Firstly, it would be difficult for me because before I was in a relationship, all I ever knew about relationships was romance and what the movies told me. A hot guy with a sweet nature is all that is needed to sweep you off your feet. 

I just don’t know if there is anyone else out there who can firstly be attracted to me. If being attracted wasn’t difficult enough, he would have to put up with the person that I am. Not the one that I parade around for the world to see, but the girl who lives in a messy world (or room), who sometimes speak with so much of oblivion and self righteousness about issues that she doesn’t take to, who is infamous among closest and dearest to her with a mouth as big as Gua Mulu (though I’m working on it ever since I got into ugly situations with friends), who will eventually grow into a typical overbearing chinese parent (money + professional career FTW, nothing else. Passion what passion? Can eat ah?), who can’t take criticism of any kind, who actually doesn’t have much to offer except her self degrading sense of humour. (only she can degrade herself, btw)

I of course think what kind of relationships I would have with the many guy friends in my life. What kind of boyfriend would they be? Again, this is something I never knew when I was a teenager, but it is very, very difficult to find a personality that can match yours. Friends might change to become another person when they become a boyfriend. Not necessarily for the better.

I cannot remember what Chee Kiang was like as a friend. To be honest, what he was as a person back in school is quite a blur to me because as far as I can remember, he was already Boyfriend.  So it’s difficult to compare. You ask him lah, for sure he’ll forget what I was like as a friend. I’m the more sentimental one of the two of us anyway, so I’m laying down 20 bucks first.

If things should ever end between us, I am afraid I might always compare the new ones to him. What if new boyfriends are bad tempered, cold, chauvinistic and pretty much a ladies (who are not his wives) man? I’d be there pining for my old Chee Kiang who never dared to raise his voice at me (though sometimes he does when he gets exasperated when I repeat my questions one too many times. But you know what I mean, I could never imagine having an other half who yelled at me constantly), who wasn’t a big flirt, who never ordered me to do things for him and who was always in a good jovial mode except when he needed to nap.

Could I ever stomach the fights that I never had in my previous relationship? I hate confrontations and I don’t think most guys would take an argument lying down. The both of us have learned of a way to deal with arguments and pretty much don’t hold it against each other and make-up within 24 hours. I hope this will last, I do! In another relationship this could be very different. The fictional boyfriend might fall into a really bad temper that could last for days and I’m the one who is supposed to cajole him and do all the apologizing. I don’t ever want to put myself through constant heartaches in a relationship. 

For fear of sounding nauseating, I think that I am really lucky to get it right the first time. What if I have to do it a second, third, fourth and fifth time before I decide, okay, this might be the one? It would be too long a process. 

Would I be able to control my jealous nature? At this point in time, Chee Kiang still finds it amusing and is quick to side with me when I start to tear a girl into pieces in my head who flirts with him like she has known him for years. Fucking bitch. *gets a bit angry at the memory* I have moments when I cannot accept female accompany around him though he has known some of the girls for so many years that the thought of anything is ridiculous. Tell you what, let’s blame it on my period for some of those outbursts. But on the whole, as long as he has introduced me to the girls, and we get along like a house on fire, then all is well. I don’t recall ever seeing Chee Kiang jealous though. Only times when I’m having an exposed cleavage or I stick out my chest for friends to read my latest t-shirt, he’ll be like, “Wei!” and puts his hand over to shield it from the adoring public. 

Also, when you were younger, financial status was never an issue. But there is always an imbalance. If you get together with too poor a man, it doesn’t mean that you’re a gold digger for resenting him, it is because you foresee his lack of ambition and the possibility that he might live off you. If you get together with too rich a man, statistics show that most of them can afford to have affairs and they have you bounded to them financially. I need to find an equal. So difficult to find an equal you know? (from what I have heard) 

Now let’s look at the flip side. How can I let him go back into the sea for fishing women with all the amazing qualities that he has shown to me? I would break into pieces knowing some other lucky girl laughs hard because she knows what is going on when he takes off his glasses. How he would share his super spontaneous story telling skills of imagined scenarios without so much as a pause, filled with things that he thinks are awesome? (international neighbourhood… basically he would love to be in the United Nations, joking about possible scandalous children etc.)  

I don’t know if I were to hurt more if he treats his next (NEVER!!) girlfriend just like how he treated me. I would definitely definitely hurt if he did more things for the next girlfriend than he ever did for me. Which girl wouldn’t? It’s something that I really cannot bear to imagine. Some people love to mend a broken heart (good for writing poems and songs and such), but I cannot. 

Think further. If he were to marry someone else and not me and go on to build that family we often talk about, how would I feel? If I were to bump into him at some shopping complex with a couple of his kids with those double eyelids and height that I so wanted for my own children, it would probably kill me.  If, if, if. So many ifs. 

After five years, the possibility of starting over is a daunting process, too tiring, you can’t bear the thought of playing the game again, you just want to keep going closer and closer to the next phase in life.. so should everything end, you would lose what you have worked on so far. The efforts and the time all down the drain. Meaningless years. I hope we will always make it work.

———-

With my current one week holiday in NUS enjoying the super fast internet connection here, I’ve been putting in a lot of backlogged photos into drafts so yeah, my blog is catching up quite a bit with my life!

The dental dinner was very much anticipated by the first batch of dental students here at AIMST.

Read about the 2008 and 2007 dental dinner here!

It being our last, most of us were having a hard time trying to decide what to wear. For myself, I knew that I needed something long. Of course must be something with a plunging neckline too, hehe. That’s just the way I roll contrary to what my mother thinks. It’s a nice present.

I just wanted opposite of everything that I’ve ever had. No more letting my hair down or even dresses that ends above the knees. I don’t know if I made any fashion boo boos lah, but oh wells, variety in life bla bla bla. Clutch a little bit unavoidable since most clutches looks the same. Sometimes it gets a little bit annoying because formal wear fashion has only so many varieties but still, definitely much better than being a guy.

I did contemplate on treating myself to a mani and padi but Jolene The Nail Artist from 2003 finally emerged from the depths of my many personas and said, “For fucks meh pay so much,” so I decided to do it myself. Since Jolene The Sticker Monster (another one of my many personas) has quite a lot of nail bling blings, I, Jolene The Poor Dental Student (obligatory persona to provide for a better future for my family - current and future. Current because I must maintain poor dental student status so that my dad doesn’t kill me when I tell him that my bank account is high and dry before the month is up and future because dentists usually can put their kids through university) shall make use of this fact. I think most of you might be lost at this point. It’s okay, read again.

Oh before I go on to the pictures, here are full length photos of me from all three years:

2007:

Don’t have full length=( but it ends around the knees, and yes, this is the same dress I wore to the Nuffnang Blog Awards.

2008:

I like my hair the most here.

2009:

Most favourite neckline. Hair, hmm.

Faster say nice!

I think you should look at it again.

This is also a promotional gimmick to get my customers to have faith in Preciosa crystals which is just as shiny, if not more shiny than Swarovski crystals. It’s like an equally good crystal brand lah, that I got duped into selling. I thought I was buying Swarovski. But it’s okay, turns out that some customers are quite pro when it comes to crystals and some of them love Preciosa! Yay!

Tiny gold beads usually used in nail art. I’m selling also! RM3.50! Go see this link for my nail bling blings!

Cze-Yin and I went to get our hair done without Lie Yuen because she was at home with one of her many personas too. To name a few, she has Lie Yuen The Self Hair Stylist Persona (whom she was at home with), Lie Yuen The Comic Doodler Persona, Lie Yuen the Otaku persona, Lie Yuen the Dog Lover persona, Lie Yuen the Lomo Crazy Photographer and so on. There are many people living in our house. Multiples of three.

