Lighthouse

Interschool Prefect's Dinner

2009-05-06T14:21:00.001+08:00

For every story, there will always be a climax. The point where everything reaches its peak, it will be the most exciting part of the story, the part where the character is facing he’s biggest dilemma or enemy. It is the part where the readers with their fingernails already worn with bites are left wondering at every moment. What is going to happen next? Will there be a happy ending?

Putting aside fiction, in reality, our lives are also filled with climax and as for mine as a prefect, this was it. Tonight was the 6^th Annual Interschool Prefect’s Dinner and as the Ketua Tugas Khas who represents Seafield in the Interschool Prefect Council of Subang Jaya, I played a rather important role. To add on to my worries, I was also one of the emcee for this event.

Just like every other story, before we reach the climax; we have to go through the exposition and the rising action. I suppose my exposition was when I became a prefect when I was in form 3. Who would guess that this once rowdy, annoying, proud and disrespectful to the prefects (I once stood up to the Assistant Head Prefect in Form 1 just because I got annoyed by him) would decide to become a prefect? I remembered though, during my probationary days, I had felt I had found something that I was looking for in prefects. I suppose it was a sense of purpose.

The rising action would be the time I had campaigned for Head Prefect. Looking back now, I still found it funny that a few minutes before we went into the meeting room to get interviewed, Dhaneesh told me that of all post to get, there was one he would never want. This, my friend, was the post of Ketua Tugas Khas. He told me that it was the post that requires a lot of time and dedication but sadly the most unrecognized post. I remembered myself saying that it is not about getting recognition, but more of being able to serve as best as possible. Lo and behold, guess who got that post?

Me.

I was responsible for the prefects during every special events, naming a few, there are Sports Day, Cross Country, Open Day, AGM PIBG, Chorus Speaking Competition, ABRSM Theory Exam and the list goes on and on. I was also responsible for the Merit System, but the one which I believed that had distinguished this post from all other post in the prefect’s board, is the fact that I was the representative of Seafield in the Interschool Prefect Council of Subang Jaya.

On the 21^st of March, the Interschool Prefect Games officially started of with football, of which we came in first. I remember sitting under the sun with Min Xiang and saying to him that I never really understood football, but today I do.

Later that evening came the second game which was basketball. The sad part about this game was that we had to disqualify two schools because they imported non prefects into their teams, but the funniest part was when people accuse us of bringing ex form 5 into ours. Of course they are ex form 5s how else do they become form 6? The game was extended to the next week though and once again we came in first.

On the 10^th of April, Dhaneesh and I went to watch the all girls, net ball being played. Where else can you find girls, running around muddy, sticky and all over the place? I remember using up at least RM7 just calling people to come and sub, because once Diane and Rushan leave, we were lacking of players. We lost to SMK USJ 4 in this game though, but we came in second.

On the 24^th of April, I got firing from our headmistress. She gave me a direct order that she does not want to see me anymore and she challenged Dhaneesh’s commitment in prefects. It was scary yet funny at the same time, don’t ask why though. I suppose I deserved to be scolded as I had forgotten to remind her and all the discipline teachers that today other school prefects were coming to Seafield to have our Frisbee competition. It was a day that I had asked more favours that I can count on my two hands and said more apologies than both my fingers and toes combined. Yet I felt real blessed to have so many great people who are willing to help a person like me. Thanks wei. We got second after USJ 8 for this game.

On the 25^th of April, we had our handball competition. The good news? We got third. The bad news? There were only 3 teams.

At long last, came the final game, futsal. SMK USJ 4 was leading for the fight to overall champion with 42 points and Seafield was second with 39 points. Meaning that if Seafield won the futsal, and USJ 4 got second. It would end with a draw. That, my friend, was exactly what happened. To think that during the meeting we had laughed at the possibility of that occurring. It did! Thus it was a tie win.

On the day of the dinner, I would have made a few changes if I was allowed to do so, but although there were many parts where I was unsatisfied about, the people seems to have enjoyed it. So good for us then, maybe it was not too bad at all. It started with the introduction of the council, where we one by one walked in, except me; I jumped down from the stage. Then came Esther’s talk and the dinner begin, which was then followed by performances from each school and the best masque, best dress, lucky draw, the token of appreciation and the prize giving ceremony.

The only thing I ate that day was one stick of satay. The only photos I took are with Michelle, but I believe that because of this I have learned to appreciate them more. I suppose I was kind of put down by the fact that two hand phones were stolen and that everything was kind of messy, but then I felt that besides all that it was such a great thing to get to know prefects from other schools. To meet them and to work with them, to stand on stage with them and to have learned many stuff with them. Throughout the whole thing, I’ve come to get to know Esther the most and I was really stunned by how much she herself (and according to her, she had great help from her secretary, Michelle) had done to make this whole event a success. So really thank you for your dedication, time and effort. I really appreciate the rest of the council for making all of this happen. Most of all I would like to appreciate my school prefects for those times they have sacrificed their tuitions to come for games, the times when they were asked last minute to join something and to Arvind and crew for last minute doing the PA. Sorry for those I had dragged in so suddenly. Thanks for coming to dinner.

At last when everyone started leaving and the caterers started to clean up the hall. I remember thinking this one line of words.

It is finished.

How's Life?

2009-04-10T23:48:00.000+08:00

How's life?

Anyone who knows me would also know that this is my typical equivalent to a "Hi!" So how is life actually? Well mine is like a kayaking trip down a river with a strong current, hard to control, hard to stop and all you than do is to hold on and enjoy the ride. So now that the current has slowed just a little, I think I'll just give a brief, short and simple tell of my life so far.

Okay let us start from Chinese New Year. This year we did not celebrate it in respect to my late Grandma, even so we took the effort to come together as a family and still eat a meal together. We also went to the newly opened port thing in Melaka. I suppose that place has great potential to attract more tourists, but still a big work in progress.

My cousin. I call him Ah Lun.

Then came by birthday. It was quite a simple one, but I really appreciate all of you for the effort to plan breakfast (even though I could not eat). Also thanks so much for the wishes and the many presents. I hope that I am really as good as you say I am. Haha.

Ping Ton comics by Kam Wei and Sheng Ting.

Magic beans from Synna. I will plant it.

Eventually.

Haha. I suppose this is my style. Positivity and encouraging.

Thanks Po Yee and Pei Qi for your thoughtfulness.

From Min Yi. Totoro and Bodhi Leaf.

And also this cool wobbly head dude. Boink. Thanks

Just Because I Rock Doesn't Mean I'm Made of Stone.

Haha... Xia Shuen I know I rock!

and lastly, this super cool tikki. From Esther who also appreciates me.

Then I have various other things to do such as dutying on PIBG with the prefects. Really fantastic they are, people who are willing to sacrifice their sleeping, studying, tv-ing time just to serve the school.

Then there was the trip to the Parliament. Actually it was an all Form 6 trip, but seeing as there were still some spaces left, I guessed they must have opened those slots to 7 lucky prefects. Really great learning experience and also a fun bonding ones among ourselves.

The 7 of us infront of the Parliament Building.

All of the people in the trip. Group photo.Lunch in Teo Chew Restaurant.

A visit to Dr. Mahathir's ex-home.

Science planitarium! Reminds me of Min Xiang's Irish accent.

Taekwondo had its Kerja Amal of repainting the Orchid Garden. There were only about 20 of us, I guess the blame for the number is on us. We thought it would be a simple task and a straight forward one, but who knew how thick rust can grow to be and unrusting is seriously not a very clean matter.Hard work.

Rusted hand.

Rusted face.

Sir Whey Jia chips in help too.

Po Yee!

Pure science students are just unpredictable. Study about locomotion and wala~ we have live specimens to observe. There was a frog also, his name was Tom because he needed a tomb because he passed on. But these too were caught consecutively and it caused quite a scream (I mean literally a scream to our class and the next~). This brings back memories of my childhood.

Dhaneesh, Wafi and I found this guy here after chasing down late comers. Pretty isn't it?

Do observe it's leg.

Eugene found this one.

In conjunction of 5R week, 5 Budi participated by starting our Recycle Cans for Candies campaign. Won't you come and join me? Yeah Yeah! Though at times we felt like Buruh Paksa, we did our best in it and enthusiaticly walked around in many many colourful banners and trading candies for tin cans and bottles. According to our Chairman of the Event, Mr. Woo, it seems we have collected as estimated value of 700 cans and bottles. Estimated, mind you.

Preparing to sing to the afternoon session.

Wanted Cans and Bottles, crushed or uncrushed.

Our stall.

Oi! What's going on?

Lastly, another united effort by 5 Budi.

