Saturday
And so someone finally decided to take the initiative to organize a 6M primary school reunion and no the person was'nt me, it wasn't any of the boys in 6M and no we're not ashamed of ourselves for not doing so or maybe just a little. I would like to thank our old classmate Eelyn for that. The venue: Seoul Garden, Gurney Plaza. Somehow most gatherings are held at Seoul Garden. hmmmm..... The last time I had lunch there, it cost me RM19.90 and now suddenly, just because its a Saturday, the price nearly doubled. There were 3 tables booked for us altogether. One was an all males table, another all female table and lastly the "mixed" table. Most of the boys and girls were still shy. Level of communication was way low. I was expecting all of us to be mingling freely as it should be in a reunion. Yeah we were shy. But, I did succeed in overcoming the shyness in me though not totally ;). And do accept my sincere apologies Ms Agnes as I have yet again failed to recognize you( you have to understand you did not have hazel brown eyes at the start of the year;) )

I would say most of my male classmates were really shy too as was I initially. My mum would say typical Chung Ling boys. Yeah, I find that to be really true. Most Chung Ling boys just dont seem to be able to communicate well with the opposite sex. Yes, I have to admit that. I have seen a lot of such cases though there are,few, of those who interact really well and in some cases "exceptionally" well with girls;)

For most of the Chung Ling boys I realized, are not a friendly lot. There was this instance where a Malay girl about the same age as me tried to initiate a conversation with one of my schoolmate by asking him his age and school but he turned away, not answering the question. He turned to another friend and told him the Malay girl was nuts talking to him when she doesnt really know him at all. Come on, we are all students of the same class of a driving school. And mind you, that isnt the only case I have witnessed. In some cases, i also tend to feel that Chung Ling students regardless of their age tend to be slightly snobbish and most of the time even arrogant if u, one can really smell the air of "confidence" or should I say gigantic ego and pride carried around with them. Hence, they feel they are of an upper class which of course I do not agree. Yes there are such people. But, no I am not condemning the school. It's a fact. However, pls be advised that NOT ALL Chung Ling students are as such. There are the gentlemen, the knights in shining armor who may gallop into ur everyday life once a while ---- and by that I am referring to the writer of this blog- ME. (sticks tongue out) ;) vanity perhaps )

after lunch, a group photo was taken at the foyer of Gurney Plaza and some of us went to watch the Day the Earth stood still. Nice movie I must say, though it maybe short (1.5 hours) for RM 10. It's practically about us human beings being green criminals and villains. Nice show once again. Dont miss it!

" A friend in need is a true friend indeed."
Sometimes, one just finds a true friend even thru small events that occur.
Hence, special thanks to my dear friend Yee Hau for giving me a lift home. If not for Yee Hau, I would've been squatting along Gurney Drive for 2 hours till 8.45pm waiting for the T304 Rapid Penang bus which is so EFFICIENT by the way even after the complaints made! Indeed, a true friend who comes to save me ,in not a shining armor but a Harrier, shall be cherished. You have my gratitude, Mr Entao Leow!

Sunday
StarWalk!! Arghh! The bozo wakes up early, gets dressed and heads out to Penang International Sports Arena (PISA) with his family at 6.15am. The crowd was big as usual. Though I have to say, the Starwalk this year was badly organized. Most of the participants were told to gather before the finishing line and so we, as obedient citizens did. The finishing line was far apart from the starting point where the governor was supposed to flag off the race and people were sardine-packed behind the finishing line. And, the next thing we knew, a faint sound of a gunshot was heard and far in front of us, the other participants who were far in front at the starting point started off and we seeing that, wrestled out of the crowd and followed. Hence, it can be said that it was really unfair for all of us behind the finishing line as we were told to do so. Most of the people were also in the mist. We were told to gather there and the marshals would instruct us to go forward to the starting point when the time came. Hence, when i arrived after the long walk, there was a group of veteran athletes voicing out their dissatisfaction over the issue and some complained to the marshals. But what can they do?

