Guilt Trip

It's a chain of unfortunate events.

And thus, the self-esteem that she had been building all this while had gone up in smoke, just in a few minutes, one day, when she entertained anxious parents and their beloved child who were fed with wrong information as she continued to blab thoughtlessly. 

Yesiamsoguiltyrightnowtotheextentofventingalltheseoutinmyblogwhichhasbeenonahiatustilltodayohpleasefiremeifthatistheonlywaytomakemefeelbetter

The After-Effect

I can finally say...

 

I am free!!!

 

Yeay?

 

After all the troubles I went through this afternoon at the printing shop, spending more than 2 hours correcting the margin on the soft-copy version of my thesis.

 

It was four when I submitted my thesis at the Humanity's office, getting a look of disapproval from the receptionist.

 

"What, still got 30 minutes leh," I argued in my mind.

 

But that was over.

 

Now I felt somewhat... liberated? Not really.

 

Ironically, I felt like there was something holding me back, something pulling me from embracing this newfound freedom that I have.

 

No, it is not the coming Viva. It was the thesis itself who spoke to me

 

"You did not put in your best when working on me~!"

 

Yeah, thesis, indeed I did not.

 

Reading back my thesis, grammatical-wise, it was readable, thanks to my eagle-eyed proofreader sister, but the contents itself, I felt like it was lack of something.

 

Citations, arguments, etc.

 

(for juniors, always remember to argue why, why, why, you are doing what you are doing, and include support from citations and reliable sources okay, and DO NOT DO it at the LAST MINUTE~)

 

Only at the 11th hour I was putting in 101%.

 

Before that, as usual, I was in my own dreamland, frozen time machine where I kept thinking there would still be enough time to proceed on with what I delayed.

 

But no, time was never enough.

 

But it was not time which was my enemy. Time I had plenty.

 

It was the inspirations, that I was lack of when I still had plenty of time. And they only came out from their hiding places at the last minute. 

 

 

So yeah. The after-effect of this thesis submission is, I am still unrest.

Not at peace with myself. Not forgiving myself for not doing my best.

 

Let's just hope this lesson will enforce me to be more productive in the future.

 

Amen?

 

Cruel to be Kind

I was having my lunch alone at KFC Komtar last Friday, ordered a snack plate and found an open air seat. Yeah, there's a new KFC opening in town, located at Pacific Komtar.

 

Suddenly, out of nowhere, a stranger appeared and stood beside my table. The stranger looked like a tomboy, or a pengkid to be exact. She was asking for food from me, specifically one chicken.

I was in a very good mood that time, kind of empathetic too, because I was doing a thesis on empathetic behaviour so there I was, trying to practice what I was basically preaching myself.  So as impulsive as I was during situations like these, I grabbed one of my two chickens, wrapped it in a tissue and handed it to her.

A few minutes later, out of the blue, the KFC Supervisor came out and asked her to leave, and told me that the stranger had been disturbing customers for a lot of times.

"That person is just 20 year old, still young," the supervisor told me, "and already disturbing people and doing this."

"We don't want to entertain her because it will show as if we are encouraging her," she added.

I was surprised, and a little guilty too.

The Supervisor came and handed me a new chicken which I didn't request for.

I guess sometimes, we must not let empathy gets the best of us. Sometimes, we gotta think in the long run. If we keep lending a hand to help this kind of person, when are they going to help themselves?

If they never stop getting help, they will never start to help themselves.

Notetoself: Gotta be selective when helping people in the future. If they are healthy and young, they should not this kind of sympathy from us. And don't feel guilty when you are being cruel for the sake of the person's own good.

Mixed Emotions - The Aftermath

You know that feeling after you finished your last exam paper but you were clueless about what you felt? Ironic question, ain't it? How could you know that feeling when you were clueless about what you felt, right? Gosh, I am being nonsensical here. (No, I did not suffer from Wernicke's aphasia. But on second thought,  from what I've read, Wernicke's aphasic patient would not realize of his or her own disability, so I could never know right? Gosh, what am I saying, touch wood!)

Now I am feeling a little so damn funny. Apparently, all the things that I'd planned to do before exam seemed not that appealing to me now compared to before. Shit. Hate that feeling. I guess once I've finished my exam, I set the 'entertainment bar' higher than before. Any simple entertainment which could satisfy me before exam - easily bore me now. I guess right now I need something really interesting just to fulfill this lust for entertainment. Ah, all that psychological nonsense!

On another note, I had this realization that I didn't really have that 'YES' feeling when I finished my exam this morning. Maybe it was because I was aware that I wasn't doing really well for my exam today - hence the tinge of uneasiness in me.

But ah...! Let bygones be bygones...! No use crying over spilled milk. Now all I can do is pray for empathy from the kind lecturer not to condemn every single funny answer that I wrote. And oh, do you know how I hate writing during exam? How I wish the exam was conducted using the computer and required us typing instead of writing. Writing is tiresome. I pity those juniors who have to sit for more than two papers. Do some fingers stretching before sitting for exam, y'all!

Okay, so what's next for me? At the moment, I am just hoping that my result will be good so that I can go on with dissertation for the coming semester. And oh, I won't go back during the semester break. :( Have to save on budget. Missyouallathome really...! 

Ps random: I didn't troll the McD cashier this afternoon when buying the McNuggets. *sigh* What a waste...

Reluctant

Unlike previous holidays where I was always ready to fly to Penang, 

I am not ready this time.

Reluctant to leave here.

Not because I had a very interesting holiday. 

It was because time flies so fast that things that I planned in my list had not been completed yet. 

And days are passing by. Maybe they are not just passing by, they are flying. Flying by real fast.

When can I have this same moment with these same people to be around again the next time? 

Reluctant.

And yes, I haven't finish my packing.

*growls*

It Happened Yesterday...

  I was riding in a Rapid bus. After an argument (as usual) with my sista, I felt tears in my eyes, and I didn't want it to roll down my face (especially in front of the other passengers), so I tried to look away, distracting my attention away from my emotion and tried to focus on the passengers that recently walked into the bus.

( I know people would think I'm congek a.k.a crybaby, but I will correct them by saying I am emotional instead.. :P.)

So I observed a father and daughter who recently came into the bus, and both of them looked extremely happy. There was no doubt they were enjoying each other company very much. The little girl looked like she was around 6, and the father looked like he was thirty something.

After they were seated, what I saw made me failed to hold my tears. 

They were communicating in sign language.

The father was mute. 

The little girl gestured the sign language to tell something to her father and smiled happily and the father replied back in a sign language. I had no doubt both of them were communicating nice things to each other; perhaps what they would do at their destination later.

I imagine this is the front view of them. I was observing them from their back actually.

Gosh I felt hot tears streaming down my face and quickly wiped it. My plan to hold these tears had failed. But this scene that I was looking at somewhat hit me hard. These father and daughter had every nice thing to say to each other yet the impairment caused them not to be able to say them out in words, so they depended on sign language instead, and here, I was able to say nice things to people around me yet I chose to speak hurtful, mean words instead. It was one on the spot moral lesson.

