我的新白兔型优盘 My new bunny pendrive

上一次在面子书上看见了有人张贴了个很可爱的白兔型限量优盘，心痒痒想买一个留念。就这样，我考虑了几天，越想就越想拿到手里。唉，真的是该死，不该看到可爱的东西，心痒痒想弄到手里。好吧，就去街上走走，看看是否有的卖。没想到，所光顾的第一件点就有卖，真是太巧了。此刻的我不再迟疑了，爽口地买下了它。带回房后第一件事便是照相。呵呵。

I read about a post in Facebook on a very cute limited edition bunny-shaped pendrive by Kingston. The cuteness really hit my soft spot, I really want to buy it as a souvenir. This took me quite a few days to consider if I should buy it, the more I think about it, the more I want to buy it. Dang, shouldn't have seen it in the first place. Alright, I'll just do a bit of window shopping, see if I could find it anywhere. Little did I know that the first shop that I visited still have stock for this pen drive, it's such a coincidence. My heart is set finally, I bought it. After reaching my room, the first thing done was picture taking, of course.

很可爱吧。你已经买了吗？若还没，赶快吧，趁还没买万前，行动吧。

 It's very cute, isn't it? Have you bought one yet? If still haven't, hurry before it runs out of stock.

Dinner with HYB teacher-in-charge [28-1-2011]

正当我还在巡班时，维俊告诉我这个星期五晚上华文班顾问老师，叶老师请了华文班理事一起吃晚餐，地点为 Station 1。一想到我这次的假期并没回家，我就爽口地答应了他。心想叶老师大概想与我们一伙儿一起提前庆祝新年吧。不过大多数的位委员都不能出席因为已经回家乡了。

星期五那天早上，我传了一则短讯给维俊，询问该间餐厅是否和回教 halal 的准则。由于我很少出去吃，大多数都是在大学内的食堂吃饭，因此并不是那么了解在外头的餐厅。更何况，伊斯兰教徒是比较注重饮食的，而且一定要是 halal 的。因此呢，对于事物的要求会比较高一点咯，嗯，就是那么的一点儿罢了。然而，我后来得知此餐厅有售卖啤酒，而且没有 halal 的执照。维俊了解情况后，决定换地点去 OldTown White Cafe。根据 Hayati，这儿应该是可以的。于是，大伙儿迁离到 OldTown那儿。

抵达目的地后，趁老师还没来当儿，大家忙着把桌子合拼以揍足十二个位子。不久老师与老婆大人到了。大家聊了一阵子，而我呢，呵呵，手痒痒就翻了翻此餐厅的菜单。哎呀，都是蛮贵的哟。简单的一碟菜就已经超过了十令吉，那些招牌咖啡也是价值不菲的。如果常来这里的话，尤其是对于我们这些还没开始工作的学生，算了，来一次就已经足于让钱包大出血了。幸好这次是由老师出钱，那我就不客气了，对不起啊老师嘻嘻。眼睛再次扫描了菜单，看看哪些合我胃口。哎哟，太多选择了。不知道该如何是好。噢对了，也许参考 Cyrus 一下吧。不过呢，他也似乎还在忙着寻找他的菜肴。随便啦，既然经常在大学里的餐馆都可以吃到鸡，那我就把所有与鸡有关的菜肴都删除。果然，轻松了不少。好吧，那我就点一盘海南鱼饭，听起来是有点怪怪的。哈哈。不过味道应该不错因为是蛮贵的一下。

对了，其实 OldTown White 有一个基金，叫做 OldTown Children Care Fund (OCAF)，是为那些比较不幸儿童所成立的。

screenshot of their main site regarding the charity

OldTown is helping the underprivileged children

点好食物后，大家又继续聊天。这是很件很难的事情，大家都很难有空坐在一起谈天，由于不同的科系及宿舍也不同，大家都很难碰面。大家对即将来临的新年都十分期待。有些今晚回，有些则明天。心想只有我一个人没回家吧，突然发现 Hayati 也同样是没回家，但是忘了问她其原因。正当我们还在很投入于咱们的话题时，有位招待员前来询问是谁点了 E04 配套。原来在菜单上并没有 E04 这种配套。十二双眼睛顿时四周张望，寻找是谁点的。后来才发现原来纯粹是一场误会，应该是 104，但是被误会为 E04。哈哈。这尴尬的情况就这样的被笑声化解了。

等啊等，就在肚子开始开始示威时，终于我所点的准备好了。万岁！ 我的海南鱼饭终于来了。在还没开始吃前，我请 Cyrus 帮我照了张相，还是他的相机比较好，我的相机拍出来的效果实在是太差劲了，不好意思刊登在此。呵呵。

