Last Christmas...I gave you my heart....

Chantek muka kau baca title ya ala2 basa omputeh owh, maka post kali tok ku tulis lam basa laen..haha...maok bagi serprise sket la tek.

Yah!! Post kali tok mek decide pake bahasa mlayu swak campur2 jak la...malas maok piker2 pakei basa English. By the way, belated Christmas kepada semua yang menyambut, Christmas reya sik la havoc gilak, biase2 jer...balit 24 haribulan, makanya eve of Xmas gago juak bebalit last minit. Bukan stakat balit jak last minit, bli hadiah k mum and dad pun last minit. Nasib pat bli pa yang mek maok tek, mun sik nang rasa besalah la mek sik bagi hadiah taun tok.

Balit kampung masa xmas seperti besa makan-minum-makan-minum jak keja...selain betemu ngan kazen2. Ada juak kazen yg sik penah ngelala, tp bapak dah gago glak nunggah2 cdak nya betemu muka, katanya maok intro la tek, lalu masuk bab family politik...ya mek malas. Dah la bapak mek ya mun dah heng nang pa2 jak la benda diklaka nya.

Sik lamak beraya d kpg tek, the next day balit mekorg katanya. Maka moha la mak aku to my dad sbb katanya sik amek cuti lamak, aku no komen jak. Sampei2 jak d Kch kepak glak sik terdaya trus relax tido. The next day resume keja seperti biasa, bangun pagi turun lab biarpun bangun lambat...semangat glak maok polah keja tek.

Member2 laen ada sms segala nyuroh dtg umah tp sorry la geng, I'm pretty much not in a ngabang mood plus cam rasa sikda mood xmas tahun tok. Plus keja ku yang sikda result molah ku sikda mood gik...hurm.

By the way, tahun baru dah moak tiba....pa ka resolusi tahun baru ku owh, lom list down gik..tp yang pasti byk resolution ku tahun depan...so tunggu jak next post.

Let's Rant!

Big Sis came down to Kch on the 2nd week of November. Their last visit, if I could recall was 4-6 months ago which was earlier this year. It's a surprise how Amanda have grown up. In their last visit, Amanda could barely sit in upright position and she only crawls. Now she could walk (but not run) and say a few words like "mommy"...awww... Big sis and lil amanda stayed with us for two weeks. Bought them an advance Christmas present before they were off to Bintulu.

Congratulation to Mel (http://escapeeofhell.blogspot.com/) and her hubby on their wedding not so long ago. And so, the whole weekend of the November was wholly spent with friends and family. Yeah I know...not the usual friend and relatives though.




Another highlight of the weekend was friends gathering in conjunction with Mel's wedding ceremony in St. Thomas and her reception that night. It's glad to see friends from all over the states came together and celebrate the grand event, and a rare chance to have all of them gather together on the same time and same place too!

My story : Part 1

A Place Like No Other

Way back 27 years ago I was raised in a setinggan area not far from a place which is now developed into Pustaka, the pride of Kuchingites for their humongous public library. Back then, the lake nearby was covered with thick shrubs and secondary forest. And this forest is what make our existence became invisible, for what I remembered not many people would know a place called "Kampung Siol Kandis", the name given to our setinggan. To reach into the village itself would require a 5 minutes walk from the main road, and one would walk on a sloppy and muddy terrain.

Figure 1: The view of Pustaka

The interior part of the village is not exactly what you would expect. Most houses was built by wooden plank and roofed with a folded palm leaf. If I'm not mistaken, the village itself were houses of about 20 or more families during that day. Our house, was located the at the furthermost of the village. Therefore the walking distance can be very tedious when it was rainy. There, right in front of our wooden house, was a small sand field which used to be our playground. Those who grown up in Siol Kandis village would understand how much that field meant to us, it is the only place for us to gather and have fun 24/7.

Just a few hundred metre from our house, was a lake that was forbidden for kids, because we were told that it was rather deep, and was foolishly told that there was a "swamp thing" living inside. I still couldn't believe I bought that joke those days. But hey, we were kids and the imagination just runs wild. So we never went to the lake without parents supervision.

Most of the residents living in the village were related to each other, and that includes us, our family. I remember some of my cousin's house was located few houses away from where we lived. And there we would visit this one particular house, a house where my dad's aunt used to live. We call her "inik biak", which basically means "young grandma", a nickname given because of her younger appearance than her own ranking in the family tree, which is a grandmother.

There are few reasons why we loved hanging out at inik biak's house, besides her caring and loving character. She love, i mean really really love making "kuih" of any kind. Inik biak has her own stall not far from her house, which she use to sell her kuih. Besides her working son and daughter, which is my uncle and aunty, she sell those kuih to support their living needs. Sometimes, inik biak would spare some extras for her beloved grandchild.

(To be continue...)

