As a student currently pursuing my degree in a local university, I had to live away from home. For almost 2 years running, I had been living in Kolej Ungku Omar, a residential college in UKM. I treat it as a place for me to stay while planning my trip back home during the weekends. So, usually it's 4 nights in UO & 3 nights back home.
The long journey home usually begins
at the KTM station (sometimes with crazy long queues)
But, for others whose hometown is situated far away from Bangi. Going home weekly is not an option. UO is practically their home away from home. And they do go to great lengths to make it as such....
People do all sort of things to make their stay here less miserable, like bringing their own rice cooker or toaster or even water filter. While others stock up on all kinds of food stuffs - biscuits, Milo, Nescafe, Maggi...probably preparing for an American invasion of something *shrugs*
Some also decorated their rooms with small potted plants. I even saw one room with wall to wall carpeting!!
But the most outrageous act must have been this....
Bringing their pet hamsters to live with them in the college!!!
Besides keeping his hamsters in a cage outside his room, he had an aquarium inside. That guy must have been in desperate need of a companion.
I seriously hope he is not thinking of getting a dog next.
Note : This post is two weeks late due to my faulty laptop, faulty internet connection in my residential college + a very busy week due to my final project.
I must admit that the the title is slightly misleading (intentionally). But then again, who would believe I actually went to France during the weekend, right? Wrong!!
I posted the pic below with the same title in my Friendster & one of my friend actually post a comment saying how I am so loaded & managed to go to all the place he had been dreaming to go *sweat* Obviously, he didn't notice the absence of any mat sallehs & the very Malaysian looking crowd behind me in the pic.Sorry to disappoint, but the pic was actually taken at Berjaya Hills, situated in faraway Pahang hehe 
I remembered going there 5 or 6 years back, when it was still known as Bukit Tinggi. Back then, the French village was actually just a one street-town with little to do. Dull & boring : that is how I would described the visit. During my visit 2 weeks ago, I found out that things haven't change one bit!! It is still the same old one street-town with little to do. Duh!
The picture below depicts the entire French village. It was taken from the observation tower at the end of the street & from the pic, you can see the entrance ( the clock tower ). You can stroll from end to end in less than 10 minutes.
With nothing to do, the sighting of this created lots of excitement hehe
Gigantic beehive
If you get tired of the French village (which would be pretty quick), you can always visit the Japanese garden. It has everything you expect from a Japanese garden
Serene & tranquil surroundings
Rustic little hut (Rachel not included)
And a pond full of obese carps haha
If you grew tired of that also, then there is always the option of visiting the rabbit farm. We didn't went there though. I personally object to the notion of such animal exploitation (Thank you naked PETA activist for instilling such values in me).
I love furry little animals, I think they are absolutely tasty.
P.S : Just joking ^~^
This should be sound advice for anybody looking to buy a new laptop : just stay the hell away from Compaq!! I owned a Compaq Presario V3000 series laptop that was bought in mid 2006 & ever since then, sending my laptop for servicing had become a part of my life.
What makes the frustration even more unbearable is the fact that Compaq is a well-known brand name & we were made to believe that the product bearing their name should be of good quality. We made the mistake of placing our trust in the company by buying not ONE but TWO (another for my sis) laptops from the official dealership in Low Yat.
Problems are aplenty, all of them hardware failures. Anybody owning a similar model can surely relate to this. My troubles started with the DVD ROM, my laptop couldn't detect it after only a few months of usage. So, they took the DVD ROM away & replace it with a new one. Fair enough.
Then, one day I try to switch on my laptop only to be greeted by a blank screen. Frustrated, I sent my laptop all the way back to Low Yat. Found out later that the AMD processor of my laptop was burnt!! *gasp* I knew AMDs overheat but never knew it burnt so easily too. They gave me a new one since it's still under warranty.
Few weeks later, I found out that my laptop couldn't detect the memory properly. Suppose to be 1GB of RAM but only 512MB was detected. Had to sent it back again & they replace the faulty system board with a new one.
And last week, my sister's laptop couldn't boot, the tech guy suspects some problems with the motherboard. Motherboard failure? Barely 2 years of usage?
And right now, I am posting this from another computer. Reason? My own laptop couldn't detect my home's wireless network. *Grr....* Wonder what's the problem this time around. Nothing will surprise me now for sure.
If all the problems above still didn't manage to persuade you to change your mind, then just go ahead & buy Compaq. I wish you the best of luck.
As for me, I will continue stomping on my laptop to get it back working.
The election is all over now & for those who have the slightest awareness of local politics, the results is nothing less than shocking. For the past few days, we have been constantly bombarded with political news, analysis, comments, speculations bla bla bla........ I think many of us are already weary of this topic. In fact, this is my 3rd straight post about the election. Anyway, I think I need to post something on the results of election here in Wangsa Maju, as some sort of closure to the previous posts.
A picture paints a thousand words?
Here is a detailed breakdown of votes according to polling stations taken from Wee's blog.
Sekolah Menengah Chung Hwa
- Won by 268 votes majority -
Sekolah Ugama Kg Sungai Mulia
- Won by 438 votes majority -
Danau Kota
- Won by 326 votes majority -
Taman Ibu Kota
- Won by 98 votes majority -
Sekolah Mun Yee
- Won by 177 votes majority -
Section 2
- Won by 609 votes majority -
TAR College
- Lost by 152 votes -
Wangsa Melawati
- Won by 111 votes majority -
Postal Votes
- Lost by 1065 votes -
I certainly hope that this will be the beginning of a new dawn. Expect the next 5 years to be more colorful & exciting, meaning more political news, analysis, comments, speculations bla bla bla........*headache already*
Slightly off topic, the new Perak MB has been announced last night, it's going to be the guy from PAS. Erm...forgot his name already. 3 names (1 from each party PKR, DAP & PAS:1 Chinese, 2 Malays) were submitted to the Sultan to be chosen. Before that, everybody agree to support the new MB regardless of whoever got chosen lar. Of course, in the constitution also got a rule saying only a Malay Muslim can become MB unless the Sultan gave his consent to do otherwise.
