Unwritten events of October

It's Friday night and everyone's either busy studying or working, or too lazy to go out. So, I guess it's just me and my computer tonight~ Thought i'd better write a catch-up post to recollect some of the special events that happened in the second half of last month, which sort of continues on from the 16th (which was the extremely long post regarding the first part of this month). Also, I feel kind of bad leaving someone's special birthday unmentioned. "Sowie Wonald~" Haha!

Continuing from then... and yes, major warning: another long post coming up!

Just uploaded the video that was compiled by Maurice from Chong's 12-12 BBQ held on 6th October. It captures a few extremely embarrassing moments of me but at least everyone gets a good laugh out of it eh? :þ~ I'm not always that crazy... Really... Hehe!



A week after the 12-12 BBQ, Chong held what was initially called a "pizza and beer party" which ended up including a lot of whiskey and coke, but turned out to be very entertaining. I found out that night how easily confused Hock and Yang can be when playing drinking games. Hilarious I tell ya~ One of the games went like this... 4 phrases:

One frog...
fell in...
the pond...
plop!

Not hard at all right? Then as it goes round the circle, the number of frogs increase, which also means that the phrase will be repeated according to the number of frogs there are. Make sense? e.g.

Two frogs...
two frogs...
fell in...
fell in...
the pond...
the pond...
plop...
plop!

Simple enough? But OMG did they have a tough time! We must have played it dozens of times and they still couldn't get it right! I think we eventually only got to four frogs (played extremely slowly)... which is what you see in the video below:



The following day was Ronald's 23rd birthday where Roderick (his younger brother) made sarawak laksa and invited us over to surprise him. I wasn't there when the surprise happened but I was told that he was still in his pajamas. Damn~ Must have been a picture moment that I sadly missed. Hehe! Anyway, after eating laksa, a few of us attended hari raya open houses - one held at the junior's flat and another small one at Azmir's flat. Never knew Azmir was such a good cook... or is it all instant? Haha! J/K! Didn't take a lot of photos but here are just a few:

Later that night, we returned to Ronald's house to continue his birthday celebration! This year was slightly different. We had an overseas spectator. It was like being on big brother with Hui Min watching in on our every move! Haha! No big celebration for Ronald cuz he expressly stated that he wasn't up for anything big but I think, sometimes small is better. It's the company that counts anyway~

A few days later, I was treated to a taste of Yang's cooking. On the menu: Chicken Rice and Tom Yum Soup with Champagne to celebrate Ronald and Yang's last University lecture forever! Overlooking the minor mishap of burnt garlic, the meal was delicious, topped up with dessert: chocolate ice cream with longans! Not a bad combo, I might add! :þ~

Went to play in our third week of the 'Business House' badminton summer league that night still slightly drunk. With the unavailability of Mark, we had Nik as a substitution as we faced 'The Ashes'. Having a Canterbury badminton player on our team gave us a 5 - 1 win, losing our women doubles yet again. Although we won, it wasn't the same as having our captain around. Needless to say, there was no team bonding session after. Yes Mark, I blame you! Just kidding~ Hehe!

That Friday (the 19th) proved to be one of the worst days of my life. I suffered a really bad hangover that lasted the whole day, even through the mini BBQ that Ronald and Yang had during their study session that I dropped in on. It was horrible. Since then, i've only had a drink of alcohol which was during one of Roger's farewell nights.

What happened? After our volleyball summer league competition the previous night (in which we lost against the "Wisconsins") a few of us headed down to Boys & Girls. The only thing was that Freddie wanted to try out a "kiam siap" way of having fun (so that he could bet on the England vs South Africa Rugby World Cup final - what a gambler!!) and brought out a surprise in the car - almost a full bottle of Black Label and 4 cups! We had to buy Coke from the nearest BP station. The initial plan was to take a shot at every red light we met along the way. The only problem was that we kept meeting green lights the whole way. So eventually, we parked right in front of Boys & Girls and drank for the next 20 minutes, relatively large amounts of whiskey to minimal amounts of coke inorder to not waste the very little coke that we had. I was all good until Seng joined us and asked me to "teman" him to drink. After that, I continued drinking with a couple more bottles of Smirnoff Black and Archers and then... K.O.! :P First time ever that I had to induce myself to vomit! Eesh~! Hence, my terrible hangover~

