cameron Highlands; Steaming Bodies and SPAM nation, along with a couple of spelling errors.

The May 13th 1969 riot, for people who are unaware of what happened exactly.

Increasing Interest Rates in USA May Kerb Economic Growth

Christian Camp: Sciffies and Sermons

ANOTHER DEATH

In Memory of a Great Person

A football game never to be forgotten

The Best 20 NBA Plays of 2005

Observation and Interpretation of Students entering a classroom

Disgusted view of Malaysia

You Never Know What You've Got, till it goes away

The Future and Choices You Have to Make

The loss of a loved one.

The Education in Malaysia Compared to The United Kingdom

Yawn