Its good to be home.

Well... better anyway - until it gets boring. In the 6 months that i've been gone, Kaknab's cooking has fallen even further from grace, the kitchen has been ( horrendously) redone, and my dad's bought even more crap he has no use for. At least my mother didn't fry ( or even learn to connect) my Streamyx router - i'd DiE going from 1mB/sec college ethernet back to dialup. Haven't started on my culinary hedonism yet except for a nice japanese dinner at M.O. the other day - my stomach should return to full capacity soon enough. Oh well - that and the fact that both my parents have become ardent followers of Akademi Fantasia.

Akedemi Fantasia is pretty much a carbon copy of the Fame academy, except not so much bitching and backstabbing - and a coupla of them are actually pretty damn good. Too bad the same can't be said for like, 99% of the people who tried out for Malaysian Idol. Seriously....some of them haven't a fuckin' clue - one lame-o started with a short Nobita/Doraemon skit with handmade masks and then launched into a random old geisha-style japanese song. Another notable one was a girl who wasn't that bad, but she chose a sheila majid song. Big mistake - one of the judges was her estranged ex-husband who has been fighting a bitter alimony battle for years. Boo-yah! The hour-long montage of failed M'sian Idol auditions was abso-fuckin-lutely hilarious - and that's just the penang-ites!

Been sneezing left, right & center - must be the damn haze or something else in the air. Damn Indons and their open burning. Sleep cycle's still pretty screwed up. Its gonna take a while to get back to even sleep timings - slept for 5 hours the first night, 15 hours the second, and i'm still waiting to sleep today. Once i'm set i gotta hunt down you guys back home!

7.00 am now - and its still nice and dark-ish outside. Back to trying to get to sleep.

Feelin - too tired to be excited
Listening to - the sound of people packing all up and down the hall

Yaaay flights later today. Keepin my fingers crossed for a smooth ride to the airport and a smooth flight home ( and another free upgrade, maybe?) Travelling back 'light' - well normal anyway. Managed to store most of my stuff on Weds - we had to hire a removal truck just for the three of us. Hahaha at least i wasn't the guy with the most stuff.

sOOOOO many plans for the last week of term didn't fan out. The BBQs, the picnics, the parties etc etc. We finished the year on a nonchalant note of shopping and starcraft yesterday. Kinda disappointing. I guess everyone was still busy sorting out last minute stuff like shipping, storing and tying up a whole fuckload of loose ends.

We-he-he-hell now..... guys, its been a helluva year. Lots of laughs, lots of fun , lots of stress, and also a bit of drama now and then. I'm sure as we all got to know each other better through the year everyone's quirks, weirdness, and god forbit, the odd endearing trait started popping up. Well i guess living with people is all about putting up with their crap anyway while at the same time being thankful for whichever way they have supported you and made you grow as a person. What goes around comes around bla bla bla bla

enough prissy cocktalk. Anyway the point is its been great knowing you guys, hope to see you all next year( no reaLLY...assuming i get to stay in Imperial ) , forgive me if i have said anything particularly brash or offensive to anyone in all my randomness and have a fun fun summer whatever you are doing!

Feelin - numbing boredom + equally numbing headache
Listening to - whatever the hell comes up next on shuffle

Packing's a bitch.

Gotta finish up packing away all the stuff i'm gonna keep here over summer - a couple of us are storing our stuff over at ee wen's place tomorrow..whoops later today - which means i will be sans speakers and espresso machine for my last two days here ( oh the hORRoR). Hope bringing our ridiculous amount of luggage to Earl's Court will go without a hitch.

The BBQ on saturday was ser-weet. Quite a lot of the scholars showed up . Caught up a little on new scholarship policies and shit ( all the while supressing a chilling sweat whenever the topic veers anywhere near our batches' results , especially mine).

Sunday and Monday was boring besides from the usual beating at starcraft ( damn guardians & nukes). Still trying to find a third person to share accoms with. Still not getting much sleep either - doubt i'll get much more at home while i'm still fucking worried sick about results. Oh well, next coupla of days will hopefully take my mind off them. Gonna mobilize a mob to hit Selfridges on the first day of their sales this Thursday - havent done any retail shopping for freakin ages.

