I'm in Sydney!!!!!

hey, everything's fine here. I still dont have internet yet but i'm trying to get 1. im now using the internet in my library and they're so mean they only let us use 6mb per day so i cant upload any pictures yet. my o-week is on the 28th feb to 2 march. o-week is a few days packed with activities to let us have fun but so far today (28th) im not feeling that fun yet. today i enrolled and that means a lot of lining up. i heard from a 4th year mechatronic senior that he thinks mech is d toughest engineering course. oh well.

been to a lot of places : darling harbour, chinatown, opera house, mrs mcquarie's chair, botaniocal garden. sydney is quite hot but on cloudy and windy days the wind can send chills into ur bone. havent caught any cold yet, in case u r wondering. =)

Thats all 4 now!

Idiot's Guide to Choosing Handphone Service Provider in Aus

jia - =) says:
here got vodafone, optus, telstra n 3
jia - =) says:
most of us r currentl using 3
jia - =) says:
i was using optus
jia - =) says:
but 2day change 2 3 liao
Sean says:
then ur no still the same?
jia - =) says:
yup
jia - =) says:
they can transfer lidat wan wor
jia - =) says:
so all d beta
jia - pe =) says:
but d thing was
jia - =) says:
my optus was prepaid
jia - =) says:
n my 3 is prepaid
jia - =) says:
so my optus stil tinggal 20 bucks lidat no more liao lor
jia - =) says:
aih
jia - =) says:
so sad rite?
jia - =) says:
dun convert..i keep telling myself dun convert..
jia - =) says:
but stil v sam tung
Sean says:
haha like that 1 lah
Sean says:
y didnt u use up 1st b4 changing?
jia - =) says:
coz at 1st we din noe can use same number wan
jia - =) says:
so we kautim all d documents (coz postpaid hv 2 bring passport, visa, student id, n bank statement 2 apply) n go apply lor
jia - =) says:
den d fella oni told us can use same number
jia - =) says:
so we all v happy la
jia - =) says:
summore d fella say it'l take bout 1 day b4 they cut off d optus service
jia - =) says:
so we were thinking 2nite use it all off la
jia - =) says:
but c c immediately they cut liao!!
jia - =) says:
we felt like so cheated la
jia - =) says:
btw, we here means me n mich
Sean says:
y sudd change?
jia - pe =) says:
coz prepaid cannot get free hp
jia - =) says:
s in, aft 2 yrs contract, d hp wil b urs
jia - =) says:
4 postpaid
Sean says:
ic
jia - =) says:
n since my mum'l msg my maxis coz cheaper 4 her n i'l reply wif aus number coz cheaper 4 me,
jia - =) says:
v mafan hv 2 keep changing simcard
jia - =) says:
cant b doing dat 4 4 yrs rite
jia - =) says:
so since those who're using post paid wanted 3
jia - =) says:
i change 2 3 lor
jia - =) says:
summore 3 punye cheapest post paid plan is 29 per month
jia - =) says:
whereas optus wan is 49
jia - =) says:
so like v x la
Sean says:
icic
Sean says:
she msg ur maxis how much? same rate?
jia - =) says:
ya
jia - =) says:
stil 5 cents
jia - =) says:
coz its registered s msian number ma
jia - =) says:
suggest 2 ur parents 2 do lidat oso
jia - =) says:
can safe alot
jia - =) says:
like now, i dunno bout other service providers here la, but 4 3, international smses oni 35 cents
jia - =) says:
i heard there's 1 is 20cents wan
jia - =) says:
but i dunno which la
jia - =) says:
mayb u can survey more la
jia - =) says:
u noe wut?
jia - =) says:
i told u so much imp info adi
jia - =) says:
mayb u can like save tis conversation n show ur frenz nx time
jia - =) says:
i think it'l help alot lor
jia - =) says:
coz we all like buta buta wan wen we buy
jia - =) says:
now u get 1st hand story wor...
jia - =) says:
hehe
Sean says:
haha
jia - =) says:
if i knew all tis, i might hv not used optus in d 1st place
Sean says:
k, shall do that
jia - =) says:
den i might not hv lost dat 20 bucks
jia - =) says:
aih
jia - =) says:
so sad
jia - =) says:
semakin think semakin sad

I cut my hair and got myself a new pair of specs

I love Chinese New Year. Love the food. Love the ang pow.


Hate the cleaning.


