Bizarro #2

Like I said, bizarre things always happen to me.

This time it involved the four-legged furry "man's best-friend".

It started with me going about my own business when suddenly a shaggy stray-looking-but-has-a-collar dog barked at me, which freaked me out a bit.

See, a while back ago, I got bitten by a pup when I was out running and had to get a jab for that. Since then, I tend to get wary of dogs whenever I'm doing my daily rounds.

So anyway, back to that shaggy mutt which barked at me, and I slowed down (because it's never a good idea to run from dogs, it just encourages them to chase you and I always imagine them pouncing on me) and tried to not make any "sudden movements".

The mutt trotted beside me, which got me a tad uneasy, and then after awhile, went off farther in front and started sniffing at random things. I felt relieved: "the dog was bored of me" -- then it stopped, turned around, looked at me, waited for me to 'catch-up' and then trotted next to me again! It went on for a while, then another dog came and took its place and that went on for a bit too!

So.

I had dog body-guards while I was out running today.

This is so weird.


I swear it's not a New Moon wolf-pack parody,

Of Girlfriends

Apart from the fact that I spent the whole day writing up my research paper, I was involved in this extremely long, non-work related email chain.


Distant wedding bells are very exciting :) Girls also get very excited over wedding plans.

Congratulations Yen Chiew and Boon Tatt!!!

Happy for the happy couple,

Bizarro

I would have to say it here:

Bizarre things happen to me.

Okay, first I have to blame Maxis for recycling phone numbers.

I mean, what the heck. I was just calling an alternate number, I wouldn't expect the phone to be picked up by some other person.

"Salah nombor, sorry," I said.

Just my luck, the person on the other end of line turns out to be some persistent psycho who can't seem to grasp the fact that sometimes people do call the wrong number.

Usually I get pestered by people calling over and over again to ask for some other unknown person and just don't get it that they are calling the wrong number.

This time, the other person kept calling, pestering me as to who am I. Come on, I'm not going to explain myself to some stranger.

And the person was relentless! Even up till the next morning she called to demand an explanation! Like wtf, it was just a wrong number, get over it. And calling me early in the morning when I'm asleep for something as idiotic as this is not going to garner a very nice respond from me. I even had problems understanding what she was saying, so I just said "Yea, salah nombor, bye." and hung up.

Then I got a text from the psycho in Malay and in abbreviations which I don't get (isn't that annoying? I get annoyed when people abbreviate words in texts and their abbreviations make no sense) which I think the gist of it was to reprimand me for being "rude".

What the.

Why do I attract the weirdest people?


Gah. Stupid Tuesday.

Freaky Friday

Freaky is when I completely lose focus on work and decided to see how I'd look with different hairstyles. Which lead me to FaceInHole.com, and hence the silly pics I created.

Hello Alex Pettyfer! This is such a prom pic.

Owh, new scandal on the streets with Taylor Lautner!

Didn't know the Weasleys have an Asian-hippie sister..

And last but not least, Paul Wesley! I reckon I don't look too odd here :)

Yes, laugh your asses off peeps.

Have a blessed weekend,

Drama Hari Ini

(translation: Today's Drama)

So we were sitting in Secret Recipe having cake (which I have been craving but was quite disappointing 'cos it kinda sucked) and then from the corner of my eye, I saw some people running by.

Then I saw this cleaning lady who was acting overly-dramatic so I was trying to deduce what happened from her hand gestures, body language, and facial expressions. I kinda thought she witnessed a snatch-theft.

A while later a bunch of security guards walked by leading a guy among them and the guy was handcuffed! Talk about drama. But there weren't any handbags or stuff in their midst. So I guess my deduction was wrong.

When we left and went to the other side we realised apparently that was where the action took place. An area was fenced off like a "crime scene": tables and chairs were toppled, plates and stuff were broken, blood drops on the floor. It was a mess.

Turned out there was a fight. Amazing. Too bad I didn't get to see the whole thing although it would have been pretty scary.

Random things happen to me, in random places like 1Borneo.

Random things.

