there is a God!
Went to KL city again but this time with my father to look for hand luggage that was cheap. We parked at my uncle's place behind the LRT station and took the train down to central market and walked around looking for the hand luggage.

First we went to Mydin; formerly known as Metrojaya of Jalan Silang, lousy stuff they have there.
Then my father took me to this place somewhere on Jalan Ampang near Standard Chartered Bank that sells all kinds of luggage at very very cheap prices too. I felt that I've been ripped off at 1 Utama. I bought one which I thought is quite spacious but at the same time not very bulky or big.

Went I got home I quickly checked my email and lo and behold. My Visa has been approved! Hallelujah! Thank God for it. Stupid Australian Government <_<

Dentists Are Friends. They Hurt Like Hell
Went to the dentist today to have my teeth cleaned from plaque. According to my dentist he says I have not gone for a check up for exactly three and a half years.

Clearing the plaque was freaking pain. It hurt like hell. The only thing that made it worse was not being able to do anything. Not suppose to move and keep your mouth open.

After that ordeal, the lady at the counter told me not to eat within the next one hour. I did not felt like eating anymore.

* * *

Went to 1 Utama's new wing with my mother to check on more shoes. Seems that I had no choice but to buy the expensive cross trainer. I don't feel like asking my parents for anything anymore. I know how it feels when alot of money keeps going out at one short period of time.

I Got Da Power & Weight Limit SUCKS
Thought of going to pyramid to get my power supply and fix it myself since my friend Khim Sin was not responding to my smses.

I saw Marcus(Lee) online and asked him if he wanna meet up at pyramid if he had nothing to do. He agreed as he wanted to buy some comic book there. I went there to the shop Thundermatch which also happened to be the same brance at Low Yat which I upgraded my computer.

I asked for a power supply and the staff there did not know what on earth I was talking about. Wasted like 10 minutes and finally pulling out a big box.
I asked for a 450w power supply and he pulled out a 350w that cost RM170. Are you f***ing kidding me? Who you trying to con? So I said thank you and left and went to the shop beside it.
Apparently the guy knew I was looking for a power supply and got straight to getting it out and giving it to me. 450w power supply for RM80. Not bad. My budget was like RM100 or so.

Went home and opened my pc and looked at all the wires that were connected to the power supply. I did it slowly replacing the wires from the old to the new. My old power supply had more plugs than the new one but it was just enough to plug in to all my peripherals. Turned it on and it worked! I was so proud that moment.

But it somehow did not solve the problem as I expected. Before this whenever I type very long on the keyboard my mp3 will slow down for a split second. I thought that it was a power problem but it did not appear to be so. Anyways Huon Heng said that I needed a better power supply anyway so what the heck. Nothing loss.

* * *

Argh what the crap is taking the freaking E-Visa of mine to be approved!? I do not think there is anything wrong with my application! And its already more than 5 working days.

My friend Zen, he is flying one day before me and he has not even found a place to stay over there in Australia and I think he just applied for his visa today.

My other friend is even more impressive. He is also flying before me while he has not even bothered about applying for the visa.

* * *

Borrowed my uncle's weighing scale although its quite old and slightly inaccurate it would have to do. I used it to weigh my suitcase with so far only the winter clothes inside that already takes up 2/3 of the space and it came up to 20KG!!! Shit. I am only allowed to bring 30kg into cargo. I have not even include the iron that Shawn passed to me to carry, my normal clothes and my pc. I am so dead. I can only hope that my hand luggage which will be my school bag pack will be able to hold my normal clothes, sandals, sleeping bag and my harddisks. Flying to overseas sucks. All these stupid preparations and weight limits.

Petaling Street ain't cheap
Woke up today and met Ryan at Central Market LRT station. Today I was suppose to walk around Petaling Street to look for shoes as people said it was cheap. Boy were they wrong. They said that you could get a pair for RM60. Bah the only ones you can get for that prices are white shoes that look like school shoes. I walked to and fro comparing prices of the shoes... all were RM100 and above and my father only gave me RM100. I already knew it wouldn't be enough but noooooo he wouldn't believe me. I now realize that Petaling Street has become a place to rip off tourists. Damn tourists. Why must they spoil the economy. Well if shoes were RM100 something I might as well get an original pair with that given price range.