But love the fact that i can celebrate it in Msia.

They Came to Ampang

Instead of writing bout me visitng other places, y dont I write about ppl visiting me?

1st batch: Yeam and Nooi Hoay
These 2 came down with me from our Ipoh trip. They, like me, have a very blur idea of what needed to be done before flying and felt the need to attend the pre-departure briefing organised by IDP. So, we cut short our visit to Ipoh. Jia Huei was super pissed.

I dont get much visitors, so didnt really know how to attend to them while they're in my house. Consequently I got scolded by my mom 4 being a bad host (dont worry, not that harsh). However, I am 1 who learn from my mistakes. So they're kind of like guinea pigs for me to experiment with what not to do when others come in the near future. So kesian hor? Haha jk only lah it really wasnt that bad.I hope. At least they went back safe and unscathed. They may have even enjoyed the trip.

In the morning we went to Seri Pacific Hotel for the briefing. At first I didnt know where it was, until I found out that it was actually Pan-Pacific Hotel. Hmmm...wonder why they changed their name. Do you think its a silent protest at the new law that makes it illegal to mix malay and english? Anyway, we met a lot of Intec ppl there and afterwards went to the Eye of Msia with them. It was there that we discovered Merlin is scared of height and Quanyie feels suicidal at high places. it was getting interesting b4 we even got on the wheel :-)

It was quite exciting at 1st, but after a few rounds we couldnt wait to get down.

After that we wanted to go back and so asked a traffic police for direction to the train station. According to the guy, its not far. And so we walked. and walked. and walked. For 30 minutes until we almost got lost. And then we found the station!

2nd batch : Chao Wang
Chao Wang came to do his Financial Affidavit stuff. I wanted to do it too, so we wasted a whole day on that.

Besides the FA, he has 1 other purpose coming to KL. He wanted to buy his winter clothing. And so I brought him to Sogo (after having Yong Tau Foo for lunch), coz besides the place selling winter clothing inside Sogo there are 3 other shops that sells them outside. We visited each of them and decided that the Goin' Places counter inside Sogo was the best. Somehow along the way we decided to ask Chean Yeaw out. Since Goin Places has a branch inside Mid Valley and its convenient for Chean Yeaw to go there, it became our next destination.

We found that you can only do so much in Mid Valley. After watching Night at the Museum (which was seriously disappointing after having my expectation raised by Nooi and Yeam) we had dinner, take some pics and went back.

3rd batch : Hui Ling and Christine Tan

The day they came was 17th Jan. Their plan was to go to Putrajaya straightaway upon arrival and if possible go to Selset after that b4 coming to my house to spend the night. I had to visit my uncle in Bkt Bintang in the afternoon, so I met them at Hang Tuah Star LRT station on their way from Subang. My instructions were clear : to get down at the station, wave at me so that I can see them and I will follow them running back into the train. The plan was well executed and we felt so stupid afterwards. That night, I learnt something astonishing.

The next day they had Yong Tau Foo for lunch and left for Selset and then went back to Ipoh.

4th batch : Christine, Jia Huei, Hui Ling and Wen Jun

THanx to JPA my house became a temporary hotel. This time, its for the pre departure briefing. They were arriving in the evening, and since somebody wanted to belanja me lunch I went to Mid Valley 1st. Got The Magicians' Guild as my belated birthday present. Then, I went to Sogo to change my winter jacket coz they didnt have my size when I buy it. And as planned, they reached in the evening.

The next day, Jia, Wen Jun and I have to wake up insanely early to go to Putrajaya for JPA briefing. As Audrey pointed out, we have to get up by the time we usually go to sleep. Its crazy! They must be breaking some kind of human right law! But for the sake of the money I'd be getting that day I gritted my teeth and jumped out of bed.

At 6am, dad drove us to Serdang where we met up with Daphne who's staying in Bkt Bintang with her dad and we took a taxi to Putrajaya together. Can you believe that we arrived half an hour early? A lot of ppl were still absent and those present divided themselves naturally into 4 big groups. There's the Sunway group, the Taylors group, the Intec group and another Intec group. I'm in the other Intec group. Can you believe that Wong arrived 2 hours late?

The briefing was boring. And JPA is lembab.