Last and my most favourite. Despite all the responsibility, despite the busytedness and skippings of class, forget about the homeworks undone, the confiscated Add Maths book, the scolding from Puan Shanta for being late, put aside the unpredictable schedule and the complains that my house is like a Hotel from parents, I enjoy being the Ketua Tugas Khas (Head of Special Assignments). Why? Simply because I am always working with fantastic, wonderful, sporting, fun and service oriented people. Other than that, it means I get to meet other school prefects, I get to make a difference to other schools like inviting USJ 12 for the first time and I get to organise and bring together people to play in the Interschool Prefect Games.

Football.

The game.

Appreciative audiences and eager subs.

The whole team. We won first in this game.

Much thanks to our captain who fell twice, but continued. We always knew he likes PBSMs.

But mostly due to super teamwork

Basketball.

Our basketball team. The first half at least. Most chilled people.

But really good on court.

See what I'm talking about?

Ouch!

Wide view.

Netball.

It's a bird. It's a plane. Oh shoot! It's the opponent scoring.
That girl there can really play. She even has got some sort of pose.

Our full netball team. With our dear Puan Ung.

Not to forget the two other "female" substitutes.

SMK USJ 8 background. Extra Esther.

Dancing Queen. Watch her jump and watch her run, cause it is like gliding.
Referee. Very fair. Very professional.

Dirty fun.

Exactly what we are promoting.

Building bonds with other school prefects.

Life is short on this planet. So spend it as worth while as possible. To you it could be something simple like hanging out with friends or studying alone or maybe creating new stuff or maybe just making music. For me it is going out there and seeing new things and experiencing new stuff and also being responsible for them to. All in all, everything count and make a difference.

Dandelion Seed

2009-03-07T23:25:00.000+08:00

A couple of weeks back, I remember talking to Jian Shen and somehow we ended up with the topic of life. We would then grab anyone who walks pass to give us a random object and using the object we would compare life to it.

Life is like a calculator, a lot of us are looking for results in life.

Life is like a blackboard, after all we have written in it, at the end of the day, it gets erased.

Life is like the fan, it moves in circles.

To me though I think life is how you define it, but I believe that we should all live life like dandelions seeds.

No matter how hard the wind blows it. No matter where the wind blows it to, across the river and up the mountains. Pass trees and houses. Caught in the rain or twirling in the sunshine. When the dandelion finally lands, maybe half way across the world, maybe just nearby, it would than start to grow.

That’s how we should live, regardless of what God’s plan is, we should just let go, because once again, it is the best plan and regardless of where it takes us to, we should always be fruitful.

So germinate my friends. Go out and make plants.

Ye shall be gardeners of the heart of man.

I am talking nonsense; I guess it is better than a dead blog right?

Role Call - TRU Camp '08

2008-12-23T18:01:00.001+08:00

Where ever he leads I follow,

What ever he feeds I swallow.

This was the line that struck me the most during the camp. Oddly enough, although this was a church youth camp, but it was this particular line that had smacked me right in the face. No, this isn’t from Malachi or Revelations or Matthew or any of the verses from the Bible; instead it was the words of Uncle Steven Low, our speaker-cum-Chief of Information. I believe, this two lines, though jokingly said had summed up the whole camp – Role Call, for where ever God calls us to, or what ever he asks us to swallow, we should just drop everything (all our dreams and our hopes) just as Simon the fisherman had, and follow.

The camp begun once we arrived in Malaysian Bible Seminary (MBS), Kuang, by then it was already twelve thirty in the afternoon (we left from church at eleven). As usual, it all started with a brief briefing and once that was done we ate our lunch. Lunch was followed by more briefing, and then there was the ice breaker (our first team effort) – we had to find people who likes doing X (whereby X is a variable) and we had to find a few objects.

After the ice breakers we got to relax awhile but were soon caught up in the games which they call Blow Pong Championship. So what is Blow Pong? Well, according to Wikipedia, erm… according to Wikipedia… Well, there’s nothing about it in Wikipedia, so I’ll explain, basically Blow Pong is a game where two teams of eight each squat (yes, squat) on one side of the ping pong table. The goal is to blow the ping pong ball to the opponent’s side and out of the table (if it flies out through the side, that’s not a goal). I like that game. All that whistling I do in the bathroom has finally paid off, because our team, team Thundercats got third! Third arh? So lousy. What to do, other people spend more time in the bathroom, so they got more time to whistle lor!

The unique feature about this year’s campsite was the facilities, for this year, we had a basketball court, ping pong tables, swimming pool, golf-thingy, badminton courts and a swimming pool. We also have got a few huts our there, sadly though, that place is crawling with huge, vicious, bloody-thirsty, nine feet long iguanas. Anyways, opportunities are like lost camper-humans to those iguanas and seeing as there was an available badminton court, we seized the chance.

We bathed and ate by eight and soon we were all marching towards the hall for worship and announcements. This year’s camp song is Centre of My Life by Hillsongs (it’s the song that is playing now in my blog). After worship, we had our first session. Uncle Steven introduced the problems that all of us would most probably have a least one of them; among them are the primal (basic) pain of the heart, the cynicism of the mind (disbelief), the paralysis of the will and the overcrowding of the soul. Mine was probably the paralysis of the will. “Tuition larh.”

Uncle Steven’s said that to follow God we must first 1) remain in him:

I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.

John 15:5

I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.

Romans 12:1

Command Aaron and his sons, saying, this is the law of the burnt offering: It is the burnt offering, because of the burning upon the altar all night unto the morning, and the fire of the altar shall be burning in it.

Leviticus 6:9

Discussion was cancelled. Supper was after discussion which was after the session. Supper was biscuits and 3 in 1 Milo, and lights out was at eleven thirty. The dorms was clean although it was the ex-squash court and we had two air conditioners in there (oh no!). The bad thing about dorms is that the beds all creak like crazy even if you just want to shift your direction, but all in all, it was rather nice, even the night music (snores) were quite bearable. Huuuuaaaack… Whoooooo….. Huackk….

The next morn, we woke up, brush teeth, you know, typical stuff. We did our exercises (quite similar to taekwondo’s except less, much, much less tiring). Did quiet time with Ii Ern and Jian Eu, had breakfast (was heavy, but really good), went for worship and then the Lord’s Supper.

The first thing we had to do was to remain in God and Uncle Steven said during the second session that the second thing was to 2) remove our weights, baggage, hindrances and wrongs.

After the session was done, we had our lunch; well at least we tried, because breakfast was still bunking in our stomachs. That night was Fun Night and each team was given a movie which they were suppose to based their plays on, a prop (a bicycle tyre rubber) and a couple of imaginary props which the people had to act as. The movies they had were Star Wars, Indiana Jones, The Incredibles, Transformers, Justice League, Lord of the Rings and another two (I forgot larh). Our team got the Incredibles and we practiced really thoroughly after we knew and after games too.

Talking about games, that day’s ones involved a lot water and saliva. We had to suck water in our mouths and bring it to the other side. We had to juice watermelons and eat lemons. We had to pass water with our spoons. We had to… a lot of water and saliva larh.

When the long anticipated Fun Night arrived, everyone was already dressed up; we had Superwoman, Darth Vader, Jack Sparrow and even R2D2. Imagine that. I was Pinocchio (due to busy-ness the previous week, I had to tear the cover of my notebook to make a nose and used A4 paper for a hat). That night’s sketches were all pretty entertaining, most of them revolved around David and Goliath, some did others, but all were really creative combining a movie together with Bible lessons. We all tried our best in it and it was really a pain in the stomach to watch all the funny sketches.

The photographers were really busy that night, but once the event was done, I threw my nose away and went to search for Desmond. We had locked the dorm with the key inside! Thank goodness, we manage to unlock the dorm thanks to the owner of the place. Thank you Uncle. Sorry.

Supper was followed by a lot of chatter as the mood of laughter and smiles had not faded yet, but it was soon time for lights out. Good night.

The ritual of wake up, exercise, quiet time, breakfast, announcements and worship was upon us once again. Session that day talked about the third R, 3) replenish.

My little children, for whom I labor in birth again until Christ is formed in you.

Galatians 4:19

For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.

Romans 8:29

Once discussion was over, we took the group photo.

We ate lunch. I played more badminton and then it was time for the Amazing Race. This year’s one was fun, as usual. My team started from the hall, we went to the tennis court where we were blindfolded and where we had to turn around five times before we were instructed by one of the team member to pick up the tennis balls all over the court.

After that we ran to the golf course, we had to hit the balls through the poles (many poles) by alternating between ourselves to whack the ball.

We went to the skating ring. We had to pick up papers while on the skating board.

Then off to the canteen, where four sacrifices had to eat all sorts of weird thing, one of them was expired blue cheese. I can still remember the taste of it…

To the pool where we canoe to the other side with Desmond and Dorothy shooting us with water guns.

Off to find leaves and stones to pass to the Sniper or photographer, Uncle Cheng Tat.