The next thing that I can really laugh at, yet get exasperated at was the attitude of some of the participants in the competition category which I am in. Children, teenagers and fully grown adults cheated. Yeah they were not supposed to run and yet they did. This is Starwalk ar Uncle not Starrun. Come onlah you pay and come for a competition like this and you want to cheat ar. Aiyo sia suilah begini. Memang ada 13-17 year old boys who refuse to obey the rules so that they may be able to get a prize. But Adults doing that???? Come onlah! That is unacceptable and yes they do know that they should not run. It wasnt their first time because they knew that the marshals stationed along the route would take their numbers down if they did run and not walk and disqualify them. So, the participants this year got more cunning and sly, they no longer needed to look back and forth the route to ensure that no marshal was looking while they ran., they simply took off their numbers pinned behind and in front of their Tshirt and so the marshals could not disqualify them as there were no numbers to identify who they were. One of them had their numbers in hand and pinned them back on when they were about to reach the finishing line. Come onlah, have sportsmanshiplah. Pathetic man! They are not only making a fool out of themselves but also, depriving other adults from what they deserve.

One particular case impressed me the most. 2 men in their 40s jogged passed me(yes its against the rules) but what they did was extraordinary and was definitely for the good of their family. They obtain the wristbands for their family members which must be worn by every participant. Then, the event started and they jogged happily with their bulging biceps and triceps, till they reached nearly half the route where their wives and kids were waiting for him on the opposite side of the road. They crossed over to receive the wristbands from their amazing fathers and started walking when we as obedient participants with principles and sportsmanship can only look on as our muscles start to ache after walking thru 5km of hell(no it wasnt that bad) . That's just outright cheating. Yes, even if they did win, what is there to be proud of? As a father, he thinks he's doing his job , but is he??? What he does not realize is he's instilling the value of cheating, the value of doing whatever it takes to get to the top in his sons and daughters. It's a disgrace. Of course, I happen to see one of my Chung Ling schoolmates doing things like that too. Pathetic.

This year, my inspiration came from a 70 odd years old uncle who walked along side me for part of the journey and yes soon he was far ahead of me already. He too condemned those mentioned above. I followed his pace, his rythm whenever I could spot him. He's fast, real fast for some one his age. Thats why he has my salutations and respect.

Then came the lucky draw, long awaited by the 13,000 participants. As the value of the prizes grew bigger and bigger as mentioned by the emcee, the patience of the people grew thinner and thinner. Furthermore among the lucky numbers chosen, there were instances where numbers like 09921, 09922, 09923, 09924, 09925 and even 09929 were kinda "coincidentally" picked and that is not the only case. However for those having the numbers from03000 till 04000 and 06000 till 07000 had no luck at all as not one number was selected for these two thousand unfortunate people. Well, what the heck, yes I do want the Suzuki motorbikes but well whats not yours isnt urs then. Of course we met all kinds of people there. There were also those inconsiderate enough who will take ur newspaper even knowing that its urs while u read the Sunday section and place the main section of the papers right beside u after reading it without asking. There are also those who would stand in front of a whole group of audience , blocking everyones vision and yet throw tantrums and refuse to move away even when told nicely to do so. It's really hard to believe how such people can have such "thick skins" as the Hokkiens would call it.

P/S :The photos will be uploaded as soon as possible once i get it from dear Eugene.

Signing off, really tired. :)

A fruitful weekend

Arghhhh! They got my name, address, message for my friends and school all wrong in my graduation magazine and I am well, utterly disappointed with it. I am curious how can they get my name wrong and add another no 4 to my address and yet again get my personal message wrong whereas there were no mistakes for my other schoolmates. Come on, this is a a once in a life time graduation magazine. Dont they do proofreading? Well i am sure they do but why me only??????

Well what the hecklah! Anyway, whats more important is that I have spent a more than fruitful weekend.

Saturday
Woke up early on Saturday. Yes as early as 5am to accompany my sis and parents to Campbell street Market for the Opera Pasar performance. I have to say, it was a really great performance. The dim sum scene, the berus gigi chant, fantastic, graceful and really cute and chubby dancers... all add up to make this musical production a unique one. Basically, their message was to save and preserve this historical Campbell street market. The crowd was supportive and yes AAK came out on the Star Metro again! However, I feel that we really need to have a large reusable banner which says something like " this is a AAK presentation. " as sort of a publicity strategy and hang it up as a backdrop for every AAK performance.

Next , my father and I went over to Khoo Kongsi and boy, there were waves and waves of tourists coming in and in. We did not need to pay for we were clansmen and my father went on with his research on Khoo Kongsi. I have to say, my father is now really crazy over his research work on Khoo Kongsi that he works till early mornings to complete his Indiana Jones- like journal.
AAK in ACTION!

