RACONTEUR-ESQUE SCRIBBLINGS

We celebrate 51 years of independence today. 50 years ago on this very day, our Father of Independence, Tunku Abdul Rahman proclaimed the words Merdeka! (Independence) and we have been celebrating the day each year with enthusiasm ever since. However, this post is not about the history of our independence (because it's too heavy and I need to do some studying to get the facts right) but instead it's about the things that make Malaysians, well Malaysians as observed from my point of view :) 1. The excessive usage of the suffix 'lah' When you speak to Malaysians, be prepared to hear 'lah' at the end of every possible sentence. "it's far away, lah..."they will say. I'm not exactly sure how this suffix got into our sentences but it surely has made it's presence felt in spoken language be it Malay, English, Tamil or Mandarin. 2. Food The most amazing thing about being in Malaysia is the wonderful array of food you have in front of you than...

Wiki answers says that a human uses 10% of their brains in a lifetime. Now, I can't say for sure (because I can't really think, and I'm sleepy as well as in need of coffee), but I've heard in other places where people only use 3% or less and oh, whatever! Anyway, today, I feel as though I might have used up all the 10% allocated in about 6 hours, and believe me, the way I'm feeling now is even worse than the time when I had 27 chapters to study in less than 24 hours! It was one of the most exhausting processes in the world (today, and not the day with 27 chapters) The worst part is that I will have to go through the whole process once again tomorrow and I'm dreading it. And somewhere at the back, my left kidney is protesting against the local drought.

I bumped into PT around 11 this morning and she rattled on about how she plans to take half day off today as she fears being stuck in a massive traffic jam in case anything happens in the PP by elections today. Although PP is in a state that is a few hours away by car, and I can brush her off as being paranoid (she is, really ;p ), it can't be denied that this by-election in PP is going to be one hell of a memorable one regardless if ends on a positive note or a negative one. (However, we never will know if it's positive or negative until we look back on this day in a year's time or so) Forget the GEs held in March, this one here in PP may be the deciding factor, the proof that people do really want some change, and the proof that people are willing to discard all allegations of buggery, swearing and past history from 10 years ago among other things. For the EC and perhaps neighbouring countries, it may just be another by-election, the kind that is held to replace the o...

Note: I originally wrote this to be posted at one of the blogs where I'm a guest blogger , and I thought that it would be nice to put it up here as well since it deals with opinions. It may be a strange analogy, but I feel that blogging is similar to gardening in the sense that they both kind of grow when nurtured. And when it comes to gardening, if neglected weeds will grow, and for blogging, when neglected, spam will collect or someone might take over your url. I've seen it happen before. Anyway, analogies aside, I've been spending some time thinking about the blog and how it has changed over time and how it has changed me. When I first started on a blog back in April 2005 (it was on a different platform in a networking site) I only had a very vague idea about what a blog was. At that time, I had quite a lot of stories to tell but no one who would listen. So I used to sit down and write all the funny and tragic (in our eyes) incidents that happened to my friends and...

I just realised with horror that both my previous posts were exceptionally long. I must have been carried away by my new found enthusiasm. Another thing I noticed is that I'm only 3 posts away from surpassing the number of posts on this blog last year, so as a way to keep up the momentum, and the small promise I made to myself earlier this year to blog more, as well as to reach more than 12 posts this month (my highest no of posts was in May with a staggering 12 posts and I don't see why I should not attempt to beat that), I have decided to do one of the memes that I was tagged with some time ago. This one's from Anita as well. 1) What is the most important thing in your life? I think the freedom of making choices 2) What is the last thing that you bought with your own money? A Yamaha C40 I think... and loads of TP in a moment of madness 3) Where do you wish to get married? Somewhere quiet. 4) How old do you think you will be permanently owned by your love?...

You never know how much you're capable of doing until you're chucked in the middle of nowhere with nothing to depend on other than your gumption and your team mates. Our journey into the jungle started easy enough with breakfast first and another journey by bus to a camp by the name Kem Bina Semangat (can't think of a proper translation right now) in a small town called Kuala Kubu Baru (KKB). There we lodged our other bags in an empty dormitory, took our respective heavy camping bags by the handles and trudged on to the assembly point with nervous anticipation. Our first task started at about 11 am after a short briefing. Not much information was given (because the journey is supposedly a secret of some sort!) except for the target time we needed to achieve. Putting on brave faces, we marched along the path with the following thoughts - 23 in, 23 must come out. From dry land we were suddenly face to face with a ferocious river that reached chest level (for someone of 5...

I don't know how many muscles we exactly have, but I can safely say that every single muscle in my body aches as I'm typing this out. Anyway, pain aside (which I hope will disappear in a day or two), here's a rundown on my so-called torture camp. I woke up Thursday morning with a deep sinking feeling. Due to the late hours spent working in the previous days, I hadn't had the time to pack nor prepare myself mentally for what I was about to face. Nevertheless, I took half day off that day, went back, got packed and drove back to work in the evening to board the bus that was to take us to our destination which was a golf club amidst green trees and fresh mountain air in a place known as Templer's Park. The pathway we used to get to the seminar hall from our apartments. I thought the arch made by the trees were cool Top: The view outside the apartment balcony, Bottom: The hall in our apartment for the 2 days The classroom session began at almost 9pm that night a...