Towards the end, everything was a mess. I called a taxi but couldnt find it. Luckily, a stray taxi passed by and we (me, Jia, W.Jun and Chean Yeaw) managed to catch the driver's attention by waving frantically. We took it to Serdang KTM and from there went to Mid Valley to meet Xtine and Hui Ling who went shopping coz they're so free. Since we were rich we had Manhattan Fish Market for dinner.

When we took KTM to go back, for the 1st time in my life, I missed a station. We had to wait untill 11pm for the train to go back and by the time we reach Ampang it was already 11.30pm. Therefore, we have been out for 17.5 hours!

Next day, while Xtine and Hui Ling went to the briefing, the rest of us went to Sg Wang coz Jia wanted to buy mp3. Before that I bring them to eat Yong Tau Foo again. I'm quite sick of Yong Tau Foo now. Yeam, Sufei and Tzu Hui joined us at Sg Wang. Yeam bought a new Sony Ericsson phone. At first, only I use Sony Ericsson in our room. You should hear how they used to condemn SE phones. But then I somehow managed to convert Yee Hong and Yeam into SE users. While playing with Yeam's hp, I recorded a simple video to let him discover later. I like giving ppl surprises =) Bcoz I wanted to watch and Yeam desperately wanted to watch Death Note 2, we dumped them in Low Yat and went to Times Square to buy tickets bcoz even though there are countless karaoke centre in Bkt Bintang, the cinema in Times Square is the only 1 there. After that we decided to play bowling ourselves bcoz they dont like to bowl and Wen Jun alone is enough to counsel Jia for mp3, they wont need us there. 2 ppl playing bowling is actually quite fun. You have a companion and almost immediately after you bowl it'll be your turn again. 2 games only took half an hour.

We had lunch in Times Square itself and watched movie. Then we walked to Low Yat to find them, only to be informed that they're in Times Square and we had to go back inside. Then when we find them they wanted to go to Low Yat pulak. And so we went to Low Yat. Oh, Michelle came while we were watching movie. She and Jia, influenced by wen jun's biased opinion, each bought a Sony mp3 (Wen Jun : Sony is the best! The best! THE BEST!). Since Jia spent a lot and wanted to save money, we had dinner in a Chinese restaurant outside Times Square. Pui Ting invited them to stay overnight and off they went that night to Klang.

After going out for so many days you'd think they that they'll be exhausted already. But no, they still wanted to go to Mid Valley the next day. Mid Valley has become my second home. Being such a good host, of course I teman them there also lah. Xtine forced us to wear sleeveless shirt that day.

It was like an Intec gathering in Mid Valley, so many ppl went there (full list and pictures here).

Warning : Epic Movie is LAME! DO NOT WATCH! The only reason its called Epic Movie is bcoz its STUPIDITY is of EPIC proportion.

We had dinner and bid reluctant good-byes. First at the food court, then in the KTM station and later inside the train. I discovered an emotion I thought I no longer possess. Memories were stirred, good-byes were said and the unknown future awaits.

Farewell biddings didnt stop there. Next day, they all went back to Ipoh. I sent them till Puduraya and watched them get on the bus. As I walk away, I can only wonder if that will be the last I see of my Intec friends. It was....sad.




But cry not for the thought of going our own separate ways. Instead smile, for the memories of our time together which we will not trade with anything else in this world. And smile, because we know that our frienship is true (Sean 2007. All rights reserved; all wrongs released).

Dear Tan,Sze Ching,

Congratulations on your admission to study at the University of New
South Wales, Sydney in Semester 1 2007. The semester will commence
on Monday 26 February.

Enrolment at the University is subject to quota restriction and
places are filling up quickly. You are strongly recommended to accept
your offer as soon as possible to avoid disappointment.
The quickest way to accept your offer is to do it online at
https://my.unsw.edu.au

If you did not receive your offer or have further questions about the
acceptance process please contact the relevant Admissions Team by
email at the end of this notice.
If you no longer wish to accept your offer, please let us know
immediately, so that we can offer your place to someone else. Please
send an e-mail to your Admissions Team, according to the first letter
of your family name:
Family names A-G -- admita-g@unsw.edu.au Family names H-L
-- admith-l@unsw.edu.au Family names M-S -- admitm-s@unsw.edu.au
Family names T-Z -- admitt-z@unsw.edu.au
We look forward to welcoming you as one of our students and wish you
the best for your successful academic career at one of Australia's
leading universities!