Sorry yeah, I worked quite long on it so must show you again. I stuck each bead on one by one!

Sick of seeing me photographing my nails, Cze-Yin wanted in on it as well.

Wahh..so sparkly! Preciosa crystals FTW!

She didn’t like her curls though and came home to get Lie Yuen to rectify it for her.

Ee Chean and Chwan Horng were there with us getting their hair done as well. We booked the slots a whole month in advance, damn kiasu right?

This is what they were doing before they put everything up. What I wanted was a high bun but they didn’t quite give me that. Don’t know why the bun didn’t hold up well.

Housemates in Lie Yuen’s room with her purple mirror that has been with her since Year 1.

As you can see, her purple mirror is rather portable. She also has very good taste when it comes to decorating.

Outside our house were two handsome boys and one beautiful girl who eventually won best dressed for her exquisite qipao.

Getting a bit emotional. We wanted a picture in our dresses as housemates right outside our house. Something to look back on in the years to come, don’t you think? The rusty gate, the tiny patch of vegetables planted by the next door popo and the brochure-strewn porch, sigh. Only 5 more months now before we say byebye. If I don’t study hard, maybe I will have to stay there alone for another year. Boo.

Designated driver for the night. But Lie Yuen took over after clubbing that night because you know why lah hah.

As Poh Yee was one of the earliest to arrive, with her standing around the reception area, many people taught that it was a wedding and that they were at the wrong place!
L-r: Poh Yee in her white gown, Pei Zhi, Brenda, Xin Yi, Myself, Sock Nee, Cze-Yin, Narjit, Lie Yuen and Angela.

Brenda in a black halter dress that swept the floor together with me.

L-r: Chwan Horng, Ee Chean, Chee Wen and Joe. I’m not sure if Joe was nominated, but Chee Wen took home best dressed for that night. I know everyone was in a suit *rolls eyes* but Chee Wen’s one had a really good cut!

Poh Yee and Cze-Yin posing together since they both wore white.

Poh Yee with the beige Zhu Zen.

As you can see, we could not stop taking photos. Pretty soon I am going to run out of captions already.

L-r: Magesh, Praveena and Bala. The two boys have rather good taste when it comes to clothings! I think they should have been nominated for Best Dressed Male.

L-r: Samuel, Charis, Ghayatri, Myself.

I love Charis’ dress!! All that bling bling on the boobs! <3 Classy!

Batch 1 girls SS-ing again. Different angles mah, sorry la.

We wanted to take colour coded photos but I think we got distracted half way. So here are a few anyway.

With Professor Comfort and Dr. Robinson, who have been with us through thick and thin since the beginning of the BDS course!

Chwan Horng ambil kesempatan.

L-r: Charis, Shing Hui, Gillian (who was nominated for Best Dressed Female), Ei Leng, Gabriel, Phebe and …um, someone help me! Sorry I forgot your name..:((( though I see you in the locker room everyday :((((((((((

I love Phebe’s dress!! It is so different!

Myself and the handsome CY!

Ahhh…my two lovely juniors Sabrina and Gerviene who made the exam season more bearable by responding to my crap on facebook. Thanks babes! <3

L-r: Aimee, Sabrina, Myself and Gerviene. Had to have one with the reception counter!

I thought the Batch 3 boys looked rather dashing so I positioned myself right in the middle.
L-r: Navin, Phillip, Kenneth, Me, Aik Munn, Chew Weng (whom I always mix up with Wah Seng) and Chin Kai. Chin Kai was the emcee for that night and I think he did a fantastic job playing the Ah Beng stereotype. It’s not like he overdid it, you can see that plenty of his own personality was up there on stage with him!

One of the few solo photos of myself. It was a sad night for me as my second SD card fucked up on me. It made weird lines across the photos, with grey areas etc etc. Some photos were lost and some of the more kooky ones were the affected ones. So much sadness in this world.

One more with the entire reception area.

Just realized that Pei Zhi and I have similar clutches. Eh actually almost all of us had white-silver clutches! LOL. Batch 1 dentistry girls and their similar tastes, tsk tsk.

Josiah and myself.

Xin Yi was nominated for Best Dressed Female too! Love the slightly bondage style but in such a happy colour.

Jamie and Brenda - The GIrls in Black.

I love Sock Nee’s choice! The blue really stands out and also adds to the many colours when we stand together. Thank you for bringing a piece of rainbow to our class photos, Sock Nee.:)

Zhu Zen and myself. Who was the photographer? So lousy wan!

A few of the girls with Dr. Niekla (in black) and her daughter (in white).

Nien and I before entering the hall. Nien bought her toga dress from UK when she was there for her year end holidays! You have to touch the material.. so beautifully thick!

Props to Ei Leng for her gorgeous style. Firstly, love the design as it really shows off her curves, love the colour and the fascinator? WIN! Why? The black dots were garnished with blings from The Sticker Monster. <3 Totally adds to the glamour.

It’s people like Sock Nee and Ei Leng who brighten up an otherwise sea of blacks. Not that most of the girl wore blacks, but dare to go against convention!

See how awesome Sock Nee’s blue goes with Gerviene’s red as well?

One with Gerviene.

Batch 2 girls posing and I pull a paparazzi at the side. Don’t you just adore Carmen’s dress? (far left) I have one of her posing for me but as fate would have it, it HAD to be one of the spoiled photos. BAH.

L-r: Me, Narjit, Janice, Kaixuan.

Myself and my other damn funny junior, Jennifer! I thought your outfit was so Princess Jasmine. The slinky cloth, the hair, the make-up, the bustier (?), the sash, the works! And apparently people said I looked like The Queen as my choice of outfit was rather regal. So…we were royalties that night!

The folks at my table. For three years in a row now.
Up l-r: Cze-Yin, Nien, Ah Thong, Myself, Ee Chean
Bottom l-r: Brenda, Poh Yee, Lie Yuen, Zhu Zen, Chwan Horng.

Half the class with our beloved dean, Prof. Smales.

The other table.
top l-r: Xin Yi, Pei Zhi, Zhu Zen, Brenda, Lie Yuen, Pih Yee, Nien, Sock Nee, Myself
bottom l-r: Angela, Sett, Joe, Maxis, Chwan Horng (why close eyes!), Ah Thong and Jimmy.

All of us were fussing over Dr. Brindha and Dr. Karthik’s baby boy, Darshan! And don’t you just love Dr. Brindha’s blue sari??? I could lose myself staring forever into this shade of blue.

L-r: Brenda, Nien, Dr. Karthik, Narjit with Darshan, Dr. Brindha, Cze-Yin and Jamie.

So so so so so cute!!!!!! He has so much wisdom in his little baby face.

So the opening act was by a bunch of hot chicks from Batch 5. I don’t know their names. I hardly know anybody from Batch 5. It is always the case for any Year 1 dental student.

Playing with Sett’s brother-in-law’s DSLR.

The VIP table looks on intently.

The hot chicks at my table.

Like how they say it in the magazines and newspapers when they photograph celebrities and politicians: Jolene and Nien share a light moment.

The dinner was also to introduce the new AIMST Dental Students’ Association Committee 09/10. I’m finally done with secretarial work. *dusts hands*

The committee strikes a post for the camera.

Oh cute little ballot holders for the Dental King and Queen and best dressed candidates.

Deniece wows the entire school with her sizzling belly dance moves. She jiggles in sections!! Too amazing.