Yes, I'm alive... and , no.... I did not have to resort to eating any of my teammates. On the contrary, it was fun!! Just got back early this morning (18/8/08), reached the workplace at 12.15 a.m or something, drove home and went to sleep for 14 hours straight. I just woke up around 3 p.m, had some food, and I'm now re-visiting all the technology I've left behind. Thank you to all who left the kindest, sweetest comments in the previous post. I will be back with all the details soon.

So, I've been talking to a few people about the torture camp I will have to go through. It starts tomorrow, and me being idiotic as usual had to go and hurt myself at the back of my foot. The back of my safety boots rest directly on the wound) although I tried my best to protect it with thick socks and therefore refuses to heal like it should. So, here's a short list of what they said: 1. There is NOTHING to worry about, except for the part where you have to walk alone in the dark (The good news is, there's a full moon that night) 2. Bring an extra pair of glasses (in case you lose yours - priceless information as I can be almost as blind as a bat!) 3. Bring rubberbands to tie your pants so the leeches don't get up into your clothes when you're in the water. 4. Bring salt (to kill the daredevil leeches) 5. Bring biscuits, chocolates and drinks if possible (biscuits and chocolates, done... all I need is some isotonic drinks and a few bottles of water) 6. Brin...

In a few days time, about 30 of us will be headed as far away from civilisation as we know it for a few days only to be kept together doing assignments, deprived of sleep, given food which we don't necessarily want to eat and be forced to work in teams to see how everything turns out. All of these is under a training scheme known as Performance driven team. As if all of these are not enough, we will also be sent into the jungle where giant insects linger (and maybe a few ghosts as well) to walk on treacherous terrain as well as to wade in water, build a tent which we will sleep in for maybe an hour or so if permitted and to walk the dreaded night walk all alone without any guiding light. The last time I went into the jungle (for real camping) was back in 1997, and even then, it was a camping site, and we had a proper bathroom so it wasn't that bad! Other than that I went to FRIM in 2006 for fun. Although FRIM is a reserved forest, it had a convenient track cut out for you so ...

The olympics officially started yesterday in a bang, or so I heard as I did not make an attempt to watch the opening ceremony although I initially did mean to check it out. A few weeks before the games started, they had these shows on tv which guided us through the journey of the games in the years gone by. I was amazed to see clips of the games from London 1948 (actually the amazement is due to the fact that video from that era still exists!), the records that were broken by relentless athletes, a story about how the villagers of a small town pooled money and bought a black and white tv just to watch their home girl run in the marathon and other such stories. The first ever olympics that I was aware of was the one in 1988, held in Seoul, Korea. There was this theme song (we had a localised version, if I recall correctly) which our Moral studies teacher made us sing along to in school (I thought that was fun) I remember asking my parents when Malaysia would get a chance to host the...

I just thought that today being the 8th of August 2008, which when put in 'date' form will be 08/08/08, it would be interesting to note it down somewhere, and where else than the blog. Alas, I missed the timing of 0808 hours because I was working (still supposed to, but decided to take a few minutes off) And the Olympics start today as well!!

If I had a hat (which I don't because it is now lying in the bottom of the ocean) I would say "hat's off" to the organising team that did quite a great job. Despite the posters that had been put up about a month earlier, and the excited conversations ranging from 'what are you gonna wear?" to "what on earth do you wear to a masquerade themed dinner?" I would say that our highly anticipated annual event came and left in rather a hurry. Even on the eve of the day, people stayed back late to complete assignments that never seem to end. A few people whom I had casual conversations with during lunch break commented that they were not in the mood to celebrate, either, especially with the work continuously piling up till it encroached into our precious little weekends. So, anyway, last Saturday saw these workaholics dressed in their best (well, sort of anyway if you compare them to our uniforms), and headed to a hotel, resort and spa in Sunway where ...

Yeah, right! I've heard people say that you never forget to ride a bicycle once you know how. I beg to differ. I could ride a bike pretty well when I was younger (until 12 or so) when I lived in a place which was conducive for bicycles. Of course I've had my fair share of scrapes and bruises and falling into drains and such. However, I could still cycle where I wanted to go (usually somewhere in the neighbourhood) and used to do so in the evenings (because there were no playstations available) Fast forward to 2001, and after 9 years of not touching a bicycle, my friends (they left their riding around the same time as well) and I decided to try cycling at this place near the beach after our semester finals. We went over, rented a few bikes, and started riding. Well, they did, whilist I struggled to ride, and almost rode off from the track to the grass. I couldn't seem to focus on the pedalling and the path at the same time! At one point, I managed to fall into a lily p...