海南鱼饭 Hainan Fish Rice

过后，大家所点的菜都陆陆续续被端前来了。还是医肚子为重，大家都享用美味晚餐。不知道为何，叶老师所点的竟然是最后才被端来的，而且是在大家都已经吃饱 了后才来的。吃饱后，叶夫人才透露集餐的用意，那就是为了一起庆祝叶老师的生日。哦，原来叶老师的生日是在一月三十日。招待员这次端来了一个水果蛋糕，上 面插着四根蜡烛。咱们一起为叶老师唱生日歌，过后突然有人建议唱英语版的，多后有建议唱其他方言版的。哎呀，我不会唱他所要的方言生日歌，结果在旁装傻。 哈哈。

单据 receipt

a group photo with Yek Laoshi

最后，咱们来张全体照留念。谢谢着美好的晚餐，叶老师。生日快乐及新年快乐！

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

While I was checking on the Mandarin classes on Monday, Wei Chun told me that the teacher in charge of HYB, Mr Yek planned to have dinner with the HYB committees at Station 1 cafe. I was an exceptance, I'm not one of the committees but since I've been a tutor for so many semesters, I was honoured to come this time. Since I don't return to my hometown, I agreed spontaneously. Perhaps Mr Yek decided to have an early Chinese New Year celebration with us, but I reckon quite a lot of the committees have returned back to their hometown by that time.

I sent a short message to ask for confirmation if the restaurant has halal certificate. Since I rarely go out for meal outside of UTM, hence I don't really know much about the restaurants outside. Moreover, Islam is quite strict on the food issue, only halal food is allowed to be taken. To be on the safe side, it's always better to check on the restaurant before hand. Later I was told that beer is sold in this restaurant too, so it's most likely that the restaurant doesn't have a halal certificate. After understood the situation, Wei Chun decided to change the location to OldTown White Coffee instead. According to Hayati, one of the HYB committees, this place is ok. Hence, we moved to OldTown instead.

Upon reaching the cafe, we arranged the tables to fit in 12 people before the arrival of Mr Yek. When the teacher arrived with his wife, we had a great chat with them. As for me, well, I browsed through the menu for a bit. Gosh, it's really expensive to eat here. Any dish in the menu can easily go beyond RM10, even the coffee here won't lose to Starbucks in sense of price. If I were to come here frequently, umm even if only once, it's enough to upset my wallet. Luckily all the meal is on Mr Yek's tab this time, so I'll just close an eye on the price this time. hehe. My eyes scanned through the menu again, ugh too many choices. Geez, which  one should I choose. Maybe I should ask Cyrus who sat next to me, for some opinion. However, he seemed to be busy searching for his own food too. Oh well, whatever, I'll just make it quick. Since I can have chicken everyday at the cafe in my uni, I would just eliminate all the dishes that has chicken as main ingredient, Ah hah, suddenly it seemed a lot easier to make my choice. I picked Hainan Fish Rice, the name's a bit weird. hehe. But I guess the taste should be nice since it's quite costy.

By the way, in case if you don't know, OldTown has set up a charity fund for children, namely OldTown Children Care Fund (OCAF) to help those underprivileged children in Malaysia. Well, I only know this when I visited this cafe.

After made our choices, we continued to chat. It's been a pleasure to meet up with my friends in HYB. We don't get much chances to meet up like this due to various reasons like different faculty and living in different hostel. All of us are really anticipating the upcoming Chinese New Year. Some are returning tonight whereas others are returning tomorrow. I first thought that I was the only one who didn't return during this holiday, but little did I know that Hayati, one of the committees in HYB didn't return too but I forgot to ask for her reason that time. While we're so much into our conversation, suddenly a waiter popped up to inquire about the E04 meal set. It appeared that there isn't any E04 meal set in the menu. All the 12 pairs of eyes started to look for the culprit. Apparently, it was just a misunderstanding, someone misheard 104 (yi ling si) for E04 (E ling si). Everyone burst into laughter and laughed away this awkward situation.

Waiting and waiting, when my tummy has reached the limit and about to start grumbling, a waiter brought my meal over. Yay. Here comes my Hainanese Fish Rice. Before I sank my teeth into the food, I asked for Cyrus who sat next to me to take a picture of my food. Of course, his camera is much better than me, hence it's wiser to use his camera instead for the purpose of uploading them in my blog.

The meal for the others were delivered one after another, everyone enjoyed their meal to the fullest tonight, except for poor Mr Yek whose meal only arrived after almost everyone finished theirs. After finished the meal, Mrs Yek revealed the real intention of the dinner, that is to celebrate Mr Yek's birthday which fall on the 29th of January. Oh, I didn't know that, ugh am I really that outdated? A waiter carried a fruit cake with four candles stuck on it to our table. After lighted the candle, we sang a birthday song for our teacher. Later, someone suggested to sing the birthday song in English, then in another Chinese dialect, gosh, I don't know how to sing in dialect, so I'm just laughing that time. hehe. Before we end the party, we took a group photo.

Thanks for the memorable dinner, Mr and Mrs Yek. Happy birthday and Happy Chinese New Year too.

