Earworm: Leaving on a Jet Plane
Currently reading: big mouth & ugly girl -- Joyce Carol Oates

My first driving lesson was last Sunday, two days ago. While waiting for the driving instructor to come, I was having major butterflies in my stomach. I had zero preparations, I didn't know what to expect! (actually, i did drive the toyota corona round a not-so-empty parking lot the previous day, but that was like less than 15 minutes with my dad clutching onto the steering wheel from the passenger seat anyway)
Mr. Ong, was his name, and he seemed pleasant enough (tho he smokes, but only outside the car thankfully) He was 15 mins late as he drove up in his white Kancil. He took me to this pebble-strewn driving ground in KJ and I spent the hot afternoon mastering the steering wheel, how to turn left and right, all that....and also the three point turn. and *clap* my engine died once haha. not bad for a beginner eh?

Today was more fun as I got to drive on the actual road round KJ's residential area, which was pretty peaceful so you don't get this Lembu(L driver) knocking over innocent pedestrians. Practised stopping at junctions and I actually shifted til the 4th gear. (compared to the last lesson when I never budged from 1st gear!) Then it was back to the driving ground again with side parking. Was a leg-aching experience with much control needed on the clutch... In the end came the coolest part...I was actually coasting along the LDP (a highway) on my way back to my house. I drove myself back haha...guess mr. ong had enough faith in me not to ram into other cars =)

Earworm: On The Way Down ~~ Ryan Cabrera
Currently reading: Zits comics

Yesterday I went with my sis (the best shopping partner) to Midvalley, ah the beginning of a shopping spree =) but i'm more of a bargain hunter, don't fancy spending a bomb on branded clothes, so luckily there were still some sales prob from Hari Raya, but then again, Msia is perpetually on sale.. bought a few tops, some prezzies for my friends, a nice pair of sandals. (I didn't know I could fit into a size 4!) Ate at SR..I tell u, there's a small cockcroach crawling on our table top...totally eew....i flicked it off and stunned it for a moment..yikes...continued my spaghetti w/o paying much attention to it.
The rest of the afternoon was mainly spent being a couch potato--i foresee much more of this along the hols. I missed my astro so much! gotta catch up on all the MTV haha...speaking of which, go watch 'Always' by Blink 182-- the vid's damn cool!
The other day heard on the radio that Tom Hanks is most prob gonna play Robert Langdon of the international bestseller Da Vinci Code.. if u haven't read it what are you waiting for ??! ( i seriously believe that the world is divided into 2 groups--those who have read DVC and those who haven't) Ok so that's like so wrong! cannot make it lar...i mean, Forrest Gump as a university professor cum symbologist? And Robert's supposed to be suave! There's this forum on imdb with the title PETITION: Stop Tom Hanks from being Robert Langdon, which i found quite amusing =p http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0382625/board/nest/13244366

Earworm: Shadow~~ Ashlee Simpson
Still reading: Message in a Bottle-- Nicholas Sparks

Now that I've settled down at home, I can start writing about the super fun trip I had with my friends, while the memory still remains relatively fresh in my mind...

Day 1 (or rather night 1) (12th Nov)
The 7 of us took 2 cabs to the Golden Mile, milled around for a while before boarding the bus... and we're off! A rather uneventful journey, save for when we were lining up for our passports to be checked and this bespectacled girl asked us whether we were scholars. coz she recognised my face (ha!) from the selection test and the TJ orientation (that was like waaay long time ago last dec) I'm amazed by her memory and sadly, no, i don't remember her face. ah well. Apparently she's from Ipoh and knows all the other scholars from Ipoh by name, if not personally. According to her, Ipoh is a small town... I wanted to get her contacts when we arrived but due to my slowness after rubbing the sleep off my eyes and being one of the last off the bus, she was gone. Hmmm...maybe with fate we shall meet again.

