Precious Egg

New Zealand - Day 1 Christcurch - Hokitika

2014-10-24T02:45:00.002-07:00

(Date travelled : 17.11.2013)

We touched down at Christchurch international airport as schedule at about 6.30pm yesterday after a whole day of flying. As instructed, we keyed in no "25" at the phone just before the exit of the airport. We were told to wait for the van to send us to depot to collect our car. With no hassle at all, we collected the car which we were quite happy with.

We then drove directly to Airways motel and had our dinner which was prepared by Tess. At night, we drove downtown to the city center. To our disappointment, the city was still very much in a state of "after-quake" with reconstruction work in progress everywhere. The area was deserted and the weather was very cold.

The six of us in the deserted street in front of the damaged church!

In the morning, after our breakfast in the comfortable motel, our journey started with everyone feeling really excited.

Airways Motel, 2 bedrooms + 1 single bed + 1 sofa bed in the living room. Very comfortable.

As agreed, Tess and Lai lead the way with their GPS which was already uploaded with the route. Pa only needed to follow behind. So we just sat back and relax.

Once we were out of the city, we were immediately greeted with vast greenery with clear blue sky and pure white cloud, and of course SHEEPS!

Yeah, this is New Zealand!

Shortly, the Red Ford Focus signaled to stop and of course we followed suit. There was a lake with mountains as backdrop. It was beautiful!

So peaceful and calm and NEAT.

Just a random spot by the road and it's beautiful!

The journey continued, about 1 1/2 hour later, we reached out first itinerary, the Castle Hill. Along the State Highway 37, Castle Hill is a hill of about 700m high scattered with dark grey rocks of all sizes. We had a good time there.

Tess and I at the top of the hill. Look how small the lane we walked down there!

After that, about 1/2 hour journey, we arrived at Arthur's Pass where we stopped for photo and had our first glimpse of snow-capped mountain of NZ.

We then had our lunch of pizza in a small restaurant.

After lunch, we continued our journey to our last itinerary of the day, The Pancake Rock. On the way, we passed by Greymouth which is on the west coast. We had already crossed from West coast to the East coast by now, facing the Tasman sea.

The Tasman sea.

We drove another 35 mins to the North and we were at Punaikaki for the Pancake Rock. The pancake-like rock formation is the result of limestone being compressed because of erosion.

Unfortunately we missed the high tide and hence missed the spectacular sight of the sea water gushed through the hole.

It's supposed to look like this when the tide is high!

Sadly, this is what we saw.

Neat layers of rocks overlapping !

Beautiful Tasman Sea.

After that, we drove to Greymouth, stopped for groceries. Then we proceeded to Hokitika and checked into the 252 Beach Motel where our 2 chefs prepared dinner and Mi and I had our showers.

Dinner of Roast Chicken and pastas and veges, nice!

After dinner, we rushed to the shore which is just behind the motel to view the sunset of Tasman Sea.

Beautiful Tasman Sunset!

So this is our first day in NZ. Looking forward to our 2nd day, Fox Glacier, here we come!

New Zealand trip! Home of middle earth!

2014-10-23T20:23:00.001-07:00

Ah, how I miss the cold breeze, fluffy sheep and those fat cows in New Zealand. My family and I, along with my cousin and her husband, went to New Zealand for two weeks in Nov 2013.

It was a painful 10.5 hours flight to Auckland followed by a domestic flight to Christchurch. We travelled around the south island of New Zealand anti clock wise starting from Christchurch and ending in Christchurch too.

Once again, Mi was the one behind the whole trip from planning to booking of accommodations. She got the infos and ideas from those blogs she read and also Tripadvisor. She spent months to plan so that everything is well taken care off.

After a few rounds of amendments, she finally decided on the route trying to cover as much as possible in South Island.

1) 16/11 - KL - Aukland - flight @11.55pm
2) 17/11 - Aukland - Christchurch - 1.35pm arrive Aukland, 5pm Jetstar to Christchurch
                - 6.25pm arrive Christchurch, collect rented car from Apex Car Rental
3) 18/11  - Christchurch - Hokitika
4) 19/11 - Hokitika - Fox Glacier
5) 20/11 - Fox Glacier - Wanaka
6) 21/11 - Wanaka - Queenstown
7) 22/11 - Queenstown
8) 23/11 - Queenstown - Milford Sound - Te Anau
9) 24/11 - Te Anau - Kaka Point
10) 25/11 -  Kaka Point - Dunedin
11) 26/11 - Dunedin - Mt Cook
12) 27/11 - Mt Cook - Lake Tekapo
13) 28/11 - Lake Tekapo - Christchurch
14) 29/11 - Christchurch - Aukland, 6.55pm flight , 8.25pm arrive
15) 30/11 - Aukland - KL 1.35am  flight 7.25am arrive
Only when the route was confirmed that she could proceed to book the accommodations which is very important so that everyone could have a good rest at the end of everyday! She opted for motels with cooking facility so that we could cook our dinner instead of eating out to cut cost. In fact, this is what most people do when they travel in NZ. AS usuak, she uses Booking and Agoda for booking.

Next she moved to car renting. From http://www.qyer.com/, she learned that Apex Car Rental is reliable and cost effective. To accommodate the 4 of us, she chose Nissan Wingroad Station Wagon which is also the cheapest in the range.

My cousin Tess and her husband Lai, fly SIA from Singapore directly to Christchurch reaching a few hour ahead of us. They get themselves a Ford Focus, also from Apex.

This is the plan for the whole trip. Well, I must say that it is quite well planned taking into considerations of all aspects including travelling time, meals time and ample time of sightseeing!

Hangzhou - Day 6

2014-10-21T01:41:00.000-07:00

(Date travelled : 3/11/2012)

This is the last day of our trip. There is only one itinerary, the renowned West Lake which is within walking distance. Our flight is at 1135pm, so there's no need to rush, or so we thought!

We had our luggage stored at the hostel before we check out. Once we walked out of the hostel only we realized that the area is a very interesting place itself. We found ourselves in an old charming world!

We came upon McDonald in an old building and decided to have our breakfast there. Nice!

After that, we walked along the road and found ourselves in Hefeng street which is the shopping street of Hangzhou. Typical Chinese shopping street.

We continued to walk towards the lake. When we were at the junction opposite the bus stop, an old and kind looking woman started to talk to pa. She told Pa that the right way to tour the lake is to start from Jiuxi, then proceed ahead without turning back, tracing the path that was once been walked by the emperor, called the Dragon Path. We thanked her and along the way, there was a younger woman, she too told us that we have to start from Jiuxi.

So we took the bus as what the old woman suggested. About half an hour later, we reached the terminal. There we got down, hailed a taxi (she called it the Bread Car), about 15mins on, we reached Jiuxi.

There was a small pond and waterfall. Then we noticed the path surrounded by trees and a stream by the side, we remembered what the old woman said, do not turn back, just walked along. Oh my, it was a long walk.....

We walked on and on, finally we reached a small village, and there came another old woman. She kept offering Pa to take a break at her house which is nearby. Pa did not has the heart to turn her down, even with protest from Mum, he accepted and 2 mins later, we were sitting in her house where she eagerly served us tea from her farm.

She also offered us her wash room which was exactly what we needed. She was telling us the tea leave from her farm is of high quality and of course we ended buying 2 packs which cost about RM40/pack from her.

After that, she helped us to get a private car to send us to a silk factory in the tea farm, the lake was nowhere to be seen. Mum was unhappy as she knew by now that something was not right. Pa quickly stopped a taxi by the road. When the lady driver heard our stories, immediately she said she always knew because no tourist would ended in the area. Thank God that we only bought 2 packs and nothing else!!

Hangzhou is well known for it's fine Long Jin tea.

After about 20mins, the taxi finally arrived at the jetty of the very big West Lake. We took the boat ride to the island in the lake.

The boats are very unique in beautiful oriental style.

Some of the popular spots, Willow Singing, Lotus Pond, etc

After the boat ride, we had our lunch at a restaurant facing the huge lake. The food served was delicious but the staff were very rude.

Great view of the lake.

Equally well known is the Pork Tong Por which is really tasty with the bun.

We continue to tour the lake after lunch. The weather was hot and the place was full with local tourists and heavy traffic.

Beautiful West Lake.

Along the way, we found out that the tomb of famous ancient tiger hero Wu Song is there.

And also found out was tomb of ancient war hero Yue Fei.

We skipped the Pagoda Leifung in the end because it was getting late. It was difficult to stop a taxi as the traffic was very busy and congested. Finally a small van which was already full stopped in front of us, the driver insisted he could accommodate us. So we were squeezed like sardine in the tiny van. Obviously it was seriously overloaded, but the best part was the driver sped all the way to the city center. Mum said she was so frighten that she squeezed her eyes shut and she hold so tight that her hands hurt. What a terror ride!!

Sunset at West Lake.

Anyway, we were back to the He Fang shopping street this morning. It was there that we saw loads of tea packs being sold at the price of a mere few rmb, but of course there are different grades of Chinese tea, some even cost thousands!

It was another round of hassle when it was time to go to the airport. My heart was pounding hard when time was tickling away. We tried different spots and directions to get taxi, with mercy of god, I thought, finally a taxi stopped.

Hangzhou International Airport.

We had our dinner at the airport and had a peaceful flight home. This marks the end of our yearly family trip of 2012.

Phew! Finally finished the 2012 trip and that means I can start on 2013 trip to NZ which is much much more interesting!!

Nanjing - Hangzhou Day 5

2014-10-15T00:31:00.000-07:00

(Date travelled: 2/11/2012)

This morning, after our breakfast in the hotel, we took a taxi to Nanjing Massacre Memorial Hall.

The Massacre happened in 1937 when the Japanese occupied Nanjing which was the capital city of China then. In a short period of a few week, the Japanese massacred about 300,000 Chinese.

The extreme brutal act had marked a history which is not able to forget and forgive by the Chinese until today.

At the entrance, there are sculptures carries messages of stories which made us uncomfortable.

It says only death can wash away her filth.

The names of the victims.

Then we reached the site of "the mass Grave of 10,000 Corpses". It's the actual mass buried site of about 10,000 corpses. I saw my mum's tearful eyes when she saw the bones of young children. And I also felt my mum's sweating and cold hands.

We were getting very uncomfortable as we proceeded further. Next, we found ourselves in the exhibit hall where there were lots of photos and videos showing how brutal the Japanese really were. These images and stories really made us cringed and recoiled. Mum even covered my eyes at some scenes and I could feel her quicken steps. There was even competitions of killing Chinese being held. She just couldn't take it anymore and hurried me along and we were out of the hall. There we sat down and waited for Pa for a long time.

Learn from the past!

In order to shake off the uneasiness and to bring our spirit up, we went into a silk factory just opposite the hall. There we witness some world class woven master piece!

After that, we hailed a taxi to take us back to our hotel where we had our lunch before we went to the train station for our train to Hangzhou.

A feel of Nanjing street!

And so after we checked out from the hotel, with the help of the hotel , we took a taxi to the railway station hoping to catch the earliest train to Hangzhou. Unfortunately the tickets were sold out and the earliest train was in the evening!

With a few hours to kill, we took a short train ride to a shopping mall nearby as suggested by a local people. As usual, the train was very full and when we were there, the mall happened to be a of a high end mall selling high end stuffs. Moreover, someone had to keep an eye on the luggage as we couldn't be dragging the luggage in the mall.

Anyhow, no one was in the mood of shopping at that moment, especially after an unpleasant train ride. So we just sat by the road with the luggage, what a waste of time!

Yes, we love Red!

Finally, it was time to board the train to Hangzhou. When we reach Hangzhou, it was already late. The station was very crowded and the queue for taxi was long. We were forced to accept a private van offer.

The driver said that he knew the way when we told him the name of our accommodation that night. But once we were in the town area, he said he wasn't sure about the way. He was driving around and told us that we had to pay him more. As it was getting really late by now, mum told pa to just pay and ask him drop us someway nearby.

Finally, he stopped the van and told us the direction to the hostel. It was dark and deserted as we dragged our luggage walking in the alley. It was only when we saw the signage of the hostel that we were able to let our guts down.

It was warm and welcoming!

It was mum's idea to stay in the youth hostel as we had not stayed in one before. The hostel is small and there was no lift. We had to take the luggage to the 3rd floor where our room was. We had a bath room attached room which is clean and quite comfortable but the room is extremely small. Along the way, we saw the shared bathroom at the first floor which is quite clean.

Anyway, we finally able to take the shower and settled down to rest.

Nanjing - Day 4 (2) Zhongshan Ling

2014-08-07T02:24:00.000-07:00

(Date travelled : 1/11/2012)

Next to The Ming Xioling tomb, it's the Mausoleum of Dr Sun Yat-Sen.

When I was about 9, we visited the Memorial Hall of Dr Sun Yat-Sen in Taipei. We witnessed the process of changing of guards there which takes place every hour. He was really a great man and well respected in the Chinese world.

Before that, we had some local eateries as lunch around the area. The weather was getting warm now and the place was flooded with local tourists.

The entrance.

After the entrance, this was awaiting..........

There are 392 steps.

At the top of the stairs , the tablet hall.

It says that Dr Sun is buried here.

Further up, we reached the coffin chamber.

Inside, the alter with the statue of the great man.

Mi managed to capture a picture before the guard noticed. He was then then heard shouted at someone that photography is not allowed.

Beyond the door behind the alter...

It used to open to to public but not anymore.

View from the top.