That weekend happened to be the long Labour weekend. I attended Hui's birthday bbq on the Saturday afternoon which was held at her fiance's house. I actually got lost when I walked through the front door cuz the house is really big~ Probably the third largest house among my friends in Christchurch. Haha! It was a lovely bbq and turned out to be a rather fattening one after Cin literally buttered everything up. I didn't take any photos that day cuz I was too lazy. Hehe! The following day, had lunch at Faiz's flat which was yet another Raya open house. Especially enjoyed the Satay and the Cheesecake which was baked by Neng. YuMMyyYYYyyY!! :)

Monday was a very long and tiring day for me. Woke up early to have McDonald's breakfast with Mark before attending the CMSA AGM to support Azmir and Freddie who were standing for President and Vice-President, respectively. Good thing that we were allowed to vote. I know quite a few of us would have been pissed off if they were going to deny us our votes after having slept so late the previous night and waking up so freaking early that morning. The results from the AGM brings you these people who will be representing the club for 2008~ Yay~!!

President: Azmir
Vice President: Freddie
Secretary: Ka Mun
Treasurer: Fiqa
Vice Secretary: Shuang Xiu
Sports Officer: Kelvin
Cultural Officer: Tomen
Islamic Officer: Zafran
Public Relations Officer: Yun Han
Events Coordinators: Gloria & Bernard

(From left to right) Andrew, Melvin, Gloria, Shuang-Xiu, Fiqa, Ka Mun, Yun Han, Azmir, Kelvin, Bernard, Tomen, Freddie & Zafran

From my perspective, next year looks very promising and I believe that the vibrant personalities in the newly formed committee have the ability to revive CMSA again to bring back it's glory and push it to new heights. So congratulations to them all and hope to hear great reviews from CMSA events next year~

After the AGM, everyone was so hungry so we went to Riccarton Mall for lunch. Walked around a bit, had coffee and then headed for gym. It was hard returning to gym after a 2 week break but I knew I had to go otherwise i'd forget how hard it is to burn off all the fat that i've been putting on over the winter. After gym, went home for a short while and then headed off to St Thomas for badminton training. After that, went to eat supper - had vanilla ice cream with lychees. Yum! What a long day it was. Unsurprisingly, I fell sick the next day. I guess I was pushing myself too hard. Hehe!

Wednesday as usual was our badminton competition. We faced a team called "Lollipops". There was a bit of drama that night but we won 4-2, losing our women doubles and Mark/Cin's mixed doubles. The drama? After Mark/Cin played their mixed doubles, Mark was trying to get feedback from Nik about the game because the next game would be my mixed doubles with Mark. After their talk, Mark announced that he wanted to give up. When I heard that, I asked him whether it was true because if it was, i'll just go out there and stand on court with my racquet down. He thought I was kidding and answered yes.

On court, we played and we were losing 14 - 8 (set point for the opponents) when I turned to Mark and asked him whether he still wants to give up. He turned to me and gave me his frowny-misunderstood-and-totally-confused-look and shouted "NO!". We ended up making a come back 15 - 14 (Yeah, we only play up to 15 points and no deuce. Stupid right?! *fAiNt*!). The next set, we won 15 - 6. Haha! Not bad eh? After that, Mark gave me the i'm-s0-proud-of-you-look the rest of the night. Haha! Now that's what I call, p-r-i-c-e-l-e-s-s!

Volleyball that week was a whole different story. We faced the same team that we played on grading night - "MOA Exterminators". Having played them before gave us an idea of their strengths and weaknesses, allowing us to form a strategy against them. That day, we went for the win but came out of it with a draw because we were unclear about the points system. Although we drew, I still felt that we lost. We lost because our team wasn't happy, we weren't united at all. That itself, made me think that we failed as a team. As management, we failed the team. After quite a few discussions with Mark, I can see where he was coming from. I guess it's just not a perfect world.