Then off to the lobby to count lights and stairs which we had to give our answers to PG.

Once we had done that, we went to the Tan’s Training Centre where we had to go through a couple of obstacle courses.

At last, we went to Desmond’s hideout by the guard house huffing and puffing, but had no strength to blow the house down. Apparently Voltron had came in first and Justice League second. We were… well… second last. Hey, we tried our best and we did it as fast as we can.

After the race, most of us jumped into the pool, despite having run all around MBS. Well I did, but I got bored. So once again, off to the badminton court and the table tennis table.

The last session was on 4) rearrange which touched a lot on our priorities.

But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.

Matthew 6:33

For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?

Mark 8:36

That night lights out time was extended to one, because we were suppose to use it wisely. Usually this would be the time when people have heart to heart emotional talk, but unless you call playing games and having the losers eat cucumber personal, the last night is a little lighter than usual. I did enjoy talking with Brendon, John Yap, Nian Ci and Anthea about… mayonnaise larh, school larh and etc.

Morning exercise was cancelled, so we woke up later that day. But quiet time continued, breakfast was of course still there and worship remained the same. The sessions had ended and this time there was sharing by those who had things to share about.

Once done, we packed up and ate lunch.

Then, like magic, presto! Camp was over. We were gone.

Lastly I would like to quote Uncle Steven’s words,

Where ever he leads I follow,

What ever he feeds I swallow.

Remember Simon, before he came into the Bible, he was a fisherman and when he was a fisherman he met Jesus:

When He (Jesus) had stopped speaking, He said to Simon, “Launch out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.” But Simon answered and said to Him, “Master, we have toiled all night and caught nothing; nevertheless at Your word I will let down the net.” And when they had done this, they caught a great number of fish, and their net was breaking. So they signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both the boats, so that they began to sink.

Luke 5:4-7

Because Simon did what he was told, only then was he able to become one of the twelve disciples. So only if we listen to God, only then we are able to really fulfill our role and our calling.

And Jesus said unto Simon, Fear not; from henceforth thou shalt catch men.

Luke 5:10

*Sorry about the lack of photographs, I’m waiting for the Sniper to upload them. Once they do, it will all be there, so please visit this post again

A Family Tradition

2008-12-19T00:27:00.002+08:00

A tradition is formed once a group of people do something repetitively for a period of time and every year (usually during December), my aunties, uncles and cousins would drive up from Singapore to Malaysia where they would meet up with my family and my grandparents. So I would presume that my family actually has a tradition despite living in this ever advancing, modern world.

Twas’ was the story of this year’s family reunion.

Once again, we met up at Uncle William’s bungalow in Cameron Highlands (no, Uncle William is not our family member; he’s the person we rented the bungalow from). This time around though, we were going to sleep three nights over there.

To be really honest, I did not want our family reunion to be in Cameron again, for this was already the fifth time I was up there within two years! I have been to the Bee’s Farm, Kea’s Farm, Butterfly Farm, Ravi Strawberry Farm, well just about all the farms there. Oh well, the more important aspect of reunions are the people right?

Right.

We arrived at the bungalow when the short hand of the clock pointed to three. At that time, our cousins and an uncle and an aunty was already there. Imagine leaving Singapore at four in the morning. The first thing I did up there was run around crouching, squatting, tip-toeing, hiding behind bushes to take photographs of the flowers in William’s place.

After that I went back up to join my cousins and brother and sister to a game of Scrabble. Halfway through, there was a black out, nevertheless, we continued playing anyways.

What Jon drew out on our first turn.

My other auntie and uncle came at eight in the night, just in time for dinner. Apparently, they were stuck in the immigration from morning before they were released. Dinner was as usual, Aunty Jessica’s (Uncle William’s wife) steamboat, once again I would like to stress, this is the one place you can get the very best steamboat! No joke!

After dinner, we just hung around and slept I guess.

Once the sun started to smile at the bungalow, we ate our breakfast and went towards the Boh Plantation. Just for extra info, did you know that Boh stands for Best of Highlands? Apparently there was this Viewpoint where we could get a very scenic view of the plantation. So up we went.

Then down we went once again. Drank some tea flavoured sugar in that little tea shop ate a piece of strawberry pie and a piece of cake, and then we went home and prepared ourselves for lunch. What type of preparation is there that needs to be done before lunch I wonder?

We had lunch in Tanah Rata, I ate a plate of nasi pattaya (not that you would want to know). Once lunch was swimming within us and playing hide and seek with our enzymes, we decided to go get a couple of souvenirs (better buy some birthday presents earlier than to rush to Summit a day before their birthday right?). Scones with lemon something came right after that. I know what you are thinking. This guy crazy, eat, eat, eat, eat and eat only. Sorry larh brother, I Malaysian mah! Got problem arh?

After consulting with Uncle William, we decided to try taking Jungle Walk 13 which was beside the bungalow. The path up the jungle walk was almost a forty five degrees slope and the best part was the paths were muddy. Despite our efforts, instead of arriving in Tanah Rata, we ended up in some egg plant plantation. That was when it started to rain. So in the rain, we had to find another less perilous path through the chrysanthemum plantation back to the bungalow.

Dinner was also Aunty Jessica’s cooking: tofu, two types of fishes, two vegetables, pork, curry chicken and rice. Once again all of the dishes were swallowed in while mouthfuls of compliments came pouring out. Seriously larh, she can really cook! We played Uno Stacko after that.

In the morning, we went back to the Jungle Walk 9 that we had taken last year. Talk about déjà vu, it was also muddy this time, the paths were small and slippery, there were logs blocking us here and there and we met more white people (there was also a couple with a pair of Dalmatians)! Oh ya, I met a Seafieldian in the jam shop after the walk, Jeremy. It’s a small world after all.

It was raining by then, we tried to search for Jungle Walk 9 and we succeeded. Sadly enough, it was overgrown and there was no way we could get into there with all that growth. So once again, old man world repeats itself and in that pouring rain, we had to take Jungle Walk 13 back to the bungalow. Although it was raining and the path was more slippery (I fell twice), I felt I enjoyed the walk as we were all busy looking for sticks of suitable length to increase our stability.

We arrived home wet, muddy, sweaty and tired. By then it was about five, just in time for scones! Pass the marmalade please!

Dinner was barbeque. Then the adults gave out presents (for early Christmas) and the children (that’s us) receive presents! Sounds good right? Night fell once more and it was our last night in Cameron.

In the morning, we packed up and had our yearly photography session. Talk about tradition. I like the umbrella shots.

After the winding roads and the Tapah lunch, we arrived back home around four. My cousins and my aunty and grandparents were now in KL in my grandpa’s house. The rest were on the way back to Singapore. At home, there was no rest, we washed our shoes and clothes and repacked everything, and then we rushed off to our grandfather’s house to stay with our cousins.

Most of the time spent together with my cousin and my auntie was on playing badminton, monopoly, watching weird movies, ultimate Frisbee, eating Char Keuy Teow and there was once that we went boating.

I remember the last time we went boating. That was about one or two years ago, I wanted to switch boats (don’t ask why) and at that time I did not know Newton’s third Law of Motion that states to every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. Thus, plop! I went into the lake. I still remember watching my slipper swim beside me. This time though I was armed with this physics law and did not fall into the water. I really enjoyed my first time kayaking.

Without us noticing, it was soon the last day spent with them this year and I was suppose to go for Church Youth Camp in one hour. The thing I noticed though as Jon hugged me while saying, “Bye Ming!” was how much he had grew and how much I had come to really love kids. Also, I realized a special thing about my cousins, was that although we could be doing the most ordinary things, I had always enjoyed them much more with them around. They say that company is more important than activity. I testify to that.

Twas’ ended this year’s reunion.

Photos - A Million Babbles

2008-12-02T19:14:00.001+08:00

A photo tells a million words.

Sure or not harh? Maybe the fella bored ma. Simply take only.

I suppose that is what happened to me, but to vindicate myself, I would say that I am undergoing serious experimentations on lightings, angle, composure and getting acquainted with my artistic sides. Okay, I was bored. Happy or not?

Prefects' Camp

2008-11-26T00:04:00.016+08:00

Ever wondered when was the time to open the lid for a steamboat and dig into its contents? Wonder no more, for renowned scientist, researcher and foodologist Mr. Yuvanesh has found the perfect solution after long and extensive research of steamboat (if you count one minute as long that is). In fact Mr. Yuva has even made it simple for those of us who does not possess the vocabulary of those in his line, for once the steamboat was ready, Mr. Yuva would say, “The thing is steaming!” Thus we knew it was time to eat.

It was our first night when Yuvanesh came up with his steaming concept, the first night for our three days two nights trip in Cameron Highlands, the first night of our annual prefect’s camp. Okay here’s where my voice should come in as the narrator. But long, long a go, before the steaming concept, in a place far, far away, there were two guys, one was standing and the other was sitting.

