5 Bruises, 1 Scratch and 1 Great Day!
There are around 3 circular welts on my left flank, one on my shoulder and another on the right side of my back. That is what happens when a paint pellet has it's flight abruptly stopped by a person. 350 miles per hour, 5 grammes of paint - the change in momentum is definitely sufficient to alter the superficial tissue of the human body. You don't feel much pain - it feels like someone gave you a particularly hard tweak. Perhaps its the adrenaline coursing through your veins. You can run, stumble, slide and jump without feeling exhaustion, even though your legs have lost all sensation ages ago. When you finally stop, everything crashes down on you again. The welts sting. Your legs have turned to jelly. You're suddenly out of breath. You notice scratches that you have no idea of how you obtained them. Ah, yes. Paintball is absolutely astral.
Went for paintballing organized by MASSOC (Malaysian and Singaporean Society) just this morning. MASSOC had chartered a coach to take us there, and our paintballing session was from 9am to 4pm. It was held in a vast, thickly wooded area in the outskirts of Sheffield. The whole area was cordoned off to form "maps" in which we had our matches. We played a total of 4 maps, each having 2 rounds. We were split into two groups, Red and Yellow. I was in Red. And we totally dominated Yellow. I'm serious. It was pure ownage on our part. Out of the 8 rounds, Red won 7. The only round we didn't win, we tied with Yellow. I guess our team was just much more coordinated and aggressive. Whereas Yellow would just charge at us with their guns blazing, we would just lay down suppressive fire, send small groups to flank them and shoot the living crap out of them from the sides.
My experience in paintballing began rather badly. In our first map, we were supposed to attack a "fort" in the forest. The first area was rather hilly and our plan was to assault it from two fronts. I chose to attack from the hilly side, but as our spawn point was downhill, that meant that I had to run all the way around the map, hike uphill and charge down at a fort held by 25 or so bloodthirsty and trigger-happy opponents. When the game began, I sprinted off to higher ground. Once there, I immediately took cover behind a tree and began sniping at the enemy. However, to my chagrin, the tree that I was taking cover behind was suddenly used by two other blokes. I found my self with insufficient space to hide myself - and before I knew it, my gun was hit. The paint spattered onto my mask and I thought I took a head shot. I held my gun up (signal that says "I'm F***ed") and went back to the spawn point. Once there, however, I discovered that I wasn't shot at all! And before I could rejoin the battle, Red had already captured the fort.
In the second round, Red was supposed to defend the fort this time around. I took a position in a corner of the fort, overlooked by the higher ground. I figured that most of the action would be there - and I wanted to be in the thick of it. I wasn't disappointed. Yellow kept doing suicidal charges at us. We shot them down in a hail of pellets. After a while, I ran out of pellets - I was literally doing a triple tap to every enemy I saw (one to range, one to adjust the line of fire and the final one to kill). Managed to snipe two enemies before I ran out of ammo. After my pellets ran out, I just crouched in a corner and observed the battle raging all around me. Suddenly, an enemy poked his gun through one of our unguarded firing ports and opened up on us - I was hit on my back. The perpetrator had his arm bloodied by a hail of pellets that rained down on him immediately after that. 5 seconds later, the shouts of "Game over!" by the marshals echoed through the woods. Red had won by successfully defending the fort.
In the second map, Red was supposed to defend huts for 10 minutes from the advancing Yellow in the first round. The defenders had limited lives whereas the attackers had unlimited lives - if you get shot, you just run back to the spawn point and start again. Yellow's assault advanced, slowly but steadily, their sheer numbers overwhelming us. My huts were one of the last pockets of resistance. I sniped from a window, forcing the enemy to take cover and hopefully slow them down. One by one my friends were hit, and I was the last one in the hut. I was kept busy by trying to snipe someone who wasn't completely behind cover - only to not notice Yellow had advanced to my hut. A few of them poked their barrels through an open window and unleashed a fusillade of pellets at me. Ow. A painful way to get knocked out from the round. However, Red won again by holding on onto the last hut until 10 minutes were up.
The subsequent rounds, my luck (and perhaps, to a miniscule amount, skill) had improved. I actually managed to get shot only once for the remaining rounds. Red's teamwork saved the day. Our flanking moves always caught Yellow wrong-footed. In the capture-the-flag maps, Yellow always reached the flag first (by virtue of their charging to the flag as soon as the game commences), but we would arrive soon after to gun them down and take the flag for our own. We usually surrounded them and while one side kept them busy, the others would rush and shoot them from their backs.The most memorable part was when the small group I was in was tasked to flank the enemy - only to find ourselves against their main force. Yellow had warmed up to our tactics, albeit at the very last round.
We had to move forwards in leapfrog movements while taking cover at every possible moment in order to avoid getting an unhealthy dose of attention from them. Some of us provided covering fire while the rest ran forwards, then those who went forward would take cover, provide covering fire and allow those at the back to run forward. I remember running from tree to tree, leaning out to shoot occasionally (I managed to shoot two of them while doing this!), and then crawling forwards in the hope that they couldn't see me. I remained supine behind a rock the size of a stool for nearly 3 minutes, raising myself occasionally to shoot at the enemy. When our group was close enough, we literally charged them. The enemy did an unexpected thing - they ran. We shot at their backs as they scampered away. Some got away, but the sounds of gunfire from the other side of the map meant that our other teammates were dealing with them with extreme prejudice.