Myself and Janice.

Steven and I! Steven’s one of the few international students we have in dentistry. He is from Seychelles Island! So cool right! He was telling me that the people in his country speak French.

This is our other international student, Nadia who is from Kenya and is now in the third batch! I think we have another one or two international students. There’s even one international student from China in the first year.

This is Ke Ke, my Batch 4 junior.

Yii Ping is one of the few girls on campus who can work the electric guitar.

The three person band doing their thang.

SEI KAM MOU. Here’s Jimmy practicing his skills with a DSLR. He would soon get a DSLR a week after dental dinner.

The clever system they derived for the voting process. Each label comes with a slit, so you pretty much can understand, I don’t have to come up with words to describe the process.

Melvin the ADSA president squatting and digging some food from his buccal sulcus with his tongue. Hehehe. This photo made many laugh on Facebook.

The ever hyper Batch 4 girls did a dance that brought many of us back to the 90s, early noughties. N’Sync’s Bye Bye Bye and Britney Spears’ Baby One More Time to name a few.

Old ladies like me appreciate songs from the 90s.

Dr. Niekla belts out Whitney Houston’s The Greatest Love Of All. Dr. Niekla can SING! Not only is she a brilliant pediatric dentist, she had an album and everything when she was in high school and quit the singing business to pursue her dentistry studies. My lecturer was a pop star back in Indonesia!! I can’t get over it, it’s just too awesome.

It has been a tradition for the Batch 1 to put up a video and this year, Jimmy came up with the idea to make a parody of this funny Thai commercial about exaggeration over the simplest things.

Here’s the video:

Ah Thong laughs at himself on the screen. I’m getting some Oscar/Golden Globes vibes here. Heh, like they are all dressed to the nines like how they are in the awards as they watch snippets of their award winning performances.

After the video was the part where a couple of students from each batch were sent up on stage to compete for the Dental King and Dental Queen title. The winner was Khim Yik from Batch 3 and Stephanie who is from Batch 2! This is Khim Yik’s second win! He first won the title when he was in Year 1!

The two reps from my class are Narjit and Joe.

This is Khim Yik!

This is Xin Le and Shanmugam from Batch 4. The couples were asked to act out a situation on the spot and I think these two did quite a good job!

A dance by Batch 2!

Batch 2’s drama was damn cute lah. The red cloth is the gingiva and those white stuff are of course teeth. It’s a story about a few teeth in the mouth of a boy. Whoever who was doing the voiceover (I think Carmen was one of them) did such an amazing job!

Then you have the bad guys, who are none other than evil S. Mutans. Streptococcus Mutans is the commonest bacteria which contributes to tooth decay, so of course all the dental students roared with laughter. So geeky of us!

Myself and Melvin while I was on the way to the toilet.

Wouldn’t be able to forgive myself I didn’t get one with the mirror.

Sigh, the sadness starts here. I have a few nice pictures on my own with awesome poses on the stairs, at the table etc. But it was all damaged by some stupid fucked up glitch with my SD card. I have digital camera phobia now. I never want to lose photos again, ever. And it had to happen with the pictures of my last dental dinner ever.

At least this one is still here. I’m going to have to ask you to excuse the chunk of an arm.

Crowning Dr. George as the best dressed lecturer.

And for the last time….Zephyr.

Zephyr is a band formed by my classmates and in their heydays (a time when they were less occupied with clinics and the likes) they actually played in places like Halo Cafe and were quite well known around campus.

If our schedule doesn’t free up and what with us finishing the course soon, this was their last performance.

Ah Thong and me! His tie quite different right!

Carmen and myself! Carmen was Chee Kiang’s senior (by one semester only) at IMU when he was there doing pharmacy for 6 months. And then she too left IMU to become my junior here. Hehe. Another transferred coursemate of Chee Kiang’s is Philip who used to be Chee Kiang’s junior when they did A-levels together in Singapore. He then pursued dentistry here as my Batch 3 junior.

Soo Huan, who won best dressed with her beautiful qipao.

l-r: Vivian, Me, Zhu Zen, Poh yee, Kaixuan, Soo Huan and Sylvia.

Brenda and I with Dr. Sonu, our pediatric dentistry lecturer.

Yii Ping and I. She’s got such a gorgeous smile!

Zephyr’s adoring fans.

Chwan Horng and I.

Narjit and me.

Oooh sexiness. (not me lah)
l-r: Deniece, Jeanette, Me

San leong.

Jamie and Me. Nice lace!!

Me and my darling housemate! Nice right the swirly thing she did to her eyes?

A more decent one of Lie Yuen and I.

By far the sweetest couple in BDS (the rest also very sweet..but the guys must take a leaf out of David’s book okay!) This is Kimra and David who have been together since their first year. They are now in third year already. Like most couples here in dentistry, they are always together. A particular sweet moment was during the futsal ADSALympics event. Someone kicked the ball and it hit Kimra on the head with a loud smack. David left the court and immediately rushed to her side and rubbed her head. SO SWEET RIGHT. It was by far the most exciting part of the game for me. *guy sports bore me*

Eh, another photo with Bala and Praveena!

Wilander and me!

Wah Seng and me!

Wah smexxy Peta and me. So onz your dress! I love it!

Oooh, this was a spoilt photo as well. But luckily the important parts of the photo was still good. So here it is, looking like some sidebar image link! Jacqueline and I were excited that we both had bling bling eyelashes.

The sides of myself and Jacqueline.

L-r: Encik Mansor, Encik Yahya, Myself, Lishen and Encik Abdullah. They are our dental technology lecturers.

Ei Leng and her gorgeous fascinator again! Courtesy of The Sticker Monster! (tak habis-habis promoting) ;P

L-r: Jeeva, Venga and me.

Sett and me. What’s with the thumbs up?

Jimmy and Brenda. I had one with Jimmy too but it was one of the spoilt photos, sigh.

I like this one of Andy and Lie Yuen!

And this one of Poh Yee with our guy classmates!! Regret that I didn’t have one like that!!! Why didn’t I think of it!

Before everyone made their way home, we tried to gather all the classmates for a photo together. However, Cze-Yin and Andy were missing from the photo.

So I made this! Jimmy and I have an on-going bet that anyone who can make the most realistic complete class photo will be able to laugh at the loser who will have to eat a ball of ZOE. (ZOE is the material used to fill the tooth temporarily and the material is dough-like) I’m still procrastinating my entry as he did a pretty damn good job. LOL. Let him wait lah till he forgets about it.

Room service!

Was driving out of the carpark when I saw Jimmy lying on the stairs. Somehow he looks like a dwarf with the optical illusion.

After the dental dinner and it being our last, many of us made our way over to Mois. It was fun because people from different batches came along. The crowd was huge! About a quarter of the club were taken up by dentistry students and some of us called our friends from other courses along. So basically Mois was filled with AIMST students that night.

Sock Nee looking so adorable here.

A few drinks before everybody warmed up.

Me and my sweaty face and my chewing gum.

If you think Chee Wen looks red here, this is nothing.

WHAT’S WRONG WITH MY CAMWHORING SKILLS!

This looks like a really nice movie poster. With Bala smiling in orange and Sett smiling knowingly at him! It’s another one of my distorted photos.

A clearer one of the two of them.

The girls looking happy.

Wah Adrian is SO feeling it.

L-r: Adrian (needs a tissue!), Aimee and Aik Munn.

l-r: Stephanie, Charis and CY.

SCARY RIGHT!! It’s like he used red paint on his face.

