University of Nottingham - Lecturers

So looks like I have the mood to blog today.

Time for me to talk about the lecturers who teach me for this semester.

1. English lecturer - Ms. Cecily Mary Eruthayam

- First impression of her: old woman who died her hair blond.

- Comes late for class by 10-15 minutes. And will ask those who come later, "why are you late?"

- Carries out the infamous "Thinking shit sheet". For every task, we all have to answer the same type of question, like: "How did this task influence your thinking about the topic?"

- And there are a few more questions. And they get pretty sickening.

- She will ALWAYS correct grammatical errors. And she hates it when students speak Malaysian English.

- She is one hell-of-a drama queen. Pretty obvious for English teachers.

- Although she has showed a comedy video, and at least she can laugh about things a bit.

To St. Paul students - She looks like a combination of Pn. Shun and Ms. Vimala.

2. Foundation Algebra 1st class lecturer - Dr. K. Harikrishnan

- Seems to like skipping lectures. He twice got a replacement lecturer to teach. The replacement was still good though.

- Has awesome writing (Sarcasm)

- This lecturer: always on time for class to teach.

To St. Paul students - He looks like a combination of thin Mr. Ravi and Mr. Selladurai (Remember the male Indian teacher who died his hair blond?)

3. Mechanics lecturer - Mr. Tan Thian Khoon

- Really short

- My personal tutor

- Has a facebook picture with an elephant behind him

- His first ever lecture, a dog came in into the lecture hall. And all the way to the front! Classic!

4. Light, Wave and Electrons lecturer - Mr. Terence Wong

- Short-sighted and long-winded. Sums it up.

Therefore, I couldn't understand anything since 1st day of class. Bad sign.

5. IT Lecturer - Bavani Ramayah

- Has the most high-pitched voice among all.

- We end up on facebook the whole time during class.

- Her classes aren't any interesting though.

6. Malaysian Studies Lecturer - Ms. Evans Isaac

- Makes the subject a lot more interesting than Sejarah in school.

- Knows the history of Malaysia and some parts of the world in-depth.

- Her grammar isn't that good though.

- Her famous line: "You pay attention, I let you leave class earlier"

7. Chemistry lecturer - Mr. Chiang Choon Lai

- A total hunchback

- Has so much time to watch any movie at all, he'll ask the class, "anyone watched ironman/prince of persia etc." Sure has a lot of time.

- Loves to make fun of the mistakes of students. That's why we all are scared to answer anything he asks.

- One thing very good about him - he lets us out of class very early if there's an exam later in the evening.

- Seems to love hugging people. Thankfully I'm not a victim. :P

Other lecturers:

Mr Balrama - Replacement algebra lecturer. So much easier to understand his methods than Harikrishnan's.

Dr. Teo Lee Peng - 2nd class algebra lecturer. Combination of Pn. Wee, Ms. Lim and Ms. Lai. Except, even worse. As I heard :P

Some of my batch-mates have a few different lecturers, so I can't elaborate on them.

Though I have been such a critic, classes aren't that bad after all :D

My Blog Will Die Soon

My twitter account

Twitter has successfully reduced my number of blog posts.

A good time to start twitting, as I will not have much time to post my usual lengthy blog posts once I enter university.

Speaking of university, I have applied and have been accepted at University of Nottingham.

Going for foundation in engineering, and then most likely to continue by going for a 4-year degree course in mechanical engineering.

Intake on the 25th of April, orientation on the 22nd.

Parents wanted me to keep away from the Sunway/Subang area. Loads of distractions there.

25th April. It's this soon. Just a week after I'm back from my New Zealand holiday.

Leaving for NZ on the 2nd April, will be there for 2 weeks.

I'm prepared to learn living on a budget, to get to places around myself and stuff.

Got some help from the Singapore trip, but my cousin did help a lot.

But I can't really wait for it. I'm ready.

Anyway I've no more time to post lengthy posts, so it ends here.

Want more updates? My twitter account link (Link also available on top):

www.twitter.com/mdbgtft

Last Meeting Days For Some

I have been still experiencing the Paramore concert aftermath.

Still love them loads.

But I suppose some of you are a bit fed up of me talking about Paramore, after 6 continuous blog posts about it, so it's time to do something different.

Anyway, a day before the SPM results day, Kelvesh, Firdaus and Lucas came to Coffee Mug for a drink.

They looked really nervous there. I wasn't anywhere near that.

Let's see whether I remember anything interesting they did... I know Firdaus came really late, after the other 2 finished their drink.

Lucas ordered Watermelon, Kelvesh ordered Orange and Firdaus ordered Kiwi.

I arranged the glasses, and, considering that Lucas and Kelvesh likes talking about lame stuff, I decided to do the same. I arranged them like traffic lights.

Out of nowhere they got so excited and Lucas took pictures of them, and uploaded one on facebook. I didn't know people this age will get THAT excited over it :P

Nobody commented on that pic though :D.

The next day, went to school to pick up the results.

Reached school at 10.20a.m. Saw quite a number of people waiting. Old classmates. Most of them haven't changed one bit, from my observation.

College stories came about.

Devin said that he broke a college chair while laughing so hard. No surprise.

He said Leonard, his other college mate, will always sit next to girls.

Once he sat next to one, then found out she was aged 20, then straight away sat next to another. I burst out laughing with a few others when I heard that.

Nothing left to do there, as I found out that the results will be out at 11.30a.m, I decided to go to Era Walk for breakfast. Went with Firdaus, Fong and Subrash.

Firdaus took us for the very short drive there. But it was enough to scare the heck out of me.

I felt like killing him when he was driving. Not a good driver at all. And he can say that his driving is good. And tells others what to do some more.

Happened once when I was sending him home from A&W. Irritated me like hell.

Anyway that day he cornered very aggressively, signaled very late, almost hit an oncoming car while reversing. I vow never to enter a car which Firdaus is driving, ever again.

Anyway we had, or at least I had breakfast at Alan Kopitiam. And I walked back to school.

By then, it was 11.40a.m. Results were out. I've got no intention to reveal results of others here.

But they, whoever the "they" are, screwed my English Oral cert.

They made 4 mistakes with the gradings of my oral cert. If 1 mistake, it isn't so bad. 4!!!!!

I have to return to school anytime soon to get a replacement cert, as I made a complaint.

"They" also made one grammatical error in my Director House Report. Ugh...

But many of my former schoolmates left fast, I saw some crying, a few with joy, and a few with despair. Elijah was crying, many wouldn't have expected it, but I wasn't that surprised. I know that every tough guy has their softer sides.

Went to Jusco, saw a few friends there.

I thought Jusco would be full of my batch-mates. But hardly any.

Everybody was away, somewhere. At least half of them, I won't meet again. Ever. I couldn't even say goodbye! :(

For some of those who don't have facebook, I can't really contact them any longer... I will miss them.

But later in life I will be meeting new people. College and work. Hopefully I'll end up meeting the right people.

Anyway the next day, dad found out my results, wasn't too happy about it.

But somehow I still felt pretty calm about it.

Saturday, guess who I saw at Coffee Mug.

Justin, the 10A+ fella and Nicholas!

They came with most of their family members, covering a total of 10 people.

When I saw the group coming at first, I was like, oh, no, don't lah, so many people!

Then I saw the two come, and woah, it's ok then. :P

Justin - unchanged. He's still well known for giving a certain stare and making me laugh.

Nicholas's mum gave me an RM10 tip at the end. Thanks!

Met my very old friend, Asyraf, my schoolmate which I lost contact with since Standard 6. He came too.

Eventful, tiring day.

But still, I was stubborn and followed my 3a.m+ sleeping time schedule. And woke up 7.10a.m to get ready for church. Needed to pass the Paramore T-shirts to Francisca.

Sleepy as hell, but still went. My dad supposed to go to, but he couldn't wake up :P.

Drove the Manual-drive Mercedes to church. First time driving the manual to church.

It was stressful. I was trapped at the area where I was near the hall entrance. Cars coming from all directions.

Luckily I'm able to work under stress :D.

Found a small opening, got cars to move along. I stalled twice, got damn scared, but it was alright, I got out of that area without a scratch. Then went another round, parked a bit far away.

It was the first time I reversed park since the day I went for my JPJ license test :P.

I realised I was less than 2 inches until hitting the parking meter pole. But survived.

(I'm going to church what, takkan God wanna put me into an accident leading there! :P :P :P)

After 15 minutes finding a parking space, I reached church in under 5 minutes late.

Saw Natasha Lim there, and the way she jumped and said Hi to me, it was so funny. I would love to impersonate her jump once I see her again.

She's really scared of dragonflies too. I should address her as 'Dragonfly' from now on. :D.

Anyway passed Fran the Paramore T-shirts, and got back a total of RM186 back.

4 bucks short from what I was supposed to be paid. Hmm... purposely gave less, hoping I would give a discount, eh?

Nah, I know Franny wouldn't do that. You're a nice girl, right? :D

I sort of challenged her to wear the t-shirt straight away. Didn't want. You betrayed Paramore! :P

Anyway was in church until about 2.30p.m, Zeno, Simone, Lydia was there.