Then we bought some souvenirs and took a rest before we took the steps down and continued to the next and final stop at the area, the Linggu temple. The area is really vast. We had to take a cart to get there.

At the entrance....

We found that this area is a less visited area. It's not as popular as the previous two. It was quite quiet which suited us best.

Walking around, we came upon this structure. The sign on top says "beamless hall".

When we walked in, the plaque says the "The alter of the revolutionists". It is a memorial hall for the revolutionists.

The testament of Dr. Sun, The alter, thick wall and windows and the beamless roof.

We were not prepared to explore such a vast area. As we wondered around, we realized that there were a lot to cover. We had to quicken our steps as the day was getting late.

Finally at around 5pm, we hailed a taxi to bring us to Qinhuai river. The plan was to have dinner and witness the night scene of the river.

Dinner was yummy at a restaurant by the river.

Beautiful river .

The area came alive at night. It was full of restaurants and shops to satisfy everyone. We bought some cheap souvenirs and then took a cab back to the Orange hotel.

Nanjing - Day 4 (1) Ming Xioling Tomb

2014-08-06T01:40:00.003-07:00

(Date Travelled : 1/11/2012)

We checked in Hotel Orange when we arrived late yesterday evening. The hotel is new and clean. We had dinner at a small eatery nearby the hotel.

In the morning, we had breakfast in the hotel. We then hailed a cab to Ming Xiaoling, Tomb of emperor Chu Yuan Zhang, founder of Ming Dynasty! It's listed in the Unesco World Heritage sites and it's about 600++years old! Legend says that in order to prevent robbery of the tomb, 13 identical processions of funeral troops started from 13 gates to obscure the real burying site. (info courtesy from Wikipedia.)

This is the layout of the whole area. It's designed like a Chinese garden. I was wondering about where is the exact last resting spot. Pa then pointed to me that it's the large mound beyond the inner most structure. I still didn't get it. Let's check it out.

Before we entered the gate, we found ourselves in a path with 12 pairs of stone auspicious animals. This is served to safeguard the place.

The almighty Elephant path!

Kissing the ancient animal, the Unicorn!

The horses, but of course they are auspicious!

Xiezhi, another ancient sacred animal!

We all know that these animals or rather creatures are not real. They are fantasies. Created for the power of combination of a few animals.

After the Elephant path, we proceeded to the gate. When we entered, we found ourselves facing another path. At the end of it is the Tablet Hall. The tablet hall contain a stele constructed by emperor kangxi as a homage to emperor Zhuyuanzhang who is his predecessor of 300 years.

This is the stele. It sits on a turtle which is often used as a sign of longevity. As you can see here, the front half of the turtle is facing the door where the second half of it is at the back of the wall. I find this very interesting.

The front half...

The back half...

When we walked further in, we were at the second path as the layout. This path is beautifully lined with tall trees.

This place is really vast. We finally reached the inner most structure.

There is an arched entrance at the bottom of the big structure.

When we entered, we found ourselves in a tunnel with a flight of stairs upwards.

When we were out of the tunnel, there was just a wall.
But Pa, where is it? I asked. Where is the final resting spot? Pa pointed to the wall, he said "this it is". Where?? The huge mound beyond the wall!
What?? So big?? Yes, there are chambers after chambers in the mound, down there, chambers with tons of treasures!! And the chamber for the coffin!

The crafted words says "Emperor Ming is buried here"!

I was really dumbfounded. The mound is enormous! Complete with the garden and the paths!!

In the hall at the top, we read that there are lots of emperors' tomb around China and most of them like this one stayed untouched all these years. The designs are similar to each other. And the greatest among them, of course is the Emperor Qin Shi Huang with the priceless terracotta.

View at the top of the structure.

Ancient gargoyles.

Sacred path.

This is the first half of the day. To be continued to the second half of the day........

Shanghai - Day 3

2014-08-05T23:10:00.003-07:00

(Travelled date : 31 Oct 2012)

Day 3 was our last day in Shanghai.

In the morning, after our lousy breakfast near the hotel, we took a taxi to one of the most prominent landmarks of Shanghai - The Oriental Pearl TV tower.

On the way, we saw how the Shanghainese go to work in the morning. Ladies in nice outfit riding motorcycles wearing high heels which is a "never-seen-before" in Malaysia. In Taiwan, we did come across this scene, lots of Ladies riding in motorcycles. The motorcycles must be their mode of transport. We are the lucky lots, majority can afford at least a national car.

Going to work....

Well, after about 20mins of busy traffic, we were at the other end of Huangpu river from the Bund.

Oriental Pearl is a Radio and TV Tower.

Viewing deck at 2nd sphere, 263m high.

Pa purchased the ticket and off we went inside to the building to queue for the lift up. Once we were up there in the observation deck, we were greeted with the view of Shanghai concrete jungle with all the tall buildings soaring up towards the sky.

What a concrete jungle!

Skyscrapers!

Huangpu River from the top. What a sight!

We then went one floor down to the awaiting Glass Deck. This is really mind blowing! Both the flooring and the wall are transparent! The wind was blowing through the open area and the temperature was quite low, it was cold!

Pa, standing "on air"!

It was not a big problem for me. I could just stepped directly into the deck, though a little scared. The experience was one of the kind and wonderful! Walking on something which is transparent and high. I felt like I was on top of the world.

Sitting down.....having fun

Us, looking down....

Facing down......enjoying the thrill!!

Mi was very scared at the beginning. She needed to hold on to my hand. But after a few steps and she was fine. We really enjoyed ourselves up there. Well, a lot of people up there also were scared of the height. We saw a man holding on tight to the railing and moved inch by inch with real difficulty.

After spending quite a while there, we went down to the museum located on the ground floor. The museum is very interesting with the history of Shanghai city.

Without us realizing, it was already way passed the lunch time when we finished. No wonder everyone was hungry. We then took a cab to the Yu Garden again . There we took our lunch and visited the temple .

Lunch, Xiao long bao of course!

Yu Garden is very different in the day time. It was packed with tourists around the world.

Comfortable seat

The speed indicator.

It was then time to say goodbye to our short and brief visit to Shanghai city. We walked to the hotel to retrieve our luggage and off we went to the station to take the bullet train to Nanjing, our next stop.

Percy Jackson

2013-11-03T04:07:00.002-08:00

My love for Greek Mythology is huge. Especially the 12 Greek Gods, among them are the big 3: Zeus, King of Gods. Poseidon, God of sea and Hades, God of Underworld. Zeus, Poseidon and Hades are brothers. After the World War 2, the big three swore on their oath, to never have any children with the mortals. But Zeus and Poseidon broke it, Hades had 2 children before the oath, so he didn't break it. However, Hades is excluded in the 12 Greek Gods because he's the god of Underworld and he never visit Mount Olympus.

The other 8 gods were known as Hera, queen of gods, goddess of marriage, birth and women. Demeter, goddess of harvest and fertility of the earth. Athena, goddess of wisdom, warfare and divine intelligence. Dionysus, god of wine. Apollo, god of sun, music and poetry. Artemis, goddess of hunt and moon. Ares, god of war. Aphrodite, goddess of love. Hephaestus, god of fire. Hermes, messenger of gods, god of thieves.

Zeus had a daughter, Thalia Grace, whilst Poseidon had a son, Percy Jackson.

PERCY JACKSON AND THE LIGHTNING THIEF - BOOK ONE
Percy Jackson had to go to Camp Half-Blood as soon as he got attacked by a Minotaur. Grover, his best friend, a satyr and his mum drove Percy to Camp Half-Blood. Percy discovered his ability and managed to kill the Minotaur and retrieved its horn. Soon after his very first game of capture-the-flag, and his encounter with his rival, Clarisse, daughter of Ares, he was claimed by his father, Poseidon, god of sea. He was set to go on a quest to find Zeus's missing lightning bolt along with Grover, the satyr and Annabeth, daughter of Athena.

PERCY JACKSON AND THE SEA OF MONSTER - BOOK TWO

Grover was missing. Grover contacted Percy through their telepathy link, he was held in captive by a Cyclop. Grover was captured by the cyclops while he was searching for Pan, god of wild and satyrs. And now Camp Half-Blood is under attack, Thalia's tree is dying. Luke poisoned the tree. Percy has to get the Golden Fleece in order to save Camp Half-Blood. Problem is, he wasn't assign on this quest. Clarisse was. Percy, Annabeth and Tyson, Percy's cyclop brother still went on the quest to save Grover. Grover was rescued and the camp was saved. The most shocking thing was that Thalia had come alive, she wasn't a tree anymore (she died and her father, Zeus, turned her into a tree to preserve her soul). The daughter of Zeus came alive once more.

PERCY JACKSON AND THE TITAN'S CURSE -BOOK THREE

Annabeth went missing, Artemis was chained up. And this time, 5 campers will rescue Artemis. Thalia, Grover, Percy and two Artemis's huntress, Zoe and Bianca. Bianca and Nico Di Angelo were the children of Hades but Bianca joined Artemis and the huntress. The Oracle predicted that not everyone will be safe. Bianca died sacrificing herself to defeat a monster. Zoe was killed by her own father, Atlas, the titan. Annabeth was captured by Luke and Artemis was supporting the weight of the sky. Luke was thrown over the edge of Mount Othrys. But he was still alive after the god's party upon the demigod's victory.

PERCY JACKSON AND THE BATTLE OF LABYRINTH -BOOK FOUR

Luke wants revenge now. He and his army planned to invade Camp Half-blood via an ancient labyrinth created by Hephaestus. Percy, Grover, Annabeth and Tyson(Percy's cyclops brother) were set into the labyrinth to find Daedalus's workshop before Luke does. With the help of Briares, a.k.a. the Hundred-handed one cyclops and Hephaestus, God of fire and forges. Meanwhile, Grover was also on a quest to find the lost god, Pan. Pan spoke to Grover in the labyrinth, he asked Grover to tell the other satyrs that he is dead. The labyrinth had to be destroyed, and Daedalus is willing to die along with the labyrinth. Both of them are connected as one because Daedalus created the labyrinth.

PERCY JACKSON AND THE LAST OLYMPIAN -BOOK FIVE
THE FINAL BOOK OF PERCY JACKSON SERIES
Percy Jackson is turning sixteen and the fate of the whole world depends on him. Kronos (or Luke since he gave his body as a host to Kronos) is strong now and he is preparing for the final battle. And the awful Typhon is heading their way. The gods are busy batting with Typhon while camp half-blood prepares for Kronos. Problem is, they are only 40 campers against hundreds of enemies. Percy found out that Luke bathed in the River Styx, down in the Underworld. That is why Kronos was so strong. Percy ended up bathing in the River Styx as well, but before he bathed, he had to choose a weak spot on his body. He chose his lower back, one strike at that spot and he's dead. Everyone battled, Thalia and the hunters, even Clarisse and her cabin. The enemies were strong, but the campers were stronger. Percy and Annabeth was then faced to faced with Luke. He's soul is poisoned by Kronos. He told Percy that he must be perished in order for Kronos to die. Since Luke is in his body form. Percy handed Annebeth's blade to Luke and Luke stabbed himself in the weak spot, killing him and Kronos.
Back at Olympus, the heroes were rewarded. Percy got to talk to his dad and Athena. Though Athena warned Percy to stay away from her daughter, Annabeth. Percy and Annabeth were happy together and they went back to camp half-blood, awaiting their next quest.

Wetworld Shah Alam : School trip

2013-08-07T00:34:00.001-07:00

Last Tuesday, the form 4 and form 5s in our school had to go to Wet World Shah Alam to carry over experiments. We form 4s has our physics coursework to do : construct an experiment involving water. My group had a simple experiment; how does the arch of the sail affect the time taken for the boat to slide down the slide. Unfortunately, we had to do it 5 times and 5 times each, a total of 25 times and the most troublesome part is that one of us had to go down and take the boat and go back to the top of the slide.

On the other hand, the form 5s had their add maths coursework to do. Those who didn't take add maths, did a physics activity. So most of the form 5s finished their activity before us.

After we're done with our coursework we get to play :D

Around 12pm, my group finished our coursework and went to play. My first ride was a slide, kheng yue, Yiting and I went down the slide but we were stuck halfway so we had to push ourselves. There was a little "tradition" that day was the day where students get to push teachers down the slide and the teachers would take revenge.

I was chilling at the pool with my fellow friends/classmates when I saw Tr Pui Khe, my accounts teacher. Shim and I (the only accounting students from my class aside Chiao You) decided to push her down. We sneaked up on her, I jumped and pull her down to the water. Of course, both of us were laughing but cher Pui khe was unamused.

She pulled me and kheng yue along to the same slide we went earlier. We hung out for a while. There were tubes (you know the 2 person floaties for some slides) yeah, for us to rent. Many students were carrying it around. Kheng Yue and I were so tempted. The tubes were Rm20, another Rm 20 for deposit.

Once we got the tubes, we tried out every single slide. We had a warm up slide, it was small, dark. Nothing much. We walked further in where the other slides were. There was a super long one for tubes but it was closed for maintenance. :(

We went to a long slide where a number of tubes had to go together. It was a flat and smooth slide. We placed our tubes down, when the time comes, there was a huge water pushing us from the back. It was fast, there were also vines halfway through. We rode that slide for several times because there wasn't much slides.

One time, Yiting, dylan, kheng yue and I went together. Who knows, Tr William and Tr Alex were at the end of the slide. Kheng yue and I were the first tube to reach the end. Both of them looked suspicious, I asked them what were they doing. Tr William, with his all-time serious face, answered they had to make sure they clear the path so no one got hurt. Silly me fell into their trap, they flipped our tube and we fell into the water. The other tubes knew what happened and they got up and ran away.