++++ PLEASE DO NOT REPLY TO THIS AUTO E-MAIL ++++


Yours sincerely,

Ken Bright
Head, Direct Admissions

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

To : admitt-z@unsw.edu.au

Subject : Reject Offer

Dear Admissions Team,

My name is Tan Sze Ching, UNSW ID: 3******, Program Code: 3710. Thank you for admitting me to UNSW. I am truly honoured. Unfortunately, I have decided to pursue my studies elsewhere. Please offer my place to someone else.

Yours sincerely,
Tan Sze Ching

Dear Tan,Sze Ching

We would like to congratulate you on your recent offer to an exciting program at UNSW, and we hope that we can soon welcome you to the world of study and opportunities offered at the University of New South Wales.

As you know, UNSW is one of Australia’s leading research and teaching universities and entry into a program here is not easily achieved. UNSW has a prestigious reputation in Australia and across the region, and a long history of enrolling the world’s leading international students for over 50 years. Our graduate outcomes mean that your UNSW degree can open doors to a financially rewarding future of global opportunities for you.



Why not send it to your friends and family or cut and paste it to brag in your blog?

Ipoh Trip

Ipoh was really fun. To know how fun it was click here. (Everybody will forgive me becoz u are all kind people.)

8th Jan

Today we would be going to Ipoh. B4 that, we visited Muzium Padi and Gg Kerian 1^st. And even b4 that, we had dim sum for breakfast.

Gg Kerian is not very high. It has the shape of an elephant.

The climb was difficult

but we endured till the top.

Muzium Padi boasts the largest paddy related collection in Malaysia (maybe even in the world. I mean, what other nations would waste so much money to build a museum dedicated to paddy? They’ll probably use it to subsidise their farmers. And what other nations have citizens bored enough to visit a museum dedicated to paddy {like us}?). It didn’t really sound like an interesting place to visit, but since we’re already in Kedah and its also in Kedah so might as well go. However, it turned out to be quite fun. Even b4 we entered the museum we already had fun taking stupid pics with the statues outside. The inside wasn’t as interesting though. Or at least, the downstairs with paddy collection wasn’t. Upstairs, they have this cool huge circular room with a fake all round view of Alor Star. Its hard to explain and even harder to imagine from what I explained, so just give up. Nothing high tech though.

At 2pm we bid farewell to Nooi’s family and went to Ipoh. Around 7pm we reached. Nothing interesting happened along the way coz everybody slept. Jing Guo and Christine were there to fetch us to a double storey terrace in Tmn Perak lent to us by an auntie from Xtine’s church. This is where we’d be staying until we go back.

Went for dinner at a huge restaurant with a lot of stalls. The restaurant was so big that the tables they place outside conquered the whole street. Obviously Majlis Bandaraya Ipoh isn’t very hardworking. We ate till 10 something and had to cancel supper.

Ok, so after I wrote the previous post in Nooi’s house we went out for supper at this roadside stall that only opens after 1am, famous for their curry mee (picture here). Did I mention that she has streamyx and 3 computers? On the way, I learnt that you can tell Keat Hwa male students from the others from their bald head. Everytime I see them I’ll think of Wen Jun. Btw, you can see a Kedai Farmasi Koay from the stall.


6th Jan

We went to find Koay (yes, Koay the Koay Jun Hong). I had fun at his house but I’m not sure bout Yeam and Nooi coz when I was there I was playing FIFA with him the whole time while they watch The Departed which, according to them, sucks (they didn’t actually use that word, I mean, they’re Yeam and Nooi. But basically that’s what they meant).
We went for lunch at this classy restaurant called Light N Easy, owned by Nooi’s dad’s friend. The dishes are reasonably priced. Its so unfair. In KL the cheapest dish in a restaurant like that would cost more than 10 ringgit. Wannard, the ex intec student, joined us for lunch. He’s now doing International B-I-dunno-how-to-spell in Kolej MARA Bangi.

Later we went to a fort that I dunno named what. But cant blame me, Yeam also dunno (check his blog). On the way there we visited the famous Keat Hwa and saw Nooi’s name in the main hall, engraved upon the Board of Glory of the school’s past SPM top scorers. The guard were suspicious of us, but Jun Hong told him this : “Kami bekas pelajar Keat Hwa, balik sini untuk melawat. Cintai Keat Hwa!” Walauweh…..

Ok, the fort. Its like any other fort, got watchtower, got cannons, got gate, no statues though. Dunno what else to write bout the fort.

