Family Potluck 301207

Cross posted on Oracl3

On the 30th of December 2007, our family decided to have a pot luck dinner at my place. Well, as Christmas cum New year celebration, since my brother would be busy on the 31st of December... Look at the amount of food.. I'm sure we all remember the food. Yummy :p

The people to enjoy the food.. I took the picture so I wasn't in it... yet..

Now I'm in it.. My mouth waters when I recall the food.. :p

-Oracl3-

31st December 2007

A more detailed version can be found on Oracl3's blog

Okay, since this is the short post, I'll spare you all the details, What we are all interested here is, seeing my brother's girlfriend right? so for a more detailed story, click the link above.. if you're here just for the pictures.. well.. just scroll down..

Brief summary: at the aforementioned date, we were at the Curve PJ, to do a countdown for 2008. we had a movie and a karaoke session, followed by the countdown.

This was taken inside the Curve, as the Christmas decorations were so pretty.. here we have me an Junko, my brother's girlfriend.

My Brother and his girlfriend :)

The karaoke session.. :p

The Big group that sang together.. note they are ALL my brother's friends, only 2 of them are my friends haha, but I know his friends too, so it was fine :) They are a nice bunch of people

So, after the Karaoke, we headed out to join the crowd for the countdown.

The fireworks at the countdown.. pretty :)

After the countdown we sat down in a cafe, as we expected it to be too jam to leave the place,, and Junko and I played around a bit.. ;p The effect is below..

Two new superheroes... :p [I blame Dark Knight..]

And That's all.. This is really the very short and concise version, with less text and less pictures.. so for more pictures, and for the full story, click the link provided above :)

-Oracl3-

Family Lunch 240508

Cross posted on Oracl3's blog

Sorry it's so late, but well, before this, my connection was crap, and well I was having exams, so this is the family lunch we had in Bentong on the 24th of May 2008, for the relatives to meet our new addition to our family.

As we all know, our cousin Magdalene, got married last September and had the ceremony in Australia, hence there are some relatives who have not met her husband. So she decided to hold a family lunch for everyone at Crystal Palace Bentong. And well, I'll let the pictures do the talking...

The sun was behind, so that's why even with the flash it looks dark.. we have here, our grand uncle, oldest uncle & his wife, and the bride's mother, ie our 2nd aunt

The cousins.. Fiona, Yen ping and the lazy contributor of Generation-L who has not posted a damn thing yet.. Ling

Again the lazy contributor with me, and my glass of beer :p

The bride's parents

The bride the groom, and the bride's relatives on her paternal side?

Groom, Bride, Our Grandmother and Granduncle

My parent's and Ben's parents :)

Another Granduncle, with another one of our uncle and his family..

Uncle and aunts... :p [Well ling's parents, and our oldest aunty..]

And that' s all.. no comment on the food, because it was like usual, and well without Ben.. No one was there to pick on Ling together with me.. haha... but it was still okay :)

-Oracl3-

Mount Buller

Weather: Snowing/Raining
Turnout: 35
Venue: Mt. Buller
Day: 18 – 20 July

What started off as a Malaysian club expedition to Mt. Buller ended up as a International expedition. With students coming not only from Malaysia, but China and Thailand soon joined in on the dun. The first event of the second semester of 2008 started off on a gloomy and wet day. As for the mood of the participants – sleepy, as we were required to gather at 7.30 am on a Friday morning. On any other day, one would start a Friday at noon. Well, one has to sacrifice for the sake of enjoyment. It was rather a good start to the day as everyone gathered relatively on time with all their bags and food with one exception. In the rush of being on time, 1 participant who goes by the name Cheang Wai Leong forgot all his stuff less his clothes.

Upon arriving at Mt. Buller, everyone settled in within the lodge as it provided some warmth and at the same time freshen up from the 4 hours bus ride. Rooms were assigned to everyone and then there was the all-important lunch. Choices were given to the members to have anything they want. After everyone was well fed, a snowball fight broke out. It was a dangerous place to be as who you thought to be your friend might just be your foe. As snowballs were flying in all directions, so did laughter, as a person’s demise is another person’s entertainment. With fun, time always flies by and it was time to gather everyone to collect his or her equipment.

Just like any other events, ice-breaking activities are a must. This trip is no exception. Everyone was required to introduce a little bit about him or her, and later on follow by a memory game. It was slow at first as everyone was trying to grasp the concept of the game. As it progressed, it got faster and more enjoyable not only for those who are still in the game, but for those who are out of it as well. Some wrong doers were punished for not acting in a certain manner as required by the game. A Thai student was required to do a Thai dance as she did not ducked when her name was called. Our very own Mak was required to sing “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” for the very same reason. Another was asked to do the penguin walk twice. And lastly, for not stepping out of the way, one was asked to consume a fair amount of water in one go.

On the second day of this expedition, it was time for us to do what we came for – ski and or snowboard. Our day started off at 9am with a 2 hours lesson on how to ski and snowboard. After the lessons were done and dusted, it was free and easy. Overall, everyone enjoyed themselves although there was a fair bit of falling on their behind. The casualty report for this day would be 2 injured, 0 death. From a group of 35, this is a very good ratio. One could not ask for more. After returning their ski equipment at 4.30 pm, it was free and easy for everyone as there was no scheduled activities. That did not stop the group having fun on themselves.