“Do you know why I told the prefects to come at one-thirty?”

“Cause they are Malaysians.”

“Yes! Cause they are Malaysians and when I say one-thirty, then they’ll be here at two.”

“Eh, but not fair larh, then people like us who are so un-Malaysians then how?” I remember complaining on that day.

Unfortunately I also remembered Dhaneesh giving me this answer back, “Too bad larh.”

This is how it had all started. Late. How typical of Malaysians. The time stated on the itinerary was one. The time the prefects were suppose to come was one-thirty. The time they came was two. The time the bus driver Mr. Mus arrived, two-thirty. By the time we finally left, it was three. What to do? We Malaysian ma!

Our facilitator, planner and event coordinator was none other than Mr. Lim who had also planned for the librarians’ camp, though I shall refer to him as Uncle Lim because it reminds me of the Kopitiam. Uncle Lim had introduced himself in the beginning of the bus ride and had invited people up to the mike to entertain us and to get ourselves acquainted with our fellow prefects. Okay let’s just skip the lame jokes and stories of Diana and Diana +. So we arrived at Tapah rest stop and right after toilet break (which typically, ended up late), we finally started our journey up Cameron Highland. The miraculous thing was that no one was dizzy on the way up, probably because they were too distracted by the zombie movie the bus driver had played. It was the zombie movie that made me see (a better word would be hear) a whole new side of Rushan Kee. Ouch!

Upon arriving at Cameron Highlands, it was already dusk and Uncle Lim decided to provide us a dinner of steamboat first. This is where I had made my wish upon the heavens; maybe I should let Beatrice to explain:

Prior to dinner, De Ming jokingly said ,

"Since we are going to sit in groups of ten, i want 2 guys, 8 girls."
(2 guys meaning himself and Danish.)

ROFLMAO.He got 2 girls and 8 guys.

So ladies and gentlemen, be careful what you wish for. *wink*

Dinner ended and we were soon sent to our apartments, Villa Dahlia. I remember the first time we read the signboard of the apartment, all of our heads started craning and looking for Filla Dalila, our Secretary II. My apartment was shared together with the 4A and 4B prefects and Uncle Lim, Mr. Mus and Uncle Lim’s friend. It was not a very stylish apartment, but it was clean and had a nice feeling about it.

After a bath, we gathered in the hall and were distributed into groups of ten or nine. My group was Group EL which stood for Extra-Chun Leaders, the group leader was Huang Xi and I was his assistant. Our motto was ‘Merging Ideas’ and we stood for many individuals coming together as one. Our mini facilitator was Tze Quan and our group members were Denise, Suman, Guat Yee, Edric, Filla, Nicholas, Yuvanesh, Huang Xi, me and of course Tze Quan. I like my group.

Having completed the sorting out of groups, Uncle Lim started to explain about the three different types of studying method. Generally each of us falls into one category, though this is not scientifically researched. He passed around a couple of papers that were like quizzes and we had to answer it based on our character and the way we do things. The three categories were Visual, Auditory and Kinesthetic. Visual people learn through observation, they are usually the kids that stares at teacher while she is teaching, they perform best after consulting the manual or instructions and they like to have written instructions and directions. The Auditory uses listening as a medium and they may be found to be the kids that stares at the table but absorbs everything in by listening and they love listening to music. No music no life. The third was the kinesthetic learning style; these are people who hold the Nike motto “Just do it”. They are usually the kid that throws the paper plane and taps the tables and anything else that requires a lot of movement. These people never plan. After the test, I realized that I fall under the Kinesthetic category (wow, what a surprise), but I had also a strong Visual, that’s why I stare at teacher when I’m listening to her (that’s if I do listen).

The next day, I had woken up quite alert as I had a good sleep on a king size bed alone. Morning exercises then took place and seriously, running in Cameron is painful to the lungs. The breakfast place was dirty and the French toast I ordered had flies on it. Also, while we were eating half way, another fly had crash landed into Dhaneesh’s Milo.

Breakfast ended after that and the Amazing Race had started. Our first clue was some torn up pieces of paper which we had to paste back to get the directions to the next clue (Maybank). We picked up a transaction receipt and asked direction to our next checkpoint, Carnation Park Apartment. We were soon flying off into the direction where we thought the apartments were and we found one that looked like Carnation Park, but was not. At that point, the other teams were heading off to one side, but Denise had said that she had been to Carnation Park before and I asked her if she was more then fifty percent certain that it was the opposite. She said she was and so off we went to the other direction and we found ourselves lost. We headed back to the place we had started off and decided to skip to part of the race and move on. From this alone, we had wasted close to half an hour!

The next task was rather simple because we had Huang Xi, runner up for Olympic Maths as it involved a lot of reasoning and mathematics. Having completed that perfectly, we were supposed to go to MARDI (Malaysia Agriculture Research and Development Institute). MARDI was actually in the opposite direction of where we were and by the time we arrived there, another half an hour had passed. At MARDI, we had to complete a few questionnaires and took a few photos of flowers. There was one question that had everyone stumped, “What does the word BOH stands for?” Ouch! So we had to ask our facilitator or angel for the answer (Best of Highlands) and we got punished to eat chilli padi! I can still see Nicholas jumping.

We ran off to Agro Bank once our task was completed and over there was my favourite part. We were given ten Ringgit and we had to buy a couple of items, the twist was that for every Ringgit left, we earn 10 points and according to Uncle Lim, there was a team that had searched the items from the dustbin and had used none of the money!

Other than the money, we were also suppose to take photos of our group with a family, a lady in red, a member of ours holding two cabbages, ugly faces and two members together with a tourist from out of the country. Another task was to get chops from restaurants, shops and hotels. The thing that had struck me the most about this task was how nice people actually were, for when we asked for a photo with a family, they had also shown us a market to get very cheap vegetables and when we asked for a little money from our lady in red, we were given RM10! Thank you God! Thank you lady in red!

We thought it was broccoli at first.

Then we realised.

Pn. Ung and Pn. Viani caught washing their hair while we were running and sweaty.

We finished this task and arrived at the next task as the last team, we were then instructed to eat raw onions to move on to the checkpoint. So we did. Yucks!. We landed ourselves in Lily Apartments and we had to answer another IQ questions. We got it wrong though! But although we were wrong, Huang Xi still insisted that there were two possible answers, nevertheless we asked him to save his complains for later and we had to eat 20 pieces of bread.

We had a decision to make at that point, the first was that we finish the race and play it safe; the second was to run to Carnation Park, complete the task and arrive back (hopefully) in time. There was only another half an hour before we got disqualified. We decided to take the risk. Off we went, sprinting up that all so familiar road to our beloved Carnation Park. It was a long walk and we wished terribly that we would be able to make it back on time. We got there in ten minutes of hurried walk and occasional marches. Edric, Suman and I were in front when we reached the apartment, Edric took the photo of the apartment. By the time Edric, Suman and I had ran down from the apartment stairs though, everyone else had already started walking back. So being tired and well tired, we had to try to chase them up. That moment, a miracle happen and suddenly a car stopped beside us, the window was wound down and lo and behold, the uncle (whose name I don’t know) who is Uncle Lim’s friend appeared and he offered us a ride! Oh, if you insist, we don’t want to break your heart.

So we sat on a car while everyone else walked, but of course, we had jumped off it the moment we saw the girls. Thank you uncle! So then, we waited by the junction for the whole team to arrive, we ran and ran like mad people and from Uncle Lim’s point of view, we came in one stream of people, running and shouting! Most importantly, we made it on time! After lying down for a couple of minutes, I finally got up and seeing as Tze Quan had promised to eat half a chilli padi if we were on time, I decided to accompany her. This time though, it really stings! I cried. Lucky there are no photos.

Lunch was served. We ate. We went back. We bathe. We came back down and we calculated the points. Our team was the last team and when we came to the part where Huang Xi thought there was two answers, Uncle Lim gave us two options. If we wanted to challenge him, we would lose 50 points if we were wrong, but would earn a full fifty if we were right. We decided to take up the challenge and although the explanation was not clear, but because Huang Xi had dared to stand up, we were given the 50 points. Another factor that gave us extra points was the task which involves collecting items with RM10. We were given RM10, we came back with RM16.40, and technically we earned money. In the end, our team got the most point in this event. 900+ when the other teams had 800+.

We played a game after that. The goal is to pass around a ball to all your group members as long as your hands cannot touch, you cannot pass the ball to the person beside you and the ball must start and must end with the group leader. We did a couple of rounds for this game. Then Uncle Lim said that his personal record time was one second. That’s when all of the groups changed strategy and jumped from 10 or 9 seconds to 4 to 5 seconds, then again it made a quantum leap until it was close to one second. Why this happened? Because we thought it was possible. The whole point of this thing was that we must always be willing to find ways to increase efficiency and effectiveness.