Then, for some reason inexplicable to me, I just walked into the enemy's base, my finger on the trigger but with the gun in a relaxed position. We had already won the battle. I half-expected some of the opposition to be lying in ambush - but the truth was that my teammates had already shot all of them in our charge up to their base. My friend took the flag and we ran back to base. Red wins. After the final round, we de-kitted and went back by chartered coach, which dropped us off in time for dinner. I spent around 15 pounds on paint pellets, not including the game fee of 11 pounds. An incredibly expensive past-time, but I think I'll be making paintballing an annual event - it's great fun!
Summary:
Confirmed Kills - 4
Probable Kills - 3
Killed (Times) - 4
Shots Fired - 400 (yes I'm a bad shot - 400 bullets and only 4 confirmed kills?)
Lisa And Ema's Birthday Bash!
Be forewarned; this entry is extremely picture-intensive. Those who know me will know how much I enjoy tormenting dial-up users with the picture-crazy entries in my blogs. To the people who whine and complain about the slow load-up times - TOUGH. Get broadband. If you already have it, think of upgrading your package. It's obviously not fast enough. Anyway. In this entry I'll let the pictures do the narrating. Believe me, there's enough to write a novel (even more, perhaps, seeing as I didn't post all the pictures I took). These pictures were taken with my trusty Cybershot P10 - I received it when my Dad brought it up to Sheffield for me, together with tonnes of other stuff. Thanks, Dad!
Yesterday, we held a "suprise" birthday party for Lisa and Ema at Ranmaru's kitchen in the Endcliffe Vale Flats. The celebrations were for Lisa's 21st birthday and Ema's 2oth birthday. The decorations seen in this picture were courtesy of Kanako, who provided the balloons and did a great job with the signs.
After Suresh stalled Lisa for almost an hour to allow us time to decorate the place and cook the food, our first guest of honour was here! We hid in the darkened kitchen and sprang our surprise on her the moment she stepped into the kitchen! She never expected it - and it shows! Success!!! We didn't get any tears of joy from her, though...hahaha!
Surprise, surprise! Guest-of-Honour Number 2 gets the same reception! Ema's reaction was even more pronounced than Lisa's! This picture is definitely my favourite! Look at her reaction when she is showered with confetti and paper streamers!
From left (top) - myself and Wei Jin. From left (bottom) - Ema, Rexanna, Lisa, Hiromi and Yoko.
The ladies of the party! From left - Hiromi, Yoko, Tina, Nessa, Lisa, Jessica, Rexanna, Sunhee, Kanako and Ema. Yuki is trying to fit himself into the picture just behind them - nice try! Haha... Should have just pushed your way through, man!
"We Want You!" To clean up after us, anyway. Myself and Sohan.
Mini-group pic! From left - Kanako, Wei Jin, myself, Hiromi and Sohan.
Medics unite! The first-year medics (and coincidentally, the only medics at the party) pose for a picture! From left - Jessica, Rexanna, Lisa, myself, Sohan and Suresh.
Mastermind of the party - Suresh. He did a great job organizing the party, but an even better job at cooking the dish he contributed - lamb rogan josh! It was extremely delicious, albeit atherosclerosis-inducing...haha!
Another of our cooks - Sohan. The spaghetti bolognaise he cooked was superb! We want seconds!
Wei Jin's head is temporarily converted into a mobile dining table for me! Hahaha! However, it also looks like I'm about to eat Wei Jin's brains fresh out of his head - very disturbing indeed!
From left - Nessa, myself, Kanako and Ben.
The two birthday girls and their birthday cake. We didn't put the number of candles to correspond with their age, though - the explanation being the reasoning that the blaze would set off the fire alarms! The cake was ultimately used for a food-fight, in which everyone had cake smeared onto their faces by the time it ended. The kitchen resembled a war-zone at that point, with cake dotting the walls and splattered all over the floor.
This is a good time to learn their names - I can't make it any clearer than that! Hahaha! Lisa and Ema (no prizes for guessing who's who) pose with their namecards that were used to decorate the kitchen. We told them to take the cards home as additional 'presents' from us!
A very nicely placed group picture! Wei Jin and Sohan have identical poses - are they practicing cheerleading or something? Haha! We should have made more space for Rexanna, though. Her disembodied head seems rather out of place!
