The End of October

It has been a solid 4 months since my previous entry. I've just been too caught up with everything. Though, that's a cover up because the actual reason why is because I was happy how productive my life was back in June, with updates about Prom, Pangkor and David Choi. I didn't want to ruin it, the first page. Silly, I know.

In the short 4 months, so much had happened. I shall hopefully try to record it as accurately as I can.

July

Was just unproductive at every single level. I was rotting at home, doing absolutely nothing productive. From watching countless YouTube videos, movies and TV shows. There is one thing though, I started exploring the kitchen. It's funny how my mum owns a Portuguese Seafood restaurant and I can barely cook anything besides instant noodle and fried rice. My food are still not exactly restaurant-worthy, but it's good enough to feed my family, that's for sure.

Had a pretty short trip to Malaysia's Entertainment City, Genting Highlands with the high school friends. It has been at least 5 years since I last visited and the place is certainly pretty run down. A reasonably cheap and fun trip. I can never complain about a short vaca trip with friends.

August

Oh, the august rush! The month was full of meeting new people, getting together with my old friends, getting back my A Level result and starting a brand new chapter of my life.

The Cambridge A Levels result came out in August 11, 2011. Which can only mean I was a nervous wreck the night before. If it was not for the oovoo session I had with my best friends, I think I'll probably stare at the blank walls in my room the whole night long. This whole college journey, was certainly a hell of a ride. A Levels is just a very demanding course and to do it in the short 18 months, that can certainly drive you nuts. Looking back, I don't exactly know how I managed to complete the course, yet alone to obtain A's for all the 5 subjects I took.

So naturally, there was an Award Ceremony session in Taylor's College.

The best part of it all? Catching up with the gang after being apart for 2 whole months.

Another highlight of the month was starting my business degree in Monash University. I have already met a bunch of awesome people and I know my network will just continue to grow. I shall elaborate more on this for the month of September, or I'll have absolutely nothing to talk about for that month.

September

The month of birthdays and finishing assignments.

I ate 5 birthday cakes for the month of September alone. What can I say beside the fact that September is certainly a rather fruitful month.

Naturally, the beginning of university. There will be a whole pile of assignment by the end of the first month. The fact that I have been studying courses that are so exam oriented, I don't exactly have any experience when it comes to assignments. In the beginning, I certainly struggled just a little bit, but very quickly got the hang of it. It is nice to know that I am already securing myself with all these marks and the fact that it would be impossible for me to fail. However, I have to admit, I sort of underestimated a business degree, there are certainly a lot more reading than I thought.

October

Another month of assignments and tests. Trying to balance everything is pretty difficult but after CAL, I feel like I can cope with everything and anything. So adding a couple extra hours of work on campus is not that hard after all.

I am also privileged enough to attend another award ceremony in the short 2 months period. This was actually a pretty big deal, at least to me. I can be nothing but grateful to how things laid out for me. The scholarship that I managed to secure was beyond what I could ask for. You know you're special when the head of school mentioned your name in his speech during the opening ceremony.

Now that I handed up all the assignments for the 2 units I am taking, with my final lecture this coming week, I shall end the post right here and head back to reading since my finals is in 2 weeks time.

Aly.

P.S / Be thankful for what you have; you'll end up having more. If you concentrate on what you don't have, you will never, ever have enough. - Oprah Winfrey

Father's Day with David Choi

Oh yes I did. The whole day of doing absolutely nothing but lining up and meeting/watching David Choi plus a bunch of other YouTube lovers. It certainly was nice to be able to communicate with people with the same YouTube obsession. Like I can tell a joke from a video and they'll just understand exactly where I got it from. Teehee.

There was a meet and greet and a concert/showcase on the same day. Thank goodness the two locations are just walking distance away. So I spent the whole day with my sister at Damansara.

We reached there around 11.30am and had brunch at Ikea Restaurant. Then, we went straight to Rock Corner at The Curve. I was surprised to even see a line already. Stood still for close to 2 hours before David Choi came. The line got so long, it actually freaked me out. I mean, you will not even know who David Choi is if you don't go on YouTube and search for covers/songs. So to see a long line of people, I was happy.

Meet and Greet was at The Curve's Rock Corner.

Gave the camera to a guy who works at Rock Corner, and he managed to take a couple of nice shot. I'm happy.

