Midcourse Dinner

Yay! We all made it to 3rd year. Which made this dinner very meaningful. I've never gone for the dinners organised in 1st and 2nd year cause they were too expensive and not as significant as this one.

It was organised at Prince of Wales hotel in Southport, 1 hour bus journey from Liverpool. My friend and I met up at a pub where the buses were before the start of that long journey to the hotel.

The hotel was quite old, like all UK hotels are. Our dinner took place in the Ballroom which was really beautiful.

We were gathered around the fireplace for quite a long time as it was warm there.

The food was delicious. One thing really new to me was using the knife and fork to eat melon, which was our starter.

It was easy to cut with the knife but its shape was not suitable as it was too straight. They should have just cut it for us. this is called laziness.

There was a choice between steak or chicken which I took the chicken. The sauce was unique in that it was sweet and complimented well with the vegetables and chicken.

Dessert was the really rich chocolate cake with fresh cream served with tea or coffee.

Surprisingly, I won one of the raffle prizes after my friend gave me his raffle ticket. It's one of the medical book but I haven't received it yet. Hopefully they remember this.

In the middle of our meal, there was a performance by this guy doing acrobatic stunts with a pole with fire at both ends. Entertaining. All the guys were commenting on his 6 pack which they all admire. The most entertaining part was when he dropped the pole and everyone booed him off the stage. We're cruel in a way.
It was a crazy idea, but somebody suggested that we walked to the beach in this cold and windy night which most of my friends went. We did smell and felt the sea breeze but we were not even close to the beach when we decided to turn back. If we were dressed in proper winter clothing and not in evening dresses and Tuxedos, maybe we would have made it. At least we saw the Southport bridge at night, which was impressive. I was quite sad that my camera's battery died halfway through. So, no photos from me till I get them from my friends.
There were live band performances and dancing till 1.30am before we began the long journey back. I got home safely around 3.30am. I was very tired, but glad that I went for this event. Now, I'm just hoping that I can go for the graduation ball without any obstacles along the way.

Culture Fusion

22nd Feb 08: Culture Fusion

Culture Fusion is a charity event organised by our Guild of Students where all International societies were asked to contribute in either a performance or setting up a stall during the event on Friday evening.

As more than 50% of our Malaysian Night dancers were out of Liverpool that day, our society was persuaded (actually in other words, I was persuaded) into setting up a stall instead.

I felt so fortunate that I had this group of friends who were willing to come help me out during the event as well as in the preparations for the event. We managed to showcase traditional Malay games: Batu Seremban, Tutup Botol and Sepak Takraw; traditional clothes and promoted Liverpool Malaysian Night 08 as well! Most of the clothes were mine, which was really handy.

Yup, talking about Malaysian Night 08, it'll be on the 14th of March, 7pm, Guild of Students. Do come and support cause I'll be in the Chinese fan dance and the Banghra dance.

I think it was from the experience promoting the society and talking to people at the International student fair and Freshers fair that I was really comfortable talking to people at that time.

One funny incident was when I was going through some of my holiday photos taken on my trips to Ipoh, Penang, Sabah and Sarawak with just 1 person, the crowd slowly grew larger and larger. I felt like I was giving a lecture or something. Glad that people liked listening to my grandmother stories.

One 1st year medic who came to help out asked me if 3rd year was very free cause he saw me at dance practices, meetings and then at Culture Fusion that night as well. Haih....people do judge the book by its cover. If I really had the choice, I would have preferred to spend those time revising, sleeping, blogging, watching anime, etc. Well, what can I say, it's commitment which I had promised the society the day I ran for the Secretary post. I'm seriously looking forward to Malaysian Night and of course, the AGM.

Watch match today, participated in Futsal competition the next

I really didn't think that this could happen but it did. I was really busy preparing for Culture Fusion where Malaysian Society was going to set up a stall. My saviour appeared offering to make Batu Seremban out of my old T-shirt and green beans for me. Then she asked me if I could come tomorrow for the Girls Futsal match as their team didn't have enough people. So, when people help you, you simply cannot refuse when they ask for your help.
This happened on the night when I just got back from Anfield.

I was already contented watching other people play but now I was dragged into playing. Haih....

