Best NYE Celebration

So it’s that time of the year again, which I very much look forward to. No, it’s not Christmas, and No, it’s not New Year. It’s uncle Jak Boon’s house party!

In case you’re wondering who uncle Jak Boon is, he’s neither an uncle nor a relative of mine. He was an old classmate of my dad way back in Malacca High School. It is nice to see how they are still keeping in touch after so many years.

Just 2 years ago, uncle Jak Boon started taking the initiative to gather his classmates back from MHS for a bonding session at his spacious crib. This year was a tad different from previous years because he decided to have a NYE celebration instead. *He usually holds the party after new year*

Come to think of it, it’s a good thing he made a slight change this year or I would have missed the best party of the year. Good food, good environment, good people, good company… What else can you ask for?

It always have been a DIY popiah party because uncle Jak Boon prepares the best popiah sauce and ingredients ever. So far only praises were heard.

This time, the party comes with even more scrumptious food, Malacca Duck Mee! That was really orgasmic. I ate 2 bowls of it even after eating rolls of popiah. Felt like having more but oh well, have to leave some for others. =)

Wait.. There’s more. We had homemade sago layered with saturated Malacca sugar and soaked in coconut milk for dessert! Way better than the ones we had during PROM and the Thanksgiving dinner.

Tequila jellies were being served too. There were red and green jelly. The green ones tasted like Listerine, the red ones are just like the cough medicine you can grab from a nearby pharmacy. Both had some bitter taste to it. We were joking about the taste of the jelly when one of the uncles said, “The next colour that will be served is Blue(Viagra).” Funny much.

We had a glass of red wine each while waiting for the new year countdown. The wives clumped together and gossiped away. Some uncles and aunties joined uncle Paul as he played the keyboard and sang to the melodies of songs back in the 70s. I was pretty sure a pang of nostalgia swept through the entire living room then.

When it was half past 11, one of the uncles went around with a huge red plastic bag, distributing a bag of party accessories each to the olds and the youngs. That was pretty unexpected. Soon, whistles and party horns blasted through the living room, adding on to the cacophony.

I joined the fun and was later tempted to take pictures of cool uncles and aunties having fun playing with what are the kids favourite toys in parties. Hey, people of the older generation know how to have fun too yo! Don’t play play.

With the black box switched on, we countdown New Year together, shouting in decreasing order the seconds we had left to the new year 2010 at the top of our lungs. When the time was up, everyone was cheering, hugging, and exchanging handshakes, wishing each other Happy New Year. The atmosphere could not have been merrier with these people.

With that I had the best New Year Eve celebration ever. I really wish I have that kinda celebration every year. =)

The REPORT!

Disclaimer: This is a report I wrote for my club so it’ll be long-ish and detail-ish. The details are not that accurate as I wasn’t at the hall at all times/wasn’t paying attention. So, skip the writings and to the pictures you may. =)

It’s that time of the year again where people gather together on the last Thursday of November for a memorable thanksgiving night. This year 2009, thanksgiving falls on the 26^th of November.

Less than 2 months ago, a newly formed club, American Eagle did not plan to just sit silently and witness this exciting day turn mundane. Collaborating with the Techno Science club, another club of the ADP department had made the organizing of an exhilarating thanksgiving dinner with Charity as the theme, an absolute success.

The clock on the wall showed 5 o’clock, when the preparations were almost done. A little bit more decorations to be put up and some band rehearsals would make it complete.

Half an hour later at 5.30pm, the invited children from the Nur Salam orphanage arrived at the entrance of the hall of HELP’s residence where the thanksgiving dinner was held. They eagerly formed a line before the reception counter to receive a goody bag each, which was kindly sponsored by UNICEF, before swarming into the hall adorned with colorful balloons and ribbons.

While the children were being seated at their respective tables, chattering and giggling away, the committee members were busy ushering guests and VIPs who arrived a little later.

At 6 o’clock sharp, hosts Shannon Goh and Michael Campton put a halt to the cacophony and cheered up the guests with their jokes before moving on to the welcoming speeches.

The thanksgiving dinner officially started after our very own Head of Department Mr. Ho; Ms Rani, the advisor of American Eagle Club; and Edwin Low the president gave their respective speeches on the stage. The long awaited dinner was then served after 3 lucky draw prizes were given out to the lucky ones.

While the children queued up for the food, bands and performers were getting prepared to give the large crowd a mind-blowing performance.

First up was a sexy modern jazz performance by 2 girls, donned in vests and fedoras, popping and locking to the beats of the music, which ended a few minutes later with a thundering applause.

Followed up was a singing and acoustic performance by Green Eggs and Ham. Despite being occupied relishing the wonderful dishes the buffet had offered, the audience sportingly took some time off the food and swayed to the rhythms of “Use Somebody”, a song by King Of Leon and “Chasing Cars”, a catchy song by Snow Patrol, which were performed.

