Yeah i know, I should update. This is already a longgg overdue post. The initial euphoria of stuffing myself with HUGE, SUCCULENT oysters, getting only slightly tanned (despite bragging to everyone who would listen before setting off that I would get myself REALLY tanned) and of course, having an awesome schmosome time with the pearlies (LOL) in penang is already starting to subside.

Sorry if the above sentence confused you. I have this sort of irritating tendency to mull over my sentences and make sure I cram as much information as i can into one super long, grammatically-correct sentence. But I am trying to change, trust me.

Anywaysssss....

PENANG!!!!

I think I should just post pictures since I'm too lazy to write. Or maybe I should copy paste from Jian and Chian's blogs. Their heartfelt, absolutely entertaining, slightly cheesy posts about us have this tendency of making me smile like a goof in front of my pc screen. Hey, you two! And blog-less Leng too, just because I'm not heartfelt and cheesy, it doesn't mean that I don't love you people to bits ok =)

so here goes...

First day







2nd day







Last day



Penang rocked!

And I'm tired from putting up all the pics. Yawn.

The worst thing I hate about Malaysia at this point in time is its transportation system.

Now with oil prices sky-high, most people rely on the public transportation system (PTS from now on ok) to get around, but personally, after a few months of commuting using our lovable, community-centered KTM system every morning, I conclude that it not only wastes precious time, but also results in various side effects to your health such as high blood pressure and headaches, oh and add a few extra strands of white hair to that list too. Because really, to depend on our absolutely efficient PTS (the KTM in particular) would suck every ounce of energy and patriotism out of you. Not that you had much of the latter to start off with anyway, but still.

Case in point: most mornings I get up at ungodly hours, ie 6.30am and rush out of the house by 6.45am to catch the 7.11am train. Yes, it takes about half-a-freakin-hour to get to the babited train station from my house ever since school reopened. Oh the halcyon days of last week when the roads were clear all the way to college. For those of you who aren't me, it would be easy for you to tell me to get up earlier to beat the jam. But you try being me for one day and see if my body works before 6.30?

Today I reached the station right on the dot, and of course I had to go to the counter to buy the ticket since touch n go...oh that's another story altogether. Read along now. So they changed the person who mans the ticket counter, and now it's this sour faced man who never smiles or speaks and worst of all, moves like a sloth. Even when he sees the train arriving and knows that unlike him, people might actually be in a hurry. Really, it takes every muscle in my body to restrain myself from punching his annoying i-could-care-less-if-you-miss-the-train-because-of-me face. Thank god there wasn't a queue this morning. So as the train arrived, I grabbed the ticket from the idiot with my heart pounding, pecuted all the way up the bridge to the other side and rushed into the train just as the doors were closing. There was this guy behind me who could have entered at the last minute (well I definitely would have) but I think he got a little chickened out by the closing doors and decided to step back and look dejected instead. For a few minutes after that I hyperventilated while my legs felt like jelly. You know if I keep this up everyday for the rest of the semester, I'm pretty sure I don't need to be as old as my dad to get high blood pressure.

The stupid KTM comes once every 20 minutes, assuming optimistically there is no delay or breakdown of some sort. I took the liberty to google the train schedules of some other countries. Just Asia la ok, noneed compare with the canggih European countries all. In Japan, trains come once every 2-5 mins during rush hour, and every 4-8 mins during daytime. In Singapore, every 2-5 mins. In Thailand, every 3-6 mins. In Taiwan, every 4-7 mins and in Korea, 2-3 mins during rush hours. Which means that for everytime I pull a stunt like the one this morning but miss the train anyway by a few seconds and then wait another 20 minutes to catch the next train, 10 trains would have gone by in Korea. Ok worst case scenario, 6 trains would have gone by. If Malaysia had that kind of scheduling, even with the occasional delay or whatever, my life would still be bliss.

Of course I don't need to apprise you of the various other shitty issues you have to deal with when taking the KTM. The squashed-up-like-sardines issue is one, but honestly inconsequential compared to the stress I deal with just to get on the train.

Oh and I told you I was gonna complain about touch n go too. Basically, using it to board the KTM is a bad idea, because i discovered that the machine deducts RM10 erratically for no apparent reason sometimes. To date I have lost about RM30. Calls to the careline center only returned unconvincing reassurances that they will "monitor" the refund process, as well as the routine "please write an email to appeal" nonsense. An email later, all I got was a subtle get-out-of-our-hair reply that they will check with the KTM to see what can be done *roll eyes*

I'm on a campaign to get everyone to stop using touch n go at the KTM. So please, pass the word around for the sake of your and your friends' wallets.

Is it any wonder that everybody is on an exodus out of Malaysia? I would join them too the second I get the chance to.

Most mornings I'd have a discussion with Edeline on the way to coll about how teruk this country is. But really when I think about it, I LOVE this country. I love the islands, the rainforests, the quaint little kampung houses, the historical sites, the culture, the food. If I were living in Europe or something, Malaysia would be on my list of countries to vacation at every year. But the thing is, I LIVE here. When you live here and have to deal with the host of blockheads who govern this country, Malaysia becomes a real shitty place.

OK, I've finished complaining.

It's quite fun to meet people at the station sometimes though. I met Poh Leong once and he made me feel lots better after I spent 45 minutes waiting for the train in Subang. Yes 45 minutes. And it would make anyone seeth if you were to go through what I went through that day. I missed one train by 5 seconds (pecuting wasn't enough) and then other two trains which were supposed to come in the next 40 minutes were delayed. Sial or not you tell me.

