Silent Hill IRL?

UTP is dark. It's pitch-black outside, all the streetlights are out. I wonder why?

I had to park at Pocket C because there was no parking elsewhere. It was so dark there, I had to park very slowly for fear of bumping into someone else's car, since I couldn't see.

And then the walk back from the Pocket C parking lot to my dorm... >__> It was kinda spooky.

It was like the 2nd dimension of Silent Hill, minus the fog and the monsters.

At some point, I was scanning around for health kits and handguns and ammo and anything else that might be useful in case a zombie nurse came at me. You never know, the clinic is very near that parking lot.

... ... ... No more Silent Hill LPs for me. =___=

Nando's

On the other hand, the Nando's official website is made of win. The flash takes a while to load, but the main menu is adorable. The objects move when you hover your mouse over them, it's so cute. I love it! =D


Extra tip: check out the menu! (Clicky-clicky the note taped to the freezer to get to it.) The animation is awesome, me and my siblimgs sampat. =D

And yes, I am very bored and very free today.

Crap it, I need to get around to actually ordering the food. =___=

Epic Phail

I was looking for the Nando's delivery menu (lunch for today!) online.

This was the very first search result.


I laughed so hard I nearly fell off the chair.

And now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to hunt for the menu on a site where it can actually be displayed. lolz

Addiction

It's that time of the year again.

New seasons of series have been released, and they update weekly.

My particular drugs:

Gossip Girl, Season 3

America's Next Top Model, Cycle 13

House MD, Season 6

... and when Heroes, Season 4 comes out (is it already out?) ...

... ... ... dah la tgh byk kerja.

I will not be re-installing DC++ on my (borrowed) lappy. I have a vague idea that all these viruses I get come from there. You never know, nyways. Plus, no DC++ means addiction control.

No P2P, and no torrent access from UTP. I am safe.

Come, O my brothers and sisters, let us now uninstall DC++ (although I know nobody will).

And I shall catch up on series when I'm safely at home and work-free. Yes, yes, I like that idea.

Did I mention that my siblings have me hooked on Avatar: The Last Airbender? And that I just started a new game of Final Fantasy Dissidia (finally)?

Crap la. When am I gonna do my FYP??

Perth

Perth was nice. It's laidback and chill, perfect for the type of holiday where you just want to chillax.

It's located in Western Australia, conveniently in the same timezone as Kuala Lumpur, so we didn't have to reset our watches at all. On the other hand, the sun sets earlier, around 6PM, which meant we got to fast one hour less than back home. =P

We had an apartment for the week, at Mullaloo Beach Hotel.

If you direct your attention to the sampat group of people on the balcony, that's us and there's our room.

There's a restaurant and pub directly below us, but the noise didn't carry up anyway, so it didn't bother us in the least. =)

Across the road from the apartments is Tom Simpson Park.


And across the park, the beach!


We never made it to the beach, though. This sign pretty much scared us off. =___=

That first day in Perth, we actually arrived quite late in the afternoon, and it was evening by the time we made our way to the apartment. All we had time to do that day was unpack, go out to grab dinner at Hungry Jack's (that's what they call Burger King in Australia) and then visit a grocery store to grab supplies for the rest of the week.

It was during that grocery shopping trip that my mum found this freak of a vergetable.


And that monstrosity actually lasted the six of us a good two or three meals, which was exactly how many home-cooked meals we had during the trip. =P

The next morning, Dad woke us up way way way before the crack of dawn, so we could all eat sahur together.


It was worth getting up freaking early for, though. =P And this we did for sahur/breakfast every day while we were there, whee~

On our second day there, we piled into our rented van and made our way to Fremantle, one of the port cities around WA.

That pretty building there is the Town Hall.

We mostly just walked around the streets and looked at the buildings and shops.

Here Nina went all sampat because she found a cafe with her name on it. lolz

I like how there are flowers like these everywhere. whee~

After Fremantle, we went to the Western Australian Botanic Garden.

I think this was one of my favourite places that we visited. It was so pretty~~~

They had all sorts of wildflowers and plants, and the park was so scenic.



Then we found this mini waterfall-thing in the park, and of course we had to sampat and camwhore. =P



And then we also did something we'd never do back home - we lay down on the grass. lolz


The ground felt so nice and soft, and the sun felt so warm in contrast to the cool air... I think we could have actually napped there, it was that nice. Best of all, no bugs! Try this in UTP, and the chances of you getting bitten painfully by a fire ant or whatever are pretty high. >__>


Also at the park was the State War Memorial, which was erected in honour of all the servicemen and women who died in the wars, specifically the Boer War, World War I and II, Korea and Vietnam.


