My Perth Trip

This post will probably be the longest I've posted ever. Do note that it's quite heavy on the load out as there are quite a number of pictures uploaded. Do take the time to read through the blog and enjoy the pictures as it took much time to sort out the hundreds of pictures taken and upload them here. My apologies if the pictures don't turn out quite well. Most of the pictures are taken from my phone camera and some is from my Nikon Coolpix 5000 digital camera. In addition, this blog have been writen on my phone while I was in my trip so some tense in my sentence may be a little bit confusing.

9 October
I crossed the Singapore border in an Aeroline bus from 1Utama and as it weaves its way around Singapore, I suddenly felt a heavy burden on my heart. I'm not sure what it is as it could be that I'm missing my home, my work, my office mates, my friends or merely not being able to watch 2 episodes of Heroes in my time away.

I've found out that I'll be staying in Singapore for a night before embarking on my journey to Perth at 3.50PM the next day. After watching a couple of episodes of Air Crash Investigations days before the trip, I am very worried that I may not walk out of the trip alive thinking that the plane will crash. I even thought that I will write the final moments of the plane on my phone and seal it in an airtight bag if there were to be any disaster. For dinner, I was wondering if I should have contacted Eileen to meet up or not. In the end, I didn't as I'm with my family and I think I should spend more time with them.

At night, we had dinner in Sushi Tei in Raffle's City Plaza. I strongly recommend the golden roll there. It's really awesome with a layer of mango coating the rice with fried prawns in the middle. We went back to the hotel for a good night rest for the journey tomorrow.

10 October
I had a very restless night. Cramping 3 people on a single queen size bed meant that some of us didn't have much sleep with the constant blanket/comforter moving about on the bed. We again went to Raffle's City Plaza for brunch at Food Junction food court. The fried black carrot cake there is really delicious.

We left for the airport shortly and as I got on the plane I hoped that Perth is good or better than staying at home or else we would be wasting a load of cash and time for something we could see on Google Earth and Wikipedia.

My flight to Perth via Tiger Airways

I arrived at Perth at 9PM and the temperature was very cold. At night while we slept, the temperature dropped to 8 degrees and I couldn't get much sleep. I was saying that this is not what I have in mind for a holiday. 2 nights without much sleep is a bit too much!

11 October
We woke up and had breakfast before taking a walk around the neighbourhood with my uncle's dog. Later we went to King's Park for a little sightseeing. The flowers were amazingly beautiful! How I wish to share that sight with someone I like/care about. The beautiful flowers with the cool wind brushing through the skin and overlooking the city far away.

King's Park Memorial

Some blue wildflowers

Some red wildflowers

Some flowers in the Japanese Garden

More flowers in the Japanese Garden

An odd coloured looking tree

A fountain in the middle of King's Park

We left for AQWA (Aquarium of Western Australia) to see the marine life on display there. It is relatively similar to the one in Langkawi's but I get to see the seals and many other species not seen in Malaysia. I'll let the pictures do the talking.

Rockfish disguising itself

A shark!!! RUN!!!

A Seal

Jellyfishes

12 October
I woke up at about 9 and had breakfast. We left to Perth City after that. My uncle parked at King's Park and walked down the infamous Jacob's ladder to hitch a free bus ride to London Court. I bought a couple of souvenirs there and walked about in that area. We had lunch in a pancake restaurant in Cavillion's Place. After that, we went to a market and bought some nuts and strawberries.

Jacob's Ladder

After watching the sunset, we went to have dinner in Cincerello's which is famous for its Fish and Chips. We ordered a little bit too much as each dish comes with too much fries. In the end, we ate all the fish and seafood but left a load of fries as we're too full to consume it.

Watching the sunset on the beach

13 October
My uncle cooked bacons for breakfast and it was awesome. Had a chance to watch Heroes episode 3 as my cousin got the episode from a friend. YATTA!!! (Note: At this point onwards, I was very happy as I really wanted to watch Heroes)

We later went to Point Walter's for a short picnic there. It’s a place where there is a sort of beach on a river where people can come and have a picnic there. There is a 500 meters sand bank which extends from the land to the river. I walked on it and it took us about 30mins to walk to the end and come back.