But still I wondered, when will I ever put into practice this lesson God had shown before my eyes?

Blessing in Disguise?

Interframe: I got confused with English tenses a lot. Here's a page which might be useful. (Hey did i use/used the right tense for this sentence? Hmmm..)

 Although I left the university for about two months already, the sleep-late-wake-up-late lifestyle of a university student kinda stuck with me. Thanks to the online activity and late night shows on tv, I never fail to wake up later than 8.30 am every single day. Sometimes I went to the extent of waking up at 10 am if my sleep was interrupted earlier.

Besides waking up late, I never miss my afternoon nap.

That was why, yesterday, during my afternoon nap in the living room, I could hear my mother and grandma gossiping about me in Melanau. [I don't know why, but this is my parents' and grandmother's habit. They speak in Melanau among themselves but when they speak to us (the children), they switched to Hokkien.]

"How can she still feel sleepy when she woke up so late?" Mom wondered aloud. "I woke up a lot earlier, went to work, yet did not take a nap."

"She slept very late last night," Grandma responded. "Not just last night, every night. Don't know what she was doing so late at night."

Grandma's bedroom is located at downstairs, so she knew how late I stayed awake every night though she was asleep. Grandma had a habit to wake up in the middle of the night to visit the toilet, and everytime she wakes up, she would see me still wide awake at the living room, sitting in front of my laptop, busy online.(Ahem)

"Not a good habit at all," Mom and Grandma both agreed about my negative habit.

"Makel angai tan," Mom added, which means 'very lazy' in Melanau.

Because I was too sleepy that time, I had no energy to be defensive or to justify my sleep late habit. So I just let it go.

That very night, which was last night, as usual, I carried on with my sleep late habit. I was still wide awake at 11 pm something. I never sleep earlier than 12 am, so 11 pm was kinda early for me, but for my parents and grandmother, it is considered late. Very late.

As usual, my Grandma woke up in the middle of her sleep, but instead of walking to the toilet, she walked towards me and asked me to read the name of the pills that she brought to me.

"What pills are these?" She asked me while showing me the pack of yellow coloured pills.

There were no indications on the pills' package so I told grandma I didn't know what type of pills they were. Then she walked back into her bedroom.

A few seconds later, I heard a LOUD CRASH, it sounded like the table fan was falling.

I quickly ran into her bedroom, saw her collapsed on the table, thus causing the table fan to fall off the table.

"Ah Ma, what happened?" I was so shocked, the question was almost a whisper. She was conscious, but then, she was very weak. She could not stand up.

I was so panic. 

While I put both my hands to support both her arms, suddenly she was kinda... unconscious.

"Ah Ma?" My panicmeter was rising.I shook her shoulders but she wasn't responding.

"AH MA! PAPA! MAMA!" I was shouting from downstairs but my efforts was in vain. So instead of calling my parents, I resorted to calling Ah Ma again and again.

After calling Ah Ma a few times, she was conscious again. PHEW~

"I'm having stomach ache. I think it must be because of the pineapple. I wanted to find the medicine, but couldn't find it. Very painful," she said weakly.  Although those were not comforting words, I was relieved because Ah Ma was finally conscious. I asked Ah Ma to rest on her bed while I ran off to my parents' bedroom, asking them for assistance to find the right medicine for Grandma.

Finally, Ah Ma ate her medicine, she was feeling better, and I slept with her that night.

This afternoon, I had my nap again, as usual, but  quite unusual, nobody gossip/scolded me anymore. Maybe, they realized, this sleep late lifestyle is not that negative after all. At least, I could function like a night security guard... Err.. Not that I want this thing to happen twice *touch wood*. Just a precaution.

The Sweet Taste of Miss Ajuntha's Candies..

"I know I never really tell you all about this, but you all are really good, and I enjoyed teaching this class."

That was more or less what Ms Ajuntha (bukan nama sebenar) told us during our last LHP 456 class today. Our class started with Ms Ajuntha teaching a lesson on impromptu speech. Our last lesson. The word last could mean freedom from classes, but it could also mean the farewell to great teacher, great classmates and great memories. How ambiguous the effect it had on us.

After she finished the unit on impromptu speech, she passed around to us the candies that she promised to make for us. Its taste was sweet, as sweet as the memories we had during our class. Sometimes I  did complained why did I made myself busy by joining this course, but at the end of the day, I think that this course left a big impact on me, and it left me with memories as sweet as Ms Ajuntha's candies. I was really glad I took it. There were many lessons that I've learnt, in and outside of the learning syllabus, from this class.

After the eating session, Ms Ajuntha asked all of us to sit in a circle. We obediently and excitedly seated ourselves in circle as we know what she was up to. Some sharing among us, I expected - and I was right. We were asked to share our future plan after the semester, because majority of us were final year students. There were many who had the same plan like I do, which was to continue with Master studies, such as Hafizah  and her boyfriend Eizham (bukan nama sebenar), Yee Heng (bukan nama sebenar), Abel (bukan nama sebenar), and another guy whom I didn't remember his name, oops. There were many who also planned to look for jobs once they graduated. For the 2nd year and first year, they shared what they were gonna do during the coming four months holidays. WOo hOo~!

Actually, this sharing was divided into two parts -1st part about future plan (more to our professional side) and the 2nd part (which is more to our personal side). People were more anxious to know about the 2nd part of our sharing, which of course, mainly revolves around our status, single, taken or complicated lol. Some are taken already, some are single, and some are actively searching lol! 

When it was finally my turn, I told about my plan to go back to Sarawak for one month. 

Suddenly Ms Ajuntha asked all of them....

"Do you know where she came from?" 

And they all answered "Sarawak." 

"I mean specifically.. Maybe if you don't mind, you can share with them, cause she told me about Dalat and it was interesting.."she continued.

I was touched that my LHP teacher thought that my story on Dalat during my LHP interview was interesting, so I told them that I am from Sibu and my parents are from Dalat. They all were familiar with Dalat through the literature story "How Dalat got its name". Thanks to the writer, people knew about it and thought that the place was interesting lol.

I told them about me being a Chinese-Melanau mixed-blood girl, due to my origination from Dalat, and they all asked me to speak a phrase in Melanau. All I can think of that time was 

"Ngadan ako Maureen Chua" which means "My name is Maureen Chua."

After that, they all asked me to proceed with the second part which is jeng jeng jeng "Your status". Automatically, I made a statement "I think I'm gonna be single forever since I'm a feminist." It was kinda a statement berani mati cause I don't wanna get caught eating my own words in life later.

Ms Ajuntha was like "What if you found Mr Right?"

 I looked at my teacher and said " Hmm... It's hard to find Mr Right right now" without caring that they were many guys in my class hearing that statement lol. Or perhaps I prefer Mr Left (-_-").

"You know love happens.." Ms Ajuntha added, and I realized that my teacher is a romantic person actually hehe. 