Squirrels
Squirrels hate "kuaci". I'm not kidding. The reason I can attest to the truthfulness of the first sentence is because I went squirrel-feeding a few days ago with a group of my friends (Mark, Wei Jin, James, Hsin Yu, Jun Xue, Tommy, Su-Ann and Brandy) at the Botanical Gardens. Why, ask you, do we indulge in the misperception that squirrels require human charity to obtain their daily dose of nuts when they have been happily subsisting on chestnuts, berries and leftover food from picnics for ages? Well, we weren't that deluded that we thought of ourselves as benovelent providers of yummy treats for the furry little rodents - it's just that it so happened that Mark discovered a packet of "kuaci" that he bought a couple of weeks ago were unfit for human consumption. And in line with true Malaysian doctrine - "if it's broke, donate it" - we finally decided to go and feed the squirrels with them. However, we still nevertheless managed to retain a self-righteous (albeit misplaced) feeling that we were going to give precious, life-sustaining "kuaci" to hordes of starving, furry little rodents who would welcome us with open arms - I beg your pardon, I meant
paws.It was anything but open paws when our little "rodentitarian mission" began. The squirrels were most likely lounging in their warm and comfy squirrel-holes when a bunch of misguided humans ventured out in the chilly air in the vain hope that they would be able to feed squirrels. We sighted only a few of them, as opposed to the hordes of squirrels I was secretly hoping to see. Then, we had to coax them to run up to us and take the "kuaci" from us. I mean, what the hell? If people were giving out free stuff, we would have already run up to them with nary an iota of coaxing. Most of the squirrels ran up to us when we gestured to them with the "kuaci" in our hands, but when they were about a hand's span away, they would just sniff at the "kuaci" and scamper off. A squirrel was actually more interested in my watch than the "kuaci" I was holding! In frustration, I threw some potato crisps at them - and watched one actually gobble it up with relish, much to my bewilderment. Nearly all of them ate a "kuaci" but refused to so much as sniff at another when we offered them again.
I returned from this outing with a heap of knowledge. One, squirrels are true connosieurs of nuts. Never offer them rejects that came from a budget supermarket - instead, offer them nuts from Mark's and Spencer's. Two, squirrels are modernised. Offer them potato crisps and nuts and my bet will be that they'll go after the potato crisps. Nuts are so...old-school. Anyway, three, to feed squirrels, you'll have to contact the Secretary of the Squirrel Association so that they'll allocate a feeding-time for you. They'll have to notify the squirrels that you're coming, or else all the squirrels you see are the ones kicked out of home for being pissing drunk (do squirrels actually get drunk?) or for some domestic issue. They're busy rodents, these squirrels. However, the outing was still pretty fun. As usual, Wei Jin was the official photographer and he managed to take pictures of squirrels gullible enough to eat the "kuaci" we offered to them. Here are a few:
Irrefutable photographic evidence that squirrels don't like "kuaci". Here's a picture of one particularly rude rodent showing it's rear to Su-Ann in an obvious gesture of disapproval after she offered it "kuaci".
A squirrel was actually gullible enough to take the "kuaci" from my hand! I hope nothing bad happened to it - all the others refused to take the "kuaci that I offered them.
A picture of a squirrel happily munching away at something. What that something was, I can't remember. Anyway, either this squirrel has thick fur or it is seriously obese - it almost looks like a fluffy, grey ball.
The best picture taken that day. Wei Jin somehow managed to bait a squirrel into approaching him with
nothing in his hand!
"Oriental Dinner Party"
15th October, 2005 AD1136 hoursLisa invites me to a dinner party at the Endcliffe Vale Flats. I refuse to go because everyone who is going is contributing an Asian dish - and I can't bloody well cook to save my life! She asks me to buy Oriental takeaway - but I feel that it's kind of wierd buying takeaway and bringing it to a party when everyone brought stuff that they cooked. I volunteer to be Wei Jin's trusty kitchen helper (read - slave) since he's cooking a dish to be brought there.
1530 hoursLisa, Wei Jin and myself meet up at the Somerfield's in Broomhill. We buy our most of our ingredients there (the rest was bought at Fresh Asia, a store selling Asian foodstuffs). We then return to our respective Halls.
1630 hoursHad dinner at Halifax Hall. Got ready after dinner. Tried to get rid of my "dishevelled" look. Failed and swore never to touch hair gel ever again (unless it is an absolute emergency).
1815 hoursWent off to the Endcliffe Vale Flats with Wei Jin. Was stuck outside the door until Adi (is this how his name is spelt?) opened it for us. Went in, met Ranmaru, who was also staying at the Endcliffe Vale Flats. He was cooking curry, and boy, did it smell good! We started preparing the ingredients. Chopped up the mushrooms, chicken meat and wept over the spring onions. After we were done, we had to wait for Lisa, who had the sesame oil - we couldn't start cooking without her!
1910 hoursLisa arrives! Hurray! Cooking of Wei Jin's "Chicken In Rice Wine" begins in earnest. We had several problems while cooking - at first, we couldn't fit all the meat and ingredients into the pan, then, we had to go around asking if anyone had sugar. Also, while cooking, Lisa's ingredients kept on spilling over to ours! We had several pieces of pepper in our frying pan that shouldn't be there! Anyway, she finishes cooking in record time and leaves us struggling at the stove.
1730 hours (thereabout)We finally finish cooking. Wei Jin intended to contribute a dish, but he ended up contributing two separate and unique dishes as the result of the fiasco with the miniscule frying pan. He experimented with different techniques of cooking and different ingredients with the two separate portions that he cooked and ended up with two dishes, one not resembling the other at all! Haha! The more dishes the better, anyway. People start arriving with their dishes. I met some familiar faces there, such as Suresh, Tina, Kanako, Sunni and Hiromi - but I had never met the rest before.