华文班的课堂开始了 HYB classes have started

开幕后，各位教员都很期待下个星期的第一堂课。这次，工大华文班的时间换了，不再是以往的星期一、二、三了。由于这个学期比较多假期落于星期二，所以这次的班级为星期一、三、四了。而我的班级则是每个星期三。为了给学员一个美好的第一堂课，各位教员开始忙着准备该如何教好第一堂课，同时也准备了各式各样的法宝以面对所有的未知数。

而我呢，其实也开始烦恼着如何面对我的那位比较好学的学员，他提出了一些建议，包括了准备一些词汇给他们拷贝，比方说一个星期拷贝十五个词汇，那么八堂课后理论上应该可以学会了一百二十个词汇。此外，他也希望教员可以提供另外一种教学方式以便可以使到学员们更加容易掌握华语的发音，汉语拼音对他们而言也许并不是那么容易吧。比如：

不 (bú)

若我们在旁多加注明 "book"，也许他们会更容易说出此词。经过他这么一提后，也不难发现到他也是有他的道理。但是，汉语拼音是全世界通用的，字典也是使用统一的汉语拼音。即使教员决定使用额外的发音助教学方法，他们还是得教学员正统的汉语拼音。更何况，工大华文班是比较注重汉语拼音。

翻了翻第四阶段课本的第一课，哎，只是区区三四页罢了，大概不会花超过一个钟头吧，也许只需要半个钟头罢了，我得寻找些额外的教材以凑足两个钟头。脑筋级转，想、想、想、想。。。也许我就把一些上几个学期的教材给搬出来用，只需要多加些英文的翻译就行了，好吧，就这么办吧。哈哈，懒惰的我。

终于这个星期来临了，说真的，我还是有点紧张。赫赫。毕竟，这次多了一位特别好学的学员。但是，过后才知道他这个星期并不能出席因为忙着他的试验。顿时松了口气。哈哈。是的，我也会感觉到压力的。那我就继续我的最后筹备工作，实在太多东西需要用电脑打印出来了。幸好，还保留了一些上几个学期的教材，现在的工作才会比较轻松些。

这个星期一及星期四晚上，我决定前来机械工程系的课室那儿观察学员的上课情景，或许可以观察到一些比较特出的教员，那我就可以趁机偷师偷师一下。呵呵。其实，当你只是一味着之际一个人教课，很多时候会忽略了一些环节。偶尔去观察他人教课不但可以学习到一些教学技巧，也可以更新对教学的热诚，希望可以克服自己的教学盲点。在巡班的当儿，有几位教员们给我留下了较深的印象，他们都有些共同点，那就是懂得如何吸引学员们的注意力，而且声音也很响亮。这些都是我值得多加注意的环节。

星期三晚上，终于轮到我教课了。开始时，出现了一些小插曲，有关工作人员把门给上锁了。结果，我的第四阶段班级突然变得没课室了。就在那刹间，总策划建议咱们使用华文班柜台那儿上课。就这样，我的班级就好像得到了头等舱的座位，绝对是你求之不得的情形。为何呢？原因在于那儿会比较舒服及凉快多了。心理暗爽了一下。

picture from 11 reasons why you should study Chinese

就这样，我度过了愉快的两个钟头。当中，发现如我所意料中的情形，学员们对于汉语拼音的掌握能力有待改善，尤其是当 j、q、x、y 碰上了 u 时，他们都会比较难念此汉语拼音结构。也许是因为他们母语的发音比较不一样吧。再说，他们也比较不善于发出第二及第三的音调。相信其他的教员也是面对同样的问题吧。还有，学员们还是依然那么的害羞，并不是那么善于表达自我，所以教员须在旁给于指导，慢慢地带动他们造语法正确的句子。


话说回来，在巡班时，遇到了两位同样有些布落格的人，而且他们都是有中六华文文凭的。由于当晚有一位委员有待手提电脑，就趁机浏览了他们的部落格。不出所料，他们的中文都很棒！顿时感觉到自己的华语水准与他们相比相差甚远。不过，也许我可以从中偷师吧。赫赫。

此篇文章就到此为止吧。以后会更新更多有关华文班的精彩文章。

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

After the opening ceremony was over, every tutor was really looking forward the first class in the coming week. For this semester,the time table for HYB classes have changed, no longer the old schedule of Monday/Tuesday/Wednesday night. Since more public holiday fall on Tuesdays for this semester, the committee decided to change the classes to Monday/Wednesday/Thursday instead. My level 4 class falls on Wednesday nights. In order to deliver an excellent first class, each tutors started to get ready for the first class and get ready some sort of secret weapons to encounter all sorts of unknowns.

As for me, well, I need to take care of one of my student who takes an extra mile for each thing he does. He had a few suggestions during the opening ceremony, including getting ready for some phrases for them to memorise, for example 15 words per week, so after 8 weeks of classes, they should be able to learn 120 new phrases. Besides, he also suggested us to use another approach to teach the pinyin system so that they could pronounce each word much easily. For example:

不 (bú)

If we add "book" next to the word, perhaps they could pronounce the word much easily. After listening to him, it's not hard to understand his point. However, the pinyin system is a system used world wide, the Chinese dictionary found everywhere in the town all over the world use this pinyin system too. So, even if a tutor decides to give extra pronunciation aids, still, they have to teach the correct pinyin too. Moreover, the HYB classes stress on pinyin system too.