Honestly, I don't know. I am not looking for love. If it happens, it happened. If it doesn't, I won't look for it.

And I noticed that this LHP class had turned into a sort of formal pillow talk lol. 

In exchange for the sweet candies, my class presented Ms Ajuntha with farewell card  that we secretly signed and Ferrero Rocher chocolates as farewell gift. It was a really sweet experience. :)

And the sweet taste of the candies lingered in my mouth. It was the first time I tasted it, but I won't forget the taste. 

My Very Special Xmas Gift~

Just saw the exam result I was very satisfied.

Thank you Jesus, thank you St Joseph of Cupertino for giving me a very special Xmas gift!

;) 

Have a merry, blessed and joyous Christmas everyone~!!

Surreal Moment in my Blogging Experience

Interframe (credits): Thanks to Cik Kiki for teaching me how to grab and save picture from the web.. Thanks to sis Mel for updating my edit post so that I can use this canceling function.. ;)Without you guys, I would be left in the dark of how to blog in an advanced manner lol.

If only words can be used to express what I felt after receiving this e-mail...

Look who won on week 1.. *wink2*

The adjectives like speechless, unbelievable, superexcited, can't breathe, Xmas feeling mode on, sure would come out...

I WON A BLACKBERRY TORCH 9800 (!!!!) 

For my blog entry for a contest held by Nuffnang and Digi - one of my privilege to join this competition for being a Digi angel.




A few minutes later, after digesting this news from the e-mail, ahem,  it's a must for me to announce share the good news and spread the joy around on facebook. Thanks for all who congratulated me and were happy for me. 

Can't believe I received two phone calls right after sharing this good news on facebook. My bestie Amanda called within 5 minutes  all the way from Kuching after I posted this status on my facebook just to congratulate me on this winning. That was so sweet of you to call in the midst of study week. All the best to you girls on your exam yea. Pray to St Joseph of Cupertino. After the phone call from Ada, I received another call from a friend of mine, Mark (bukan nama sebenar)  who happens to be a Blackberry and gadget geek - who called all the way from Penang to confirm this and asked me how I won it besides congratulating lol. I guess the aura of Blackberry Torch 9800 must be that big for a Blackberry maniac expert to call me to confirm this. Mark, iboh jeles k.. (itupun kalo ko baca post ini hua3) I will let you see it secara live when I finally got it later. Hahah. Ok kidding. 

OMG. Okay, enough with all that excitement. I hope I am not gonna jinx this. *paranoid mode on*

I hope no bad luck will come after I became so happy for this. *superstitious mode on*

Thank you guys! *touched mode on*

I felt like just hitting a first prize lottery or getting straight As for my public exams.

Thank God for all the blessings!

Thank you Nuffnang and Digi!

OMG I gotta do some charity (like washing the dishes and clean the gates) after this.

Dear 208 binti Harapan 25

Dear 208,

I am leaving you tomorrow. I have lived with you for one semester. And you are really a warm haven for me. I'm sorry for filling you up with rubbish. Or junks. Whatever you call it. But for me they are treasures. Treasures I've been keeping since my first year. And now bit by bit, I am throwing them away. Because I realized, that without these 'treasures' I can still lived. Ugh, and I digressed.

When I first heard your name at the registration office, I felt that you are kinda familiar. No wonder. You were my senior's (Matthlessa) haven too. And I began to know you more when I started to live with you and in you.

It's tough at first. Whenever it's time to sleep, I could hear guys screaming insanely from the opposite, where your mother's twin brother, Harapan 26, stood. I know, as one of the approximately 300 children of Harapan 25, you have no say in this matter. You are usually gentle, and tolerate towards Uncle Harapan 26. Thank God too I am an easy sleeper. I could fall asleep easily, anywhere, anytime, regardless of how many noises and distractions there are.

At first, I treated you with care. Biasalah kan, kalau baru berkenalan, memang layan sehabis baik. Then, when I am getting busier and lazier, I began to neglect you. And bring more junks that may harm your health, 208. I am truly sorry 208. I never realized that too many junks can be harmful to you too, though you're not human.

Then, I began to complain about your mouth. Sometimes, it's hard to shut your mouth. I had to pull hard to make your lips closed together. And that made me pissed-off cause I thought it's easy to open and shut your mouth when I have the keys. But still, it's not guaranteed.

You've been so kind to me 208, but still, that doesn't mean I've forgotten about your half sister, 339. Though 339 is not as reachable as you are, the atmosphere is quieter when sleeping, where I faced the lake of Harapan instead.

And now, last but not least, I want to thank you, 208. And a deep apology for what you are experiencing now. I'm causing you to be dusty and messy now. I hope you don't mind 208. After tomorrow, perhaps you will new faces, whom I am unsure whether she will treat you nicer than I do.. Take care dear.



Regards,

Maureen

Kids, I Ain't Kidding You~

Imagine... you have prepared your lessons the night before. You read the Gospel like you never did before just because you wanted to relate your teaching with the Gospel today. You had planned what you wanted to teach, what you wanted to mention during the class. You wanted to do your best in your lesson today, but then, when you entered the class, there was one kid, kept running around the class with noises and gave a lot of troubles for the class. You wanted to ignore him, but he won't let you. When you give him attention, he was rebelling against you. You are clueless what he wants from you.

ARGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!

Meet Ray (bukan nama sebenar) a kid who won't let you teach in peace, and yours truly, a part-time Catechism teacher who is truly clueless about handling kids like Ray.

It was Elo and my turn today to teach the Catechism class to the Standard 2 pupils at the Church of Our Lady of Sorrows. And guess what, I thought Ray could have behaved better today than my last experience with him, but boy I was so wrong. His negative vibes was spreading to the other kids, but thank God, really, really thank God that I had the lollipops that Claire gave to me that kept some of them well-behaved through out the lesson.

I threatened not to give them the lollipops if they do not behave - and it worked *wink2*- but not with Ray. He was oh-so-impossible. (-_-") His little brother, Morrie (bukan nama sebenar) was more well-behaved than him - as far as I remember, and I ain't sure what to do with him. I guess I need help from my sister next year if we met him again.

Well, what we did today was that, I asked Ray to lead the opening prayer by reading the prayer prepared in the text book. He was trying to be funny at first but when I said the word 'Lollipop', he began to behave... but for a little while. (-_-")

Then, after like teaching them about the two lessons from the book, I asked them to write their own prayers - because at the start of the lesson, when I asked them about the prayer they recited before they eat, all the answers I got was Hail Mary and Our Father. So, I wanted them to be creative and try to compose their own prayers. I mean, I want them to pray from their heart, and not from their memory. I mean, how many vocabulary of the Our Father and Hail Mary that a kid really understand? Right? I didn't understand most of the vocab when I was their age. Yea, I am aware that they need to know about the prayers but let's not limit their prayers - let them pray too for what they want from their heart.