1730 to 0000 hoursEveryone tucks in. Besides Wei Jin's two variants of "Chicken In Rice Wine", there was a minced pork dish, a vegetable thingy, omelettes with onions and curry, served with rice. All the dishes disappear in record time as they were delicious! It is a rule that every social gathering here should involve some amount of alcohol, and this dinner party was no exception. Beer and wine was served after the dishes, and although I had resolved not to drink any that night, I ended up drinking a pint of beer anyway. My "chaperone", Wei Jin, failed to prevent me from grabbing a can of beer and drinking it after I got bored of lemonade and Diet Pepsi. Hahaha... When the alcohol ran out, some people drank the Chinese rice wine instead - it's meant for cooking, for goodness' sake! Suresh comes to the rescue by volunteering to run out and buy a bottle of vodka. I didn't touch the vodka at all - I had too much experience of what would happen if I ingested hard liquor! After extensive talking, drinking and much picture-taking, we discovered that it was 12pm already - everyone cleaned up (very surprising considering that this was a party held by adolescents/new adults who are university students as well!), said their goodbyes and left.
Here are some pictures taken by Wei Jin at the party:
Group pic! I'm not going to type out everbody's names since I can't remember them...haha!
From left - Anna, Suresh and Wei Jin.
From left - a law student from Japan (yes, I forgot his name), Yuki, and myself.
A mini-group picture. Due to the lack of space in the kitchen, where this photo was taken was where we spent the most of the time. From left - myself, Wei Jin, Lisa, Anna and Suresh.
No, we're not drunk. Just fooling around with the camera.
From left - Yoko and Tina. Don't ask me why they were hugging each other!
Asia's Next Top Model photoshoot? I'm sorry, but you're in a kitchen of the Endcliffe Vale Flats. The studio's somewhere in town, methinks. Hahaha! From left - Nessa, Kanako, Tina (partly hidden) and Yoko.
From left - Wei Jin, Nessa and Adi.
Fooling around with the camera again.
From left - Tina, myself, Lisa and Yoko. Check out the beer bottles on the table - those were only representing a tiny fraction of how much that was consumed that night! The fruits on the bottom left of the table were untouched - healthy food has no place in a party. Hypothesis proven.
After the dinner, Sunni took out a scarf and draped it around her. Pretty soon, all the girls were going "Sunni, you look cute!" and "Take pictures of her!"...hahaha.. And so we did.
P.S. - Dad's coming up this weekend! Haha! Resupply time!
Tesco Outing
Went out to Tesco's yesterday night to do some shopping with Mark, Wei Jin, James, Tommy and Brand. Actually this trip was already on the cards for some time, but the intermittent night rain caused many postponed trips. Imagine everyone going downstairs and meeting up at the reception and walking out just to find that it was raining! When a rainless night finally arrived, everyone was rallied for the outing to Tesco's with a speed and efficiency that surprised even myself. Who knew Malaysians could be this decisive? Hahaha... I went with the objective of purchasing a few bars of soap since my current supplies of soap consists of a bar of soap and a misshapen, miniscule and pathetic fragment of what
used to be a bar of soap. However, upon reaching there, I discovered that even bars of soap were expensive! Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't RM3 for a bar of soap a bit too much? Of course, the other alternative was the house brand's soap. But it was a rather dodgy deal - the label on it said "fragrance-free pure soap". What the hell?! What if I stink? How am I going to freshen myself up? Who the hell uses frangrance-free soap? Doesn't that defeat the very purpose of bathing? For the rationale-challanged people out there, that means to make one clean as well as
smell clean. You don't go and take a bath when you stink and then come out smelling the same as before!
Enough of my harangue on the irrationality of fragrance-free soap. Anyway, I ended up deciding to obtain my soap via a resupply from my Dad, who will be coming to Sheffield on the 23rd of this month. I'll have to make them last until I go back on the 18th of December. I then ended up buying beer (a 12-can carton of Stella Artois, shared by Mark, Wei Jin and Tommy) and chocolate (also shared with Wei Jin). It's surprising how "luxury" stuff like beer and chocolate is cheaper over here, but basic necessities like soap, fruits, bread and meat is so incredibly expensive! Mark bought a bottle of red (dunno if it's Cabernet Souvignon or Shiraz) whereas Tommy bought a bottle of Irish Cream! Everyone then immediately said that Tommy was their bestest best friend! Hahaha! Irish Cream is actually coffee-flavoured alcohol - very
very nice! Superb when you pour a dash of it over vanilla ice-cream...mmm... Anyway, after everyone had gotten their stuff, we left and headed back to Halifax Hall. Once there, we decided to meet outside the music room and just drink beer and basically spend our time talking cock.
This is what we did...
From left - myself and James. This picture was taken at the reception desk of Halifax Hall.
We finally take a decent picture! Each and everytime Mark takes a picture with me, one of us will spoil it inadvertently or purposely! We then agreed prior to this picture not to spoil it with any stupid poses, gestures or facial expressions - and this picture turned out fine!