So I went to have lunch. I bought Ryan lunch too since I made him follow me in a wild goose chase. We ate at the beefball noodle shop. The famous one in KL. RM4 for a small bowl!

Took the LRT back and called my father at the house phone and his handphone but no reply. I tried calling from 1pm. Nobody picked up the phone so I walked to my uncle's place behind the LRT station thinkin that I might be able to lepak there while waiting for my father. Just my luck. Nobody was home but the front gate was not locked. So I went into the porch and accompanied my uncle's dog while waiting for my father to pick up the phone. About 45 minutes later I managed to get through to my father. Apparently he was out doing God knows what.
Got blister on my foot because I walked around using loafers. That is the only pair of shoes I have. I'm a poor sod.

My uncle's dog is smelly and she likes to wipe her face on people's legs and if you wear trousers then your pant legs are gonna stink as well. That was what happened to me while I was there.

* * *

Got home and Shawn said that he already received approval of his visa. Funny, cos I did not get mine or any notification at all. Wonder what those immigration buggers are doing.

* * *

My aunt; my mom's eldest sister held a dinner for my leaving for Australia. We went to Overseas Restaurant at Asia Jaya or currently known as Hotel Armada. I think. The junction where BBBS is was blocked for some construction and that really jammed up the entire area including the adjacent part of Federal Highway.

Dinner was nothing extraordinary.

Black Cross
Well I went to church today. Played the drums but with no rehearsal the night before because I found out that the rightful drummer on duty today did not show up for practice and did not give any notice before.

Well it is a tradition that whoever is going to leave the country to study overseas, will be prayed by the church leader. So today was my turn as I am flying. The only difference of mine compared to other people is that I got an applause after the prayed. That has got to mean something. Well not to brag or anything but I am one of the remaining originaly musician for the church with the ability to play songs on guitar and drums, or bass spontaneously without referring to any paper. A True Levite if you will.

We had a visitor from England, this chick representing Scripture Union of England or was it international... well her accent and voice drove me nuts. She was not bad looking either but quite tall.


After service, Enoch, Alice, Jason, Jou Li, Ivy, Leon and I went for lunch at Taipan at a place called Logenhaus or something like that. They sell western cuisine with and offered some local dishes as well.

Once lunch was over I followed Enoch and Alice to the nearby Gladsounds. They were looking for some marriage book to give to Leon. I saw a necklace with a black cross on it and decided that I should have that. It would replace my metal bead-like necklace that has already oxidized.

We then went to Jou Li's house to see her puppy which was six months old. It was a poodle plus some other dog mixed breed. Look like one of those shaggy dogs to me. The puppy, she was so hyperactive running to everyone and playing with them. Her name is Twinkie. What a name.

* * *

Gave my dog Mocha a bath as it was Sunday

* * *

At night after dinner at my uncle's place. I went back to 1 Utama to look for the brillian red shoes which I failed to get. Nike was selling this pair of cross trainers. It was red and stuff but it was rm599. Ain't no way I'm spending that much money on shoes.

I discussed with Ryan about tomorrow and managed to drag him to Petaling Street with me tomorrow to look for cheap shoes. I hope I can get the bright red ones I'm looking for. People are wondering why red. I myself do not know either. I just find it appealing.

Saturday. Busy Day
Saturday 26th June 2004

Woke up early, to go with my mom to 1 Utama to get clothes and a luggage for Australia. Suddenly my father decided to come along which is really against his nature. He usually hates crowded areas.