Some of them did good job in composing their own prayer while some of the kids' own prayer was kinda cute. Lol. "God, please help me. Please God." -- An excerpt from Harry 's (bukan nama sebenar) prayer. Then there was this girl, Nicky (bukan nama sebenar), where her prayer really was the best among the rest so far. Her prayer was like "God, please help me. Please help the people with no hand, please help the people with no home." I was like, "Wow, look kids. Her prayer is good because she is not only praying for herself but for others too. I want you to include others in your prayer."

The kids in the class, each of them is different from the other. There are hyperactive while there is some who's so quiet.

Overall, my two times experience with the kids were really good, though Ray is kinda out of control. Maybe it's just that phase, that naughty phase of your childhood. Once he grow older, he will be more in control perhaps. *cross fingers*

We were really blessed to have the chance to experience teaching these kids. Hopefully the next semester we will be more prepared to face the children. ;)

Moral Dilemma

I will have an important test tomorrow, but because I need to have peace with my mind, I had to spill out what had been bothering me today. Huh~

On my way to my 3 pm class today, while I was trying to cross the road, I saw a guy on a wheelchair, using both his hands forcefully to push forward his wheelchair at the side of the road. His wheelchair was not the automatic one, but it was the manual one, where you have to use your hands energy to push it forward. I just looked at him, wondering whether I should help him or not. When he finally passed by me, I didn't help me, instead I smiled at him.

He didn't smile back. Perhaps it was because he didn't know me or he was too tired to smile. After I managed to cross the road, I regretted for not helping him. I mean, probably he needed my help, and obviously a smile didn't help. I kept thinking about what if I came late to class? Hmm.. I should be more practical next time, instead of becoming a hypocrite. What's the use of regretting and being sad for not helping someone when I had the chance? He had been pushing his own wheelchair from God knows where, the Aman hostel or another hostel further down.

On my way to the class, everything was blurry, I didn't notice anybody, even a junior of mine, aka my CUS granddaughter, Lia, when she called me. (psst, sorry Lia, I was in a deep thought just now huhu and God knows how many person I had ignored on the way to class) I managed to reply a brief smile. I kept thinking about what I could have done to make a small difference, and I blew it away.

That's not the only dilemma I have for today. In the evening during a dinner with my friends Lee Ying and Kim Hong, I heard the news of the death of my friend's mother. I was shocked. I mean, I just mentioned my friend's name out of nowhere and BAM, I heard a bad news about her mother. I didn't dare to send her a condolence message just yet before I really confirm the news. It was really frustrating. She was probably in a deep sorrow now. And I couldn't do anything about it.

But everything happens for a reason. Haiz. I have yet to find the reason. I wish I could do something about it than just to sit there and contemplate all these things theoretically. And to wheelchair guy, wherever you are, have a safe journey around USM. If we were to meet again, I won't just smile and walk away, but I will try to approach you and to offer a help, provided you need it. And to my dear friend, if only you read this, I want to let you know that we at CUS here care for you. Be strong ya girl.

The Process and The Result..

This was me before.



And this is me now.. Ahem, do I look younger? lol..
(Pardon my blurry new hairdo photo but what do you expect from a 2mp handphone camera
*excuse mode on*)


So how did this thing happened?

Yeah, I know, I know, you must say that it involved a scissor, a hairdresser and of course me, but before all that, it involved a lot of emotions eg: nervoursness, excitedness, reluctance and hesitations.

Before this, when going to the saloon, all that matters to me was the result, not the process. I didn't give a damn about the process, because to me, the important thing was that, I wanted the end result fast and get the hell out of the saloon a.s.a.p. But after today, I guess my thinking was changed. The process, all the talking and interaction, with your hairdresser is important too. If they know your personality while doing/cutting your hair, they could possibly find the hair which fits your personality perfectly. By the way, hairdressers are usually so passionate about their work, everyone's hairstyle is the result of their creativity - that's why your interaction with them is important cause you're like their art piece.

I guess I kinda have one kind of syndrome before visiting a fancy saloon where the hairdressers are professionals. I name it "fancy-saloonphobia." Not that I had to be tied or forced when visiting a high standard saloon but the pre-saloon moment will involve a lot of reactions from me. I would ask my two sisters questions like:

- "Does my head looked weird?"

-"Does the hairdresser speaks Hokkien?"

- "Will you accompany me there?"

-"How should I have my hair done?"

-"I don't know how to speak Mandarin, I'm gonna make a fool of myself arggh can you guys help me to tell the hairdresser the hairstyle that I want?"

Yea, I sounded like an annoying younger sister anyone could have and yeah - I'm that weird. I'm this self-conscious before visiting a fancy saloon, probably because I am aware of how unstylish and unhealthy my hair was *nervous laugh*

But today I overcame my 'fancy-saloonphobia' and visited one of the top 5 hair saloons in Sibu, which is jeng jeng jeng ---> V Hair Image Studio.

Why did I decide to cut my hair there? Well, thanks to my eldest sister and my mom, they asked me to get a haircut from my cousin - whom we always called as Ah Bi but is popularly known as Yang Yang professionally at his saloon. Ah Bi's younger sister, who is my peer, known as Yi Yi, also worked at the saloon with him.

I was self-conscious at first. I know that I did not need to worry about the language barrier with the hairdresser (Ah Bi a.k.a my cousin) because he speaks in my mother tongue too, but there was a little twinge of insecurity in me - I did not know what topic to converse with Ah Bi later because I wasn't that familiar with him back then. At least he used to play with my two sisters, but not me. I only mixed with Yi Yi (his younger sister who is my peer) when I was little.

It's kinda funny when we get to mix freely and had little awkwardness with our own cousins when we were little but all that friendship and connection just disappeared once we grew up. Perhaps we lost contact and this phenomenon made me doubt the saying 'blood is thicker than water'. My sister then invented a new saying when I mentioned these things to her, and she said, "Yeah, blood is thicker than water, but bond is thicker than blood." (Melissa Chua 2010)

But since my mom and my eldest sister who had experienced getting their hair done by Ah Bi assured me that "Don't worry, Ah Bi's friendly" and "The other hairdressers won't bother you cause you're Ah Bi's customer", I began to feel more relaxed.

When me and my sister entered V Hair Image Studio, my cousin Ah Bi a.k.a Yang Yang greeted us and my sister told him that I wanted to have a haircut. Luckily he only had one customer before me that time - cause usually, it's not easy to find him with little customers because he's a popular hairdresser. After he finished with his customer, it was my turn.

The first reaction he had when he saw my hair was "Your hair is so thick!" (in Hokkien language). Ah, this sounds like the Ah Bi my cousin, not Ah Bi the professional hairdresser, I thought at the back of my mind. He did not talk in layers, but straightforward. After his first straightforward remark on my hair, I became less hesitant to talk and began to converse more because since he wasn't awkward, I shouldn't be too! And hey, this is my own cousin, and he knows I am not rich like the other customers! So why should I try to act cool in front of someone who already knows my background right??

During hair-washing session:

Me: So busy today huh?