Look, Ma, no hands! Hahaha... Myself and Tommy, posing for a picture. For your information, only about 50% of beer was left in the can - to hold a fully-filled can with just your teeth risks the aforesaid teeth getting ripped out of their roots!
The ones who wanted to go to Tesco so much. From left, Brandy and Mark. "We should have gone later lar... Sandwiches at just 5p at their closing time! I want!!"
Group pic (minus me, I took this photograph!). From left - Brandy, Tommy, James and Mark.
Mark rehearses his audition as the "face" for Stella Artois as Wei Jin plays the piano in the background. Haha!
Our piano maestro, Wei Jin, bedazzles us with his amazing piano performances! Among the songs he played were - "I'll Be Right Here Waiting", "In The Mirror" as well a couple of Japanese anime songs.
Cheers! My can was already empty by the time this picture was taken, but what the heck, might as well pose with it so that I'm not the odd one out! Hahaha!
Stella Artois reminds me of Asahi, being mild and pleasantly smooth. When I drank it, it reminded me of the dinners that I had with my family at Yaoki, a Japanese restaurant near my house. Still remembered the time my Dad ordered Asahi...I finished mine before the main course came and he hadn't gone through half of his and his face was already red! Haha! I had to finish the other half for him! Sipping from my can, every mouthful a reminiscence, it brought back happy memories of the times spent with my family.
I suddenly realise how much I miss them.
The Night Rain...
It's exactly 9pm here in Sheffield. I'm in my room, after having done a bit of background reading for tomorrow's lecture. Having nothing else to do for the night, having boiled my drinking water, finalized my timetables and arranging the stuff on my desk - I'm back to blogging. It's raining here. Not the usual pansy-ass drizzle that isn't heavy enough to warrant taking out one's umbrella but is heavy enough to make your clothes damp and your hair wet - it's actually the kind of rain we'd call 'light' back in Malaysia. I haven't seen it since I've arrived here. Whenever it rains at night, I feel strangely calm and at peace with the world. I've never found out the reason why, though. Everything just seems so...calm. The falling rain lends a feeling of reassurance to me - the whisper of falling droplets that seemingly says
everything will be all right after the rain. The temperature in my room seems to be around 15 degrees Celcius, I suppose. The heater in my room is nominally switched on at this moment. For some reason or the other, the heaters are switched on in the afternoons, and the early night until around 11pm. Then they are switched off until the next morning. I have not an iota of an idea why the heaters aren't switched on at the coldest periods - in the late nights till early morning! Perhaps they think that we close our room windows from 8pm onwards and build up the heat in our rooms by accumulating warmed air and so further heating is unnecessary in the wee hours of the night. It's not that bad, it's not exactly cold but then again, it's not exactly warm and toasty either.
Just discovered a great idea on how to ensure that my bed is all nice and warm when my bedtime comes! It's so uncomfortable crawling onto a cold bed at night - I usually wait until it becomes relatively warm before even trying to get some shuteye. Hence, after mulling over this problem for 15 minutes, I came up with an excellent idea. Since I boil water for drinking every night and transport it back to my room in a "space-cup" (a huge bottle capable of carrying a large amount of water, made of quality plastic that doesn't degrade with heat - similiar to the bottle Chow lugs around everyday whilst we were back in college), I thought,
Hey, why waste the heat by letting the water cool? Why not put the bottle beneath my duvet, let the heat escaping from my bottle heat up the bed and I'll have a warm bed when I tuck in? And voila! No more crawling into a cold bed every night! Hahaha!
Before anyone suggests that a hot-water bottle would be more effective, please note that I have just the stuff in my room to work with. I do not have a hot-water bottle, and if you can spare one, please send it to me.
What A Day...
For some reason, I tumbled out of bed feeling extremely pissed off today. I thought maybe I had a violent dream that I forgot about the moment I woke up - sometimes dreams that involve violence, blood and death have that effect on me. But no, these past few nights have been strangely dreamless. Dreams are what they are, a reel of subconscious possibilities, thoughts, fears and ideas of our waking time replaying in themselves in our minds unfettered by consciousness when we sleep. And my dreams visit me often, though I heed them not. Stepping up to my washbasin and peering into the mirror, what I saw was a very haggard, bleary and extremely unpleasant expression
me staring back at myself. Strange. My runny nose was getting better. My sore throat's gone. How come I still feel so...wierd? I looked at my bed and the answer hit me in a flash.
My bed's mattress sucks. Really, really sucks. Sucks so much that even hard vacuum loses to it. I assume you get the point. Anyway, my mattress has a topography of its own. There's a couple of mountain ranges, a few valleys and a couple of craters. Every night, when I sleep, I have to orientate myself in the 'clear zone' that has the least amount of deviation from level surface. To do otherwise risks waking up with a funny feeling or a soreness in your posterior thoracic and lumbar regions and I suppose that was what exactly happened to me last night. Being a rather 'mobile' person in my sleep, as all of my close friends will attest to readily, I usually cover every square inch of the bed in my wanderings when I'm sleeping. Looks like my efforts to fall asleep and wake up in the same position haven't been exactly fruitful. Anyway, that's besides the point. I think I'll need another duvet of mattress protector underneath me.
