A Day In My Life


Sunday, October 29, 2006

20 Orang

I know this thing's really old already but it's fun so I'm gonna do it too. haha ... Sorry if you didn't get tagged ..

1. jiam
2. amanda
3. yoong jie
4. krystal
5. caryn
6. brenda
7. peako
8. dexter
9. pia
10. isabel
11. timothy
12. adam
13. daniel
14. jason
15. sean
16. carmen
17. denise
18. jia wei
19. kenneth
20. suet fong

How did u meet #14? [Jason C]
funny, i've always seen him around school. Got to know him particualrly well this year. if i'm not mistaken it's probably the fact that he sits right in front of me and jiam for bm.

What would your life be if u haven’t met #1? [Jiam]
i got to know her well in form 2. i would dare say that i would be less random and creative in certain aspects. she sits next to me in class and almost every other lesson. i would probablu fail everything if she was not there patiently explaining stuff. physics woman .. blek

What would u do if #20 and #9 dated? [Suet Fong, Pia]
that would look rather wrong .. a lesbian relationship. i dun think that would ever happen unless either one decides to change preferences.

Would #6 and #17 make a good couple? [Brenda, Denise]
what the fcuk. another lesbian couple? they've never met each other nor talked before.

Describe #3. [Yoong Jie]
this one is a penguin. i may say he's esily intimadated. saya telah melukakan hatinya beberapa kali. sounds so gay. tall and scrony. nice person. can be extremely irritating at times. may be very quiet and blur at times but hyper another. especially if SOMEONE's around. haha

Do you think #6 is attractive? [Brenda]
this is getting freaky. yes, she's hawt but gawd she's my SIS !!!!!!!

Tell me something about #8. [Dexter]
smart and eccentric ... really messy. blek

Do you know anything about #12’s family? [Adam]
i can say i know his family all too well .. couz what

What is #7’s favourite? [Peako]
i dunno , # 1 i guess

What would you do if #11 confesses that he/she likes you? [Timothy]
i would bring him to a psychologist to get his head checked .. i'm not gay and he's too young anyway.

What language does #15 speak? [Sean]
English , cantonese and maybe mandarin

Who’s #9 going out with? [Pia]
no one

How old is #16? [Carmen]
ironically .. 16

When was the last time you talked to #13? [Daniel]
on friday .. we went to klcc

Who’s #2’s favourite singer? [Amanda]
she has lots of fav singers .. she did tell me yesterday she loves The Fray.

Would you date #4? [Krystal]
Nah, someone might kill me .. hehe

Would you date #7? [Peako]
No !!

Is #15 single? [Sean]
Yup .. u can have him

What is #10’s last name? [Isabel]
i know her family name's - Chaang.

Would you consider being in a relationship with #19? [Kenneth]
Never .. he has someone too

What schools did #3 go to? [Yoong Jie]
Sri Cempaka

Where does #6 live? [Brenda]
we live under the same roof

What is your favourite thing about #5? [Caryn]
i dunno .. she's rather quiet

What do you think about #13? [Daniel]
quiet and irritating at times

What do #4 and #19 have in common? [Krystal, Kenneth]
they're siblings .. haha. lots in common

What special qualities does #17 hold in your life? [Denise]
not much. she saves me when i forget to bring my reader's digest to school.

What is the most memorable memory you had with #18? [Jia Wei]
lots especially on mondays when we stay back waiting for her sis, jiam .. share lots of stuuf together. she's gonna be leaving school this year though. sobs

-adios-

Saturday, October 28, 2006

A Really Long One

This one is gonna be considerably long as I've said. There have been things happening while I was not blogging. Some important but some just so bleh for everyone but me.

Let's start with my dearest mum. As many of you would know, my mum is currently living in Madrid, Spain. No, neither is she running away from me nor is she working. She's there because my step-father has been posted there since 2005 as he is a diplomat (Labour Attache) with the Philippines Embassy / Labour Office in Madrid.


So, you can say she's kind of enjoying herself there but still does minor stuff to help my step-dad. His workers there are silly. They work so bloddy slow I feel like slapping them when I look at them. So is the attitude of these workers in Spain. Mind you the Spanish may just be declared the laziest .. ahem of all Europeans. Nonetheless, I still love Spain.