Regarding random things, I have been talking about the same topic to several different people recently. I reckon student life is good when you are in your undergrad years. As a graduate student, it sort of dwindles into a dull humdrum with time because there are less peers around for one thing, and personally, I feel a tad aimless.

I know the M.Sc is like this main aim thingie, but I sort of miss the crazy stressful days of juggling deadlines, exams, assignments, and classes. And among all that there's still time to goof off. Those crazy deadlines sure gave one a purpose to fulfill. I loved the pressure and checking things off the list.

It kinda suck now that even when I go running I don't run into people I know.

Gawd. I need to finish up and get out of here!

Still a lucky charm,

The Obsession

I think this is getting a bit out of hand, no?

If the world is coming to an end...

...and you have 1 billion Euro.

What would you do?

I still think I would choose to die in some unknown time, although the thought of being one of the first people in humanity to be in the Year 0001 and seeing Pangaea again is a little tempting.

But I still think I would choose to die with my loved ones.

And if 2012 is for real, I am going to just quit everything I'm doing now, renew my passport and travel the world on foot. See the sights before the end. Spend quality time with loved ones before the end.

Shag some hot guy before the end ;)

The movie was awesome. What can I say? Hot Russian personal bodyguard/pilot, Hot Tibetan monk :) But I reckon it is scary and fascinating at the same time to see the disasters.


I cried so many times during the movie though. Damn emotions.

Ever yours,

13 Nov 2009

Housemates are going back to West Malaysia for a week! I want to go home too!

Shut up, Li Ying. Go do your work.

But.

FOCUS. You went back last month, for a week, you idiot.

Damn. I should finish up my work and paper, look for conferences to attend so that I can go back more often.

What the heck.

Soliloquoy or a symptom of cabin fever?

I can't believe I'm almost reaching the end of my second semester. I've been a graduate student for almost a year. Time goes by fast when I am spending my time driving across the state, sitting in boats for hours in the hot sun and heavy rain, working from 5am to 10pm, on weekends..yearning for 'civilised comforts'. Man, I miss those days.

It sucks having to plug through all the data now and reading journals. I'm bored staring at the laptop everyday. An exceptional downward plunge especially after the crazy foray in Europe.

Gah. I'm going out for my run now. I need endorphins and the outdoors.


Pray crazy rain in hot sun doesn't happen,

30 Dec 2008

I came across this old entry in my journal and thought it is a good one to put up. Since there was a tonne of 'journalistic-vacation-events-going places' entries, here's an emotional one for a change.

I think one of the most important grounds to stand firm on is Loving Yourself. Regardless of religion, rituals, superstitions, or beliefs, I think it is how you perceive yourself and everything around you that counts.

It pretty much suck to take a whammy to the emotional-self, lose all the confidence and self-esteem, and have someone else rob you entirely of everything you wanted, got, or almost close to getting -- but lost.

But then again, it also meant how great you were once upon a time, to have people wanting to be you and taking what you had. That being complimented, the self-depreciating has got to stop; and instead, you rise again for something much better.

You don't know how good something is until you lose it. Similarly, you don't know that you deserve something better, are destined for something better, until you have lost the old, moved on, and discover the new.

I come up with really good and sensible advice sometimes.

It's high time I start paying attention to them myself :)


Almost a year ago,

Amsterdam Day 5 (?!?!?) : The Finale

11th ~ 12th October 2009

I. Wanna. Go. Home.

Regardless of the amount of "I don't wanna go back" I've said the day before.

O.M.G.

This is an entry with 2 photos and a whole load of words because it is definitely a tale to tell.

Let's start with Summary #1: Our flight got bloody delayed!

So we were all being reluctant and what not, doing as many 'lasts' as we can, then we headed to the airport and began our VERY LONG wait for our flight back to Kuala Lumpur. Being in a flight going back to Malaysia, one can expect at least half of the flight being Malaysians. And Malaysians being who they are and wanting to go home, some of them tend to get a tad too angry.

What happened to our KLM flight was that the aircraft got struck by lightning while sitting on the tarmac. Honestly, looking back, I really didn't mind what happened to me. Everything was better than being struck by lightning in mid-air or when we were already in the plane.