Next morning 9.30am: Off I went joining the futsal competition without knowing how to play.

The audition of out goal keeper. All of us took turns to test our potential goal keeper

The Wira team

Why is everyone chasing me???? I didn't steal the ball

I thought we were supposed to use our legs to kick

Injury, injury. I've forgotten all of my St. John skills already. After 2.5 years of medicine, I don't know how to tend to an injured person. Most of the time I was relying on common sense.

The game was really tiring. We were playing 5 a side cause one of the team only had 5 players. So, to make the game fair, it was 5 a side all the way. Extremely tiring. Just realised how bad my stamina was. I attempted to shoot 2 times, all failed cause I didn't have the strength to kick and the ball just rolled slowly into the goal keepers arms.

I played the defenders post for the 1st game and as the goal keeper for the 2nd game. We won 2nd place in the end, which wasn't too bad. It's not that we're that good. In actual fact, there were only 3 teams. So, we're not the best and not the worst.

Live match at Anfield

Dear blog,

Sorry for neglecting you for such a long time. I had been really really extremely busy. I seriously don't know how did I survive till today, but I did.

This one came as a very lucky opportunity. I personally don't know how to obtain match tickets for Liverpool matches at Anfield cause it's so difficult to get them. My friend, JT just contacted me one fine Thursday last week when I was in the mist of getting stressed out by all the commitment and work I had to do asking if I wanted to go for a live match on Saturday.

Without even considering if I would be busy or not, I took the offer straight away. (This is the same when it comes to food as well, which is a bad thing. Now you know what you can bribe me with). The ticket cost 24 pounds and it was the 9th row from the pitch, at one of the corners.

Liverpool fans are really loyal. On Saturday morning, we walked to town to take the bus. On the way, practically every single person on the streets were wearing Liverpool FC jersey or scarf. JT even went to town the day before to get a scarf.

We had to get down a stop before the stadium cause the roads were flooded with people. Liverpool's stadium wasn't as strict as Barcelona's Camp Nou cause the personnels didn't even check my bag. The ticket was really beautiful and the best thing is I get to keep it as a souvenir.

My friend was telling me about the layout of the stadium. One thing special about one side was that its capacity is much bigger due to its increased steepness and narrower seats. This was the side behind Liverpool's goal on the first half.This part of the stadium is always very enthusiastic. They kept on cheering and singing throughout the whole match. When they were cheering, they cheered the loudest. When they were disappointed, they showed the most disappointment. There were always occasional synchronised banging sounds made by the chair slamming back when the audience stood up.

The many faces of Anfield stadium

I loved how the audience cheered for Liverpool before the match. They passed a giant flag from one end to the other, sang and held the scarves into the air.

Liverpool scored in the first half. During the break, I took the opportunity to take some photos:

Sorry, nothing which can identify that I'm a Liverpool supporter unless if you counted the red hat

The only player I knew in the first half was Peter Crouch because my mother always calls him the clumsy giant.He was easily identified because he's the tallest and skinniest. He did look very unstable on his feet.

Steven Gerrard only came out towards the end. My corner of the field wasn't happening, so I couldn't get any nice pictures of him. Sometimes I wish that I have cameras like this:

That time, even if I'm 1km away from the player can still capture the mole on his face, if any of them has any

The thing with me and live matches is that, the team which I support either ends in a draw, or this time, Liverpool lost to Barnsley at 1-2. Sedih.

When it was almost reaching the end of the match, people kept on turning back to see the time, hoping for a miracle to happen. But, it's just too bad.

History repeated itself. We waited, and waited, and waited for the bus in the really cold weather. No buses came, in the end, we walked back. At least our place wasn't too far away. Took us about an hour to reach home.

I was telling JT about how M and I walked from Old Trafford back to our friends' place and he said luckily we're not watching the match in Manchester. That one I think took M and I 1.5 hours. At least we got back just in time for Chinese New Year Reunion dinner.

At least Liverpool won the match on Tuesday.

Why are airtickets so expensive???

With the recent slowing down of US and UK's economy, the oil prices shot up recently but are slowing going down. This has off course led to an increase in fuel charges for all airlines.