Lydia said church has Wi-fi. You gotta be kidding! Church!

Anyway, forced down a shot of Espresso to stay less sleepy during work.

Went to work, busy like mad. Felt like Singapore all... over... again.

Paramore/Singapore #6

NOTE: Please read posts #1 to #5 before you read this :D

March 8 - 1337 SIN

Walked back towards the Esplanade, bought a few drinks (I was THAT thirsty from the immense walking, with my heavy bag too), and headed to the Fountain of Wealth.
I took quite a bit of asking around and some instinct to actually find the place.
And damn, I never knew the fountain was actually inside the shopping mall - at Suntec City Mall.
I didn't think I would have taken that long to find it, then I saw my mobile phone clock, and I saw it's 3p.m! WHAT?
Can't believe I took THAT long to find it. And it wasn't actually far away from the Merlion.
But loved the adventure. I like walking in circles in unknown areas by myself anyway. :D
At the fountain of wealth, I did follow what I'm supposed to do - I put my hand in the fountain, and walked around it 3 times. Not that I believe it will make me wealthy, but I found it pretty cool to do it.
Soon, it was about 3:30 in the evening, so I decided to head back home. Was tired like mad walking, ankles and knees killing me. Imagine for people who are not very fit!
I searched for the MRT station. Entered the City Hall, and followed the signs above leading to the MRT station.
Guess how long I took to find it. 25 minutes!
I was walking and walking and walking and walking, and wondering when will it ever end.
Although I did make a few wrong turns before I turned back, and had to drop by 7-11 to buy Mars bars. Energy content of a single Mars bar - 1050 calories! Perfect for quick energy, especially when you don't have the appetite to eat any meal.
However... I saw the sign - "No food and drinks - Fine 500$". I immediately hid my food and drinks into my bag. :P

March 8 - 1603 SIN

Finally at the MRT station, one guy helped me buy the ticket, as I wasn't sure how the system works.
By the way, Singaporeans are really nice and down to earth people.
He explained to me which train to go on, and which lane I was supposed to take. Really good.
Soon, when I was there, a tourist thought I was a local, and asked me how to get to a certain location via the train.
I made a guess, a smart guess of course :P. I wouldn't want to make a wild guess, it would be stupid.
And I was right in the end :P
I was surprised I was asked in the first place, as I really looked like a backpacker. :D
Traveled by train to Kranji, where buses travel to Larkin, one of the main bus centrals in Johor.
It's so much cheaper to go from Singapore > Larkin > Seremban, rather than Singapore straight to Seremban.
You can save up to RM70! And that's not little at all.
Anyway went to Kranji, got on the bus for Larkin.
Went through Woodlands customs in Singapore, no problem.
Travelled by the same bus for a few minutes, arrived at the Johor Bahru customs, no problem.
Suddenly, when I wanted to go to the bus downstairs, it was not there.
It appeared that the bus left me behind.
I was searching around the whole terminal, no sign of it. I even asked the police there. :P
I panicked, as normally people won't get dropped off there, and buses are normally full.
Luckily, about 20 minutes later, there was a bus with one seat remaining. Ah, phew!
I did have to spend another RM1.40 to Larkin, and the bus driver was pretty rude (Malaysian), but the heck. At least I can find my way home!
Traffic was horrible. Only reached the Larkin bus central at 5.45 evening.

March 8 - 1755 KUL

Found a bus heading to Seremban.
By then, I was sickeningly exhausted. The bus was pretty good, they felt like airplane seats :D
And so when the bus left, I finally got to sleep. After almost full sleepless nights, tiring few days as hell, I managed to sleep. Thankfully the seats were comfortable.
The bus had a TV, and they showed this Chinese action movie when I woke up.
It had very interesting subtitles. I'm suspecting, someone wrote down the Chinese words, and they used a direct translator from the internet or something, then just inserted it into the movie.
I couldn't stop laughing. There's one guy in the movie named Lung, a.k.a Brother Lung.
And the subtitles kept saying "paru-paru"!
There was one point I just had to burst our laughing. When one girl in the movie was shouting his name - "Lung!!!" "Lung!!!"
The subtitles showed "paru-paru!" "paru-paru!".
Some people in the bus laughed too.
I did watch it until the end, although I didn't really understand what it was about, it looked pretty interesting, the action and stuff.
And finally, reception came back! My phone could call and receive calls again! My mom was extremely worried about me. She even asked whether I was still stuck in Larkin or Singapore. :P
The bus arrived much faster than expected. I initially told my mom 11p.m, and the bus arrived at 9.45p.m :P

March 8 - 2150 KUL

Got out of the bus in Terminal 1.
After starving quite often in Singapore, appetite-less, suddenly I became awfully hungry again.
Back in Seremban, tired, hungry. And every place in Terminal 1 was closed by then. I was shocked!
So I walked all the way to the 2-floor KFC for a meal.
More walking that means. But I felt like I got used to it.
When ordering my food, I saw a few staring at me with the huge bag on my back, with my sleeping bag tied to it.
I was more focused not to knock anybody over, especially if they're carrying trays.
Ordered a Zinger Burger set, and used my Coffee Mug experience, used one hand to carry the tray around loads of people, and bring it to the 2nd floor.
I finished my meal in about 5-7 minutes, the burger, the wedges, the drink. I was that hungry.
And then called my mom, asked her to pick me up, then walked to the area.
Guess where? Church :D
I felt safest there. I had loads of valuables - wallet, camera, MP4 player, cell phone, and Paramore merchandise :D
What a journey. Worth every minute of it. So many challenges, so much hardship, so much sacrifice, just to watch Paramore. And no regrets at all!
When I reached home, I straight away took out all the Paramore items I bought, and started taking pics of them to be posted on facebook :D.
I was still so hyped about the concert, I couldn't really sleep.
What time did I sleep? 6a.m. Yep.
The best possible way to end the day?
Watching Wigan beat Liverpool 1-0. Hahah! :P. Sorry Lucas.

____________________________________________

I might take a few days break from blogging. (That's a lot for my standards already)
Anyway, to those who are so curious about my results, I got
1A+, 1A, 2A-, 3B+, 1C+, 1C.
Happy?

Lastly, I support PAS, I like PAS! No, not the political party, but the Paramore Addiction Syndrome. :D

| To be continued in post #... nah! Don't worry, no more! :P |

Paramore/Singapore #5

NOTE: Please read posts #1 to #4 before you read this.

March 8 - 0105 SIN

Went by taxi back to Kenny's place to pick my bag up, then headed off to his friend's place, where I'm staying.
After midnight taxi fares are increased by 50%. Woah!
Met the room owner, Douglas, and I suspect his girlfriend, Jacinta.
Woah, it was pretty messy. But cool. He had a collection of 'antique' amps and 5 guitars!
Of course, I had to get my hands on one. :D
I picked the classical guitar, because that type has strings where there's the least likelihood for a string to break.
Then Kenny told the rest about my playing by ear.
And so Jacinta started to ask me to play like every song she asked me to play, whether I heard of them or not.
It seemed like she was bullying me.
But then, I thought I lost touch, but I did really well.
Played nearly every song well, although there were songs I never heard in my whole life.
Did that until like... 2:30 in the morning?
Went to wash up soon.
Oh dear... Douglas's place's toilet... Ugh....
It's... just... horrible. I won't explain it.
Although I needed to clear my bowels, I just couldn't. It looked disgusting.
But I did bath and pee of course :D
Went to sleep right after. After a tiring night, didn't take long for me to sleep, although I did feel the Paramore Hype Aftermath.
After a really really really really exhausting day.

March 8 - 1015 SIN

Kenny woke me up. By then Douglas left for school/college.
Took a bath, and luckily I bought the Paramore T-shirt. I didn't have any other T-shirts, clean ones left in my bag. So I wore it.
Packed my stuff, and left the place. The bathroom there was a place to remember, but not in a good way :P.
Followed Kenny to the bank. And then he had to go to school.
So at around 11a.m, I was on my own. Time to explore places.
Walked around for places to eat, didn't have my breakfast until then.
I went to McDonald's, already knowing that the usual food in Singapore sucks.
I just bought one McSpicy burger there.
Why do Malaysians have to lengthen the bloody thing and name it "Spicy Chicken McDeluxe"?
Anyway, yeah, bought one, and struggled so much to finish it.
It tasted no different from the ones in Malaysia, but I still didn't have much appetite. All the way in Singapore I was like that.
But I still managed to force my way to finish it.
Then, I went to Starbucks to buy a drink.
Shocked? After all my anti-Starbucks talk?
Maybe. But I only bought a drink from there, because it's the very only place, where if you convert SG$ to MYR, it's almost the same. Everything else, stuff in Singapore is more expensive than Malaysia. So yeah.
And bought the Signature Hot Chocolate. Iced.
I was embarrassed. The Starbucks Barista/Waitress made fun of me for ordering ICED Signature HOT Chocolate.
Ugh..... But I salute her for not being afraid to do so.
And the Singapore Baristas are better than the Malaysian ones. :D. Serious. At least they blend the chocolate properly, not like the ones I buy in Malaysia.
I bought this also because it contains a lot of calories. Loads of energy, required for the long walking.