Poh Yee and her bling bling dress.

Andy declines a drink.

l-r: Pei Zhi, Xin Yi and Poh Yee.

Here’s a clearer view of Poh Yee’s super bling red dress.

Whatever is in the jar looks kind of gross. It’s not a mixture of puke, don’t worry.

Like every other outing to Mois, we ended at the night at the nearby mamak.

If you are a blogshop owner or a person who loves online shopping and have really ‘puke blood’ situations when it comes to transactions…

Slap Me Why Don’t You -The Place To Bitch Slap Those Idiots Without Them Knowing It.

I love it so much! Whoever who came up with it is a genius. Total anonymity. And with the tiny “Slap Seller” or “Slap Buyer” buttons akin to your Facebook Like buttons, it allows the readers to judge for themselves if the contributor was overreacting or are sided with.

Got to thank a certain Wen Chean on my twitter list for tweeting about it!

As if trying to get a place in an Australian university wasn’t hard enough, students then would have to think long and hard about places to stay and if those places met their budget or not. Most of these students were leaving the country and their parents for the first time in their lives! Not every parent is rich enough to accompany their child on their first big adventure and thus the student is thrown into the wilderness that is Australia to fend for him/herself in looking for an accommodation and basically understanding how the city works. I’ve never heard of trams until Abby told me about how she takes the tram to Melbourne Uni every other day. 

It’s always better if there’s already a local who knows what you’re coming in for and can prepare you for all these formalities and details. A friend of mine in Australia (actually Amanda’s boyfriend, Josh whom I have yet to meet) came up with this ingenious idea with his partners to aid such students. They understand that when one moves to a whole new world, it can get pretty stressful so they will be there to help you iron out the kinks!

According to them it takes about 2-3 weeks for a student to find a place to stay in Australia (if you did not opt for the super expensive campus accommodation) and so those couple of weeks could be put to better use with their help. Like going on a longer vacation before you start that all important first year at uni! Better to spend more time with your parents too as half of you will probably not stay at home permanently anymore from then on. 

Here is their list of services
• Location of rental property
• Application for rental property
• Securing of rental property
• Furniture procurement
• Limo pick up service from airport
• Connection of utilities
• Peace of mind 

Yeah! Even a limo pick up service from the airport! I mean it’s no Thailand, but still, no worries about getting kidnapped by any conmen upon your arrival down under. 

Picture from one of their recent roadshows.

If there are any parents or students out there up to their heads in Australian uni applications or even expatriates hoping to start a new life, do check out Ease Abroad!

I know I wouldn’t mind paying a small fee if it can sort out all the headaches for me and even helping me to secure better deals to fit my (would have been) poor student budget.

So I decided to travel back to my standard one academic memories to see if I can get a better response from her.

I asked, “So sudah belajar banyak benda di Standard one hor! What have you learned? Bola? Buku?” 

Then she started saying, “One, two…”

“Oh! You’ve learned how to count! Okay, One, Two…?”

“Three…four…five…six………” she went on.

I cheered her on until seventy before I decided that if I didn’t get started with our treatment, we’d be one of the last to leave the clinic.

Malay words were rather limited but strangely, she responds when I say the words out in bahasa baku. Especially when I sing it the way we were taught how to do in standard one.

If I wanted to ask if she felt any pain, I said, “Sakit tak? S-A SA, K-I-T KIT! SAKIT!”

She shakes her head.

“G-I GI G-I-T GIT. GIGIT!” and she bites!

Awesome.

Since she was such a good little girl, it was a practice to reward them with little stickers after their treatments so I let her choose a sticker from the sticker box (not mine, they didn’t ask me to be a supplier, boo.) She didn’t understand what I was doing. 

So I said, “Choose one! S A SA, T-U TU! SATU!”

She took one and left the clinic to find her daddy. 

So glad I found a solution. S-O So L-U- LU T-I TI O-N ON. SOLUTION. 

I’ve known this for a long time already but you are actually my best friend, confidante, gossip partner and most of all, boyfriend rolled into one. It’s all Jolene ever needs. Someone who can feed her with gossip, listen to her gossips and react to it, listen to her embarrassing secrets, make her howl with laughter, surprise her randomly when you notice almost all her likes and dislikes and to love her just the same. I’m glad you can do all that and not run away yet.

Expensive phone bills are not the norm for us and we only use Skype to chat when MSN is down. Though admittedly I have emo-ed in the past about the lack of phone calls (we’re both too busy and lazy) and lack of webcamming, but I know this is the way we do it. We make up for it when we see each other by telling each other everything and anything about what we have done, people around us who did things (ie. juicy juicy gossip!) and what we want for the future wayyyy into the night before we drift off to sleep. I’m usually the one falling asleep first as you continue to talk excitedly while I reply you with super random things coz my brain doesn’t quite comprehend anymore as it is shutting down. <3

I really like that. :) 

So this Malacca trip was supposed to be an eat as much as possible and take nice nice photos kind of trip. We started off with some noms back home in SS15. It was is one of those quieter lanes where Chee Kiang usually likes to have breakfast at. I can’t remember the name of the place for the life of me. So much for being a Subang girl.

He likes his dry..

I like mine wet.

It was supposed to be a day full of photos so here’s one to start things off. 

Stitch was REALLY happy when we arrived in Malacca.

As it was during the year end holidays, plenty of cars were jamming all the way into Malacca town. Here’s the Jalan Munshi Abdullah road sign. This was the road where my mum grew up on in a couple of shop lots that housed almost 20 members of the Ho family and one nanny to each kid! There were live-in cooks as well.

The road was called New Come Road back in the day. My great grand father bought three shop lots on that row to build a home for his family but he never got to live in it because he died before the building was completed. His third and fifth wives brought the children (child no.6 right up to child no.14. Child 1-5 either died or were back in China) to live their lives there. My grand father and his brother being number 7 and number 6 respectively started a hardware store business which we still have to this day though the shares from all the siblings have since being bought by my grand dad. Grand Uncle no.6 excelled in his studies and went on to study medicine in Hong Kong to become an orthopedic surgeon. 

My mum would tell me plenty of stories from her childhood about how her older guy cousins would play pranks on the young maids. Of how she and her cousins used to steal food from this refrigerator at Aunty No.6’s apartment as it was stocked full with ice-creams and chocolate. Of her dangerous stunts sliding down the stairs with a few of her cousins on ONE piece of wooden plank, at the SAME time. Of how they hid in fear and peered out the balcony to see soldiers roaming the streets in 1969. At that time my Aunty Ping (my yeema who passed away) had a foreign exchange student who stayed with our family. I think she was American, and being more happening than my aunty, she was out at some party when the riots started and scared my grand dad shitless when he couldn’t even contact her. 

Another one of my mother’s favourite story to share from the old shop lot was the aircon story. She messed with the sole air conditioner in my grandparent’s unit (the entire shop lot housed three families, each family had one unit to themselves) and spoiled it. Just as she was about to be caned by my grandmother, my 4th Uncle steps in to block my mum from getting hurt. Quite touching, but not much drama, sorry.

My family used to own a hotel called Regal Hotel in Malacca and it was the first proper hotel in town. The kids could just walk in anytime and have a meal and put it on the tab. My mum said she dare not simply eat for free because it was after all ran by 12th Uncle and so she would usually just tag along when 12th uncle’s daughters went for a treat. The hotel has since been sold off.