The next picture is just beyond creepy and weird. Both David and I look so excited for reasons I don't even know. Or it was just the awkward conversation, he was about done and wanted to give a hug and I told him to look in the camera and smile.

David Choi then "left" the store using a back exit, which I was certain doesn't exist. I was so convinced that it was just a small store room. So my sister and I stayed back when everyone left, looking through albums with one eye kept to the back door.

I love how nothing is focus here.

Not long after, he came out and took a picture with us. I had the, "I-Know-I'm-Right" smirk going on. I can't possibly leave knowing that I haven't have a decent picture with him can I ! His management team aren't that nice about it though, I mean I certainly think it'll be quicker for me to take a picture with him then to say "no" countless of time. I can be very persuasive and of course David is so nice about it. Not that I'm putting the blame into anybody, they're just doing their job of "protecting" David I guess.

I was so happy with the picture, I decided I'll be civilized and not stalk him all over the place. He left the building and so did we. I thought it'll be a little creepy and stalkerish for me to continue following behind him, so my sister and I decided to use the other entrance to go to Ikea for a quick bite. His car was conveniently there and we waved goodbye.

My mother and brother came for a quick shopping spree in Ikea. So we met up with them over soft drinks and hot dogs before heading over to the auditorium. As I know that we will not be having any dinner or any sort of food until 11pm.

It was already pretty crowded at the auditorium when my sister and I got there. I guess we were lucky, there was a glass door before the door to the auditorium. So we sat outside for about 10 minutes before they open up the glass door. Half of the people rushed to the counter to redeem their tickets, and thankfully my mum bought for me at Rock Corner so I already have mine. So I rushed to the door and sat there.

A couple of hours later with chit chat with DChoi's fans as well as a few of his management team. Oh, there was also a moment when David tried to be all ninja and take a picture of us. Since I was right in front of the door, I cheered and everyone went crazy.

He twitpic about it right away.

They finally open the door and I have to be the first one in the auditorium. Got the best seat in the house for my sister and I. Right in the centre of the very first row. Hell yeah !

Jaydee from Fly.FM was the host for the night while Hunny Madu from Fly.FM as well open for the show. She sang 2 songs, but frankly, I felt as if it was 5 songs. They were all medley and very long.

So when David Choi came out, everyone was excited ! Still wearing the exact same clothes, he sat on the chair and started talking. I can't remember exactly everything that happened but I know it was a fun show. The crowd is amazing being so interactive, it was full of jokes and amazing songs. How much better can that get right ?

Here's a list of what he sang:

1. YouTube Love Song
   
2. Valentines
3. Something To Believe
   
4. So Weightless
5. Always Hurt
6. Enjoy The View
7. Love
8. My Company
9. Only You
10. Rocketeer
11. Won't Even Start
12. You Were My Friend
13. This and That is Life
14. That Girl
15. By My Side

I am very certain because I have the paper he wrote the list of songs on, with his scribbling all over it. Teehee.

It wasn't like any other concert I went. This is a lot more smaller with about 500 people and the fact that David really interacted with everyone. Halfway through the show, he started reading tweets and even asked everyone to do a human tsunami wave. He then tweeted about it right away with a list of random words people were shouting out.

Try and spot where I sat, you can't miss it. For the video, just click on the screen cap.

By the time David started singing, I believe it was 8pm and the show ended at 10pm. So there was a total of 2 whole hours of David being on stage entertaining everybody. I would definitely say it's worth every penny though. I can only imagine what will happen if the whole crew came, like nigahiga, kevjumba, wong fu productions, victor kim, aj rafael, jr aquino, kina grannis, cathy nguyen, chester see, and of course the whole quest crew.

All in all, it was such a lovely day. 190611

Pictures credit to : David Choi's twitter page and my own.

Aly.

P.S / David Choi, if you happen to be reading this thanks to your Google Alert, I just wanna say I am an even bigger fan after your show. You're amazing whether it is Terti Kamasa or Terima Kasih.

Pangkor Takeover II

Here is the second part to the vacation.

I believe I was up pretty early, when I actually woke up Shiva is already up with bright sunshine looking eyes sitting in the middle of the bed. Took a morning stroll around the resort, it wasn't a very big compound anyway. By the time we got ready, some of the guys are already in the pool. Convinced Kareshma and a few others to join in for a fun Water Polo action.