Yesterday i met Jo-Lyn at the station after I missed the train by 30 seconds. Talking to her made me feel heaps better. We were having this conversation about her red eye, and we were trying to remember the word contagious, but you know how some words languish around in the deep recesses of your brain and take a whole lot of mental acrobatics just to make it resurface? So we think la, think think think, think thank thunk...

And then she exclaimed: CONTAGIOUS!

And we broke the moody silence among all the commuters irritated by the KTM with our earth-shattering laughter. That was so fun.

I'm glad I don't have to take the train for the rest of the week wahoooooooooo!

Omg I'm so excited for tomorrow!!!

***

I've been having this question for quite some time but forgot about it.

You know how we say if Adam and Eve hadn't sinned, we would all live forever because sin wouldn't have entered the world?

But really when you think about it, if they hadn't sinned, don't you think their children, or children's children, or at some point in the family tree, someone would have eaten the fruit anyway? And then sin would have entered the world anyway right?

I was gonna say that it's the question I would ask God in heaven, but I suddenly remember Aslan in Narnia saying something along the lines of "you will never know what did not happen".

What was the quote again? Someone do some mental acrobatics and remind me please.

I CANNOT WAIT FOR WEDNESDAY.

Monday Tuesday, please fly by.

Oh my. This actually feels good, somewhat cathartic even.

I have abandoned this place for so long I almost see cobwebs adorning my URL. I told myself the first thing I have to do when I come online today is to blog. And I made good on that promise see? =)

Anyway, it's been a very fruitful month and a half.

I had one of the nicest birthdays ever. Well, the birth DAY itself kinda sucked since I had to go teach irritating kids in the morning. I hate my Saturday class. The students are either noisy and disrespectful, or super quiet and timid, like I'm going to eat them up or something. The worst part is that they are all really quite daft (I'm sorry, but really), save for one or two geniuses compared to the rest. So it means I sometimes have to personally guide one or two students who completely cannot write an 80-word karangan while the rest of the class clamour to ask me questions. And then I have students who are so smart they finish their assignment 30 minutes before everyone else. You tell me la, how to handle a class as bipolar as that? But I've managed so far la. Sigh. I really should give this class up, especially since it always interferes with my Saturday plans. Lagipun I draaaaaaaaagg myself out of bed early every Saturday and rush to the place to face a class like that. Is it any wonder I don't look forward to the weekends?

So anyway, on my birthday I dragged myself out of bed to the centre, went through the motions and then had Wei Loong for company at McD's, and came home to strangers intruding my house with their noisy drills and cement-covered feet since my dad decided to put up an awning on my porch. I don't like the awning. I've lived here forever and I never saw the need for an awning. I loved looking out at my porch and seeing the sunlight on the cement floor, and staring at the green green trees and the blue blue sky, and at night when we went out for dinner I'd sometimes glance up at the sky to see if there were any stars and I'd stand on the porch with my face up and breathe in deeply. It was awesome. Now, when I look out all I see is the blue blue sky and half of the green green trees blocked off by the gray underside, and there is no more sunlight on the porch in the afternoon. And no more stars. And when it rains, it roars. Ugh. I hate the awning. Oh! And did I tell you that the other day I forgot we can't push our gate inwards anymore because of the pole, so I stopped my car too near the gate, got out to open it only to realize I can't push it in anymore, so I had to get in the car again, reverse, get out, push the gate out, and THEN only drive in.

I HATE THE AWNING.

So anyway, yeah, my birth DAY was rather bad. But I had awesome celebrations the week before and the day before and the day after. Half the sixers surprised me at home, and then we went out for a really nice lunch. I miss them already! They're awesome. And then at cell we had a nice little celebration with yummy choc cake and pizza. They're awesome too. And then on Sunday I had a joint celebration with Brian and David with the churchies. It was really fun. The churchies are awesome too! =)

I had a one-week holiday after that, today being the last day. *heart falls to the ground and shatters*

The holiday was super awesome. I had a major pigout chillout session everyday, fueled by 24 binges. Sigh, what I would give to have 24 binges every single day of my life. I love 24. It's officially my favourite tv series now, usurping prison break. But it can be quite intense to be watching multiple episodes in one go, so Grey's anatomy was a welcome respite from Jack Bauer, who is probably a cat in human form.

Now I've finished my supply of 24 and Grey's, and there's nothing else to binge on until Shannie gives me season 6 and Jon finds a smaller Grey's season 2 file to download. Jon you rock my socks for offering to do this =)

But really, even if i HAD supply, where would I find time to binge anyway? This is gonna be the craziest month for me. I'm gonna have to finish:
- con behaviour quiz tmr
- org comm
- MCS
- webpage
- animation
- speech to inform
- speech to persuade
all in the next 3 weeks.

Gila baaaabi.

And amidst all that, I found myself agreeing to put it all aside and skip class to take a 3 day sort-of vacation to Penang when Jian called. Nothing is gonna keep me from making this trip, simply because of the company. Gawd I miss them =) I'm just not happy that it's only gonna be three days. I mean, come on. There wouldn't be enough time to really explore Penang's charming streets backpacker-style, especially when I already plan to spend an entire day basking in the sun on Batu Ferringhi. But the company more than makes up for the lack of time. Already I can picture us drunk with laughter late into the night. Already I am so super excited. oooh I can't wait!

So many things have made me happy lately. Friends, sitting at Ikea with Jane and Edeline talking for hours over cappuccino refills (Yes Jess we missed you ;p), Penang, smsing Jian desperately for chemistry equations in the middle of my tuition class and seeing his reply, msn-ing with the pearl about Penang plans, Baskin Robbins on a full stomach with great company, talking to Leng, Penang, the two-day Grey's binge with my sis, Penang, and knowing that I am so blessed.

Knowing that I am so so blessed.

Despite the fact that I have to go back to college tomorrow. sigh.