Went there and went to Reject Shop where I got most of my clothes from the entire day. However Reject Shop and F.O.S. did not have pants that fit me.
Spent quite a while at the luggage shop figuring out which luggage to buy. That really wore me out. Since we could not find and shop that had fitting pants the safest was to go to what we knew best. Dockers Khakis. Bought a pair of trousers there and lo and behold I saw what I thought was extinct forever; a Dockers Mobile Jacket. It was the jacket which I wanted my whole life cos of its many hidden compartment just like my Mobile Pants. I got it woohoo.

Next was to find a pair of sneakers which I do not have since my high school days. I've been wearing the same pair of loafers ever since I set foot in my college until now. Lousy Bata shop. They sold this pair of bloody bright red sneaker which I was interested. The crap was they did not have my size. Why on earth do they not keep size 11s around!!!
argh.

Went home and took a nap. When I woke up I found out my father messed up my luggage's combination and it wouldn't move. I knew he accidentally set the combi while he was looking at the look but he did not want to admit. My dad called my mom to bring back the luggage to the shop for checking and she told me to go instead. WTF. This was none of my doing and I had to go and lug that thing back. All the big hoo haa and when I finally got out to the front gate, my mom said I did not have to go. ARGH.

* * *

Night time Leon asked me to go eat dinner. I already had mine so just followed him. We were joint by Enoch and Alice. At the makan place somewhere in Taman Megah, I saw this couple, the girl had nice slender body and dressed in a way to display it but her face was bleh. Well this couple left before we did and they got into their cars and spent a whole lotta time in there. My assumption was they were making out. I couldn't see what was going on as it was like 50 meters away in the dark.

When me and my friends finally left for our cars, I saw those couple still like sitting there in the car. I mean like what the heck, why don't you two just get a room or something? Of all places you had to do it in a car so near a public place.

Gloomy Dark Thursday
woke up this morning. Afternoon with a pain between my eyes. Why is my sinus acting up now. It hurt like hell through out the whole day. The weather was dark and the air was filled with dusty haze stuff. It really is annoying.

Somewhere in the afternoon went to my college to collect my certified copies of my transcript and my results.

Got home tried to sleep it only worked for two hours till my uncle kept ringing my handphone and asking my family to go over for dinner. Argh!

I feel so crappy now. Stupid weather stupid air.

4 Hectic Days
You might be wondering why I have not blogged for the past 3 days. Here is the account. The Trilogy of Ups and Downs.

Monday 21 June 2004

I can't really remember the details what happened then but I did not have enough sleep and I went to the Philharmonic at KLCC to watch the Count Basie Orchestra with my mother. They are a jazz orchestra with a piano, a guitar, a double bass, a hell of a drummer, four saxophones, four trombones and four trumpets. They were really good. There was also a jazz singer who came with the band and sang some songs with the them. His name is Chris Murell. He was quite good. My mom and I met him outside promoting cds during intermission. I'm taller than him haha. My mom got him to autograph a cd we bought from him "To Noel Chang, Chris Murell". He was quite friendly too but I guess that is just part of being in show business.

Went home and Shawn discussed with me about the next day going to do medical check up and upgrading computer.


Tuesday 22 2004

Shawn came about 9am in the morning and we set off to a clinic near my house in Uptown. This clinic that we went was one of the panel doctors that the Australian Hicom appointed. When we went there we realized that we forgot out photographs for the form. I rang my dad and got him to bring it for me as it was so near my place while Shawn had make some at nearby photoshops. When we got to the clinic, the receptionist told us the doctor was on one week leave. What the hell man.

So we went back to my place so I could asked my father where were the other doctors on the list located. Next choice was somewhere in SS2. Playing safe I decided to make appointments first.

We set off for this clinic in SS2 and found it with much ease thanks to my father's knowledge of Klang Valley. There was nobody at the clinic waiting so we just filled our forms and went in to see the doctor. This doctor had a chinese name but he sure did not look chinese to me. All the medical checkup involved was taking blood pressure, checking breathing, the weight and the height. Oh yeah and the nurse decided that we should piss in the cup for good measures. All that for RM60. After that we had to go to Damansara Specialist Hospital to get our x-ray done.