Beyond this point, I kind of get mixed up as to what we did on which day, so let's just not bother trying to remember. =___=

I do remember that we went to Mandurah, again just to walk around and look.

We also went to Busselton, where there is apparently an underwater observatory located at the end of a 2km pier.

Unfortunately, when we got there, the jetty and the observatory was closed. =___= Which was kind of sad as we drove out there just to see it.

Behold our sad faces.


"I think Lara Croft would have been able to make that jump, though," is what Dad said. lolz

On Raya day, we went to Swan Valley, which is famous for it's numerous wineries, including Sandalfords. And then there are lots of farms selling produce such as strawberries, melons, grapes, etc.

And then there are factories there. They're the main reason we went, you see. Especially...


... the chocolate factory! =D


There were tonnes of people there.


Free samples are a must. These came in the form of chocolate chips; dark chocolate, milk chocolate, and white chocolate. Nina kept going back to take more, and the rest of us just leeched off her handfuls. By the time we left we were all high on sugar.


Chocolates of every kind imaginable. They even had chocolates with chili... which just sounds weird. >__>

We bought a couple of boxes with a variety mix inside - I'm not sure if the chili chocolate is included. If it is, and if I get to try it, I'll let you know how it tastes. hmm.



There's a little window where you can see them make the chocolate. There's only one person in there, though. I guess they don't have to make so many, seeing as how much chocolate they have laid out in the shop. >__>


We also went to the Mondo Nougat factory, where we also bought a whole load of nougat as well.

After lunch (fish and chips!) we went to AQWA, the Aquarium of Western Australia.


That, in my hand, is the leftover fish and chips from lunch. Yes, it may be kind of sadistic to bring in fish and chips and wave it in front of the fish in the aquarium, but that's just me. =P

The aquarium was pretty big, though! When we first went in, there was just a short corridor, and then the obligatory tunnel and walkalator that you'd find in every aquarium. That was pretty long, though nowhere near as long as Aquaria. They had a good number of sharks and huge turtles and rays, so we spent quite a while gawking at them.

Then we left the tunnel, thought that was it for the aquarium, then went through the tunnel for a second round just to kill time. Then when we actually left the tunnel, we realised there was another corridor filled with stuff to see. That led to another area, and another, and another... o__O

Check it out if you're ever there, it's not bad. It's just as mahal as Aquaria KLCC though, so be forewarned. >__>

Other than that, there really isn't that much to tell. Like I said, it was a chillaxing holiday, so all we pretty much did was drive around, take nice long walks, and sampat over random stuff. lolz

And now if you'll excuse me, I have to get lunch. Hungryyyyy...

Announcement

Sorry for the one week hiatus, just got back from Perth =D

Haven't even finished unpacking yet, daymn.

Photos coming sooooon~~

VMA

Kanye West is a prick.

Way to rain on someone else's parade.

Poor Taylor Swift.



(Hari ni ialah Hari Malas Nak Blog Panjang2.)

Random Quote

I read this quote today:

"A man will give a woman a dress, only so he may undress her later."

Umm... huh??

>__>

<__<

wth...

Just Another Yellow Lemon Tree

I'm sure you know the song Lemon Tree by Fool's Garden.

There are some days when that song describes exactly the mood I'm in. Like today.

Bored, lonely, apathetic. I don't feel like doing anything, I don't feel like eating anything, I don't feel like sleeping, I don't feel like... anything.

I'm sitting here in my boring room
It's just another lazy Sunday afternoon
I'm wasting my time, I've got nothing to do
I'm hanging around here, I'm waiting for you
But nothing ever happens... and I wonder

I've been feeling that way all Sunday afternoon, but now it's Sunday night and nothing's changed. I tried sleeping, it didn't work. I don't know what to do now. Even blogging only kills so much time. Urgh.

Maybe I'll go take a shower, or take a walk. Something, anything. Just let me feel some emotion other than nothingness. I don't even feel like a human being right now.

The Amazing Blog Award

I was tagged by Weena.

1. Copy award di atas untuk diletakkan di blog anda

Done~

2. Nyatakan 5 fakta menarik tentang si pemberi award ini.

I don't know her that well, but this much I know...

- She really likes the colour pink.

- When she was staying in our house, she somehow managed to get a room to herself - no roommate! I have no idea how she managed that!

- Not exactly a fact, but when I first knew her she had long hair. And then it was short. And now it's long-ish again. lolz

- From her previous blog posts, I can tell she really really likes Britney Spears.