I was really happy when I came across cheap fares advertised by Rexair or Lee's Travel websites. For flights to Kuala Lumpur, there were offers going for less than 400 pounds on return tickets, so I thought. After reading the small prints at the end of all the attractive prices, the prices were just for the air ticket excluding airport taxes and fuel charges.

Copyright of Rexair. 300+ for return ticket to Kuala Lumpur from London before 15th of June 08.

Copyright of Lee's Travel. From Manchester to KL, it's 400+. Not bad at all.

Scroll down happily.......Wah, airport tax 60+, airport tax 100+. Never mind, I think I'll still giving them a call tomorrow to enquire because the fuel charges fluctuate everyday. (That was what I thought on Sunday)

Today, Rexair gave me a quotation of 700 pounds for Singapore airlines from Manchester to Kuala Lumpur. Airport tax and fuel charges was fixed at 180 pounds!

Lee's Travels was no better. They gave me similar quotations and it was still 180 pounds for tax and fuel. My goodness! Isn't fuel supposed to be included in the ticket?

You must be wondering why I wanted Singapore Airlines and why was it so expensive. I requested for that airline cause it flies from Manchester. Secondly, I'm boycotting Malaysian Airlines due to it's lousy service which I got at Heathrow in first year. I was already running from one terminal to the next due to the delay in the connecting flight, yet, when I arrived at the gate, I was scolded by one of the MAS stewardess for taking my time! The worse part was, they treat non-Asians so nicely. Why is there a discrimination??? Plus, they cancelled the direct flight from Manchester, which I think is their biggest mistake ever as so many people fly from Manchester. Now, their business is mostly taken over by Singapore airlines or Cathay Pacific.

Why was the price so expensive even for Singapore Airlines? I wanted a flexible dated ticket because 3rd year is really difficult and there is a possibility that I may need to go back early for a resit. How I wish I can definitely know that I don't have to resit.

In the end, booking from Singapore airlines website directly was cheapest as compared to the 2 travel agents. Got my ticket for 685 pounds. Expensive, but it will be all worth it once I step foot in Malaysia. Not to mention, the airport tax and fuel charges came up to 174.10 pounds. Slightly cheaper than the travel agents. Most probably the rest goes to their commission for selling the tickets.

What I did for the start of the Year of the Rat

It was my first time celebrating Chinese New Year(CNY) in Liverpool. For first year, I was tricked by PL into going to Manchester a day before to become her cook for the reunion dinner. In 2nd year, I escaped with M to watch a match between Manchester and Reading at Old Trafford which was a really great experience for me as we sat 3 rows from the field.

On CNY day itself, there wasn't much happening as it was a Thursday and unlike Malaysia, there is no public holiday over here. Sad....

There was dinner organised by Malaysian Society at Harbour City restaurant. I loved the lobsters!!! My mistake that night was to finished eating the lobster before remembering to take a photograph of it. So, no photos to show. There is really a need for an invention which can capture taste and smell. Then, I can refer back from time to time and remember the taste.
Talking about lobster. It did make any other food served that night insignificant. I've always wanted to order it while I was in Malaysia, but it was always too expensive. My parents will always tell me that I've eaten it before....when I was 6. But I can't remember!!!! Now finally, after all these years of longing. I found out that crab was still nicer but lobster will be a good substitute is there wasn't any.

Right after the dinner, we went to 'The Office' for the Valentemptation party. My flatmate came along as well.
The music selection there was really bad and that stupid DJ kept on stopping the song to give some stupid commentary. I still preferred Halloween Night's party.

There was a parade at China Town on Sunday. I went with my flatmates, F and SM. It was really funny, cause it was as if most Chinese were on holiday and those who were carrying the dragon, flags, playing the drums, lion and even the ones setting off the firecrackers were not Chinese. Oklah, there were countable numbers of Chinese involved with one hand. I miss Lion and Dragon dance so much. Back home, it was at a higher standard with difficult stunts and all. Over here, they just carried it around.