March 8 - 1209 SIN

I went to search for the Merlion. I decided to challenge myself and keep walking while searching for it.
Without asking anybody.
I kept walking and walking, trying to refresh my memory of the routes I was walking the day before.
Really really tiring walk. But I found it after 50 minutes of walking.
I did go into the Esplanade just before that. Really cool place, and Kool and the Gang are going to perform there not long to go. Wait, they're still alive?
I relaxed at the waterfront area for a while. Nearly fell asleep :P. So jet lagged from the previous day.
But shortly after I walked 10 to 15 minutes to the Merlion. Earlier the Merlion was in sight, but was still pretty far away.
Reached there, and I never knew there was a baby Merlion! Heheh.
But the big one, the real one, is big :P. When I went nearer, it felt so nice to feel the small water sprinkling on me. It felt very relaxing. Although some people were running away from it :P.
Soon, got one Japanese girl to take a pic of me near the Merlion. The pics where I was standing on the steps and sitting on the Merlion barrier. (illegally :P). They were pretty good pics.
And then I went to the other side, the main area where photographs should be taken.
Got this dude to take pics of me. This time the pics wasn't that great. But what the heck.
I still looked pretty good in the Paramore T-shirt. :D

~Gotta sleep. Gonna post my last Singapore blog post, post 6# tomorrow~

| To be continued in post #6 (Last post) |

Paramore/Singapore #4

Please read Posts #1, #2 and #3 before you read this.

March 7 - 2203 SIN

I went out of the Indoor Stadium.
And woah! Loads of people were still screaming away!
And loads of people were playing Brick By Boring Brick on their mobile phones or their car radios.
It was madness! And all of the same song!
I was like... enough, enough! Have some variety a bit :P.
But it was pretty cool watching people go crazy, even after the concert ended.
Shortly after, I wanted to go have my dinner. The last thing I ate before that was around 5p.m where I ate one bag of chips, that was about it.
Hungry, but when I went to the mall nearby, every restaurant was full, with ridiculously long lines.
At each restaurant I walked to, I kept looking at the line, going to the next one, and again, doing the same thing. I didn't feel like going to eat in the end.
At 10:45.pm I went back to the Stadium, peeked backstage and saw the band going into their van and heading off, to their hotel I suspect.
Quite a number of cars were following them all the way.
At 11p.m I went to the restaurant at the Stadium area. Wanted to eat something, was ridiculously hungry at that time.
Saw the prices... NO WAY! Paying about RM80 for a meal. That's way worse than Manhattan Fish Market!
Since I was on a budget, I would sacrifice and stay hungry for that period.
Kenny was supposed to come and meet me at 11:30p.m.
Since the whole trip I couldn't use my phone at all, I had to go look for someone for me to borrow a phone. By then the stadium was pretty empty.
It was 11:40p.m by then I got a little worried. I did find someone to borrow a phone. He looked reluctant, but still gave me the phone for a minute. Kenny was on his way that time.
I gotta thank the guy who lent me the phone.
I actually wanted to go and find my way back, but then I wasn't sure where Kenny would be, and he probably would have been searching for me there.

March 8 - 0005 SIN

Finally we noticed each other. By then, not a soul at the Singapore Indoor Stadium.
I realised how quiet Singapore was when I was on my back to the place I had to stay in. DEAD!
I saw one person walking right in the middle of the road.
Every place was closed in town.
I did go to one of the stalls somewhere with him.
I bought Nasi Goreng Kampung.
I don't remember eating rice this hot in my life. I did ask for spicy, but I expected the Malay restaurant type of spicy in Malaysia. This was ridiculous.
I didn't even finish half of it. It didn't even taste nice in the first place. Appetite throughout the day did not improve, although I still felt agonisingly hungry.
Wasted 5$ for the rice. Now I know what these people were talking about when they said that food in Singapore sucks. :P
Was really thirsty too, Had two drinks.
Soon after, Kenny showed me the Esplanade and the Merlion. Wished I had my camera with me during that time. It looked beautiful at night, except for the surroundings, where I mostly saw cranes.
I can't imagine how the place would be like in 5 years. Would be really gorgeous once the buildings are finished.

That's it, off to work now, will continue in Post #5 after work.

| To be continued in post #5 |

Paramore/Singapore #3

NOTE: Please read post #1 and post #2 before you continue here.

March 7 - 2000 SIN

The concert started right on time.
Much to my surprise, there WAS an opening act.
I've no idea what the name of the band is, it's a Singaporean band as far as I know.
It was similar to Paramore - all guys except the lead singer, female.
When the girl came on stage, people were screaming like mad. But it was short lived.
I was laughing away when most of the crowd thought it was Hayley Williams, Paramore's lead singer was on stage.
The opening act sang 4 songs, and took about 20 minutes.
I was pretty happy about it, as I heard from Kelvesh, the opening acts for Green Day's concert went for 1 hour 20 minutes. That is very long.
During the break, I was talking to this girl beside me. She was pretty cool.
She was shocked to find out that I bought 3 Paramore T-shirts. :P
I did see around the stadium. It was a sell out. Except for the cheapest seats.
Soon the lights dimmed. The whole crowd was anticipating the start of the performance.
It was nearly pitch black. The usual Paramore intro was played during that time.

And suddenly Hayley appeared, she went crazy as the crowd did too. It was loud! Deafening.
Nobody was seated. Every single person was up.
And the first song was Ignorance. Really nice performance. She did shout quite a bit of the song.
The second song was Crushcrushcrush. I knew the whole lyrics for this song, so I just sang my heart out.
The third song was That's What You Get. This really got the crowd going even crazier and louder. Everybody had their hands up, jumping like mad. It was one of the most fun ones.
I did see a news article, that 10 people needed treatment by the end of the song. Wow.
And then they played Looking Up. I jumped as high as I can during the Whoa-Oh-O-Oh, Whoa-Oh-O-Oh! And
sang at the same time. At the end of the song, I started coughing. Started to feel the loss of voice.
The 5th song they played was Careful. I think it's the perfect song to play since quite a number of people got hurt :P
They played Let The Flames Begin right after. Love the guitar solo. And they played an extended version of it. Really nice.
Soon, they decided to play a song from their first album. They played Never Let This Go, one of my favourites from the album.
The band took a 2 minute rest. They were pretty tired, and finally the crowd didn't go crazy as before that.
And it went a little mellow after. The Only Exception was played. Hayley said that at one point its video was named Video of the Week on MTV. She got almost everyone to wave their arms from side to side during that song. Loved the feeling. A very meaningful song.
I did record about 35 seconds of the performance in my phone. But quality very poor, and I only did it for a short while. I wanted to enjoy the concert rather than recording all the performances.
And back to getting really pumped up again, Pressure was played. Back to jumping like mad again. We all just went nuts.
The next song was For A Pessimist, I'm Pretty Optimistic. It was the song where I knew the least of the lyrics. I didn't really know the lyrics of the verses. But still, never backed down, went for it, even when it's just guessing the words. :P
The next song - My current favourite - Where The Lines Overlap. I was so passionate about this song, that I actually heard my own voice in this song. The rest, I couldn't even hear my voice. But I still sang as loud as I could though for all the songs. And I love the lyrics, it suited me, that 'no one is as lucky as us' (those who came for the concert).
I suspect there were loads of Twilight fans there. They all went mad when Decode was played.
I think it was this song when the speaker or the guitar on the lead guitarist failed? Damn... I didn't hear part of the lead. But the lead guitarist, Taylor York, yes, not Josh Farro who didn't tour still ran around with his guitar, just for the fun of it.
When he got his replacement guitar, his guitar was slightly off key. But the PA system people slowly fixed it. Thanks to them :D (It's Singaprore, not Malaysia :P)
Misery Business was next. More jumping to do. Hayley changed the lyrics a little. From 'I'm sorry honey', she changed it to 'I'm sorry Singapore' :P.
13 songs done. Paramore closed the event with Brick By Boring Brick. She did say that Singapore has the loudest crowd she has ever experienced. She also promised to come back within less than 5 years. (Fran and Sofea, it's your chance!)
We all used up the last bit of our energy for the song. It looked like the crowd favourite.
And lastly, the band members started throwing stuff towards the crowd - drumsticks, Hayley's water bottle :P
14 songs were pretty alright. But they only performed for 1 hour 30 minutes. Wished it was longer.
Another regret - Not bringing my camera in. Loads of people took theirs in. And nothing was done.
Wished I brought mine in... Gah!
Next time. Maybe next time.
And ah... I went out a little too late.
I was late by about 30 seconds from being able to buy a limited edition poster. Gah! Again!
But the concert experience itself was awesome. My first concert. Great. Superb. Brilliant.

| To be continued in post #4 |

Paramore/Singapore #2

(Please start reading from post #1 if you haven't)

March 7 - 1229 KUL

I arrived at this place called Yong Peng, and there was a food court there.
It's supposed to be the lunch break for the passengers.
I really had no appetite during that time. Tried to eat something light, couldn't finish it also.
I was so sleepy, didn't get much sleep, and didn't sleep in the bus. Had this fear feeling actually, first time travelling long distance in a bus.
Went back into the bus to continue my journey, feeling ridiculously tired, but I just couldn't sleep.
Called my cousin, Kenny for the address of the place, so that I could fill it in the immigration form.
Couldn't get him.
Then, I called his GF, and she told me to just write Ang Mo Kio.
I was pretty nervous actually, because I was afraid that I won't past customs or can't find my way later or something. :P.
I was being very pessimistic.
Anyway, Kenny soon called, thankfully, and I managed to ask him for the full address.
Almost at Larkin, one of the stops, I told Kenny where I'm arriving. And all I could find out from the bus driver is a road. Jalan Sultan.
That's about our last contact by phone.