Then sometimes when I have alone time with my grandma, she tells me stories of her early years in that shop lot after marrying my grand dad in 1950. Third great grandmother was a feisty woman who is your typical first wife. (1st and 2nd wives were left in china. 4th died shortly after marriage.) A particular scathing remark I remember grandma telling me was when my first Uncle was born (if you remember my cute nephew Ethan, it’s his grandfather!), my grandma’s mum always came over to look at her first grandson. Third great grandmother did not like having my grandma’s mum around and said to her, “If you like babies so much, why don’t you go get one yourself!” and being a midwife, my great grand mother (grandma’s mum) adopted a child. So just like that my grandma had a baby brother at the ripe old age of 20.   

In the early 90s, I remember visiting the already empty shop lot with my family as they picked out antique furniture to decorate their respective homes. My Yee Ma gave the kids a task to keep us occupied, she got us to pick up all the coins we found on the dusty wooden floor and surprisingly there were plenty. 

The hardware store business was still running on the ground floor and this was before they moved to a bigger premise about half an hour away. By then grand uncle no.6 came home to be with his family and hung out with grand dad quite a lot. It was shocking when Grand Uncle No. 6 hung himself in the shop lot because he did not want to trouble the family when he found out he had alzheimers. Consequently, my grand father too developed the illness about 9 years later and so did his 9th brother. *crosses fingers* Let’s hope it stops there! 

The shop lots have since been transformed into a modest budget hotel called Venus Hotel! I was trying to look up information on this budget hotel but there was none. Maybe my family history can make the place feel more ‘authentic’. Throw a bit of the antiques around and put up some old photos. Perfect! 

This was when we parked the car and started taking artsy fartsy shots (which we hope turns out to be so). Here’s an old school car number plate shop.

and now time for some hau por photos from me.

You think that’s spontaneous huh? It was more of “Okay now this side, then you kiss me on the cheek okay! 1..2…”

Just so you know, that we were there and all.  

Jonker Walk, the musical!

I thought fish spas were usually found in atas-ier places. 

Had to hurry past this as I was afraid the scaffolding (that is what it is called right?) might collapse on me.

Almost all the trades in the area looked like family business. Another old school looking something, this time, A MONEY CHANGER! (oh how exciting. -_-)

Guess me taking his photo added a little excitement to his day judging from his smile. 

This was selling all over Jonker Walk. Tiny umbrellas posing as wine bottles and most of it was like RM10 to RM15. I almost bought one but I get turned off when all stalls sell the same thing.

This was rather interesting! More photos on this guy later. You usually see these clay figurines being depicted in ancient tvb dramas.

What an apt name for a dentist! I got a very apt name too. Pergigian Gigi Lai, as suggested by my cousin Hong Fei.

1Malaysia!

Just for fun, we did something we never thought we would ever do! At least not until we become superstitious adults who take note of numbers of new cars, death certificates, number plates of cars in car accidents, birthdate of first born, new washing machine serial no, four numbers our dead ancestors gave to us in our dreams… the list is endless.

Being total novices to the whole 4D Toto thing, we bought a few numbers which was basically variants of our anniversary date 17 or 18 of December 2004. Being total noobs, we just randomly bought the numbers and didn’t ‘ta’ the numbers. To ‘ta’ is to permutate. 

Fuckanathan 1718 came out but it came out 7811 or something. CONSOLATION PRIZE OKAY!

You wonder if all the businesses are there just to look pretty for tourists or is that really how they roll? 

Though it does not have anything to do with malaccan culture, I thought the knick knacks that almost every other shop was selling were rather cute! Cartoon magnets!

Store owner yakking on his modern handphone while being enveloped in old world architecture.

So, there were plenty of chinese characters all over Jonker Walk as expected, since the area is rather chinesey. Had a bit of mandarin tuition from him though frequently reading things wrongly, like mixing the chicken character for mother or horse. Mother and horse are quite similar. But turns out it was about the chinese prime minister. This was on a poster at the front of Jonker Walk. Not the towel. So easy la the towel. Lao por wo ai ni. THERE!

Chee Kiang’s favourite cartoon! When I found Tusiki (Tuzki?) stickers, he wanted one for himself!

Tusiki building the great wall of China? Hahahaha.

Cute fans… but such is my life these days, always in an aircon somewhere so this is quite useless. Aircon clinics, aircon afternoon nap rooms (common room at school), aircon car, aircon bedroom……wait, only my lunch place is not air-conditioned! How can this be! ROAR! 

Chee Kiang thought including the chinese words would make for a better photo. 

Little wire decos. 

Another staple at Jonker Walk would be the awesome t-shirts! I just bought one with a few black sheeps staring at one conventional white sheep going, “Who’s the black sheep now?”. Gangsta sheeps! And another one with the silhouette of a little girl and a tiny baby alien holding hands looking at his spaceship crashing into her home. He then says, “Sorry……..” SO CUTE. Little alien has a tiny antenna from the top of his head!

Just liking the colours but I think these Babe shirts are rather much.

Steamed peanuts!! But I love salty steamed horse peas more than these. 

Okay, this was rather nice and unlike the mass produced toys found all over the place! 

Not quite a tourist attraction, but he just wanted to pose like the models.

He’s getting there!

One with the weather beaten road sign. Do you think the Malaccan government manually scratched the paint off for maximum authentic effect?

Perhaps an actor hired by the Malaccan government to make the area look more rustic. 

Check out the long line waiting to cramp into the chicken rice ball shop. The last time I had chicken rice balls I hated it because it was too mushy. But it was also because I was like 8 years old and was so damn picky when it came to food. Mushy rice balls is so yum now with soya sauce from the soggy steamed chicken. Mmm.

A quick fish face with the stone fishes.

SUPER OLD SIGN BOARD! Check out the currency denomination! 

We had to share tables when we were in there and the wait is super long. I think all the lining up and food waiting took about an hour.

Really long wait.

I was wondering though why chicken rice balls are not replicated all over Malaysia like how Char Kuay Teow and other hawker delicacies are. 

A smile with lips slightly parted.

A smile with teeth showing. 

Chicken carcasses right next to our table. Nice.

In case the chicken started sweating.

Good to see that good hygiene was a priority.

The steamed chicken skin was a little too soft for my liking.

Chicken rice balls up close.

The chicken rice sauce that is used is not quite soya sauce so it wasn’t up to my usual expectations but we finished five balls each!

Yeah just shove it in your mouth, uh huh.

This little girl was not happy that I was going trigger happy. The two times I went near her with a camera, she turned away, refusing to look at me. I felt so sad.

 But he enjoyed his mochi.

Mochi close up.

Since it was the end of the year, Jonker Street was filled with tourists. Elbow to elbow.

Passed by a shop selling toys from my past. Couldn’t resist myself!

The brand I bought was the inferior one. Thins out damn fast. The good one is the one with a pink cap and is slightly bigger in size. 

I miss these things!

Chee Kiang didn’t want to play though.

Chee Kiang reenacted his “HEY YOU!” look which was in one of his FB profile photos. This look kinda sticks in your head.

You can’t see it here but I was blowing one of my bubbles.

More quaint chinese things to be found along Jonker Street. My grandmother used to have one and she would walk around the house with it on some evenings saying that the smoke will chase away the evil spirits. 

Haven’t-Finish-Skool meets Old Skool.

An olden toy outside an antique shop. Isn’t it gorgeous?

A lone joss stick under the afternoon sun.

A trip to Malacca can never ever be complete without having Durian Cendol. This means I have racked up far too many incomplete Malacca trips in all the 21 years that I have been visiting. 21 x 5 visits = Over a hundred visits sans cendol. I haven’t even been to A’Famosa until 2007. Locals never bother to visit the tourist attractions.

