Hppy New Yr

Hello~ So far the holiday's been awesome here in the land of the northern englnd. May write about it later.. Just a quick shout out. Happy 23rd to Frh on the 30th of dec. I know I wished u all n that already but let's make it official here hehe.. Wishing u all the best in life.. May u be blessed with health and longevity :). And yeah, I'd like to wish everyone a very happy new yr.. Hopefully 2008 will turn out to be a good year to fulfill our new yr's resolutions.. I guess that's all for now..

Treat n Hunt

The Treat

Last Fri Lh treated us to a buffet lunch at Sson's. It was nice. Coz we had the whole place to ourselves! Nobody else, just us.. By that I don't mean literally ok. We were the only customers. Not that the place 'nda laku,' just that everyone has gone back and we were the only ones left. I came in later after the Fri prayers so by that time everyone had gone back. Lh got another b'day cake surprise. After lunch, we roamed the mall and went to the arcade to belt out songs at the kbox. Each of us had our turns.. Haha, cali2.. Then as if we havn't had enough, we started to play the thing yg main lumpat2 takan2 pakai kaki (til now i dunno wat u call it) and later the drum (this one was tough!). It was a good outing. Thnx Lh for the treat.

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The Hunt

Ystrday was the W-A-Hunt. Frh and myslf was team 69 (nice number huh?). The hunt took place this time at two diff locations, the yyasan n the Mall. So transportation was really necessary. We decided to make an alliance wt some other teams thinking that if we could share our answers, it would save more time in deciphering the clues. Although we were not supposed to, ppl tend not to care, coz everybody else was doing it. Haha. It got me thinking, the bigger your alliance, the more brains thus increased chances of winning. Anyway, the questions were pretty tough but proudly to say both Frh n myslf managed to figure some of the riddles! Haha.. Oh yea, Lh also helped us out.. We got the right idea for that questn but wrongly wrote a diff answer. Oh well, I can already confidntly say we lost big but at least we enjoyed it. haha.. Maybe next time.. Note- not many pics u see, we were hunting, not photo-sessioning.. haha

Lunch at Millennium

Today's Lh's b'day.. So I wish her Happy B'day! Hope the gift fits u.. If not, figure something out.. hahaha.. J/k. In conjunction with her b'day we had lunch at Millnm, and also at the same time it was also our reunion lunch I think. Not so much of a reunion, that would sound like ages.. More of a get-together.. You know.. After all the breaks and electives. Hmm.. I came in pretty late, in fact the last. And sorry for keeping u guys waiting. Had some urgent matter which came up when I was along the way. We had buffet and also surprised Lh with her b'day cake. Ok let's talk less and get to the pics. Sorry for the lack of pics n the quality.. I'm no pro.. :P

B'day gal

Smiling faces pasal kanyang dah

Frh joins in to ceriakan suasana photo session

Cheezzze!!

Ada org cbuk mnagih hutng :p

The guys pun mau jua ambil gambar.. :D

Sur-vi-vor: Pulau Moreton

Went camping at Moretn islnd over the weekend wt a bunch of other Bris-Bn-ians. I thought it was a good experience since it was my 1st time ever.. well, i've actually stayed in a jungle before, only in chalets n not as far as setting up tents and sheltering under it. So.... ONLY two-train, two-bus and one ferry ride away from St Lcia, Moretn islnd is a beautiful untouched (seemingly) piece of land further up north. The beach is beautiful and the place is so serene.. Could see yourself destressing there, just by walking on the shore as the waves hit your legs. Pretty much like other beaches hahaha... :p

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Got to the island at around 3+ i think. First thing we saw was this huge shipwreck. Now it's stuck there, it looks like sort of a monument. Anyway, then we had to walk a bit to our camping site which was close by to the beach area. We had to rush at that time to set up the tents before it got dark. Fortunately, all was well.. I was surprised that setting up tents was not that hard as it looks.. :D After that, we had some activities at the beach- volleyball, catch, sand-playing, those stuff you do at beaches. Wasn't long coz it started to get dark. Started fire n started cooking chicken wings that we brought. I had my share of doing the cooking too.. Totally different from cooking from the stove. Like this one, u would occassionally get temporary suffocations from the thick smoke when the wind blows towards u. Haha. After dinner, everyone sat around campfire and shared eery stories, 'belted out' some songs, played games til sleepy...