March 7 - 1551 SIN

Arrived in Singapore. Looked more like a construction site than anything else, the area we were dropped off.
Tried using the phone, I could not contact anybody at all. I couldn't find any network.
Couldn't use the phone at all!
I was looking around, walking around that area. 4.00p.m, no sign of him. I was starting to worry, as I had to go to the Singapore Indoor Stadium at 7p.m to collect my ticket.
And then, about 4.15p.m, we saw each other! Finally!
If only my phone wasn't like that...
Anyway that's a small relief.
We then walked about something like 25 minutes (it felt like that long) to a Chinese "coffee shop".
It's pretty different from Malaysia.
This coffee shop - No smoking allowed, air-conditioned, well-dressed waiters/waitresses and a good clean toilet.
Would love these type of places in Malaysia.
The won-ton mee was quite good too. That was the one meal I actually finished.
One is $3.50, which is about RM8.50, which isn't too bad actually from what I feared.
I wanted to go to the place I'm staying to take a bath.
But time would not be on my side if I do that. So what the hell... I'm not bathing :P
I changed my clothing at the Suntec City Mall. The bathroom of course.
By then it was about 5:30p.m. I needed to be at the Singapore Indoor Stadium by 7:00p.m to collect my ticket.

March 7 - 1806 SIN

Went by bus to a place I don't know at all with Kenny.
Then I took a walk which felt like over 30 minutes towards the Singapore Indoor Stadium.
It was 6.40p.m when I reached there. Just nice. Went straight to get my ticket.
Got the ticket, checked it, and I saw, ROW 14.
I looked at the ticket, and was like, hey! Is this a con? I was told 2nd row!
But I thought, what the heck... I still can watch them live.
Kenny was nice enough to carry my luggage back to his place.
Soon after, I went to the Paramore merchant, selling T-shirts.
I bought one for myself, one for Francisca and one for Sofea (they're paying back :D)
Each T-shirt was 40SG$, which was a lot less than what I expected it to be. So yeah, I had enough money to buy 3.
I bought a drink for myself. I barely had a chance to drink all day in Singapore.
Heheh. I finished my drink before I even made it into the concert hall. :P.
The damned line to enter the concert hall was crazy long. It went around the stadium. Almost fully around it.
I was pumped up for the concert. Went straight to my seat. I was one of the early birds there.
And guess what, I was in ROW 2 after all! Just that the 91$ seat rows started from number 13. Strange, but cool.
I was really happy with the seat. I was just one Lucas or one Bernie away from the 111$ seats.
That's the good part about booking the ticket very early. The results are exceptional.
I just couldn't wait!

| To be continued in post #3|

Paramore/Singapore #1

This is going to be pretty long, so I would have to divide this blog posts into a few.
And I've no time to type everything before I head for work anyway.
Before we get to the climax, lets go slowly. Start from the 'permulaan', then ' perkembangan', 'klimaks' and 'peleraian'. :D

March 7 - 0036 KUL

On my way back from work, went straight to Lucas's house.
It was supposed to be Edmen's surprise birthday party, but at the time I reached there, he left already. :P
But I was still there, until 2:45a.m. During that time I was creating an event for my last work day. But more details next time.
I just couldn't wait for the concert.
I reached home around 2:5oa.m and guess the number of alarms I set for the next day, where I had to wake up around 8a.m. It's 4. But that's not really shocking. See the later one.

March 7 - 0756 KUL

Woke up around this time. Guess in which alarm I woke up with. NONE! Instead, I actually woke up a few minutes before the first alarm!
But I just lied down until the first alarm rang.
Left the house at about 9.25a.m. Reached there, ahead of schedule for the bus.
There was the same type of bus I supposed to go to at Lane 22. I was supposed to go into the bus on Lane 21.
There was no bus at Lane 21.
So I went to the bus driver in Lane 22, and asked him whether this was the bus I was supposed to enter actually.
He said never mind, just enter, same thing, going to Singapore also.
So yeah, I just entered.
Soon after, the bus started filling up. And I saw the same type of bus going to Lane 21. Damn.
I didn't dare change back buses because I submitted my ticket already.
And the bus I entered was full. There was one extra person inside.
And that would have to be me.
But I stayed in the bus anyway. :D. Yeah I'm cruel, but I had to do it. I didn't sacrifice everything only to leave a bus.
Anyway lucky for me also. One woman had her small daughter, and she could have her on the lap during the journey. So all seats taken without one person having to stand.
And of all places, they ended up next to me. I didn't tell them about what I did though :P
This bus did have a delay. 30 minutes in fact.
But luckily still. The other bus which I was supposed to enter, had an even longer delay. So all good :D

March 7 - 1030 KUL

Departed for Singapore. The bus was pretty cool.
Adjustable seat, has the adjustable leg rest, can put the seat to lying down position, and has personal light.
Not bad. But I wished there was personal entertainment systems on it. But at least I had my MP4, listening to of course, Paramore songs :D
Was still thinking to myself, luckily they didn't check.
I submitted my ticket already, imagine if I was chased out and not allowed to enter the other bus.
I got lucky, but yeah, feels great :D.

| To be continued in post #2 |

It's Finally Here!

Before I relate my blog post to the above topic, I'll just run through yesterday's events.
Decided to go back to St. Pauls for their sports day.
I wanted to see how they're doing, especially for my team, Director.
I'll support them all the way.
Last year, we won by just 5 points, with Barnitus in second. They needed me, I scored 21 points last year.
This year, I went, and got a pretty good reception from some of the students and teachers.
Not really by the Barnitus house members, they have been my rivals in school, and will always be.
And they were in first place before the sports day, 7 points ahead of second placed Director.
The rivalry has been relived.
I saw the Directod house marching... they all look like bapuks!
Gay cap, solid white T-shirt, tucked in...
But what the heck.
I left school at 4:10p.m, went to Marrybrown to have Fish-N-Chips.
Had to get ready for work after.

I took out my phone and...
The screen cracked!
The touchscreen isn't functioning anymore...
Ugh...
Luckily I still can do everything with the keypad.
But the Paramore trip is overshadowing it
And just today I found out... Director are overall champions... again!
Woohoo! So happy they could do it without me this time. Proud of the lads.
And time to laugh at Barnitus, for bragging, and losing a second time in a row to us.

Nothing special happened at work yesterday.
Went to Station 1 Cafe in Era Square for supper.
Ate some Lobster BALLS (Yes, they taste much better than it sounds)
Very crowded, even at almost 1a.m.
Alcohol is served there, that's about why.
Not that I took any there though.
And today, had bak kut teh for lunch with the family.
And my thoughts were fully on the Paramore trip.
It's here! Tomorrow! Already! Really looking forward to it.
I'm packing my stuff already. Can't believe it's this soon.
Man I gotta memorise some lyrics.... never did anything of that yet :P
But here I come...
30 hours left to the concert!

Unpredictable

Yesterday and today, absolutely busy.

Running here, running there.

But there were some huge upsides to those days.

Yesterday, quite a number of familiar faces turned up.

Firstly, my parents came. I was pretty surprised, I wouldn't have predicted my dad to come to this place.

He did complain quietly about something, although I heard, but not my fault, either the head waiter or the chef's fault :P. Either one didn't follow it correctly, although I explained.

Luckily he still liked the food.

And then, Danesh a/l Thiagarajah came with his parents.

Glad to have a complement from him.

And finally the noisiest group of them all...

Theresa Belle, A.E.C.K.Y Low, Nicole Wong and Sharmili Nair (never knew her before) came.

They... I mean we were laughing like crazy most of the time.

Nice to see that they enjoyed their food too.

I managed to get them a 10% discount.

Theresa wanted ice-cream, heard one scoop is RM7.90, and straight away - Uh... nevermind!

Eh, Theresa, you haven't offered me a discount in Sushi King yet! :P :P

I'm calling you Sushi all the time :D

This morning, I had a real good wake up call.

My dad bought me a new mobile phone. WHAT?

