my beloved life
Sunday, September 07, 2008
okay, i know this post is absolutely overdue!! and I apologise for that, plenty has happened, which I will put here 1 by 1. Without further delay, I shall commence on the post..
June
HSBC regionals happened this month! As you all know, My team, Dapez, won the HSBC Entrepreneur Award in Malaysia, and so we represented Malaysia in the regional competition among several countries, Hong Kong, Brunei, Thailand, Phillipines, Vietnam, Bangladesh and Malaysia of course! we were all waiting in anticipation for the moment to come. First day in Hong Kong, we touched down and already several of the Malaysian contingent stared at the airport in awe. Of course, I didn't, coz Ive seen it a few times already and thus is no stranger to me. From the airport, we were escorted to the hotel by bus. I have to say, HSBC was really generous in this sense, for putting us up at Marco Polo hotel, which is a 5 star hotel! fully paid for k!! anyway, we didn't have any time to spare though, coz by time we touch down, we oni had 1 day left to practice, so we didn't get to explore HK on the first night. I have to tell you, the first night was absolutely scary! that's coz my teammate and I BOTH repeatedly failed to present properly, keep missing lines and so forth! we were all terrified then as the competition was only a day away and if we cant produce any sort of reasonable performance, super malu man!.. Cant really remember wat we did the next day, only remembered that we had a rehearsal and got to see the other teams do their rehearsals as well.. Boy, were we amazed by other team's readiness, don't even know how we're gonna compete them let alone win!? so after that, we went to my dad's hotel for final practice, this time with Adam, who kindly flew in from Malaysia with his dad to help us prepare and gave us moral support. Thanks dude! I think we did slightly better when you were around!..
I shall skip to competition day as the rest is already kinda blur. Anyway, competition day. We were all quite nervous, as we still stumbled a few times, and i keep forgetting the Regional Expansion part. our preparation was not helped as well by the scare we had at 1pm in the afternoon (competition was at 4pm and we're the first to present!). No thanks to a certain Nottingham Uni lecture who threatened to pull Dom and Liz out of the competition because we don't want to change the slides to his suggestion =.=. That I was quite pissed off, I mean, how do you expect us to change the slides 3 hours before the competition! and all this was because either Dom or Liz gave him a wrong signal of wanting help or something. I don't want to point fingers now that its finished, but yea, I have to admit that affected me quite abit. Especially when Andrew (our HSBC Malaysia rep) and I had to hide this whole thing from my teammates, this plus all the stress my teammates put all of us (most notably Adam and I) with their internal fighting, how to win you tell me!? so in the end, we presented, and YES! I stumbled right at the end of the presentation. Totally forgotten my line and had to stare at the screeen for bout 5 seconds. By then I knew, we wont be able to make it anymore. Was quite sad actually, coz with all the effort put in to compete, like shifting exam dates and stuff, this is how it ended. In the end, the all gal team from Thailand was simply too good on that day and swept both the awards. Adam's and my dad kept saying we were good and came in close second, but in this competition, there is only one winner and second means nothing.
The next few days was spent touring around HK. I have to say, its been awhile since the last time I was in HK, so there are couple of things that are new. And of coz, with spending expenditure coming from HSBC winnings, I don't think I'll have another chance of saying this, that I had an All expense paid trip to HK!! now how many people can say that! =P. We visited quite a few companies, notably Cathay Pacific, Calbee, HSBC and Ocean Park. It was quite interesting to see how these companies operate and how it developed from a small company to now becoming an International brand. Of coz, what's a HK trip without Disneyland! even though it was a little small, but we had a great time there, just taking pictures and walk down memory lane to all the Disney characters we used to worship! BUT, there was one thing i regretted though, i FORGOT to buy the chip n dale soft toys that I took picture with. Was suppose to get it when we were coming back, but I guess coz it was darn hot, by then was too tired and forgotten bout it. Only remembered bout it in the MTR, but it was too late, haih!! nvm, Ill get them the next time I go to HK, i swear!!!
Oh, and one more thing, on the 3rd night, I found an Irish pub that screens Euro 2008, so I spent the night there watching football and get to know people around. The 4th night, I brought a couple of people over there. By the 5th night, EVERYONE was there! haha, I must have brought in the most business for them man! but it was fun, just sitting around at a pub, laughing our heads off while watching football with bottles of beers in our hand, you gotta say we enjoyed life to the max there man!