So, the Sultan chose this guy from PAS. Then guess what? Lim Kit Siang got very upset & said that DAP will boycott the swearing in. Huh? WTF?
Here we are, still celebrating the victory of the opposition, but suddenly this guy Lim Kit Siang had to destroy our new found sense of hope. Why can't they just work together? Come on lar, the Sultan thinks the people are not ready for a non-Malay to lead the state. Also, the last time I check, DAP is supposed to be a multi-racial party wor. So stop being disrespectful lor. If it's in the olden days, can get beheaded, you know?
Just accept the decision. I know DAP got the majority of seats. Don't let the new found power corrupts you. If this is what DAP is all about, I am sure alot of Malaysians will regret their decisions to vote for you *sigh*
Update : LKS had retract back his statement *clap clap clap*
Today is the culmination of 13 days of intense campaigning. Today is when Malaysia decides & I am happy to be part of it, for the very 1st time. In fact, I just came back from voting (feel so proud *sob*).
My mum woke me up at around 8am. From above, we can see a long line of people outside the Section 2 school gate, waiting to go in. So, I hurriedly prepare & head down to my former secondary school.
It was just a short walk from where I live to the polling station. Cars already lined both sides of the road leading up to the school. Many of them, decorated with BN's flags.
A small crowd had already gather at the road leading to the school's entrance. We stopped by BN's booth to check for our voting stream. The guy that do the checking for me look strangely familiar. Hmm..think I saw him in UKM before (I couldn't care less anyway as I was on a mission)
After punching my IC number into his laptop, I was issued this slip. Since this was done at BN's booth, the slip had a dacing on it.
As I make my way towards the polling station, I pass by a line of aunties doing some last minute vote fishing for MCA's incumbent Yew Teong Look. Of course by then, I had already decided on who to vote for. From the pics, you can see where the PKR's booth is situated as well. Not many people were checking their voting stream there though when compare to BN's booth. The guy manning the PKR's booth was another familiar face, it was the uncle who sell keropok lekor in front of Yee Fatt.
I continued my journey after taking a few more pics. It has been so long since I walk through those gates. Back in my secondary school days, I used to duty in front of the gate catching latecomers. But as I step into the school compound, I realize that the school has changed. It look very much nicer now in bright yellow paint compared to blue in my days. My dad used to say my school actually look more like a police station ; )
Once inside, I go to my designated voting stream number 8 which was situated on the 2nd floor. My parents all vote on the ground floor. I guess they divided us according to age as you do not expect the elderly to climb upstairs to vote. The queue was actually quite short.
The voting process is the same as our university's election. They checked your IC, cross out your name, give you a paper to vote & you dump it into the transparent box.
The whole thing took only a few minutes. But I have to wait for my parents as they were still in line after I was done. My dad took the longest time because the queue was crazy long at his stream. I guess not many young adults were coming out to vote hence my quick exit.
All 3 of us walk back home after that. As I pass by the PKR's booth, the keropok lekor uncle thank us for voting & upon seeing me holding a camera, invited me to take pictures of their booth. I gladly obliged for sure.
After all had been said & done, we can only wait for the result tonight. Hopefully, the candidate that I voted for will win (I am not telling you who though hehe). And more importantly, a new dawn for Malaysia will emerged. If you know what I mean...... ; P
The 12th general election is upon us & you see signs of it everywhere. Posters, banners and flags adorned every tree, bridge & road. You see lots of deep blue ones, some light blue & some green. Government propaganda started appearing in the media. Ceramahs being held everywhere.
I remember collecting those tiny flags when I was small. But this time around, I will be voting for the first time. Yay!!
I will be voting here, in P116-Wangsa Maju where incumbent YB Yew Teong Lok from MCA will faced off with lawyer Wee Choo Keong (of Lingam tape fame) from PKR. I am still undecided on who to vote for. Still sitting on the fence but excited nevertheless ; )
Traditionally, this is a BN stronghold & signs are definitely pointing to another term for them. Section 2 is filled with thousands of posters of BN, Pak Lah & Yew. PKR's presence can hardly be felt, drowned by the might of BN's machinery. Are they giving up already?
Their choice of Wee Choo Keong is a surprise indeed, considering he was supposed to contest in Bukit Bintang before the last minute change of mind. Parachuting so late into Wangsa Maju might not work so well in his favour. Even though a swing in Chinese votes is likely, news of Wangsa Maju getting a new Chinese school will certainly tipped the dacing into BN's side.
I managed to watched DSAI's ceramah in Wangsa Maju last Thursday here. It's very funny, witty and inspiring. He touch on various issues, even said that the opposition will lower oil prices once it came into power. Some people find that statement laughable, considering the soaring prices in the market (my dad included). But of course, that guy is smart & had a plan. He is an ex-Finance Minister after all so he definitely knew what he is talking about.
BN's slogan for this election is 'Selamat, Aman, Makmur'.They still have the nerve to use that as a slogan even when crime rates are on the rise? Now tell me, which one is more laughable?
The long journey home usually begins