I can't remember the scores at all, the guys were hella competitive and Wai Keong is just plain being himself. He comes up with the craziest things, that you just have to laugh along. The girls will just simply enjoy a dip in the pool, they guys however have to come up with some crazy piggyback game.

Hornbills right in our resort. Such a beautiful creature !

Lunch was at Daddy's Cafe as well. Jian Yong and I made another pretty reasonable bargain with the owner. We get to pick chicken chop, fish & chips or stuffed pita bread for RM10 with free drink. Almost everyone picked fish&chips because I guess it is more reasonable considering we're on an island. I, however opt for chicken chop with Yee Wen and Jian Yong wanted to be adventurous with stuffed pita bread.

Pretty fancy right ?

Follow by the usual walk down the beach.

When we got back to the resort, it was already pretty late. A very very short rest in our rooms before heading back to the beach for snorkeling. I generally don't do such adventurous activities. I've been only traveling with my family, and that is definitely not something you will do with your parents. Since everyone was up for it, I thought why not right.

12 of us hop into this boat while the 3 other brave guys got into the smaller one. The boat is surprisingly stable, Terance said it was because the boat was the bigger one, it's a lot of exciting with the smaller one. I guess I'll never find out about that. The guy brought us around first to look at a few islands and rocks. There was one that looks like a whale and another that looks like a crocodile before stopping at this snorkeling area.

To be honest, I was terrified when I got in the water. Afraid I might step on the fish. Afraid that they might just come and bite my toe off. Being afraid of the most ridiculous stuff. However, I got the hang of it after a while and thoroughly enjoyed it. It was such an experience and I love watching all the fish swimming away. Wai Keong at one point would never stop feeding the fish with bread and he just has to do it at such close proximity to me, I freaked out each time a school of fish got closer and closer to me. It was silly but I had fun. There was even sea cucumber and it was my first time looking at it, without being thoroughly cook and on a plate during Chinese New Year. Shiva and Kareshma have never tried it before, so Jian Yong tried to explain to them how they taste like. He went " Yoink, Yoink " which frankly I believe is the best explanation of sea cucumber but then it is very very funny at the same time.

I used my own goggles and frankly, I strongly discourage anyone to use their goggles and mouth piece. When we got back from snorkeling, I saw how the guys wash them and it was ridiculous. He just dip it into a bucket of water for 3 seconds and then lift it up to dry. What the heck right? So if you're gonna go for snorkeling, just buy yourself a brand new one.

Shiva and I went back to the room first and took our shower. Head out rather quickly after that to catch a look at the sunset. Follow by a buffet style BBQ dinner once again at Daddy's Cafe. The reason why we only eat at the cafe is because there is hardly any other restaurant around. There is one right next to Daddy's Cafe and that is it, tried to bargain with them and it is still more expensive. So obviously, we went for the cheaper option.

Beautiful Pink Sunset. Captured by Yee Wen.

Got pretty tanned after the whole 2 days, even with SPF 90++ . Insane !

A walk down the beach with the whole gang once again.

Follow by a short session by the pool, watching the moon light and chatting away. Then, the 5 of us decided to play Risk at the guy's room. Such a fun game but it is so long one. It is so funny how a person can be leading at the first hour and will be completely gone in the next. I played it once before that game and I did not remember it being so competitive. It sure was playing with Jian Yong, Terance, Joel and Grace though. Having very obvious alliances as well as enemies.

We ended the game at 3 in the morning and Grace won, as she is the strongest one at that point of the game. When I got back to the room, I was wide awake. So Shiva and I decided to have a stairway session of chatting about the future. I am so gonna miss that girl when she is too busy travelling the world or being a new yorker.

Woke up the next day, had breakfast at the resort. They charged RM10 for a plate of nasi lemak with drinks, which frankly is very pricey but since it was our last day, we couldn't really bother to find our way and get breakfast and god knows where.

Follow by a picture session.

We had lunch at KFC over at Lumut, before our long journey back to Subang. The whole bus ride was such a blast though, a ridiculously empty and meaningless but full of laughter chat with my friends. Alicia.FM was created out of no where, with tons and tons of commercials for Spongebob diapers, sea cucumbers and of course, for the radio station itself Alicia.FM 99.9, only 0.1 from perfection. With DJ Shi Shi or Newscaster Panda and the genius behind all the commercials, Terance as well as the wonderful singer Kareshma. Not forgetting, our one and only listener Joel. I'm guessing nobody will understand this whole paragraph but oh well, at least I will and the few that were part of the conversation.