Did the upper and lower digestive tract today in the Anatomy and Physiology Practical today. Extremely fun, but something wierd happened during the practical as well. While I was playing with the small intestine on the dissection table, I was suddenly forcibly reminded of the pig intestines in "bak kut teh". That would have seemed alright, if it had gone no further - but I suddenly felt hungry! What the hell?! Feeling hungry in the dissection room is incredibly out of place, and if you told me you felt hungry while handling stuff that came out of another person, I'd take a good 5 paces away from you before recommending you get psychiatric help! I must have a cannibal hidden somewhere in the darker recesses of my mind! Hahaha! However, Sohan (one of my friends, a first year med student from Sri Lanka) said that it's the phenol and formaldehyde that makes you feel like that in there - for what reason he didn't elaborate! Maybe it's because I was reminded of alcohol and so my stomach interpreted it as incoming food/fluid to digest! Ah, whatever. Doesn't really matter anyway.
Fell asleep in Medicine and Society - Critical Numbers, Data Display and Summary. The lecture was B-O-R-I-N-G. The guy in front was going on and on and on in an endless drone - people were nodding off left and right! I spent more time trying to keep my eyes open than to look at the slides. I felt so warm and toasty in my jacket....they must have forgotten to switch the air conditioning on, as I usually don't feel like that in the Lecture Theatre. After a while I gave up and fell asleep, only to wake up 10 minutes later with drool on my jacket. Ugh. Next time I'll try to smuggle some sweets into the Lecture Theatre so that I'll at least stay awake doing something.
By the way, check out this website -
www.mininerva.org.uk! It's a parody of the webportal of the Medical School, created by students, for students! It's a laugh - remember to check out the timetables and the Church of Bax!
Damned Fire Drill!!
Just had a fire drill last week. The Residential Tutor for the Old Block (that's where my room is located) told us at the meeting a few weeks ago that the Hall would be conducting a fire drill soon. Just so we won't be burned to a crisp whilst languishing in our rooms when the fire alarm sounds the next time a conflagration gets out of control in our Hall. I think we were pretty cool about that, although we were rather riled by the fact that she just gave us a voucher for a free drink each even though she probably had enough to give us two each. The vouchers were the only reason we were there at the meeting in the first place anyway. But the Residential Tutor for Jonas Court gave out two vouchers to each person who attended his meeting! I think perhaps she was just saving them for herself when she decides to change her blood composition to an ethanol-based fluid.
Two weeks passed with the fire alarm silent. Nary a hiccup was heard from it (unlike in Ranmoor, where people open fire doors just to set off the fire alarms as a source of amusement - they have a false alarm every week or so). Then, just a day after the night at Gatecrasher, the fire alarm went off. Just when I thought I could catch up on my sleep. Just when I was having a sore throat. Just my damned luck. The alarms went off at 6.30am and I practically shot out of my bed. I thought my alarm clock went off! Then I saw the time and I was like,
bloody hell, you chose to ring NOW? I put on a jacket over my pajamas and went out of my room in my slippers. On my way out, I knocked on Wei Jin's door to ensure that he woke up (people would be checking to see if we heeded the alarm, and if we didn't, the drill would be repeated again and I wanted that as badly as I want to have a lobotomy).
When he finally appeared, we went down the stairs, and all the way out of the hall via a connecting corridor. Incidentally, there's a fire exit at the bottom of the stairs nearest to my room, but for reasons incomprehensible to me, it was padlocked. Oh yeah, I'm sure the fire will be considerate enough to not burn in the connecting corridors and let us take the long way out instead of the direct route. They should at least make this fire drill realistic and let us take the routes we would normally use in an emergency, right? I seriously don't know what went on in their minds when they locked it. Once outside, we met up with Mark and began walking to the carpark. The morning air was piercingly cold and I instantly regretted my decision to just wear a jacket over my pajamas and slippers. But some Hall residents went down in just T-shirts and shorts. Some even wore singlets. A guy even came down not wearing his shirt - what the hell?! Is their skin made of a hyperinsulating material? Mine seems to be thermally inefficient as I can freeze to death in around 30 seconds if I go out in just a T-shirt and shorts!
After that, we had to endure a half-hour talk on goodness-knows-what-I-wasn't-listening before we were allowed back into our rooms! When I got back into my room, I discovered that it was too late to continue sleeping and too early to take a bath. Hence, I spent the next half-hour hugging my room's heater trying to return some heat back into my body. By the time I went down for breakfast, I was feeling terrible. My sore throat was much worse than before and my nose suddenly had a case of identity loss and decided that it was a tap. The weather was horrendous as well and I went to my lectures feeling incredibly miserable - what a sucky start to a day. Now the sore throat is gone, thanks to the gallons of water I pour down my throat each day - but the runny nose is decidedly stubborn and refuses to abate despite the help of Clarinase and vitamin C.
Could You please make the weather here a little more sunny - all clouds and drizzle isn't helping at all! And while You're at it, could you please stop the wind for oh, say, two weeks? I can't talk properly with my nasal cavity stuffed with mucus - it's annoying as hell! And the unsightly facade and noise of me blowing continuously into my hankerchief - I'm sure You'll understand!