Going back to what I meant to tell, my mom's gonna be moving again soon. This is sad news for me coz I really love Spain. Anyway, we discussed through sms. She first said it was gonna be hong kong. My step-dad likes it there and he was posted there for a few months in 2004. My mum then felt worried because most of the condos in hong kong don't usually allow dogs. I asked her what other choices were there. There were two other choices - Dubai and Saipan.

I told her the other two were okay. Dubai's a muslim place but its very much foreign so dogs can be kept there. Saipan wasn't that bad but it's really far out in the Pacific Ocean. Refer to the world map and you'll know - its near Guam. After a few days, she sms-ed saying they decided to go dubai. I was kinds happy coz I could explore a new place and see the Burj al-Arab. My mum asked a few friends including the wife of the Malaysian Ambassador in Spain who happens to be mat-salleh/ang moh. They all said dubai was fun and my step-dad does have a few friends there.

Then after two weeks or so, my mum said it was gonna be hong kong. Turns out the Secretary (similar to Minister in philippines) of Labor had kind of reserved Hong Kong for my step-dad so it was kind of confirmed. He's that special ! They just didn't get the job order yet. They still haven't found a place to stay so I'm kind of helping to search online. It's kind of heard coz they need a place which allows pets. They apparently had to be there by january so my dreams of seeing spain again were kind of wrecked then.

That's almost about it on my mum's status. All I have now is to look forward to visiting hk next year. I wanna go to disneyland. Its nearer to home so its easier for mum to come back to kl and to go ONLINE. No time difference so it'll be easier to chat. Yup, she does go online - chanphelicia@hotmail.com. Plus I may get to meet my step-siblings in hk too when they visit from manila.

Well, I'm sure both my mum and step-dad are happy with hk. My mum has all the food and chinese shows she desires while my step-dad who almost hates his posting in madrid, loves hk. He is a total workhaholic. He likes hk coz there's lots of work there compared to madrid. In hk where there are almost 1000 Filipino maids, he has to hand-sign 2500 documents a day. My hands would probably be aching. There's really not much to do in madrid. One word, the employers treat their workers well. They got lots of human rights there in europe.

That's all on my mum. We now focus on me. so vain. Our school's organising another trip to osaka, japan this year. I was so happy when I heard about it. I really wanted to go since it was the last year i could follow the school on an overseas trip. Mrs. Peter was kind of insisting me to go. She wanted me to ask my dad as soon as possible. In the end, I got a straight NO from my dad. Saddening, i know. He said it was too expensive and all.

At that moment, I was telling my self that I would have been in malaysia one whole year without going out. No passport stamps for 2006. Zero airplane rides in 2006 not even to manila. It was horrible. The last time that happened was like back in 1998. I wasn't even gonna go to madrid coz I just went last year and my mum would have started packing if we went.

Sneaky brandon here then decided to ask mum to allow me to go. We discussed over the phone. She wasn't really to happy with it. She was running quite low on $. She also said the price was kinda high and that I've already been to tokyo two years ago. We decided we would take some cash from my bank account and my PMR cash. At the end of the conversation, she wondered what my sis would do all holiday. Its been ages since we were in kl throughout the year-end holidays. Then, this most important convo came up ..

Mum : So, what's brenda (my sis) gonna do when you are in japan ?
Brandon : She has the computer ..
Mum : How bout the whole holiday ?
Brandon : We'll be bored and all but at least we have the computer.
Mum : That's so unfair for brenda.
Brandon : Then what ?
Mum : Maybe you all wanna come over ?
Brandon : I would love too but you're moving rite? You gonna be busy and all.
Mum : Dunno, maybe you both can help me pack. It won't be as fun as the last time butt maybe a fun experience for both of you.
Brandon : Sounds good to me (Brandon grins happily with so much joy)
Mum :I'd rather pay for both your air tickets here which maybe almost the same price as your osaka trip. Plus, you can stay here longer. This is not confirmed yet but in the meantime go scout for airfares.
Brandon : Ok, I understand. I'll go check for fares and hopefully it'll be cheap when matta fair comes around.
Mum : Do it fast .. you're slow sometimes (haha)

*Convo continues on other stuff*

I was so happy after the conversation. I was being so high and all. As for now, its confirmed. I'll be going to madrid on november 10. Anyone who wants to tag along is welcome to do so .. just pay for your own ticket. The booking was easier this time with the help of a family friend, adel.