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Next day had sausages for brunch. Continued different activities at the beach but soon after it started to rain. Headed back to campsite, and for some of us we played the none other than Big 2 hehe.. At 2pm, we started putting down the tents despite the rain. By 3pm, the ferry arrived and got on board.. Took another few long hours trip back to St Lcia (yeah, Sunday's not a good time for public transport). And it was still raining. The trip back home was a long, wet and cold one. The main thing is I enjoyed my weekend and is also what my money's worth. Now it's back to head-banging.

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I'll put in some snapshots. As you might have noticed, I'm not the best at taking pics. If I could get hold of the best pics from others, I might put it up..

What a day

Yesterday- went to Movie World at the GC with my NZ friends. Luckily, a friend’s friend who happened to be there as well helped us by getting our tickets half-priced. For that, I’d like to thank them. It is a huge deal for me especially when I’m going there for the third time. Hehe. So after we got in, we prioritized the big thrill rides and made a brief schedule. First up was Superman, as this was supposedly the best one of all other rides, I anticipated that the line would be long. It turned out otherwise. Well, the queue was still a bit long but it didn’t feel like ages to get on the speed coaster like the first or the last time I went there. Anyway, it was awesome as usual. The guys thought the same they couldn’t even stop talking about their experience haha. Then we went for the Scooby Doo. The line was pretty much the same as the Superman ride so we thought it wasn’t a bad time for us to try it out. The frustrating thing was, just as it was our turn to get on the vehicle a mechanical dysfunction occurred. Everyone was instructed to evacuate the area and as we were leaving for the exit, people were letting out ‘ohhhh’s and ‘boo’s of frustration. Haha. The others we managed to go for were Shrek, Police Academy stunt show, Wild West Water log, Lethal weapon and finally the Batman Swingshot. This Batman ride is the latest installment in the theme park so it wasn’t a surprise that the queue was terribly long. Since it was the first time I was going for this ride, I was really nervous and with the chilly weather this time around just made the feeling worse. Just picture this- you’re blasted into cold air upwards and it goes down again halfway momentarily and up and down again like a yoyo until it reaches down. Good thing it only takes seconds. We had to leave the park early at 4+ to catch the Transformers movie at 6.30.

Transformers. What can I say? I’d give it an 8. Never been a hardcore fan of the cartoon before so I barely knew the behind-story. I kept on asking those beside me this and that for a better understanding of what was going on. I hope I didn’t irritate them. Haha. I wouldn’t reveal anything about it just yet. But you’ll enjoy some good laughs. And oh yeah, the cars as well!

Brrrrr.....

First of all, just a special mention of Esn's b'day few days ago on the 24th.. Happy B'day! Sorry, I haven't gotten you anything. Only my prayers for your good health and well-being.

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Oh yeah, I just wanna thank Afrh for the lunch treat last Saturday. I really liked the idea that we had lunch somewhere else for a change. Maybe we should go Japanese or Indian the next time? hehe.. Anyway thanks again. I haven't tried your keropok/kerepek ketam yet. Will eat them soon and give feedback :).

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Returned to Bris last Sunday. The flight was really empty. I can imagine that everyone in that plane could even take up all the middle three-seats for a place to lie down and sleep. Really comfortable...

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It's really windy and freezing here. I can't stand it. Too cold. I'm like already wearing triple layers of clothing. It's weird to see that some people are still able to wear shorts and just T-shirts. Gila.. I guess I've only just acclimatised to the Bn weather during my short break there that my body thermostat got too slow to revert itself when I got back here.

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Anyway, I've been sort of a tour-guide these past few days. A friend studying in NZ & his friend came and are staying over for a week. Showed them around like city and South bnk. There isn't much here really IMO but I was pleasantly surprised that they find it here I would refer to it as 'wow.' But there were other reasons hehe..

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This morning the two fellas went out on their own. Independent exploration. They went rock-climbing and kayaking at Riverside. Wanted to join them but I had promised an interview at Garden City for my assignment. The interview went well btw and took about just over one and a half hour. It's good that this interviewing process is now over and done with but the sad part is the report write-up. Argh, hate reports.