Durian Cendol monster. He had two.

Of all places to be pinching a pimple!

It’s a little unfortunate that the stain on the mirror made his nostril look diseased. 

High tv aerials to get Singapore television shows illegally. My mum used to have it as a child.

One trishaw puller put his legs up in the air and shouted, “Weee!” as he took a corner.

Some pastries that I think belong in Negeri Sembilan?

A necessary photo outside the clogs shop.

So this was the clay figurines that I promised to get back to. I tried googling about this cute little things but I really don’t know what they are actually called. Polymer clay right? Not candies right? 

The sifu is a real master. Love the gold bits he puts on the figurines.

To play with my bottle of bubbles, I found a quiet spot away from the bustling crowd to just blow bubbles. 

A young family wound down their car window to allow the bubbles to get into the car.

Chee Kiang managed to get a photo of me exchanging smiles with the family. Would have looked better if I was 19 years younger. 

Fascinated by the bubbles.

A few passing kids were rather jealous of me.

It was without question that I made Chee Kiang blow his fair share.

Weak bubble.

Found another quiet spot with a pretty backdrop. 

I thought there was supposed to be a mirror on this thing. How will the ghosts see themselves now? 

Pineapple tarts are one of the more famous souvenirs from Malacca. Again, never knew.

Another downtrodden altar.

We then explored the back alleys, away from the main Jonker Street and saw a bit of the local trade. This shop sells noodles!

A shop that sells plenty of beans and spices.

So messy, not quite sure what it sells but provisions nonetheless. 

Reminds me of the turtle eggs I saw being preserved in a similar jar.

A little out of place was this dirty looking warehouse which I assume to be a santan making factory.

More arts and crafts things. 

After falling in love with works of art in Paris, I had an inkling that Malacca would satiate my new desire to look at and learn about paintings. But this was a batik painting gallery, bleh. I want to look at poster colour or water colour paintings! Even oil paintings would do!

I think we eventually ventured over to an area called Masjid India… or something. Here’s one of the lions guarding the oldest temple in Malacca.

And here’s one of me with the joss stick container.

Here’s one of someone who knows exactly what to do at a temple. 

So grand..

Red candles! I wonder what they signify.

The insides of the old temple.

We didn’t want to disturb anybody because everyone looked busy praying so we had to camwhore instead of asking for some help.

Remnants of prayer flowers.

These are the bronze engravings found on the temple doors.

There is something so calming about wax lotus tealights. Beautiful, religious and you can almost hear the chanting monks. Actually the only times I hear chanting monk is when I go to a funeral. If the funeral is for a family member, the song sticks in your head and you hear it when you’re in the car alone, when you’re in the bathroom, basically anywhere where there is supposed to be silence. Freaky.

Oh, here’s a fair bit of art.

Seems like you can’t take artsy fartsy shots these days without uncles staring at you with arms akimbo.

Check out my shadow!

You really don’t pass up brightly painted, uh, shutters? Whatever it is, nice background.

I’m sure he is just joking.

Beautiful clogs!! Probably a novelty but oh so pretty!

We ended up at this coffee placed called Malaysia 13 States’ Coffees or summat. Chee Kiang and I actually kepo-ed because we saw an old white guy flirting with .. um, i don’t know what race, but I’m pretty sure the girl is a fellow South East Asian.. and she was laughing at all his photos in his camera so we took the table next to them for some afternoon entertainment. We turned our chairs around to sit the Al Fresco way. Oh right, this picture is a list of all the websites and blogs that have reviewed this coffee place. Was hoping to put jayelleenelial.com on the map by blogging about having coffee there.

A bit of christmas decoration.

So as you can see, apparently coffee beans grow and get processed different in various parts of the country.

Chee Kiang had a Negeri Sembilan drink.

Thick and frothy..

He actually likes it.

I was just having one since it seemed rather different but then I remembered how much I hated coffee that is not Nescafe.

My coffee was from Terengganu and it tasted horrible. So damn bitter.

Possible the only way to pass the time.

I noticed that the colours of my gorilla pod and our hands together looked rather nice under the afternoon sun and then he went on to exclaim, “I notice you like to take this kind of photos a lot.” Blushing, I decided to have a little variety so here are some pointless finger and hands photos:

That’s what waiters are for.

Since I wasn’t the driver of my own car for once, I had the chance to spend plenty of quality time with the toys in my car. I hardly get to hug them as they are strewn all over the backseat.

We passed by Bukit Baru and I had this urge to visit my grandparents’ old house. In 1997, they shifted to Bukit Beruang which is where the family would congregate every time we all go back to Malacca prior to my Aunty’s death. This Bukit Baru house holds many childhood memories for me. All the cars could be parked in the porch and the garden. During chinese new year, five cars would be parked there and there would still be room to run around playing fireworks. 

When it wasn’t chinese new year, my cousins, my brother and myself would be playing in the garden and running round to the back to play with the dog. We were about 6-9 years old and were light enough to seat on the dog who really didn’t mind us. Some nights, my aunty would devise games for us and we would play on the porch until we got bored. I remember once she asked me to lift up my legs as she held my hands and swung me round and round and round. I was flying!

Behind the sliding doors on the first floor was the family hall. We would all sit there after our bath to watch a VCR, either a Disney cartoon or a TVB show. Afternoons were spent playing pirates with the big bean bag and if there were hell notes lying around (especially when there is some taoist celebration coming up) my cousin sister, Jacqueline, being the tallest would hide the hell notes and ask us to find it. Speaking of that particular bean bag which always seemed to be bursting at the seams, I remember taking a polystyrene ball from it when I was three years old and putting it up my nose. It couldn’t come out for awhile and scared my parents shitless.

So many memories, I can never finish writing them all. 

I had to have a picture taken with the house. Since I was lazy to put my glads back on (glads can be such a bitch), I wore Chee Kiang’s Crocs out. The colours are blinding aren’t they?

Nice of him to wait patiently for me.

Opposite our house was a big family with so many girls. I didn’t quite comprehend it back then but come to think of it now, the parents were probably trying for a boy. So many girls I don’t even remember how many there were. They used to come over and play with us and we would flag down the Roti Man/Ice Cream Man together and get the adults to treat us to 30 cents ice-cream cones or Mammee Monster. 

There was a little boy who stayed in that house who would climb over the fence (very dangerous) to play the Happy Family card game with us. 

My grandmother painstakingly watered and loved these pine trees (there were four of them, but only two are left) and now they are cut in half.

I had quite a bit of explaining to do to the owner of the house when they saw me snapping outside their home. The lady asked me why I was taking pictures and I had to tell her that I was a bit sentimental and that this was my grandmother’s old house. She wasn’t too friendly.

Feeling a bit embarrassed, we then made our way back to the highway and headed home. 

It’s hard to believe that some old friends whom you have lost touch in the last five years or more, suddenly messages you out of the blue trying to say hello and stuff, actually want to keep in touch. I believe there are some people who just want to say hello for old time’s sake but at least 99% of the time, after exchanging a few default greetings, a favour is asked of you. Usually these come in the form of monetary gains. 

Got people so thick face one or not?

I’m so cynical that when a really really really old friend/acquaintance message me on facebook or msn asking me how’s life, I feel like saying “Cut the crap, what is it that you need me to do for you?”