The beach on a river

Some seagulls

Black Swans are only found in Perth

14 October
I went to Caversham Wildlife Part to view the Australian wildlife there. In there, we get to feed the kangaroos, touch the wombat as well as the koalas there. I'll let the pictures explain it. It is said that the Caversham Wildlife Park is better than the Perth Zoo itself.

A peacock with its wings extended

Feeding a kangaroo

A sleeping koala waiting to strike!

A Koala on top of a tree

At night we had an amazing dinner in Nicholson's Bar and Grill. They serve really good, cheap and big portion food. It was really delicious.

15 October
Today is quite a boring-ish day as we did mostly shopping for the whole day. We went to Harbourtown for shoppipng. Had lunch in a Japanese restaurant called Shimizu. The Chicken Teriyaki is not bad.

Later, we went to Garden City for more shopping and had tea in Miss Maud's. The pastry there is relatively good but nothing much to boast about. Unfortunately, I didn't get the chance to try out much stuff as they were closing when we're there.

16 October
We went fishing at Point Walter's and I was very excited as it was my first time getting my hands at fishing. We bought the bait, attached it to the rod and as my brother fling the rod; the hook went one side of the water and the bait another side of the water. We were laughing at the sight of that and after several tries, he got it working and later when I got my hands on it, I had many unsuccessful tries but eventually after the whole thing, I caught about 3 fishes. Unfortunately, they were all blowfish and we had to throw them back to the river.

We packed our bags and prepared to leave for Singapore. I learned that the plane will be arriving Singapore at 2.30 AM and that my bus to KL is at 10AM. We spent about 6 hours in the Singapore airport walking about, waiting for Mcdonald's breakfast and tried to sleep inside. We eventually reach KL at 3PM.

Overall, it was a good trip with a couple of small snags at the start, but in the end I said it was worthwhile.

Updates...

My apologies for the long break from the last post. To be frank, I'ts been a rather strange past few weeks. Again, the strange feelings hit me again. Questions like 'Am I good enough?', 'Did I do something wrong?', 'What could I have done to change it' bombarded me over the past few days. It all ends in one answer. The boundaries cannot be violated, neither can take any more steps forward and I'm asking a little bit too much.

Besides that, work is so far good. I really like it there and I do hope to be able to excel more and be more zealous in climbing up the ladder. My target is still clear. It might only take a little bit more time, but I surely do hope to see it come true.

In other news, I'll be going to Perth, Australia on Tuesday 9 October. I'll be away for approximately 9 days to have a short holiday with my parents there. As much as I like to stay at home, it's been a while since we had a family holiday; the last being in 2002. During the holiday, I'll be missing 2 episodes of Heroes of which will be airing on Tuesdays weekly. In addition, I'll also miss the French WRC event over the weekend. Sigh!

I do hope I'll be able to post some pics when I'm back. Do pray that I will be back safely. I've been watching too much Air Crash Investigations and I'm a little worried on getting onboard a plane. Especially one which airline I've known little about; "Tiger Airways". I don't like the idea of budget airlines nor the fact that I'll be travelling in the wee hours of the night/morning. I do hope they'll have plenty of rest and proper checkings on the planes else this would be the last entry from me. Well, I do hope it won't be the case. See you all in a week ++.

Blog Title Changed

It is time to move on from being known as the 1337 geek to be a normal ordinary person. Let's face it, having leet talk on my blog will not enable me to find girls. "Its too geeky," as some of you may have put it.

Last time, some asked me why did I put "Being Ub3r 1337 H4x0R" as my blog title. My reply was, "that's because I'm being Ub3r 1337 H4x0R". That was almost my answer to all questions addressed to me. I even almost said it in one of my job interviews.

"Tell me about yourself"

- "Sir, I am Ub3r 1337 H4x0r."

Good thing I didn't say it. Although if he's a pro gamer, he would have understood it and laugh at it but I would definitely not get the job.

So now you may ask, why the sudden change of the blog title? Well, to simply answer that, it has come a time where I don't find it as attractive and funny as the time I put it up. I find it childish and seem to have grown out of it. It is also apparent that I'm still learning (Ancora Imparo) to be a better person and it need not be broadcasted to the whole world about it.