I never asked for one, never requested, never needed one, didn't exactly want a new one at the moment either.

But it's cool. Real cool.

Phone name/Phone brand name: Absolutely no idea! I didn't even bother to look. And by looking at the phone, none of you can guess what brand it is either. Seriously.

Advantages (might have a lot because my previous phone only can call and sms) :

1. Woohoo! I can log on to facebook via the phone now

2. I can easily go to Eurosport for the latest sports news.

3. Love the ability to play songs and listen to clear radio, with good sound quality

4. I finally have bluetooth! :P

5. There's the world timezones, which makes it easier to find out time differences, especially when watching live sports matches, or even for my Auckland trip

6. You can watch TV with it!

7. Two sim cards can be used at the same time.

8. Nokia batteries is compatible with the phone. Excellent, I can use one as a spare battery.

9. 3.2 Megapixel camera.

10. (The best part) It's only RM375!

Disadvantages:

1. Messaging is hell for this phone. The dictionary messaging is so much more complicated than the Nokias/Sony Ericsson etc.

2. TV isn't that clear, and I only can get local TV! I wished I had ESPN...

3. The phone's framerate is pretty slow online. Very slow in fact. Not the internet speed's fault.

4. I can't play Mousehunt on this :(

5. Battery life - Around 6 hours. That's pretty miserable.

6. The melody composer... the instruments sound really irritating.

Overall: Considering it's just RM375, it's definitely worth it.

Now I can take pics from the Paramore concert! Woohoo!

Next blog post... maybe tomorrow, or only after the Paramore concert.

BTW, manager, I want my February salary.

It's March Already?

Times seems to be passing pretty fast for me.
It's a good thing I guess, with the Paramore concert coming very soon.
More and more things are being settled.
All I have to hope for, is for the bus to not crash, and to get a bus ticket back home. That's all.
And another thing to look forward to - SPM Results Day.
I just want the result and get on with life.
And I would like to meet my old friends there too.
Schoolmates to look forward to:

1. Deepak - Wonder how long his beard will be when he's back in school.
2. Bernard - Wonder whether he has changed one bit also.
3. Karshan - Want to find out how many piercings/tattoos/eyebrow shaves he has.
4. Jeremy - Will he still have his red-coloured hair?
5. Sri Raam - Will he have any hair left on his head after National Service?

Schoolmates NOT to look forward to:

1. Khairul - One of the most braggy person there, and irritating too.
2. Pavendhran - I would except him to say "Hah! I got more A's than you!"

And a lot later in March, The Fray's coming to Singapore!
I won't go though, it's too soon after the Paramore concert!
Need money, and also, too many things to organise.
Such a shame...

Anyway, remember the last paragraph of the last blog post if you've read it?
It has happened again.
Another girl, insisted to go to the gents' toilet. And went.
What is happening to this world???
THAT'S IT! 2012's going to happen like this! :P

Finally, today, I went to visit Esther Devadas (Uncle Philip's daughter)
If you didn't know, she was a victim of a hit-N-run. A van hit her.
She was knocked unconscious, and was brought to hospital.
She was there for a full week.
Thank the Lord that she is feeling better now, she has been discharged, although she can't walk yet.
It's good to see their family happy again after a really tough week.

Speaking Too Soon A Bad Idea

First and foremost, 2 very important things have been settled for my Paramore trip.

I went to Terminal 2 today, managed to get a morning bus ticket, 10.00a.m to be exact. Terminal 1's pretty useless, there are only 4.00p.m buses to Singapore.

Bus ticket price = RM45. Not cheap at all.

And my mom told me to be prepared to pay SG45$ for the trip back. And that's even more! (Based on my mom's experience)

But all the sacrifice to watch Paramore. It's worth it.

Another thing, I have been granted leave for the trip! Now I don't have to worry about a salary cut, or even have my job at stake :D

That's settled, stress level dropped like crazy. Feels great.

All that's left is to organise transport from the Singapore bus station to my cousin's house, and also to the Singapore Indoor Stadium. But that's not a very big problem.

Yesterday, Coffee Mug was deserted, free food at certain areas because of Prophet Muhammad's birthday. Get a chance for free food, might as well go and take it, rather than paying for expensive food. I would do that.

Today, same case. For the first 150 minutes into my job. Deserted again.

I honestly thought of the place closing down. It's scary.

So I saved a message, then sent it to quite a number of friends, hoping for them to come to Coffee Mug anytime soon. I don't want to get bored.

I spoke too soon.

8.30p.m, 4 families, back-to-back-to-back-to-back came.

It's a lot for my standards, considering that there's only me as the waiter there that time.

Running here, running there, I was sweating as if I was running a marathon under the sun.

Went on till about 11p.m. Then it cooled down a bit.

Once my shift finished, I decided to go to Old Town White Coffee. Yes, I know Jusco closed. So I went to the Era Walk one instead.

It... was... full! Past midnight, no premiership match shown, no alcohol, still that crazy crowded!

But I love the Hot Honey Lemon juice, that's the only reason I went there :D

Finally, interesting things have been happening.

Lucas quit his job sometime ago.

Then Guy quit his job

And Geraldine quit her job.

Who else?

Last night I dreamed of expressing my love for someone.

Don't worry, it's not to any of you bloggers/blog readers. So stay cool :D

But the best part: (The whole conversation was in Malay)

I was at work, one girl asked me where the toilet was.

I pointed to the door.

She was entering the gents toilet.

Then I pointed out to the ladies' toilet and told her she's supposed to go there.

She opened the ladies' toilet door, looked inside.

Then she went back to the gents one, asking, "Ini boleh guna, kan?"

And so I said.... "Er... boleh..."

And then she REALLY went right into the gents toilet.

I walked away with only a ????? in my mind.

Gender confused?

And today 2 people went to the same toilet at the same time. I didn't see more, thankfully :D

It Ain't Fun Being Sick

3 consecutive days, continuously sick.

Running nose, constant sweating, sore throat, swollen eyes and off and on headache.

Yet I would never skip work just like that. Though I try and rest when I can before work.

The main reason - Applying for leave for the Singapore trip to watch Paramore live!

If I skip too often, I might not be able to be granted leave, or not being able to organise the overtime days properly...

Or to fear the worst... SALARY CUT!

I've sacrificed a lot to watch Paramore. Once in a lifetime opportunity.

Especially before the SPM results are released. God knows what will happen to my life if my results are bad.

Probably will go on labour for good :P

That's why I just wanna enjoy like mad before that :D

I personally like to live a normal life, even when I'm sick.

I'm tired of staying at home all the time besides work hours.

So... went to Jusco... again.

Destination: Sushi King... again.

Main food: KOEBI (Sea water prawns)... again.

But I did grab a few things from the moving belt.

There was one thing - the first thing I took from the belt

There were tiny bones in it!

One bone entered my throat, had discomfort swallowing anything else.

The FREE green tea helped me :D

Although I had to use up to 7 pieces of tissues, due to the irritating running nose.

Was walking later, and was half-hoping to see Geraldine working at Starbucks.

Turns out she wasn't there. Anyway I won't order anything from Starbucks with my cold, so it's alright.

Saw Adrian and Savita while walking, but didn't want to disturb them for too long.

Went to Old Town White Coffee, and had something light.

I found my favourite drink there - Hot Honey Lemon juice!

Tastes lovely, and good for my cough too.

I'll insist on coming here all the time in future. And drink the same thing.

Bought loads of Lemon Tea bags, some lozenges and yogurt. All for health reasons.

Nothing left to do in Jusco, nobody also, I decided to go have a light dinner at Coffee Mug.

Went there because I'm guaranteed a discount :D

Love the food there too :D. But I was very full, although I just had an appetizer.

During my work days, I'll be always eating at Coffee Mug. I'm always thinking when I'm serving, "Damn, that looks good" :D. So better to eat there for now, especially with the discount :D

Oh yeah, one more thing, when I reached Jusco I was searching for parking. Roof area was closed, so I would have to rely on luck to find a parking space.

When I found one, I was going "YEEEAAAHHH!!!!" and then suddenly, 'involuntarily' singing "Celebrate good times, come on!" (If you recognise it)

I was still singing it softly, even when I got out of the car, then walking, this was exactly what I said:

"Celebrate good times, come on... DAMN! I almost got hit by a car!" :P

Later on, while walking back, then I realised - Ugh... I forgot to take out my parking ticket again!

Had to walk all the way back to the car to take it, and walk all the back to the autopay machine.

I very rarely curse, but when I grabbed my ticket out of my car, I actually said f***ing ticket.

Better for me not to forget next time... :P

Depression State?

Finished an unusually quiet day at work yesterday.

I'm guessing most of them were staying at home to watch the Man City Liverpool match.

I was looking forward to one match.

Wigan vs. Tottenham.

Went to Kensington before that for supper.

Ate 2 pieces of garlic bread, a triple-scoop banana split, and drank a hot chocolate.

Total cost - RM13.70 including service charge.

Coffee Mug's banana split, 3 scoops of ice-cream also - RM14.50, without service charge.