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Ooops, didn't realise it's morning already. We're heading to GC later this morning. So need to get up early. Going to Movie World.. Again.... for the 3rd time. Oh well, just gonna enjoy myself and this time gonna try out the new Batman ride.

One night & one more time..

Yesterday was Father's day.. So the night we had Steamboat for dinner. And we bought tiramisu cheese cake for the occasion.

Then we played Clue-do, a board game bought for my lil sis' b'day.. It's the first time I played and I must say it's fun! We should all try it. Though I was just terrible at it hehe. Btw, sorry for the lack of quality in the pictures. Wasn't me. haha. And the picture with me in it - that's the only one. So sad. Haha.

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Today, went out for bowling wt Afrh, Lh, Fau n Mdr. Mdr just came back yesterday from the UK and I was surprised that he was able to make it today, unjet-lagged. If I were him, I'd probably still be in bed hehe.. Anyway, we had two rounds of game btwn the guys and girls. First we won (proud to say that!) but then we lost a close one in the 2nd round ;p. Then we had Jollibee... Yummmm... Btw Mdr, thnx for the goodies. We all got one.

Obviously from the way I write, you can tell that I'm just too lazy so I'll just end it here... See ya.

Three days

Woohoo... Long weekend! I mean holidays.. Coz Monday's Labour day.. so 3 days stretching of no uni hehe.. But it's close to exam so the pressure is still there.. :S Had Hna tute wt the rest this afternoon & then played a bit of badminton with the 'b.s.s.' guys.. Then the evening Nrl, Far, Yl n myself went to the buddha fest at southbnk. First, we had baked potato + cheese + chicken for dinner (yum...) and also managed to catch the full fireworks display after that. In fact the 1st time for me for this particular festival. Nice fireworks and we were kinda close. Went around and saw a bit of a mini concert & then visited the markets there. Oh yeah, something funny happened when the girls were looking at the ear-rings section at one of the market stalls. Two local girls randomly came up to me and asked to be photographed with them. I was kinda puzzled and couldn't say no. So the picture was taken. Felt like a celebrity for a moment there hahaha.. But I thought it was weird. Anyway, I notice that Mea, Hsn & R (since the 3 of the Durhammers were also there) have got something out of their visit to the fest. hehe.. Well, we didn't go back empty-handed. Look what we've bought... hahaha.....

We obviously bought one thing in common..

..and a lot of sugar..

The B Experience 22.04.07

It was awesome!! Wait, wait. Let’s start from the beginning. Woke up the usual Sunday – late. Then got ready (I can’t remember what I did in between, probably went online). We took the bus at 4+pm to the city first to catch the Shorncliffe line there at the Central train station. I think it took about half an hour to get to the Entertainment Centre, a place which I must say is VERY secluded. I think Azm took a pic of a sign and you can see the surrounding area is very much like a forest reserve.. Anyway, let’s not go off topic and spoil the whole point of this entry.

The moment we reached the building, my level of excitement rose to about 70%. Just before we went in, there was a security check. Digital cameras, lens, audio devices etc were not allowed to be brought into the arena. But most of us (excluding me- I knew the rules but I did bring my memory card) couldn’t resist bringing cameras (actually when come to think of it, who could?). So they were all like trying to hide their cameras in the best possible ways not to get noticed & hoping not to get caught. Was a success! So yay! Cameras were in! Oh yes, we decided to hire binoculars since we had the further seats.

As we entered the arena, we could straight away see the Merchandise area. We went to take a look what was on display & we all bought something- a black bandana with a golden ‘Beyonce’ written on it, just to have an item to remember the event upon. There were other stuff on sale but were more expensive hence narrowed down to that option. Then we walked around searching for food & later sat close to our gates (it was only 6pm & the concert starts at 7.30pm so we had all the time in the world). At the stage of waiting for the doors to open and an increasingly growing crowd, my excitement level drop slightly to 65% (hehe..) BUT when the door opened & I could feel the sudden gust of cool air-conditioned air from inside & see the coloured lights, it skyrocketed to 90%! (cool huh! Sakai-ness).

