ah..priceless!

~Jan-June 2005~ Have you ever sat on a roller coaster cart in Sunway Lagoon and later discovered you are on top of Mount Everest? Well, neither have I. But I think I have a faint idea what it'll be like. We boarded on this innocent ride called Brandstorm and got swept to the stage of Studio Gabriel and before catching our next breath, we found ourselves presenting in front of 30 countries and the CEO of L'oreal. Roller coaster might have undermined the experience we went through. Swallowing books, turning ourselves into party goers, getting my hair all copper yellow, vomiting my 23 years of learning(plus the vomiting of a RM45 breakfast), countless brainstorming, debates after debates, drilling on presentations and of course, the late nights...worth it? Definitely not paid off by the glamour, the chance of getting to see Eiffel Tower every morn, the job offer, the prize money etc......but the priceless S.H.I.T. experience :)

Swishing through mongolian plains

~May 2004~Officially striked off an item from the list of things to do in LIFE when I rode on this stallion on the ba shang plains of Inner Mongolia. After being led on a rope for 200m, I persuaded the guide to let me off and I was galloping like those cowboys. One thing that helped was how the locals tried to lure our horses by racing with us, leading us away from the main ranch and bribing us to pay RM10 if we needed help to get our steeds back. The usual obstinate me would rather die before I succumb to that, forced my good stallion to turn back(he was still attracted to the female equins)...at times when the horsey was obedient and listening, it was glorious hearing the wind whistling in your ears while you try to hieve your butt to the rhythmic gallop. If ever you were to ride, make sure you get these never ending horizons of vast plains, where everything literary shouts FREEDOM. I pledged to go back there in late summer/Autumn to see how tall these grass grew and perhaps to see plains of yellow-brown. Nevertheless, this memorable ride left me with sores on my whole back and butt for days.

Romantic Hou Hai

~June 2004~On a romantic date with Ming Kai at Hou Hai, a hang out spot with restaurants overlooking the houhai lake. Had a RM20 orange juice and a steak doubling that price.

Molested Kancil

~Aug 2004~I was awoken one night by voices outside and raised the curtain to find two jokers clicking away with the camera, posing....It was 4am and I smiled to myself, set the alarm for 7am and went back to bed. In the morning, I discovered the left side of my Kancil was decorated with mango leaves and signs that says "Brian Fella Safari Planet". These people seriously calculated that I would wake up blur in the morning and drive off with this comical jungle display. I collected the leaves, drove over to Ngiam's house and returned his favour by decorating his car. To think all this started becos of a cotton wool bud on his side mirror....well, uni life is always this interesting :)

Marketing calls in KLCC

~July 2004~Taken on the Twin Tower's skybridge. Three beauties paying cold calls for Youthopia sponsorship. Method: get on the lift, close your eyes and press on any buttons with numbers on and wah la! IBM! McKinsey!Siemens! etc...It was 5pm when we finished and decided to "stop-by" the skybridge after asking the cleaning Makcik(lady) there.

My Princess

~no special date~Princess was the adorable offspring from a stray puppy, Nuggy, I somehow picked up as a bday gift for myself. Having a dog has always been something I constantly bug my mum about. The first night me and Ming Kai tried to keep Nuggy and Hicky in my room, I ended with puppy calls keeping me awake all night, puppy poo to swim in and dog fleas galore. Nuggy gave birth to beautiful puppies and I chose Princess as her cheekiness+stubborness+determination reminded me of myself. Now that dear thing is barking away in Ipoh and occasionally gets to make my jeans all muddy when I visit.

A Youthopia with sunnybears

~Oct-Nov 2004~If someone were to ask me to illustrate my LIFE as a journey, there would be this point where I am climbing a hill through a really rocky densed forest, occasionally stumbling on some roller coasters and bumper car rides on that hilly path, and in the end getting on top of that hill to find that instead of being glorified for discovering the ancient Mayan civilisation, I found a gold mine(which never exhaust). That was how the Youthopia journey was. I guess each of us would always have this to fall back to in years to come and for now....we are practically stuck to each other like UHU glue (more pics on Youthopia to come in other blogs)

The Fantastic Four!

~May 2004~Reunion with my clarinet quartet gang. Life in CHS Band would not be complete without the memories of us foursome, and boy, were we the gooooood. When we play, it was magic and we had this telephatic thing going on. Repertoires we basks in: Mozart's magic flute, pink panther, rudolph, Masque(contemporary), Misty and any songs we can get hold of(usually Brass Quintet scores, our bass could always do double:P). Practices were always 55% laughters, with Tony Boon victimised since (1)he is outnumbered (2)he occasionally dragging the bass line in Pink Panther(which we honoured him with the nickname Tony from tuo1 ni2 dai4 shui3, in Chinese represents being slow or long-winded)

My stint in China

~Mac-June 2004~CNET China internship! As a person who truly believes that things happened for a reason, going to China was one of the milestones in my life. I spent 3 months on that desk and once, a whole night(slaving away on a telecom market research). In the midst of integrating into diff cultures, brushing up my Putonghua, translations, rushing from one task to another, discussing China politics with Pearl over lunchboxes, I vividly recall how it felt one night when the office was quite empty and I took out the hearphones and let the melodies of "my sacrifice" flow through my tired mind and body...Ooo...the goosebumps!(yes, I am a music freak)

Some of the best moments...

~Aug 2004~Now you can identify who those display of toes belong to...the lovely girl on the right is Iva from Czech Republic!Best moments: Watching cute lil hermit crabs race back to the sea for sanctuary during the change of tide; each of us grabbing one for a hermit crab race; simply lazing there listening to the waves with thoughts of assignments and deadlines far behind my mind

Say Toes!

~Aug 2004~Legs posing for a shot! It was one of those Youthopians aka sunnybear outings and we decided to explore some "unchartered" beaches(in UTMers' standards of course). Sped off on car hoping to get to Teluk Mahkota but ended by taking a turning to Tanjung Leman, which turned out great too.cont'...

Taman Negara trip

~Aug 2004~Back to nature: A trip to taman negara, Malaysia's largest national park with the most culturally diverse buddies.From left we have Sheng Horng(ML), Jia Yi(Jap+Taiwan), Joan (Phil), me!, Victor(Romanian) and Enora (our crazy mademoiselle). We did everything there was to do there in three days two nights;rapid shooting, tubing, trekking at 8pm, canopy walk, night safari(close encounter with leopard cat), spent a night in the salt lick hide(saw Samba deers)....As most of us were poor starving uni students, we brought our own food and filled our stomaches with uncooked luncheon meat with bread. Most euphoric moment was lying on the tube and letting the current sweep you down the stream as the lushes of nature rocks you on your dream boat...