Then we saw the vortex slide, the one where you go in circles, similar to vuvuzela. I never saw this one before but I heard of it, so I was excited.

It was really fast, I screamed because... why not? :D the whole tube went sideways and we exited to the open. It was a big "cup" we went around it 3 times before exiting it. Unlucky for me, I sat at the back of the tube. And we exited backwards so I was the first who went down backwards. It was fun really. We sat this for several times too because it was fun and we got nothing else to do :/ I got pushed down from the tubes many times by my friends.

At 3pm, we changed and returned our floats. The bathroom wasn't that bad as what they had said. I was devastated when I saw my really tan skin. You can obviously see the sleeve mark of my shirt :(

The tan was worth it if you ask me, haha. I had loads of fun. Can't wait for next year's wetworld trip again.

Fin.

A Mask Fantasia

2013-07-22T06:05:00.001-07:00

It all started bad. We didn't have a story or a plot. We had trouble and arguments. We were the worst group. We disappointed the teachers. A lot of us didn't show up for practices. But we hardcore at the end. 3 years of drama experience comes down to this day.
July 21st

A Mask Fantasia. Sirius Scholar production. This was our big theatre showcase for this year. We were performing in KLPAC (Kuala Lumpur Perofmeing Arts Centre) a professional stage.

6 months ago, our group had trouble, I could make out that most of us don't have the interest in it. How disappointing. Soon we had our story:

The story takes place in the 90s similar to the Noir film. Colours were missing from the world. The colours Black and White paid a witch to kidnap the primary colours, Red, Blue and Yellow. The Secondary Colours, Green, Orange, Purple and Brown hired the famous Detective Conor to investigate this case.

I played as the character Blue with David as Yellow and Liesl as Red. Adam was our detective and Yiting was the witch. Black and White were played by Kheng Yue and Ashley.

Lucky for us, we had an awesome, dramatic senior to help us out, we call him by the name of Fufu. Fufu was really nice to work with, he helped us with our character. But sometimes we went a little overboard with him.

21st July
PERFORMANCE DAY
The bus took us from pts to KLPAC. KLPAC is big. There is a field where stalls are set up. We went to our stage. It was so professional, the seats were like those in cinemas, there were doors and floating windows to make it more fantasy-like.

There were 2 performances that day. One on the afternoon and one at night. Basically we have to perform twice in a day. :)

Some of us finally got our hands on our costumes by lunch time. Mine was a beautiful strapless, long, dark blue dress, the front was shorter than the back. The other colours got their costumes as well. Liesl's was a red bollywood-ish dress and David's was a yellow coat with yellow pants. Tr Erica gave us hair spray and wanted us to spray our hair to our respective colours to make it more realistic.

As Black, Kheng Yue wore a black trench coat and White, Ashley wore a short, white dress with a white fan. Liesl had a big red ribbon-pin. While I had a blue feather pin.

3pm

Performance time!~

Doors open at 3pm sharp. The form 2s group went first. Still Life, Madness (form 2s), Beyond, Contrast (form 4s *I'm in Contrast*) then Fractured (form 5s). Contrast waited in dressing room 2 with Fufu. I wasn't that nervous as I know that the afternoon one wasn't really that scary as the night one. All the groups were good. My favourite was Fractured. Beyond was beautiful.

STILL LIFE was about a few friends who were playing football. The football was kicked into a store. The captain went into the store to retrieve the ball, who knows mannequins came alive and captured the captain turning him into a mannequin. His friends found him but were captured as well. One of the mannequin helped them escape. And they escaped.

MADNESS was about zombies. A detective was set to find a missing guy but ended up in the middle of a zombie chaos.

BEYOND was a beautiful, touching piece. Miranda had entered the Mirror World to find her father. The Hush welcomed her but were stopped by Illusious, ruler of Reflected. Miranda found her father but they can't escape together because the father created the Mirror World. This piece had myself and the audience in tears.

CONTRAST(ours) colours were missing from world. Detective Conor was hired by the secondary Colours to find the primary colours who were captured by the witch. Black and White paid the witch to captured them because people forgot about black and white when the colours come to the world.

FRACTURED was a deep,creepy play. John's life was never perfect. He was haunted by the 7 deadly sins. The leader of the sins (not sure about the name) takes John back to his past life, he was killed by the sins in the end. It gave me the chills and this was my favourite piece and it was a good end to Mask Fantasia.

6pm
We get yelled
I was worried about our play. Most of the teachers went to watch us in the afternoon play but half of the seats were filled. Teacher Erica, Weiyan, Reuben called us in.

Apparently, we did badly for the play. We did not had time to practice with the sound and light. There wasn't any tech-run. Form 2s energy was low. Beyond was beautiful, expected, with Bryan's work. Our play was the 2nd favoured by the audience. We were all happy and proud because we were the worst group. Fufu was proud too. But Fractured had a slow pacing and was a mess up. I was surprised because that was the best group aside Beyond.

With 2 hours to our night performance. We got dressed and did our final touch-up. With our hair spray and body paint. 2 hours passed by fast.

8pm
Doors opened
It was a full house at night. Contrast were in the dressing room, alone. Fufu got us into our character for the last time. We were at the very last stage. Our last owrodan in KLPAC. Soon, Still Life came back. I was chilling with my colours, camwhoring. No big deal.

Finally it was our moment to shine. My heart was pounding but I managed to keep my cool. I went out and did 2 scenes. The first scenes was easy because I had to be fainted. Last scene though had actions but that didn't stop
me. I just think of any other rehearsals we did previously.

10pm
We did our curtain call and we cheered loudly. The night showcase was soo much better than the afternoon one, I could tell. I was really proud and happy. I got comments from my friends that we were good but the choice will be made by the teachers. And it did turned out good luckily. We were on the very edge of getting cut off (not allowed to perform on stage) we were considered very lucky.

We had to cleaned up our dressing rooms before we could leave. The bus back to our school leaves at 10.45pm. I was helping (Ofcourse) haha. We changed into our own clothes and returned our costumes. :(

Next thing I know, I was snoozing in the bus.

Till today, I miss KLPAC,staybacks, my costumes. I still have my mask and tag. I miss Fufu. But most of all, I miss my character. this was the best showcase ever. Never in my life I regretted joining drama.

End.

Leadership Training Camp 2013 DAY 5

2013-07-15T23:41:00.001-07:00

Sorry for the late post. I was having exams last week. And I'm having drama rehearsal right now. You now have a hint of my next blog ;)
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9am
The speakers were playing Daylight as I wake from my sleep. How ironic. I lay in my sleeping bag and enjoyed the music as it played Heart Attack. We get to sleep in that day.

10am
After our breakfast and our last morning exercise. We had to pack our bags and put it in the hall, ready for departure. Then we had to clean up our dirty-with-sand-and-dirt dorm.

Kheng Yue brought the broomstick and we took turns sweeping. Sabrina and I threw unessacary rubbish and items. We put our sleeping bags to a side.

Chin Tong, Angela and I were chilling by the balcony with Call Me Maybe playing. The hall was just opposite of the teacher's dorm. When we were singing Call Me Maybe, Teacher Ben walked past and we sang the song. It was a funny scene.

12pm
We had our early lunch so we can get ready to leave. I got my phone back and in 5 days time, I finally heard my mum and dad. Apparently, they managed to reach me and I answer but I can't hear them clearly. It was a relief.

2pm
Farewell Gopeng Resort
We had our last "briefing". All the groups had to perform their battle cry (great) how embarrassing. But I admit, I enjoyed it. It IS the last performance as a group. Then there was prize giving for best male and female player and best group. Sadly, my group didn't win. But I was proud of us.

The trucks arrived. Our last truck ride. We did our boom boom on the truck. It was sad and disappointing saying goodbye to the facilitators. I was looking forward to go back home but really sad at the same time. A mix of emotions.

3pm
First air-con breeze in 5 days
The bus arrived and we got onto the bus, it was heart-breaking, it seemed that we just went there yesterday. And leaving the next day.

Most of us slept in the bus, we were all tired out and just wanted to rest. I managed to close my eyes for one good hour, when i woke up, we were already an hour away from school. So fast.

6pm
Due to the traffic conditions. We arrived at school at 7. It was sad to have a sight of our school, we had fun on the bus and we camwhored a lot.

I returned to my lovely, warm home. My mum welcomed me back and I got licked by my dog. It was good coming back but I'm gonna miss Gopeng.

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Til now, I still miss camp. Me and my friends will bring back the memories in class and we'll laugh about it. I learned a lot during camp and had loads of fun. I'll be honest, thinking back, I miss summit climb, the fresh air, the river, the rain, the truck, cave, waterfall. I even make lots of new friends. Wenxiu and I are now really close, we still talk to each other and tease each other. Leadership Training Camp is the highlight event of 2013 so far.

End of story

Leadership Training Camp 2013 DAY 4

2013-06-23T23:43:00.001-07:00

8 hours of trekking ~~ last activity of the the camp. Sad :( make sure to leave any comments ;)

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7am
I woke up and stared at the ceiling. Welcoming the last activity of the camp (best welcoming technique ever) LOL? I was worried for Shim. Even in the morning she looked gloomy. Poor Shim.

8am
After the morning exercise, I didn't see Teacher Andy. Usually the teachers will be eating at a table.

9am
Our next activity starts at 10 (I think) so we have time to get ready. I finally asked where was our teacher-in-charge. My friends said that he went to the hospital. My heart nearly stop. WHAT?! Apparently, the night before the other teachers tried to remove the needles, one of them released a red vein to the heart. Teacher Melissa said the red vein releases the venom.

Hah... our group was doomed. Wenxiu and I shared one backpack, it was mine. It was big enough to store our drinking water, food and a few cooking water (1 litre) it was heavy. Me, Wenxiu and Jordan took turns to carry the bag since all of our supplies were in there. I volunteered to carry the bag first because I figured the starting will be easy.

I was really tired and terrified but on the bright side we were the first group who trek. The 5 groups were infront. So if the ones behind can't catch up we had to stop and wait.

12pm
The sound of water rushing made me calm. We were trekking beside the white water rafting river, the facilitator said we need to cross the river at the double-decker rapid. The trekking wasn't that bad as summit climb, in fact, it was a thousand times better than summit climb. It wasn't easy, I had some help from Jordan and I ended up helping Adam.

Kok How was infront of Jordan. I then realized it was good to be in the front because if the ones in the back can't catch up. We can rest while waiting for them to catch up. Hahaha.

We reached the double-decker rapid and everyone had to wait for their turn to cross the rapid. There was a long rope tied across the rapid. I had fun resting. Haha. Appreciated the time. Tr May Peng was slowly killing a big fat leech. Joseph was afraid of leeches and he hid behind my back XD.

I didn't had trouble crossing the rapid as I'm a water baby(according to my dad). Group 6 then continue our journey.

3pm
After 3 hours of relaxing trekking and fresh air. We finally had our lunch. Yep at 3pm.

The other 5 groups were already eating their lunch. We have to start our own fire, find wood, boil water, cook our lunch. Wenxiu and I went to find wood and leaves. The boys started the fire. It was fun. We took turns eating magge mee. I wasn't that hungry. I didn't know why. :/

3.30pm approximately
We finished our lunch and went back the same path. We had to cross another small and shallow river. We hold hands and cross haha. Jordan was carrying the bag now because it was light because we used up our cooking water.

The sky was getting darker and we knew it won't be pretty. We rushed ourselves through the trekking path.

5pm
Time to cross the rapid again. The current was super strong. We can't go one by one know. Everyone had to go all together. It was tiring to fight the current. We held on tight to our rope. Wenxiu almost let go of the rope when we were at shore. My heart was racing, my legs tried to stand to the ground. I was really tired when we reached on land.

It started to rain. Great. The trek was slippery and muddy. I'm all the way back now because we went to the wrong path thanks to the guide. Tr May Peng was behind us and another bunch of helpful boys. Joseph was helping us crossing a wide gap. It was tough and scary. I slipped a few times but managed to grip onto the trees. *PERSONAL EXPERIENCE 5: TREKKING IN THE RAIN*

I was pissed. Because it rain and I was all soaking wet but it made no difference because we were already wet.

We were almost back to camp. I saw the bridge and the road. Cheers! Oh. Get this. The rain stopped when we reached back at camp. Dragging my sloppy legs, I went back to our dorm and bathe with Wenxiu.

6pm
BBQ DINNER
7pm onwards we have our free time. Finally! I tired texting my parents with my friend's phone but it doesn't work. Damn. I hung out with KHENG YUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE, David, Fifi, Yiting.we sat the cafeteria dancing to music. Just chilling.

Tr Andy was back from the hospital, turned out he was fine. Tr Melinda went to the hospital because she can't bend her back. Other than that, it was a peaceful night.

12am
I decided to sleep early but ended up talking to Kheng Yue. It was the last night in Gopeng. It was disappointing. Aside the bugs and lizard eggs, it was fun sleeping in a Sleeping bag with only 2 ceiling fans. The air was cold and fresh. It was peaceful . At last, my eyes closed.

Leadership Training Camp 2013 DAY 3

2013-06-15T02:55:00.001-07:00

I would like to call this day: Trekking day. Most Tiring day! Enjoy ;)

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7am
I had a good sleep. Kheng yue woke me up. I crawled out from my sleeping bag *PERSONAL EXPERIENCE 4: I SLEPT IN A SLEEPING BAG* we got ready for the morning exercise as usual for half an hour.