July
So, after all the hype of the HK trip, I was back in Malaysia to face reality. Had income tax exam right after I came back, gotta say it was the crappiest paper that I have taken so far!! even though its open book, I practically knew nuts about it. Of coz, no points for guessing how I fared in the exam! But anyway, after that exam, I went down to Singapore. I havent been to Singapore quite some time, and my dad wanted us to get a diving license. So since both was so, I agreed to go. I have to say, Singapore has really changed alot since the last time I went there. There are new buildings and areas that I didn't know about. For instance, Vivo City. I tell you, this shopping mall is HUGE! i think its bigger than 1u even man! and the shops inside are the nice shops like GAP and Gucci, so its quite nice also. Of coz, gals dun kill me for this, but coz I went during the end of the Singapore sale, almost ALL the stuff is 70%!! so its like, my jeans is S$250, now its only $99, that's crazy man! Bought quite alot of shirts as well, in total I bought about 18 shirts and 2 pants, which is insane considering all this in the space of 3 weeks!! haha.. Anyway, diving was real fun. We had to do 2 test before we can commence the course. 1 is the 200m swim, which is no problem for me. the next 1 is float for 10 minutes. Haha, i swear Im the only one that can float on my back for 10 minutes without having to move a muscle, even the instructors were amazed! at first I thought it was a good thing, but later I found out that me being too positively buoyant (that's wat they called ppl that can float) is bad as this means i need more weights to sink in the sea. So we did the whole training course and then on sat off we went to Pulau Dayang for the real thing! was quite nervous initially, coz I have this fear for sharks and sea creatures actually. But after the instructor assured me that it will be like finding treasure to see sharks here, I'll actually see more humans than sea creatures!
I thoroughly enjoyed the experience. It's a whole other world that we cannot fully understand. All the fishes, corals are amazing to watch and the way they move is juz... well can't describe it in words. So everyone, please do sign up for diving, you wont regret it!
Of coz, 26th July, the special day for me! didn't start off as really special to me though, somehow I didn't feel like celebrating it. It's like, great, I'm 21 already, so what kinda thing. Started off the day by going to the saloon to cut my hair. My saloonist made an appointment with me, she said she wanted to do something to my hair, so I said, my birthday right, wat the heck la, just do it! haha.. in the end she highlighted my hair, which looks pretty ok, don't you guys think?? anyway, came back and took my sis's jap friend Narumi, my sis and dad out for a tour. Narumi is like an exchange student and we were the host. So we went to places like eye of Malaysia and craft complex. Actually, the craft complex is really nice, coz they have all the batiks and stuff there. They even allow you to do your own batiks and potteries. Came back home bout 7, as I turn in, I was like, 'eh, isn't that Bryan's car?'!.. ah, busted d! at that point, I was just wondering, who else will turn up later in my house haha! But anyway, thank you all for coming and making the effort to make the surprise party was a success, I was really happy to see you guys, trust me! thanks for the present also, I'll use it more often from now onwards k!..
August
This month started off with Wendy's big day! was quite a day that day. Because it was also Olympics opening ceremony, many people were rushing home to watch it, and thus, all the roads were jammed up! it was crazy to think of the jam being that bad. But, that's not the story. coz as I was leaving uni for Wendy's party, i realise that my back tyre is punctured!!! so i spent the next 20 minutes changing my tyres before I shoot off to Wendy's party. Reached about 9 something, didn't reach there much later than the rest who was stuck in the jam, coz i used another road to get there and there's was no jam. Can't remember what that place is called though. But the food was pretty ok, abit on the pricy side though, but for Wendy's birthday, its ok la!! haha.. after that, went to a club at TTDI. It was quite good, although it lacked a little space, but it was really fun. And I havent gone to clubs with any of my unimates anyway, so this is really good haha!