After that we played a couple of games and then came the Spy Game. There is one spy in your team and at the end of the game, the leader must eliminate the person he think is the spy who will try to disrupt the game. If he guesses the correct spy, the team gets some points, if he guesses the wrong spy, the not-spy will be kicked from the team forever and points will be deducted. Of course, after hearing Po Yee’s account on how she had cried when she was accused as the spy when there was none, I knew there was no spy. I told the team that and so our final decision was that we did not want to eliminate anyone even if it means no breakfast and a deduction of 300 points. Lei Wei’s group did the same, but Sharon’s and Wee Hong’s was different, Sharon chose Ashween and Wee Hong, Jzen Sen. Then Uncle Lim when on and on about “Are you sure?” “Think about breakfast.” “Think about your points.” “Please reconsider.” At long last, he announced that there was no spy and he explained that we must always think about other’s feelings and we must be certain before we point fingers.

Okay, moving on. There was dinner. There was pasar malam. Bought some jam. There was bread and jam (blueberry and strawberry) for supper and I ate some prawns. There was the Winnie the Pooh Uno with Winnie the Pooh rules. There was the wake Ben project (Failed). Then there was the sleep! This time I shared a mattress with Jit Heang.

Morning came once again, running started once again. Breakfast was better. Roti cheese!

Yuvanesh catching Mentos with his mouth. Please click the photo to see the Mentos.

After breakfast, we went to the Bee Farm. Well, there was not much over there as the bees were too far away and even if it was near, no one dared to come close.

Butterfly farm was next. That was more entertaining, we had a Nepalese guide who I think is either gay or bisexual for he likes throwing insects on Tze Quan’s chest, scorpions on Aiman’s head, but most of all, he likes to unzip Ashween’s Malaysian jacket and throw lizards on his chest. I enjoyed this part of the trip a lot though, because I found the way we are able to just hold insects and lizards and snakes cool.

“What is this?”

“It’s a hibiscus.”

“Yes.” Bends down and holds another hibiscus.

“What’s this?”

“Another hibiscus.”

“No. This lowbiscus”

The results for the winning team was announce and team Uno won by five marks from us! Actually, we would have won if we had not been deducted marks for talking too much. Oh well, padan muka. We went to Kee's Farm later and bought strawberries, sweet corns and flowers. I like the strawberry ice.

We went back after lunch in this Kopitiam where the service was so slow (forty minutes). I had to finish eating in 5 minutes, lucky the food was good. The first leg of the journey, I sat behind with the Form Sixes and I slept most of the way. When I woke up though, I asked Xiang Shan to sit back in his place, so I went to the front to sit beside Dhaneesh. Surprisingly, almost everyone there was dizzy or uncomfortable. What to do, Winnie the Pooh Uno mah!

The experience of the whole trip was quite an eye opener, I enjoyed hanging around with the Form Threes (not the part where Rushan screamed though), I came to like the Winnie the Pooh rules, I came to respect Tze Quan as our facilitator, I learned to appreciate the teamwork of our team, I enjoyed taking photos with my friends, I laughed a lot about Shu Shu (Suman) jokes, I learned quite a bit, but more importantly I enjoyed the whole experience of being together with prefects without the normal stress we would go through.

We are the leading team!

The Mamak I'd Eaten

2008-11-25T03:17:00.001+08:00

Two mamaks stood side by side,
And sorry I could not eat in both,
And be one Malaysian, long I stood,
And peeped in one as far as I could,
To where the mamak toss his telur;

Then smelt the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it had maggi and nasi goreng;
Though as for that, the flies there,
Were their most loyal customers,

And both had my favourite nasi lemak,

With sambal ikan bilis and roasted nuts,
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how lunch leads to dinner,
I doubted I won’t be back tonight.

I shall be telling this with a sigh,
Moaning for hours and hours hence:
Two mamaks stood side by side, and I --
I ate in the one with more flies,
And that has made all the difference.

GET OUT OF THE TOILET!!

I NEED TO GOOO!!

Bite Size Giggles

2008-10-29T17:11:00.004+08:00

Seeing as there is a one week holiday, well at least four weekends, three Deepavali holidays and two applied leave (after all we must not allow school to get in the way of our education right?), studying Chemistry day in day out can be quite… erh hurm. So, I decided to search for some bite size quotes to de-stress myself and hopefully you too.

“But the fact that some geniuses were laughed at does not imply that all who are laughed at are geniuses. They laughed at Columbus, they laughed at Fulton, they laughed at the Wright brothers. But they also laughed at Bozo the Clown.”

Carl Sagan

“You can learn many things from children. How much patience you have, for instance.”

Franklin P. Adams

"I like a teacher who gives you something to take home to think about besides homework."

Edith Ann

“A teacher is one who talks in someone else's sleep.”
- Anonymous

"Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy."

Benjamin Franklin

“Friendship is like peeing on yourself: everyone can see it, but only you get the warm feeling that it brings.”

Anonymous

“The man who smiles when things go wrong has thought of someone to blame it on.”

Robert Bloch

“When I die, I want to go peacefully like my Grandfather did, in his sleep -- not screaming, like the passengers in his car.”

Anonymous

“Men are like bank accounts. Without a lot of money they don't generate a lot of interest.”

Anonymous

“Last night I lay in bed looking up at the stars in the sky and I thought to myself, where the heck is the ceiling.”

Anonymous

“Brigands demand your money or your life; women require both.”
Samuel Butler

“I've often wanted to drown my troubles, but I can't get my wife to go swimming.”
Jimmy Carter

“USA Today has come out with a new survey: Apparently three out of four people make up 75 percent of the population.”
David Letterman

Mummy

2008-10-27T02:21:00.003+08:00

Sixteen years ago,

A story began to unfold,

A story about a lump,

That told of a child that was to come.

My Mom she could have wanted me not,

Given me up without a thought,

But she let herself be cut opened,

For a baby that would not turn.

There were needles through her wrist,

There were stitches the doctors installed,

Just so her son could exist,

My Mom, she bears it all.

Without her I would not be,

Without her there was no me,

She was the reason to my presence,

The story behind my existence.

When I was a baby in her arms,

She would sing till I was calm,

She would pat me over here,

And whisper softly in my ear.

When I was a kid by the gate,

I would be scolded by the maid,

For I cried till no end,

When my Mom let go of my hand.

But when the gate swung open once more,

And as she came back in again,

I would run at her call,

And would hug her till my arms pained.

When I was a teenager with many dreams,

She helped me to believe in myself,

And guided me from walls I have not seen,

She helped me to be more of myself.

It is her birthday today,

And needless to say,

There were times when we made each other mad,

There were others when we made each other sad.

But beyond all that,

Beyond the bickering and arguing,

I have always appreciated,

This Mom I have been gifted.

Happy Birthday Mummy!

Message in a Bowl

2008-10-06T15:35:00.004+08:00

one

Birthdays only comes once a year.

two

This year, I want my gift to be special.

three

So this is it!

THE MESSAGE IN A BOWL ©.

four

Life is like this bowl.

five

You can’t change the fact that I gave you a bowl.

six

Just as you can’t change the fact that you are who you are.

seven

You can’t change the fact that it is made of glass.

eight

Just as you cannot change the fact that problems will arise.

nine

You can however divert people’s attention by putting a flower in.

ten

Just as you can choose to solve your problems while always seeing all the beautiful things in life,

eleven

You can also choose how you will use your bowl.

twelve

You can throw it away and call it useless.

thirteen

Just as you can waste your life and throw it away.

fourteen

You can use it to keep rubbish

fifteen

Just as your life can be filled with meaningless things.

sixteen

Or why not put sweets inside and offer to others!

seventeen

Then you will be the sweet that makes people smile.

eighteen

But, more importantly.

nineteen

What I really am trying to say.

twenty

Is that whether you are made of glass or diamonds.

twenty one

You are a very special bowl to many of us

twenty two

Including me.

twenty three

HAPPY BIRTHDAY PEI KI!

twenty four

By:

The Ming ©.

I have God

2008-09-26T22:28:00.002+08:00

As the exams come closer for me and my friends and as many things seem to pile up, I just wish to say this very simple quote I saw in Daryl's house.

When problems arise,

Do not cry God, I have problems,

Instead look problems straight in the eye,

And shout,

Problems, I have God!

Best of luck SPM-ers and PMR-ers and Normal Test-ers! Selamat Hari Raya.

The One Academy

2008-08-25T17:15:00.001+08:00

My parents are unique. They never nag at me to do my homework. They never stopped me from going out with friends; in fact I never asked them whether I was allowed to do so. I just did. They never scold me for getting bad results. Does this mean that they do not care? I doubt it.