Out of boredom, Tung and I decided to drive up to Sumner Beach to watch Hock play in the weekly beach volleyball competition. It looked really fun although I personally wouldn't like to dive into the sand. Good thing it was a warm day too~

The beach volleyballers:




The bored spectators:

The "beautiful girls" didn't do too well on Halloween. We ended up winning with a 20 point difference after losing Women doubles, Mark/Cin's mixed and my mixed doubles with Mark. Reason? I guess everyone was just tired. Personally, I gave it all I had for women doubles which ended up being too much that I didn't have any more energy for mixed. Although we lost, it was the best results we've had so far losing 14-15 and 11-15. We're meeting the top team in our grade in 2 weeks time so the timing of the "loss" was a good wake up call. Having a bye next week means that we have time to train and hopefully we can beat them! Haha!

So what did everyone get up to on Halloween? I think our adventures that night deserves a post on it's own. With that, I shall leave it 'til next time. :)

Good luck for exams!

In an attempt to sleep early tonight after having a rather relaxing day, i'd just like to wish everyone who are currently facing exams...

Best of luck!

It may come slightly too late for some of you who have already finished but I really hope that the results will reflect the amount of effort you put into studying for the exams, especially if they were the very last ones of your University career! For others who are facing them now, keep your head buried in the books and i'm sure you'll be fine. Think positive! Just 2 1/2 weeks more! :)

Friday 26th October, 2007

You know you're old when the bouncers stop checking your ID. Luckily, it didn't happen to me tonight otherwise my night would have been totally ruined BUT... it did happen to a certain someone. Wahahaha!! Who who? *CouGh* Mark *CouGh*! Keke!

Was the guy from Denmark gay? Really? He's good looking though... Most good looking guys turn out to be gay. Why is that? Hmmm... Question of the night: Why are most good looking guys gay?

Does it take a lot of guts for an "ang moh" girl to walk into an area full of asians? Would an asian dare to walk into a big crowd of "ang mohs"? Would I? I don't think I would, unless I know at least one of them. Maybe she was just drunk or maybe it's a cultural thing. Hmmm...?

The bartender at Ishimoto had a cute smile. Yeah, watching him smile was my entertainment for tonight seeing as drinking just didn't seem too appealing.

Which brings me to wonder... why is it that I didn't feel like drinking tonight? Is it because I was so hung over last weekend that i'm literally scared of alcohol? (That's a whole other story) Black Label... *sHiVeR*! Dunno. Or maybe I just feel guilty after putting in so much effort at the gym earlier today.

Gym... Sat on the bench and talked to Mark for 2 hours after gym today. Funny stuff. We're always so F.O.S.! Got to see a lot of people of all shapes and sizes (literally) come and go. Too bad none hot enough to catch my attention. Haha!

Had an awesome dinner tonight with a few friends at Chopsticks. We had a good variety of dishes - soup, toufu, 4 different meat dishes and a vegetable dish. Nice meal. Been almost a year since I went there. The last time would have been UCBC committee dinner. *YuM*!

Then we had dessert at Strawberry Fare. Another place I haven't been to for a some time, probably since the beginning of this year before I went back to Malaysia. Haha! Good pigging out session tonight.

Anyway, I don't think i'll be attending the second session of Roger's grand farewell tomorrow so, here's wishing the very best to him... Bon voyage! :)

From Grey's...

Without committing my thoughts to writing
Without shedding any light
Eyes swelled with tears awaiting
These quotes they seem so right

------------------------------

"The truth is painful. Deep down nobody wants to hear it, especially when it hits close to home. Sometimes we tell the truth, because the truth is all we have to give. Sometimes we tell the truth, because we need to say it out loud to really hear it for ourselves. And sometimes we tell the truth, because we can't help ourselves. And sometimes, we tell them because we owe them at least that much."

Grey's Anatomy - Season 4, Episode 3

"In life, only one thing is certain, apart from death and taxes. No matter how hard you try, no matter how good your intentions, you are going to make mistakes. You are going to hurt people, you are going to get hurt and if you ever want to recover, there's really only one thing you can say. ... Forgive and forget, that's what they say. It's good advice but it's not very practical. When someone hurts us, we want to hurt them back. When someone wrongs us, we want to be right. Without forgiveness, old scores are never settled, old wounds never healed and the most we can hope for is that one day we'll be lucky enough to forget."