When I noticed this, I thought, I might as well eat at Kensington instead of Coffee Mug!

Seats at Kensington are super-comfortable too.

Just that the main courses? Not as good as Coffee Mug's.

Checked the time, 11.50p.m!

Drove heck fast to catch the Wigan match, came from Oakland to Rasah Kemayan in just 6 minutes!

And then, the drama started.

Tottenham's Defoe scored a goal, where he was clearly offside.

Screw it.

He dived later, but luckily the penalty wasn't given.

Sucks being a Wigan fan doesn't it?

I checked Wigan's future fixtures...

And then... one thing on my mind - RELEGATION!!!

Die die die die die die die die die die die die die!!!

Ugh... if Wigan gets relegated.... uh.....

I don't know?

Support Negeri Sembilan instead? :P

And today, then I thought to myself...

"I-AM-TAKING-FOOTBALL-TOO-PERSONALLY!"

I think this is affecting my life, and making me angry sometimes. I was sweating unvoluntarily today at work, not thinking properly while doing things etc.

So I promised to myself.

If Wigan gets relegated, I'll stop following football (hopefully for good).

Lastly, Geraldine and Jasmine's gonna start work very soon.

Ready?

All the best, just avoid getting fired :D

BTW, thanks for making me feel better, Jasmine, for your positive reply in my Cbox.

Tense Day

Today I took a lot of time to think about things that were happening.
Loads of questions played in my mind.
Earlier today, 2 people came and submitted their application form to work in Coffee Mug Cafe.
They're only available to work at night.
I'm wondering whether I'll have my duty time shifted.
I'm also wondering whether they're gonna work along side me.
I seriously don't wanna shift duties, nor have another 2 guys working with me. I like the privacy, and I don't want it to go away.
Secondly, my cousin in Singapore, Kenny told me, that I'm back to not being sure whether I can stay over from March 6-8 yet. Back to square one in organising accommodation if I'm unable to stay there.
If I can't, I'll just have to find another way to stay there.
Whatever it is, I must go for Paramore's concert!

Another thing that happened at home, when I was locking the grill door, the electricity tripped abruptly. I turned it on, was on for a short while, and it tripped again.
Then I went to tell my mom about it, she was half-asleep that time.
We wanted to find the cause of the tripping, by testing the 10 circuit breakers one-by-one.
I tried turning it back on again, and this time it hasn't tripped since.
I didn't dare touch any electrical appliance for 15 mins. Didn't want the electricity to trip again.
Then the first thing I touched - the computer :P
It's been alright, but the electricity thing has been overshadowed in my mind by work and the Paramore concert trip.
And finally one thing... I was pretty surprised by what I saw.
Signature Hot Chocolate - Most Unhealthy Hot Chocolate in the U.S.A.
And yes, it's the Starbucks one.
Whereas the Starbucks Chocolate Mocha is the most unhealthy coffee drink.
Unfortunately for 96.7% (guess) of people, good taste easily beats healthy stuff.
I'll still go visit Geraldine on her first day at work, but I'll always keep these statistics in mind.

FACT: 4 slices of pizza from Pizza Hut still has less calories than a Signature Hot Chocolate from Starbucks.
I repeat - FACT!

CNY Gathering(s)

Unfortunately, because of work and stuff, only yesterday I managed to go to my first open house for Chinese New Year.
First up, Jason Too's house. I left the house at 2.20, had the GPS with me, and left.
First, the GPS told me to go by highway. I told myself, no way! I'm not paying toll!
Then, the GPS told me to go the town way. It made me take one whole big round. And later, I encountered traffic. Severe traffic. I saw stationary cars for 15 mins. Then, I knew it was better to turn back.
So I just turned back, went the Bukit Chedang road instead. Finally the GPS told me something good.
I knew where I was going. I only managed to save as near as Jalan Tok Ungku in my GPS.
Reached the road, and thought that I got lost. Called Jason, i understood what he said, but had no idea where to go still. Then I turned back.
Suddenly, I realised that I took this road sending my brother home from school a few times before.
Then ugh... I U-turned back to Jalan Tok Ungku again.
Things looked more familiar, and I eventually found my way to his house. Easier than I assumed though.

Reached the house, things felt awkward at first.
Went into the house, there was this girl who brought me in. I didn't know who she was that time.
Went to a table, and i got a shock looking at the huge stakes in the gambling. Ahhh! I wouldn't gamble with that much money.
I spent a lot of time watching people gamble.
I did play blackjack for a while. Lost 7 bucks in the process. Ugh...
And soon, got RM10 in ang pow money from Jason's mother. That's HUGE for my standards!
So, 3 bucks profit from Jason's house. Not bad :D.
I was playing the PS3 most of the time. FIFA10!
Won all the matches I played :D
First up, one guy named 'Jared'? played with an Indian guy, whoever he is.
After 60 game mins, Jared "Liverpool" was down 4-1 against MU.
I replaced him and won 5-4 after extra time. How sweet is that? :D
Then played solo with Jared, won 4-1. I pity him.
I played using MU after, teaming up with Bernard and another guy, against 2 others. It was crazy fun!
We won again, and I scored a freekick! First time in FIFA10 PS3 history!
But I was laughing mostly at Mei Lin when she looked reaction-less when Bernard and all were celebrating the victory. :P

Went to McDonalds later. Just before leaving, then only I knew that the girl was Jason Too's sister. Took so long for me to know!
Then at McDonalds, Diane asked whether I was Jason Too's age. (Do I look 16?!?!?) :P
Once she knew my age, I heard a lot of Do you knows - "Do you know Kumuta?", "D y k Geraldine?", "Jasmine?", "Jane?" :P
She was complementing them. I genuinely think they're nice people too.
During then, I was tempting Eu-Kynn with my Chocolate Sunday. Real funny. :D
Drove to Eu-Kynn's house after, wanted to be there just for a while.
Reached there, and there were way too many people enthusiastic with a near empty aquarium. Wonder why.
And soon, the guys managed to tempt me to play Poker!
My first hand I think, I slowly went all in. First time and I might not play again! And I ended up winning. About RM65 in winnings I got just for that hand. I won just 2 hands overall, still escaped with a RM18.50 profit at the end of it (I banked in RM10).
That's the beauty of Texas Hold'em Poker. Won 2 hands, lost maybe 100+ hands, yet still got profit :D
Got another RM10 in ang pow money, which was good. :D

And the next day - back to work.
Felt really tired.
I got scolded by a co-owner of Coffee Mug for not noticing a customer at an outside table. Gah... wrong place wrong time. Was too concentrated to my Sudoku. When I have a rhythm, I always concentrate hard to solve one as quick as I can.
I've been working 15-20 mins overtime almost every day. I still love my job.
The co-owner saw that. And still was happy with my dedication to the job, despite some mishaps.
Feels good to let everything out on my blog.
Feeling much better now.
Although it sucks being a Wigan fan at this point.
Still...

| KEEP | THE | FAITH |
| DARE | TO | DREAM |
Wigan Athletic F.C

What A Day

Yesterday was crazy! Ridiculously tiring.

From the scheduled 7 hours shift given to me early on, and on the 13th, I was told to extend to 8 hours, but yesterday, it went to nearly 9!

But it was a really really good experience working for that long.

It was pretty crowded, but still it was less than the previous Valentine's Days, as the Chinese New Year break was on, so many would have spent their holidays with their families instead or went somewhere for holiday.

Still, it was definitely enough to make to waiters busy.

Thankfully, no casualties serving people, although I saw things slipping around the tray Subrash was carrying. And in the kitchen, I accidentally broke a small saucer. Damn... all the while I thought is was plastic!

Subrash and Tishaan earned RM65.80 each, working a total of about 14 hours. That is an average of RM4.70 per hour. Take that, every other place in Jusco!

In addition, each of us got a free Valentine's Set worth RM39.90, free Fried Rice, free Fried Noodles and free Roti Canai! (BTW rice and noodles cost RM9.90 each).

Coffee Mug - The best place to work, seriously. It was worth it for all of us, even for me who didn't get the RM65.80, because I'm earning by "per-month".

We left the place at about 1:45a.m.

Bought some ice-blended chocolate (better than the Starbucks one) to end such a busy yet good day at work.

Anyway, guys, vacancy for Coffee Mug is considered closed now. Because Subrash and Tishaan will be called for lunch shifts if they are required. Sorry Lucas!

Finally, call me gay or anything if you want, I don't care, but I like watching Glee. The performances are good, whether you like it or not.

Expect my next blog post on the 18th.

Big Weekend

This weekend would be my busiest days of my working career.
Large crowds expected, compared to the normal near deserted days there.
Over the past two years, there had been no empty tables at all on Valentine's Day.
I'm nervous, but looking forward to it also. It is going to be really busy.
Yesterday, the preparation started. Many cakes were baked, but I spent about 2 hours just folding serviettes.
I was tired looking down, then I started bending my neck here and there to stretch, and my manager laughed at me. Ugh...
But I couldn't believe how empty it was on that day. 7 groups of customers in my full 6 hours of duty. That is the lowest I have ever experienced.
But for today - Subrash and Tishaan's going to join me at work. Hopefully they'll be fine.