Oh yeah before i forget - the quote of the day - from a female member of our posse who had food poisoning simultaneously with PMS - " I hope god will give you a vagina so you can bleed from it!" (ps. - that wasn't said to me, btw) aand we had some interesting dinner theater to eHUk eHUk....( cats hissing ) ..

2 days to gooo.......

Feelin - tireeed
Listening to - You Knew, Mario Winans

Maaan the hall's "Going Down" dinner kinda blew - Well its not so much that they substituted the karaoke with the 'awards' or the fact that the music was overall worse - its more to do with so few of our bunch actually going. It's not that we're antisocial or anything, but it can be hard to connect to the locals sometimes, some more than others( c'mon, i've been here for three years ). Probably post a few pictures from that later - charlotte in her "birthday dress"? hahaha toldja i'd never let that go....

Ran around for most of the afternoon - sorting out my final coursework submissions, sent some mail and settled some other stuff. So much for shopping. Meant to get up earlier so i'd have the afternoon off to chill, but that wasn't really possible after fencing and mucking about till 5 in the morning.

Tomorrow's pretty booked as well - goin for a BBQ hosted by Petronas' student advisor here with a coupla of the other scholars, and dunno lor what we are gonna do later tonight - see what stories the Amsterdam/Brussels crew have for us....

daaAAmn - i had something else on my mind to write earlier on, but i forgot. My short term memory's gone to absolute crap. Oh well - see if i remember it tomorrow. brrr - its startin to get chilly again...my feet are actually coldddd

6 days to go...

feelin - more bored than an eunuch watching porn
listening to - La Vida Es Un Carnaval, Celia Cruz

GOD wednesday night was boring. Tomorrow had better be freakin fun. Had an early nap and played a coupla games of FT with Darren - haha gotta train him before Lu and Alex gets back....

Funny story - during that nap had a very weird and equally vivid dream - parents and a whole bunch of ex-cempakans visiting me in the hall. Hahaha total madness - got singh( duude you were dressed like some crazy ass rapper) , daim, waris(sans afro), izran, tai uei, edwin, etc etc etc and even some random people from the batch below.

Probably just about dying to get home right about now....might not be totally homesick but definitely starting to miss the little comforts of home - found myself looking on ebay for persian rugs of all things....

8 days to gooo....

Feelin - bored, spaced out, lingering portent of doom
Listenin to - Hey Mama , Black Eyed Peas, Show Me Your Soul, Bad Boys 2 OST, Teamwork, Ludacris

Sorrayyy for the post-less week again (haha lepak larr singh...i'd be back soon enough). Between complying with my edict of tRyiNg not to blog when i'm pissed/moody/PMS-sing and dishing out the whupass/gettin shafted at Frozen Throne and Starcraft memang takde mood nak blog....jangan marah ye?

Yup - you didn't hear me wrong - Starcraft. In our post exam boredom we went on an old-school gaming spree over the past week - Console emulators ( neo geo, SNES, megadrive, GBA, N64) and even the venerable Starcraft. Realized i was soooo out of it. Forgot all the hotkeys, build order and shit. Kept getting beaten upside down , especially in free for alls where i always coincidentally get gangbanged - suspicious.

Just did some errands and some accounting today. Realized i haven't shopped for ages and for good reason - after holiday expenses and other random expenditures here and there ( COUGH eBay COUGH ) there wasn't really much left to go aggro with.Got only 1 month's worth on the accoms claims too...die lorr like that. Didn't wanna put anymore strain on the good ol' amex either after that new pair of specs and the Vidal Sassoon haircut (still, got discount whaaat!!) Shambled off to the bank to cash in a whole buncha silvers and coppers, and spent almost half the amount i put in on a Starbucks mango frap on the way back. Cocksss...

Last week should have been relaxingly idlyll. Mostly sunny ( really REALLY hot - almost like back home) and cheery weather. Too bad i wasn't really in the mood to enjoy myself. Haven't been sleeping well at all - partly because of the shorter nights and morning sun, the thoughts of the ramifications of actually not passing my course(not even counting dissapointing my parents- a first- and Petronas) and the accomodation fracas amongst our bunch.I'm not gonna bitch too much about the subject, but accomodation arrangements got from bad to worse to a hideous mess even an Indah Water septic tank cleaner wouldn't wanna get close to until yesterday when a few of them signed lease contracts after much, much unnecessary stress. Okay, some people had qualms with prices and sharing etc but that doesn't mean anyone can just take charge and just shuffle people around without asking them first? (deeeep breath)Well i'm not sore or anything, i did drag my feet about it and i did look for alternatives, but yeah, whatever. Enjoy your arrangements.