- She clearly likes shopping. A lot. =P


3. Setiap blogger mestilah menyatakan 10 fakta atau hobi diri sendiri sebelum memilih penerima award seterusnya.

- I like collecting bookmarks; leather ones, metal ones, beaded ones, wooden ones... I like them all. The typical paper ones are harder to keep, though, they don't last long.

- I've always wanted one of those transparent umbrellas that you commonly see in Japanese series or movies. I've never been able to find one of those here, though. I guess in this hot sun they're not practical. But then again, I only use umbrellas when it's raining, so it doesn't matter.

- I've kept a large number of journals and diaries since I was in primary school, but none of them ever lasted very long. It's a lot of wasted paper, but I did have good intentions when I started them >__>

- I adore looking at pretty notebooks in the stationary sections of bookstores. I love love love notebooks. I don't know why, I just do.

- I collect those coloured Stabilo pens. I now have one of every single colour (finally), after having bought them one at a time (because I was too cheap to just buy the whole set in one shot).

- I like reading manga, but I rarely watch anime. I also don't read manga recommended to me by others. Whenever I want to start a new series, I click on the "Select Random Manga" button at onemanga.

- I am a shy person, and it's difficult for me to approach new people. I am typically attracted to loud and friendly people. Most of my close friends are of this type, or people introduced to me by them. It takes me a long time to get attached to someone, but when I do I will care very much about them.

- I love reading storybooks, but I don't like buying secondhand books. Books, for me, are something that I want to keep for a long time (forever, if possible). So I like to have them in pristine condition when I get them. Those books that I borrow from the library, or purchase from Novel Hut, I consider as one-night stands... read them once and then return/throw/give away.

- I used to like to draw, but after years of neglect, nothing I draw looks right anymore. It's very frustrating for me, and sad. I guess I was never very good at it in the first place, but now I'm just downright terrible.

- I collected stamps when I was little; my parents used to get mail from all over, and I used to take the stamps and stick them into my stamp albums. The hobby died out when snail mail started to die out. I'm not the type of person who has so much money to spend on collecting stamps.


4) Anda perlu memilih 10 penerima award seterusnya dan describe tentang mereka

-Illy, the soul-searching one
- Nina, the one who seldom blogs but writes exactly like me
- Hasif, the one whose blog is on life-support
- Adek, the one who likes to rant
- Tasha, the one with the funny stories
- Reen, the one yg tgh angau skarang
- Rez, another one whose blog is on life-support
- Chira, the one who always has a lot to say
- Ivan, the one who works hard and plays hard too
- Edrea, the one whose blog is being given CPR

ok, technically I mostly described their blogs. But it's difficult to sum up people in one sentence. Read their blogs and get to know them yourself.

Tag completed. Whee~

For That Someone

Somewhere far away from here
is that someone I hold dear
who whiles away the hours
building the glass towers
of sky-castles promised me

And while I wait patiently here
for that someone I hold dear
I while away my time
writing this pointless rhyme
of a love that's far from me

At night I hug his sweater
remembering our times together
wondering if he would
remember me if he could
when he looks out at the sea

At night I listen to his song
repeatedly for lord knows how long
remembering when it was
that the raindrops fell on us
when he first sang it for me

And though it may be very long
before he again sings that song
I will wait patiently here
for that someone I hold dear
'til he comes back to me

* * * * *

I can't write poems to save my life... but I sometimes like to pretend I do. >__> yes, it's lame I know. I have no aspirations of writing good poetry anyway, this crap is just something I vomit out when I need to vent.

This post goes under a new label category: mushysappy. You will learn from now on to avoid reading all posts labeled as such to keep the contents of your last meal safely in your stomachs. =P

... And, comments are disabled for this post, because I don't want them. I can be mushy if I want to occasionally, but please don't bahan me for it (wishful thinking). tralalala~

Random Photos

Somebody (I'm not saying who... somebody) complained that I don't put enough photos on this blog. Whatever.

And since I don't have anything really interesting to blog about today anyway, I'll just upload a few recent photos from my phone (my only camera, so excuse the poor quality). Might do this every now and then from now on when I have nothing to blog about in particular, yay.


Latest photo Hafez sent me from InaiTulip. They've been knocking the rust off of that big pipe... or something. >__> Manual labour... I guess all cadets get bullied. Like Rusydi says, STU (or in this case, STH?)