To all, Adel is the country manager for Lufthansa. I would love to have her job. Sounds so bloody fun. So we consulted her to get the cheapest fare. I thought she would give us lufthansa but she gave us thai airways instead. I would have loved to fly lufthansa. It would have seemed like she was backstabbing her airline but then again thai and lufthansa are both part of star alliance. I've never flown on thai anyway plus they have a new, beautiful livery.



* Non aviation enthusiasts can skip this part *

I had actually few other routes in mind to reach madrid. I wanted to try other airlines which I've not flown on. I was however determined not to take austrian airlines as much as possible. Their food and sevice is good but I didn't really like their seat pitch. Their timings suck too. I had too wake up at 4 am last year for my 6 am return flight. If that wasn't bad, the flight got delayed because of snow in vienna and I missed my connecting flight back to kl.

Our asian airlines are better some way or another. I must commend austrian for their service though. They never seemed to stop serving bread and drinks throughout the flight. KLM didn't really appeal to me because I flew with them to manila once. Anyway these were my other choices ..

Lufthansa --> Kuala Lumpur-Frankfurt-Madrid
Qatar Airways --> Kuala Lumpur-Doha-Madrid
Thai Airways --> Kuala Lumpur-Bangkok-Rome(stopover)-Madrid
Singapore Airlines --> Kuala Lumpur-Singapore-Barcelona-Madrid

Qatar Airways would have been the cheapest but Adel said it might not be safe for us to travel alone. I don't really see why because I don't think that doha's that dangerous. I did think we were obviously gonna fly Lufthansa because we went through Adel but turns out we got Thai.

As for SIA, that would be long way round. There was gonna be two stops plus the SIA flight ends at Barcelona so thinking that they can get connections through Star Aliance it might happen. I personally would do anything to fly SIA if not for the price.

* You can start reading now *



So Thai (TG) it is. Leaving klia on 10 nov at 9.00 pm on TG 418 which is a Boeing 777-200 flight landing at Bangkok at 10.05 pm. I leave bangkok at 12.01 am on TG 942 which is a Boeing 747-400 flight with a stopover in Rome for about 2 hours finally landing at madrid at 1.40 pm on the same flight. The idea of transiting at the new Bangkok Suvarnabhumi airport really excites me. Can't wait to see it. I also hope we'll be able to venture into Rome Fiumicino airport during the stopover. Some sightseeing, plane-spotting and who knows duty-free shopping.

Our tickets are not issued yet. Prices are not confirmed as Adel is trying her best with her TG friend's help to lower it. I hope to receive the tickets at least after the deeparaya holidays. As you can say through my timer, it is only about 15 days before I leave. Gonna be packing soon.

Throughout all this, there have been some bumpy events. I got a call from one of my mum's malaysian contacts in spain, an indian lady named veny whom I got to knew during the Malaysian Embassy Deeparaya celebrations last year. Fyi, my mum's the vice-president of the Malaysian Association in Spain (MAIS). She was asking whether her 15 year old daughter could follow us on the flight to madrid.

I was never quite happy with the idea so I just told her I'll check on it. I discussed with my mum and we decided we would just lie coming up with an excuse which would not allow her to travel with us. Veny couldn't help telling me that her daughter is "small but very BIG" in a thick indian accent so it was very funny. You can just imagine ...

That problem was gone but a new one arose. I was told that two of the nephews and nieces of my mum's friend wanted to follow. We kind of just know these two rascals as we see them like sometimes once a year or so. Mind you they're not that modern and all and their upbringing's different. They're the rough ah beng ah lian, cina cina type if you get me. I was shocked at that coz I would have to handle these menaces on an almost 20 hour journey in an enclosed 'metal bird'. Though they were not confirmed they had a huge chance of following.

In the first place, I was wondering why they bothered visiting madrid. It is so not their place so they wouldn't enjoy it. Its not like you go out and it's all joy and fun everywhere. You move around using public transport to see art generally i.e. buildings, parks, museums etc. Not to forget, you should embrace the european diet. They would even be staying with us which is even worse. Without doubt, this comes at quite a cost and less privacy. Me and my mum were bitching (lol) about them hoping their plans would not push through.