I hate fire drills!!!
Clubbing At Gatecrasher!
Yeah. Went clubbing for the first time in my life, against my better judgement. I don't particularly like loud music with bass so strong it can literally pound one's inner ears into the brain matter. I absolutely detest staying in an atmosphere that's 80% cigarette smoke, 10% belch and the remaining 10% breathable air. I hate places so crowded one has to knock into seventeen elbows, eight backs and three backsides just to get from one place to another. I don't actually mind the alcohol, though - although these days I limit the amount of alcohol I drink in public after an unfortunate incident involving two bottles of red wine, one bottle of red wine and six paper cups full of undiluted tequila. But still, I don't believe in going to places where I have my eardrums vibrated so badly they turn into mush, have to pay three times the amount for less than half the amount of liqour I'd get at home and mix with a crowd when all I want is to sit in my room and indulge myself in a good book or a nice song.
So. Anyway. I went. Partly because all of my Hallmates were going. Partly because it was what freshers were supposed to do at the start of the university term. But mostly because I had never been into one before and was actually rather curious about what a club looked like from the inside. After purchasing the tickets for this 'social' (I have no idea why they call it 'socials' when all they do is drink, dance, drink some more, and get so pissing drunk - I hardly see any socialising being done besides the few desperate individuals trying to pick up other individuals from the opposite gender), all my Hallmates were pretty excited about the event. So much so until they even did extensive 'planning' online - which came to naught on the day itself when plans changed every 15 minutes. Haha! We are Malaysians - it's in our genes that "we shalt not stick to any plan for more than 15 minutes". Instead, we plan extensively days, or even weeks beforehand - only to improvise when the time to carry out the plans comes.
We met on Tuesday at the cafeteria, had dinner together and finalized our "plans" (a futile effort). After dinner, we met again at the reception and left together for Gatecrasher. The navigator of our party of 13 was Ah Wong again, being the only person who knows the exact whereabouts of the club. We left at 10pm after many delays (people coming down late, people going missing, people forgetting their cameras, etc etc etc), and reached the club at around half past 10pm. Went in, promptly got our free drinks and kinda stood around a table before we realized that it was kind of sad to be doing nothing in a club. Wei Jin brought me upstairs to the balcony section, where I met Suresh (a first year med student from Ipoh) and a few of his friends - I did nothing there but introduce myself and finish my drink in record time. However, on my way down, I met Lisa (another med student, from HK) as well as Tina and Kanako (students from Japan). Talked to them for a while, and then decided to head back down to find my fellow friends.
At the bar, I met up with with the whole gang again. Tommy, Jun Xue, Mark, James, Ah Wong, Su-Ann, Brandy, Chris, Winny, Wei Jin and Hsin Yu were at the little table, standing around, just drinking and looking around. Suddenly, someone suggested that we went to the dance floor and Mark, Jun Xue, James, Ah Wong and Tommy sped off. I didn't want to be left alone, so I followed them. I must have been deluding myself when I thought I might actually enjoy clubbing - but I spent most of my time shuffling around and trying to avoid knocking into other people. Tommy, Mark and Ah Wong were dancing so exuberantly I was fairly surprised at them! Even Su-Ann joined us on the dance floor! After around twenty minutes (approximately 4 songs) of pretending to be clubbing, I gave up and left the dance floor. I found a nice, relatively quiet spot ("relatively quiet" means an area outside the influence of the massive speakers and subwoofers) which was relatively unoccupied and stood there for a while trying to discover if I had any eardrums left.
Then, Marina came along (another med sudent, she's from the UK, a British-born Chinese) with a friend of hers. We chatted for a while (actually, we shouted into each other's ears since vocalization is pointless in Gatecrasher when the music is set to the maximum volume) and they passed me their vouchers for free drinks! Apparently, they don't drink and they were about to go back anyway. After they left, I headed back to the bar to get more drinks when I met Noemi, Rexanna and Yi Yong. I wanted to give them my vouchers but they didn't want it, so I got myself another drink! Wei Jin, who happened to pass by, got the other voucher from me. We stood there drinking for a while until Jun Xue came to us with bad news. Apparently one of the girls got drunk - she had never drank before and she was downing shot after shot! For privacy reasons I won't mention her name here...hahaha... We gathered everyone, left the club and hailed a taxi for the girls. The Drunk Girl (TDG) was insisting she could walk back when she was incapable of walking two steps without staggering and that there was no reason to take a cab! Everyone had to lie to her that we were all taking a cab back - and after the girls left in a cab, the rest of us walked back.
Apparently our "early" departure (it was just before 1am) riled Mark. He had
nearly gotten lucky that night, but our early departure ruined his night. "
Wahlau eh, I can't believe I'm so stupid to stay with my friends instead of a girl", he kept lamenting. Ahahaha.. We assured him that it was most likely for the better, you know, AIDS, STD and all that unwanted stuff that sometimes comes from a one-night stand. Surprisingly he seemed much better after those reassurances. Hahaha! After reaching Halifax Hall at nearly 2am, I immediately took a bath and collapsed onto my bed. The next morning, TDG seemed to not remember anything from the night before. If she did, it didn't show - I thought she'd at least be embarrassed to see us! Well...that was my first experience at clubbing, and it wasn't astral or anything like that. I had a sore throat the next day - probably too much shouting at Gatecrasher. If I'd learned anything from this outing, it would be that normal human vocalization is a futile task in a club and that one should never bring friends who cannot drink, or have never drank before to a club. Make sure they go through a "boot-camp" of drinking first. I've seen people getting tipsy just by eating chocolates with liquor inside them!