All the bad things

Event no. 1- A lady rammed my modest MPV with her awesomely larger-than-my-car minivan, which was pretty bad. Sent the car for a repair in some nearby workshop. Checked the progress the other day and guess what, the scratch and all the bumps haven't been repaired!

Event no. 2- Shamelessly squatting in Simon's car for almost a month now, since mine got into the workshop. Last resort would be..."...dad, can you sent me to campus..."

Event no. 3- Nine consecutive months (almost 10) with no work progress. Sucks? Yes. Got my boss extremely exaggerated with the news. Working with new enzyme in addition to the one I have currently.

Event no. 4- My schedule is again, full for the weekends next year. Couldn't find a suitable candidate to replace my English tuition. Missing my Sunday mass and singing praise and worship songs.

Event no. 5- No calls no what-so-ever from my friend, but that's fine. Or maybe it's just me...keeping myself busy with work and all. Ran out of lame excuses if they asked me to, then again that's fine. I'm all good with that.

Hey, I'm not complaining or anything...Maybe this is just a test. And I can't wait for that redemption day to come.

Sundrenched World

I can't get to bed
But I'm really tired
The things in my head
You used to admire
In your sundrenched world
It couldn't be worse
Don't bother asking
And here comes the nerves
While I'm trying to bask
In your sundrenched world

I'm talking to you
But you're not listening
I don't know what to do
My heart is blistering
Writing this song
Tell me I'm not wrong

I close up my mouth
When you're around now
Suffocating in doubt
I can't make a sound
In your sundrenched world
I always wanted to be
The one you looked to
For the answers in me
I'm the one who took you


Joshua Radin

Two Months Late

So here's a long overdue post which I should've put up 2 months ago.

July 9, Rainforest World Music Festival. Sounds familiar? Yes, it's that festival again, and after three years of missing it I finally made it this year. This year however it was held on the 9th till 12th of July, which showcase various cultural performance of all sort from all around the world.

Accompanied by best bud Ugam and labmate Liyana, we head off to Damai during noontime. The weather was awesome, sunny and hawt! Surprisingly the crowd on the first day this year was not as I expected. Most probable reason for this is due to the World Cup season which was held (coincidentally) at the same time of the event. So you can guess why we went it on the first day, the final match was on the next day so we wouldn't want to miss the moment it starts. Owh to add, there were not even a single group from Africa this year(which is understandable, and a turn off for me because their performance is really damn good!).

After a quick lunch, the three of us attended the first workshop which was held in the theater,with the theme given 'Fiddling around'; where participant with violinist sent out their fellow troop to perform. The show was stunning, imagine cultural music from different parts of the world brought together and mashed-up on stage, it's more than word can say. The second performance, 'happy feet' followed by 'Fusionaries' was as equally as interesting.

From top to bottom: Performer introducing their music instrument before each performance; During the "Happy Feet" session, some of the group also introduce their respective cultural dance; and the last one, a mash-up dance and music from the second session.

The night concert was kicked-off by Indonesian group "Debu". Unfortunately for Ugam and me, we were not able to join Liyana and the crowd due to heavy rain, until the third group performed which was from Russia. Muddy field mixed with sweaty bods (Yeah, if you're thinking what I'm thinking), as if were on a mud party, except that it's funnier. The show ended with "Watussi" band from Australia, which was as much amusing as the others.

Top to bottom: Some of the pics taken during stage performance at night; Indian performance, followed by Russia and the last one is performance from Watussi group.

Update lagi

It's been a month since my last update, I just couldn't really find the time to drop by. As usually, my work is keeping me occupied the whole time. Working and doing research is not always fun. The only "fun" thing you'd enjoy is the month end salary that you could spend and stuff your closet with a new Esprit bag from Elle, or a pair of Shoe worth almost half of your earning.

And yes, by that I mean I've been doing extra chores lately, scouting for stuff to fulfill my shopping desire. And YES, it also means that I'm stressed out. But who cares, nothing beats shopping desire when it comes to MegaSale. Everything is discounted to as high as 70%(drool....).

Talking about bag, have it occur to you that a secondary school teenage girl would carry a leathered sling bag worth hundreds of MYR to school? Well, yes if you are the heir of filthy rich people. But really, if you come from an average income family, I don't think it's going to happen. You see, when I was a teenage boy, the only school bag I would carry is a backpack worth less than 30MYR which is made up from nylon and some poly-thingy (sorry but I'm not a polymer science freak). But the scenario is not the same anymore, as I watched my little sister grew up, the needs of teenagers nowadays are never the same like it was back then. Sure we could buy a candy for only five cents back then, but now??? Nah.... And so, the other day lil' sis and I were hunting for her so-called school bag and got one nice leathered one.

Yet Ramadhan is here again, this means that Raya is coming soon. Went "sungkey" with lab members at Merdeka Palace few weeks ago. It was superb, worth every cents. House visiting sure is a must this year, probably this will be the last one I'd enjoy them with my uni friends.

Another event to anticipate for the upcoming month; friend's wedding, can't wait!