Last week, my mum was told that they would be following and staying on for two weeks. I felt my world crumble then , nah too dramatic. We were all shocked. She then inquired whether they would seriously enjoy and how they would go home since we wouldn't be bringing them. She didn't get much of a reply while Adel didn't even say anything when I was talking to her. Again we're unsure of their status but hoping it won't come through. This is what I call hukum karma - from indian girl to these two rascals. I can't believe I used that many paragraphs to bitch about cinacina punya orang.

Enough of spain and we come back to another school trip. Mrs. Peter had 'declared' that all the librarians not going to japan should go for the pangkor trip. The Pangkor trip is actually Mdm. Mano's 3C class trip but we were allowed to tag along. I asked my dad whether I could go so he said yes since it was only about rm 300. Those who would be going are yoong jie, krystal, caryn, nee ling, kai li, melissa, may ling and ka mun. I succesfully pulled in jiam and denise to go to since we needed more people. We are gonna go on november 3 coming back on the 5th. Staying at some place called seaview resort I think.

Don't tell her this but I'm really hating what that someone who is the 'leader' for the trip is doing. When she put us all into teams and team leaders she made it seemed like we have to be nanny's and big shot facilitators. Its supposed to be a leisure trip so why bother. We just kind of watch though I'm just gonna to nothing else but tell them I'm your group leader with jiam. That's all.

Then it came to the rooming. She put me in a room with arthur chia and connecting rooms with hari kumar and yoong jie. Why arthur chia !! When she told me about it during english class, I shouted a big "NO" that even people around had to tell me to calm down. I'm probably gonna be dragging my bed or mattress whatsoever to the other room away from arthur. Eww ..

That would be the end of this 'very long' post. Wish me luck with all my grouses here. I'll have more pictury, topical posts coming up though they may be rather long ..

-tata-

Tuesday, October 24, 2006

Stormbreaker

I went along with a few others on friday after school to klcc to watch stormbreaker since school finished early at 12. The others who went were yoong jie, krystal, caryn, kai li, adrian, kenneth and his friends. We were kind of in a hurry to get our tickets because we needed to get the tickets in time for the movie at 2.30.

There were quite a number of wms students in klcc. I saw schwep bing, hann ji
unn, irwin, terng sheng, kok mun and a few form 5's. Coincidentally, some of the form 3's i.e. brian mok, kevin tan and all were also watching. Quite a number of wms students there for sure that day. Before the movie, we had lunch. Instead of my usual yoshinoya, I had some teppanyaki japanese stuff.



Stormbreaker is essentially a teenage spy movie based on the book by Anthony Horowitz. I think its kind of true that almost every good book will be made into a multi-million dollar movie. Anyway, this movie is not one that every ave
rage adult would wanna watch. Some said it would be like Spy Kids but I would put it as Agent Cody Banks minus the cheesy parts. However this movie should stick to being a teenage/child kind of movie. Not many adults would enjoy it.

The main character here is Alex Rider played by newcomer Alex Pettyfer whose MI-6 spy uncle, Ian Rider died during a mission. All this he did not know till Alex was approached by MI-6 bosses who persuaded him to follow in his uncle footsteps. He was suited for the job since he has unknowingly been trained for it all this while. His uncle made him learn martial arts, mountain climbing and other outdoor activities. In addition, Alex speaks various foreign languages including Japanese, German, Spanish and French. Impressive if you ask me.

He finally goes on a mission to investigate some Stormbreaker program which would be launched in schools all around England. He finally uncovers the secrets of the program and most of the action generally deepens then. This movie has some good enough stunts and not forgetting all the usual must have spy gadgets, the best one being a Nintendo DS with different functioning catridges. Cool or what.



The plot of this show as you can see generally is like every other spy movie. It is worth watching but maybe on a dvd. Girls for sure will find it interesting. The British tabloids have indicated that Alex Pettyfer may very well be the next Daniel Radcliffe so cries of "Alex Pettyfer is so hot" will soon come from girls. Alicia Silverstone who acted in Miss Match is in this film too.

Overall Rating : 3.5/5


Away from the movies, yesterday night was one of my longest periods of sports viewing on the television. I watched the man u-liverpool match, then the Brazilian F1 Grand Prix and finally the Real Madrid-Barcelona match.