Alright, the first three paragraphs are boring but I’ve put in the effort to write all that therefore I won’t delete them. So at around 8pm, the lights dimmed & Chris Brown (CB) appeared. Everybody stood- screaming & cheering especially the girls. I was sitting next to Esn and I couldn’t help but notice her screaming every time CB does that. I have the feeling she has fallen for him. LoL. Anyway, he did several of his own songs like Yo and Run it (I liked Run It the best) & he also did few remixes of other artistes’ numbers like JT’s Sexyback & MJ’s Billie Jean. His dance moves & skills were unbelievable.. All that took for about just above half an hour and there was a break. My heart kept on racing, I couldn't wait to see her!!!

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So.... finally my dream came true. There she was, appearing in front of me under the spotlight (haha, although she was a bit distant but hey I have the binoculars ;p). She said hi and all and performed Crazy in Luv first. Yeeha!! Excitement level at full blast!! I love how she included some of her main Destiny's Child songs like Survivor, Jumpin2, Bootylicious, Independent Women (It's also like watching DC). Other than that she belted out songs from her previous album like Dangerously in Luv, Naughty girl, Baby Boy (DIL was the best! How amazing was that?!) and most of her current ones like Beautiful Liar, Listen, Dejavu and many more. I couldn't believe I was hearing her REAL voice and her live-singing was simply as good as the recordings, maybe even better coz you could feel the realness. At one point after one song, I think she received the loudest cheer I've ever heard where ppl screamed & screeched that I swear my eardrums could have exploded. Haha. But that's the fun of it, no complaints whatsoever at all. In short, she was the highlight of the night. Oh yeah, as Azm described in his post, the lightings were amazing as well which made the whole performance more happening . I must also mention that her band, backgrd singers & dancers (most of whom are ladies) were terrific. They are a bunch of talented musicians/performers :).

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I'm glad I've experienced this whole thing. Wouldn't trade it for anything else. So... what's next? Christina Aguilera? Hehe...

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P/s: We didn't take a lot of pics inside coz it was kinda pointless to an extent. It was dark and we were far. But we managed to get videos of her performances. I'll see if I can upload some (which is unlikely anyway hehe). There's a YuTiub video in Azm's post so have a visit there. Cheers.

Woohoo.... Yeehoo....

I know the title is unrelated to what I'm gonna be posting today but it's been in my head all day so might as well put in.. hehe..

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The girls and I went to a halal chinese restaurant ( I mean really halal coz they emphasised it everywhere from the big sign on their window to the front cover of their menu - we get it.. lol) this afternoon down in Ipswich road just opposite to the hospital where we have our clinical coaching sessions. So it was the first time we dined in there and it felt sort of like the restaurants we have at home in Bn. Funny that there was only one person who took care of the restaurant just now. He was the one to take our orders, he was the one to cook & he was also the one to serve the food to us. Now, that got me wondering who did the dishes. Hmm.. I guess it must be piling up at the kitchen sink behind hahaha.. Oh yea, the guy there couldn't speak Eng that much so anything that comes out of his mouth I found it hard to understand. Like when I was asking what was the content of the spring rolls, he replied " we-ja-bal" (or sumthing like that). When I gave a puzzled look, he continued "we-ja-bal-pok-blabla." Did I just hear the word pork? (Let me just recall to 10 min ago, they've put HUGE halal signs everywhere). Haha I immediately discarded that choice. It turned out that he was just saying 'vegetables..' hahaha...

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I've heard some good reviews about the food there from some ppl but after trying today, to me it was just so-so. I thought the chicken & beef were what I deem to call 'fake.' Didn't taste real at all! The rest thought there was nothing wrong wt them but I just didn't like the texture. Probably the only thing that I will give a thumb up is their dim-sim/dim-sum/or yum-cha (as they call it here). Not sure if I'm a bit biased here coz I just miss eating dim-sum in Bn :D.

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It's only one PBL case away before the easter break starts. Can't wait.. Speaking of that, I haven't really got any plans yet. Esn & I was briefly talking about this last night and I randomly suggested we should probably visit other places in Bris e.g. Sunnybank. We'll see how it goes..

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AI6- Yesterday's perfomances which I like - melinda, kiki, gina (surprisingly), phil & a bit chris R (he did way better last wk i.m.o.). Sanjya? Hmm... What's with the mohawk? I just wonder what he's gonna come up with nxt week. Today- Chris S eliminated. He chose a good song but destroyed it. 'Curly gone' from the words of Simon.