After some time, KLM got a substitute carrier, but a smaller one, thus about 100-over people were denied boarding that night. They did a very funny system though. Random lottery whereby you go up to the boarding gate, slip your boarding pass into this machine thingie and if it's a green light, good for you. I got a RED.

Which leads to Summary #2: I bloody got delayed 24 hours!

Lawson and I were both denied boarding that night. No matter how much I pleaded with them we weren't entertained. So instead of getting even more tizzied I finally gave up and accepted the fact that we were indeed going to spend another night in Amsterdam, trudged over to another counter and got our hotel vouchers and stuff.

The others got on the flight, but since it took off about 3 to 4 hours later, they arrived late, and all of our tickets from Kuala Lumpur to Kota Kinabalu were gone.

Back in Amsterdam. Lawson and I had to wait for the shuttle bus to the hotel from Schiphol at midnight, outside, in the cold, and it was raining. We were told that they'll put us on a MAS flight at noon.

The next morning, we went down to breakfast and this nice lady working in the restaurant that looks like a cafeteria said to me "Your lunch will be from 1 to 2 pm" and I was like "Erm...I don't think we're staying for lunch" and she said one of the most jaw-dropping thing at that moment: "Didn't you know? Your flight has been delayed again."

O.M.G.

Hence my summary of 24 hours. Basically KLM put us into their flight that night which is the same time as the flight we were supposed to go in (if the plane wasn't struck by lightning) the night before.

So we had another meal in Schiphol Ibis Hotel. What was good was that our extra night and meals were covered by KLM. Also a meal in the airport as we were given €10 voucher. Even checking in had a glitch. They didn't have Lawson in the record so he didn't have a boarding pass. That took another bit of time to deal with.

In the end, yes we got on the 8.55pm flight from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur. Yes, it took off on time. But guess what? Our luggage were already in Malaysia at that time. Yes, my luggage got on the previous night's flight and I didn't. Which is actually a very wrong thing to do on KLM's part.

Some time in the air, I had another one of my firsts (and hopefully never again): I blacked out while waiting for my turn to use the loo. I was standing, waiting, leaning against the wall, and the next thing I know I was on the cabin floor and the stewardess was next to me asking me if I'm okay in a worried voice.

Fine. I fainted twice. That's embarassing. It happened a short while after I stood up from the first one. So they actually made me sit at the back of the plane and paged for a doctor on board.

Embarassing. So not me.

Overall, the hold-up wasn't so bad. Sure, it was tiresome and exhausting, not to mention disgusting as we had only the clothes on our backs; and it wasn't like we got to enjoy Amsterdam one extra day. But, I had a good excuse to go home instead of flying back to KK and stayed back for a week. I came back with a tale to tell.

Oh, and I met a local celebrity :) Chua Boon Huat, national hockey player, was on the same flight and disposition as I was. He was on his way back home from Austria. I sorta chatted with him while we were waiting at the receptionist, and although it was kind of an odd situation, I got a photo with him!

After 12 hours in the plane, 3 hours running around the airport trying to get a ticket for Lawson to get back to KK, another 3.5 hours in the bus, I got home to Ipoh safely. Ipoh. It's so good to be HOME.

Sometimes, things happen in the oddest way, and when you look back at them, it wasn't so bad after all.

And I guess I have come to the finale of my story. The Tale of My First European Adventure. Next destination: Barcelona!!!

I'll work on that.

Update: Just so you know what you should get if you are ever this unfortunate, check for compensations for flight delays/denied boarding. I called up KLM as I found out that my predicament entitles me to a choice of compensations. I opted for cash -- €600. That's about RM 3,050 -- which is A LOT.

The End.

Amsterdam Day 4: It's Time to Say Goodbye

11th October 2009

A day of lasts.

Last bagel.
Last beans.

Last waffle.
Last canal watching.
Last walk.

Last window-looking.

Last buying of stuff :)
Got two tops and a pair of pants from H&M for €9 each!
Got a bottle of Salvatore Ferragamo's Incanto Shine for €15!