My desk as of a few days ago. It's worse now, trust me. Want to play Mystery Case Files? No need to trouble yourself downloading the game. Come to my room in the morning when I'm getting ready for class, and help me find a watch, a phone, and a necklace. It's a lot more challenging than you think.

... Illy's belief is that I'm like this because my mum is OCD. Hence when I'm away from home, I lepaskan geram. Or something. Maybe.

Hafez took this photo on our last date, when we happened to have breakfast at USM (gila sedih, pak tor at usm >__>). And then he got all nostalgic, because he remembered when we ate there a few years ago, not long after we got together, and he took a photo of me with his (then new) phone. And that photo is still my blog profile photo, because I like it.

And this photo, I uploaded on Facebook, because it's my most recent photo and I don't have a lot of photos of myself. Because I don't camwhore. Because I malas want to put up hundreds of photos of my ugly mug on my blog unlike some female bloggers. So there. And now y'all know why the pose is exactly the same as the old photo (shown below). It's because of my cheesy nostalgic boyfriend whom I worship and adore. Tralalala.

Was unable to get that same couple to pose in the background, so there's a janitor in the remake photo instead. lolz wtf.


Some really cute cat I saw at McD Medan Gopeng. It reminded me of a plushie I have at home. Sooo cuuuuuteeeee XD

Wait. erm, what? That's all the so-called recent photos that I have on my phone? And only two of them were taken this month? And all of them save one were not taken by me, but Hafez? *dies* blogger fail, I tell you.

ok ok. I'll be more blogger-like from now on. I'll take pictures of every single meal I eat! I'll camwhore incessantly and upload 500 photos of myself all in the same pose! I will take pictures of myself standing in posey poses with a bunch of girls uglier than me so that I'll look super hot! (no such thing actually, because I don't know anybody fuglier than me) I will be *drumrolls* *cymbal clashes* a typical blogger!

Tralalalala.

Post dedicated to Donovan Chan, the person mentioned in the first paragraph of this post. Oops, I said who after all. Oh well.

Procrastination - I Haz It

On Monday, I stayed up all night to build my FYP prototype from scratch, because one of my supervisors wanted to see it.

On Tuesday, I managed to finish just enough of the prototype about an hour before I went to see my supervisor. I then stayed up all night that night to finish my FYP progress report.

On Wednesday, I finished the progress report at 7 in the morning. I attempted to print out two copies with my blardy printer, but then it ran out of ink halfway. I replaced the ink cartridge, and then it hanged like it always does when I'm doing heavy printing. So it was 12pm by the time I finished printing and then went to bind the reports. In between, I attempted to study for my Data Mining test, although I couldn't concentrate at all.

Finally, the test was over (I think I survived somehow, hope the lecturer ignores my doodles of The Happy Food Friends on one page of my answer sheets) around 6.15pm. My co-cu class ended at 7.15, I buka puasa-ed at Taman Maju with my friends, went back to my room, showered, made a call to the deck of InaiTulip, waited a bit for my hair to dry, and then promptly fell asleep at around 10.30pm.

I woke up around 2pm today (Thursday), having slept a good thirteen-and-a-half hours. And an hour later, I'm still sitting in front of the pc in my pyjamas, happily catching up on the Facebooking and blogs that I've missed out on the last couple of days. I'll shower and get dressed for class around 4pm, maybe. My only class for today is at 5pm, and once it ends at 6pm, my weekend has begun. =D

And there you have a week in the life of a typical procrastinating final sem UTP student. hahaha.

Influenza M(A1A5)

I was doing my FYP work happily. Click, click. Drag, drop. Type type type. Repeat.

And then it struck, out of nowhere.

The dangerous thing about this chronic illness is that it comes out of nowhere. It strikes without warning, and once you get it, it's difficult to cure. It is generally not known to be infectious, but it is more widespread than the common cold, and is known to be particularly prevalent among a certain ethnic group in Malaysia.

Symptoms may include drowsiness, incapacity to do work, fatigue (imagined or otherwise), procrastination tendencies, and an odd compulsion to Facebook more than you should.

If symptoms persist, do not bother contacting your physician for an MC. They won't give one to you.

Ok, now someone persuade me to continue doing my FYP. Please. Please. I've got M(A1A5) bad.

Memboo

I was watching the news on RTM1 (yes, I actually watched the local news in Malay, don't be shocked now) and I saw something interesting.

You know how news programs always show some random scrolling text at the bottom of the screen, because they assume that you can multitask and read the text as well as watch and listen to the newscast? (I have no idea how the deaf-mute community can focus on the sign language lady and read the text simultaneously, that seems even harder to do.)