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Anyway, I would like to apologise for the lack of updates to this blog. I've been rather busy lately where I have plans the moment I come back from work. When I do come back, I'm so tired that I don't feel like looking at the computer screen anymore. Here are some small updates on what I've done:

• 20th Sept
  I attended our project's New Promotes Dinner at Pantai Seafood Restaurant. We booked a total of 3 tables with about the attendance of 28 people celebrating 4 new promotes. We had lala, prawns, fish, chicken and crabs bringing the total to about RM1100 for all 3 tables.
  


• 22th Sept
  We had a poolside BBQ party for our project at Casa Indah. There was an assorted set of food ranging from fish, pork chop, chicken wings, prawns and sausages. I didn't stay for long as I've got a meeting with my ex classmates from 5 Keruing 2002. I drove to Curve to meet them at Fridays. I arrived too late to order anything and hence headed for Clement's house to chat and reminisce old times. Clement opened up 3 bottles of wine and the 9 of us downed all of it over a period of 2hours. We had a good time remembering the days in school and even remembered where each of us sat in the classroom. Its great to see some are already working and some are still studying and one got married. But all in all, it was a great time seeing all of them again.
  


• 24th Sept
  I had dessert with Allan Chong, Tzzy Jian and Liwan in secret recipe. Though they mostly talked about their preparation for their studies in UK, it was great to see all of them again. I for one was very pleased to see that Liwan is still pretty much the same as last time. The person who upholds various principles and hold on to it even with the many distractions. Tzzy Jian as usual still say the same old phrase "Focus la bro.." and now it seems I've learned a new phrase "Kiak!". Allan is still rather the same and its great to get to see them before they all fly back to UK.

That's it for now, I'll try to update more frequently from now on though I can give no guarantees. Do let me know what you think of the new blog title though.

My Packed Weekend

Over the weekend, I managed to experience many new and wonderful things. For starters, on Saturday, it was my convocation for my Bachelor of Computer Science. What a joyful occasion it was.

It started around the morning where I woke up, strangely feeling very well with little to no signs of my sickness. Dressed up, got into the car and head for Sunway Lagoon Resort Hotel at 11. We eventually reached there at 12.15 after getting stuck in the jam for a very long time. Apparently, Jackie Chan was in Sunway Pyramid launching his new gym. In addition to that, New Straits Times was giving away free tickets to Sunway Lagoon.

We went in, and I met up with Marc who was there seeing a friend graduate there. We chatted, took some pictures and said bye. I then met up with Sean, Vincent and their parents. Their session was on 11am so they've ended and were about to have lunch and head to the photo studio for their family portrait. I took my academic dress and started taking a few photographs with my family. We waited till 2.30pm when we're allowed to enter the main hall. There was a quartet orchestra band playing some famous classical pieces which I like.

One of the photographs taken

The Quartet orchestra band.

At 3pm, the procession began. The chancellor, vice chancellor, pro-vice chancellor and all distinguished guess began to enter. There were a few short speeches and then the ceremony began. Row by row, the graduates takes their turn to receive their scroll. My turn was coming up and I was tensed. "This is it! This is what I've worked so hard over the past years. Yatta!" As I stood at the stop of the step facing the chancellor, my name was called (Thankfully he pronounced my name right). I doff my bonnet, waited for him to doff his and started walking towards him. I shook his hand received the certificate. I then shook hands with the dean of the faculty and walked down.

We sat down for a while and waited for the other students to receive their certificates. After that, there were a few more speeches and then it ended. We rushed to the photo studio to have our family pictures taken. We then head back. I quickly changed, took my dad's coat and drove to Sunway Lagoon Resort Hotel again for the Cocktail party at night.

They made us wait for a while before giving a couple of speeches on welcoming us to the alumni and congratulated us. Dinner was served after that. The radishes and the fried rice were surprisingly delicious. Sean commented that he wouldn't mind having the chef to cook for his meals at home. Oh well, it was really good with the free flow of coke, sprite and wines. I couldn't drink as I drove and would be best if I do not get intoxicated. We left shortly after that to MacDonald’s to catch up with some of Vincent's & Sean's course mates and have "supper". After dropping everyone off, I reached home at about 1am. What a tiring day.