Ah Bi: yeah kinda.

Me: Have you eaten?

Ah Bi: Haven't ooo.. No time to eat.

Me: *imagining how many customers must have came before me*

Ah Bi: Did your mom complained about her hairdo?

Me: Err.. *finding the right words to say.. I remembered a student my mom taught told her that her hair looks like his granny's but what the heck a child won't know how to judge the beautiful hairstyle* My mom got a praise from my cousin for her hairstyle, and she was couldn't believe it. She pretended not to know my cousin complimented her and wanted me to repeat to her that my cousin said her hair was beautiful. (FYI, I didn't make that up, my cousin Dolly did say that my mom's hair looked beautiful when we ran into her last Sunday hehe)

Ah Bi: so typical.. eksyen - eksyen hehe..

In the middle of cutting my hair, suddenly my mom appeared to check on me, Ah Bi saw her and when she was out of sight, he told me.

Ah Bi: Your mom's hair so messy. Looks like feather duster!

Me: *Laughed and at the same time did this expression (-_-") inside my heart.* She didn't know the right way to take care of that kind of hair, that's why hehe.

Some of the conversations that came up while he was cutting my hair.

Ah Bi: Your hair's so rough.

Me: (-_-") Ya lah ya lah.

I realized that through this saloon experience, I was able get to know my own relative's personality first hand through the conversations. While giving straightforward remarks about my hair, he was able to praise his hairstyling skill (which I didn't doubt), but it was kinda amusing to listen to him blowing his own trumpet in front of me, his cousin who first time broke the ice with him. Seriously. I never spoken more than 10 words with him before this apart from "Happy Chinese New Year", "Thank you" and " Ah, my drink's enough. Thank you. Thank you." (-_-")

When he almost finish cutting my hair...

Ah Bi: Now you looked so much younger nah.. *proud to be the one who helped me to look younger*

Me: *smiled*

Ah Bi: Eh by the way, how old are you?

Me: Same with Yi Yi..

Ah Bi: huh? *couldn't hear my voice, thanks to the hairdryer*

Me: 22 years old.

Ah Bi: eh, I couldn't guess that. Hehe. Seriously 22?

Me: Why? You know, people think I am Melissa's older sister.

Ah Bi: Ooo, I wasn't the one who said that ah.. (or more accurately in Hokkien: em si wa kong eh ah..)

Then in the middle of arranging my hairstyle he asked me something but I couldn't hear, thanks again to the hairdryer.

Ah Bi: brbrrrr... brrr.. *sound of hairdryer*

Me: Hah? I can't hear.

Ah Bi: *switched off hairdryer* You have boyfriend bo?

Me: Haha No.. (In my mind, I expected a question regarding my hair) (-_-")

Ah Bi: Hah, you must be lying. I know you got one... Must have one..

Me: (-_-") *Somewhat flattered but what the heck I wasn't lying* Ya la, ya la, I have a boyfriend, I even have a husband.

Ah Bi: *laughed maybe because speechless*

**********************

Ah Bi: Michele's not cutting her hair? Michele's hair so little eh.

Me: Her hair so little, then if you cut, will become less leh.

Ah Bi: No lah.. If I cut, her hair could look thicker..

Me: (-_-")

There were other amusing conversations but I couldn't list them all. I guess Ah Bi has this ability to make his customers felt comfortable with him though they aren't familiar with him or just know him for the first time. My these two cousins, Ah Bi and Yi Yi - I have no doubt both of them would become successful one day. Though education and further studies thingy weren't their forte, I had a feeling that they could be successful in life because if you have a passion in what you do, you can go far, as far as you want to.

The proof that they are talented and had the power to go far is that, they had the power to change the perception of a reluctant customer like me about fancy saloons after this experience.

Well, you know, I kinda lost my "fancy-saloonphobia" after this experience. And I'm really glad I overcame it. ;)

The Million Dollar Question..

Back at university, whenever I was asked the question "Mau, are you free? Want to hang out?" from my friend, it was always easy to give the green light and the definite "Yes". The only thing to consider was whether I was free or not. And transportation was the least to worry about back in university - firstly, because there was always another option like buses and secondly, there are places to hang out near our campus.

But here in my hometown, what was like a walk in the park back in campus was turning into a million dollar question. The question "Are you free?" and "When can we go out?" are the hardest questions ever - the million dollar questions which I had to get myself to think twice, if not thrice, just to come up with an answer. The first obstacle would be the transportation. Pa had to use the Myvi for work and Pa did not only work during office hours, but by shifts. And with my shitty driving skill, I had no guts to go behind the wheels again - unless it was for a very short distance. It had been a reaallly long time since I last touched the Myvi's stereng. (-_-")

So I guess the easiest answer to this million dollar question would be "NO, I can't come. I have no transport and even if I have, I had no guts to drive." Felt like a loser to utter those words out. I mean, who on earth kept a driving license and renewed them anually but do no drive? Oops, I know who, but my mom is an exception cause she did not have the opportunity to drive an auto car the first time she got her license.

So sorry guys. I can't go out tomorrow night. That's my answer to the million dollar question.

Warning: Don't do this to your helpless friend...

[Interframe: I seriously need to focus now, but what i did was just watching Desperate Housewives season 4 and doing the laundry, but wait, Desperate Housewives is an English-speaking series, so they do help my revision, don't they?]

It was during the night of 11th April, and I was walking back from Bali Bali after having a Milo ais and a sesi suap-menyuap Tiramisu birthday cake with my beloved seniors. The time was 8 p.m. I walked and arrived at the Sungai Dua USM bus stop and saw the back of my friend, my only former school mate here in USM, his name is X, and I saw him carrying a really large package, all by himself. I called him from the back, and he finally stopped and replied my greeting.

We had a little chat while walking. He told me he just came back from the PC fair which was going on at Penang International Sports Arena (PISA) and he bought something there. He went there alone, buying all these stuffs. I was impressed, and also kinda feel bad why he went there alone and buy these heavy things because he looked like he really needed some help with carrying the big package, so I forced myself to ask if he needed some help with carrying those item. I mean, I had to force myself that time, and sorry, honestly, I wasn't that sincere in offering the help that time because the thing looked so heavy and I was in a rush to meet my friend who was starving waiting for me, so to do or not to do, I had to follow my instinct to help him- though reluctantly. I am very sorry for being not really sincere that time, because one thing, I don't really like to offer help to guys, unless the guys are my juniors or my younger relatives like Aaron James and Aaron Ezra, and yeah, it's also because I am kinda of a sexist sometimes, but because this friend of mine had a little problem physically, so I could adjust my standard in helping people. Two, I was in a rush, and carrying heavy thing might slow me down. But all ye girls, don't worry, I am really sincere when helping you guys, err, girls.. lol..