I’d rather you just say “Hi, I know we’ve not been in touch, but I’d like to ask you about this…” rather than “Hello! How’s life? Good? So have you graduated? How’s your family? How long more to graduation?” etc etc until I thought we were having a really good conversation before they just cut in the conversation with a “Hey…. have you heard about (this is the worse)/I’m currently doing this thing (usually)/do you think you can (expected, but not as bad)..”

I don’t want to be this bitter old woman but I will help if it is within my means but when it inconveniences me (and takes up my time by listening to them rattle on about how this or that product or service would totally change my life) I will not bother to give face to the person at all. Admittedly it can be pretty tough to brush someone off if they were never ever annoying and are pretty nice people. Some people you can just tell them directly that you’re not able to help/you’re not interested because it doesn’t really matter for you to preserve that relationship.

Also, like most bloggers who has been at it for long enough, you really can’t say no to friends when they ask for help. Sometimes you don’t even take any payment when they ask you to help publicize something coz it is really not the right thing to do to a friend. But when an acquaintance, someone who didn’t even bother to say hello to you in school because you were not worthy of their time suddenly wants you to write about their something or other, it really pisses me off. Majorly. 

I will definitely help friends who I have kept in touch with but to be out of someone’s life for a long period of time only to say hello again with a favour to ask is just plain rude. You make us feel so worthless as a friend. 

I mean if the favour is to help look for some super medical specialist to cure a dying family member, of course it is okay. But when you burden me with your insurance/direct marketing nonsense it becomes really despicable.

I don’t know man, I just don’t have patience for these people in my life.  

On Msn:

Cheeks ชี เกียง  [JO.CK]:
hi dear 
how was ur paper?

Miss Lai, you want to stick a finger down your throat and dig out that blob of phlegm. Please try it.:
hi dear
not yet
tmr only
:’( 

Cheeks ชี เกียง  [JO.CK]:
why you don’t like your uterus*

*In reference to my facebook status update about ripping off my uterus and throwing it at the ceiling.

Miss Lai, you want to stick a finger down your throat and dig out that blob of phlegm. Please try it.:
haha.. well, aside from the fact that it’ll bear us a family
it gives me shit every month
pain la now

Cheeks ชี เกียง  [JO.CK]:
OHMYGOD ITS HERE AGAIN

Miss Lai, you want to stick a finger down your throat and dig out that blob of phlegm. Please try it.:
YES
RUN

 Cheeks ชี เกียง  [JO.CK]:
you’re asking me to run? why

 Miss Lai, you want to stick a finger down your throat and dig out that blob of phlegm. Please try it.:
hahaha coz ur scared of me when my period is here whatt

Cheeks ชี เกียง  [JO.CK]:
but i’m always here for u

Miss Lai, you want to stick a finger down your throat and dig out that blob of phlegm. Please try it.: 
SO SWEET!!! *melts* ok now uterus also feel better coz of temporary happy hormones release

Of course my tummy cramps were still there, but I thought this was very sweet of him. Like KINDS WORDS FOR THE MONSTER before she goes on a rampage biting things and people alike. And of course he’ll deny thinking that. Bless. <3

Every girl could do with a little pick me up come exam season:) This is my way of doing it!

ALSO I AM OBSESSED WITH GLEE. First time I am crushing on a guy who is one year younger than me. Even with celebrities, I couldn’t bring myself to go gaga over someone younger or even a gay personality. It’s like totally no hope, so why go there? KURT AND ARTIE ARE JUST AWESOME. I think their real names are sexier, though so common. Sorry to all the Kevins and Chrises out there! Chris Colfer looks like a character out of an Enid Blyton book. You know those school boys who bump into fairies in the woods when they go out to play and having to learn a lesson from a magical spell gone wrong.

I watched Wicked when I was in London back in September, so I was absolutely thrilled when I read that Defying Gravity was going to be on Glee. Totally loved the version on it.

Here’s my take.

And for the longest time, I have been obsessed with Lady Gaga’s Bad Romance. Jimmy and Poh Yee who are usually with me on the four hour rides home to KL will have to endure at least a few rounds of Bad Romance and me screeching along to it.

So here it is as well:

Thank you for listening! Hope I didn’t get too screechy/breathy/nauseating.

Back to the books.

Funny thing is that these people knew of each other’s existence from way back but the friendship somehow only managed to blossom when they are much much older (now). 

I just find it interesting and rather peculiar that so very different people can now have so much in common!

Of course people grow up and develop interests only to cross paths with these other people who too grew up to find themselves having something in common with an old stranger from school. I just think it is amazing how everyone links up. Facebook would be so proud.

It just makes you think if the friends you consider your closest now were to exist in your life over ten years ago, meaning the uni mates or colleagues you have now existed back then as primary school mates. Would you still be such great pals?

I too realized that the friends I ‘grew’ up with are friends I usually call “my high school friends”. But truth is, about half of them were from my primary school and I usually forget that we were primary school mates. I was invisible to them and they were too advanced for me (my mum didn’t allow me to go hang out at Pyramid to catch a movie or go ice skating in 1998) so we never really knew each other.

In a way, the only friends I have back home are my high school friends. There are only ever three bunches I see:

1) The Dahlings and the Hunnies
The Dahlings are the bunch of girls from my year who were not all my classmates but we grew close because of Interact and Volleyball which sustained our friendship. We were initially pulled together because of a few like Chien and Sush. Then there was Mel and me. I think form2 was a rather crucial year. 

Chien, Sush, Mun Teng and Li Peng were all in a clique back in primary school where they played tali getah (a famous game among malaysian school girls involving a really long jump rope made out of rubber bands. I made one too, but I had nobody to teach me and play with.) So it was only natural that they stuck together when they entered the same high school. We didn’t talk in primary school but only said hello in high school because the other person was familiar.

Mel and I befriended each other when we were boy crazy form1 librarians stalking morning session boys. I was fond of a particular prefect in his white tight pants and she was busy fending off many suitors from the third form. Over Bliss magazines and the introduction of a world of furry and glittery girly things, Mel and I became best friends and attended Interact meetings together. I introduced her to her first real boyfriend too. (Wave hello, Vern Yang!)

In form2, the dahlings were technically split into only two classes: 2 Budi and 2 Cekap. In 2 Budi, Sush, Mel, Esther, Amanda and V-ng Yan were there. In 2 Cekap, I was there with Chien, Mun Teng, Melissa and Li Peng. These two bunch of girls formed cliques in their own class and because of the existing bonds between some of the girls, the entire bunch gelled together and became one. 

We were not The Dahlings until form3. I know it sounds like a super lame name but it was Amanda who came up with the cheesy name in form3 when she drew a picture of all of us. :) 

Oh, 2 Azam was Abby’s class, but she was the new hot girl in school and it was only towards the end of form2 where she joined us. And as for Min Dee, she was the new girl from Assunta and she only came to our school in form3. She started hanging out with us more in form4, thanks to Chien!

The Hunnies are the bunch of guy friends who were mostly pals of Chien from primary school (Kwo Kuang, Chun Guan, Kevin, Barry, Yijin..) but they also consist of a few from other primary schools such as Nigel, E Guy, Marcus, Adrian and Kay Hong . Come to think of it almost the entire bunch of “hunnies” are from my primary school. Hunnies were formed because they were jealous of the “Leng Chai Gang”. I would say that the “Leng Chai Gang” is a subsidiary of the Hunnies.

“Leng Chai Gang” is a name for the bunch of guys from 4 Omega. They consist of Barry, Adrian, Kay Hong, Kevin and Yijin. Barry is Leng Lui LengChai, Kay Hong is Lala LengChai, Yijin is BabyLengChai, Adrian is NerdLengChai and Kevin is Emo Lengchai. The Leng Chai gang take trips away together where they get wasted in hotel rooms and come home with funny drunken stories. 