After looking through the first chapter of level four textbook, gosh, it's only a mere three four pages, I guess it won't take longer than an hour to finish, perhaps just half an hour is enough. I need to find some extra teaching material to fill up the two hours class. Think, think, think, think fast. Perhaps I could just dig up some past year teaching material from my laptop, all I need to do is to add in English translation. Alright, that's it. Hehe. Geez, lazy me.

Finally, the fated week for the first class arrived. To be frank, I'm still a bit nervous. Well, I have a very dedicated student this time. Much later, I found that he had to finish his experiment thingy in the lab and hence couldn't come for the first class. Somehow, I felt that the load on me has lessened quite a lot by the time. Yeah, as you can see, I do still can feel the pressure from time to time. Alright, I'll just continue my preparation work. I was lucky  enough to have the some works saved from the previous semester and my workload is hence halved, at least.

On Monday and Thursday night, I decided to observe the Mandarin classes going on that time, perhaps I could witness some excellent tutors, I could learn from them then. Well, if you are only concern about your own class without trying to refresh what's the main objective of the Mandarin class, you might overlook some important criteria. Visiting the classes from time to time not only helps to refresh your enthusiasm for teaching, but also you might be able to learn some teaching skill from others. During my visit, a few tutors have caught my attention, they share the same similarities including being able to attract their students and have a clear voice. These are among the criteria I should keep myself checked.

On Wednesday night, finally it's my turn to start my first class. In the beginning, there was a bit of agenda went up, the one in charge of opening the doors somehow forgot to open my classroom's door. All of a sudden, my class lost the place to study. The president then suggested us to use the Mandarin clubroom in SUB there. Wow, that's definitely a great idea, it's like getting the ticket to the first class seat in a flight. How so? Well, the clubroom has more fans but nothing in FKM's rooms, hence a lot more comfy here. *snicker*

I had my wonderful 2 hours of class. During the class, just as I thought, the students still have quite a lot of spaces to improve in their pinyin, which is the pronunciation for Mandarin. They have difficulty with "j", "q", "x", "y" when being paired with "u". Also, the second and third sound were another major problem for them too. I guess that it's the same case for most non-native learners too. Perhaps it's because of the pronunciation for Mandarin is totally different from their mother tongue. Another visible problem is that the students are still quite shy to communicate in Mandarin. Hence, tutors should try to guide them slowly till they are manage to build a grammatically correct sentence.

By the way, I met 2 bloggers this time. They have taken SPTM Mandarin subject! Since one of the committees brought along a laptop, I took this opportunity to check their blogs out. As expected, their blogs have very powerful command for Mandarin. It's quite clear that their level of Mandarin is much higher than mine. On the bright side, this means that I could learn a lot from them.

That's all for this time, I'll update more on the interesting HYB classes moments next time. Till then, stay tune.

生日快乐，慧慧 Happy birthday, Hui Hui :)

今天的寿星

印象中，咱们应该是从华文班那儿认识的吧，当时咱们都是教员。然后，大家都同样有学习日语，而且又是在同一班。过后才知道同样有部落格的。哈哈，去到哪里都看见我，是否已经sian了？开玩笑的啦。

说起慧慧，她是一位很棒的朋友，非常照顾朋友的，无论有多艰难，她都会尽量帮忙。而且，她的部落格写得很棒耶。我从她那儿偷师了一些些部落格的技巧

嗯，又成熟了一岁了，而且有笑得那么灿烂，想大概是喜事已经很接近了吧。到时记得派请帖哦。哈哈。

生日快乐，慧慧！

身体健康，心想事成。

~*~*~*~*~*~*~~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

In my memory, we met each other via UTM Mandarin class, we became tutor that time. Not too long later, we both joined the same Japanese Class in UTM too. Later, I learned that we both have a blog too.


Hui Hui is a great friend, she would always try her very best to help others in need, no matter how difficult the situation is. Also, her blog is one of the best blog that I visit frequently. I've learned quite a lot from her blog.


So, you've become a year more mature now, and from the pictures you posted up, your dazzling smile seems to indicate some good news in near future. Once the date has been fixed, remember me too :)

工大华文班开幕仪式 Hanyuban (HYB) Opening Ceremony [19-1-2011]

已经很久没有写华文文章了，而且这次又碰上与华语有关的事情，好吧，那我就圆一圆我那颗渴望使用华语写篇文章的心愿。突然，感觉到有了道隔膜，写起文章不再那么通顺了，偶尔会不知道该使用哪个词汇。不会吧，已经开始感觉到有了那么丁点儿的生疏了。我得赶紧修补我的华语，以免以后会忘得更多，那时我那引以为傲的华语就会成了历史了，后悔也来不及了。不迟也，亡羊补牢，未为迟也。好吧，我会加把劲的。

It's been a really long time since I last wrote my blog in Mandarin, well since this title has something to do with Mandarin language, I'll fulfill my thirst for using Mandarin to write my blog. All of a sudden, I could feel that there exists quite a thick wall, my writing isn't as smooth as it used to be, sometime I would forget which term to be used. Oh no, don't tell me that I'm starting to get unfamiliar with Chinese language. I should pay a close eye and polish my Chinese language now or else I would regret it later. Alright, I'll do my best.