Day 1-Ipoh (13th Nov)
Arrived in Ipoh at around 6.00am, K was supposed to come pick us up. We were half frozen by the seeping cold of the air-conditioned bus, the early morning cold did not help either. So he pulled up in this Kelisa and we were left gaping. 7 girls and the amount of luggage we have?!! Luckily his mum pulled up in another car (was it a wira? argh I'm bad with cars!!!) after him and we breathed a sigh of relief.
After leaving our luggage at a corner of his living room and waiting around for a more sensible hour to go out, we headed for breakfast. The teensy problem of getting everyone to fit in his mum's car was overcome by me sitting on YH's lap and KY on her roomy's lap also, with Jol and FC squashed in the middle, with what little space was left. It must've been a damn funny (and perhaps pathetic) sight, since this auntie and her cabbie was snickering at us when we were beside them in the traffic. The cabbie was even motioning to us whether we wanted to move over to his taxi for space!
After breakfast K drove us around town with some commentaries thrown in and the mad bunch singing along to Selamat Hari Raya in the back of the car. We secured our bus tickets to Lumut at 1.30pm then stopped for some soya bean and taufu fah which is supposed to be very famous. We were then supposed to visti Sam Poh Tong but he forgot how to find it. It was a rather long drive and I felt so sorry for sitting on my roomy even tho she assured me that I didn't weigh much. But KL was complaining about KY's bony butt digging into her thighs =p
Anyway, we settled for Perak Tong instead and were wheezing when we were barely a quarter of a way up the stairs I think. So only Jol and YH persevered but there was still a very long way up so they came down with us in the end.
Lunch was a sumptious affair of his mum's cooking, which surprisingly had a chinese style to it-- mixed veg with prawns dipped in tomato sauce and some curry. After our fill, we were doing the dishes but got shooed by his mum saying that we were going to be late for our bus ride.
Made it on the bus anyway and rain was pelting down halfway thru the journey. It was still raining when we arrived at the jetty. Jol's family was there to intercept some of the stuff we didn't want to lug to Pangkor.

Pangkor
The ferry was full, expected of the Raya and Deepavali hols anyway. We were immediately pounced upon by drivers there. I didn't know that cabs in Pangkor were pink vans! So bimbo... So it took us past a beach and we were busy guessing which of the chalets were Lyana villa, where we booked for two nights. Nope, not this one nor that... Til we went up a steep hill and horrors were going thru our minds with having to bike or hike our way down to the beach and end up pushing bikes up the slopes like some poor souls outside the van were doing. After driving up and down with lots of false leads, we arrived at another stretch of beach and stopped at this disappointing looking one-storey building. Ooookayyy....
Admittedly, the room was better than how the exterior looks. It had two double beds and a bathroom, air-conditioned and they gave us a mattress for free.. although there were cockroach wings on the bathroom floor...but hey, this is as good as RM100 a night can get...
Went out to the beach to check out the activities, we were pretty excited by the banana boat we saw on our way here. Talked to one malay fella...to our dismay he said that most stalls won't be open tomorrow coz it's the 1st day of Raya. OOpss...looks like we came at a bad time. But turns out his words were untrue coz we found an operator that will open after lunchtime tomorrow. So we're all set for snorkelling and banana boat!
At night we played card games and this Name Game that made us shout til we're hoarse... esp FC with her comical war cry! =)

Day 2: Pangkor (14th Nov)
It was a late morning for us (actually it was Jol's idea to wake up at 1pm to save on breakfast money!) But it was 10am when everyone was awake and we had special burgers. Then changed into our swimsuits, Mel had a lil mishap coz she left her swimwear in S'pore! Ended up borrowing KL's two-piece to wear underneath a sleeveless tee and shorts coz she's too 'conservative' =p
On the way to the snorkelling area, another operator was showing his boat of passengers a sea cucumber then when he saw our boat passing he just flung it at us. We screamed and it landed on Mel's leg. Yucks!
There was nothing much to see at the snorkelling area, just dead corals and colourless fish. And we all got varying degrees of cuts and scratches on our legs and feet coz of the sharp rocks near the shore. I swallowed tons of seawater for trying to breathe underwater with my snorkel gear. After we got tired of snorkelling we lazed near the shore, searching for seashells. and we actually worried whether the guy just took our money and left us there coz it was getting quite late. Eventually he came and we were soon on the banana boat, which was great fun and excitement. He threw us into the sea on purpose and when I hit the water the sea water went straight into my nose and down my throat. Lovely. Had to catch ahold of Jol who seemed to be drifting away by the current and KY who was hydrophobic. the 3 of us finally clambered onto the banana boat and we were off once more. But the jetboat ran outta petrol! So potong stim... haih... So we were like stranded in the middle of the sea haha... When we finally got going, he threw us near the shores and this time I pinched my nose but I fell atop of KL...so sorry!
Later we had ice kacang while the wave crashed down on us...ah....so relaxing... tho the sand that got stuck in our swimsuits made us look like we had cellulite--except worse!
Dinner was at this roadside stall that had ikan bakar. Downer was that it was crawling with cats..and the food took a long time to prepare. The cats are damn manja and would not go away esp since our table was the first served therefore the only table with fish... The cat had FC screaming and making a commotion, turning all heads to our table..er....even after YH, Jol and Mel tried to entice it away it'll still come back for more. Pesky!
At night we were mostly tired out so had an early night. Except for Jol and FC, seriously the two of them should be separated they really try to out-lame each other! were playing the name game among themselves and doing crazy things like somersaults, sit-ups and push-ups on the bed, all the while giggling non-stop. Me and KY were like (-_-)"'

Day 3: Pangkor (15th Nov)
In the morning, only me, Jol, KY and FC were game for kayaking. Jol kept asking me whether i wanna capsize the kayak...No thanks! I don't fancy losing my specs again after what happened when i went kayaking in Singapore.
At noon, saying our goodbyes to Pangkor, we hopped onto a ferry and later hailed cabs to Jol's house in Sitiawan...