Anyway. I saw this word in the scrolling text: "memboo".

It took me a while to figure out what it was. I'd never encountered that word before, ever. And then I realised what it was: booing.

Sampaaaaattt. It sounds so funny when you read it out loud. Memboo. Memboo. Lemboo. XD

Imagine all the other imbuhan you could use.

Membookan.

Diboo.

Penbooan.

Terboo.

And what about other sounds that people make?

"Lelaki yang gatal itu telah mempewittkan awek-awek yang lalu di hadapannya."

hahahahahaha

Seriously though, is memboo an actual word? Can it be found in the Kamus Dewan? Someone please please please look it up, I left my Kamus Dewan at home. I'm dying to know XD

Food, Glorious Food

Yesterday, we went to Ipoh with one aim in mind: to watch Final Destination 4.

Of course, we were looking forward to good food, having starved ourselves the whole day. But when we arrived at Ipoh, the question arose: Where?

Our initial plan was Iro-Iro at Ipoh Parade, which supposedly has good food as recommended by some friends. But when we got there, the darned place was close, and we were left clueless as to where to eat.

You'd think that having starved the whole day, we'd be less picky about what we eat, right? But no. We only get to eat once a day (at least I do because I rarely sahur), so when we do eat we like something with an oomph! that can keep both tongue and tummy happy and satisfied the rest of the night (if not the following day) =P

As we debated our options, we listed our usual options: Kenny Rogers? Secret Recipe? McDonald's? KFC? We rejected these suggestions one by one, none of them seeming appetizing enough.

It was while we were driving along that Don suddenly exclaimed, pointing out the window.

"Hey... that place looks interesting. Korean BBQ Buffet... wanna check it out and see?"

The word "buffet" sounded interesting enough, and so we made a little detour and went to see. Don and me got out and went to scope the place, whilst Reen, Illy and Rusydi waited in the car.

Check 1: Place was halal.

Check 2: Food served looks interesting.

Check 3: Reasonably priced.

Having passed all three tests, Don and me went out, called to Reen to park her car, and then went back in to book a table.

Before long, we were happily seated around a table, eagerly eyeing the grill set in the center of the table. Next to it, a small pot of broth, for soup. The buffet table was full of marinated meats and seafood, sushi, sandwiches, assorted Korean noodles and dishes. There was even a small dessert section, with cake slices and mini-cupcakes, and ice-cream.

And all this for a price of RM29.90 per person (about RM32 after tax).

The food was GOOD. I don't know what they marinated the stuff with, but it was nice! And cooking your own food and eating it hot was nice as well. I particularly enjoyed the lamb, the dory fish, and the baby octopus. Not such a big fan of the Korean sushi, but it's passable. I also totally fell in love with the soup stock they gave us, which we happily filled with mushrooms and whatever else we felt like chucking in. haha

Our food cooking on the grill, courtesy of Donovan, our chef for the night. =P

And bottomless iced lemon tea and/or iced peach tea is welcome any day XD

We stayed there for over two hours, stuffing our face and talking and cracking stupid jokes. Omg so fun. At some point or the other, us girls were laughing hysterically, tears streaming down our faces, thanks to Don and Rusydi's stupid jokes and comments, lolz

One of the waiters thought I was Filipino, and assumed that the rest of us were Filipino as well by association. We kantoi when Illy spoke in Malay whilst he was nearby, and then he got a shock, hahaha.

Awesome, awesome night. We ate until we were so stuffed, we made stuffed turkeys look not so stuffed. Will definitely go back there again! =D

Afterwards we finally watched The Final Destination, which was nowhere near as interesting as the first one and second one, but just as gory and pointless as the third one. Ah well. I guess it might be fun in 3D, who knows.

Best outing in a while, though. Can't wait for the next one XD

Cravings...

... it's when you're fasting that you crave all of these things. Especially when you're in middle-of-nowhere Tronoh, where the food you love, you can't get. Why oh why is Ipoh such a small town? =(

Three things I miss the most...

Nasi Bojari from Madam Kwan's...

pic courtesy of makanbyte.com

Portobello Mushroom Ravioli from California Pizza Kitchen...

pic courtesy of myfoodilicious

... and Prawn Mee from Little Penang Cafe.

pic courtesy of quaintly.net

When can I go to KLCC again..?

... In the meantime, prawn mee at Old Town? Nowhere near as good, but better than nothing. The ravioli and the nasi bojari I can continue dreaming about. *sobs*

(Defining characteristic of a Malaysian = loves food. Yes, I am attempting to justify my gluttony. Is it working?)