8.30am
Briefing back at camp
Our next activity was CAVING: GUA TEMPURUNG. I went caving before with my dad so I was kinda looking forward to it. We had to ride the truck again for 20 minutes. Which was a good sign :D All 18 groups were going together.

9am
Truck ride :D
WOOHOO! Dibs in the front as always. Li Pahn and Dylan were beside me and Tr Andy was behind Dylan. I personally like the front because I got most of the air and I can see what is going infront. We will be the first one to duck and avoid getting tree-slap.

9.30am
Briefing
Mr. Lim, the facilitator, briefed us. There was another group for those claustrophobic people. Wenxiu went over leaving us with 9 members. Then we were divided into 4 groups. Our group was Group D (I think) 2 groups were going in from the same way. The other 2 the other way.

10am
Stairs attack
It wasn't that tough as the one I did with my dad. There were built in staircase for us to climb. And they were steep and long. But I must say, the rock formation were stunning. It was tiring climbing up and if went really slow when we were going down. Everyone was. Because the stairs had gap in between and it was stewp.

11am?
Along the way...
The guide warned us that we were getting wet so it would take some time to cross the river. So we waited. At that moment, I was with Chee Foong, Yong Yie, Han Zern and Teacher Grace! :D while we were waiting on the staircase. We chatted. I must say, I get along well with people who I'm not close with.(not that I want to brag) I seldom talk to kheng yue and the others except at night.

We had a good talk, Teacher Grace and I were jumping from topic to topic and we talked about LOTR *fangirls* k.

12pm......???
Getting wet
After sliding down a steep slope. We had to drop into this small hole and fall into the stream. The water was cold and we had to move slowly, we had to lie on our belly and pull ourselves forward. We were all soaking wet. Lucky for me I was wearing my headlamp so it was safe :) I decided to crawl with my elbows against the ground but the pebbles and stones were hurting my elbows and knees. I had to tolerate it :( but we had to walk often and the boys in front of me were cracking jokes.

1pm
Back at camp~
We were all soaking wet. Back at the truck and in the cave. I got tips about our next activity: SUMMIT CLIMB, from Chee Foong and Yong Yie, they already did summit climb. We were the last group to do summit climb. They said it was reallt hard ab andd tiring. The slope was steep and they made me worry. So I kept on saying to my group mates: we're gonna die for summit.

3pm
Briefing.... @.@
God. I wore my V-neck T-Shirt and leggings for comfort. Because we were going to do a lot of climbing and my rubber boots. The old facilitator briefed us. The weather was getting bad that day, we were planning to reach Level 3 of the climb. Basically, we were climbing up a mountain.

3.30pm
Ughhh....
Jordan was infront of me (ky said best to have a guy infront or behind of you, so they can help us) hah.... Celene was behind me. We were the last who go up. Group 1 first then follow by group 2... I was slow because I got tired easily. Celene, who isn't a help much, keep saying: Chelsea, you need to go faster we're left behind blah blah blah. I was like thinking, dude, you're not helping.

I breathed really loudly XD I was tired out. I'd never been so tired in my life. I took big steps that's why my thighs hurt. And we cant rest until the next level because we were the last group. Sad.

I gotten help from nature. I grabbed the trees to stable myself and for my own support. And that was why I got a sort-of splinter on my left palm. But eventually I got it out.

Jordan was a big, he got himself a stick and he helped me throughout. My thighs and muscles were hurting a lot! We were only at Level 1.

4.30pm
UGH.....
Ok, my legs were going to break. Shim and Lionel quit and went back to camp. Yiting was with us now because she rest. Tr Andy was infront of Jordan and he encouraged us, which was good actually. It helped. I guess?

I was about to give up but I keep telling myself: if others can do it, why can't you. So I kept going. We reached Level 2. Halfway through we had to go back down because it was going to rain. So we went back *cheers!*

I had to slide down on my butt because I am very scared of falling down especially when it comes to downslope.

6pm....
Finally!~
I couldn't carry my legs any further it was hurting so much! Wenxiu and I went back to the girl's dorm to bath because we weren't doing any activities after that.

Lucky for the form 5s, they went white water rafting :(

7pm....
Dinner! :D
BBQ dinner~~~~ woohoo. My mood went down because of my legs. They were so damn painful. Muscle crams. :( later on, we could chill. But the teachers got a little activity in store for us.

8pm...
A little activity
We were in our groups, the other 9 groups went for jungle night walk. Our Activity: we have to tie 5 rafia strings to 1 rubber band. Our goal is to make a plastic cup pyramid. Trick is: we can only touch the end of the string.

9pm
We had a little trouble with it. Each group was splited into 2 groups. I was with Bugh, Wenxiu, Joseph and Shen Yin. We were kinda frustrated and tired.

The other group's teacher in charge were there but there was no sign of teacher Andy. He had a few stings on his arms and it was swollen. I figured out that he must be tired out and was sleeping.

11pm
Shim and I went down to get my phone because my mum couldn't reach me since day 2. THERE WAS NO RECEPTION! I tried calling and calling. No luck. I did sent her a few text messages but it didn't got through. I told Teacher Yuen Shin I got muscle cram and she gave me heat rub. Aw... :3 I applied some on my legs. Every step I take, it hurts so much.
12am
Midnight
Shim told the girls that she doesn't want to do the next day's activity: WILDERNESS SURVIVAL. So I went down with her to talk to Teacher William, Teacher Melinda and Teacher May Peng. Teacher William asked me to go up leaving Shim behind. I don't want to but I had to.

Shim came back crying and we had to comfort her and help her. She had a hard time with the summit climb and she doesn't want to do wilderness survival.

1am
I went to sleep with kheng yue with my muscle crams. Shim was down in the teacher's dorm. Tomorrow's gonna be a long day. I was told we were going to be in the jungle for 8 hours. Trekking. So I needed some good sleep. I climbed in my sleeping bag with my muscle crams, regardless of the uncomfortable pillow and floor.

Leadership Training Camp 2013 DAY 2

2013-06-11T07:19:00.001-07:00

This was my most favourite day!~ enjoy :P
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7am
The air was cold, but I like it. Everyone in the girls dorm started to wake up and went to the toilet. Of course, me and wen xiu went to the toilet together and brush our teeths there. We didn't want to change in the toilet as it was disgusting. So... we changed in the girls dorms. PERSONAL EXPERIENCE 3: CHANGING IN AN OPEN HALL HAHHAHAHA. We're all girls, come on. I changed into T-Shirt and shorts because that day, for Group 1 to 6, are water activities.

7.30 am
Me and my friends rushed down to the field for our morning exercise. The ashes from the campfire were still there. Everyone's faces were sleepy and half dead. I found my dear group and lined up in a single file. An old guy, one of the facilitators, guided us. We did some simple exercise, the normal stretching exercises. After that, we were split into 2 big groups. Each group had to form 1 inner circle and 1 outer circle. They were a few teachers doing it with us. We had to talk to the person opposite us from the inner circle. I was at the outer circle.

8.30am
Breakfast
FINALLY! We were all hungry and bored of the exercise. Most of us don't like the old facilitator. Our breakfast was fried rice/meehoon with crackers. I can't say it was really nice nor it was bad. After we ate, me and wen xiu went back to our dorm to get ready for our first Activity: White Water Rafting. (Y) this was the only activity I was excited about before camp. And little did I know, it was our first Activity!

9.30am
Group 1 to 6 gathered outside the first aid open hall or which I called it... the girls dorm. One of the facilitators briefed us on what will happen and what if this happens.

The boat has 3 sections. Front, middle, back. There were two platforms to divide the sections. So ended up with spaces in each section. I thought we were suppose to sit in those section and paddle but NO... we had to sit on the side... it's hard to explain I'll show you the picture.

Each boat has 6 people and 1 guide. We get to choose our own teammates :3 I went with Yiting, Shim, Milton, Darryl and Chin Yu. We know each other but we're not close *exception Yiting and Shim (mah awesome friends)* Our group was just right because we had big and sma size :3

10am (approximately)
Our guide was Adik. All the guides spoke English which was convenient. We had to carry our rafting boat to the river. Behind us were the teachers : Tr May Peng, Tr Melinda, Tr Andy, Tr Zax and Tr Angie. How cute! All the teachers in one boat! :3

They were a few codes to remember, when the guide says it we have to do what he says:
Paddle forward
Padde backward
Boom boom: When we were approaching a big rapid, we have to sit at the space below us
On the line: we have to return to our
Positions
Hold the rope: When we were approaching a rapid we have to hold the rope beside us which was attached to the boat.
High five: everyone lifts their paddle up on the air and hit the water.

10.30am
Action time! :D
We had a fun time carrying our boat to the river(situated outside the resort) because Tr Zax was making fun. We settled our boat on the river and everyone got in. I was personally scared but really excited. We can never let go of the T-grip (paddle). We did a warm up rapid, a small one. Milton fell out of our boat, everyone panicked. Then one of the guide threw him a rope and he grabbed on to it. Phew. Shim then was really scared.

3 sat on the left side of the boat, 3 sat on the right side. The guide was at the back.
Left: Darryl. Milton. Yiting
Right: Chin Yu. Shim. Me

The river was 2 km long, 15 rapids in total. At the... 4th rapid. It was the biggest rapid, it was a drop, I must say. When we dropped, the whole boat was flooded with water, we almost sank. There was another rapid, double-decker, it was 1 drop after another. It was really fun!!

There was one rapid, Milton and Darryl went to the right side (our side) and the boat almost capsized. But they went back to their original position.

11.30 (approximately)
Rest stop
There was this big rest stop. Where the was no rapid. Every boat had to capsize. Our guide asked Yiting, Milton and Darryl to move to our side on his signal. When they moved, the guide moved too and used the rope to capsize the boat.

I never experience this before so it was new to me. I was really scared, what if I couldn't get up. What if I was stuck. When the boat capsized, Water went into my nose, someone was on top of me. My hand still held on to the paddle. It was hard to swim to shore with my left hand occupied and the current.

We then rest and played water and swam around. Teacher Zax and Teacher Andy climbed up a tree and jumped down from the tree. A lot of us followed them and climbed the tree. There were a few who did a backflip. Teacher May Peng climbed up too. I didn't want to because I was tired and just want to relax. But me and Yiting cheered them on.

11.45...?
We then continued our journey. The rapids weren't that huge anymore so our expectations went low. Because we were the 4th group to go, the teachers boat was infront of us. At one of the rapids, they were so proud and confident, they waved to our boat and be like, bye!!! But who knows, they were stuck at the rocks. They had to bounce to be free. Then our boat went, it was our turn to say bye.

My left hand was painful because I was holding the T-grip too tightly.

12.30pm....?
We saw the boats infront of us stopped and they got off. Uh-oh. My worst moment. The rafting came to an end D: I was so disappointed and was begging for more. It was so fun! >< even Shim, the one who was scared, demanded for more! We climbed up a small slope and saw the truck waiting for us! :D

The truck ride was really fun, we had to stand at the back of the truck. I and a few friends were standing by the side. There were tree branches and leaves coming right at us and we had to duck. We joked that when we said boom boom, means duck because branches were coming. I got tree-slapped a few times. But it was so fun :D

1pm
We were the first group who arrived back at camp. The other 2 groups were not back yet. We returned our equipments and wash our boot because it was an ocean in my boot. XD me and Yiting washed our hair because the helmet was smelly XD we were already wet so why not?

I went back to the dorm and got my towel and decided to head to the canteen. Teacher May Peng was relaxing on the hammock near our dorm. She called for me and we chatted about camp ^^

2pm
The other 2 groups were back. 1 of the groups look exhausted and was sweating A LOT. Apparently, they got lost in the jungle. I shivered. We had our lunch in our wet outfit. Our next activity was WATERFALL ABSEILING, we're getting wet again so why bother to change?

4pm
Truck again it is!
We rode the truck again. Group 1 to 6. We laughed the whole way long. But I was really scared eventhough I abseiled before.

We reached the Waterfall in 10 minutes time. The guide gave us a brief demonstration. The Waterfall was 10m high. Well it wasn't THAT high. Group 1 were the first to go. Well, luck. My group was the last to go. :/ so we watched every single one of them to abseil down.
There were 3 stages to choose from: easy, medium, hard.
Easy was just beside the waterfall
Medium was in the middle of the waterfall
Hard was to the left of the waterfall Where the current was the strongest.

Adrian was the first who went down, hr went too fast and slip a few times. But he was fast. Wen xiu and I sat with the other groups at the bottom of the waterfall (not directly)

As time pass I was very cold because of the mist and the water so I went further down where Ashley and Dylan were.

5pm
It was going at a slow pace. Group 2 just went as they were limited amount of harnesses. I was really cold and was shivering, Ashley made it worst by splashing water at me. We had to wait for a long time. Lionel, who was group 1, haven't abseil down yet. Yune-wen was laughing about it and yelled hoping Lionel would hear it.

6pm
Almost there...
Group 4 was doing it. It was going at a really slow pace. I was about to become ice. Group 5 went and the teachers said that the other groups were bored and hungry so group 1 to 5 went back. WOW hahhaha. Which was good actually. Only a few of group 5 were still there.