这学期，我又再次成了工大华文班的教员了。说起来话长，本来想不再当教员，从此就隐退江湖了，但是都怪从没学会如何拒绝他人，就像任贤齐(纠正）所唱的那首歌，心太软。。。你总是心太软，心太软。。。不过这也好，我在工大的生活也将从此不再那么单调，只是宿舍及学院罢了。偶尔见一见不同圈子里的人也好，更何况能够看到学员们在明白你的教学后的那价值非凡的开心笑容，你也会被感染到他们的喜悦，真是一举两得。

I've become a tutor for the Mandarin class for this semester. It's a long story, I initially planned not to become a tutor again, but it's all my fault for haven't learned how to disagree with others. Oh well, but on the bright side, this means that my uni life won't be as monotonous as being limited to the hostel and faculty life. I could be able to deal with people from the other faculty too. Moreover, it's a blessing to see that smile from a student when they understand what you're teaching about. Yeah, this is called killing two birds with a stone.

在十九日当天晚上八时正，各位华文班教员及委员都纷纷前往开幕的地点，那就是工大行政楼的 Dewan Jamuan。有些在布置舞台及椅子、有些在排练待会儿的开幕台词、有些则在忙着招待来宾。大伙儿都忙得不可开交，做最后的准备工作，当然也少不了正在练习眼力及蛇工夫的人吧。呵呵。学员们也陆陆续续抵达现场，登记名字后便寻找位子坐。

On the actual day, 19th January, all the HYB committees and tutors have arrived at Dewan Jamuan by 8pm. Some were busy decorating the place, some were practising their opening ceremony speech, some were busy with the registration process for the students who came for the night. Almost everyone was busy for  preparation of the opening ceremony. Well, of course, there were some people busy with their snake kungfu. hehe. As for the students, after registered their names, they have to get seated and wait for the opening ceremony to start.

不久，开幕仪式便正式开始了。首先，由工大华文班的总策划，维俊致词。接着有工大学生代表，扎琪(Zaki)上台说几句话。扎琪应用了几句华语台词祝贺所有的华裔同胞新年快乐结束了他得致词，讲真的，虽然咬字并不是那么的标准，但是得很佩服他的胆量。

Not too long later, the opening ceremony started off with the opening speech delivered by the head of Mandarin Class, Wei Jun. Then, we had a speech by the president of student body, Zaki who finished his speech with some Chinese sentences including wishing everyone a prosperous Chinese New Year. Even though his pronunciation isn't that great, but he surely has the gut to deliver his speech in Mandarin, great job.

一如如以往，一系列的致词后有一些slideshow。当中，可以看到华文班是经过了一段很遥远的旅程，尝尽了一切的酸甜苦辣。虽然路途中虽然遇见了不少的绊脚石，但是，幸好华文班理事们都凭着一定的坚持，一起度过了难关，才有如今的成功。华文班，你太棒了！

As usual, after all the speeches, everyone was feasted with some slide show, containing various happenings in HYB, be it the sweet memories or bitter experience, glad that all the committees were so committed in solving all sorts of problems together. Thanks for the great commitment, everyone. You're all the best.

在节目的尾端，当然也少不了照相环节以留念。这些都是当晚的像片。

Before the end of the ceremony, we had photograph sessions for all those attending the ceremony. Here you go, some great pics for the day.

HYB 04A

Tutors

HYB Committee members and me

最后，衷心希望华文班会继续成长，呈现出那最美好的一面，大家加油吧！

I wish that HYB would continue to get better, showing everyone the best that HYB could do, let's do our best!

a new pet for my blog - hammie chan

While I was surfing on the net, I came across a blog, well, was looking for a Chinese song, 胡椒与盐 by 梁心颐. The cute hamster running on a flywheel caught my eyes, it was so cute. So I googled for 'abowman' and found the website. Here are some of the movements that you could see from this cutie.

life's a roller coaster; just gotta ride it...

I'm hungry, where's my food?

nom nom nom

some water after food is always nice

How's it? Moved? Excited? Can't wait to adopt one in your blog? Alright, just go to aBowman's website and get the embed code now. Hurry!

Chinese New Year VS bonus

HOUSES, Mercedes Benz cars, diamonds, gold, iPhone and iPad are among the expensive Chinese New Year gifts that employers in China give to their staff, reported Sin Chew Daily. The daily reported that a company in Ningbo had rewarded its top staff with 40 Mercedes Benzs and BMWs. In Zhejiang province, the daily reported that close to 80% of the companies were distributing cash in the equivalent of RM5,000 to RM15,000 to each of their staff.    source: TheStar online

How about here in Malaysia? When will it be our turn to get such luxury in our home country? Will this even be considered? Nah, too much bothersome for most companies here anyway. Oh well.