Sir Francis Khoo

Sunday
woke up late having watched Friends on the net till 2 .30 am the previous night. Headed for breakfast- Hokkien mee along Beach Street ( it was good. recommended) and for Little Penang Street Market where the next performance was to be held. Helped set up the AAK booth with Siew Bee and Li Fen where paintings, sketches and calendars done by children and students during the arts workshop were displayed and sold. I must say I was quite impressed with the fact that Penangites and tourists alike have become more aware of supportive of Little Penang. The crowd was arousing. Opera Pasar was to be the first performance and the audience LOVED it. Then, right after the show, an announcement was made and me and my team went in ----- to sell the handpainted-scanned-reprinted AAK calendars to the audience. Zhao Wei and I sold quite a number of calendars ( which surprised me ) to the very supportive crowd along with our other "competitors" : Pei Shan, Siew Bee , my mum, dad, and Jens team.

Lepas tu, pergi Padang have Lok Lok. Went back, slept ,had dinner, studied my undang and update this blog
Attention ladies : Check out the boy with the muscles, no not the one with the cap



Trying our luck
And here he is AGAIN!!!!

And please do check out the video below.

Thanks to Izatti, Muhammad & Hui Hui, i will be able to share these priceless photos from camp with u guys. Enjoy!

Once again,

Ombak Ombak ARTStudio

presents

A WORKSHOP SHOWCASE

by Anak Anak Kota

Opera Pasar

Uncle aunty kenapa pi pasar?

Sayur ikan ayam semua murah dan segar

Semua harga dapat ditawar menawar

Dekat rumah jimat minyak jimat masa.

Campbell Street Market; Pasar Hutan Mayat; Sin Keh Tau - Letʼs preserve the market!

A twenty- minute musical and dance performance depicting the rhythms, movements, and sounds of the market.

Based on oral interviews, the young performers chant about the lives of the chicken, vegetable, mutton and tim sum traders;

and sing of the history and festivities in the market.

Artists involved :

Tan Sooi Beng (Music ), Ho Sheau Fung ( Drama), Aida Redza ( Movement ) & Toh Lai Chee ( Music )

Finally ... an update on our graduation

haizzz. its finally the end. not a happy ending though... chinese...est...biology......
well what the heck! its over! i just cant really imagine myself reaching the end of my school life just like that, i'll never get or should i say need to wear school uniforms... that feels really odd and kinda scary. It's all too fast.

So, yeah, on the graduation ceremony or smg. Well, I was quite nervous abt giving the speech. well i managed to pull through, at least i did not peed in my pants or lose my voice at the podium. Then, the prize presentation ceremony followed. Before I gave my speech, only then did I get to know that I had miraculously won myself the "outstanding graduate" no, not the most outstanding of course. But wow! I was really shocked, astonished. What???? Me?? an "outstanding" graduate? Well I was wrong then and thankfully i did apply for the award. I just wanted to give it a try with no intention of winning anything and also yes, for the interview experience. I went in there, prepared not to get it, cracked a few jokes, answered everything the HM, Mr Yeap, Mr Lye, Mr Chua, Pn Chan and Mr Cheah threw at me. Well they asked and I told them why I did not hold any high posts in school and all. Well, I never knew the school acknowledged outside-of-school activities.

Hence, in conclusion, SMJK Chung Ling DOES support such community and outofschool activities, its just that most of the students themselves arent interested and as proactive themselves. Haha. Janet was so wrong then.I believe the main factor would be their parents. Most parents nowadays really have a knack at pushing their children to their toes in terms of academics and protecting their children in cocoons.

So, back to the graduation ceremony...
And then came the outstanding student award presentation, I was really astonished and grateful to be able to allow my parents to accompany me up stage for the award presentation. My parents were also really really shocked..Haha. Indeed my parents were in fact the reason why I could've won this. Thanks to my parents punya open mind and really creative way of educating me.
really thanks dad thanks mum!

Not only that, i would also like to really thank my friends and classmates for being A friend to me and gave me the support I needed.
Thank you! I really felt really touched when Xiang Yih and Dee Sheng decided to make me my very own (ok i m not being vain, this is what they wrote) " Teng Shin NO1 " on a really large card Xiang Yih bought and my classmates held it up for a moment when I was about to give the speech before it was confiscated by Pn Chong Sim. I have been trying to see her to get the card back but now that its the holidays, shes not in school no more. I do hope she did not throw that away. Thank you Xiang Yih, thank you Dee Sheng, thank you 5SA5!!!