6.30pm
Gearing up and action
Teacher May peng helped me to gear up. Wenxiu, Celene were already up there. I had to climbed to reach. It was a short and easy climb. To my surprise, ChinYu and his friends (group 5) were still up there. They said they wanted to go last. Teacher Zax and Teacher Andy were up there too. They already abseiled but they chose to help us up there :3

I wanted the easy one (but I regretted not doing the medium one ><) I made a deal with Jordan, he and I were to abseiled down together, he did the medium and I did easy. It was scary and my hands hurt A LOT.

Jordan was ahead of me but I passed him half way because my hands were really hurting. You need a lot of physical strength for this one. Right hand to hold your weight, left to lower yourself. Legs were not a problem. And you have to trust the harness and lean back.

I didn't bother to look at the camera man who was by the waterfall. And i was really fast because my hands were hurting. I slipped twice:

The first time I slipped I landed on the platform. Lucky me.

Second time. I slipped and i couldn't get up. I swung to the left but eventually I got back up and abseiled down. I reached the bottom before Jordan and realized my legs were shaking. The water current was stronger than before because it was already late. Teacher Zax said good job and I thanked him. I removed my helmet and harness and hung them up by the rope.

Wenxiu, Shen yin and Hui en were already down,pouring the water out from their shoes. We then watched Teacher May Peng, Teacher Angie and Teacher Melinda abseiled down.

7pm

Truck ride again!

It was dark on the way back. It was just 10+ of us. Joseph and I always wanted to be in the front of the truck. When the truck arrived, both of us shouted : Dibs in the front! And we ran to the truck and often argued who said it first. But both of us ended up in the front.

Teacher Zax, Joseph, Adam and Wengkin were in the front. We used the truck ride as a temple run reference : night edition. I asked: where's the power up? And they laughed. Teacher Zax said: it's ok guys. I use cheat. XD it was really fun!

8pm

We had dinner and I had to get ready for the next Activity. JUNGLE NIGHT WALK. It was from group 1 to 9. Kheng Yue and Fifi were going on the next day. Lucky... I was really tired.

9pm

Jungle Night Walk

We had to walk in a single-file. There were a few rules to obey.

1. We had to remember who was infront and behind of us.

2. Do not call each others name.

3. Do not scream.

4. Do not shine the torchlight everywhere.

5. We must pass messages to the person behind or infront of us.

The jungle night walk was normal to me. It was cooling and dark. And it doesn't seem like 2 hours. We were supposed to cross a river but the river was blocked by bamboos (yes!) So we went back to camp. I was really tired at the end of the day. Wenxiu and I went to bathe together and slept at 1am. Again

It was fun day. Rafting was awesome and I knew day 3 is a very tiring day.

Leadership Training Camp 2013 DAY 1

2013-06-02T23:46:00.001-07:00

Sorry peeps. I was busy lately. :/ anyways. I will be updating during this 2 week holidays so be sure to keep up! ;)
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On the 25th of May, my school, PTS organized a leadership training camp for form 4 students. My lovely parents allowed me to go ^^. It was a 5 day 4 nights camp in Gopeng, Perak. There were different activities everyday. White Water Rafting, Summit Climb, Waterdall Abseiling and much more!

25th May
9 am
I was in the bus with all my group 5, 7,8. I was in Group 6 along with Wenxiu, Celene, Joseph, Adam, Jordan, Bugh, Hui en, Shenyin and Milton. I must say we get along pretty well. There were 18 groups in total. Each group had 10 team members. Our teacher in charge was Tr Andy.

I sat with Ashley (group 5) in the bus. It was a 3 hour trip to My Gopeng Resort.

12pm
The bus couldn't go in to the resort area so we had to take a truck. We had to stand behind the truck with our bags :D it was really fun! PERSONAL EXPERIENCE 1: GOING ON A TRUCK RIDE. Because we were lifted from the ground the trees and branches got to slap us. XD so we had to duck.

We arrived at My Gopeng Resort. We had to pass our phones or valuables to the teachers to be stored in the safe room. Since then my parents can't reach me and I cant reach them because of the poor reception. The guide there: Mr Lim and Mr Kok How. main guides briefed us and welcomed us. We had lunch at the Bamboo cafe located in the resort.

1pm (approximately)
The teachers then assigned us to where are we going to put a night, either dorms or tents. I was assigned to live in tents with 20+ girls including my classmates.

3.30 pm
Team building activity
Each group had 2 to 3 hours to come up with their on tribal dance, statue, symbol with a stone, costumes and war cry. Adam, our general group leader assigned us to who is doing what (actually I assigned them hehe) wen xiu and Celene were doing dance. I, hui en, shenyin, bugh were working on our statue. Milton and Joseph were working on the symbol. We left aside the costume. It was a tough job getting the statue done. Our dance and war cry were simple and weird. :/

6 pm
War cry
We had to present our war cry to the teachers and the camera-men need to film it. :S it was kinda embarrassing really :/ after that we get to bath under the icy cold water. PERSONAL EXPERIENCE 2 : BATHING WITH MY 3 OTHER FRIENDS. We had to make it quick because it was going to rain. Sadly, it did. We had to run in the rain to go to the canteen. Our bags were in the canteen, the teachers moved it from the tents because it was raining. We can't sleep in tents because they were wet so we had to sleep in the first-aid open hall.

7pm
The girls and I took sleeping bags and settle down at the hall. The sleeping bags were new, the floor was dusty but by day 2. The facilitators put a sort-of plastic sheet on the floor. And they layed down all of our sleeping bags nicely. (How sweet!) We then had our dinner, it was simple and nice.

9pm
Campfire/dance
Everyone gathered at the huge field and there was a bunch of wood stacked up. We were looking forward to the campfire but my hopes dropped when they said we had to present our tribal dance. Great. :D our tribal dance was more or a story and we had to sacrifice Tr Andy. It was the boys's idea. All of the performances were really funny and crazy. There was this form 5 team, they took all sorts of different songs and changed the lyrics : I want nobody nobody but William (a strict yet cn be fun teacher) I knew you were sexy when you walk in (points at teacher William) that was really funny XD

11.30pm
After the last performance, we all demanded for the fire. One of the facilitators brough a fire torch and lit the fire. Everyone cheered. It was really beautiful. The glowing ashes were flying out from the fire into the air like fireflies. It was really nice.

12pm
Sharing session
Group 5 & 6 had to share out our own opinions and what we thought about Day 1. The usuals: make new friends, can't wait for the next day, had a lot of fun. Everyone was really tired including me. Duh!

1am
Zzzzzz
All the girls had to sleep at 1am everyday. We were all tired. But sadly for me, because of the floor, I couldn't sleep. :/. My bones were on the floor and it made me really uncomfortable. I tossed and turned and finally slept but was awaken and k couldn't go back to sleep. I'd only slept for 4 hours. But I know, I was going to enjoy this camp :)

Shanghai - Day 2 Xitang Ancient Water Town

2013-03-20T23:07:00.003-07:00

The itinearary on the 2nd day of our trip was the Ancient Water Town near Shanghai.

In the morning, we took subway to HongQiao railway station. In the station, after we bought the ticket, we had our breakfast thinking that we had ample time. BUT we underestimate the distance for us to walk to the boarding gate, the station is HUGE! By the time we rushed to the gate, it was closed. We had to change the time to the next train by paying extra $$ and waited for 1 hour....urgh!

The driver who sneaked us in.

Bullet train.

Anyway, we reached Jiashan in 1/2 hour time by high speed train. We were being offered by some transport providers when we walked out of the station. Then we found ourselves in a very old and small van after some bargains. Mum told the driver to drop us at the side entrance so that we could avoid the 100rmb entrance fees (she found that out from someone's blog). The driver told her that all the side entrances are now closed. He then drove us to one of the side entrance to show us. Okay, fine, we saw that it was infact closed. He stopped the van, turned his head to us and said that by paying him half the price, he could bring us in or he would drive us to the main entrance where we had to pay the full price. Pa agreed. He drove us around and stopped somewhere. He told us to follow him quickly and quietly. We walked behind him into a very narrow alley and into a shop and then we were there, inside the ancient town. Wao...what an exciting experience!

We found ourselves in some kind of movie set. Real ancient and original !! The dark buildings, the narrow sunken walkway, the canal, the boat......everything is so old. Well, it's almost a thousand years old.

No, this is not movie set. This is REAL! The platform along the river are paved with ancient stone slab. The wood is all black in color. Even the roof is black and some are already slanting. The surface of the wood pillars are so smooth. The weather was cold and it made the atmosphere seem serene.

We enjoyed our lunch on the second floor of a tiny shop by the river very much.

Hearty meal!

After lunch, we continued to stroll around the place.

Amidst the promenade!

Tourist boats.

Mission Impossible 3 was filmed here!

When it started to drizzle, we walked out of the town and hailed a taxi to the railway station. When we were back to Shanghai, we went to Nanjing shopping road.

Pizza Hut in Nanjing Road, Shanghai.

Our dinner, Chinese McDonald!

Nanjing Road is a typical shopping area. The road is full of huge shopping malls. We had dinner at the McDonald. On the way back to our hotel, we had super at a small eatery. Mum liked the vege noodles very much.

Shanghai (day 1)

2013-02-28T00:09:00.001-08:00

YEOH~ ~ ~, finally I get myself to blog about our yearly family trip 2012, 3 months late.

AA flew direct to Hangzhou and not Shanghai when we booked the ticket. So we landed in Hangzhou international airport on 29 Oct 2012. After immigration checkpoint, we took a bus to the train station. From there, we bought tickets for Bullet train to Shanghai.

View from the train. Nice looking houses.

That was our very first bullet train experience. It brought us to Shanghai in 45mins time, average speed of 300km/hr. We couldn't actually feel the speed. From Shanghai Hongqiao train station, we took the subway to downtown Shanghai. The Manhattan Jinling hotel is just across the street. Finally, at about 4pm, we were able to put our luggage down and rest for a while.

My first impression of Shanghai was a super big train station (there are 4 railway stations and 2 international airports!!), super busy subway station (there are 7 lines all together!) and a lot of grand looking buildings! Phew....talk about cosmopolitan city!

Not to waste any more precious time (time is extremely precious when we were on holidays!), we walked to Yu Garden. Yes, we walked. And that's the reason why my mum chose this hotel, doesn't she smart?!

Glamorous Yu Garden!

Only a short distance, we were in Yu Garden in no time. It was only...like.. 5.30pm, and it was already dark. It was not even winter yet! Anyway, Yu Garden is beautiful at night! The Chinese buildings are all lighted up and they glowed! Needless to mention, we were busying posing for cameras! We then had our dinner at one of the eatery. Had famous Shanghai dumpling and Xiao Long Pau. Errr...taste soso only!

When we had enough of the place, we walked further down to the Shanghai Bund!! Wow...it was really glamorous! Across the river, colourful buildings have their reflections on the Huangpu river making the surface of the water so attractive. There, the Oriental Pearl Tower stood proudly among the commercial buldings! There were a couple of tourist boats and they too were nicely lighted.

The magnificent Oriantal Pearl Tower (in globe shape).

On the other hand, historical buildings (in early 1900s, they were the banks, trading houses, clubs etc) are all illuminated in Golden Yellow on this side of the river. The luxury Peace Hotel is also here. The stretch of the road here looked majestic!

Majestic old buildings along the Bund!

The night scene of the bund is really nice! Unfortunately, a short while after we arrived, it started to drizzle. The temperature dropped and it was COLDDD....Nevertheless, we had a lot of fun here. Mama tried very hard to capture the view with mini tripod. When all of us were starring at the camera on tripod, people were looking at us. Some walked by carrying the umbrella with their heads turned to look at us. I then imitated their action and their look and everyone ended up laughing like crazy people!!

When the drizzling got heavy, we had no choice but to walk back to our hotel.

Our first day in Shanghai, not bad at all.

Chinese New Year 2013

2013-02-27T20:27:00.003-08:00

CNY nails!

Year of SNAKE, water snake. *dramatic organ* haha. Hey guys, sorry for the late thingy, Chinese New Year was here, the year of the snake *dramatic organ* er.... right.... My family and I went back to Enggor, Kuala Kangsar, Perak, my father's hometown. It's a small kampung, but I like it. That's where we celebrate our CNY every year.

We left home at 5.00 IN THE MORNING -.- and it was so long, so heavy, so freaking annoying..... the jam. *dramatic organ* yeah.... we reached Ipoh at about 9 in the morning? 4 hours... it normally take us less than 2 hours to reach there, because of the STUPID JAM. ugh no hatred, no hatred. We checked in to our hotel, Ipoh Boutique Hotel, it's a really nice and cozy hotel, it may be small, but it's new, clean.

5.30am North South Highway just before Sungai Buloh.

We drove to K.Kangsar after our second breakfast of Wantan Mee which was terrible and we had to pay doubled the normal price. (Earlier we had McDonalds in the car when we started our journey. ) It was a 1 hour drive, no big deal.

Taiping temple.

When we arrived at my grandfather's house, we helped around with the worship of our ancestors in the house. After lunch at home, as usual we proceeded to the Temple in Taiping where my grandma rest :3 I never get to see her, she was long gone before I was born. My dad said that her cooking was awesome, it's a pity that i will not have the chance to taste them. After simple worshipping, Pa drove to Taiping old pasar for some snacks which was not very nice. Then he drove to Taiping lake for me to take a look. Wow...it's beautiful!

Picturesque Taiping Lake.