So back to the story. I helped my friend to carry the heavy package and I was gasping for air while carrying it because I was walking fast while carrying heavy thing. I could imagine myself looking comical in this situation and I was glad nobody I knew passed-by us and witness this. lol. Then, I got quite annoyed when I found out from X that actually that heavy thing that I helped him to carry was not something he bought for himself, but the heavy printer was a thing his friend asked him to buy. I was like, saying what the heck under my mind or if I were meaner than I already am, I could be cursing wtf under my breath.

I couldn't help but to ask him "Why couldn't your friend buy this printer himself?"
He answered "Oh, he's not free. He wasn't free from 9th April till 10th April."
"Oh, but he's free on 11 right?" I asked.
"He's busy with church activities today. So, I helped him buy the printer."
What the heck? He was busy with church activity so he could go on bullying his friend to buy a heavy printer at PISA all by himself? The moment I heard that, my heart was screaming with these messages to X's so-called friend, Mr WTH..

A message from Mean Maureen to the selfish MR WTH:

"What the heck, church activity? You are busy 'noble' man who are active in church activities and here you contradict yourself by bullying your physically incapable friend to buy a DAMN HEAVY printer alone at PISA? Who the heck do you think you are??? I don't mind if you asked him to buy some printer's ink, or something which can be carried easily, but this, SHAME ON YOU MR BUSY WITH CHURCH ACTIVITY GUY, you took advantage of X who was going to PISA alone to buy you a damn heavy printer?? SHAME ON YOU!!! You better go back to kindy and learn about civic-mindedness or just don't go to church because you're bringing shame to the church you went to!"

Upon reaching X's hostel, he apologized profusely for having to let me carry that damn heavy printer for him.
"I'm really really sorry you have to carry this," he said to me.
"Don't be sorry. You are not supposed to be sorry. It's your friend who's supposed to be sorry..." I said it clearly so that he wouldn't miss the sarcasm I had dedicated to his so-called friend. Then, we bade each other farewell.

After that, I walked to find my friend, who was totally starving, waiting for me. While walking, I thought that I could only help him this time, but how about the other time? In the future? How can he endure with much more sufferings? He could be bullied again and he willl accept those favours asked though beyond his ability, maybe because that's the only way for him to gain friends.

So, for those of you out there, please do not do these things to others, especially your own friend. Friendship is a bond not for you to gain benefits, but friendship is journeying together with another person and share all the pain and joy together, and that's why it's called friendship. It's a ship where you journey with your friend, through good times or bad times. And yeah, you can ask for favour from your friends, but make sure it is something that is not beyond the ability or the convenience of your friend, because if it is, you will sink the ship that you built together with the person whom you are supposed to protect, and not exploit.

WHAT was, WHAT is, and WHATwill be, will be..

WHAT WAS....

Just a brief summary (let's yawn everyone~) of what happened last week.. Man, last week was hectic.. And I went for a weekend retreat after Fr Dominic invited me and Man Lee to join it.. Well, it all happened this way.. On Thursday night, while me and Man Lee was busy discussing for the Public (how i tempted to change it to pubic, gosh, i am waayyy so negative lately) Relation group (ass)ignment, I got a call from Fr Dominic. He was a youth chaplain for our Catholic Undergraduate Society, and he invited me and Man Lee to join this retreat. The fee for a retreat is actually expensive, usually range around RM60 to RM 70, but he offered to sponsor us. I was like, well, this is a golden opportunity, but I was (and still) waaayyyy to busy for that. But, for he was a very good priest and always come to our CUS gathering when I invited him, so maybe this is the chance for me repay his kindness to us. And perhaps there's a blessing in disguise while joining this retreat, who knows. So, voila, I joined the retreat on Friday evening, right after the CUS AGM that afternoon. And yeah, the retreat was really relaxing, inspiring and met new and old friends there.. ;)

Talking bout the AGM, here, I would like to congratulate all the new CUS excos - namely Helen Lee the president, Esteranza the vice president, Theodora Tang the secretary, Claire Su the assistant secretary, Peter Chin the treasurer, Elizabeth J.O. the AJK outreach, Claire Marie the AJK Publisiti, Marcela the AJK Kerohanian, Timothy and Veraneeta the AJK Muzik. Did I miss anybody? If yes, sorry ya. I am blogging in a rush. :"



Me (former assistant secretary) handing the newly-bought file to the new very pretty + fabulous + I'm proud of her, new assistant secretary, Claire Su.


Vow from new excos.. Hehe.. Err, currently I wasn't in here anymore cause my new post just lasts for roughly three hours.. Sorry I was too coward and didn't have the courage to take up the AJK Kerohanian post.. Marce will do a lot better than me.. Thanks Marce~! :')

Fr Dominic, our youth chaiplain, the cool father. hehe.

And yeah, thank God I already shopped for my shawl, shoes and clutch which I am going to wear to CUS Dinner on 27th March.. Woo hoo~! But they cost me a lot of money.. (-_-=)

WHAT IS...
Move on to this week. What am I doing now? I am blogging from PHS2 library after finishing 2 presentations in one day. And the presentations were bad. Haiz.. (-_-) Well, what do I expect? I wasn't preparing well, cause I was dividing my time between (ass)ignments and that's what I get. And what is bothering my mind right now? Of course it will still be the unfinished (ass)ignments which I have to submit this Friday. Guess how many assignments I have in my hand right now? Not one, not two, but 9 (spelled NINE) assignments!!!!! Gosh!!!!!! This explains why I seldom blog and what made me wanna cry was that when my blog was inactive, it was the time that the Nuffnang campaign was going on. And of course, I couldn't earn much.. Kuangx4. And by the way, mentioning about Nuffnang earning, well, I earned RM0.26 from the ads campaign so far. I was happy though it was a small amount (can only buy two sweets, or maybe four) because I've never earn anything from blogging before. So this is a new thing for me. XD

WHAT WILL BE..

I have a CUS Annual dinner coming soon (this Saturday, y'all) and at first I had a hard time because I didn't have any dress for the dinner but thanks to Matthlessa who came to the rescue, she lent me her dress which she never wore before. :') That was a really nice gesture.. So touched.. ;) And that left me to look for the clutch, shoes and shawl, which I spent almost RM80 on all of them. Haiz.. Dinner is always like that. And talking bout that, I think on this Saturday, maybe I will have my make up and a little hairdo at Gotcha Saloon (Sg Dua) for this party since my last year's very talented free make up artist + make up provider (Mellisa Reeve) who had done make up for me cannot do the make up together for this year because she, my sis and her gang will be having a PIBG meeting this Saturday (of all the day, boo PIBG!!).. So, I will join my senior, Man Lee to dress up at Gotcha saloon. And it will roughly cost me RM40 for both make up and hairdo.

I hope all these pimples will go away soon. Huhu.


CUS Nite, Cititel, here I come.. ;D

Friday - My Fright Day!