On a lighter note, we've been having a lot more late night suppers and lepaking sessions up in my crib....haha more dodgy videos, late night carbs and playing games till the sun rises ( freakin 2.30am-ish). Don't think we'll be doin much more of that for the next coupla days 'cos Alex and Lu are off with Jed to Brussels and Amsterdam - i would have joined, but i was a bit the broke...haha hope y'all won't get up to tooo much mischief hmnn? Remember to get me those....urmm...yess "clogs", juuuust "clogs"....oooh yeah caught Les Miserables on Monday night as well - not as enthralling as Bombay Dreams but still a classic nonetheless.

I promise to try my darndest to post more!

9 days to goooo....

Feels weird to be finally, absolutely done. Too bad it was an anti-climactic finish though - the last exam paper was followed by two labs, that damn coursework and a programming test on tuesday. Kinda envied the people who topped off the year with their last exam paper. Grr

Hhhaanyway the last coupla days went by kinda fast - maybe the freakin heat just blurred everything. Every morning you just wake up early because you feel like you're in an oven or something. Monday and Tuesday were, like, really really hot.

Boredom and milling around were quickly replaced by the discovery of old-school fun on old video game emulators ( Neo geo and SNES games) and warcraft/starcraft on the network. Yay. Still feeling very listless and bored overall though. Still waiting for the real celebratory mood to kick in. Maybe when my bank account magically refills itself. Till then i guess we'll just stick to our kiddy games and taking dodgy videos. eeRrgh once i settle storage and accomodation for next term i'll probably try and get an early flight or somethin. Wonder if the odd party and summer sales in the last week are worth it....

15 days to goooo...

Wow. That was an amazingly bad attempt at doing serious work. My Prolog notes and tutorials are all laid out and i've got some online tutorials open as well and i'm still just barely creepin along. Didn't help that i raided Sharescan for some mp3s too. Oh yeah - noticed some weird shit going on on Friendster with dissappearing people and what not. Whoaa - the new FT patch is out - lets play it to test the new neutral hero - okay he's crap lets try a new strategy ( countinues playing for another hour). NOW you see why i cant get any work done.

My moodiness is kinda levelling out and is being replaced by my more general disdain for work. Probably all that tea-blending ( killer mix - viennese fruit tea with orange ceylon and turkish apple tea ) and jazz finally worked - while we're on jazz, brief digression - i gotta recommend Jamie Cullum and Katie Melua. The former's a 22 year old who looks like a 16 year old but sounds like part Sinatra, and part Kelly Jones ( Stereophonics) and the other's a cute young thing with a really sweet smoky voice ( think Norah Jones, less nasal-ly). Go get the mp..(eEEhuk ehuk) i mean CDs....

It'll be interesting working against the clock again today on the LAST lab assignment of the year. WOnder if i can ever be sufficiently prepared for the prolog test either. Death, doom, despair - no recent burden doth compare.

Well thats enough time wasted - back to work. Damn birds - why cant they just STFU and let me slee.. i mean workkkk......

ps.- if you though the second paragraph sounded a little gay, screw you
18 days to go....

It was probably a good idea to have postponed my blogging till today. Had i blogged on friday or saturday it would have nothing much more than a constant stream of mega PMS-sy ranting. Not only was i already feeling strangely feral this weekend, coincidentally a few random people chose to heighten my blood pressure as well.

First was my one of my group project mates - also the Computing year rep. I finished my ( more than fair ) share of the research and HTML and passed it over to him a day early to collate and arrange into the frames and layout he already drafted( looks very template-ish).FInal deadline to have our finished pages on our alloted server space was 1700 hrs friday. Here's a brief summary of what happened on that day:

1300hrs- said he finished putting everything together. He'll upload after friday prayers
1630hrs- swung by labs to pick up work, found out our server area still empty. WTF.
1640hrs- got back to the hall and gave him a call. Still fiddling with the page. Give him 10 mins, he says, 'safe' , he says
1650hrs- had the balls to ask me whether i knew how to upload the pages to the server
1655hrs- he finally passed me the pages, and i sec-Exed them to the server. Problem - his frames and shit were in many many subfolders, and those didn't really transfer all too well.
1700hrs- we're fucked. He'll try and claim technical problems and settle with CSG and the assesors

He had better damn well work that out.