We were then back to Enggor. And I played... with my iPad...for a while. Before the preparation of the reunion dinner started, my dad took me on a motorcycle ride. I have never been on a motorcycle ride before.. except that one time. Pa told me that I was on a motorcycle ride when I was ....6, and I got really scared. This time I was a little scared, but I enjoyed the wind blowing at my face. Pa rode the motorcycle to the Victoria bridge just behind my grandfather's house. The bridge was a railway bridge and it lays across the Perak River. My dad said that it was built back in the WWII but it's not in used anymore. It is long and on one side of the bridge, there is a path built for motorcycles for the villages from the village across the river. I managed to step and stand in the middle of the track. It was scary because there were gaps between the sleepers on the tracks and when I looked down I could see the river. My dad took a few pics. We went back after we walked to and fro on the bridge.

A view with Perak river on the bridge.

Almighty Victoria bridge!!

The relatives decided to have the reunion dinner at home after 2 consecutive years of bad experience in the restaurants. So we were back to homecook style this year, well, potluck! Pa cooked butter prawns and fried meehoon/rice. The rest of dishes were from the uncles and aunties. After the dinner, we played with the firecrackers grandpa bought while the men drank liqour and ate dried meat and the women chit chat. At about 11pm, we called it a night and went back to the hotel.

Fire works grandpa bought.

The feast!

The next day we had dimsum for breakfast in Ipoh. Then backed to grandpa's house. Grand auntie came with her family. We exchanged news and some catching ups. After lunch, we went for visiting to cousin's house and had our dinner at granduncle's house. At granduncle's house again Pa took me on a motorcycle ride and we also witnessed some lion dance performance.

The following day, there were cousins came visiting and again "huha-ings" and hellos and finally goodbyes! After that we were backed to KL. Though it was short, I enjoyed a break away from school and away from all the usual stuff...... till next year!!

Les Miserables

2013-01-04T18:56:00.002-08:00

Les Miserables is a musical adaptation from one of the greatest novels by Victor Hugo. This 19th century French novel was published in 1862. It was made into musical in 1980 and all the songs and lyrics are originally composed in French. The English version was only made and showed in London West End theatre in 1985. Subsequently 1987 in New York Broadway theatre.

I watched the movie last week and it was literally a crying marathon for me and my mum. I knew it was a very sad movie. Nevertheless was not prepared for how sad it was!

Jean Valjean was imprisoned for 19 years just because he stole a loaf of bread for the starving sister's child. 5 years for stealing and 14 years for numerous attempts of escape! What kind of a world was that? It was so dreadful just the thought of it!

Poor Fantine was forced to leave the job when they found out that she had a illegitimate child with the wrong man she fell in love with.

She sang :   There was a time when men were kind....When their voices were soft...I dreamed that love would never die....I had a dream my life would be....So different from this hell I'm living....

Her child Cosette was placed with an ungrateful couple and she was made to do all the chores. How very cruel was that! Luckily Jean managed to save her from her hell.

Cosette sang :   There is a castle on a cloud, I like to go there in my sleep, There is a lady all in white, Holds me and sings a lullaby, She's nice to see and she's soft to touch, She says "Cosette, I love you very much."

Then there were the young students. They were trying to fight for their rights to have a better life! M

They sang :   Do you hear the people sing, Singing the song of angry men, It is the music of a people Who will not be slaves again, When the beating of your heart, Echoes the beating of the drums, There is a life about to start, When tomorrow comes............

But sadly they were all but one perished under the fires of the army.

Marius survived because Jean saved him for the sake of Cosette who was in love with. Jean was afraid that when he was gone Cosette would be alone. So touched by this gesture of him.
Jean died because of his age and Cossette and Marius married and live happily ever after....

The movie starring Hugh Jackman as Jean, Russell Crowe as Javert, Anne Hathaway as Fantine and Amanda Seyfried as Cosette. Didn't know they can sing except Amanda Seyfried whom I watched singing in Mama Mia! Hugh Jackman played it quite well. Like his facial expression, so depressed!

Cosette and Marius.

Anne Hathaway as Fantine.

Javert and Eponine.

All the melodies are very nicely composed and the lyrics really brought tears to my eyes!

There really were times when the world was like a living hell and living means life long suffering and miseries! It was a long time ago and the world is now peaceful for most of us and that we are the lucky lots! So we have to live a life which is fulfilling and meaningful!

Personally, my favorite song is Look Down by Jean and the slaves and On My Own by Eponine.

BIRTHDAY 2012~

2012-12-29T04:40:00.001-08:00

HELLO PEEPS! 26 of December is my birthday! And it had just past! >< Well, my birthdays were really awesome since when I was born, even though I can't remember the birthdays I had when I was a baby :/ BUT most of them were really awesome. As you all know, 25th December is Christmas *cue Jingle Bells song* and the day after Christmas which is also Boxing Day is my birthday!

This year, my dad told me the day before Christmas that we were going to Melaka for a holiday. Well, of course that's what they said, I was thinking, Melaka for my birthday?? NICE. Okay, you can stop the music now -.-

Me, my dad and my mum reached Melaka at 12noon. My parents told me that my godmum a.k.a. mama, will not be going D; she was with me for almost every birthdays I had... (if I am not mistaken) so without her, it'll will be very different BUT I still looked forward to the trip. My mum, the planner, said that there was a very famous Nyonya restaurant called Makko's Nyonya Food. It was packed inside! There was a family waiting outside, it seems that we need to write down our name and wait until it was our turn. But we didn't! We didn't know, we just went in, found an empty table and ordered our food! XDD We ordered their famous dishes.

After 2 hours of sitting in the car, we needed to release ourselves :) when we came back from the toilet, the food were already served! Wow, that was really fast. After our lunch, the lunch? Oh, it was just okay, turns out that the food was already prepared. -.- We went to our hotel, Hotel Puri, the road infront of the Hotel was really narrow, Jonker Street was just right behind our hotel, so we can walk there :) The 3 stories hotel was really unique, the deco was all Nyonya Style. But unfortunately, our room will only be ready by 3 so we went to Jonker Street.

Jonker Street, where cheap things and yummy food roam *not really* we went in to many shops *not really* we bought many stuffs! *not really* We did buy something, we bought 2 wall stickers :D 3 funny luggage tags, a shirt for me :) and... i think that was it. ANYWAYS we continued our way and went to this shop which was famous for their ice coffee. My dad ordered an ice coffee and lemon honey. Turned out that the ice coffee was in a small bottle and the lemon honey sucks. Well, the ice coffee was nice. We went back to the hotel because there was nothing else to look at. The room was already ready and we climbed up to the 2nd floor...

I love opening hotel doors :D So I had the honor to do it :) the room is a 4 person room because my mum said that the 3 person room was already fully booked. It was 3.15 when we settled in our hotel room. We took a bath and rested. Shortly after, we went out for dinner at the Portuguese Settlement. We ate seafood * Portuguese style* by the beach *not literally BY the beach*.

We ordered Egg plant, Fried Squid and fish. And again... it was okay. :/ Except the Fried Squid, it was nice. We took pictures and went back to the hotel because we were tired. My mum was playing word search on her phone and I was playing my iPad, my dad went out to find his friends. My mum received calls from mama several times, I thought there was a problem that mama had, so I didn't bother. I was getting sleepy by 11.30 and decided to call it a night when my mum said that she can't find the word and I played with her and ended up on YouTube watching funny commercials. My dad came back and told me that one of his friends want to see me. I was thinking, which friend? what? I wore my brand new shirt and went down the stairs, when we reached the end of the stairs, my dad said that I need to cover my eyes, my dad covered them with his hands and led me.

I couldn't see anything, then we stopped, I smelt candle. And I can see light the gap of my dad's hand, I guessed it was a cake because of the candles, it had to be! IT WAS. I saw the cake and mama was there holding her camera, I yelled out :O MAMA. And I made a wish and blew out the candles. Mama bought the cake in KL and went there all the way to Melaka :) We took a lot of pictures and went up to our room to eat my cake :D It was pandan with coconut :D It was really awesome, thank god it was already 12 when we ate the cake which means we ate the cake on my birthday :D We switched off the lights and went to bed, mama asked me to take her phone which was in her bag, I felt a box all wrapped up (my bday present??) I pretended I didn't know when mama said that her phone was on the table, then my mum asked me did I touch my present, I give my best "no" face. But sadly, I only get to open my present the next day :) AND we slept :)

I woke up by the sound of tv and my mum slapping my butt. IT WAS MY BIRTHDAYYYYY~~ I woke up and brush my teeth and yadayadayada and I sat down on the face and gave my mum a big smile :D And she smiled back saying HAPPY BIRTHDAY!! HEHE:) I wore my brand new shirt and headed down for breakfast. It was a small buffet, really nice with French Toasts, Omelet, Nasi Lemak, Sausage and fruits. We went up and it was present opening time^^ I opened the first layer and found out that there was a fun quiz XD i did it and open the second layer, white, I opened the third layer and there, in my hands, a box with bird nest written on it XDD HAHA but there was a card inside it... I ripped the box open *not really* and the present was so small :3 so cute. It was rectangle and heavy, last stage, i opened at realized it was a Samsung Note 2 box, I was speechless.

I opened the box and say a shiny phone looking at me, I did not cry. >< not that much... I can guess that it was a phone because previously, my mum made it a little obvious... :/ but I never expected a note 2! How unexpected?! *THE HOBBIT* Excuse me while I fangirl. I was really speechless, I switched it on and explored it. :3

The rest of the day went pretty well, we went through Jonker Street, mummy and mama got new shirts, we went to the Stadthuys and ate Chicken Rice Ball. We left the hotel and headed out to Mahkota Plaza *mall* and eat their yummy cakes at Nadaje Cafe, the cakes were really special and unique, we ordered, cheese, banana chocolate and cafe mocha, the cakes were layered by layered and it was really soft ^^ we went back to KL.

Mu birthday ended like that, pretty. :) I need to thank my mum and dad for the super expensive present, and mama for the cover :) I am truly a lucky girl. I can't say anything else, I am speechless :/ Alright, that's a wrap!

The Hobbit--An Unexpected Journey (MOVIE)

2012-12-18T06:03:00.001-08:00

It's December 18 and you know what that means? The Hobbit--An Unexpected Journey is showing in the cinemas!!! It was released in the cinemas in Malaysia on December 14. I just watched it yesterday at MBO cinemas with my mum, and it was A.M.A.Z.I.N.G. The movie is the adaptation of the book but of course with more action. In case you don't know, The Hobbit, will be divided into 3 films. The first is An Unexpected Journey which was released a few days ago. The second is The Desolation of Smaug, it will be released in 2013, a year away -.-. The final one is There and Back Again, it will be released in 2014.

13 dwarves and Gandalf showed up in Bilbo's hobbit hole at bag end. Bilbo ended up going on a mission with them (reluctantly) being the 14th member excluding Gandalf. The mission to reclaim the dwarf's homeland which was being conquered by Azog (the beast).

The sceneries were stunning, from the beautiful Hobbiton to the enchanting Rivendell. The movie started with Old Bilbo (Ian Holm) lighted a candle, he's writing his book about his adventures when Frodo (Elijah Wood) asked his dear uncle what was he doing. Then the scene went back to the young Bilbo.

Everything pretty much the same as the book, Rivendell, the trolls, the goblin tunnel, Glamdring and Sting. There were also some cute and funny moments with the dwarves and of course who can forget Gollum and Bilbo's Riddle Game. But that one scene triggered me during the movie...

When the company was climbing the mountains in a storm at night, the lightning struck the peaks of the mountain, causing boulders to fall down, what's worse? The mountain giants arose, they started to have their own "battle", they lifted up boulders and began throwing at each other, at one point you could see them wrestling. The company, as you know is a big company of 15, they all struggled through the mountain with difficulty and some nearly fall. When the mountain giants were fighting, the force caused the mountain path to split into two with the company being separated apart. One side of the path belongs to another mountain giant's hand. (This part was very exciting!)

Part of the company had to jump back to carry on when the fighting ended. When they finally managed to get on their feet, they realized Bilbo was not with them, he's hanging off the cliff edge. Now, Thorin didn't like the idea that Bilbo joined their company and he said that Bilbo was a burden and shouldn't be in the company at all. Anyway, he pulled Bilbo up and told him that he shouldn't be there. I felt very sorry for Bilbo, it's really mean of Thorin to say that. Anyhow, they moved on and found the goblin tunnel and that's where it all continues...

Bilbo got separated from the company and met Gollum, while the dwarves and Gandalf were being taken away by goblins to the Goblin King(of the town). He's big, fat and hideous. Thorin managed to cut his stomach with his sword. The Goblin King backed up and fell, that's the end of him :/ The company then escaped the goblin town (most epic part of the movie). Bilbo, too, escaped with the ring which Gollum dropped when they were fighting, he found himself became invisible when wearing the ring and so he could outrun Gollum. And he finally joined the company again when the company thaught that he had decided to run away.

This is new in the movie: After they escaped the town, they were chased by wargs (out of the frying pan; into the fire ). They climbed up the trees to advoid the wargs. They ended in different trees. Gandalf and Thorin and a few others were on the tree which is on the cliff. On the ground were wargs and goblins, and Azog (the goblin king)((the real one)). Then Gandalf got an idea. He took an acorn from the tree and set it on fire, he then threw the acorn down to the wargs, the company followed Gandalf and soon the forest was on fire. The wargs ran away. Thorin soon realized that Azog was still alive (previously, he thought he had killed him in a battle when Azog killed Thorin's grandfather) Thorin wanted to finish Azog once and for all but he failed, he got knocked down. Azog then ordered his "minions" to chop Thorin's head off. Out of the blue, Bilbo scrambled back to the ground, pulled out Sting (the sword given by the elf) and fought off the goblin who was about to chop Thorin's head.