I was so freaking delighted yesterday coz real
madrid actually won 2-0, believe it or not against Barcelona whom they teruk-teruk lost 3-0 to last year. I still remember in Spain last year whem my mum was wondering whether they had lost on purpose last year to barca since they were still partying in the hotel after the match. Yes, I lived next to the hotel that the real madrid team stays at before games in Spain. Its called the Mirasierra Hotel. I hope to see the team again when I go again this year.


Anyway, real really played a good game. The first goal by Raul came in like just around 5 minutes into the game. The second goal came from van Nistelrooy. There were two 'almost-goal' moments but the damn ball hit the cross-bar instead. I wouldn't say that barca played horribly but they just did not do their best probably. There were apparently a few VIPs watching the match yesterday namely Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal who were playing the Madrid Masters and surprisingly Scarlett Johansson.

The F1 race was interesting since it is the last race of the season and without doubt Michael Shumacher's last race. The race was actually shown before the real-barca match on the screens of the Bernabeu. Sadly though, Schumi only came in fourth while Alonso was second. Felipe Massa was first while Jenson Button was third. This only means that Fernando Alonso is again the F1 world champion.
All because of Alonso, Schumi's profilic and illustrous carrer ends in a downfall. Similar to Zidane though.



I don't exactly like Alonso but then again I'll tend to favour him coz he's Spanish. The people in Spain must be really happy for him. It was funny at the beginning of the race when I saw Pele giving Schumi some commerative trophy thing personally. One sporting legend congratulating another. Pele doesn't at all look like a F1 fan to me. haha The really long post has yet to come.

Wait for it .. its gonna come soon. LAME-nya


-adios-

Monday, October 23, 2006

Hiatus No More

I'm finally back again after almost a month of not blogging. All that's changing on this blog is probably all the bitching on arthur chia on the cbox. I wouldn't say that I've gone on a hiatus but generally people would assume so. I kind of lets say lost the interest to blog for some time.

Furthermore, the finals were around the corner so I had almost nothing to blog about unless you would all like to be bored on exam stress and how much I dislike it. As for now, they're over and we are all on a one week
Deeparaya holiday. I will disclose my exam results only when I'm prepared to since they're all so horrible, I can almost cry thinking about them . Blek

Meanwhile, I must greet all you gracious people of the world a
Happy Deepavali or Divali. It passed already but at least I greeted. Not to forget is the fact that today is the last say of Ramadan, the last fasting day. Tomorrow's hari raya so Selamat Hari Raya to all Muslims though it is strangely called Eid in the western world. It would be funny if they had to fast one more month because they could not see the moon because of the ongoing haze. The haze may just get worst with all the festivities i.e. making satay and playing illegal mercun. Stupid indonesians .. bcoz of them the choking haze might even stay till november.

Over here in Malaysia, something really big happened yesterday. Two really important people actually met after so long to clear the air over certain issues that have been plaguing the country's political scene. They are none other than ex-PM, Dr. Mahathir Mohamad and current PM, Datuk Abdullah Ahmad Badawi. The controversy sorrounding these two is something very much proudly dealt on in this blog of mine.



Today we were told of what happened throughout this very FRUITFUL kononnya meeting. If you ask me, all that happened in the meeting can be summarised to this - Dr. M was just blabbing throughout while Badawi was sitting there god knows why jotting down stuff like in some interview. According to what Dr. M told The Star, all Badawi did was either nod or keep quiet. When Dr. M said he would still voice out when he felt something was not right, Badawi didn't even say much.

I really felt that the timing for this meeting just wasn't right. It was held during
Ramadan which just meant that Muslims should be nice to each other and all. I think that if it was not held during Ramadan, Badawi would have given Dr. M one hell of a scolding plus a sore eye or whatever that's equivalent to his position as a leader. He probably just didn't respond much so as to not break his puasa thing.

On a final note, Dr. M said that he was not entirely happy with the meeting but was 'satisfied'. I would have to agree with him at times. You don't get much out of it. All in all, we would just watch how this never-ending debacle would proceed. Dr. M would never shut up unless he probably dies. Certainly it will be juicier as time passes by.


I'll post again really soon with one
really long post. Lots of other interesting things have been happening throughout my hiatus. You all would wanna know bout it so keep coming back.

-tata-