This morning, around 10.a.m (I'm still asleep at this time), my mom started banging the door.
Then she asked me where the car key was.
I told her I hanged it back (at the place it should be)
Then she called my dad, asked him...
Turns out that he brought BOTH the sets of car keys to KL.
He went to the Mercedes to get something, forgot to put the keys back, and drove the Hilux to KL.
We do have spare keys for the Merc, but I was awaken for nothing...
Now I'm a bit sleepy. Hopefully I can do my job properly at work.

And finally, reasons I hate Valentine's Day
1. Prices of eveything goes up - flowers, food etc.
2. Restaurants are ridiculously crowded.
3. Romantic areas will have too many people. I don't like crowded places.
4. The main reason - Why show your real sacrifice only on Valentine's Day, when true love should be shown every single day?
And if I were to celebrate Valentine's Day anyway, at home I will barbecue some meat for the two of us, sit and enjoy the night, the breeze, the stars (If any).
Saves the money, saves the petrol, away from the crowd. Perfect for me.
And if you don't accept me being different, suit yourselves. Go ahead and call me weird and stuff if you want to.

Hmmm... just to cheer myself up - accommodation organised fully already for Singapore!
Looks like I don't have to camp in SG. Paramore, here I come!

How I Spent This Week's Off Day

Every single time I get an off day, I'll say I want to rest.
But I never end up doing so.
I just always will feel like going out and doing something. Not very often I get to go out the whole day.
First thing, I managed to get Subrash and Tishaan to work at Coffee Mug with me on Valentine's Day.
I brought them there, to look around, study the menu and just get an idea of what's to be done.
And guess what... The manager told them that they have to work on the 13th also.
Tell me first, lah! Then only I can provide accurate details.
Luckily they were fine with it. They have nothing to do at home anyway.
But it's still good I've got my friends to join me on two days instead of one.
Subrash is hoping that people he knows will come to the restaurant. I highly doubt it though.
I have to teach him some ways to be polite. Especially when you have to while working as a waiter. I'm not worried about Tishaan in terms of this though. I only hope he doesn't go and try and make out with a girl customer. Or even a guy.
We had some Nachos and we planned to go to Jusco.
I unfortunately had to return home for my toilet business first, while Subrash forgot his wallet, and Tishaan didn't bring his money.
So shortly after, I sent them to Jusco.

The so-called outing in Jusco was a pretty interesting one.
Before Lucas and the rest arrived, we were just walking around finding something to do.
I played against Subrash in the air-hockey thing. It was violent!
I had my hand bruised. Not his fault. I hit it so hard, it bounced back straight onto my thumb metacarpal and Ouch! It did hurt for quite a while. But it was alright.
It was stuck at 2-1 for so long. All of a sudden, Subrash lost his concentration, and I ended up winning 6-1.
Good game though. A good fight for a very long time.
Then, Lucas and the whole group arrived.
We went down to Manhattan Fish Market to meet everyone.
There was Lucas, Pravin, Kelvesh, Geraldine, Jane, Adrian, Savita, Edmen and Guy who was working there.
We spoke shortly, then Pravin and Jane left the area, I've no idea where, and soon, Savita and Adrian left, then we all started following each other, but for no apparent reason, as we didn't know where to go.
I can't remember what time this was, but the earlier time we went to the Manhattan Fish Market, Kelvesh and Lucas had something to drink.
Kelvesh had some kind of tea. I wanted to throw the packets of sugar one-by-one to him. But the first one itself ended up in his drink. It was completely accidental, but I simply said that I did that on purpose. But after that, I thought throwing the rest of the sugar packets is not the smartest thing to do.

So Lucas, Subrash, Tishaan and I decided to go to the arcade, while Geraldine decided to stay at Manhattan Fish market.
The 4 of us continued the pool tournament we created.
Lucas and I was in the final, while Subrash and Tishaan fought for 3rd.
Lucas and I played relatively well for our standards, so it was a matter of who does well when it matters most.
Our pool match ended in just about 3-4 minutes. It was very quick, and close, but Lucas managed to squeeze out the win.
It was a deserving final, wished a few things happened my way but I'm gracious in defeat. It was a good match.
Tishaan's match with Subrash was slow but still entertaining. It came down to only the black ball, and Tishaan got it in the end. I wouldn't have expected him to hold his nerve, but he did well.

Soon after, they wanted to play one game called "Left 4 Dead" or something like that. I didn't join them. So I went to search for the rest, and coincidentally bumped into Pravin and Kelvesh. We went to Old Town White Coffee and had something to eat. Then Jane showed up. Walking with Geraldine there.
Them coming together, same expression, looked quite angry, I knew something was wrong. Especially when Jane came, sat down, stared at Pravin or Kelvesh (didn't really see), then walked off.
Suddenly they came back again. Jane was pissed, but I will not publicise the reason.
No idea where Kelvesh and Pravin went, but I decided to join Jane and Geraldine to eat at Manhattan Fish Market.
I had some calamari, and finally something from the place which did not make me want to puke.
The other two had their dinner there, and we just chit-chatted.
We went to KFC to meet up with the rest. Right after, Jane and Geraldine just... disappeared.
I had to go to the toilet, and then when I came back, Kelvesh, Adrian and Pravin disappeared too.
Asked those remaining, they had no idea where the rest went.
I went walking around, just hoping I would see someone, but to no avail.
And then the remaining group went to Siang Malam.
I wasn't feeling very good, so I requested to head straight back home. Tishaan said it's alright and they could go home by themselves.
Met Aaron in the process, but I couldn't speak for long.
Back home, back to the toilet business again.
Real sickening day in total, it was irritating having this discomfort for most of the day.
But thankfully it didn't happen on a work day, it would suck even more.
Whatever it is, hopefully I'll be fine the next few days.
Advice: Eat more fruits.

Sushi King!

It was Lucas's first day working at Sushi King.
I decided to go and support Lucas, who helped me in taking my first order in Coffee Mug.
I went there, and Lucas looked incredibly hilarious in the Sushi King outfit.
And he just had to have his mustache to go with it. :P

Sushi King is the best place when it comes to waiting for food, because you don't really have to wait for most of the food, instead you can grab them from the moving belt.
But it also can be quite frustrating. I'm sitting down somewhere, and I gotta wait for the food from the belt to come.
One thing, when I find the food I want, I have to hope nobody takes it in the process.
For one of the foods I wanted, the girl next to me got it just before I did. Damn!
Secondly, getting distracted eating something, and then something I wanted from the moving belt passed me. I went silently "NOOOOOoooooooo......" :P
Thirdly, I keep staring at the really nice dishes, which all cost RM6.
I'll just stare them move from left to right, thinking, I want this! I want this! But damn, the price!
Curse the octopuses, 6 bucks for a small plate of it. They tasted lovely though when I ate a bit of octopus with the usual rice and seaweed, which cost RM4.
The seawater shrimps, known as KOEBI was the best of the lot, 4 bucks and I think 16 small prawns. They tasted really good, and finally something which was about worth what's being paid.
Lucas did pretty well, he cared a lot about the customers.
Although he did give a bit too many bill papers :P
I gave a RM1 tip to both Lucas and Theresa. Both good employees.

Had a waffle before going back, and back to work once again.
It was much emptier today, as it was a usual work day for adults.
There were so few people, it got a bit boring at one point.
Played a lot of Sudoku today, and got sleepy.
At 8.40, still on duty, I actually slept.
Luckily, no customers saw me sleeping. The head waiter woke me up after 10 minutes.
Nothing to do, was pretty bored, that was bound to happen, and it did.
If there were customers in my sight, I wouldn't have slept, or even sit down playing Sudoku anyway.
Now days I want customers to come. Now I'm more comfortable speaking with them, and even joking with the regular customers.
I still remember my first few days, I didn't really want people to come :P
Glad things changed.
And I'm happier that I got into a better mood today.

Food Critic!

I enjoy going to different restaurants, for the sake of trying new things.

And now, I would like to do this food critic thing, where I comment about certain restaurants, and whether I would recommend this to friends.

Today, for supper, I went to this place called "Kafe Taiwan"

It's located at the remote shop lot area, at the road leading to Rasah Kemayan from the Jusco area.

When I entered the place, I got a good welcome from the waiter.

The place was pretty comfortable, smoke free, although a bit noisy from the voices of other customers.

I ordered Salted Chicken Rice. A waiter came about 15 minutes later, saying that they're out of rice.

So I ordered another type of noodles. I didn't even know what it is, but just tried it.

The noodles came with salty chicken, as I wanted, and had tofu, half-boiled egg and some vegetable which looks like leek.

I wasn't into the food when I tried the noodles. Thankfully, the chicken saved me from having a bad face throughout the meal.

A waitress who looks my age was speaking to me also, making me feel better because of the long wait.

I also will have a rating system for each restaurant, and it goes as a per 100 basis.

