The Longest Journey

It's been a crazy couple of weeks. Last Friday, my car's air-conditioner broke down. Thanks to my mechanical know-how (which is very severely limited), I isolated the problem to the compressor... mainly, it was out of cooling gas.

I had to endure a crazy drive to and from work in a car whose cooling system only spewed out semi-warm air, a 45 minute drive to work in the morning, and a TWO HOUR DRIVE (thanks to a mistake in a tactical strategy in the world-famous war of Aaron Vs. Kuala Lumpur) back from work.

I could literally feel my essence melting away into pools of water rivuleting and running through cracks in the floor. I swear, I was 30 pounds lighter when I got home. Nothing like a good sauna to lose weight, eh? >.<

Anyways, I got hit by RM143 in terms of a car repair bill, plus I had to pay off my credit card, plus the fact that I still gotta fix the black oil leak from my car (AGAIN) and there's Worship Team Camp coming right up which is gonna hurt me for another RM300 or so.

I'm so broke. I think this is one of the times that I really, really felt like skipping my tithe to God.

However, God promised to take care of me... sooooo... HELP ME GOD! OR I'M DONE FOR! boohooohooohoooooo... :(

In other news, a young man was found dead in his home today. Police suspect no foul play as it appears the cadaver had starved to death.

Heh, like that'll happen. Maybe it's good, y'know, I could stand to lose a few pounds. I'd prefer to do it, like, voluntarily, but... well, let's just say motivation isn't one of my strong suits.

Moving on... I got pretty sick yesterday, throwing up and a really bad headache that came from the dehydration after. After seeing a doctor, I managed to get a medical for that day... awesome!

No, I'm not pregnant. Go away.

Using that medical, I actually went and got my glasses done (which, by the way, is another 400 I have to deal with when the credit notice comes) which is fortunately claimable from my company. Thank God they changed the policy for interns. Before this, all I got was medical. No Dental, no eyecare. But now... yay!

The rest of the week's been pretty quiet. I bought a new pair of shoes (which I HAD to have, okay, the last pair I had enabled me to go ice-skating on a wet floor) at 50% off! I'm so happy. Sales in any form are my nemesis but hey, it has its uses. :D

Well, it's Saturday. I'm looking forward to... oh YEAH!

Ching Ying's back! One of my bestest friends ever, gone to Portland to study music n theology and she's BACK! We're gonna go out on Sunday and just catch up... me and my big sis! :D

That's what I'm looking forward to. First Sarah, now Ching... whee... I wonder when the rest of my friends from far away are gonna turn up (Hint hint, nudge nudge)? ;-)

See ya guys!

Around and About

KL and PJ that is.

Sarah and her family came down from Melbourne to visit KL. Sarah and her dad, Uncle David, just got back from a wonderful mission trip to China, and met up with her mum, Auntie Mei, and her brother Thomas here in Kuala Lumpur.

So we started off by going to KLCC to visit the Skybridge. Amazing, the fact that I've worked here 7 months and I haven't been to the skybridge yet. Of course... the skybridge's view is the EXACT SAME VIEW I get from my office every day. Go figure. -_-;;

My colleague, Fion, got in the queue for us before we arrived, and when we did she took off back for work. I couldn't believe the HORDE, yes, the HORDE (like a HOARD of treasure but not as pretty) of people that queued up for a glorious ten... yes, count 'em, ten minutes on a bridge overlooking hazy KL.

Of course, as I was one of them I don't think I should harp on this too much. ONWARD!

We went up there, and as usual, not much to see at all. :( However I did learn a whole lot on the towers and their construction, as well as the layout of the KLCC area and various other interesting trivia. After that, it was breakfast at the nearby Wisma Sentral and then onwards to Times Square!

Times Square was a GHOST TOWN. It's such a pity that a great place like that turned out to be such a drag. Sure, lotsa shops, and designer brands and even the indoor theme park, but it seems to me like no one goes there. I guess it's a very unstrategic location... there's a lot of substitutes and cheaper alternates around it!

For IT, you have Low Yat and Imbi. For clothes, you have Sungai Wang and Lot 10. For food, practically everywhere. For parking, ditto. About the only thing about Times Square that's unique is Borders, the bookstore. And knowing the general unreading lot called Malaysians, that's practically useless too.

Drifted over to Low Yat Plaza, where Thomas bought himself his much sought-after sound card for his laptop. Of course, he did vacillate between "Yes" and "No" in regards to buying it for a long while, though... No offense, Tom! :P

We then drove back to PJ, with most of the back seat asleep. We had to wake up before 7... I suppose everyone felt it. Went to 1 Utama, and The Curve, and had dinner with Sarah's uncle David and his wife, Julia, at a Nyonya restaurant. Poor Thomas couldn't eat most of the food because it was spicy.