For pre dinner meal we had something called puree (we need pre dinner coz we’d be having dinner late). Its like roti canai but crispier and the kuah nicer.

For dinner Nooi’s dad drive us to Jitra to have real Thai food. It takes a little less than 1 hour to get there. They have this Kengsom soup that I wouldn’t recommend to anyone that cannot eat spicy coz they’ll die. If you can, the place is a heaven.

We went back to Nooi’s house and I discovered that his brother has the full collection of Bleach anime! His brother is an anime fan. I watched and watched and before I knew it it was 4am. I made Nooi stay up till 4am. I’m a terrible guest. So sorry… (they were onlining, if u were wondering what they did till 4). Then we went back and slept.


7th Jan

We brought some clothes to Nooi’s house to wash. Then we went to a shopping complex to play bowling. Its more expensive than in ipoh, but still a little cheaper than ampang. Nooi ran into a dwarf tree trunk while parking.

In the evening we went to Alor Star Parade to meet Yeam’s friend, Jhuen Ri from KYUEM (Bank Negara scholar). They talked the whole evening in McD. We bumped into Chean Ying.

Had dinner in 华陀管, a Chinese restaurant famous for its herbs. Finishing their 24 flavour thingy tea was really torturing, but somehow Nooi enjoyed it.

At night we went to the Alor Star tower and had a magnificent night view of Alor Star. We were brought to the top in a lift with transparent wall outside the tower. Merlin might’ve fainted if he was there. At the top, it was really windy. They have these huge binoculars that initially required RM 1 coins to use but since they went obsolete we can now use for free. So nice :-)

Knowing that I’d be going to Ipoh the next day I bought a dvd-r and burned the 1st part of Bleach from Nooi’s bro that night. I was so happy.

Sorry for lack of photos. Havent got from Yeam yet.

Out again

u must have realised that i've given up on writing about kuching. Reason being too lazy. So,......like that lah.

But guess what? I'm in Alor Setar!! Yup, after enduring a 6-hour bus ride I'm finally here! 6 hours during which I tried to sleep but couldnt. Imagine sitting at the same place for 6 hours, cant walk around, cant sleep, cant straighten your legs, the only views you get consistently being forests beside the highway and a balding head at the front seat. So wat did I do? I brought a book, but im not used to reading on d bus so most of the time I just let my thought wander and wander for hours. Im an expert in not concentrating on the things around me.

So at around 7pm I reached Alor Setar where I was picked up by Nooi Hoay and Yeam (who arrived a few minutes earlier). she drove us to the inn that we're gonna stay in during our trip here, Trader's Inn. Nooi booked a room with 2 single beds 4 us that cost RM30 per night. The inn has 6 common bathrooms and 2 tv, one of which has Astro, is very clean and within walking distance to Nooi's house.

After bathing we went out 4 dinner with Nooi, Nooi's mom and Nooi's younger sister at a restaurant famous for its ikan bakar. Erm actually not just ikan la they bakar all types of seafood one.We go there and choose what we want to grill and they'll grill it for us. They will really take their own sweet time doing it coz customers have to wait for up to an hour sometimes. But we were lucky,our food came after around 20 minutes. As warned beforehand, they are super super spicy but quite delicious.


Then we came to Nooi's house and I typed this.

ATTENTION : IMPOSTOR DETECTED

Yeam Shin Yau informed me of the existence of a blog with the address http://www.lifeofsean.blogspot.com . As you can obviously see, THIS IS AN IMPOSTOR!!!!! He started blogging in August 2005 while I started in June 2005, so its obvious who copied who rite? Go find your own blog address lah weh!

Interesting Facts

Interesting fact 1 : The 1st person to go to space died in an aeroplane accident.

Interesting fact 2 : It is physically impossible to lick your own elbow.























Interesting fact 3 : you just tried to lick your own elbow.
























Interesting fact 4 :You just failed.


HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

My 2007 New Year's Resolutions

Surprising. I cant think of any. And after I realise that I feel like I have no regrets even if I die know. Makes me think of the song I Did It My Way. And now I'm singing it with new confidence.