To my parents, the purpose of going to school was never just to learn about Sejarah and Chemistry, but it was also to learn on how to learn. I guess my parents play by a different set of rules. Principles such as being caring, kind, joyful and having a heart which was willing to serve was their highlight in the process of bringing me up. They also taught me to always be positive, to be analytical, creative and observant. Of course they still wanted me to do well in my studies. So instead of going through the traditional parents-nag-kids phase, my parents would send me to courses and workshops.

Because of all those times where I was sent out alone to an aliened sector, I had started to get used to it and so without me noticing it, I was looking out for courses that interests me. So I found one which was Taylor’s Design Workshop. The speaker was really animated and excited, but the thing that had caught my attention was that our Petronas Twin Tower was worth only 4 billion Ringgit Malaysia, where else Google which is not even a solid object or anything we can touch was worth 80 billion USD! Then he said something that I will always remember. He said that at this age, people are no more paying for solid objects, but ideas!

Today, I joined in the rombongan which was related to design and creativity, it was a course about Digital Art by The One Academy. We arrived at The One Academy at approximately nine in the morning and we were greeted by Billy who then led us to the art gallery which displayed many of the students’ original art. It was in truth pretty impressive. We were then led to the main block of the building and Billy shared with us the facilities that they provided. What fascinated me the most was the pictures they hung on the wall, especially the ones on advertisement or posters for awareness. Each one of those pictures stood out to me because within that creative outlook of it laid a glaring message.

We went into a room then and we watched a couple of videos, while one of the facilitators promoted The One Academy. Did you know that the transformer sports people in Astro are designed by a graduate of The One Academy? They started on the real thing after the introduction and advertisement, and Billy then asked us to solve a couple of challenges which involves using our right brain and he thus concluded that we should always think out of the box.

A nasi lemak lunch was provided after that.

We came back into the room and after announcing the winners of the designing the beak competition, we head off towards the bus and back to school.

Overall, most people felt cheated as they learned nothing about digital art, but for me this experienced had taught me to appreciate the creativeness of the many pictures and designs, but most of all, the delicate message behind it.

There was only one problem though.

11th period haven't finish yet larh!

The Legacy of the Unnamed

2008-07-26T18:21:00.006+08:00

Ever since a time I cannot remember, I would imagine myself standing in front of the prefects every morning, inspiring them and encouraging them. I had always wished (and I still do) to watch as Seafield prefects grow into as Dhaneesh has nicely put it, “The Ultimate Team”, a team which lives up to its motto of being the leading team.

So being a man on a mission, a person who has claimed that if there is anything worth believing in, than it is worth working had for, I had stepped out of that comfortable shell I used to hide in. A shell I threw away on the day I made up my mind to try out to be the next head prefect. Within one month, I had stood up in front of the prefects and stood up for what I believed in, within this one month I had ascended the stage twice, hoping to find people who believed in me and who would stand with me. For two weeks I had stuck posters, distributed stickers and promoted myself. For seven minutes, I had stood in front of the eight administrators of the school and had unfortunately walked away disappointed and discouraged.

There was so much I hoped to share, there was so much I wished I had said, yet none of it came out. I still wished that when I was asked to introduce myself, I had said that I was a determined and a sincere person. Determined for I was not the most talented, nor was I the most intelligent, fastest nor the strongest, but I was one that never gave up of my dreams, the last man found standing. Sincere for I would never lie to the world and myself about who I really am. I wished that when asked the meaning behind the words ELF. I would have said that if ever a group of people came together as one, then there should be a goal they must want to achieve and being examples to follow, leaders who are willing to serve and friends to all in need is a goal worthy to pursue. Though many a words have yet to be said, many a thoughts have yet to be shared, the past is still the past and no amount of whining can change it.

So on the faithful Thursday, as the hearts of nine beat exceptionally fast, the Heads as always sat on the piano chair of the prefect’s room. I had my head bowed and my eyes closed; whispering a silent prayer to let God’s will be done. Thus it was so and my prayers had been answered, though not in the way I had wished for at that moment. For although I did not get the post of the Head Prefect, I believe that this was for the best, for prayers are always answered and so I had been given another post. The post of the Ketua Tugas Khas (the Head of Special Assignments).

As the Ketua Tugas Khas, I was the PR manager of the school; I was the representative of the Prefects Council that will organize interschool prefect games and bonding activities. I was in charge of Teacher’s Day, Hari Ko-kurrikulum , Hari Kecemerlangan, Sports Day, exhibitions and competitions. A job that was a huge mouthful to swallow, yet exciting in nature. On the bright side, I would say that we have four Heads, four PST Leaders, two Treasurers, two Secretaries, but only one Ketua Tugas Khas and only one which had the word “khas” (special) written on it. I was promised a stressful time, yet I have been given this responsibility, therefore I will make myself and the school proud of carrying it out brilliantly.

To me I had not failed nor do I believe that any of the candidates had failed in their quest. But having taken that first step and having had the guts to stand up in front of the school and pour out our hearts, I believed we had already won a huge battle. In fact, I had won so much, for now I see who are the people who actually believed in me, now I know who really are my friends and I have also been given the opportunity to feel that for once, maybe I did made a difference to some people somehow. So I thank all of my friends and all of those great people that had believed in me though they do not know me that well. I really appreciate your support and because of your trust in me I will not work any less, nor with less dedication and spirit then the new heads Dhaneesh, Chee Yan, Ashween and Tze Quan, for even though I was not given the highest of posts, my goal had always been and will always be to build this board of prefects and I believe I am still able to achieve this goal. Though my name will not be printed on the board that is hung in the hall, marking all of the head prefects of Seafield, though I leave not a name behind, but I promise to leave a legacy of an unnamed prefect who had sincerely worked towards the growth of the prefectorial board.

And hopefully, achieved it.

The Cheer 2008 Experience

2008-07-15T00:18:00.001+08:00

This was the first time taking the train with my friends, it was the first time I had to run around from station to station chasing after one train after another, it was the first time being in Stadium Bukit Jalil since 1998, but most importantly, it was my first time witnessing the Cheer 2008!

That morning I arrived in a very un-Malaysian fashion (early by 10 minutes) at 7.50 in the morning. I walked around aimlessly in the road between Carrefour and Subang Parade and after some time, a black MPV drove up on the opposite road, it was Synna who was early in Malaysian sense (10 minutes later than promised time) and the rest were typical Malaysians in every aspect possible (20 minutes late).

Just a few minutes after Xia Shuen, Ee Suen and Xiau Fong has graced us with their presence, the train was found to be waiting on the other side of the station. So once again, feeling decidedly Malaysian, we grabbed the tickets, choked it into the machine and ran across the overhead bridge. There was an army guy there and his bottle practically flew when we ran past him! Fortunately we were lucky enough to make it on time and seeing as there weren’t five-people-in-a-row seats, I ended up sitting with Synna in the front and the rest sat behind.

The journey from Subang Jaya station to KL Central was really enjoyable, except the part where Synna would turn to me and say, “De Ming arh, my hair very fun-nie larh!” Then of course, seeing as I did not think that way, I had to keep insisting that it was alright. But I guess in some sense, it made the journey more interesting. We arrived in KL Central in around 15 minutes and we then found another train towards Masjid Jamek. At Masjid Jamek, we crossed the road and ate breakfast at McDonald. Sausage McMuffin! From Masjid Jamek, we took a long 10 stops ride to Bukit Jalil Stadium.

When at last we arrived at the stadium, it was already ten and we practically ran there. When Xia Shuen said that one of my step equaled to 2 of Xiau Fong’s, Ee Suen, Xiau Fong and I had a walkathon there and funnily Xiau Fong really did get left behind!

Anyways, upon our arrival inside the stadium, we found that it was crammed to the bursting point. We searched for our school friends and found them at a glance, thanks to the Vulcanz shirt. We ended up sitting on the stairs and every 10 minutes our butts would hurt as we shifted ourselves to the side so that people were able to cross. Ouch!

The competition itself was really quite an eye opener for me as my have not really witness a cheer competition, but after a while we were soon sounding like some veteran as we commented on their technical skills, spirits, dresses, props and the bang! factor.

At last, it was finally Vulcanz all girls team from SMK Seafield to perform! The crowd from our side went ballistic and started cheering, “VLC!” As expected my left ear was half deaf after that, though I’m not complaining, VLC! Our school performance was brilliant, but the others were just as good. Though I dare to say that they were at least the top 10 and if the guy’s flyers did not fall, I believe that they would be the top 5. But oh well, as the cliché goes, there is always next year.

After a couple of other performances, we went for lunch at 12.30. Eugene replaced Synna for our lunch trip and seeing as he as ripped his pants while climbing the seats, we had to occasionally stop and allow him to fix the shirt he used to cover his vanity. He ended up buying a fake Nike pants for RM20 though and after that we were finally be able to search for lunch!