Ding dong... Gosh what a hectic day

"Ding dong" the screen showed a new number for room 3, it was 68. The whole atmosphere was still so dense. I could hardly breath. The air is filled with the nostalgic medicine aroma, wait, do you call this smell aroma? whatever, I guess. I glanced at the ticket in my hand, it was 96. Still a really long wait to go, another 30 people to go, I guess.

"Ding dong" number 71 flashed across the screen, signalling a vacant for the first room. There are five rooms operating this time, supposedly 6 rooms, but the 2nd room seems to be not working today. Hmmm... the numbers being called isn't in chronological order, it skips a few numbers in between, but somehow it does get back to the missing numbers after a while. Perhaps those who got their tickets didn't punch in their time early. Maybe I could get my turn earlier, part of me started to feel  a bit happier.

My eyes were getting busy scanning around, looking for familiar people, but to to no avail. The room was quite full today, perhaps it's because of the abrupt weather changes lately, causing people to fell sick easily. Hmmm but for my case, I caught in the rain while I was on my way to Taman U and didn't bath as soon as possible. Serve me right? Yeah, I should have returned earlier on that day. Oh well, let bygone be bygones we can't change the past.

The mute television in front of the waiting room is showing some cartoons, quite a silly one. I didn't pay much attention to it due to my weaken body, I had quite short concentration and got tired easily. Maybe I should play hangman on my phone instead. The first game was a 7 letters word without any hint. I keyed in the 5 vowels first and I got:

O _ I _ I O _

Then I tried L, M, N, R, S and T, those more common letters, I got a even clearer image now.

O _ I N I O N

Ah hah, must be opinion. I happily keyed in the last letter and bingo, I got the right answer. That's surely a good sign, my head is still quite clear, not being beaten by sickness that I got. I continued on the hangman game for another 20 minutes, I couldn't solve some though. Feeling a bit bored of the wait, I walked to the monitor to check on how many more people ahead of my number. 7! That's good, another 7 more people and it's my turn. How I wish the time could move faster in this situation, especially when your head started to get dizzy.

Finally, it's my turn. I was directed to the 4th room, Pn Ronaza, if not mistaken, can't remember her name. I told her my case briefly, runny nose with sore throat and a bit cough. The doctor asked if I'm allergy to anything, no was my answer. I didn't recall that I'm allergy to anything so far. The checkup was quite a speedy one, I didn't stay in the room for longer than 2 minutes. After that, I headed towards the counter to take my medicine. The guy at the counter told me that I would get sleepy if I take the cough syrup, ugh... would be bad if I'm sleepy all the time. I guess I would only drink the cough syrup at night.

med

After done with the clinic, I headed towards my faculty to meet my lecturers and had my brunch in the cafe next to my faculty. Then I had a nap after taken all my medicine including the cough syrup since I don't have any class this afternoon. Without fail, I fall asleep really fast this time thanks to the cough syrup.

Hot water stuff installed

I was woken up by my roommate later, only then realised it's already 6.30pm. Gosh, I did have a nice long nap this time. I shouldn't have underestimated the cough syrup's dizziness side effect. Still feeling the dizziness, I had to take things slowly. Took me quite a while to get things right. A hot shower did help to make my mind clearer. Luckily those Arabians next door installed the hot water stuff to one of the shower room.

Entrepreneur exhibition in UTM

 After Maghrib prayer at the main mosque of my university, feeling much better, I paid a visit to the entrepreneur exhibition booths located at the car park of FAB faculty. Nothing much impressive, I would say. There are some food stalls, women's clothes and some selling perfumes, nothing to my taste. I ended my visit quite early after walking for a while.

After the Isyak prayer, I was on my way to get some money from the ATM at the student union building there when I saw that the Mandarin Class' room is quite bright, someone must be there. I climbed up the stairs and found that the committees were having a meeting to discuss about the upcoming opening ceremony on this week.

Well, that's all that happened yesterday. How's your day been, my dear reader?

Flood in Aussie

My deepest regard to all my Aussie friends, the flood is a major disaster for a start of the year. Things are tough now, but stay strong and stay safe, things will get better for sure, just believe in yourselves.

PC Fair @ UTM (12 - 14 Jan)

Posters about the upcoming PC fair held in UTM could be seen everywhere in UTM compound. It seems to be a quite grand event, with so much advertisement distributed all around UTM. Alright, I'll head over for a look when the time comes, I thought. Hmmm but I don't have anything particularly in need. Nah, looking around won't hurt, I guess.