[Interframe: Have you ever experienced that moment where there's too many things to do at one time, and there's one time you find yourself clueless to do something with your time? Argh, I always experience this... ]

Gosh, I wish I could tell back the things I had experienced on Friday in full details. So many things to do, and no, I am not saying this because I was involved in Thaipusam celebration, but it was because there were too many things - which has nothing to do at all with Thaipusam - cramped on this one day. By the way, I wanna wish a belated Thaipusam to those who were celebrating it.. :D

Friday started with a morning class at 8 am. I woke up around 6.50 am, and I slept around 1.30 am the night before (or precisely that morning). I walked to the lecture hall with my hostel mate/friend - Amirah who happened to have the sleepy morning sindrom like me. The lecture was on one of my minor subjects - Public Relation- and I was yawning the whole hours of the class. After the class, I went back to hostel with Amirah, took my shower (yes, I haven't shower before class, guilty...) and went to buy some kuih with her. After that, I had to prepare myself for the CUS weekly gathering that was going to happen at 12.30 pm. The time was 11.00 am and I was already on my way to the venue for the gathering, which was held at one of the tutorial classes in USM.

Imagine me carrying the plastic full of t-shirts, a guitar, and my own bag. Lol. I looked like one of the overload backpackers. The only difference was that I was wearing a sling bag instead of a backpack. I arrived around 11.15 am at the gathering venue but nobody has arrived yet. So I prepared the attendant list, and after that, trying to read the novel that my lecturer had assigned us to read. I was restless. It was already 11.35 am - I had to go to USM Sungai Dua gate

to escort the priest (Fr Dominic) who was going to be the speaker of the day. So I left my things at the room and messaged my friend to let her know that I left the things at the room without attendance, because I had to go to escort Fr.

So I finally arrived at USM Sungai Dua Gate before 12 pm. I was relieved. So I sat on the bench and continued with my novel.

A few minutes later, Fr Dominic arrived in his proton Gen 2, with two students, or precisely, two high school leavers. Actually, (thanks to my blurness) I thought I was looking at the wrong car - I thought it was a family driving the same car like Fr Dominic's. Lol. And when I finally seated myself at the backseat of Fr Dominic's car, just beside the female student, whom I later learned that her name was Faith (bukan nama sebenar) and the boy seated in front was Edward (bukan nama sebenar), I became comfortable. They were nice friendly people. Faith was very matured in thinking for her age, Edward was cynical and like to tease Fr Dominic. I showed the way to the venue (with a few errors at first, lol, for not informing Fr earlier about which road to turn to), then we finally arrived at the venue (BT150).

Then while preparing for the gathering, suddenly, I got an unfamiliar number calling me. Surprisingly, it was from Kavitha (bukan nama sebenar), one of my coursemates. She told me that she needed a favour from me - which was to take the novels from Dr R's room to distribute to the students who ordered the books because she was going back to her home for Thaipusam, and Dr R was going to have an important meeting at around 2.30 pm later. So, I was torn because I needed to be there for the gathering's preparation but yet I had to be at somewhere else. So I walked fast to the C11 building from bt150, and on the way, a girl said 'Hi' and waved at me, but I couldn't recall who she was, because I never met her before, so in return, I smiled at back at her. Finally, I met Dr R at this room. Dr R passed to me 10 novels, and told me he had an important meeting at around 2.30 later, so that was why he would not be available. He thanked me, and I flew off with 10 novels (in a paperbag) with me.

On the way out of the lecturer's office building, I saw a familiar face at the SK bus stop, Jasper! Jasper was one of the members in my CUS club, but he rarely shows up these days. I heard that he was busy, I waved at him, had no time to talk with him since he was on the phone and I was on the rush. Inside my heart, I was quite disappointed, why were there just a few people present for our weekly gathering though we had promoted it half dead. We had printed, photostated, and pasted the posters around campus, we had sms-ed each of the members, but just a few of them turned up. I knew and was aware that most of them were busy (most of the seniors had practical and lab, but what about the juniors?), but I was more disappointed for those who chose to hang out at other places than to gather there with us. And yes, I really felt it because I used to be that person, who purposely came late for CUS gathering and trying hard to find great excuse to be absent for the gathering just because I didn't feel the sense of belonging. The only thing that tied me down to CUS during my first year was my sister and her friends. They were really supportive of CUS activities, and I will feel great guilt if I didn't join the gathering because I know that was the time I could spend some quality time with them. Though I felt reluctant to join the gathering at first, I finally got over it and the sense of belonging gradually grew. So that was why I tried my best to entertain most of the newcomers just to motivate them to come to the gathering once I joined the exco team. I threw away my used-to-be-shy attitude, my ego, and my insecurities and try to speak to all of them, though I might humiliate myself at the end. It's worth to be humiliated to make somebody else be comfortable. Okay, I guess I had digressed from my actual purpose to tell my story briefly on this day.

After that, I arrived at bt 150 with ten novels with me. Fr Dominic was going to teach us the right way to read the bible. He taught us that we had to consider the context, the underlying messages and not to take the all the words in the bible literally, some of them had contextual meaning. We had to consider the era of the writers and so on in reading the bible. After the gathering, I joined Fr Dominic, Faith and Edward to eat our lunch, and Fr Dominic, as usual, was the one who was going sponsor us. I was quite guilty to let Fr sponsor my lunch when it was his birthday last week (we didn't do anything for him, ahem) and I wasn't his assistant. At least, Faith and Edward did something for him, but me, what had I done other than asking for Fr's favour? Hmm... But since Fr was always generous and all that, the sense of guilty lessen. Lol.

We ate at Bali Bali since Red House had run out of food, and there, we met Juslin, Arthur, Helen, Elizabeth and Peter. We joined their table and had conversation. Suddenly, my phone rang and it was from a classmate of Dr R's class. It was Yeon Yoo (bukan nama sebenar), looking for me to take the novels. I told her I was not at USM at the moment, I was at Bali Bali, so we will meet at USM gate. So when we finally finished our lunch (I noticed Fr Dom didn't finish his vegetables, heheh), I asked Fr Dom to send me to the USM Sg Dua gate instead of my hostel since I will meet someone there, I told them. So Edward and Fr Dom teased me saying that "Wow, meet someone," Edward teased and Fr Dominic said "Wow, Maureen, got so much connections huh?" I just smiled helplessly and said "No lah." I took the books and guitar from Fr Dom's car and sat at the bench where I waited for Fr earlier. If they only knew I meet these people out of business and not personal meeting. Hehehe. Then, Yeon Yoo (bukan nama sebenar), who happened to be a Korean girl, arrived with two helpful Malay girls, who also shared the same class with me. Yeon Yoo happened to be the girl William (bukan nama sebenar) told me earlier, a Catholic Korean girl who was looking for the way to the church. So I invited her to join me with the other CUS members to go to church together on the upcoming Saturdays.