Bilbo stabbed him several times furiously and the goblin was finally dead (Bilbo proved himself that he was actually not that worthless). Bilbo then turned to Azog, who was going to kill him when suddenly all the dwarves ran towards Azog (the company were inspired by Bilbo's courage). Thorin seemed motionless, his eyes were close. Before that, Gandalf had sent for the eagles and the eagles came just in time. The eagles dropped boulders on the wargs and picked up the dwarves and poor Thorin. The eagles settled them down on a platform, everyone rushed towards Thorin. Gandalf chanted and Thorin opened his eyes, thankfully :D. He then asked for Bilbo and got up. This was what he said to Bilbo (more or less) : "What were you doing? Remember that I said you were a burden, you shouldn't come on this journey. I'd never been so wrong in my life. "*hugs Bilbo* The other dwarves cheered! (he finally realised)

That was the most touching moment ;) The movie ended with Smaug opening his eye.

Annnd, we have to wait one whole year for the next one ;( sucks! BUT I can wait, The hobbit was the best movie I ever watched!!! Next to Lord of the Rings Trilogy of course ;) Peter Jackson did a wonderful job! I love every bit of the movie. Fili and Kili are so cute and hawt ^^ I know, first I'm in love with and elf and now dwarves, don't judge me. XD If you haven't watch it yet THEN GO WATCH IT, WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING SITTING DOWN IN FRONT OF YOUR COMPUTER. GO TO THE NEAREST CINEMAS RIGHT NOW! GODDAMMIT. ^^ If you did, good job, the movie went awesome didn't it??

The Hobbit / There and Back Again

2012-12-03T06:29:00.001-08:00

The Hobbit is the prelude to Lord of the Rings. It is about a hobbit, Bilbo Baggins in his young age, going on an adventure with 13 dwarves: Fili, Kili(the youngest), Oin, Gloin, Dwalin, Balin, Bifur, Bofur, Bombur, Dori, Nori, Ori and the leader Thorin Oakenshield and Gandalf showed up in Bilbo's hobbit hole in Bag End, Hobbiton to claimed the dwarves treasure. However, the treasure was guarded by a dragon, Smaug the magnificent. Smaug stole the treasure from Thror, Thorin's grandfather, King under the Lonely Mountain and they wanted revenge. But poor Bilbo didn't want to go on any adventures, hobbits like to stay in their holes not on an adventure but Gandalf insisted him to be the 15th member, the dwarves too, disagreed with the idea but Bilbo joined.

The hobbit is also a movie, it will be in cinema this December 14.

The group traveled out to the wild towards Rivendell, with the help of Thror's map

The group came to a halt, they saw sparks and light and sent Bilbo, "the theif/burglar" to investigate. Bilbo, being part of the group, went and investigate, he saw three trolls feasting on roast mutton, Bilbo thought he stole some food for everyone since he was a burglar, he attempted to steal the food from the trolls. Bert, Tom and Bill were their names, they were complaining that they'd been eating mutton for a long long time when Bilbo tried to steal their food. Unfortunately, Bilbo was caught red-handed and was put in a sack, the dwarves came after that figuring that it took centuries for Bilbo to investigate, the 13 dwarves got captured as well.

But then, Gandalf showed up and cast a spell that turned the trolls into stone. Morning came, and they once again set foot towards Rivendell (Elrond, ring a bell?) They spent days walking, they were cold and hungry until they reached the river, the border of Rivendell. So they dwelt in Rivendell (that rhymes) for a couple of days as they find themselves once more back on their journey.

They reached the Misty Mountain and figured out that needed shelter to get away from the storm. Fili and Kili, being the youngest and the most energetic ones found a small cave enough to fit everyone. Oh, and again Gandalf went somewhere.... Just when they thought they were safe, goblins invaded them, the whole cave rumbled and the wall began to collapse. All the dwarves and Bilbo drew out their swords and started fighting, just when things started to get worse, Gandalf came and safe the day. As they all flee, Bilbo got lost and wandered down the Goblin tunnel all alone.

Bilbo was sad to be separated. It was dark in the tunnel, he tried to feel the ground and he caught something... he felt something cold and round... a ring!!! :OOO ( don't you guys get it?? this was where he found Sauron's ring. -.- ) He decided to keep it in his pocket. Bilbo saw something glimmered ahead of him, worse of all, he was being watched. Bilbo walked slowly, feeling the walls when suddenly his feet felt cold, there was a pond infront of him. He caught a glimpse in the middle of the pond, for sure there was an "island" ahead. Whatever it was, the creature was moving towards him in a boat. The boat stopped where Bilbo was standing, for those who watched Lord of the Rings or read it, the creature might be familiar to you... Gollum stepped out of the gloom and approached Bilbo, he was hungry too and will gobble Bilbo up. Smart O' Bilbo made a deal with Gollum a.k.a. Smeagol (nt really) to a Riddle Game. Whoever couldn't guess the opponent's riddle will be gobbled up. Gollum accepted the challenge.

Couldn't find a better picture. Look at his... face... ugh! Feel like stabbing him >< just kidding -.-

Lucky for Bilbo, he knew lots of riddles back in Bag End, he had a lot of confidence in himself. But Gollum was good at it too, they had a little "battle" between them. Just when Bilbo was losing, trying to think of more riddles. Gollum was whimpering about him losing his "precious" (>:)). Bilbo had forgotten the ring in his pocket, he asked "What is in my pocket?" as he run through his pocket. Gollum thought that was the riddle, he literally brainstormed, he cried: "what is inssss hiss pocketsis???!!!" Bilbo got him this time, he gave Gollum three chances. For sure, Bilbo won. Gollum went away in despaired trying to find his precious. Bilbo was left alone, he doesn't know the way out so he secretly followed Gollum. Lucky for him, Gollum did led Bilbo out the cave.

Bilbo found the company and told them all about his "adventure" and Gollum, he told everything but the ring. Bilbo found out that the ring could make him invisible if put on. the company journey in to Mirkwood. The dwarves got wrapped out by giant spiders, Bilbo slipped on his ring and cause troubles to the spiders he killed most of them with Sting (his glowing sword he found) He saved the dwarves from the and then AGAIN at the wood-elves dungeon. They all were trapped but Bilbo got away with him being invisible. But some of the dwarves was unhappy with Bilbo's way of getting them out of the dungeon.

After... a long time. The company finally reached The Lonely Mountains. They traveled in to a small tunnel into Smaug's home. The walls and grounds were smooth because of Smaug. The company were really tired. The dwarves sent poor Bilbo to investigate the caves and by any chance, find the treasures. Bilbo saw something glow, he walked and found a big hall infront of him and a big shiny beast. Smaug was sleeping, his shiny armor on, sleeping soundly on top of old the precious treasure. Bilbo wore his ring and decided to steal something since he was a burglar. He took a golden cup and went back.

But Smaug waked and noticed that his cup was missing and let out a great roar and flew up the hall into the open to find the thief. The dwarves were happy at first when they realized they were in trouble and blamed Bilbo. Bilbo was all frustrated and scolded back, Thorin and the whole company felt bad. Bilbo went to check on Smaug after that, well, Smaug was asleep (that was what Bilbo thought) He look all curled up and sound asleep (that was what Bilbo thought) Bilbo crept near him with the ring on. Now, one thing about dragons, their eye sight are not that good, but they can sniff anything out. Smaug was pretending to be asleep, Bilbo slipped behind a rock pillar, then he spoke. "Come out thief! I can't see you buy I can smell you!" Smaug spoke (yes, he speaks. I was surprise too) Bilbo didn't want any trouble, not from a dragon especially! They had a nice talk to be honest then Bilbo quickly went back.

For the next few days, it was silent, no sound was heard from Smaug. He was out of his cave, the company and Bilbo went to his "room" to get the treasure. The company were there for the treasure, but Thorin specifically wanted the Arkenstone. The Arkenstone was found by Thrain and shaped by the dwarves, it was lost when Smaug "invaded" the mountain from the dwarves. Thorin searched for his Arkenstone whilst the others just grabbed anything within their sight.

Now, this is what happen to Smaug. Smaug was hungry he went to a small town to look for food. To eat people. He invaded the town, everyone was alarmed and fled immediately, Bard the bowman shot a Black Arrow at Smaug's left breast (his weak spot because there was no armor to protect it). Smaug fell and died. With that everyone knows that Smaug the magnificent died, and that no one was guarding the treasure up on the mountain. So, Bard and the king and their men traveled to The Lonely Mountains to get the treasures. But they were not the only ones, the wood-elves, too, wanted the treasure. So the 2 "race" marched towards the Lonely Mountain in different directions. The dwarves were told by a thrush(a bird) about what was happening. Thorin got mad, literally, mad, and got really angry.

Bard and his army reached the mountains and talked to Thorin and set up a small fight. Bard gave Thorin a few days to give them treasure. Bilbo can't stand Thorin being all fussy and mad. One night, he sneaked out of the mountain and go to Bard's camp, he had the Arkenstone all along, Bilbo gave Bard the Arkenstone and he also found Gandalf! He was with Bard in the tent. Bilbo went back to the cave. The next day, when Thorin and Bard were arguing, Bilbo told him that he gave them the Arkenstone. Thorin was even mad now, he shouted at Bilbo. Poor Bilbo. That is when the first arrow was struck by the dwarves. The battle begun.

The battles of five armies. The elves, Bard and the men, the dwarves, Orcs and the Goblins. The orcs and the goblins came later. The elves, men and the dwarves teamed up to fight off the Goblins and the Orcs. Bilbo, with his ring on, avoided the fight and was the first who alerted everyone that the eagles were coming. The eagles helped by dropping big rocks on the goblins and orcs. The goblins and orcs were all scared away. Bilbo got to share the treasures with the elves, men and the dwarves, but only took coins back. In the battle, Thorin was badly wounded on the field, his nephews, Fili and Kili died defending him. Thorin died shortly after seeing Bilbo one last time. They buried them in the Mountains. Gandalf and Bilbo went back after a few short trips including Rivendell.

Bilbo was very happy and tired indeed, he was really happy to get home in Hobbiton. One evening, when Bilbo was busy writing his book about his adventures, There and Back Again--A Hobbit's holiday, someone was at the door. It was Gandalf and Balin! Bilbo welcomed them in and had a good chat and tea.

And that's how the story ended. Happy. :) I can't wait for The Hobbit to be in the cinemas! Just one more week! Some part of this blog is not correct and the pictures are just animations or paintings, I can't find the one in the movies, probably because it is not released yet or sth... Tq and sorry for the late blogging :)

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Last Day of 2 Garnet 2012

2012-11-22T20:00:00.001-08:00

Sadly, yesterday was the last day of school and the Last day of 2 Garnet. We were all really sad because we will be separated next year due to the different subjects we took.

I arrived at school early in the morning, me, Alex and Zhiying went down to the admin to borrow the projector, but no one was there so we went up. My classmates began to come in to class with all the delicious food :D Pui Shee brought nuggets and french fries, Chee How and Kheng Yue brought sausages, Chiao You brought muffins and junkfood, Yiting brought meehoon, John and Alex bought Pizzas, Emily brought Pasta, Lionel brought curry puffs, the others brought junkfood and sweets (including me) The real class party starts at 1.45.

My dear friend, Zhiying

Chiao You

Left: Ai Wei and me

Left to right: Dylan,John,Tristan,Gillian,Emily,Chee How,Joseph

The first class was BM, it was the last day of school and for crying out loud, WHO WANTS TO STUDY?! Our BM teacher said we need to study but no one listened when teacher was talking. Then JY suggested we play musical chairs, our teacher agreed and we pushed all our tables behind, leaving the chairs.

Lionel in the middle

Left to right: Yune-Wen, Kheng Yue, Chiao You, Pui Shee

Pui Shee was the winner of the first round, I was out of the game way before that XDD

Second round of musical chairs
The three remaining
Wan Ru (in jacket)
Lionel (red shirt)
Pui Shee (yellow shirt)

And again, Pui shee was the winner for second round.

We rested a while and took a few pictures with me friendsss <33

Left to right: Fifi, Kheng Yue, Emily, Me

Top: Emily, me Fifi
Right: Rowen----->
Bottom: Me and Fifi

BM class was soon over, Bio class is next. JY, Lionel and Joesph managed to borrow the projector, speakers, multiple plugs etc. we continued watching a some-what documentary about insects. It lasted for 1 and a half hours, soon it was lunch then PARTEY TIME~

We went down to the cafeteria, wondering what will it be for today? It was Pasta with lamb meat. 8) nice eh? IT WAS. Unfortunately, all of us were full after our delicious lunch. We went up and set up the tables. We even have a "bartender" serving soft drink instead of wines. Sadly, I didn't managed to take the photos of our class and the food. As soon as the food were set up, everyone started eating. I was so full! But the food tempted me, so I took a little Pasta, 2 nuggets and 3 sausages. I'm fat. Then we watched The Grudge 3.

I'm hate horror movies. The Grudge 3 is freaking scary, and I brought my pillow to school 8) I was hugging my pillow the whole way through, thank god that my friends were surrounding me. But I hate the fact that Hin Yao and Dylan kept on scaring from the back and Yune-Wen scaring me from the side. -.- But we all screamed together as a class.

