Bandung Trip

I went for a holiday to Bandung, West Java last week. A long awaited trip - but worth the wait! It was sort of a reunion for me and my dear friends. Time to catch up with each other - Liz and I last saw each other about 9 years ago! But despite those years, some things never change. Fendi is still Fendi - nobody can beat his loud laughter (especially over that one incident at the spa!), Liz is still a shoppaholic, and Duan - what can i say - still macam tu jugak! The only difference is that they were bringing their "handbags" ...



The trip itself was fabulous.We shopped, and shopped and shopped...Bandung is without a doubt, a shopping paradise. A lot of shops to choose from - but my favourites are Donnatello, Rumah Mode, Heritage and Rumah Tas. But we were spoilt for choices really - too many shops to choose from and arghhhh so little time... despite that everyone spent more than were budgeted!




Apart from shopping, I also went for a bit of sightseeing. Decided to go to Tangkuban Perahu - an active volcano about 45 minutes drive from Bandung. It is an interesting destination and the scenery was breathtaking! There was this huge crater in the middle of the mountain and the view was made more breathtaking with the swirling mist that seemed to cling on that day. Mount Tangkuban Perahu was said to shaped like an upside-down boat - but the day we went there were so misty, and we failed to see this resemblance.

Around KL with Al

I went to Kl last week - a combination of business and pleasure. I went there to work for 2 days and then was on hols for the last 3 days ..it was fun.

I get the chance to see my nephew, Alistair, who is now 18 months. He is so cute - and getting to be quiet a handful. We spent a few days together - shopping, dining out, staying in, going to the market - and it was very nice!

These pics say it all...



This was taken outside Jaya Jusco, Setiawangsa ...







Our family dinner at Boston...



Al's having fun with the car trolley .... wish I had videotaped him crying when we tried to get him out of that trolley ....



Shopping with my sister ....



While waiting for our meal at Madam Lim's, Al already started his meal hehehehe

Sending me to the airport .....see you in Feb Al ....

Creating histories ....

I was so busy the past 2 weeks - marking the exam scripts...Come to think of it, I only had a day off before I started with my marking. A few weeks before that I was marking tonnes of assignments (and who says lecturer had an easy life! *sigh*)

The end of semester is always a stressful time for us at the faculty. We were issued datelines after datelines. datelines for submitting grades, the next dateline if you missed the first datelines and so on ...This semester, for the first time since joining the faculty, I had FAILED to submit my grades on time. I created history (yeah!)...they must be joking if they think i can submit on time considering i had 159 students for one class (each have to answer 3 essay questions - out of 5 questions) and another 45 students for my shared courses (which I only have to mark 44 scripts). You do the maths...compared to those who only have 50 students and only teaching one course, i am doing a lot of work...and even have to stay up late in order to catch the datelines. Not to mentioned losing my weekends, missing lunches and missing quality time with Airell. The most irritating thing is that we (the slow markers!) were reminded time and time again ...and that really irritates me!

Anyway, I am done now. Yesterday (Sunday) I was at the office keying in my marks. I found out that 22% of the students failed my paper. And this is again, a new record for me! And not only that, my shared course with Lina also showed a very high failure rate - nearly half of the students failed that paper. 44.5% is a very high numbers (and another new record!) Looks like I might be running for the "killer lecturer" award this semester ...*sigh sigh sigh*

Lessons I never learnt!

Everytime I went out with Lina, we always encountered something or someone really funny along the way. We would end up laughing or making fun of the situation - and when we started, we just couldn't stop ourself....the jokes would go on and on and on ...each one would come up with outrageous comments! And, without fail, we would be "punished" for our actions ...

Case #1: Lina, Wan and I were on the way to Pending (or was it somewhere else?) to get Bemen's results. ON the way, we saw a guy riding a motocycle - he looked funny - the way he rode the motocycle made him looked unbalanced (a bit loopsided!). Hence, a lot of comments were made, lots of laughters followed ...and the result was we missed the turning to our destination...hey, fair enough...so, we had to drive up to make a u-turn but little did we realised that we had a very long drive to get to the right turning. Moral of the story: don't make fun of people!

Case #2: Lina and I were on the way to Pizza Hut. On the way, we saw a collegue in front of us. Someone (i am not saying names here!) made a comment and, again, we burst into laughters and other stupid (but hillarious) comments followed. The result was, I missed the turning at the roundabout and ended up following our colleague who, by the way, was going at a completely different direction to ours! We ended up being late for lunch! Moral of the story: same as above!