The Hunnies were the left over boys from the bunch who were not in the same class back in Form 4 and thus have no special name. So out of spite, they called themselves the Hunnies. Also to mock The Dahlings I think. 

Yeah, long story short, these are the people whom I still hang out with because most of us went to Taylor’s College together. They were my primary school friends, high school friends AND my college friends. Such is life in the education hub of Malaysia = Subang Jaya, where you need not travel far for an education. I bet I could claim to be in the same kindergarten as them if I was born in 1986. 

I’m glad we make it a point to hang out on a very regular basis what with everybody working now. I’m the only student left in the group btw. Oh Chien and Adrian too as they are both doing medicine. LONG COURSES SUCK BALLS. 
 

2) The Interact Seniors/Volleyball Gang. 

Dennis, Joshua and Vern Yang are the ones whom we usually see as compared to the rest of the senior guys we hung out with back in school. (When they graduated from high school, we were like, “We don’t have anymore guy friends.”.

The Dahlings and this bunch of seniors were really close because of the Interact Club and being on the volleyball team. We were still in the Under-15’s girls’ team and they were in the Under-18 boys’ team. Of course other bonds were because a few of them were interested in some of the girls (not me) and some of us were interested in them (HEY JOSH WASSAP). 

Funny, didn’t really hang out much with the senior girls in that year except for a few whom we still see when there is a chance like Evelyn and Rosalyn. But here’s a really good example of what I meant by getting along with others at different times of your life. I was quite scared of Rosalyn back in high school coz she was all about tough love but in recent years when we do meet up, the conservation just flows and is filled to the brim with gossips!

I can actually remember my very first ICQ chat with Dennis. That was the first time we spoke. I already knew that he was the popular head prefect from my primary school (I was 9, he was 12). When I added him on ICQ, I was in form1 and he was in form3. I don’t know why I remember the chat also, maybe because I had a penchant to reread my ICQ chat histories back in the day when going online did not involve stalking blogs, updating blogs, selling things, stalking friends on facebook and basically you had a lot more time on your hands when you were online. 

I remember it was something along the lines of getting to know each other. The memory is a little vague but I do remember him telling me that he is a really eccentric character (No shit, KKB*). The 12 year old me nodded wisely and typed back, “You must be really rich then.”

Having not had enough of English classes at 12 years old, I assumed eccentric meant being rich. 

Can’t believe it is also my 10th year of friendship with those guys. All getting ancient this year at 26!

*KKB stands for Korkorbear. Dennis is the leader of the Bear family. Not gonna go into details, too corny. 

3) The Leo Gang/Chee Kiang’s Gang

Being the president of the Leo Club back in high school, Chee Kiang grew close to Daryl and Justin. He was already close to Gaya who was his Form One classmate and Gaya was best friends with Nadine. Justin was my primary school mate so I had already known him for many years, but we never really acknowledged each other in primary school and as for Daryl we got along really well the moment he stepped into my class in Form2 as the new boy with the x-men hair cut. He taught me what cock teaser meant!

Because of ‘things brewing’ between Chee Kiang and myself back in Form3-5, I’d go along when they hung out. I had my first shisha with them in form3 at Pyramid and stayed out till midnight for the first time in Form4 when they celebrated the Leo Club election results, also in Pyramid. I don’t think we’ll ever grow out of Sunway Pyramid. Any Subang kid would tell you that the setting of the beginnings of their social life started with Sunway Pyramid. 

It was also with them when I had my first party with alcohol! This was in Form 4 and I think it was during the World Cup Season in 2002, and the Drunken Daryl Stories (DDS) still lives to this day. Butt slapping, shouting down the road when some random dude cheered from his house at some Turkey goal, puking, Chee Kiang mopping the floor, dancing Dance Dance Revolution on the floor without the mat……. good times, good times. Oh yeah!! It was Chee Kiang’s 16th birthday party and when he blew the candles they asked me to kiss him on the cheek. I declined coz shy.

After high school, people like Jon and Joshua (another Joshua) started hanging out more with the group and now Chee Kiang’s best friends at home include people he hardly talked to back in school. They bonded at different times of their lives.

So yeah. Sorry, I got carried away. These are the few people whom I usually see when I am home. 

What I am trying to say is that my friendships were bonded because of similar wavelengths I shared with these people at a certain point in my life. Today, I am not 12 anymore hoping to make more friends in high school. Um, if you’ve seen my facebook friends list, it’s just people I know.. but it is really difficult to find friends you can sit down and have a long laugh with. Too many of them are just superficial acquaintances. But who knows. Maybe when we are 78, in a nursing home, we’ll talk happily about our grandkids and our unfilial children for putting us in this pathetic home. 

Like my classmates and some of my juniors in dentistry (some, because it’s quite difficult to bond when you’re from different years with different schedules). It’s just great when you meet someone whom you get along so well with. Some people whom you meet on that first day of school and talk damn alot with just because you have so much in common, could very well be almost like strangers to you by the end of the course.

I never knew my closest friend here would be the girl who sat quietly in front of the teacher back in A-levels, whom I wasn’t all that close with back in college. Lie Yuen and I have been classmates for 7 years now and we’re like family. Living together for almost five years already.

Would I have been able to befriend Zhu Zen if I had met her at that Interact Conference in Shah Alam back in 2001? 

Despite the language barrier in the early years, I didn’t think I would be able to connect as much as I wanted with my classmates but now I can laugh along and not wait for someone to translate the mandarin jokes for me. At least most of the time. I can do a fair bit of mandarin now. Some days I can actually carry a conversation in mandarin for quite a bit!

I grew to be comfortable with them and they with me, despite my constant need for translations.

Outside of my circles, aside from Chee Kiang who is my best everything rolled in one, I have two guy friends whom I can tell anything and everything to. Weng Lum and Calvin. Our mutual friends are plenty, but I would go for mutual acquaintances, it is more apt. Nobody would guess that we are actually friends because we simply don’t have enough of mutual friends to form a clique. I can’t possibly leave Soon Seng out if I am to mention guy friends. I truly enjoy all our long chats in the car down to any blogger event. You are my bridge between my high school-Subang friends and the blogger friends. Soon Seng and I met at an Interact Club event in 2002 and he was already very friendly to begin with. Definitely someone who can bond with anyone at any point in time of their lives.

Here at uni, my closest guy buddy is definitely Jimmy. We think we are cousins because of the shared surname, oh and the shared religion too - he is also a Soka Gakai member. But I’m thankful for someone with the same twisted sense of humour because I seriously need a good laugh all the time. You know how it is when you’re on the same wavelength, you don’t really have to explain why you think something is funny, you both just snigger snigger/laugh like hyenas. This connection I also share with Brenda. Most of the girls here and I do, but with Brenda, she gets it more. Like her mind is just as dirty as mine. Heehee don’t deny it, babes.

I have always wondered how would it be if I met all these people back in high school. Or in kindergarten for that matter. 

Sometimes, I get a little crazier and even think about what would it be like if I were to travel back in time to be friends with my parents! Would my mum and dad be best friends with me? Can they connect with me? Sometimes it gets even more crazy, I think about being buddies of the same generation with my great grandparents. What would it be like?

Alright, I’m done with the mildly interesting thoughts I had floating around my head for a bit. Time to go back to the books. 
Oh, before I go, just one little bit more: And some friends, you just lose touch with when you grow up.

Different wavelengths at different times of our lives.