Sitiawan
I can't believe that Mahjong is so addictive. We can sit there for hours playing it...Oh no...this is so auntiefying! We watched half of Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen later. Quite unbelievable I've watched all but half of Lindsay Lohan's movies..
After dinner with the family, Jol's mum asked us where we wanted to go. and mel was like is there any night life in sitiawan? So we ended up in Billion haha...us hanging around the toys section some more. At night was...as I recall, more Mahjong...

Last day: Sitiawan (16th Nov)
Next morning and all afternoon was you guessed it, mahjong wahaha...before we know it, it's time to head back to KL...
The journey back was horrible. Firstly the bus was terribly rickety, later we realised it was prob caused by road condition but at 7pm we stopped at teluk intan and the driver said we can even go for dinner coz a new bus is gonna come an hour later. Apparently the bus we were on could not make the whole way to KL..shucks! Then when the bus finally arrived, the 3 of us got on late so we almost had no seats...had to sit separately then.... Top that off with heavy traffic, what with everyone back from hols... reached jalan duta at 12.30am. whoa that was a sufferable ride that I would not wish to go on again! Glad to be home, but i chatted with my sis til maybe 2 something in the morn...

Earworm: Back Here~~ BBMak
Currently reading: Message in a Bottle -- Nicholas Sparks
Currently playing: Time of your Life ~~ Greenday

woohoo im going back to Malaysia tomorrow! im half-way done packing...ooh its so exciting...going on a umm...would you call it road trip? with my friends.. or rather bus trip since that's the mode of transport we're taking to Ipoh, Perak. Leaving at tomorrow night. Then we'll head to Pangkor, we've already booked a chalet for two nights there...i wonder what we'll be doing..this trip is as spontaneous as it gets! well apart from we actually bought our bus tickets beforehand.... which reminds me of the funny incident. We intended to go back either to KL or S'pore on 15th but the bus tickets were sold out! So Mel was so frantic calling her aunt..but in the end it got sorted and we managed to get tickets the following day.
Whoa I really can't believe what a whirlwind year this has been...next year's gonna be worse as we're constantly warned by our tutors.... does time fly when you're tortured hmmm.... new theory?
There's still guitar practice tomorrow...i'll have to get up early to make it to school at 7.30 am...and it stretches all the way to 1pm! ooh..better start practising my piece now...

Earworm: Gravity~~Embrace
Currently playing: Love is all around -- Wet Wet Wet
Currently reading: Trading up -- Candace Bushnell

whoo...im back from my hiatus...sooo many has happened then....after the stress of exams and also the relief, disappointment, depression....a whole lotta emotions amongst the JC1s after the results were released. Jol's been crying in fear that her scholarship will get terminated and she so hopes that she will make it for conditional renewal (CR). Im crossing all my fingers and toes for her...after all, she does have the principal on her side... However another guy, Ngep has given up and refused the merit award to return to Msia...it was all very sad...we all signed a huge card for him....but perhaps this is a blessing in disguise...that singapore just wasnt his true calling...and a chance for him to get the hell outta this pressure cooker.

But amidst the lapses of sadness there was fun going out as well. We went inline skating at ECP. I could actually skate without having to clutch on to sides of the railing, which was damn pathetic when i started out... haha...
The next day we went for the kayaking kraze organised by the Outdoor Adventure Club in my school...was pretty fun but sapped us of our energy...imagine kayaking for 4 hours! oh misfortune after misfortune this girl right she dropped my glasses into the sea. and they were my new ones that i bought just a few months ago! but she promised to compensate me, bless her. However she also accidentally whacked me on the head with the paddle while rafting up doh. After a day in the sun i got a nice even tan on my arms but my legs look hideous with it two-toned colour from where my shorts ended. yucks!

yesterday had some retail therapy as well, bought the book im reading now. its real bitchy but so fun to read! peppered with some insightful thoughts on high society and life in general as well.

Tomorrrow's the start of Oral Presentation. mine's on the third day. gonna spend the morn rehearsing tomorrow...duh everyone in the hostel was rushing around for PW....Ive just finished crapping up some minutes to be printed out later haha....