Chinked~Out: Nostalgia

Showing posts with label Nostalgia. Show all posts

Tuesday, 27 March 2012

The Cradle: SMK Seri Kembangan

This school, somehow is the best mistake I've ever made. Here's some ugly facts about me (maybe I've posted it somewhere in this blog), that I didn't take the application for secondary school thingy seriously and failed to enter Catholic High School, the one that I once dreamed of. Even till today, I kept on thinking whether could I achieve greater heights if I have taken that path at first place. However, what done is done, and can't be mend. All I could do, was to choose a better school.

And to SMK Seri Kembangan it shall be.

I've learnt a lot in many aspects of life through this school, dealing with peers, competitions, teachers, nasty things and awesome stuffs as well. From a 142cm tall little kid, I grew up to be "taller", both physically and mentally. The most interesting part, I grew up on how a New Village boy should have (although he still suckzzz in basketball), rather than a student who was brought up "formally well" from the urban schools.

The prefect. The protagonist. Perfect? No. Pro? Yes. Through this organization, I sense a greater transformation in myself. Timid at first place (not daring to ask where's the toilet). Strict and fiery then (easily-could-have-got-into-a-fight-kind). Finally, a calm young man...that sometimes don't take things too seriously and could be really blur at certain times. Most of my friends are here, all united with a badge. Despite being a role-model to the other students, we have our ugly moments, too. Normally, skipping classes under official reasons ; and occasionally skipping classes with the so-called official reasons. Headcounts? The least, but take serious cases pretty seriously. Oh! And I learnt how to organize a dinner fit for 100 pax!

Camps. The more you go, the more you gain. The exposure is totally different from the context of National Service. You get to go jungle trekking, soak in mud ponds, play in waterfalls, experience the thrill of a real Flying Fox (believe me, NS's flying fox ain't taking you anywhere far), surging lakes with your shoes stuck in the mud, tomato fights, night exploration that somehow so peaceful with a boy partner clinging on your arm, gazing at the universe and the stars, sleeping with a guy that sweated so "heavily" and felt his warmth, bitten by leeches, learnt how to rescue people from drowning, struggling yourself through obstacle courses, gathering firewood to build a fire and cook dinner with it, amplifying the spirit of teamwork etc.

I'm somewhere in there....

Projects. Teaming up with friends to get things done. Or at least, copying each other's work. Working through the night, trying to complete the project, but ended up watching The Demon Barber of Fleet Street instead. Visiting historical buildings with friends (Jun Lek and Gze Xie) and taking photos of pages of books in Borders, Times Square. Finishing the whole Geography project in 2 days, and got an A. Spending 1 hour just to draw the front cover.

Books. Reading and making notes, but not really understanding the content. So, we scribble the pages instead. Trying to answer model questions, but to no avail and have to refer to answers.

Teachers. "This is the system" as the answer to most unanswerable questions. Giving nicknames to teachers. Having to study the wrong chapter for exam because of the teacher's amnesia and hence, failing the exam. Nurturing minds of all sorts. Listening to teachers sharing the own life experiences which were priceless. Laughing to teachers jokes, falling asleep on teachers' lectures. Came to realize that I've just occupied one page for my Biology notebook. Praying hard for not finishing homework. I'm sorry and I thank you.

Friends. Being in the same class together but rarely speaks (that's just miserable). Hanging out together for parties and gatherings. Playing Aruba on people's birthdays. Teasing each other. Revising together, but ended up hanging around playing. Having group discussions that probably won't to anywhere. Listening to people's stories. Going on field trips. Cycling downhill and ended up to exhausted to cycle back up, and had to drink tap water due to extreme thirst. Go on "expeditions" with friends after tuition. Having lunch at hawker stalls and spending time in Popular doing personality quizzes. Comparing who takes better photographs. Arguing whose right whether it is mist or clouds. Singing and whistling songs. Jamming together on the guitar. Class goes mad while teacher's on MC. Encouraging each other. Cam-whoring. Study hard, play harder.

Crushes. Dare to like but chickened out to confess. Trying to act cool and smart in front of her. Burning a CD of her fav. artist and run away from giving her during her birthday. All linguistic and speech went short-circuit when facing her. Stalking on her FB profile, blog, etc... Printing out her photo to be kept in your file. Having small discussion groups about crushes. Feeling so empty without her. Almost cried at the last day of school, facing the fact that I'm actually older and am graduating...There's only 2 things in life that I found most challenging at my time : girls and love.