Then I gave the novel to Joana (bukan nama sebenar) and finally to a guy from China. I need much more effort to give the novels to the China guy since he didn't know where is Sungai Dua, and when I told him it's near the mosque, he didn't know what a mosque is through the phone. Did I pronounced "mosque" wrongly, I wondered."Urm, what is mosque?" He asked me and I answered "It's a place where the Muslims pray. Green colour. Urm, how about we meet at the library, you know where it is right?" Imagine me walking under the hot sun to the library as fast as I could. When I arrived there, I met Pink (bukan nama sebenar) who just came back from her bible study gathering. Then when I finally arrived in front of the library, I was asked to describe my appearance by the China guy. I told him I am the girl with black shirt, with curly2 hair, and a green bag. To make it easier, he asked me through the phone "Are you Malay or Chinese?" Then I was hesitant to answer this question. It's because yes, I am a Chinese but I don't look like one. So to be safe, I told him "I am Chinese, but I look like Malay," half laughing. Then he answered, " I think I know who you are already."Then I just shrugged and waited for him to come. I asked him to help his other four China friends to take their novels too, which left me with only one novel. So I made my move to go back to my hostel. Along the DK foyer, I heard someone called me.

"Mau!" I turned and it was Mike (bukan nama sebenar) my Sarawakian junior from CUS. I replied by giving him a scare tone "Hah, sik pergi CUS gathering tadi!!" which mean, "Hoh, you didn't go for CUS gathering." He smiled hesitantly and said there was no bus, so he couldn't make it, and furthermore, he had discussion. So I let him off the hook. Just a few steps away, my friend Pizal (nama sebenar ni, malas la nak reka nama lagi) was at the stall, promoting the "Lu Fikirlah Sendiri" movie premiere. She asked me to help spread the words, and we kept talking about our assignments for our script-writing paper. I hadn't even start, and my group hadn't even start our first meeting. Haiz.. After a few minutes of conversation, I made my way to the top floor of Fajar and landed on my bed.

When I awoke, it was already 7 something in the evening. I've had lunch, so I guess I would skip dinner that night.

(Total of words: More than a 1000 words)

Of Empty Pocket & Empty Fuel Tank..

This is..... a true story.

Info: Pictures were included as proofs that all of the stated facts did happen.

One Saturday night, a group of friends, or 'family' they preferred to call it, were having an outing after church. The night was still young, just around 8 pm, and all were ready to do an important mission which was to jengjengjeng ---- EAT!! (Duh! What else could be more important?) The 'family' were using two cars for this outing, car number 1906 and car number 3872 --> The brand of the cars were not mentioned because this is not an advertisement, fyi. On the way to the open-air restaurant, which was suggested by the tall girl in red T, suddenly car number 3872 stopped at the side of the flyover. The passengers in car 1906 were worried and confused. The girl in white blouse from car 1906 called the girl with curly hair in flowery blouse in car 3872 to ask her what was wrong and their dialogue went like this:

Girl in white blouse: What happened? Why the car stopped?
Girl with curly hair in flowery blouse: Our fuel tank is empty.
Girl in white blouse: Ooops.. (unsur tokok tambah sebenarnya. Dalam dialog sebenar, ekspresi ini tidak digunakan. Ekspresi ini digunakan dalam penceritaan semula untuk menambahkan unsur dramatik.)
Girl with curly hair in flowery blouse: Urm, can you guys help to buy fuel in the nearest petrol station for us?
Girl in white blouse: Okay. Can~

Note: The more accurate version of this significant conversation can be found in this post.

Conversation ended. Note that girl in white blouse sounded cool all along because she is a cool person and whenever she encounters any situation like this, she will remain cool, because at the end of the day, she's not the hero nor the victim, she's the witness with the camera. Ahem. (Disclaimer: the writer is not bias towards the characters, fyi)

Some of the characters in this true story.
From left: Guy in black T, girl with checkered blouse, girl with curly hair in flowery blouse, girl in brown blouse (special appearance), girl in white sandal, and last but not least, the girl in white blouse.

After buying the fuel, the people from car 1906 went to help the victims of the situation in car 3872. The girl in white blouse was trying to capture the picture of the moment, but ended up scolded by the girl with curly hair in flowery blouse because she didn't want any chemical reaction due to the flashes from the camera. So, the photos during this situation were limited.

The activity of filling up a fuel tank could look interesting in times like this. Seriously. Everyone was paying full attention while the girl in checkered blouse, the girl with curly hair in flowery blouse and the tall girl in red T was busy trying to fill up the fuel tank. After a few minutes, the car was driven to the nearest petrol station to be filled with sufficient petrol. When the chaotic moment was finally over, the 'family' was ready to proceed to the next stop.

And, the next stop would be the stop the 'family' were waiting for.



Eating time, at an open-air restaurant located at somewhere near Queensbay. Everybody was smiling hungrily.
Clockwise from right - girl in checkered blouse, girl in black blouse, girl in white sandal, guy in short pants with new shoes, tall girl in red T, girl with curly hair and flowery blouse, girl with curly hair in jeans, (don't confuse these two curly-haired girls ya~) and finally the guy in black T.

Presenting all of you with the food at the open-air restaurant located somewhere near Queensbay. And again, the name of the open-air restaurant was not mention because this is not an advertisement. (Sebenarnya, cover line sebab tak tau nama tempat tu...)
And yeah, they were tasty. The total of the payment made for these food was RM100 - food which were sufficient enough to feed 9 people. Totally worth it.

After finishing the food, the 'family' asked the guy in the short pants with new shoes to bring the sparkling juice that they bought earlier from car 3872 - and guess what? When the guy in the short pants with new shoes brought the sparkling juice bottle, people from other table were looking at him - as if he was bringing an alcohol drink instead. Sparkling juice is not a wine, ok, people, though the bottle looked like wine. It's just like Shandy of wine. But in reality, we didn't bother to explain and let others made perception about us. After finishing their activity at the open-air restaurant which consists of ordering food, camwhoring, eating, drinking and paying the food, the 'family' planned to watch a movie at Queensbay cinema. The tall girl in red T went back to the hostel with her friend, so the rest of them continued with the activity for the night. The time was nearly 11 pm. The 'family' were buying movie tickets to watch Whiteout , a film starring Kate Beckinsale.

A view from the front. They were asking the guy in short pants with new shoes whom they called daddy to buy them drinks. And he did- due the muka kasihan they were putting on like in the picture above. ;)

The movie was okay - didn't leave you much impact, it was something you watch and forget later - but that was the girl in white blouse's subjective view. The girl in white sandal thought that it was stressful to watch that movie because it needed much thinking (suspense) and this statement was agreed by the girl in white blouse. The movie ended around 1 something in the morning. So, the outing finally came to an end. Everybody went back to their respective hostels and rented apartment in car 1906 and car 3872. Everybody were sent back safe and sound. The girl in white blouse went back to her hostel in car 1906 and reached her room at around 1.45 am. Though she felt kempunan earlier for not following the first phase of the outing, she was grateful because she realized that it was a blessing in disguise. If she had followed the earlier phase, she would ended up with hole in her pocket. The girl in the white blouse was happy at the end of the outing and this could be proven by the picture below.

Girl in white blouse: Yes, I am truly happy!! Though my pocket is empty, my bag isn't. ;P

= THE END=