About the only other thing I can think of to mention here is that I bought Keith Urban's latest CD. Haven't even had a chance to listen to it yet... oh well. :)

Gotcha!

Argh!!! It's almost a WEEK since I last posted. I told myself that in this new blog (which by the way, I invested a helluva lot of time in) I would absolutely, definitely, most positively keep updated if not daily, then at least once in every couple of days.

So much for resolutions. I suck at them. New Year's Resolutions, Christmas Resolutions, Birthday Resolutions, New Relationship Resolutions. Suck, suck, suck.

Anyway, back to the present. Congratulations, FORZA ITALIA, on hoisting the Cup of Life for the fourth time. Cannavaro rocked! Zidaned knocked! Yes, the infamous Header of Doom.

The title of this post is in reference to a Gotcha! call played on my colleague. Yes, I set him up. Apparently it was played on air today (which I missed) and will be up for download soon. Once it is, I'll link this blog to it... Hitz.fm's Podcasts.

Him, being such a nice guy, responded so positively to it that my moment of triumphant glory has been somewhat watered down. But still, nice to know he at least fell for it. :) Sorry Kenneth!

Meh... such a filler this is.... what happened over the past few days...

I'm pretty Zombie-fied after the Final. Overslept and had to take a half day leave because it was too late to go in to work. Right now, I still haven't had enough sleep... though there is that Japanese buffet dinner later at Jogoya in Starhill to look forward to. Company-sponsored, too. :)

I met Cheng Sim online for the first time today. Hi Cheng Sim, if you're reading this, it was great chatting with you.

OMG. I hate this post. Hate Hate Hate. It's one of those rambling ones with no point in it whatsoever. I'll stop now, and I promise a better one next time! Off to Jogoya! :D

Homesick - Malaysian no more?

Recently at work I was browsing through some blogs (yes, at work, shhhh!) and I came across this guy, Smashpop, a friend of Skyler's, just came back from Melbourne from a holiday.


As I scrolled past all the familiar pictures of Melbourne City, Crown, and even Sofia's (haha), I just felt a huge pang of homesickness which took me by surprise. How can it even be homesickness if I'm not from there in the first place? What would be a more suitable word? Memories? Nostalgia? Psychosis?


Some of my best times in my life were in Melbourne. I remember all those pig-out sessions at Sofia's, Lygon Street, and various Italian eateries. I remember the pizza shop near my old place on Koonawarra Street at Clayton run by a genuine Italian husband and wife... everytime I walked in it was a bon giurno! and a cheerful ciao! when I left.


Melbourne CBD was a change of pace, quite refreshing after the general quietness of the suburbs. Everyone's just rushing around, and there was so much to see. A nice hotdog with heaping piles of sauerkraut on it from Queen Victoria's, some really tasty noodles in Chinatown, fish and chips for $2 in The Crown... man... those were the days.


I remember heading up to Mount Dandenong and just enjoying the view... then having a nice meal of steak and eggs with a beer, enjoying the view from a pub. And Healesville, where I had my first encounter of a koala kind. They stink, literally. So do penguins, which I met at Phillip Island. I've come to a conclusion that the cuter an animal is, the more likely it is to smell bad.

Not forgetting all my friends back there... my cell group members, my university buddies, my old churchmates... so long ago... it's been a year as of Monday. I arrived in Melbourne on the 4th of July, 2004, left on the 4th of July, 2005, and now it's the 7th of July, 2006. 2 years, just like that. It seems like only yesterday.

I'm homesick for Melbourne. Does that make any sense? Probably I just wasn't there long enough to be disillusioned... :)

You've Got Tagged!

Okay, maybe the title's pretty bad english, but I got my first tag today.

This is an edit: According to Skyler, I'm supposed to say... I got tagged by her. *shrug*

Hmmm... let's see...

Name 5 people who are currently on your current list of "most favourite blog mates."

This is hard. I've only gotten back on the blogging scene about a month ago, and as of yet I don't have many favourite blog mates... they're all listed on the left sidebar!

1. Sarah Cheah - Great friend from my Melbourne stint! University student.

2. Sharon - Bubbly, unique, and totally insane. One crazy, totally likable gal! UM student doing Media Studies.

3. Wen Jun - Heck of a smart guy. Also in Melbourne, really good looking, and all around crazy! Biotech Student in RMIT, part-time Radio DJ.

4. Jennifer Ng - Smart and talented singer, good friend. Works for The Star newspaper as their Web Master.

5. Joy - Bubbly and cheerful, nice and kind. Psych Doctor Candidate in Melbourne.

All girls... well, except Wen Jun... errr... maybe not. Let's not go there... onwards!