The fated day came finally, I was quite eager to see what kind of stuff did they offer this time. After I'd taken care of my course related stuff in my faculty, I headed over to Dewan Sultan Iskandar, DSI in short. I could see some lorries unloading their goods and getting ready to give a kick start to the event. I glanced at my wrist watch, it's almost 10am. Oh, they weren't ready yet. Oh well, I'll just have a walk to PSZ, my university's library.

Upon reaching the library, I was greeted by some of the Mandarin Classes members, or more commonly known as HYB (Han Yu Ban). They are currently recruiting new tutors and new members who are interested to learn Mandarin. I stopped by to help them out a bit. It's quite a nostalgic moment, surely brought back lots of nice memories I have had with them. I've been a Mandarin tutor for quite some time. I had some nice chat with the current committees. 

Without realising, it's already 12 noon, the PC fair must have started, I thoght, so I headed over to DSI again. Sure enough, lots of people were busy checking out the event. I quickened my footsteps and walked through the broadband stalls as fast as I could to enter the main site. I quickly took a picture with my hand phone, and yeah, secretly.

a view of the PC Fair in Dewan Sultan Iskandar, UTM

There are stalls for selling laptops, computers, computer accessories like mouse, mousepad, pendrive, printers. There were also two stalls selling cameras, namely Canon and Samsung brand. I bought a laptop bag for my lappy, it would be handy since I travel around quite frequently and could protect my laptop from any external scratches. Not bad, I guess.

For those who are interested to buy computer accessories and are in UTM or just nearby, do come and visit the PC Fair in DSI by Friday. See you guys there.

Red Packet Day

some scary tools reminded me of the hospital

What's in your mind when you saw this picture? You can see a plastic container containing a pair of scissors lying in a familiar metal plate, no it looks more like a dentist's or a doctor's tools to hold some scary stuff like a a screw driver to loosen or tighten up the screw of a Frankenstein or even worse, a bloody chainsaw to open up the skull of someone. ok, here's he hint, it's about red packet.

I couldn't help myself but to laugh a bit, yeah, I must have watched too much scary movies or TV shows. Well, the picture above shows the tools for a blood donation activity. Oh, did I let the cat out too early? or you've guessed what's the tools for earlier? Well, if that's the case, you have a sharp mind for guessing the picture correctly.

Yeah, it's my 6th time donating blood. My last blood donation was roughly 2 years back, it was during my study in UTM. I've donated once in my hometown too, while helping out in a blood donation somewhere in a shopping mall organised by the Malaysian Red Crescent Society. Hmmm... looking back, I have never taken any picture of myself when donate blood, alright, I'll get one this time, or perhaps two.

After registered myself as a donor, I waited for my chance patiently while my eyes sweeping cross the room, checking on the donors who were lying on the armchair, with a  tube attached onto one of their arms, sucking the blood out slowly. No painful expression was shown on their face at all, even the girls too, they are so brave. I should be brave too, since it's not my first time. 

After I took a deep breathe, I walked slowly towards the armchair. Calm down and take a deep breathe again, I told myself. I watched the nurse rubbing some pain killer on my left arm,  then she took out the shiny needle which was connected to the blood bag and poked a hole on my arm with it. My blood began to fill up the blood tube and slowly filling the blood bag. It's quite a scene to see your own blood just in front of your eyes, well, we're not the type of profession that deal with blood everyday after all. 

my left arm with the blood tube connecting to the blood bag

I browsed through my blood donating booklet and found out that I'm of O+ blood type. That's good, my blood could help all kind of blood group, be it A, AB, B or O type since O group is universal blood group. I put my hands in my right pocket, searching for my hand phone, maybe I could make use of this time to play a bit of hangman game. Yeah, it would be good to kill the waiting time and perhaps could ease the nervousness a bit. 

Before I even realised, a nurse approached me and told me that my blood bag was almost full. Wow, that's fast. I glanced at the bag again, true enough, it's almost 450mL. Part of me felt a bit relieved, thank goodness, it's a smooth process this time. After the nurse plucked out the needle head, she told me to bend my arm to apply direct pressure on the wound to stop the bleeding while resting on the chair. After 5 minutes, I took my leave, feeling quite happy to be able to donate my blood again. Hopefully my blood would help others in need.

Enchanted by T. Swift

 

In case if you can't view, here's the link to the clip in youtube

"And it was enchanting to meet you, all I can say is I was enchanted to meet you~" not sure why I've been repeating this lyrics of this song recently. I'm not a particular fan of Taylor Swift, frankly, I listen to a wide variety of songs, as long as the tune and lyrics suit my taste, I would accept them. But somehow, this song has caught my attention, at least for recently. It's about love at first sight, quite some catchy tunes I would say.