My 2006 New Year's Resolutions Checklist

1. Study very hard to fly. [checked]

2. Control my gaming time. I’ve just bought a computer game called Football Manager 2006 and it’s so addictive I just can’t stop playing. It’s really scary. I hope when the new sem starts I can reduce to 1 or 2 hours a day. [a little bit short of target, but understandably forgivable]

3. Study extremely hard to fly. [checked =)]

4. Be a better person. [checked]

5. Exercise at least 8 minutes a day. I’m getting fat. [almost]

6. Don’t online so much. [checked]

7. Beat Koay at least twice in Math, Specialist Math and Physics. [=.=" ...]

8. Get enough sleep. Average 7 hours a day. I hope. [not possible]

Conclusion : Successful to a certain extent

What I did

Well, as I said, I went to my aunt’s house so that I can stay with my grandma for a week b4 I fly. She’s taking care of my super duper extremely tremendously cute 2-year-old cousin. Obviously, the cuteness runs in the family.

my cousin

me

I even celebrated my birthday there.

Then on the 24^th, I came back.

On the 26^th, I went to Intec to take my cert.

On the 27^th, I went to a friend’s house. His name is Bak Jit Chang. This is him.

Last time in secondary school I used to go to his house to play on Friday. Then in Form 4, he moved to Cheras and changed school to St John Institution. He just finished STPM there. Now, b4 I fly off, he invited me to go to his house again.

He’s the one that introduced me to the wonders of Football Manager and blogging. So for all the things I did when I should be studying, he is to be held responsible. His blog is http://www.cognition87.blogspot.com. He had another 1 but stopped after a while. This is a new 1.

On the 1^st day I was there, we played computer games the whole day. He’s far ahead of me in Football Manager, but I’m better than him in Fifa.

Then the next day we went out to Mid Valley with his brother, his sister, his girlfriend Caerrie and his friends Khasturi and Tommy. He already booked tickets for Eragon, but because I watched it already he changed the tickets to Curse of the Golden Flower. Currently I am in no mood to write review for the movie.

I had a conversation with his gf Caerrie which goes like this:

Me: Caerrie you were from Ipoh?

Caerrie : Yeah.

Me : Which school?

Caerrie : Convent.

Me: Oh Convent!

Caerrie : Why? You know anyone there?

Me : You know Kok Jia Huei?

Caerrie: Yeah I know Jia Huei!

Me : Oh wow! How bout Christine? Christine Tan Hui Wen?

Caerrie : Yeah I know Christine also.

What a small world.

Exam Result

I get 99.1 for TER. It's nothing to be proud of, but nothing to be disappointed of either. Nothing to be proud, of coz a lot of the ppl that I asked got better result than me, all of them non-medic student (congrats to Quanyie, Koay, Audrey and Daphne). Nothing to be disappointed of, coz even though I dont know wats the TER requirement for my course, I'm sure this meets it. Now I dont need to celebrate my bday in a bad mood.

Hope everybody gets to fly.

And hope everybody remembers my Bday! Which is today!

(This post suddenly disappeared so I have to re-type. Must be blogger's fault)

Map of waterfront

Behold! My artistic talent unleashed!

Those small black dots on the river are sampans

I went out today

The Kuching posts are interrupted to bring you this short post that I suddenly feel like writing.

Earlier today at PJ Hilton Hotel there was an education fair. Representatives from some Australia and UK universities were coming, one of them the University of Sydney. That’s why I decided to go. I didn’t know what I wanted to ask but I was sure I’d think of something. I didn’t want to go alone but now that everyone had gone back home it’s quite hard to find anyone to go with me. After pondering for awhile I decided to drag Pei Fei along. Rep from University of Queensland coming also. She said yes, and would even bring a friend along. According to her, her friend is very pretty J … but she’s a Punjabi. Too bad Nat’s not here.

So off I went this afternoon to Taman Jaya Putra station where I would meet Pei Fei and her friend at 3pm. When I reached KL it was still quite early so I went to Popular 1^st. While I was happily reading Pei Fei suddenly messaged me and asked if I want to meet at Masjid Jamek station. I told her I’m already in Popular and she replied nvr mind. I told her it’s ok I can go to Masjid Jamek and she replied that she’s already on the Putra coz she’s scared she’d be late. Late? But she’s meeting me? I looked at the clock and OMG IT’S 2.45!!! And so I rushed.

As the train reached Tasik Jaya station I checked my handphone clock. 3 o’clock sharp. I couldn’t help but to marvel at my time management skill. Then I saw Pei Fei sitting on a bench alone. Turned out her friend ffk her, so only the two of us would be going today. Well, what to do. I just hope I wont be abducted by a green UFO tonight. But the last time I checked, the UFO landed in Kedah so I should be safe. For now.