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On Sunday, I woke up at 7+ and had Dim Sum at Atria with my family and Jason. We left for church at 9.15. Church celebration was great! There were less turnout than last week but nonetheless, the message was awesome. There were many people who responded to the altar call.

After the celebration, I had lunch with Sean and we discussed about a few things regarding change. As we both knew, I am quite fixated on some things and can be called conservative at times. I was discussing with him and getting his opinions on should we accept some of the changes happening to the people we mix with. For example, when looking for a girlfriend, would he accept someone with say dyed hair, tattoo, piercing, lots of makeup, nail varnish and also if he'll accept someone who goes clubbing, pubs or bars regularly.

We then adjourned to Shah Alam to witness an autocross event beside the GoKart circuit in Shah Alam. We get to see Honda CRX, AE86, Toyota MR2 and assorted locally made cars. The idea of the event is to see who can set the fastest time to go through the circuit made out of cones in the car park. Some of the cones indicate that the driver must drive a 360 around it, some just for slaloms.

A MR2 going round the cone

It's interesting to see how some take the neat clean line with no drift while some would drift round it and some just get it all wrong; knocking the cones, going wide and stalling their cars. It was a hot sunny day but its still an interesting event to watch. I've never smelled the smell of burned rubber on the road. Suffice to say, it stinks. All in all, both Sean and I agree that the best vehicles there in taking those 360 turns were the Kelisa's. Their small and light weight allows them to be agile and clean on the turns. A soft touch of their handbrake allows their car to swing around neatly and cleanly. However they may be slow on the straights though. I didn't know who won as we left early.

A Kelisa going round the same cone

I was so tired after that with the previous hectic day and today standing under the hot sun. I was worried that I might get heat stroke or perhaps collapse due to tiredness. But overall, it’s been a great and packed weekend.

My Merdeka Weekend

Over the Merdeka weekend, it was fun, celebrative and painful.

I suppose the first question that comes to your mind would be why I said it was painful. Well, simply because after our Home-Evangelism in Kay Yeow's house, on the way back to my car, my right ankle was sprained when my foot hit an uneven surface of the road. The immediate sharp pain made me sat on the hot tarmac floor instantly moaning about the pain. I was forced to get up shortly after that because the tarmac was extremely hot. I limped to my car and sat there for a few minutes while I wait for the pain to subside. It didn't and I had to drive home using my left leg to brake as I couldn't move my right leg to the left to step on it. Suffice to say, I had to live with the pain for 3 days before able to walk (rather normally) on the third day. I still feel the extreme pain while walking down the stairs though.

Anyway, on the plus side, Home-E was really great! Ever since the Home-E's I've have with the youths, I always thought that it would be very evangelical or the leader would try really hard to try to sneak in things about Jesus or share John 3:16 with the non believers. This time however was different. We first arrived and had lunch at about 12. Here are the various food we had in our Home-E

Bread & Butter Pudding & Tuna Sandwiches

Nasi Lemak & KFC & Fried Meehoon

Satay

After lunch, we played Taboo where we had lots of laughter and fun. Kay Yeow then had us all sit together and he began to share about how he met his friend Eric and what was his memorable moment. Jin Mei followed suite and Kay Yeow then shared a little about how God has helped him and his family through the years from his forefathers coming to Malaysia and how he ended up with a job, family and daughter. He ended the meeting by asking the non believers to come to his cell on Wednesday if they want to find out about Jesus. We then separated the food to be tapau'ed and left shortly after that.

On Sunday, all of us went to our new church, Dream Centre. Since it was my first time there, my first impression was that it is really really huge! I was so lost there that I couldn't find people that I know. Eventually I managed to contact Lemuel and we both sat upstairs. The sound is great, the projector is awesome, I love the moving lights and the seat with the foldable writing pad is brilliant! It is indeed a dream church.

The size of the main auditorium is huge

The balcony

For once after so many years, we manage to have a service lasting more than 2 hours although my leg was screaming in pain as I had to lean my weight to the left leg. But all in all, it’s really a wonderful place. I can't help but wonder what phase 2 will be like...

Ps: I apologise for the poor quality of the images