Friday, 16 December 2011

Genting Thrill (13-15/12/11) : Day 1

Straight to the point....zap! with full description as recalled...so far...or better known as a "report".
"Days" is from the moment I woke up till I fell asleep, not based on time.

Ting Meau and family gave us (Jakey Wong, Yee Qiong, Joanne, Jing Hong, Yi Fai, me) a treat to Genting Highlands.

0845

I arrived late by 15 minutes (0845), Yi Fai and Yee Qiong were already there. Then Joanne popped out and dragged Yee Qiong for the toilet. Jing Hong finally arrived. Had a tough time with the ticket vending machine, so we opted for the ticketing counter. Departed for Pudu Raya Bus Terminal from Bukit Jalil LRT Station. Ting Meau and Jakey joined us at Sg. Besi LRT Station. Arrived at the Plaza Rakyat and proceeded to the Pudu Raya Bus Terminal. Waited for the bus to arrive. With Jing Hong's DSLR (Canon 60D) along, that's when Joanne got struck by the so-called "Camera Syndrome" (a gentler phrase for cam-whoring ) till the end of the trip.

Ting Meau

1000

Boarded the "Go Genting" express bus for Genting (duh?) at gate 13 (I think...didn't get to see the ticket). Clear traffic at the DUKE Highway through winding stretch of the Genting Highlands road.

1100

Arrived at Gohtong Jaya via express bus, then took the cable car to Genting. The gondola got overloaded with another 2 aunties on board. Jing Hong "sacrificed" to join a pair of Sikh couples in another gondola. Ting Meau had a conversation with the aunties and through the slang, they had something in common : are Penangites (people from Penang) and are living in Kuala Lumpur. Through the (approximately) 25 minutes-ride across the tropical rain forest, with some howling of apes, and of course, laughter (I'm lame, so it's rarely from me. Note that. I'll post something 'bout this issue.) , we arrived at the Genting Skyway. While waiting for Ting Meau's family to arrive (to check in the hotel), we ordered 2 sandwiches ('bout RM42!) at the Bakery, but at least, the names sounded good and taste awesome, seriously awesome, like this:

and then...I lost consciousness of time.

Before we could lay our fangs on the bun, Ting Meau's family arrived. We had our luggage kept with the bellboy, then we joined Ting Meau's family for lunch at Imperial Rama.

Here's something new (to me) : chopsticks have genders (公筷, 母筷) , which the the female (red) is used to take food from the dishes, and male (black) is in contact with the picked food and the mouth. It's rather confusing, but the concept is quite hygienic, meaning you don't get infected easily via the saliva. Such confusion could be voided if there is a ladle or spoon provided on each dish (source: Jakey XD). Among the dishes: patin with sweet & sour sauce, spinach, shredded ginger with pork, tofu with slippery soup (broth), fish cake, deep-fried shrimp. Heavenly. Guess I need not explain every dish, eh?

The room:

I know that the picture is kinda blur, but it ain't my camera's fault. Blame it on Photoscape.

Located inside Genting Hotel, the Maxims Suite is like.....OMG. (I can't figure out any suitable word).
There're lots of windows with awesome views, 2 TVs with DVD-cum-radio player, 2 washrooms, furnished with glass and wooden cabinets, great lighting, sofas, a K-bed with lots of pillows, safety boxes and spacious enough for 7 of us. The girls get the bed, while the boys get the sofa and floor. However, we (boys) did messed-up the bed with wrestles and pillow fights. As a result, a lamp was almost broken. It was then mended by Ting Meau's magic hands.

Oohh...there's even a TV at the bathtub!

We stayed in the room while Ting Meau and Joanne went shopping. Watched TV, fooled around, explore the room etc.

Right after they came back, we headed towards the First World Plaza for bowling. RM3 for shoes, RM2 for socks and RM11 for the game. When getting the bowling shoes, you might be wondering why they only keep one shoe, while you hold the other, it's to prevent theft. Despite the score, we still had fun.

Jakey and Ting Meau's bro, Ting Sun with the a iPad.

Jakey in action.

The snooker centre was pretty crowded. Bloody people trying to act cool yet stupid enough to not understanding the "No Smoking" sign, the concealed space from the counter was filled with smoke. Oh...well. It's non of my business. So, we strolled along the shops. Snow World was closed due to some sort of maintenance.

At night, we had dinner with Ting Meau's grandparents. Most had chicken and duck rice, while I went for something light: wantan soup. Yes, just wantan and soup. The lighting placed above the fans made the ambiance kinda dizzy due to the flickering shadow. Then we stopped by the stage to see some aerobic performance and it goes like this:

Jakey got pretty hooked up to the Christmas performance. Boys have break dance, so girls have aerobics.