Here's the lyrics of this song, credit to lyricsmode

There I was again tonight forcing laughter, faking smiles
Same old tired, lonely place
Walls of insincerity
Shifiting eyes and vancancy vanished when I saw your face
All I can say is it was enchanting to meet you

Your eyes whispered "have we met?"
Across the room your silhouette starts to make it's way to me
The playful conversation starts
Counter all your quick remarks like passing notes in secrecy
And it was enchanting to meet you
All I can say is I was enchanted to meet you

This night is sparkling, don't you let it go
I'm wonderstruck, blushing all the way home
I'll spend forever wondering if you knew
I was enchanted to meet you

The lingering question kept me up
2am, who do you love?
I wonder till I'm wide awake
Now I'm pacing back and forth, wishing you were at my door
I'd open up and you would say,
It was enchanting to meet you
All I know is I was enchanted to meet you

This night is sparkling, don't you let it go
I'm wonderstruck, blushing all the way home
I'll spend forever wondering if you knew
This night is flawless, don't you let it go
I'm wonderstruck, dancing around all alone
I'll spend forever wondering if you knew
I was enchanted to meet you

This is me praying that this was the very first page
Not where the story line ends
My thoughts will echo your name until I see you again
These are the words I held back as I was leaving too soon
I was enchanted to meet you
Please don't be in love with someone else
Please don't have somebody waiting on you
Please don't be in love with someone else
Please don't have somebody waiting on you

This night is sparkling, don't you let it go
I'm wonderstruck, blushing all the way home
I'll spend forever wondering if you knew
This night is flawless, don't you let it go
I'm wonderstruck, dancing around all alone
I'll spend forever wondering if you knew
I was enchanted to meet you

Please don't be in love with someone else
Please don't have somebody waiting on you

Food @ UTM

random pic: typical Malaysian food

I glanced at those food in front of me again and again, I could see some fried chicken, some chicken dipped in some red sauce, most probably quite spicy considering that it's from a Malay stall, fried fish, probably some fish from river. Oh, I couldn't see any vegetable, maybe I overlooked it or they were playing hide and seek with me. My eyes scanned through the dishes of food displayed in front of me again. No, none came into my view, geez, they are so lazy to cook vegetable in the evening. Oh well, it's not like I like those vegetable cooked by them, too spicy or too bitter sometime, but for the sake of a balanced meal, I have to.. endure, yeah, sadly.

I picked up a decent looking fried chicken and put it on the top of my white rice and paid my bill at the cashier. On my way to find an empty table, I picked up a spoon and a fork. I glanced at my food again, a sigh came out from my mouth. Not the same food again today, it's been quite a routine for almost everyday in so many years since the first year. It's not like the food here aren't tasty, but just that after you've eaten the same food over and over for years, you can't help but to start to get tired of eating them again. But the dilemma comes when the food in the university are much cheaper as compared to the food outside. *sigh*

For the sake of minimum expenses, I have to endure, yes, I have to endure this. I hope that I could strengthen myself to face more challenges in the future and not being beaten by just this small food matter.

Are you from China?

After closing the door carefully, I arranged my footsteps to head towards the washroom. As I turned my head slowly, an unfamiliar face popped up in front of me, he has a pair of brown eyes, pointed nose, curly hair and quite some beard on his face too. Oh, he must be someone from the middle East. I nodded my head a bit and smile, just some casual greetings. He smiled back too, but he shot a question which shocked me a bit, well, not that it was the first time I was asked such a question, but still...

"Are you from China?" he asked with his not-so-familiar English. I smiled a bit and thought if I really look that much like a Chinese. Oh well, most people have always mistaken me for a Chinese when they first time seeing me. It is always quite a shock for them to know that I'm not a Chinese. After experiencing such things over and over for years, I'm quite used to it.

"Umm, no, I'm from Malaysia" I replied promptly and smiled at his puzzled face.

"But you look like a Chinese..." he still won't admit his defeat just yet and fired another question at me.

"Oh, do I really look that much like a Chinese? But I am really from Malaysia" I replied calmly, holding back my urge to laugh at his idea that all Chinese are from China and being mistaking me for a Chinese. I guess I did manage to hold off my laughter, only a smile curved on my lips, nothing more than that.

I nodded at him again and made my move towards my destiny while still thinking that I have to face with more similar situations in the future, yeah, it's my destiny after all.

Oh Sushi

While lazying around, I came across a pic which really triggers my hunger or perhaps it's the instinct to get better food? Well, I guess it can't be helped, the sushi looks extremely yummy in the picture below. How can you resist such delicacy when it's being portrayed in front of you anyway?

Talking about sushi, I've even watched a documentary about how a sushi master (not sure if that's the suitable term for them) make sushi with their bare hands. Each time they take some rice from the container and roll the rice into suitable shape for the sushi, you might think that the sushi masters are quite casual with the amount of rice used for each sushi. Well, to your surprise, each rice portion are almost similar, only a difference of a few grams. For example 100 grams of rice is needed for A sushi, in 100 sushi samples made, they would only differ in less than 10 grams of rice. That's how accurate and precise a trained sushi master is. Of course, they have to undergo years of training to reach such accuracy.

*growwwww* my stomach starts to grumble, reminded me of haven't had my meal since morning yet. I should grab something to eat asap, but where... my eyes meet those sushi again and I smiled, yes, it's there. Wait for me, my sushi...