On the last day, 10 of us went for archery and rock climbing. It was relative fun, but disappointment was expressed with the equipment and facilities. It was not up to everyone’s expectation. With that aside, everyone who went for it still found ways of entertaining themselves with what was a available. Our worst sharpshooter was our very own president with negative scores. And our best climber was Ernest with a time of 49 seconds, climing up a height, which was equivalent to 4 storeys high.

To sum up the trip, it was a total success all thanks to the brilliance and coordination of our very own Nicholas Chong. It was him that planned all the activities, it was him that made the trip available for everyone, and it was him who made it possible for everyone to have a time of their lives. Without caring much of his own personal enjoyment, he selflessly made the trip a success. Even our lodge manager, Michael said that and I quote “In the 4 years that I have been the manager of this lodge, this is by far the most organized group I have ever seen.” That is why, one would like to thank him for organizing this trip. And one would also like to thank Mak in advance for the beautiful pictures that he took. Without him, we would not have much pitures to look back to in the future.

Cherish!!!

I've learned a few things since I have been here - The Land Down Under. These 5 months has been enlightening for me. Very very enlightening. I've meet new friends. Learn new things from these new friends as well. New experience, new thinking techniques, new analytical style. Along with all that, I have learned to cherish a few things as well.

One of them is the value of money. It's not that I don't treasure it before. It's just that I have learn to treasure it more lately. I have learn the ability to differentiate when is appropriate to spend and when is not the time. To tell the truth, before this I always spend on impulse. Only on rare occassions that I can differentiate between needs and wants. Now, I am able to differentiate that better.

Another thing I learn to cherish lately is friendship. One would never understand the full calue of friendship until one is in trouble. We tend to take friendships for granted at times. Never fully appreciating it. Isn't that the theme of us human? We always take things for granted. Until the moment when we lose it, people start to realise the importance of it. And it comes from all kind of places. It could be the new friend that you know in tutorial, it could be the person you just happened to talk to in a line.

I have also started to cherish the happy, spontaneous and crazy times I used to have with my cousins. Although we just started to be so close lately, but we always create new and happy memories. I cherish them very much. I can't get anything close to that here. In fact, I can't even get anything along the line of that. One of you was supposed to come visit me. But there was a change of plan. I was so looking forward to that. Oh well, life is full of unexpected things.

Great Ocean Road...

Here it is. My post on my trip to the Great Ocean Road. I went there on the 2nd of July. I'm only putting it up now because I was real busy for the past 2 weeks. I have been showing both my friends and new students around Melbourne. Hectic life, and tiring as well. The picture above is Port Campbell. It is sort of the first pitstop of the trip. We stopped to take some pictures, then we started to drive down the Great Ocean Road. But we came back here for lunch and to collect one of my friends wallet as she dropped it here. Luckily someone picked it up and handed it over to the police. Or the trip would have turned sour real fast.



And here you have a picture of the Blowhole. I know, it sounds a little off to me too. This was the first of many stops after Port Campbell.



Here is a picture of the group minus our camera man at the Thunder Cave. The cave is actually located at the other side of the picture, where everyone is facing. But we feel that this is better.



Then we have this place. I think it's the Loch and Gorge. Just another picture opportunity for the whole group. This time with the camera man. I actually feel pity for him. He is supposed to enjoy himself on this trip like everyone else. But end up he has to be the camera man taking this and that. Well, I guess that's the price he has to pay for bunking on my floor for 2 weeks then.



Just another group photo minus the camera man again at the stairs leading to the Loch and Gorge.



After that, we finally saw what we came here for. The 12 Apostles. But it is no longer 12 though because of erosions. After that, it was just pretty much nothing. We just took a left or right turn into someting that we thought would be interesting but it turned out to be nothing. And in between all that, we got lost. Or rather I got lost as I was leading the whole group in the first car. Yes. I got lost. That's a first. But to be fair, this is the first time I'm driving in Australia, it's the first time I'm venturing out so far from the city, and it's the first time I'm in this country. And I did not have a map. For the whole trip, we just practically follow road signs. If you ask me, it was very good as we got to see what we wanted by just following road signs. Try donig that in Malaysia.



And in between the getting lost and looking for directions, we managed to squeeze this group photo in. It's everyone who went for the trip posing with the car that they were in respectively. Not too shabby eh?? Well, I guess that's all. There is loads of photos actually, but it's just too hard to put all of them in. So I'll show you all the photos when I get back. That's a promise.

Phillip Island

This is one of 2 post that I will be updating. Both of these post will be on the trips that I just went on during my holidays. This is the second of these 2 trips. I choose to put this first because this is the more boring trip among the 2. I don't know why, but seeing animals doesn't intrigue me that much. I'm only interested in scenery. I feel they are more interesting than animals.

We went Phillip Island mainly to look at the penguin parade. Before that, the tour agency brought us to look at other animals as well. There were a lot of kangaroo there. It was ok, not too great. But not too bad as well. I can't really show you any photos because I forgot to bring my camera out again. But I do have some photos. Most of them have my friends in it. So I can't really post up those photos now can I?


Here's a photo of the penguin. I think that's all I can say about this trip. Like I said, it was rather boring for me, but not for my friends. I guess we have different interests then.