Here, the dragon only knows how to go round and round and round. Back home, it knows how to spin up and downDesign wise, can be compared to the Dragon back home

Laughing really badly because I wanted a photo with the Lion and it was moving away really quickly

Now, the reason why firecrackers are not banned in the UK:
1. It takes more than 1 person to light it.
2. The person involved in lighting wears helmet and all other safety gears.
3. They carry a wire frame to enclose the firecraker so that the surrounding audience wouldn't get hurt
4. I'm sure all their firecrackers have gone through UK's version of SIRIM (centre for quality control in Malaysia - usually for electrical goods..but it's for an example here)
5. The audience here don't stupidly stand too near to it.

Malaysia's way of setting off firecrackers:
1. Buy some smuggled firecrackers
2. Get a matchstick, or a lighter
3. It will be places in an unsafe area: with people standing too near, close to wooden buildings, etc.
4. Safety measures? What safety measures?
5. Only get caught when accidents happen and people end up at hospitals

Video of the safe way to light it:

They were selling miniature Lions which was really cute along the streets.

We went to 'The Egg' restaurant for lunch after. It was a vegetarian restaurant, 2 floors up. But it was really cozy and the food was delicious.I had nut roast which was basically nuts shaped into cakes and then roasted with vegetables and cranberry sauce. They did call it cranberry sauce, but it looked more like cranberry jam cause it was like jelly.

I ended my day doing my grocery shopping at Tesco and bought my first 2 mangoes from UK after staying here for so long. It's not that I haven't eaten mango for such a long time as I was offered by friends from time to time. But ya. First time cutting mango tonight and it's already in my stomach right now.

I still miss Malaysia's mango. The sweetest one which had a sharp pointed end is called Water Lily. I forgot to read where was this imported. But it still can't beat Malaysia's local mango.

Gong Xi Fa Chai!

Happy Chinese New Year!

It is so different celebrating it in the UK compared to back home. Over here, there isn't any festive mood, no sound of any Chinese New Year songs, no decorations at shops etc. I miss visiting relatives on the first day where I get to collect a lot of Ang Pows!

JPA had been really kind to us. They banked in the top up for September and October's allowance yesterday. So, it's their Ang Pow for us. So, in order to show my appreciation, I'll put in more effort in studying. (I hope that I can accomplish this)

Oh ya. Finally, I received my keyboard!!!! I really love it a lot. It's Casio CTK-810. The latest model from Casio. It was released this year and it only weighs 4kg, which is really light for a keyboard, yet it contains sooooo many functions. I haven't experimented with all of them yet but I will eventually.

It was this Tuesday when I just went to the porter's lodge to check for any mail. I wasn't expecting the keyboard to arrive so early as the website mentioned that it takes about a week. Then, I saw that huge box at the porter's lodge.

I happily carried it back to my room. It is a really huge box but I managed to carry it under one arm as it was really light for its size.

My beloved keyboard

Now I wished I had a much bigger room. There wasn't space on my table and it is occupied by my books, laptop and table lamp. So, next available space: my bed.

Come to think of it, I should have bought this earlier on. Then will I have more time to play. It had touch response, midi and computer connection, over 500 types of tones. More than what I hoped for.

Tuesday: played for 1/2 an hour because got pbl to rush for Wed.
Wed: played for 4 hours straight.

Sadly, after not playing the organ or piano for such a long time, my skills have becomed really rusty. I am crazed about One Republic's song, Apologize. Managed to find the chords and melody by ear. Played my own version for a while, then I wanted to play the actual version.

The best place to learn - YouTube. There are so many tutorials posted there where they teach you how to play the actual version. Most of them are home production, but one of two were very professional where they used software which can show which keys are pressed. The song is easier than expected. So, for you all out there who are interested in attempting this song on your own, just go to YouTube and search for it. Good luck with that!

2 sad news today

I had my formative OSCE today which didn't go well at all. I don't know why the arrangement was to ask 2 groups to turn up at the same time, but one group will be kept in the waiting room for almost 1.5 hours before the other group will get a turn to go through the exam.

I was unlucky to be in the later group. I had already mentally prepared myself to go through the OSCEs right after I arrive but ended up having to wait for another 1.5 hours. I really hate waiting for an exam as it makes me really nervous and restless. It didn't help when your friends start revising or talk about some random stuff.