Last elephant.

Last time to have fun at the park in front of Concert Gebouw.

Crazy shots coming up:

S.I.F.E.

A shot with the guys from our hostel.

Amsterdam, we ♥ you!


I'm gonna miss this place.

Vaarwel Amsterdam,

Amsterdam Day 3: Sane Day Crazy Night

10th October 2009

This morning we decided to return the bikes and depend on our more trustworthy feet. See, with walking, the worst and most embarassing thing that could happen is that you get run down by a bicycle. It was a drizzly misty morning, perfect for walking with hands in the pockets.

We decided to walk to Waterlooplein for breakfast again, but somehow, although we went there the day before, we kind of got lost again and ended up walking through University of Amsterdam (and again, I am tempted to switch universities).


Guess what we got for breakfast again?

You got it ;) And aside from good food and delicious drinks, there are hot people to look out for too!


To the guy sitting behind, "Oh JA, I would love to go out with you!" :)

Amsterdam is another beautiful city to walk around. I love the small roads and the bridges over the canals, the tall skinny buildings, and the countless bicycles tied to every unmovable thing.

We went to the Flower Market which is a long stretch of road with stalls selling flowers and gardening goodies on one side, and souvenir shops by the bulk on the other. It took us awhile to get from one end to the other as we kept getting distracted by stuff.

Two lips for tulips

They were selling marijuana seeds, 3 cans for €10

That night we headed to the infamous must-see: The Red Light District. Thank goodness for Francoise's friends who are working and living in Amsterdam, otherwise we would have gotten terribly lost in the crowd. There were masses of people, everyone just heads there to see the infamous windows.

The RLD is a kind of a 'camera-sensitive' zone so I didn't take many shots here. My first attempt of a photo of the windows was to pretend to take pictures of the swans. I actually felt sorry for the girls. There were so many of them and basically everyone walks by and look at them as if they were exhibits in some museum. And of course if you were willing to pay, "Live Shows". We paid €2 to see a lame peepshow though. Most traumatic and hilarious few minutes.


The canals look lovely at night though.

Last night in Amsterdam, and Europe as a whole!

Oh no!

Amsterdam Day 2: Traffic Hazards

9th October 2009

On our first official full day in the city, three of us decided to rent bicycles for the day and join the countless cyclists in the city. As opposed to what I have imagined (i.e. looking really cool, enjoyable, etc) I reckon cycling in a city is a nerve-wrecking experience :) I wouldn't say I didn't enjoy it. Fun? Definitely.

We started the day by walking to the bike rental shop and then cycled to Waterlooplein for the flea market. It was here that we found one of our many loves in Amsterdam ~ Bagels & Beans and from that day forth, B&Beans is a must-have for breakfast!

On our way there, however, we kind of got lost and took in some sightseeing instead. Unfortunately the Royal Palace was under maintenance so we didn't get to see it in its full glory.

The National Monument

Waterlooplein Markt is a flea market that sells not very cheap (compared to our pasar malams here) but a myriad of stuff: clothing and bags from Nepal, statement t-shirs galore, used shoes, antiques (including an incredibly primitive looking laptop). It's funny when things like 'laptops' can fall into the 'antiques' category.

After our romp in the market, Francoise and I decided to trade our modes of transportation. She took my bike while I took her Canal Bus day pass and went on a short tour of a part of Amsterdam through the canals.

The famous Carré Theater, and the watergates

We spent the rest of the afternoon in Museumplein, hanging around the museums, the museum shop, the little snack kiosks outside (which serves one of the yummiest hotdogs and waffles), and cycling around the park with the elephants.

Francoise left for Den Haag that evening and before dinner, we went to Vondelspark, Amsterdams's central park, with what else, our bicycles :) Hey, it's already paid for, we have to make the most of it.

So that's one day's worth of being traffic hazards to the good people of Amsterdam. It was fun while it lasted. But the butt aches that came with it wasn't fun and lasted even longer. And of course I left out a certain tale about a fall in front of a café which gave the patrons and workers there a good shock :)

No, it wasn't me who fell.