Case #3: We sort of learnt these lessons (well, sort of!). On the way to a meeting earlier today, we saw a number of PALAPES students jogging round campus. Lina saw this guy (in a yellow shirt) who looked really worn out. She was tempted to say something but managed to refrain from doing so...i was about to comment on something as well but thought better of it ...it's so happen that we both refrain from uttering a single comment coz we know we had to go to an important meeting and not wanting to jeopardize anything. We don't want to be late. Anyhow, we got a text from our donkey master to say that he left his pen drive at home - and our slide presentation was in there. Hence, Lina & I have to make a detour to his home while he try to delay the meeting, saying we are stuck in traffic! The result was: we were late for the meeting. Moral of the story: even though we didn't make nasty comments out loud, we are still being punished - to a certain extent!

But thank God the meeting went well - and we didn't have to "rescue" our boss!

Mini break in KK

I recently went to KK on business, but because my boss is very understanding we combined the business trip with a bit of R&R. Hence, we went there earlier with the intention of having a few days to ourselves. White water rafting and snokerling were high on the agenda, but unforseen events curtailed the plans.


Despite the slight hiccups (i.e. a detour to the A&E Dept of Queen Elizabeth Hospital on Sunday morning), i had a great time. The business meeting and field trips were a success. I had my doubts regarding some aspects of the trip, namely our trip to Pulau Gaya - which is rather notorious - but it was all in our mind. It was an eye opening trip - we get to see the schools in Pulau Gaya and its nearest surrounding settlement. We didn't venture out to the other settlement as our so-called tour guide believe that they cannot guarantee our safety if we go unaccompanied into those settlement. Scary huh?


Apart from that, most of my free time were spent in the pool. It was a pure bliss! Woke up, and heading straight to the pool....and after finishing whatever i was doing in the afternoon - be it our meeting or shopping trips - i always ended up in the pool till 7 or 8 in the evening. I really wish i didn't have to go home. and another highlight of the trip is our lunch at Krisha's ... a much awaited trip coz Krisha was closed when we went there the first time. It was worth the wait, and worth the trip ...hehehe and definitely will be among the top 3 in our priority list for the next trip.


It was a great mini break for me...and the good thing is that we (the boss, lina and i) will have to go to KK again very soon. Yipee .....and i bet this time, we will make time for a bit of snokerling!


This is where I spent most of my free time! Nice pool - and very quiet and peaceful ...

Sunset: View from the poolside

Pulau Gaya at the background. Only a boatride from KK jetty

Good friends are hard to find ...

I was so down yesterday. And my friends, near and far, without fail, were there for me. As I know they would. They consoled me, they encouraged me, they were there for me...and most important of all, they cheered me up. Ita, especially, with her brand of advice which were ladden with humour - were very effective in making me laugh (ketawa dalam tangisan is more appropriate to describe it!). Liz and Fend with their advice, which were laced with swear-word (hehehehe), scarcsm (not directed to me, of course) were very comforting indeed. My dear moi was also there for me, well i sort of just bursting into her room with my box of tissue, one look at me and she knew i wasn't ok. And Wan also called to ask if I am ok.....

I really appreciate your friendship, and your support....good friends are hard to find, and I am glad I have friends like you!

poisonous darts ...

I thought things are ok now. I thought it is all sorted, pending my "appointment" after Raya, of course. I thought I am free. And I thought, I got rid of the scumbag and all those heartaches, the misery, the uncertainties, and most of all the unpleasantness that often comes with IT. Today, a bombshell was dropped, poisonous darts that zeroed on my life...i was very contend, happy with my the way my life is turning, but that darts of poisons had turned my world upside down once again. The uncertainties were brought up (yet again) and with it comes the unpleasantness that left a really sour taste in my mouth. And without fails, it bring along tears, swearing, anger and a feeling of being utterly useless coz I can't control the situation.

Then I would start to question myself...have i been that bad that all these things are always coming back to bite me, am i that bad a person? I hope I am strong to overcome this. My friends seem to think that I am. Perhaps they are right, I am not so sure any more. I hope this is sorted without involving me - coz the implication is to great for me to bear. Am making a mental note to myself as I am typing this - NEVER EVER BE A FOOL AGAIN..DO NOT BE TOO TRUSTING!