Name 5 types of people who irk, amaze, amuse, disgust you.

1. Irk - People who push, shove, and generally bully everyone else on the LRT. You know what I'm talking about? Like, they get on, and just shove you aside when you're just there, minding your own business and reading a book just so they can get to the sweet spot which you were leaning on.

2. Amaze - People who can be ice-cold under pressure. I try to be like that. I fail often, but I try.

3. Amuse - People who are self-important and try to prove it. It annoys me at times, but most often, it's amusing to watch people like that.

4. Disgust - Men who abuse women. People who abuse children.

5. Why is there a #5? Anyway... let's go for irk again - people who INSIST ON DRIVING AT -10KM PER HOUR IN FRONT OF YOU WHEN YOU'RE IN A HURRY!

*ahem*

Moving on...

Name 5 hot male/female celebrities

This will obviously be all female.

1. Shakira

2. Kate Beckinsale

3. Jennifer Aniston

4. Kelly Chen (Hey, Hongkies aren't off-limits, right? :P)

5. Maria Sharapova

Name 5 things you are passionate about.

1. God.

2. Playing the guitar.

3. Football.

4. Hanging out with friends.

5. ... as corny as this sounds... MICROSOFT!!!

Eh, 5 tak cukup lar...

6. Sleeping

7. Computer games

8. Movies.

There we go...

Name 5 blogs that you love reading.

Easy.

1. Skyler's

2. Cheryl's

3. Sarah's

4. Jennifer's

5. Sharon's though she seems to have stopped blogging frequently.

Give 5 phrases that describe you

Hmm, this is tough... I'll just use those I heard before.

1. Pretty good guitarist

2. Can eat a lot

3. Nice guy

4. Talks a lot

5. Laughs a lot

Okay, I'm done! Now, to tag others. This is a problem as my blog, to put it kindly, isn't very popular. But I'll give it a shot...

I tag (5, since we're doing everything in 5's today):

1. Sarah

2. Jennifer

3. Cheryl

4. Wen Jun

5. Sharon

Weekend from Hell, Part 2

I was just thinking about 'Part 2'. About the only movie I could recall watching with the words 'Part 2' as part of the title was... The Godfather, Part 2. Interesting the amount of trivia that runs through your head, no?

"I'm gonna make him an offer he can't refuse."



Ahem, well anyway...

My apologies for the semi-long hiatus. I was rather preoccupied by a couple of distractions called computer games, and as such haven't had the inclination to really update.

Anyway, getting back to The Weekend From Hell.

After getting my elbow gashed open and my muscles strained from lugging all that broken glass around, I went to church the next morning in my own car as usual. I parked it in a tree the church parking lot and went into the service.

Had a post-service breakfast with some other members of the worship team, then headed back into church and started my car, and headed home.

Or rather, I tried to head home.

Coming within sight of the exit (oh! glorious daylight!) my car, which had been running fine up to that point, coughed twice somewhat politely and died.

Yes, the engine just turned off, and my car rolled gleefully towards the pole guarding the exit until I hit the brakes, and tried to restart it.

As you can guess, it didn't start. And didn't start. And didn't start.

My irritation by now had turned to panic, and as I frantically tried to coax it to life, that paragon of humility and toleration, that absolute saint of kindliness and understanding, the Church-goer behind me started blowing his horn.

As sweat started to bead on my brow and my attempts to fire up my ride failed, I chanced a glance into my rearview mirror just in time to see him mutter an obscenity. Yes, and don't tell me I'm no lip reader. How hard is it to see the word f*** being uttered anyway? It's kinda distinctive. I see it on disgruntled football players on the telly all the time.

Various obscenities raced through my head as well, but of course, being the saint that I am, I walked over and threw him through his windshield merely nodded and got out, and with the help of the guard at the gate pushed my car aside to allow others to pass.

Naturally, upon inspection, I concluded that my battery had given up the ghost (which is I think the most common cause of a stalled car) and tried to jump start it by pushing the car with the guard and his buddy helping me shove it forward.

With the net result of me misjudging the distance and my car running out of the car park, down the ramp, and into the alley directly opposite the exit.

Pushing it back up the ramp was out of the question, and the alley was too narrow to navigate for another attempt at a jump start. I sighed, got out, and lifted the hood, and started poking around.

Turns out it's the darned fuel pump. I drive a rather ancient vehicle, which runs on a carburetor instead of the new-fangled fuel-injection systems that newer cars use, and I noticed that the little window in the side of the engine which is normally half-full of gas was now empty.

To fast forward, I waited in church for 3 hours till the second morning service was over, then pushed my car into the church's open-air car park nearby to leave my car there overnight, as there weren't any open mechanics on Sunday.