Of course, I would also like to thank my teachers.
Mr Ch'ng Chin Huat - our adorable and respected Add Maths sir who is also a very caring teacher and great teacher advisor to the School Action Board.
Pn Oon - my caring form teacher and really creative teacher
Pn Kang Kul Lee - our really dedicated BM teacher who gave me the honour of representing all students for the speech
of course Mrs Goh - our best chemistry teacher ever
Pn Wong - the very supportive though strict disciplinarian sejarah teacher
Pn Ooi - our bc teacher
Pn Kong- our f4 bc teacher
Mr Lim - our cool entao really dedicated Bio guru who makes his own notes
Pn Poh Chai See- though our class was really noisy and even made u cry haha
Mr Ong - P.moral guru who makes his moral lessons a fun jolly lesson

oh yeah n the photos will be updated in the next post...as i m still collecting them

My sister goes to quite a famous and so-called prestigious Chinese Girls High School in Penang (I think you know which school I am referring to) and recently she was penalized, not for having long fingernails, not for disobeying the teacher but for.. what I believe is the most outrageous thing ever........ for bringing the READERS DIGEST magazine to school!Marks were deducted from the stupid blue book. Imagine that! I am not saying this just because this happened to my sister but I feel it's just total crap! Its not that she brought Vogue or Feminine or some so-called bahan picisan. In fact, Readers Digest gives me more than what I can ask for from freaking textbooks!

It was a spot check conducted by the prefects and the disicipline teacher just would not admit and she kept on stressing on the point " Its black n white! We go law by LAW! You have to folllllllow the school rules. The school rules have clearly stated that no magazines are to be brought to school without obtaining the approval and a special " Permit or slip" .

Damn those rules.

We set the rules. We dont simply go by the rules blindly. Stop acting a kid for goodness sake! According to the rules, students would have to go see the English teacher every morning just to obtain a slip so that one can read the READERS DIGEST in class. How absurd! How can you instill reading habit in students if such rules and most importantly such stubborn disicipline boards still exist?

The Exams

Haihzzz. Its 3 days to the end of the prelude to another ordeal. It's hard to imagine. Time does zip past so quickly. SIghs n whines. At the start of the year, I told myself yes I have to PIA have to put in more effort in my studies. This is the SPM year. I am about to face one of the most important exams in my life. That was January. I looked at the calendar- 330 odd more days to SPM. What the heck! I keep giving myself excuses like Everyone's gotta play. All study n no play makes tshin a dull boy.......... In the end, all play n no work. Regrets & full of remorse. Now, the trials is almost close to its end. I look back at what I've done this year and I feel even more dissatisfied with myself. The trials has really burned away all my mental calories. I am mentally exhausted. I wonder how long will it take for me to regain control. That's probably why I have not being updating this for quite some time.

Nevertheless, my boredom was fast diminished as the political atmosphere here in Malaysia gets really tense or foul once again. Immaturity of some of the so-called community leaders and politicians surfaces yet again. Get a few brainless vociferous degenerates, a few courageous reporters and a few more dopes of blurness n desperateness armed with a shield of draconian law and you get what you get today in Malaysia not to mention the anticipation for change in this country.

Now, one place I would really love to be is where I was 3 months ago- on a slow moving wooden boat overlooking the vast ,perfectly beautiful skies ever with shades of blue, red, yellow and green, listening to the orchestra of the wild, the humming of the small electric motor, the splashing of the brownish yellow water of the Kinabatangan, and of course at intervals, mesmerized while peeping through a friend's binoculars to get a closer look of the almost perfect
2 π r square round red asses of the endangered male Proboscis monkey giving us a funny
face as he mates with his 7th or maybe 18th concubine on a tree branch overlooking us as he does his thing while we watch.

I still recall falling in love with that forest and I still long to just allow one's self to be amazed by how truly mesmerizing nature can be, and not through the pathetic KBSM Textbooks which tells us to love the forest and more bullshit where we will have to regurgitate that out in the SPM

I have not updated my blog for quite sometime, obviously but nevertheless, here's a brief post before the trials in 3 days time.

Penumpang- penumpang konnonya. takda banyak komen lagi.