Ah, well. At least I can say that I've been clubbing before.
Where Are My Eardrums?
Ugh. Had my eardrums literally blasted out of my head this morning. The short story is that I went clubbing at Gatecrasher One with the rest of my friends (it was a private party organized by MASSOC) and that I stood too near the speakers and the subwoofers on the dance floor. I don't really feel up to writing an entry about it since I had a rather busy day earlier today, so perhaps I'll write an entry tomorrow. See you then!
"Bak Kut Teh" Party Pictures!
Since I've finally managed to procure the pictures taken during our inaugural "bak kut teh" party (for want of a better word) from Mark, I shall post them in this blog for all and sundry to see. Hahaha... The photographer was the Taiwanese student (I forgot her name...yes, my short-term memory sucks) who brought her camera to capture the momentous moment when the heavenly smell of "bak kut teh" wafted through the third floor of Jonas Court for the first time in its recorded history! Doubtless all the the other students (bar Sino-Asians) must be wondering what the smell was! However, since we essentially barred the door to the common pantry (after which there was nothing
common about it), they didn't get a chance to investigate - or gate crash. Same difference, really. We didn't take many pictures, as we were either too busy talking or too busy stuffing ourselves to pose for pictures or to take pictures. Here are the pictures, enjoy!
Due to the unforseen lack of seating, everyone had to eat their food standing up. No one seemed to be interested in posing for this picture - doubtless the allure of "bak kut teh" is much stronger!
Group picture! Sitting (from left) - the Taiwanese student (argh, I still can't remember her name!), Wong KK a.k.a. "Ah Wong" (the master chef), Mark (the second chef). Standing (from left) - Yi Yong, Li Ching (is this how her name is spelt?), Noemi, Rexanna, the HK student, Sue-Ann, Brandee (no idea how her name is spelt either), myself, Jun Xue (partially hidden), Tommy and James. This picture was taken after our meal - look at the satisfied grins on everyone's faces...hahaha..
Another group pic! Giving credit to "Ah Wong" for making it a truly memorable night! We want another "bak kut teh" party!!!!
"Bak Kut Teh" In Sheffield!
Believe it or not, something truly out-of-this-world happened tonight. I actually ate "bak kut teh" for my supper just 15 minutes ago! It wasn't from a Chinese takeaway nor the Hall's cafeteria - some of my friends actually cooked it from scratch! Amazing! This "bak kut teh" supper was the brainchild of Mark, who desperately wanted to eat some before the week was over - he was was hankering after it so much that we decided to just go ahead with his idea in order to get some peace! Hahaha... Well, actually, I think most of us were sick with eating the typical British fare they serve at every meal, so we were actually quite eager to get some good-old Chinese fare for a change. We sourced some of the ingredients needed from a Chinese supermarket in the city centre, whereas the rest was provided by Wong KK, a.k.a "Ah Wong". He and Mark did the bulk of the cooking, whereas Sue-Ann and myself were in charge of inviting people to our impromptu cook-in in Jonas Court's common pantry. I think we did quite a good job in getting people to come - there were 14 people crammed into Jonas Court's common pantry tonight!
The "bak kut teh" was cooked in 3 rice-cookers since we couldn't get hold of a pot large enough to hold enough of the soup for everybody. A suggestion to use the bathtub as a pot was forwarded by me, and although it generated plenty of laughter, the suggestion was finally rejected on the grounds that we wouldn't be able to find enough dry wood to start a bonfire underneath the bathtub. Rice and dessert ("tong sui", a sweet soup with
longans and red beans and whatnot) were cooked in separate rice-cookers. We even had starters - microwaved chicken drumsticks! I really salute Ah Wong. He thought of everything and did everything. Instead of being just another supper, it became a full-course meal, complete with starters, a main course, dessert, fruit (strawberries) and finally drinks. The meal itself was super-fun - everyone stood around the miniscule dining table talking and eating. Personally, I prefer socialising this way - rather than standing in a bar/club with music blaring so loud you can't hear yourself think, in surroundings shrouded by cigarette smoke and under the influence of alcohol.
Except for the girls, everybody else had multiple helpings, and by the time we finally stopped eating, everyone was basically stuffed to the max. We then talked for nearly two hours non-stop in the kitchen, and I think this is the first time that
all the Malaysians in Halifax Hall actually gathered together to socialise. We're usually split into two groups, and I find myself with one group one moment and with another the next since I have friends in both. Hahaha... We even had two HK students, a Chinese and a Taiwanese joining us! We had to stop our little supper by 11pm, or else we'd be transgressing the Hall's "no-noise after 11pm" policy, so everyone left after washing up (to an extent anyway). It was extremely fun - hopefully we'll do it again! Haha!