On one of the roads to that hospital we were wondering why the other drivers were looking and behaving at us weird. Some guy suddenly pulled to our left and we had to go around him on the right. Shawn was quite agitated at this time. Upon turning into the hospital I suddenly noticed a 'One Way Street' sign. <_<

When we were looking for parking in the hospital, again we went against the flow. This was just a bad day. I thought taking x-ray would be very hectic and would involve big machinary. The only hectic part was waiting for my turn to get radiated. All it needed was for me to take off my shirt and press my torso against this board as well as my elbows. The board would vibrate for a while and thats it. All done.

We had lunch at Taman Tun for probably one of the last times there at LMS. A coffee shop that sells chap fan; mixed rice. The name of that place never seems to amuse me LMS. I usually find it easier to call it LMF. While Shawn was finding a car park I went to my college to certify my transcript and semester results. Ms. Jamie was not around so I told Yus that I would pick it up after I went for lunch which I never did because I was lazy to go back there not knowing if Ms. Jamie would be available or not.

Next adventure was to Low Yat to upgrade our pcs..

* * *

Along the way we picked up one of Shawn's friend Sharune, alias Koross on mRO. That is where I met him. When I saw him in person he didn't look like what I expected. I thought he would be some skinny tall guy with short curly hair. He turned out to be some okay built guy same height as Shawn, shorter than me, wearing glasses has a moustache and medium length hair gelled backwards. The reason why Shawn brought him along was because he was lazy to drive.
But the way how I saw it was extra hand to carry other things when Shawn and I are busy lugging our pcs around.

I really hate Jalan Tun Perak. That place is always jammed at all time of the day. We spent like what seemed to be a couple of hours stuck in the jam.

We got into Low Yat, went to our regular shop and got a quotation and went down to the car parked at B4 carried our computers all the way to level 3. The dude there said it would be ready in 1 hour or so. So we went off to Sungai Wang to walk around. We spent like a couple of hours there. On the way back to Low Yat we saw that dude and he had the guts to tell us that our computers were not ready yet. He said one hour before and we gave him two hours!!!

So we got into Low Yat and had a drink somewhere.

After that we went back up to collect our computers. I have never carried so much money around in my pocket in my life. A thick wad of fifties. We carried our computers back to B4 and went back up to level 3 to buy cd-rs and me, a keyboard. You should see the condition of my previous keyboard. Letterings gone and all and it was not sensitive anymore. Shawn says due to too much Street Fighter.

We jammed all the way back to PJ again.
Once I got back I could not get working on my computer yet. I had to go to my uncle's place for dinner which again wasn't to my liking. Once I got back I worked on my computer right away.

* * *

First there was a conflict with the harddisk. It took me a while to figure out how to set my new harddisk as the primary one even though physically it was already the master. Once I got that done and installed my operating system, five minutes after I connected to the internet I got hit by some stupid gaobot virus. I deleted the virus but it kept coming back. Spent the whole night thinking how to prevent it from coming back.


Wednesday 23 June 2004

Woke up straight away worked on the computer. Here I was kept deleting the virus and it kept coming back and me not knowing how to prevent that from happening. One time when I got rid of that worm. A different one came alone something called Valla.

At night I finally noticed my windows was not updating itself to protect itself from the worms. So I manually downloaded the patches and then removed the virus. Now I am free! Wuahahaha...
Well it was not as short and simple as I wrote. But I do not really wanna recored the whole ordeal.

Sucky Sunday
Well it did not start off sucky, only ended that way.

I did not go to church this morning as I had some pre-departure brieging organized by Jean Monteiro. It was to explain how to prepare for going overseas and what should be done then.