Then, there were mascots for us to fool and to take pictures with. Pity them.

Ting Meau and Joanne posing at the "Missing Person" pole.

First World Plaza, Genting Highlands.

Yee Qiong, Joanne, Jakey, Yi Fai, Ting Meau and Jing Hong.

Playing with the revolving door.

We watched Youtube videos till late night, chatted, watched TV and teased each other.

among 'em:

Hippo Explosive Diarrhea

Failed moonwalk

watched

圣魔之血的邂逅--原來愛上你之《讓愛。》LOVE可蜜短片

And we watched this as well. The setting is in our school and it's a simple story about love and friendship. I really do admire Kyan Seah's hard work esp. in editing. I am terribly sorry if I commented bad things 'bout this video. I know that if I were them, I would be far more worse. I'm sorry.

Like Kyan Seah on Facebook ==> HERE <==

Jackson and the gang joined in as well. They played poker while Choo took some great photograph of the night scenery. It's basically like this, just that it's a 100 times better:

Ting Meau wrestled with Jing Hong and knocked his head at Jing Hong's tooth. A little bleeding on the scalp. Then, Yi Fai hurt his toe nail while shifting to make way for the sleeping bags. From his look, it's pretty painful. *Ouch* Ting Meau poured some of his grandfather's made medication (oil) to stop the bleeding. Jakey was really sensitive to blood and kept on flushing the blood-stained tissues into the toilet bowl. That sums up day 1 with lots of blood.

Oh...something 'bout the toilet/bathroom: There's not latch to lock. So, control yourself, people.

Saturday, 10 December 2011

SJK(C) SB2 : Primary School Life (2001 to 2006)

Primary school @ SJK (C) Serdang Baru 2. As you can see, I was quite short....in fact I was only 142cm during Form 1. And, my "picture shooting" was a little horrifying...sorry...if the people are not in complete form.

A brief introduction in my Primary School Life (2001 to 2006)
During Standard 1 (1J), I encountered one of the "fiercest" teacher after much pampering in the kindergartens and by my parents. My writing was horrifying and had to do plenty of corrections. I also made fun of the teacher, who is a little short because "she likes to carry heavy things (yes, she carries a few bags into class everyday) which leads to some kind of stunted growth." Mum was very strict about my studies and make sure that I finish my homework the day they were distributed. Once, I didn't finish one and mum tore my exercise book into half. Then, I had my first scolding regarding my examination results by my mum.

Standard 2 (2J)was some sort great, in the sense that our teacher was really nice and friendly, but strict at certain times, of course. That's when my results got much better and made quite a lot of friends. It was my first time cleaning up other people's vomit. Then there were "puppy love" issues going on, but you know, things never last long.

Third year (3B), I was afraid of the class teacher till I didn't turn up for 3 weeks. This is my first time being in the best class, which means more workload and homework. There are times that I got embarrassed in front the class for not completing my homework and poor results (Chinese), which led to me going for tuition. I even scolded my English teacher "stupid" and I think that was pretty bold. Heck, I got 40th position in the class.

Things get more stable in Standard 4 (4C) and I got better results. That's when the term "brotherhood" was established between classmates. I became a prefect that year, and it was pretty awesome. I joined the scout and we gained a little things about knots, injuries, songs, Baden Powell, rules and signs. I got offered to 4B class for getting good marks, but I declined. The competitiveness in the B class freaks me out somehow.

It was sweet in Standard 5 (5C). Under En. Ishak's guidance (greatest BM teacher of all times), I got involved in Syarahan (Speech) and got more active in competitions. My BM was *BOOM* awesome...for a Chinese. I got a "Kepujian" (credit) in the Zon Petaling (Petaling Zone), first place in school level.

UPSR year (government exam), Standard 6 is when we all worked hard, very hard. I strongly believe if I maintained my dedication towards my studies, I would have been a better student now. And I got 2nd place in Zon Petaling this time in speech and yea, the trophy was a tall one. However, I didn't go far and both of us (representing Zon Petaling) didn't reach the top. I got 7As in my UPSR and became "student of the year." I have to admit that Liew Wilson is an awesome guy, and with that he would have won this title, with 2 more votes. Standard 6 was also, my biggest mistake for not taking the "application for desired secondary school" thingy seriously. I applied for Catholic High School, and instead I got SMK Seri Serdang. After one week there, I transferred to SMK Seri Kembangan, which had minimized the impact on me failing to become a great person.