For Kafe Taiwan:

Food = 37/100

Comment: Not my taste, too little vegetables, too many tofus, and never eating this dish again.

Service = 65/100

Comment: Got a good welcome, they didn't make me feel left out, but the 15 minute delay just to tell me there was no rice left was unacceptable.

Manager's attitude (If got) = 51/100

Comment: She did well to train the waiters/waitresses, but she did not take the 15 minute delay seriously, looked lazy on most occasions.

Overall rating: 49/100

The food is not one to remember in a good way. Service good, and I'm sure it will be better if a certain type of food didn't finish. The apple juice I drank was fresh, and wasn't too sweet. The location is excellent from me, as it's easily visible on the way back form work.

Will I come back there: I will still give them another shot.

Recommendation to friends: For now, no.

Tough Day Today

Be prepared for my long blog post.

I've a lot to say today.

Or maybe I can divide it into two blog posts.

We'll see, I'll make my decision while typing.

Today, Coffee Mug was very busy.

I was sprinting on certain occasions, and I don't remember sweating so much before while doing this job.

The head waiter was a bit hard on me today.

At a few points, I felt like screaming back at the head waiter.

But I knew it would not be a smart thing to do, especially when there are customers around.

At the same time, I was sending messages to Geraldine.

I did get a bit mad when she said that she didn't want to go to Sushi King, and I was really expressive with my words.

Sorry about that, Ged. When I feel unhappy, I'm very expressive when it comes to anything at all.

Others who are reading this, Ged and I are friends, and have no relationship whatsoever, don't get me wrong.

During work today, I was thinking a lot about how couples treat each other during dates.

If you read one of my earlier posts, there was a "Love sure is complicated" encounter.

Love Sure Is Complicated - Encounter 1

I stated already in my previous post, but if you're lazy to read it, then better I put it again now.

There was one couple, who was arguing all the time since they came to the restaurant.

I went there to take orders, and they were quiet, and just gave me orders.

Then when I walked away, they started arguing again.

I went to take an order from another group, and could still hear the argument from the place I was standing, and I even heard the girl screaming softly in anger.

Then 2 minutes after the food was served, I saw them feeding each other.

How? I think it's pretty impressive how the situation changed just like that.

Love Sure Is Complicated - Encounter 2

A couple today, they come pretty regularly.

Both of them got their food already.

Almost straight away, the guy grabbed some of the food from the girls' plate.

Just like that. Without permission.

Luckily the girl was quite alright with it.

Although, I have seen before, not in this restaurant, one guy got angry with a girl for taking a bit of his food.

Heh. I really don't know what to think of this.

Love Sure Is Complicated - Encounter 3

Another couple out on a date. They look like typical "Apek Cinas", only dressed nicely though.

While sitting down, the girl started sending messages using her phone. I thought, "It's a date! You gotta spend this time with the guy, not the one speaking through the phone!"

And then, the guy did the same thing also.

Makes me wonder about the significance of a date.

I did see the girl wanting to hold the guy's hand, but the guy keeps shaking her off.

And then, about 5 minutes later, the guy tried doing the same, and the girl starting hitting him.

Later, I noticed, the guy was frustrated, as he gave most of his money to the girl. The girl must have demanded it. I did manage to see the guy's wallet, and there wasn't much money left inside.

I don't always support the guy in terms of relationship, but I'm not afraid to say, the girl's an arse!

Although the guy should not let himself get controlled by the girl so easily.

It was crazy. The girl was pretty rude too.

I'll tell you more when I encounter more incidents/issues between couples.

Next blog post - Food Critic!

My Current Saturday Life

I work in Coffee Mug on Saturdays from 6p.m until midnight.

The result? I'm unable to watch most of the premiership now days.

All I can look forward is getting to know the results of the matches. Or if I'm lucky, I can watch the last bit of them.

Is this marking a loss of interest in watching football?

It is slightly true actually.

I didn't seem to be bothered about what John Terry did.

And I have been a little lazy in reading in-depth match reports now days.

But I'm still a Wigan Athletic fan, hat doesn't change.

And life being a Wigan fan is not easy.

Manchester United and Chelsea matches are shown 38 times a season.

Wigan only has around 12 live matches on TV.

If there's a live match also, then I won't be able to watch it because I'm working!

However, maybe my future wife will be happier, because Wigan matches aren't shown often, so I may spend more time with my wife than watching football. :D

Today was one of the really good working days.

Today, I had no dissatisfied customers, and everybody seemed to have a smile on their face. I like that.

Although there was one couple who was arguing with each other the whole time they were there. And each time I went near them, they kept quiet. :P

I'm the peacemaker :D

But they were really polite to me. Then when I walked away, they started arguing again.

2 minutes later, I saw them feeding each other.

Love is so complicated....

I'll be going to Sushi King on Monday, lunch time to go and meet Lucas. Maybe to help him gain confidence in taking orders and stuff. (He did the same to me at Coffee Mug)

Anyone wanna join? :D

I know Subrash won't want to. :P

I'll tell you all about it on Monday night.

Keep reading! :D

Another Day, Just That I'm Off

Last night, I was driving home from work.
Reached home, opened the gate to park my car inside.
As usual, did that, nothing interesting.
Then I went forward, just about to park the car, and I heard one of my dogs screaming.
I ran over its leg.
I didn't feel a bump, but luckily the car wasn't really sound-resistant, so I could hear the screaming.
I immediately reversed. My mom went straight to the porch, checking if the dog was alright. I parked my car, with many metres away from the front.
The dog was limping. I was hoping that she will be alright.
Thankfully, she was jumping up and down today. Phew, luckily it wasn't severe.
It sure was a close call.

Nothing interesting happened today itself.
However, I did manage to learn Michael Buble's song, Everything and the intro of Haven't Met You Yet on the keyboard.
I encountered something very strange when playing the intro of Haven't Met You Yet.
I just could not concentrate playing with both hands.
I got frustrated, started hitting my own head etc.
And then, I just tried using the opposite hands for the song. My left hand on the right, and my right hand on the left.
It was a very pleasant surprise, as it worked! Woo hoo!
Hands get a bit tiring, because I'm not used to playing this way.
I was wondering why I could only concentrate playing both hands, with them in opposite sides.
Turns out that I'm so used to using my left hand in playing chords, that I can't switch hands.
And for this song, the chords are supposed to be played on the right side, as it's supposed to be played with my right hand.
Not the case for me. I can play it now, that's most important.

Lastly, I need to get people to read my blog! :P
I'll slowly, lets say, promote it. :D
But well, not everyone's interested anyway, so what the heck.
See you all.

Salary Day!

So, this is my first official blog post.
I don't really know what to think of this, but heck with it.
It's been a few weeks since I have started working in this restaurant called "Coffee Mug Cafe" in Oakland Commercial Centre. I only worked here because I enjoy the food there, and was a relatively regular customer.
So, it has been 3 weeks into my job already. I use to hate my job at first, then I thought it was alright, now I love it!
I can play Sudoku when I'm not busy serving customers. :D
I'm not that good at it, but time sure passes fast when I'm at it, so it's good for me. :D
It sure feels great when the customers are really nice to me, and when I see some friends come over, or want to come over, regardless whether they want to disturb me or not.
I've got Zeno, Harsimrit and Theresa Belle who will come one day. Hopefully anyway.

Speaking of Theresa Belle, it reminded me of... Sushi King!
Lucas got a job there. To my amazement, he actually got a job!
So, we decided to go to Sushi King for lunch today, just for the fun of it, and a few times, telling Lucas what he should be doing. :D
So, any good memories of the lunch there? Oh yeah!
I have overcome my fear of salmon now. Woo hoo!
I felt like puking half the time when I ate Salmon at Manhattan Fish Market. I didn't like the food there. And then I said I hated the food when I saw, the cost of lunch for 2 was over RM80! Madness! My mom paid though :D
Other memories of today's Sushi King lunch? Edmen and Tishaan inserting all sorts of ingredients into this egg custard dish which came with a sushi set.
They put some of a Starbucks cookie, cabbage, green tea, soy sauce, prawn's tail, etc. Ridiculous! Edmen couldn't even look at it himself! They showed Theresa somemore. :P
And finally, Subrash. He hates raw stuff, seaweed and seafood.
He later said, "I'm not going to come back to this place even again!!!". At least 3 Sushi King staff heard that!
The rest of the time, we played pool, foosball and the ice hockey thing, what ever you call it.
I won every thing I played :D
Had to go back early though, had to get ready for work!

A day in the office as usual, except that it's a restaurant.
Finally got my salary. Guess my salary. Bet none of you will get it right before you look at the next line.
RM306.45!
Where do you think that came from?
In January, I started on the 13th, so it was 19 days till the end of the month.
This is how my payment works:

Monthly salary = RM500
Days in month = 31
Days worked (plus off days) = 19

Salary = (500/31) x 19 = RM306.45

Yeah, like that :D

Alright, that's enough of typing, please check this blog as often as you can.
Thanks for reading!