The journey to lunch was a classic as we decided out of pure inspiration to take the train to Sri Petaling to eat and when we finally arrived there, we found ourselves in some desolated area where there were only roads and apartments. Thus the five sesated souls decided to try their luck in the food court near Bukit Jalil, so we went back to Bukit Jalil and we found a taxi, which brought us to SRI PETALING to eat! The food there was definitely worth it though.

We arrived at the stadium late again and we sat on the stairs again, life really is a ritual. We stayed on till 5.15 which, after the results was announced. This were the results:

Champion
Shirtliff - SMK Seri Bintang Utara

1st Runner Up
Dynamitez - SMK Damansara Jaya

2nd Runner Up
Stunners All Boys Team - Sri KDU

3rd Runner Up
Titans - AMC Ipoh

4th Runner Up
Xavier - Convent Bukit Nanas

Best Showmanship
SMK Seri Bintang Utara

Best Cheer
SMK Puteri Titiwangsa

Best Supporter
SMK Convent Bukit Nanas

Best Newcomer
SMK Cochrane (All Boys Team)

Silkygirl Merit Award
SMK Seri Bintang Utara

The trip back to Subang was tiring in a way and as all typical Lick Hung students would end their essay: although we were tired, but we left with a heavy heart. I really enjoyed myself there, the performances was good, the food was good, but I enjoyed the most was being with my friends, running around on trains, eating McDonald, joking around, cheering for our teams and more importantly just enjoying each other’s company, Experience wise, one word can describe it.

Brilliant.

Envision ELF

2008-07-02T23:15:00.002+08:00

It seemed so far away once, almost a dream in fact and yet there I was standing on this stage adjusting that microphone. To my right are half of the teachers of this school, to my left are the other half including yang berusaha Pn. Teh Seok Im, yang something PIBG, Datin Rosalind, but the most mortifying fact was that in front of me sat at least one thousand five hundred students of SMK Seafield. I began reading the acknowledgements towards the “right-hand teachers” who actually sat of my left and got stuck half way. I laughed guilty for not memorizing those names and continued. Oh well, who wouldn’t be nervous if you stood in front of a thousand plus students, introducing yourself in hope of being the next head prefect. Once again the campaigns for the next head prefect has begun, and this time, I am no more an audience.

My slogan was “ELF”, E stands for an example to follow, L, a leader who serves and F, a friend to all in need. I truly believe that if any prefect could be all of the above, then he is one brilliant prefect and I sincerely want to grow together with the prefects towards this goal.

Although campaigning is honestly uncomfortable and at times demoralizing, it is at this moment of time when I truly realize who really are my friends. For when I had papers to cut, they would be there to help me, when I needed to think of my speech, they were there to give me feedbacks, when I needed ideas for my campaign, they were there with many brilliant ideas and the most touching part was that when Ashween and his people came along shouting “Vote for Ashween”, they were there to shout my name and stand up for me. If there was one thing I can be proud of, it would be that I had the most brilliant friends anyone can have, people who believed in me.

Xia Shuen once asked me what being a leader meant to me and I said that a leader is someone who places the goal of his people ahead and does his best in achieving this goal. For if a group of people come together as a team, then there must be a common goal and the person who leads this team towards that goal must surely be called the leader! ELF is a vision that I have, a vision I want to share with the people, for this vision is not a couple of empty words, not just a slogan for a campaign. But if you truly look into the words example, leader and friend, you will see principles such as sincerity, respect, care, discipline, purity, leadership and understanding. I truly believe in growing into an ELF and I am not here today to shout, “VOTE FOR DE MING”, instead I am here in hope that you would share my vision of building a prefectorial board that is worthy of respect and sincere to serve this school, SMK Seafield and all of the teachers and students that makes up this school. For a school is not a concrete building, but consists of every single one of the students and teachers.

A Step Closer

2008-06-06T02:21:00.001+08:00

The sixth day of the sixth month begins to be of significance in my life on the sixth year after the millennium. In short, though it was the hungry ghost festival or something like that on that day and the sign of the devil according to the bible, that date meant a couple of things to me. Namely, the scream of agony from my wallet as money had to be extracted, the shout of strain of my tired feet searching wearily for the right gift and a once in a year chance to show to a certain someone how much she was appreciated, for the sixth of June marked the birthday of my really great real friend Xia Shuen.

Two years after that, today that is, the ritual of buying a present for her marks a dawn of a new saga, the hunt for the right gift had once again begun. So a week before that blessed day, I made a point of finding her one, thus I search high and low, far and wide till my feet ached and my sister gave me those ‘when can I go home?’ look. For unlike normal girls, Xia Shuen did not give me the impression that she fancied soft toys and buying things that she liked would mean that I had to ikat perut for a couple of years. It seems after hours of effort, I failed. Until I walked pass a D.I.Y shop and a sudden blast of inspiration struck me.

I was going to make her a present!

So the not so brilliant mind of mine began to weave webs of creativity until the final plan was to tie a couple of knots and frame them up. The knotting was quite okay, though at times I had to redo the knots and I finally finished it at around two-thirty in the morning. The framing process occurred in all the perfect circumstances and it was the case of being at the right place at the right time. But at last it was done. So here it is:

I went for Xia Shuen’s surprise party on the birthday date itself and though truth be told I was left out just a slightest, tiniest bit seeing as the rest of her friends were scouts except for the ‘Minority’. Though I went home in a rather good mood, because of this special talent that Xia Shuen has that makes people feel appreciated just by talking to them.

To Xia Shuen, although your birthday may not seem much to you now, it means a lot to us, because it truly is a joy to be able to tell you how much you have impacted us in our lives, to be able to tell you that you are a very special person in so many ways, not only as a dedicated, committed and outstanding scout, but also as someone who is caring, kind to all, understanding, patient, though pretty stressed, cheerful when there’s not much homework and no scouts problem, fun and like I say talented in making a person feel appreciated.

Sorry for all those times I have hurt you, sorry for all those times I got upset at such minor stuff, sorry for being quite cold (sometimes lah) and sorry for ever doing or saying the wrong things. I truly never meant to hurt you.

Thank you though for being so patient and forgiving towards me. I appreciate it. I wish you all the best, hope that your dreams may come true and a guy who dresses well comes in your path and you will have ducklings that walks done catwalks. Lastly…

Happy Birthday!

The Road Not Taken

2008-06-04T20:43:00.001+08:00

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,

And sorry I could not travel both

And be one traveler, long I stood

And looked down one as far as I could

To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,

And having perhaps the better claim,

Because it was grassy and wanted wear;

Though as for that the passing there

Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay

In leaves no step had trodden black.

Oh, I kept the first for another day!

Yet knowing how way leads on to way,

I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood,

and I— I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.

-Robert Frost

For indeed, you are who you are not because you were born as such. You are who you are not because of the surrounding and it’s many factors, but you are who you are because of the decisions you make.

-De Ming-

Throdded Pieces of Shattered Glass

2008-04-04T22:15:00.002+08:00

“Fine! I shall ask no questions and I will do it today, tomorrow, the day after tomorrow and forever!” I shouted. I turned away from her at that time and from the corner of my eye I saw her walking away. It was another argument this year. Another argument on such a silly and unimportant matter.

It has been three days since then, yet till this day I feel that the matter has not been resolved. I remember the times of laughter we used to have together, when we were Form 2 our ‘mangsa’ would be Ee Suen and we made up a story about the Furry Godmother who lives in an ataphouse with no electricity. When we were Form 3 our Furry Godmother was separated from us and thus a new target was selected out of forty over students, act cute girl, Low Xiau Fong. I remember sitting beside her one day and throwing stapler bullets into Xiau Fong’s hair, I also remember how we tried to hold back our laughs as Xiau Fong turned indignantly around at us. We failed in the end and at last I was found rolling on the floor while she had a stomach ache.

Moments spent bullying her still playback like a video in my mind. Shakeel was one of my bullying partner at that time and whenever anyone related to scouts walked into our class, the both of us would immediately scream, “SCOUT MEMBERS!” and soon the whole class was following our footsteps. Our bullying did not stop there and we soon gave her the name ‘Tolong’ once we criticized the scout’s tolong sign, (a few stones piled on each other). Other than Shakeel, Nicholas was also a big fan of our precious friend and during the elections for the head prefect, the both of us took an empty paper and wrote, “Vote for Quek as Head Prefect!” Around those words were covered with other words such as dedicated, beautiful, hot, sexy, committed, leader, motivated and etc. Till today her facial expression as she stepped into the class and caught sight of the paper is still stuck in my mind.

It was really fun then and even though we both faced tough times, I knew I had her by my side and I believe she felt the same. We used to sit there by the corner and we would talk about things ranging from scouts to monsters to friends to teachers and even to my hairstyle which she totally detests. Life was simple then and it was so much more worth living.