I had to take leave on Monday to get it fixed. Thank God there was a mechanic's shop nearby, and even more so that he's honest, and well-recommended by my ex-colleagues in church.

Now I'm back here on Wednesday at work, and I thank God that my car didn't stall in the middle of heavy traffic. In hindsight, the event wasn't nearly as bad as several others that I had to go through before in my lifetime, but it was certainly one of the more memorable ones. Combined with my assault on the glass door, I think this was most certainly, completely definitely...

The Weekend From Hell.

The Weekend From Hell, Pt. 1

... Well, not quite. Maybe really close, but not quite.

It all started with a really heavy Friday night paaaarteeeyyyyyyyyyyy (pronounced 'pahh-tehhh' and in correct English, spelled as 'party) in celebration of both Microsoft Malaysia's first excess of USD$100 million in sales and the moving on of our beloved GM, Mr. Butt Wai Choon (also translated as 'Bontot Kenapa Cantik', thanks to MS Malaysia's quirky sense of humor, see if you can figure it out).

Upon leaving the party earlier than expected (at 12am, I was really tired and I think slightly smashed) with a friend, we then drove over to a mamak and watched the climax of the Germany - Argentina game. We had a long conversation too, and I finally dropped my friend off at 3am then went home... arriving at about 3.20, and sleeping at about 4.

Woke up around 12pm... (before you think this is degenerating into one of those "Wake up, go out with cute girl, ha ha, play play, sleep" posts, bear with me. We're just approaching the exciting bit) ... and went about my business just waking up at a leisurely pace, as befitting the first morning of a weekend.

My mum's friends arrived (let's backtrack a little, she invited members of the Ladies' Fellowship over for lunch) and they were having a roaring good time while Good Ol' Hermit Aaron hid in his room under strict orders (no, it's not quite as bad as Harry Potter) not to show his face.

Around 1, I had fit of sneezing because I forgot to turn off my aircond, being engrossed in a quick game of FIFA '06 (yes, influenced by World Cup) I took a quick look around for that roll of toilet paper I kept for major emergencies in times of sneezing. To my utmost horror, there was none. Nada. Zilch. Zip. Ilek Puchi.

So, it being a clearly justified emergency, Good Ol' Sneezing Hermit Aaron rushed out of his room, walking by the kitchen, into the dining area, intending to disappear into his mum's bedroom where the attached toilet had a more than adequate supply of toilet paper to sate my sinustical (I invent my own words. Bite me) situation. However...

All the Aunties (note the capital 'A') smiled at me and nodded really politely. Good Ol' Polite Sneezing Hermit Aaron smiled too, scratching his head in an embarassed fashion, saying 'Hi', and walking through the portal dividing the living room and the dining room. All the while being somewhat woozy, sneezy, and embarrased, and completely missing the widening eyes and the beginning of a warning... "Hey, look ou-"

SMAAASSSHHHHHHHHHHH! *Plink* (In Chinese, also known as 'Pong Kling Klang', or perhaps that's Aaronese).

Aunties (Collective): OOOOOOoooooohhhhhh....

Good Ol' Smashed Up Aaron: Urrrkkkkk.....

Mean Ol' Smashed Up Glass door: *chink*

You see, there's a glass partition dividing the air-conditioned living room and the much warmer dining area. We usually leave this open as there is no point in switching on the air-conditioner in the hall when there is no one visiting; it simply wastes electricity. I usually have a fan on and the door open when I'm watching TV there.

So because it's usually open, I'm really used to just walking by the portal without a second glance. I would have noticed the glass door was closed if I was looking at the darned thing, but I was busy saying hi to everyone. That door literally shattered, and it took us the whole evening to take it down, dismantle the thing, and throw away the glass shards.

Why are you looking at me like that for? OH! Sorry, well, for all you concerned folks out there... I shattered the whole glass door with my knee, but fortunately escaped with only a very small superficial cut there. My ELBOW, for some reason (if you remember I was scratching my head, it was stuck out ahead of me) got the raw end of the deal (raw end, pun, get it? Ha Ha Ha :( ) and a slice of my precious flesh was gashed out from the point. It still hurts.

From how I can reconstruct it, basically I think I walked into the glass with my knee, thus shattering it at a center point, and hit one of the cracks running up from it with my elbow, pushing it in and gashing it in the process. I just thank God it wasn't any worse.

To end this first half of my weekend from hell, I spent a long time squatting, so my legs hurt, a lot of energy lifting the door and the glass, so my arms hurt, a raw elbow with a scar coming up, and a semi-sore knee. More to come on The Weekend from Hell, Part 2.

Yes, it gets worse. Stay tuned. ;)