Got back to Subang in about 4 hours.

Souvenirs from the trip include a random Pangkor magnet, a baby tshirt full of signatures and notes from friends and a love quote book from my lecturer.

That's about it. Pangkor is a pretty nice place. Not as commercialised as those bigger tourist spot such as Langkawi and Penang, but it's pretty good. It's definitely best not to keep your hopes that high up. It's a pretty small area and I had tons of fun. Then again, it might be because of the company I had during the trip.

What a wonderful way to close this particular chapter of my life. One very last thing to do before completely being done with college, the result day. Till then, I'll enjoy the short 1 month break I have.

Pictures credit to Yee Wen, Malcolm Ng, and from my personal camera.

Aly.

P.S / Blog post about the day with David Choi is done, will be up really soon too. I just don't like having 2 posts in a day.

Concurring Pangkor I

I went on a graduation trip with my fellow PM4 classmates, to the lovely lovely island of Pangkor. It was a 4-5 hours bus ride followed by a 45 minutes ferry ride to get to the island and then another 15 minutes drive to our hotel. I just don't work well with long journey and was a complete mess by the time we got there.

In the bus with my roomies, Zhi Lynn, Jon & Shiva. The cool room 112 yo !

This was after. Told you I was a complete mess.

We stopped by Bidor for a quick lunch as well. The food there wasn't that great really, even the place.

We stayed at Anjungan Beach Resort & Spa, which overall was a rather lovely place. Here's a couple of pictures of the resort first.

I believe the room cost us RM250 per night. It's like a huge room, and they split it to the upper floor and the lower floor. 4 of us share a room. The only problem I have with the room is the fact that the air cond is placed right in the middle, so the one sleeping above will be sweating at night. Everyone knows that cold air will sink and the hot air will rise. The toilet is also rather decent, I kept banging my elbows to the shower divider though.

To be honest, I was darn disappointed when I got there. Because right in front of the resort, there were tons of construction going on and the place looks like . The whole cab ride to the resort wasn't very lovely too, with hills and very narrow beach.

You'll be disappointed too right!

So once we settled in, we quickly went over to the beach. It was only a 5 minutes walk from the resort. The girls had a photo session first, some simply refused to get in while Shiva and I with the guys just jumped right in to the ocean. The wave was lovely at first, it has been such a long time since I have ever been to the ocean. I can barely remember the last time I walk along the beach with sands in between my toes.

We certainly can't resist doing a few jump shots.

Follow by a proper group shot.

Jian Yong and I were in charge of the food, so we asked around and bargained for the best price around. Found this stall/hut by the name of Daddy's Cafe. It is right next to the beach and about 5 minutes walk from our resort. So the first night, we sat by the beach and had our fabulous dinner. Curry crab, grilled fish, mixed vegetables and sambal prawns. For only RM12.20 per person, inclusive of drinks and rice. I personally felt it was a pretty good deal, the food is decent as well.

It was nice watching the waves hit the shore with sands in between my toes and eat in a dark candle light atmosphere with a bunch of my friends I made in a short 18 months. Follow by a long walk by the beach before heading back to the resort for a chat session by the pool. I don't exactly remember what we talked about, but it was nice to have an empty talk session.

I'll have another post for the following day and I'll probably combine it with the final day in Pangkor as well since we didn't do much besides the bus ride back. It wasn't that bad though, had a crazy fun chat session with the bunch again.

Pictures credit to: Malcolm Ng, Yee Wen and I.

Aly .

P.S / Productivity is the key to a meaningful life.

Pangkor Island

I'm back from Pangkor Island. My graduation trip with the rest of my college mates as well as my Biology lecturer. It was nothing but pure awesome-ness. Just slept through the whole day. We did so much for the past 3 days and the lack of sleep in Pangkor, it sure took a toll on me. Since I have a pretty hectic day tomorrow as well as the weekend, I'll blog about the trip in detail early of next week.

Here is a picture to show I was really on an island and did not make any of this up.

(credits to Yee Wen)

But then again, why would anyone doubt what I blog about.

Aly.

P.S / I'm so grateful for 1001PM4, what a wonderful bunch.