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AR11 - Wow, Charla-mirna arrived 1st place twice in a row.. They took a risk and it paid off. The beauty queens came in 2nd last wk and this wk 4th.. Eliminated this week- Teri-Ian.

Weekend..

Yesterday was really tiring.. Went to the BSS event Jungle Trekking at GUni. There was also a mini-road show conducted. We didn't specifically go to the main campus at Nathan (so I have yet to go there) but instead we went to a nearby campus, the Mt Gravatt campus. You can say the place is really3x a jungle. Amr the GU committee member even told me that at their uni there is no reception for mobile phones at all. Funny, so he was basically saying that they were totally isolated. Anyway, when we got there we just waited for others to arrive. Just sat at some benchplace and chatted with some M'sians and new Bru comers. And just before we started our hiking, we went for Asar prayer in one room and then off we went. There was also a small activity along our walk where we met a 'pirate' & we had to answer questions about him and also sketch the details of him and his surrounding area. I just answered what I thought could be right and just sketched randomly. Then we walked again until we arrived at some stairs. It was 300m going up. And that was about it. To me, it wasn't at all a hiking experience but nonetheless it was something.

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After we got back to the main area, I played 'Captain Ball' wt the seniors until it was time to go back. And just before that, there was a prize-giving presentation for the activity. Guess what? I got 2nd place! :D. I bet it was because in my drawings I had labellings other than just the drawing (they wanted DETAILS remember! hehe). Nah.. that was just 90% luck 10% intelligence hehe... Back in the city, I bought myself a cup of hot mocha (so addicted to it) when we were waiting for the bus (due to arrive in 10 minutes). As a result, I almost missed the bus. It was kind for the seniors to wait for me.. Aww... haha (they know who they are). But yeah fortunately we managed to catch that bus. It was like as soon as they saw me coming wt the cup of coffee, they immediately ran to the bus and what else, I also ran! That was funny haha..

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.Back at home, we rested for a while which was like ONLY about 20 minutes & off we headed to South Bank to go for a swim. Must say the pool there is a lot bigger than at Uni. I just did some practice on my swimming skills considering that I've left swimming for like how many years now. Then after that we played a game of what we call the 'water netball' for about two hours. It was good fun..

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Today I woke up a bit late. Generally, not much happened today.. Just went out wt Yl n Fr to buy Yl her bike. Nice bike, I think she'd probly hav a pic of it posted soon haha.. Went bck n Azm came over to collect some stuff and after that I left to play some soccer wt the guys. So that's how my weekend went.. Tomorrow's Monday.. The most hated day.. Sigh... I tend to be a bit sulky on Mondays. Plus I have the feeling that tomorrow's PBL case will have your head banging on the wall.

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Some pics courtesy of Jnh =)

The Sakai-ness

Azm's mentioned this but since I've got the pics ;p I might as well include a version of mine... It all started like this. I was initially going through my cupboard to search for my old notes in one of the boxes when I saw this 'Gold Class ticket' which I got from last March in that AIFP Amazing race (that's a year ago!). I actually knew that the ticket was valid for one year but never even thought of using it. And the next day, in the library coincidentally Azm was in the lib so I told him about the expiry date & we just made a quick decision just to watch something later. So we went on to watch the Illusionist. I remember this movie was actually featured in the plane last year when I was heading back to BN from Bris but unfortunately my screen wasn't fully functional. So this was the best opportunity to watch it! At first entrance we were already 'sakai.' My Poq-len instincts persuaded me to take pics of the area. Hahaha! I couldn't describe the place more than Azm. Truly gold class.. From the comfy chair to the tasty cheesecake!

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Here I've uploaded some low quality pics using my camera phone. The infrared seemed to work this time after I've sent it for reformatting back in BN.

And not forgetting this, Happy Birthday YiL! "Can I take your order pls?!" Annual phrase exclusively for YiL.

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Just before the movie - Busy sakai-ing with Camera phone using the Night Mode setting

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The menu leaflet if you want to place any orders before the movie. We only ordered cheesecake. The food's too expensive!

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The separate entrance into the Gold Class cinemas

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Being vain.. hahaha