We finished the movie before school ends and took pictures with Tr MJ

top: Left to right: Hin Yao, Dylan, Me, Gillian
bottom: left to right: Emily, Tr MJ

Dylan and Tr MJ

Top: left to right: Kheng Yue, Fifi, Gillian, Chiao You, Hin Yao
Bottom: Dylan, Tr Mj

After the movie, we cleaned up our dirty classroom. What a mess! We took several class photos.

The Garnet Boys
top row: Left to right: Andrew, John, Yune-Wen, Dylan
Middle row: Left to right: Joseph, Rowen, Trsitan
Bottom row: Left to right: Alex, Lionel, Kelvin/JY, Hin yao, Chee How

Garnet Girlss
top row: Left to right: Yiting, Me, Kheng Yue, Emily, Wan Ru
Middle row: Chiao You, Fifi, Mun Wei
Bottom row: Ai Wei, Rachael, Zhiying, Gillian, Pui shee

But it was more than the last day of school, we had gotten our report cards and were told if we were skipping form 3. I skipped! ;)

Then it was saying goodbye time. I'll be honest here. I cried. Emily and Chiao You cried, then I Fifi hugged me and say I'm gonna miss you then I lost it. I cried, real bad. We took pictures together... :) and photos of our friends

John and I

Rowen and Hin Yao

Me and Kelvin

Me, Kelvin, John and Rowen

2 Garnet

One by one, we left, me, Kheng Yue, Fifi and Alex were the last. That, is the last day of 2 Garnet of 2012. We weren't that united like last year, we had arguments, disagreement, some unhappy moments. But we managed to pull it through as a class. I love every single one of them. I hope I will work with them in the future. I am proud to be one of 2 Garnet.

The Lord of the Rings (LOTR) part 3

2012-10-24T06:49:00.002-07:00

The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King is all about war and friendship and it is also the best part of the whole trilogy, the ring was destroyed.\

When all of them united with Merry and Pippin, they went to "pay a visit" to Sarumuan, who was trapped on top of Isengard, he was stabbed by wormtongue who was also trapped with him. Legolas shot and arrow right through wormtoungue's head after he stabbed Saruman with a dagger becuase of Saurman's betrayal. Saruman fell from Isengard and a big sharp wooden... thingy... stabbed Saruman in the back. A round glass ball fell from Saruman, into the water,(refer to photo)being the nice and helpful Pippin, he picked it up and looked at it, something fiery and red caught Pippin's eyes, it was the eye of Sauron. Pippin was mesmerized by the eye, Gandalf quickly picked it up and pretended nothing had happened. And happily, Saruman died. Gandalf the white,.Theoden King, Aragorn and the others along with Merry and Pippin went to defend Gondor's capital, Minas Tirith. Araogorn realized their army was very small compared to Sauron's. Aragorn said he will travel to the Paths of Dead, legend has it that whoever goes in, never comes out. Eowyn warned and begged Aragorn not to go in, but he had no choice, and once again Eowyn (the friend-zoned one) got ignored. But Legolas and Gimli demanded that they will follow him together. Legolas said: Have you never heard of dwarves's stubbornness? So three of them along with Aragorn to the Paths of Dead.

Not scary? The path is not scary.... YET. The walked to the entrance of the paths of dead, it was silent, only their footsteps were heard. They had to leaved their two horses because the horses were scared, so they ran off.

<------- The entrance
Aragorn went in for the sake of Gondor, (Legolas isn't afraid of death, Gimli, was scared of the dead. After Legolas and Aragorn went in, Gimli was too scared at first then he forced himself to go in. (Gimli was really cute and funny in this scene in the movie) The three companions walk together with Aragorn carrying a torchwood for light to guide their way. At one point they were stepping on skulls, Gimli freaked out and tell himself to stay strong, this is also where some ghostly skeleton hand reaching out for them.

After Saruman's dead, the fellowship ride to Edoras, to celebrate Saruman's death and their victory at Helm's Deep in Rohan. Merry and Pippin were dancing on tables at The Green Dragon Inn, Gimli challenged pure Legolas to a drinking game. You make the decision: Who won? All was well until Aragorn talked with Gandalf about Frodo destroying the ring. They were all worried about Frodo and his... path.

Somewhere near the mountain of Shadows, Gollum was talking to Smeagol when Frodo and Sam were sleeping. But luckily, Sam was secretly awake and caught Gollum saying "she will kill them".... " then we will get out precious" Again Sam warned Frodo their "guide" was dangerous and untrustable, and again Frodo ignored Sam. Sam hated Gollum, Gollum hated Sam too but acted infront of Frodo that he was nice, after Sam said something evil and mean to Gollum, Gollum will say "nasssty little hobbitsessss..." and Frodo asked Sam to be nice to Gollum.

It was night time when Aragorn walked out and found Legolas staring at the sky. They talked about Frodo and the ring (fav scene~) Pippin, tempted by the ball, sneaked up to Gandalf who was hugging the ball around his arms, Pippin took it and looked at it again, the eye appeared once more and Pippin couldn't look away. He screamed, Legolas and Aragorn rushed inside. the others waked. Gandalf quickly pushed Pippin away and covered the ball with a cloth. Pippin was panting, Gandalf asked him what did he see. Pippin recalled and had a headache, he said he was really sorry. He also said that he saw a white tree, dying, and the whole place was burning. This is what happen: Sauron saw Pippin and thought that he was the ring-bearer. Now that Sauron knows where and who is the ring-bearer, Gandalf and Pippin must leave Rohan immediately.

The horrifying Minas Morgul

Frodo, Gollum and Sam were making their way to Minas Morgul, the evil city, they were close to Mount Doom. Gollum said they need to climb up a range of steep stairs on the rock. The power of Minas Morgul sensed the presence of the ring. Frodo had the urge to get closer but Sam and Gollum pulled him away. Gollum said there was no way to get in there so they took the long way up. (the trap)

They reached the stairs of Cirith Ungol, they have to climb up to go to Mount Doom ( not -.-) It is much higher and longer, the stairs. Previously, Gollum's plot was to get rid of Sam and he can lure Frodo into the cave and he can have his "precious". Gollum managed to tell Frodo that Sam was the one who wanted to get the ring, Frodo believed Gollum. Gollum also accused that Sam ate all the Lembas bread that the elven queen gave them, but it was Gollum who threw all the bread down the stairs.At the top of the stairs, at the entrance of the cave, Sam said the wrong thing, Frodo said to him in the face and asked him to leave, which means climbing down the stairs again. Sam was devastated and left weeping. Frodo and Gollum went in the cave. But actually the cave wasn't an empty caves, it was wide and huge that could fit a gigantic monster, it had a stench smell, and lots of spider webs. The cave belongs to a hideous monster named Shelob, and the cave was her lair.

Gollum was way infront of Frodo, Frodo, finally sensed something unusual, followed him but slowly, he came to this spider web and took out Sting and start slashing the webs one by one. He stumbled on one and ended up caught in the web. Gollum caught him but flee immediately when he saw a monstrous shadow. Frodo panicked, the shadow was getting smaller, the next thing he knew, he was facing a giant spider, Shelob. Sam was going down, sobbing, he found crumbs of bread on the ground, he was pissed and realized he made the biggest mistake, he climbed up again and rescued Frodo. Frodo used Sting to free himself from the web. He was tired of running, he took out the phial that Galadriel gave to him. When suddenly, Frodo heard no noise. When he turned he got stung my Shelob, she wrapped Frodo with web and carried him away. Sam made it, he found Sting and the phial and decided to use it as weapons. But it was all too late. Okay, this is not a summary, I'm basically telling the whole story. I'm just giving a summary from now. NOW.

Sam fighting Shelob

Sam found Shelob and fought her, Sam found Frodo, he thought that Frodo died (not) He wept and suddenly heard orcs coming his way, he hid behind the rocks. As the orcs approached, they saw Frodo and said "he" will be glad to see this, and the orcs took Frodo away. Shelob finally ran away, she was afraid of Sam. Sam decided to go for Frodo, he made a bad decision. Sam went to Cirith Ungol to save his master, Frodo.

Meanwhile, the Battle of Osgilliath happened, Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli gathered their own army of death. Gandalf and the others were busying slaying the enemies. Then comes the Battle of Pelennor Field, Eowyn secretly went to the battle field together with Merry without King Theoden knowing. Eowyn also killed the witch-king, but she was badly injured. Theoden was lying down with deep wounds and scars, Eowyn crawled towards Theoden, He told her that there was nothing she could to and he was proud of her, with that, he past away. Eowyn fainted.

Sam managed to rescued Frodo and continued their journey to Mount Doom. The ring was really heavy, Frodo's neck was injued because of the ring. Sam told Frodo: I can't carry the ring for you, but I can carry you. So Sam carried Frodo. (I cried at this part)

The most epic battle, The battle of the Black Gate, everyone was there, well their army compared to Sauron's is like a rice grain to a ping pong ball. But, in the middle of the fight, Sauron's tower collapsed, every orc or goblins dissapeared into ash. There's only one reason for this: The ring was destroyed. Peace was once again restored. Aragorn was crowned king of Gondor and once again together with Arwen. Legolas, Aragorn and Gimli went back. The hobbits were back in Hobbiton, they celebrated in Green Dragon Inn, soon, Sam married his love, Rosie Cotton. Frodo and Gandalf with Bilbo together with the elven-kings, Galadriel (and others) went to the undying lands. Merry and Pippin bid Sam and Frodo goodbye. Sam went home to his family, Rosie and his cute little daughter.

the story ends with Sam saying: Well, I'm back.

THE END

The Lord of the Rings (LOTR) part 2

2012-09-21T20:30:00.002-07:00

Many things had happened after the fellowship was broken. Pippin and Merry were carried by orcs to Mordor. Frodo and Sam were closer to Mount Doom. Aragorn,Legolas and Gimli went to Gondor. Let's start with the three best friends (Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli). As so I said, Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli went to Gondor, to meet Theoden King and Eomer. On their way, they saw a man with white robe with long white hair (in the book) they assumed it was Saruman. Then realized that it was actually Gandalf. He was no longer Gandalf the Grey, he was Gandalf the White. After that. they went to Helm's deep and that was where the Battle of Helm's Deep began. Gandalf went off and told Aragorn he will be back.

Man, elves from all around Middle-Earth came to battle against the orcs. Before that Legolas said that their strength to be three hundred against ten thousand. Aragorn and Legalas quarreled a while. But there were many who fled to the battle field. Women and children fled from Gondor to Helm's Deep because it was safe there, until battle came. The women and children were hiding from danger in a small tunnel beyond the gates of Helm's Deep. All man and even small boys were to fight. Eowyn, daughter of Eomund, sister of Eomer, took care of the women and children, she later fought in the Battle of Pelennor Fields, without King Theoden (her uncle) knowing. Elves from Rivendell made it to the battle field (in the movie). When they were almost hopeless, Gandalf the White came with another army, and they won the Battle. The battle lasted for a few days.When the Battle of Helm's Deep began, Pippin and Merry managed to escape the orcs one night and ran into Fangorn Forest.

Fangorn forest belongs to the Ents, a race that look like trees and they talk. Pippin and Merry was chased by one orc when they escaped, the orc was killed by the oldest ent in the forest, Fangorn also known as Treebeard. Pippin and Merry soon became friends with Treebeard and his ent friends. At that point, Saruman and his army chopped down all the trees to make room for his new army. Merry successfully led the ents to attack Saruman and his army unexpectedly. Treebeard was very angry when he saw all the trees chopped down. And so, Saruman was prisoned on the top of Isengard. And the orcs were all drowned. Pippin and Merry was seen dangling their feet up upon a wall by Gandalf and the others.

Meanwhile at Frodo's... Frodo and Sam spent days walking, getting closer to Mount Doom. Sleep in the night, walk in the day. Just the two of them, but they never knew there was a third one... Then one night, when they were sleeping at a "tunnel" at Emyn Muil. Gollum, he was once Smeagol before he found the ring and was corrupted by it. Gollum has been going after the ring right after Bilbo Baggins (Frodo's uncle) found it by accident and took it. When Frodo and Sam were sleeping, Gollum sneaked upon them and tried to snatch the ring from Frodo's neck (he wear the rings in a necklace way around his neck). But Frodo and Sam were awake, they caught Gollum and use the elven rope Galadriel gave to Sam and tied it around Gollum's neck. They made a deal, Frodo will not kill Gollum if he bring them to Mount Doom. So Gollum was their guide. Ever since then, Sam thought something was fishy about Gollum, sometimes at night, after Frodo slept, Sam heard Gollum speaking to Smeagol, speaking to himself. He has split personality. The bad Smeagol, Gollum said he will lead the hobbits into a trap, my the good Smeagol denied. But Gollum managed to pursued Smeagol into trapping them in order to get their "precious" (the ring).

Sam told Frodo secretly about Gollum's plan, but Frodo did not believe him. Sneaky little Gollum acted innocent infront of Frodo. His voice was rough and always hold the letter "s" producing a "ssss" sound. Like preciousssssss. Annoying.

After the two battle ended, Gandalf, Theoden, Legolas, Gimli and Aragorn made their way to Isengard, when they saw the place was flooded, Saruman was trapped at the top of Isengard. Pippin and Merry greeted them with glee. They finally reunited! But what trouble could have come for Frodo and Sam? To be continued.....

A WORD FROM THE BLOGGER:
Hey guys, I won't be updating my blog, because my final exam is in 16 days (OMG). And it is really important, because it determines if I can skip form 3. So I really wanna skip form 3. This'll be the last blog for the next 3 weeks. I will update more after my exam's finish. TQ AND TATA :)