When the both of us stepped into Form fourhood, stress, pressure, homework, tuitions, co-curriculum slowly crept into our hearts and we can be described as rock climbing, but it was okay, we still had each other. We still talked about scouts and ex-monsters. It was still bearable and I will always feel grateful that I had such a person by me.

Morning of April 1^st was funny as I was fooled by her early in the morning. She told me she was in a good mood and it cheered me up a bit. But later that day I got pretty stressed up as I caught sight of all the things I did not know during Physics period and add on to the fact that I had to collect RM3 from every English Society member made me even grumpier. Then the button within me labeled explosive finally was pushed as I was given the task of telling the Form 4 Leo members that meeting was cancelled.

The rest of the details are not worth talking about, but in short I got upset and the argument was ended with the first sentence of this essay. I never meant what I said though, I never hated Leo, it was not true that I hated the job as the Form 4 Representative, it’s just that some times some things said in a certain way can be quite upsetting and so this was how I spent the worse April Fool in my life. The only April fool I did not bother to prank anyone.

The next day when I thought all would be forgotten, I was greatly disappointed as I was ignored by her for the first time in my life. That was when almost every aspect of me stopped functioning. I could not listen in class, I could not do my homework, and I did not know how to deal with this and would find people to comfort me. Sadly no one provided much of a comfort and I sat there in that miserable class sitting and walking around aimlessly, lonely. The moments spent at home were no better as I only had the mood to draw and stare into space. Life felt meaningless and empty. Cold.

The next day was no better and today was just the same cold silence, I knew not what to say, I knew not how to say that I missed her, I just felt hopeless and useless. There were times during duty or while walking alone, I would feel a sudden rush of emotion and would feel my eyes start to warm, but I held them all back. At times I feel like punching the wall till my hands bleed, at times I just needed people to talk to me and cheer me up, but all the time I wished things were back to normal. I wish I could hear her talk about scouts again, even her complains about how political prefects were seems good. I really miss having a true friend. I really hope that she’ll just talk to me and if all this cannot come true. Then I just hope that my heart can be operated out of me, because it hurts.

March 16 - The Day He Opened His Greatest Gift

2008-03-17T18:40:00.003+08:00

I threw myself against the sofa and lay there for a moment; I extended my hands to get hold of my toppled alarm clock. It was eleven fifty-two. Eight minutes until the end of my birthday. It was now eleven fifty-two on the sixteen of March. My birthday. It has been a normal day and if not for the constant wishes and the cake bought by my mother, it would not be anymore special then a normal day.

Yesterday was different though, yesterday we took a one hour drive from Petaling Jaya to Klang just to celebrate my birthday. It was probably the first time since such a long time when I had my cousins, aunty and uncle to celebrate my birthday with me. It was a nice meal and I truly feel grateful that they would be willing to take a five hour drive from Singapore north to KL just to celebrate my birthday.

As I sat there together with my family, a question suddenly popped up in my mind. Why should my family be celebrating my birthday? What is there to celebrate? The more I thought about it, the more troubled I became, this is my sixteenth birthday and this is the first time that this question ever came up to my mind. For truly, I have done nothing but waste their money, received their Christmas presents and made them upset.

If I were to be the one celebrating their birthdays, then they would truly deserve what they were receiving. I came back with no answer that day and I was rather withdrawn the whole night. It seems that my cousins were always the ones making the cards for us. It seems that it was my aunty and uncle who would always be the ones to take the 5-6 hours drive to be with us. It was never us. We never celebrated their birthdays. We never make cards for them. I realized that even my parents did not need to celebrate my birthday. What have I ever done to deserve this? Nothing what so ever.

As I sat on the sofa during the last few minutes of my birthday, I learned something. I learned that in the world there will always be things I can never understand. I learned that though all may fade away, though all things will disappear in time, my family will always be there. For I now understood what it is to be loved unconditionally. For I do not deserve the celebrations, the effort and the time they have given, but yet they have given me all that and more. This is unconditional love.

The next day, I woke up with a cheerful mood. I walked as usual to school at seven and I was greeted by Nadira, who gave me my first birthday present that day. Thank you Nadira for the key chain and that really nice card! I promise you that it’ll hang on my pencil box forever and ever! Thank you also for being there to chat with me during duty and for always being so cheerful and happy. Thank you Nadira!

The second gift I received was from my dear friend Nicholas, who pulled me to one side and gave me a shirt which was worn by the guy in Step Up 2 (Tyler, I think (I used to call myself Tyler when I was Form 1)). Thanks Nick for putting in that effort to search for this shirt. Thank you also for being so nice to me all this time and for accepting me for whom I am. I know I seldom say it, but I truly appreciate you for being who you are and for always being there for me. So thank you so much!

The third one was on my desk after I did some paper pulling charity for Shing Queen. It was wrapped in green, which was chosen purposely to match my prefect shirt. There was a note with a green(!) pick there too and I would like to respond to some of the things that were written there. The first was that my life did improve and I did find it more meaningful, but one of the reasons is because I have such great friends and you Miss Quek Xia Shuen are one of those that I truly treasure. Though you may say that I do not seem to need you anymore, but on the contrary you are of the few people who could actually turn a gloomy day to a happy day by just being there for me.

I opened the gift only after a certain someone kept begging me to open it so that she will be sure that it fit my size. Okay, let’s pause for a while. By now you would be thinking that it is a shirt, but my friend you are wrong! It’s a slipper! One with a cute ninja guy on! The only problem Xia Shuen is now I’m afraid to wear it, it’s just too precious! Thank you so much!

The forth was by the person who shares the same birthday as me. Yes, you are right, Hui Ting! Although she tried to cover the picture on the box with papers, yet I guessed rightly that it was a cross about the footsteps on the sand (thank goodness I did not get that one for you too Hui Ting!) Okay, before we continue, let us have a history lesson. I remember four years ago, I met this monitor of mine, who was really someone I wanted to get closer too. Therefore I tried, but things turned out not too well and we ended up having our backs against each other. But the next year, we got back together as friends and lived happily, but not ever after for we argued once again and thus we came back and were cold towards each other again and again. Until today, (today is one of those happier days). So my wish for us is that our friendship will have a stronger foundation and will last forever and ever, happily ever after. Thank you Hui Ting.

The fifth present was from my smiley friend, Ying Jia. =). She gave me a really nice and special card. It was hand made! I wish I was as talented as her… Anyways, I really appreciated all the time spent together last year as we studied for PMR and I also really appreciate the card that you specially made for me. She told me the next day that it took her the whole day to make this card, which meant that a girl spent the whole day thinking about me! Like I always believe Ying Jia, it is the thoughts that count! So touching… Thank you!

The sixth is Kam Wei whom I have forgiven for letting his dog bite my leg (it is still blue black). The best thing is that he actually went to buy the present in front of me and even asked me whether out of two, which I would prefer. The worst part was that I never even thought that it could be for me! Thank you so much Kam Wei! Do not let the dog near me anymore. It was a comedy comic book by the way.

It was during Malay period, when something within me decided to check my bag for no reason and when I did, I found my seventh present for the day. Given by… Oi? There was no name. Well it was also a comic book and I made a guess that it was given by a person named Han Sheng Ting whose birthday falls one day after mine. My guess was right. Thank you man! Thank you also for all the time your Mom has sent me up and down from tuition!

That night as I was flipping through my notebook, the small note fell out and I realised what all the whispering about "Has he found it?" about. It was a simple, yet it made me feel really appreciated. So thank you Pei Qi and Po Yee (Po Ki)! I forgive you! Thank you Po Yee for always helping me out in accounts and for making the class really much more fun! Thank you Pei Qi for always being there to encourage me and thank you for all the times I have copied your answers!

The next day after a long period spent in the Chemistry lab, Ee Suen came over and she passed me a plastic bag with this guitar-bird clip. I really appreciate your effort to finding something related to guitar since that you know my first wife is my guitar!

My ninth gift was from Syn-Na our Smelly Rhino who is in hot battle with Green Duck for being 4 Budi's Mascot! She gave me a bar of Roast Almond chocolate! I like chocolates! Thank you Syn-Na for always being there to chat with in class and for willing to be my husband! (Limah/ Fatimah)

The tenth and the last one was the gift I treasured the most. It was a gift that was always there and yet I never once opened it. This gift, is the great gift of the great people around me, the people who stood with me, who chatted with me, who took photos with me, who laughed with me and lay gloomily with me, the people who were there and always ready to listen to me. I know that I do not deserve all that I have received, I know I’ve made many of you upset, I know I’ve hurt many of you, I know that at times I can be really stubborn and I also know that although I am all these and more, all of you were still there to be by my side. So thank you so much for being my friends and thank you to my family for being such great people. Thank you God for the ninth and my favourite gift.