Up next, there were interesting activities and amazing prizes up for grabs for the kids, now that their tummies were satisfied. Standing side by side, the kids were given deflated balloons each. In order to get the prize, they had to compete among themselves to be the first to inflate and pop the balloon. It was so much fun seeing how those little kids struggled to keep the balloons in place and pop them.

The next activity was even more exciting as it involved toilet tissue wrapping. After the kids were broken down into 3 groups and provided with toilet rolls, they embarked on a frantic search for a subject to wrap. Michael Campton, the host was held victim by the first group and was stuffed with toilet papers to look like a pregnant lady. Although the activity ended in massive mess, it was worthwhile to see how much creativity was brought into play by the children with just wrapping alone.

The last activity for the children was singing performance. Prizes were to be given to those who had courage to sing a song in front of the audience. Those who love singing started whispering ear to ear for an agreement of a suitable song before heading to the stage. Soon, melodious voices sounded across the hall as the kids swayed their body and sang to every word of their favourite song. The audience was utterly awed and mesmerized by the kids’ performances.

Finally, the last performance for the night was by the ministers of comedy. As they performed, Aunty May went from table to table, gesturing the audience to clap to the beat and kept the party going. When that could not make the night any merrier, she decided to invite people from tables to have a dance with her on the stage. Aunty May definitely made the audience choked with laughter.

Before the night was brought to an end, hampers were given out to the Nur Salam orphanage as charity, which was the theme of the dinner. Another session of lucky draw ensued, which brought the audience to attention. This time round, the lucky draw prizes were bigger, eventually bringing more joy to the lucky ones and greater disappointment to those whose numbers were not being called upon.

The night came to an official close right after the lucky draw.

 

 

 

OKAY! Pictures Time!

Qing Han happily playing with the kids! =)

Jeremy posing when he shouldn’t be there.

I KNOW WHAT YOU’RE THINKING! QING HAN IS IN EVERY SINGLE PICTURE! Anyways…..

I don’t like camwhor-ing.

Datin Jeesha! =) Where’s your hot dress?! HAHA.

Mr. KUMAR!

Ms. Rani! The teacher advisor of American Eagle Club and Techno Science?! o.O?

OKAY! SO THIS IS FOR YOUR NECK, YOUR THIGHS, YOUR BELLY, YOUR BUTT, AND YOUR BOOBS… There you go. 5 vouchers for the new Ukimono. =)

I’m not going to eat you Elaine…

That’s all! Heee~

Good Friday ---> Easter

Disclaimer: I’m not a Christian, so the following text may not be absolutely true and accurate and that is subjected to changes and alterations. 

Actually I didn’t realize yesterday was Easter. However, I enjoyed the entire weekend because I handed in my World Religion assignment on Friday and presented on that day itself.

So, it left me with nothing else but a brief Calculus 3 quiz today and a Calculus assignment due on Wednesday! Well, good luck to Darl who’s presenting today.

Good Friday! When I was wandering around Wisma Help Level 9 on Friday, I heard someone asking, “If Jesus was crucified on Friday, then why is it called Good Friday?”

Obviously, that someone was not a Christian. Actually, the question made sense much if you were an outsider/non-Christian to be exact.

Hey, that’s where World Religion comes into play. Before I took up this subject, many questions about religions left me pondering forever. And one of those was the question that person provoked.

So here’s the thing. This may not be accurate but this is what I’ve read about.

When Jesus was crucified, it was thought that all sins of Christians would eventually be atoned. Therefore, Jesus’s death was actually a voluntary death rather than an unworthy/unjustly sacrifice.

It also means that Jesus was taking the punishment and guilt of everyone by sacrificing himself, so that human beings could find redemption from punishment. That made Jesus a Christian martyr, thereby making the Friday where Jesus was crucified a GOOD Friday. See? Right?

+

 

Well, the depictions above holds the stereotypical thinking of Easter Day I think, at least for me. Speaking of Easter Day, I would think of beautifully decorated eggs and maybe a rabbit mascot. That’s what Christianity made non-Christians perceive this wonderful day to be with their great promotions of the day with eggs and stuff.

There’s more to this day than meets the eyes. This day is actually 2 days after Good Friday, thought to be the day where Jesus was resurrected and later ascended into the sky. So, Christians celebrated this day of resurrection, collectively known as Easter Day/it can also be called Resurrection Sunday. ;)

Or maybe there’s more to it. Definitely. Where did the bunnies and ornamented eggs come from? I’m too lazy to delve deeper into that issue. We shall allow the Christians to answer this question, which is never even near to the border of my knowledge.

Ciao! ~

Earth Hour?

For the sake of bringing up awareness towards the necessity to implement pragmatic measures on the immense climate change and heightening global warming issues, World Wildlife Fund – collectively known as WWF once again organized the Earth Hour event that is to be held today in Malaysia.

Guess there’s no need for me to explain how this program works as I believe, words about this program have been widely spread among students, housewives, yada yada. Just IN CASE you have never heard of Earth Hour, it is an event which asks households and businesses to kindly turn off their their electrical appliances for exactly an hour.