After that, everyone looks in anticipation to the Monash Ball. Seriously, there was alot of hype for the ball like who's gonna wear what and the stress of what to wear to stand out and stuff. imagine, bryan and andrew actually took time to get all their stuff ready like, 2 weeks before the ball man! me, being me of coz, got my stuff oni the night before haha! maybe coz I really wasn't that enthusiastic about the ball for some reason. overall, the ball was ok, its nice to see everyone dress up and all, took some pictures as well. I have to say, the dances were pretty good actually, I mean, the guy dances like a girl wei, that's damn gay man!=.=.. but they were really good overall. After the ball, we all went to Euphoria for clubbing. it is crazy in there!! the floor literally shakes together with the beats, which is quite cool I must say. However, because it was Merdeka eve, it was jam packed with people!! goes to show how 'patriotic' Malaysians are nowadays, using it as excuse to party only. Anyway, despite the packness in there, we all thoroughly enjoyed ourselves in there Im sure. After that, we all went to melissa's house for the night, since we live quite far away. initially we just sat around doing nothing, until Mich ask me to suggest some games, and I, suggested the game truth or dare and 'I never'. How wrong was I to suggest it!? suddenly, all the secrets starts to come out, the way that you dont want. Obviously, I kena the most la =.=. slept abit, then we went for Dim Sum at USJ 21, which is quite good, must go back there again. After that, Adam, Wendy and Melissa came over to my place to chill. Melissa and I played some ping pong to practice for the upcoming Monash Table Tennis Close, which Ill talk about later, while Adam and Wendy enjoyed some 'alone' time together, watching Phantom of the Opera!..
September
Fast forward, we just finished organising the Monash Table Tennis Close. We were quite last minute in preparing for this, as we only paste up posters and give out registration forms like a week before the tournament, but we still got quite ok response from the members. But most importantly, i think we all bonded more together during this 3 days period. That, of coz, is thanks to our 3 day marathon of gossiping during dinner time. I swear, Ive never gossiped that much in my life man! and its not only gossip behind other's back, it is literally gossip in front of those involved, that was funny! Anyway, back to the competition. First day was quite hectic, as we had to finish alot of matches that day, thankfully everything went well besides several walkovers which is a shame. Second day and the last day was abit more relaxed. Special thanks to all who stayed back to help arrange the tables coz some stupid lecturers book the exam hall for exams the following mornings =.=.. Anyway, Women singles and Mixed doubles didn't have any upsets, with Kai Ing winning the women singles, Oliva second and Shereen third. Mixed Doubles was also won by Kai Ing and Woon Hann, second is Melissa and I (Surprise surprise!), third is Adhi and Oliva. Men singles provided a few upsets, in particular, the shocking elimination of Shaun, who is deemed as a potential finalist, and also the defeat of Woon Hann to Poon. I managed to get into the quater finals, where I lost to Rickson. Thinking back, the last time around, I also lost in the quaters, maybe that's like my limit. Anyway, Poon was an underdog before ther tournament but manage to surge all the way to the final where he faced Woon Hann again. However, this time Woon Hann got his revenge and emerge as champion. third place goes to Kim Lai.
The doubles were no surprise as well, Adhi and I did get a little scare from Justin and Jonathan in the group stage as we were trailing 8-10 on the final set, but manage to pull through that one. And so, we met Woon Hann and Kim Lai in the final. We start off as underdogs as they were the number one pair in Monash! we started off pretty badly, no thanks to me being a little nervous. SO we lost the first set. After that, we kinda buck up and they started making mistakes, so we surprised ourselves in winning the 2nd set as we actually expected us to get whitewashed. 3rd set went to them and the forth went to us. so its 2-2 and the game starts to get exciting. We won the fifth set and was only 1 set away from victory. As I said, we were only aiming at winning a set off them, but now we won 3, so we were already contented with that. Maybe that's y, we went to a bad start in the 6th set, was down 2-7 at one point. That's when we both thought, we can do this, we can just let them off the hook and started picking up pace. We manage to catch up and eventually win!! When they hit the ball to the net at match point to us, we both were stunned and couldn't move for a second, who would have thought haha! anyway, so we stopped a clean sweep of gold medals for Woon Hann. So champion was Adhi and I, second place Woon Hann and Kim Lai, third place was Justin and Jonathan. Overall, I think the whole thing was quite a success considering we barely managed to plan the whole thing out.
So yup, that's the longest post that Ive ever typed, all the events from June to September. Hopefully Ill update more often so that I wont torture anyone that reads this now haha! anyway, study hard and play hard everyone, til next time!
12:44 AM