We took a taxi to Hilton hotel. The driver charged (robbed) us RM3 for a ride that would take less than 5 minutes have we been on foot.

It took us a while to find the ballroom but we eventually did. It was quite small, but there were many ppl there. We looked around and couldn’t find any UQ representatives! I looked around and couldn’t find any Uni of Sydney reps either! What the heck! We asked a worker there and he said both UQ and Uni of Sydney couldn’t make it. Sigh… Came here for nothing. But the guy said we can try asking the counselor there if we have any questions. Since we’re there already, might as well lah.

The counselor is a she. She is quite fat and makes jokes then laugh very hard at them. And she didn’t know Intec, as did the taxi driver @ daylight robber just now. You can tell from the way they say “Intec? Ooohh…” But she’s a kind lady. She was really helpful and tried to tell us as much as she could about what we wanted to know. Pei Fei can take ferry to campus! Beside the counselor sat a young man, an engineering student from Monash who has just completed his 1^st year and was there to tell people of the living condition in Australia. From him we learnt more. He said he doesn’t know about the weather in Sydney, but since it’s not that far from Melbourne the climate should almost be the same. Summer in Sydney and Melbourne are definitely hotter than the weather here, but according to him we’ll be there during colder times (due to summer holiday I guess). The coldest it gets in Melbourne is about 3 Celcius, but thats in winter mornings. Wearing a cardigan over a normal shirt should be sufficient. He also didn’t encourage us to open an account with international banks as they will charge us everytime we withdraw money from the ATM. He said we can open accounts with local Australian banks and money can be transferred from the bank here, no problem. The fee for transaction is quite small. Personally, he’s using the services of Commonwealth Bank and Westpac Bank.

We were out of there in less than 20 minutes. Just so that this trip wont be such a big disappointment, we agreed to go to Amcorp Mall. Walking around aimlessly, we saw the cinema and, guess what, Eragon was showing!! It was 4.20pm, we bought 6pm tickets and walked around (aimlessly) again.

Pei Fei is a bit abnormal when it comes to shopping. She doesn’t check out clothes, she doesn’t check out accessories, she doesn’t check out books, she doesn’t check out techno stuff and she doesn’t check out games. She did check out CD’s though. It feels more like she was accompanying me shopping. I wonder how my sister can not feel guilty when I have to follow her here and there when we went shopping.

We had dinner at Kenny Rogers and off to the cinema we went. As we stepped inside the commercials just ended and the movie was just going to start. “Wah so punctual!” Pei Fei exclaimed but she didn’t know my time management skill played a big part in this. Somehow.

Movie review: It wasn’t as bad as I expected after watching the trailer, maybe because I could hear Pei Fei enjoying it. True, the lead actor still look very yong sui, but the dragon wasn’t as thin as she looked in the trailer. I couldn’t say that it was excellent, but it’s above average. Not many pros, but quite a lot of cons. As you might’ve already seen from the trailer, King Galbatorix showed his face. Murtagh’s scar was very small. Saphira didn’t grow big gradually; she flew into the clouds the first time she learnt to fly and Puff! Puff! Puff! she magically turned big and can suddenly speak English. Arya doesn’t have pointed ears and Pei Fei didn’t even know Arya’s an elf until I told her (for those of you that haven’t read the book but going to watch the movie, Arya is an elf). The Urgals don’t have horns, they’re just normal humans. Well, barbaric normal humans with painting on their faces. There’s no mention of mind-reading. Roran’s girlfriend doesn’t even exist. Ok, now I’m not so sure that it’s not bad anymore. I can understand that certain parts of the book being excluded when the story is filmed, but not making Arya’s ears pointed is inexplicable. And he movie ends in less than 2 hours! It’s not like they have not enough time, why do they need to exclude so much? They could have made it 3 hours and put in so much more. Having said that, I’m sure you’ll find the movie better than the trailer implies.

Today turns out to be fun after all. After the movie we went back and I wrote this.