Grey's Anatomy - Season 4, Episode 4

Horoscope for the day...

Mark was on his study break and decided to send me my horoscope of the day. Not that I really believe in horoscopes anyway but I thought it would be quite funny. Instead, it was somewhat negative. Something I didn't expect.

"Relationships are fluid. People are moving in and out of the centre of your life all the time. Whether you realise it or not. This drifting phenomena is continuing with a troubled friend. Who seems further away than ever... Let them continue on their own path and value what they gave you. Ultimately, you are all individuals who need to take their own journey. Is there someone you've lost touch with who you miss? Get in touch with them today. Even if it's just to say a final goodbye."

Trying not to think too much about it, although I am slightly bothered. Not going to act on either. Been having dreams though. Recurring dreams. Same people. Same ending. But what do they mean? Do dreams really mean anything? Maybe it's just my subconscious mind still active while i'm asleep. Who knows?

Anyway, i'll leave you with this quote from one of my favourite series - "Grey's Anatomy". It's one of those series where I feel that I can really relate to the characters.

"Change - We don't like it; we fear it but we can't stop it from coming. We either adapt to change or we get left behind. It hurts to grow. Anybody who tells you it doesn't is lying. But here's the truth... Sometimes the more things change, the more they stay the same. And sometimes, oh, sometimes change is good. Sometimes, change is everything."

Grey's Anatomy - Season 4, Episode 1

You may actually recall, one of my first posts on this blog was about change. Haha. What a coincidence. I still stick to the same philosophy though. What happens, happens. Be happy. :)

Since the start of October...

Warning: This post is going to be long!

A few major events have happened since the start of this month which I think are worth mentioning, also cuz people are expecting photos to be posted up on this blog too. I find it funny though, how hypocritical some people can be mocking me about having a blog when they themselves find great pleasure in reading its contents. Just a thought. Ultimately, i'm not too concerned. I know that this space serves more needs than just my own and i'm happy to provide such a service. That now said, I can continue with my update...

Let me take you back to earlier this month (the 2nd to be exact) when we celebrated Tzin Wei's 25th birthday. As it had been clearly announced by the birthday boy that he didn't want any big celebrations this year (3 persistant calls at 1:30am making me think it was an emergency international call! Totally ruined my relaxing shower, I might add!), a dinner at Food Sing Restaurant was organised by Freddie to commemorate the special day. Only 5 candles were placed on the cake cuz he didn't want to look so old. *aHeM* Wrinkles on the face speak louder than the number of candles on the cake! *aHeM*! Hehe! Kidding~

Awww~ Tzin Wei looks so happy! Haha! After dinner, we went for coffee at Coffee Culture... followed by the usual karaoke at Boys & Girls. Seems like everything has become quite predictable when it comes to birthday celebrations now, doesn't it? Haha! It was fun though... Oh yeah, and Sheila's back even skinnier than before! Yay! (Yay that she's back... not cuz she's skinnier.) Maybe I should consider going to Hong Kong for 3 weeks. Haha! It'll save me a hell of a lot of effort at the gym. :þ~ And no, none of us were drunk that night, although it seemed like it? Hmmm...

The following day, 3rd October, the "Beautiful Girls" were born. That's our team name for the Business House badminton summer league competition that we've entered - yeah, the team name inspired by the song. For Cin and I, it was our first time playing competitive badminton. The good thing about the competition is that it comprises of doubles only - mens doubles, women doubles and 4 mixed doubles - 6 matches per team, per night. Not too bad. Just requires chemistry between the players. It was a last minute decision to enter, so we hadn't had too much practice before the first night. We played against "Allsorts", winning only the mens doubles (Mark & Hock) and one of our mixed doubles (Hock & I). I must admit, our 2 - 4 lost was rather demoralising but as Captain Mark says, the good thing about it is that it's a league so there's room for improvement. I guess it made me feel a bit better that our captain believed in us.