Secondly, bumped into an ex-Oundelian ( same boarding house for 2 years)doing Maths whom i so successfully avoided the whole term ( eg 20+ missed calls). Just the sight of that fucking hongkey ( disclaimer - apologies to the people from hong kong i know who are actually not out of their fucking minds). almost made me spew bile ala The Exorcist and turn my head 360. GOD not many of you guys can imagine how annoying he actually is - a hideous ,skinny poseur who thinks he's god's gift to women and sings like a cat being gang-raped by anthromorphic power drills. Those of you who do maths at IC or heard my boarding school stories can concur.

Besides supressing all that pure malice, it was an alright weekend. Managed to catch the third Harry Potter movie. Definite eye candy and very well shot, but you didn't hafta read the book to know that they schmutzed the story quite a bit(BTW yes alex, emma watson's cute, but she's like what, 15? A bit of a pervy kiddy-tiddler now, eh? hehehehe). After the show alex, lu and myself had a little walking tour of the housing around Gloucester ( not by choice ) on the way to finding a 'shortcut' thru to Sainsburys for a midnight run. Fun.

Saturday? Still very little work done. Almost passed out makin the Dhal for dinner in the sauna of a kitchen. Sweated seas and cried rivers ( onions, garlic, chilles and ginger galore) . At least the moghuls feast turned out well - tandoori chicken, dhall and naan. Apologies to any of the old folks with weak stomachs. Would've been better with more lime and ghhhHHEEEE no? Next time i'll make sure to personally deliver any cholestrol or fat in my cooking.

These mood swings have GOT to go...grarrgh.Worryworryworryworrystressstressstress.....just one more lab and programming test to endure.

19 days do go.....

Its been a while since i slept before the sun rose. Damn summer daylight hours.

Still trolling away on the bioinformatics coursework. Having vivian's 'farewell party' in my room last night didnt help - cooked supper, made Pimm's and did the other normal shit from like...12-ish till 5am. Hahaha had another supper cookout from 1am-3-am again today with alex and lu. Cannoot worrkkkk!. God knows how i'm gonna prepare for my prolog final lab on tuesday.

Went to view a schweet flat at Earl's court today - huge reception and three singles - a VERY hard combo to find. One major problem though - the landlord wasnt there and we only had the Foxton's agent to deal with, meaning we couldn't like....bargain to hold the place over summer or whatever. Ultimate buggery - still gotta look around for other options unless sOMe people would mysteriously 'disappear' and free up other sharing combinations.

Planning to write a nice, interesting & insightful piece about my whole first year at uni and post it on the blog sometime soon. Should be some nice revelations and epiphanies in there, no? Will probably start working on it sometime after i settle all the marked work submission and shit. I'd be pretty damn free after that - haha i'd probably post up loadsa random new photo galleries and do-over my Friendster again ( wonder if anyone actually still goes on ).

22 days to go....

bOOM baybehhh!

6 hours to go to the deadline of my second last lab assignment this term. Sooomething about arcs and searching in Prolog. Fell asleep every time i tried to work on it - seriously. Not exactly up to schedule on the Bioinformatics group coursework either. Haven't heard a peep from any other members since like... last thursday so i assume its the same with them. Groaarr - probably will need some help with the Prolog later.

Skipped the hall BBQ yesterday when suddenly everyone else in the our crew decided to naff off and have dinner elsewhere. Probably the thought of queueing for a tiny single burnt hamburger wasnt that appealing. Some went to the Stick and Bowl, some went to Misato and a coupla of us just had some sushi delivered to the hall. I couldn't really leave cos i hat to wait for the M'sian shippers anyway who were like....2 hours late. At least i managed to send loadsa shit home ahead for me for quite a fair price, considering its charged by volume and its door to door delivery. I would have gladly paid a skosh more, considering that i've been through picking up some stuff i shipped home from a freight depot....the horrors ohhh the untold horrors.

hhHHHanyway gotta run down for dinner now. Ciao amigos
( 24 more days )