Note from author: The Kuching posts will resume in about a week’s time as I’m going to my auntie’s house. Therefore, I will not be blogging unless there’s something important to blog about, like my exam result or my Bday. Which is why u should wish me happy bday by sms n not through my blog :-)

2nd Day in Kuching

After waking up, we had breakfast and waited for Boon to arrive. He was to be our driver for the next few days. The waiting process took so long that by the time he came, he’s already taking us for lunch. I later learnt from him that punctuality is not to be expected of Kuchingite.

Sitting in the car, I get to see Kuching for the 1^st time. Last night it was too dark to see clearly. Not that they are so uncivilized that they don’t have lampposts, don’t misunderstand. They have lots of them. It’s just that even with lampposts, I cant get a good view of the city at night. So this was what I noticed about Kuching:

1. They don’t live on trees there, unlike what Yee Hong thinks. In fact, their houses are even bigger generally than peninsula houses. They also do not eat from banana leaves.
2. Kuching looks like Ipoh. It even feels like Ipoh.
3. Kuching is VERY clean. So clean, in fact, that you will be inclined to litter just to make it feel more Malaysian.

After a while, we arrived in a Chinese restaurant in the town. The others were already there, sitting around at least 4 tables combines together. The restaurant was like any normal Chinese restaurant in KL, with a lot of stalls selling different kinds of food. The foods are not Kuching-specialty-cant-find-anywhere-else-in-the-world foods. Except for the Kolo mee. But the noodles that I ordered was not bad.

After finishing our meal the usual chit-chat started. Suddenly, Yeam asked, “Sze Ching, can you help me take a group picture?”

Being such a nice guy, of course I said ok. But right after I said, “Ok everybody look here!” cries of “Wait!” came from a lot of people and I stared in dismay as more than 10 cameras were passed to me. Oh well.

Pre-Ka Shin group picture

Half-way through taking pictures, Boon who disappeared mysteriously after we got here reappeared with Ka Shin and Ka Shin came to the rescue. Ka Shin is a friend whom Boon dragged along to be a driver. (Boon: Don’t say drag along to be a driver la make me sound so bad. I ask him out to have fun together…)

Ka Shin

So, Ka Shin took over. He seemed to be a bit embarrassed shouting “1,2,3” and have people in the restaurant staring at him. Pity the guy.

Post-Ka Shin group picture

Next stop: Waterfront. This is supposedly a famous place in Kuching. Its called waterfront coz its located in front of water, that is, the Sarawak River. The river isn’t clean (water is brown in colour) but its not as dirty as Klang River. At least there’s no rubbish clogging it up. There were a few sampans with roofs to bring passengers across to Fort Margarita (I don’t know how to spell). I found the advertisements on the roofs of these sampans amusing and wondered how much we need to pay to advertise there. We walked around, took pictures and took more pictures coz that’s all there is to do there.

Group picture. Whenever there's a group picture we'll have to pose for berbelas-belas camera.

Then, surprise! Daphne came with her friends, Gloria and Jodie (I think). Gloria is Hannah Tan’s sister. Guess Daphne wasn’t exaggerating when she said she knows Hannah Tan’s sister personally. We took more pictures.

We went across the road to Main Bazaar, which is a row of shops selling souvenirs to us tourists. While other people went hunting for souvenirs straightaway, smart people like Chao Wang and I searched for icy-cold beverages to drink while we walk. It was a really hot afternoon. We found this bakery that sell drinks. Some are quite unique. Besides ice shake, they also have snow shake. Intrigued, I ordered 1. It turned out to be something like ABC but with much much finer ice and no other stuff but juice on ice. But the ice has a milky flavour to it and taste like ice cream. Together with the thick strawberry juice on top and the hot weather, the snow shake taste excellent. Only RM2.50.

As I stepped out of the bakery, others looked at my snow shake jealously.

Next mission: souvenirs. After spending a few hours at the shops, I bought a few bracelets, a whistle and an ashtray for my friends and family. We took more pictures.

We stayed till the evening and crossed the river in those sampans to fort Margarita. Like every other historical fort in Malaysia it has a gate, statues, cannons and watchtowers. However, it also has jails and one of the statues had been sexually harassed.

The river

The Fort

The sexually-harrassed statue

We then went to Boon’s house to rest before going out for dinner. Boon’s house is a corner lot terrace with PS2. The keyword here is PS2. That means fun.

At around 8, Ka Shin came and we went out for dinner at a steamboat restaurant called Hornbill’s Corner. I’ve only been as full as I was then after the McD buffet last year.

Then we went back and watched DVD and slept.