That night, after supper we denounced our captain (just for the night la) and decided to have a team bonding session by going to karaoke, Boys & Girls - voted 3 -1 (Mark obviously being the 1)! Hehe! C'mon. You must admit it was fun. "How much is that doggie in the window?" *WoOf* *WoOf*? :þ~ Mark was a party pooper wanting to go home. Hehe! It was fun... I dunno, a small group acting silly... Good times~

Our results last week (second week of competition) against "Mixed Bred" was a lot better. At least everyone in the team had a win and that's good progress in itself. We won 4 - 2, winning all of our matches except women doubles and Mark & Cin's mixed. Oh, and we've employed Coach Nik. Hehe! No second team bonding session. I hadn't realised the extent of the situation that night. The win... initially provided good motivation. The coldness... that's one to ponder about. Doesn't seem right. What's up with that huh? I guess we all need time, maybe some more than others.

The upcoming match for this week is:

Beautiful Girls vs The Ashes
Wednesday 17th October - 7:30pm
Badminton Hall, Court 3

Chong's annual 12-12 BBQ fell on the first Saturday of October, just short of 1 day to make it exactly a year since we last had it. Less photos were taken this year probably cuz I was too lazy and just wanted to sit down and enjoy the beautiful day outside. It didn't help that I was wearing a mini skirt either which was a bold move by me, I might add. A total shocker to my friends that day. Hehe! Haven't worn anything that short (other than sports shorts) for a very long time... Probably 2 or 3 years? Hehe! Need to do more gym and tighten everything up before I show more skin. Wahahaha!

I arrived late in the afternoon. When I got there, everyone seemed rather settled. There was no aggressive drinking, but rather friends who had gathered around to enjoy a few cold beers and eat to their heart's content. It wasn't long after I had some food to eat that the cans of "Cody's" came out and they literally had our names (or nicknames) on it. Totally caught us off-guard but good thinking!

Why "EMPTY"? Origin? Remember the good ol' days of mIRC? #paikia... #ironic... Undernet... Dalnet... It used to be one of the prominent communication networks back then. I first started using the internet (or mIRC to be exact) back in 1998 when I entered high school. Been almost 10 years now. Haha! It was back then that I used the nickname mT` which later became eMpTy`. Why? It's my initials... "M"... "T"... Said fast becomes "empty". I'm pretty sure i've explained it all before... haven't I? Hmmm... I'm too lazy to check. Hence... "kosongkia" as my msn address. Click? :þ~

Enough rambling... Here are some photos from that day...

The atmosphere




The selection of food




The people





...and yes, STOP SMOKING! :þ~

I had a break from the party to be on duty at badminton but returned later that evening. And... Look who I found in Christchurch... Mr Justin Tee who didn't have the courtesy to let me know himself that he was in town and I had to hear it from Yang. HMPH! But seeing as he has lost his cellphone multiple times (also losing all our contact numbers), i'll forgive him AGAIN.

We had more drinks and then a few of us went down to town - Coyote of course. It was fun cuz we managed to meet up with more people there making the night an awesome one. Arrived home "earlier" than I thought cuz I got screwed up by the automatic setting on my phone for daylight savings which we had already adjusted for. Stupid! But yeah, a good night.

Random photos of myself from the 12-12 BBQ Party. Wrinkles oh wrinkles! :(

Last Thursday was the debut for 'Roti Canai with Dahl and Curry on a Hot Summer Day' (abbreviated to 'Roti Canai' for their convenience) when we played against the MOA Exterminators for the Pioneer Volleyball Summer League Grading Night. Although we didn't win the game because of the time limit, we still made it into Division 2 for Round 1 (the first 5 weeks of competition) after putting up a good fight. Given, that the team wasn't used to the court, the lightness of the ball, the height of the net... Were those the factors that led to our loss? Or maybe our nerves got to us with the exception of a couple of us playing better than normal. I guess our challenge for the upcoming game is to overcome whatever the problems were from last week. In saying that, here are the details for this week's game:

Roti Canai vs Wisconsins
Thursday 18th October - 7:30pm
Pioneer Stadium, Court 3

It's almost 4:00am so i'd better call it a night. I'll hopefully get around to uploading the photos and videos soon, along with the updates from the weekend just passed. But until then, good night. :)

P.S. To those facing exams, for some you... FINAL exams... GOOD LUCK! You're almost there so give it all you've got! :)