I'm a really dangerous 'doctor'. Just gave my patient the wrong dose for injection today. I was really sleepy and just assumed that a line on the syringe is 0.2mls but in actual fact, it was 0.1ml. I wonder if an underdose of 0.2mls is going to do my patient any harm. But I think I better take this seriously.

The breaking bad news station went horrible wrong for me. It's going to freak me out already if I need to give patients bad news in future. The patient herself was very intimidating. I had her for my summative exam last year and just by her presence, I already knew that I was going to fail this station. Have to get more practice.

If OSCE wasn't sufficient to make this day a sad one, the rejection of my application for the Japan exchange programme for the electives did. When I applied, I was lucky in the sense that I didn't put any high hopes in getting it. But, its impact was amplified by my performance at OSCE. Haih.......'sudah jatuh ditimpa tangga' or the English version 'it never rains but it pours'.

Well, life is a roller coaster, there are bound to be ups and downs. I just hope that tomorrow will be a better day.

Changing values in life

It is amusing how drastically can our own values change over time. This post will be about my childhood till present and how my values changed over that period.

While I was In Sandakan, Sabah....
Very young

When i was really little, say before going to kindergarten. 1st priority while going to the supermarket with my parents was to go to the toy department, chose a toy, go home to play. My infamous conversation while holding a new toy in one hand and pulling my mother's skirt with the other:

Noreen: 'Let's go home'

Mum: 'But I haven't even started shopping yet.'

Noreen: 'Let's go home' (so that I can start playing with my new toy)

Mum: 'Papa, you settle her'

So, the next scene of this routine will be at the bench outside the supermarket. Some days, I'll be busy playing with my new toy. Some days, I'll be eating ice-cream. My dad will be shaking his head looking at me. Ice-cream came into the scene when I ended up with too many toys at home that they couldn't fit into my toy cupboard anymore. By the time I finished the ice-cream, my mum will have finished her shopping. Next activity when I got back....play!

*****

Kindergarten

Kindergarten was a place for me to play, not study. I doubt that I'd learnt anything during that 2 years. School was a fun place where I got to see my friends, play, and the toys there were different from what I owned.

I was really quiet. I speak English at home and every single kid that went to class with me spoke a certain dialect of Chinese, mostly Hakka or Cantonese. One thing good about playing at that age is that, it is universal, you don't need a common language. I didn't know how, but I did pick up Mandarin in the end.

I used to go over to my neighbour's house to play the swing they had. We lived at the government quarters where the houses had legs and was suspended 1 storey above ground. (I don't have the photos with me) In the end, I asked my dad to make me one and he did! Loved that swing so much that I had to go on it everyday after school.
My house was a wooden house at that time, and there was a huge termite nest under the house, near my swing. Used to be so fascinated with them. I am a very cruel person when it comes to insects. Used to use a 'cangkul' to destroy the termite's nest and see them scrambling about.

It does look like rocks. And it is super hard. That's why I needed a 'cangkul'

I loved helping my dad clear the dry leaves and unclog the drain every once in 3 months. I could find at least 3 earthworms each time we did that together and my dad will give me some biology lessons. Like, if you cut the earthworm into half, it'll becom 2 earthworms! Or, the more earthworm there is, the more fertile the soil would be.
Playing with ladybirds and other insects seriously helped me learn about them a lot. Like, how the ladybirds had their defence mechanism where they secreted a fowl smelling liquid when they sensed danger. Hated that smell but still loved to catch them. Have never told my parents this, but I did earn some pocket money selling ladybirds to my friends. I didn't think it reached 5 ringgit even for my whole ladybird catching career.

*****

Primary School

Playing was still a big part of school life. The games were always either Catch, play getting married (if this was official...I think I'd lost count of the number of husbands I have), jump rope, 5 stones (but we increased it to 7), even fighting with the boys with long rulers.

Some how, studying wasn't as fun as before. There was pressure to get good marks for papers and there were competition going on.

This was the period where I was really crazy about Sailormoon. Used to borrow the video tapes and comin books. I had a collection of cards, stickers and even miniatures which I treasured a lot. My room was decorated with posters of Sailormoon characters.