Shawn picked me up and we went there. We arrived at ten something and thought that we were late. We thought it started at 10am. When we got there, the staff was like 'Wow you're so early! It only starts at 11am' -_-"

So we set there for near one hour waiting for the event to start. Most other students brought their mothers and fathers along. Sheeesh. I noticed alot of the people there that attended were going to the same university as Shawn and me. Well I'm the kind of guy that judges a person on how loud they reveal themselves through their image and behaviour. Most of them I assume are from rich kids colleges like Taylors and Monash or some other rich man son college. Their dress style all the same, can't tell them apart. I didn't really even look at them anyway. Throughout the briefing we were bored, so we started cracking jokes about almost everything Jean Monteiro was saying.

Shawn made a card for Simone and asked me if I would like to sign it to, I did. Problem was I haven't written anything with pen/pencil for a long time so when I wrote on the card, it looked horrible.

When the briefing was over, Shawn and I remained at our seats hoping that the crowd would just bugger off. Suddenly one lady came to the front and talked to Jean. We heard her introducing herself as 'Wendy'. Both of us quickly rush out to the exit.
Now if you have not read one of my previous blogs, Wendy is the mother of that senior who graduated before me but is enrolling in my university same intake as me. She was trying to make friends for her son.

We waited till she left then we went back inside and waited till Simone handled all the other students and asked her about air tickets and medical checkup panel of doctors.

After that whole thing we went to Taman Tun to have lunch and then Shawn dropped me off home. While we were having lunch Bee Lee suddenly called me and ask if I was free for lunch.

* * *

When I got home Bee Lee sms'ed me asking if I could go have tea wit him in the evening. I was already suspicious to why he suddenly wanted to talk to me. I was sleeping nicely when he rang my phone and woke me up. I felt stoned. So went with Bee Lee walking all around 1 Utama and he told me some stuff that might be useful for preparations of flying overseas. He kept on asking me if was going for Young Adults bible study this coming Friday, I he was not a spy for Enoch and the others to plan some surprise thing for me.

* * *

Dinner time went to some chinese coffee shop with my uncle and his family. I do not understand why my mother must always try to pick a fight with me. When everything is settle and done about it, she will suddenly out of nowhere try to argue with me. This really pisses me off. Eventhough she does not have any real case against me she just can't seem to let it go. Everytime I prove her wrong and justify myself she will not accept it and will always abuse her position as a mother saying that she has the right to screw up my life because she is my mother.

I am glad I'm getting out of this house soon. I would be even happier if I had a better source of financial supply.

Fridaty 18th June 2004 : Graduation Day
I just got home from a dinner at Chillis. I've been going to Chillis too often these few months which is not good, as it is making me fatter and poorer.

Today was graduation day for me at Mantissa Institute. I am now officially a diploma holder (whoop dee doo). Well it was short and simple, just the way I like it. The dress code was for people to wear tie, coat, long sleeve shirt, slacks and formal shoes.

Did you really think that I would go by that? I wore Docker's Mobile Pants, those collarless shirt (so that I wouldn't need to wear a tie), a blazer and meh regular loafers. Well my pants hem were long so I had to fold it. Which made some of my lecturers annoyed.

I took some pictures of the event and even pictures of my friend and their parents. Oh well I'm always the photographer at functions and I believe no one can capture footages as unique as me. HAH.

I've looked at my photos and I think I really need to get pants that makes my legs look better. With 'fitting pants' they make my legs look small in proportion to my upper body. Looks stupid.

* * * * *

Afzal planned to celebrate at night with all the other diploma graduates but it was either too far for them to come, or they are just plain stingy buggers. So ended up Afzal, Shawn and Me going to Chillis at 1 Utama.

Of all Chillis in the Klang Valley, this 1 Utama one has got to have the worst staff. The staff are newbies and always changing faces meaning they are not there often.
Now if you have been to Chillis, you would know that the waiters are friendly and would always check on your table every now and then to see if you need anything, usually a drink refill. This 1 Utama place, you gotta like attract their attention if you need anything. Some of them even pretend not to see or hope somebody else would do the job. Stupid people. I won't go to 1 Utama Chillis till they train their waiters properly and make sure they maintain the standard.