The exact same picture of one of the posters I had. Now I'm wondering where did all of them disappeared to

*****

Secondary School
Studying was getting less fun. More subjects to study, more competition and more pressure to get good grades. However, this was the time when I was crazed about playstation I and started watching dramas. Initially, my memory was really good that I could remember all the storylines and endings of every drama which I've watched before. My mum used to ask me what was the ending cause she couldn't remember. Nowadays, I'm like my mum. Can't remember anything at all.

I loved Final Fantasy role playing game. Finished playing Final Fantasy IX and halfway through VIII. Gave up cause I didn't have time after Form 3. Totally stopped playing since I went to college and uni. I used to play the car racing game with my sister but this was really funny. Instead of racing against each other, she'll go the opposite direction to cause accidents to my 'opponents' so that I would win the race.

*****

I transferred to Kuala Lumpur at the end of Form 4. Started my final year of Secondary School in my mother's hometown but an unfamiliar place to me. I used to go back once a year to visit my grandparents, but to live there is a completely different story.

Gone were the days of slow-moving lifestyle I had in Sandakan. There was so much pressure in trying to keep up with the syllabus which they had covered in advance as compared to my former school. Students in KL were much more competitive and for a small town girl like me, it was over-whelming. I broke down into tears at lunch time after coming back from the first day of school as I was so scared that I couldn't catch up. My grandmother got a shock and my sister with her usual attitude, laughed at me for being a cry baby.

Study wasn't fun at all. I was bottom of the class for most subjects especially Additional maths and physics. No, that wasn't fun at all. The results for the first monthly test was a big blow to me. I practically begged the teacher not to announce the results and names when she was giving out the Additional Math paper...but.....

'Highest marks this time goes to A with a score of 100'
My jaw dropped.

'Second highest is B with 98 marks'

These people are crazy.

When it came to mine....it was 2 marks above the passing mark. I could predict that Form 5 will be hell for me.

I didn't have a life in Form 5. I didn't really fit in, and most of my friends already had their own cliques. I was lonely, depressed, stressful, and dreading school each day. But along the way, I managed to make a few really close friends. I studied like crazy cause there wasn't much to do anyway. I wasn't the type who'd go out every weekend to hang out at the shopping mall. There was only 1 shopping mall in Sandakan, if you can call that a shopping mall. I didn't go to cinema to catch the latest shows like what typical teenagers my age would do. Plus, I've never stepped into Coffee bean or Star Bucks at that time.

My first time stepping into Coffee bean, I was dragged there by M and H after they found out that I've never been into Coffee bean before and I treated them to coffee, which cost me about.....let's see...30+ ringgit. That was the time when we were preparing and buying things before we went to the UK. The 3 of us met up at M's second home - MidValley Megamall.

First time stepping into Starbuck was in Edinburgh, while my whole group of friends were waiting for the new year countdown in 1st year.

Reason why I'd never stepped into these places - the average of RM 10+ for a cup of coffee is way too expensive for me. Plus, I'm not a big fan of coffee.

Had my graduation, went for graduation ball. I think I might have looked like the odd one out as everyone wore really beautiful formal dresses, high heels, make-up with hair done up nicely. I went in really simple black shirt, black skirt, black shoes. No makeup cause I didn't have any. Nevertheless, I did enjoy myself and the food was delicious.

*****

College

While I was waiting for SPM results, I went to Taylor's college to start on A levels first. Taylor's was quite a distance for me and I had to travel 1.5 hours each way by bus. Hated travelling, but that was the only way I could go to college. I don't think I had any craze at that time as I wasted so much time on the bus and by the time I reached home, I was exhausted.

The unexpected
I was never the top student in my class, and this was seriously unexpected. It was my best achievement and it totally changed my life. I got top grades in all 10 subjects which I've taken. Until now, I still think that the examiner must have been lenient to me.

I didn't even know that I could apply for a scholarship until my chemistry teacher told me about it. I didn't even know how to apply for it. My poor mum had to asked her collegue what was this scholarship all about and she has to rush to the bank during her lunchtime to buy the application form as the dateline was in a week's time.

That was how I ended up dropping A levels and doing IB in Mara College Banting instead. There is still much story to be told. But I think I'll leave those to next time. It was the start of the anime and drama craze which I have been addicted till now.