This event is now 5 and a half hours away and I guess many people are looking forward to participate in it? Some might be eager to switch off their power supply at 8.30 tonight; some might have already turned off all gadgets that require the use of electricity to generate; some might think that the event is aimless and there’s no need to get themselves involve. Whatever that is, hope that most of you are willing to give the earth a helping hand to make this event a success. At least, one hour will be enough cure some of her "ailments."

Will you do as the event asks to?

Valentine's Day!

Exactly who gave the idea that Valentine's Day are meant to be celebrated with your partner? To be precise, Valentine's Day is a time to show your affection toward your loved ones including your parents, and even your grandparents! Not necessarily boyfriends and girlfriends. Wake up!

So have you gotten my whole idea of Valentine's and how did I actually celebrate that day? Obvious isn't it? I went to One Utama with my whole family for a sumptuous dinner! Kind of awkward though, seeing couples strolling around the mall, hand in hand, chatting happily as they swift pass you. 

As if we are a bunch of hungry ghosts, we headed first to seek for a rather classy restaurant. As we proceeded to the new wing, I saw couples with ice-creams in their hands rather than a bouquet of roses. Curiosity was getting stronger as we walked towards a huge crowd. There it was. Wall's was giving out free ice-cream to all shoppers and couples and whoever in OU. We arrived just in time to grab an ice-cream each before the delicious cone went out of stock!

Then we arrived at the entrance to Italiannies. Dad was planning to dine there and that instantly reminded me of something! Elaine told me that those people wanted to hire her for RM80, but obviously, because of some reasons she rejected the offer and did not turn up that day. Something good to hear, I hope. (:

Anyway, plan canceled when we came to know that there wasn't any ala carte offered on that day due to the amount of customers. The waiter actually told us that they were kind of busy but in fact, he was standing there doing nothing.

So we ultimately made the decision to dine at Dragon-I. No details of the food ate will be given. In about an hour, we were done and started a little shopping. That wasn't it! I bumped into Sophia and Jon, the lovely couple and Bryan and his tall Korean chick, another lovely couple. I wasn't expecting any of that, so not much was being said. (:

That was it. My Valentine's day with my family. Cool?

Sean

Patience Is A Virtue

4 more long hours to fill the world with love.

It’s just a few hours later that girls will start receiving calls from boyfriends. It’s just a few hours later that wives will get a big surprise kiss from husbands who are back late from work. It’s just a few hours later that singles will be dreaming that someday during that time, they will seat side by side, hands in hands with their partner under the bright full moon and swear oaths that would never be broken. It’s just a few hours later, is the time where couples are looking forward to and anxiously waiting for – Valentine’s day.

This is the time where boyfriends and husbands have been saving up for. This is the time where couples savor every moment they spent together. This is the time where girls put on smiles on their faces as they receive flowers, teddy bears and chocolates from their boyfriends.  This is the time where single guys have long awaited for to impress the girls they admire. This is the time where love sparks brightly at every corner of the streets, brightening the darkness that spreads the sky with its thickening veil. This is the time of what they called LOVE.

I’m not surprise that most of my friends had meticulously planned a memorial daytrip with their girlfriends. I’m also not surprise that they are willing to spend a huge sum to win the hearts of their girlfriends. I’m even not surprise that this is the perfect timing to mend the broken hearts of theirs and compensate for what they had done wrong previously. But what does surprise me is that some people as in couples are treating Valentine’s day as just another ordinary day that would last for only 24 hours.

Anyways, I’m not here to suggest any kinds of “Brilliant” ideas as to buy CACTUS for your girlfriends. But I’m here to hope that everything will go fine and well for those couples out there tomorrow. Friendships are hard to come by but relationships are ten times harder than that. Savor every moment you have got and enjoy yourselves to the fullest. As for singles, it actually rocks to be single sometimes. (:

 

Here, I sincerely wish all of you,

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Should I, or Should I not?

This could be the longest Chinese New Year that we ever had but it seems as though no one was well-prepared for this annual celebration. It is as though this Chinese tradition will soon vanish within generations to come.

Fewer CNY decorations in shopping malls and on the streets of Malacca. Lesser CNY shoppers in KL and PJ. Decreasing number of fireworks exploding in the dark sky during the nights. Relatives going back to hometown after reunion dinner. Definitely lesser ‘Ang Pau’ received.

Goodness gracious. This should be a celebration that would be able to strengthen the relationship within families. This should be a celebration of joy and laughter. This should be a celebration that we will remember till the day our souls leave for heaven. This should be a celebration celebrated by all. But these are not happening at all in this supposedly ox-picious year of ours.

Hometown used to be liven up with scenes of bustle and excitement. Now, it became a place filled with total strangers and dullness. We used to chat and joke happily when we gathered around the living room. Now, we hid ourselves in separate rooms, doing the things we desire most. Some even preferred not to celebrate this wonderful celebration in their hometown.

Mine wasn’t that great after all. It started off with a limited time for preparation, ending up with almost no new clothings for me. Went back to visit my grandma in Malacca, only to face with my strangers-to-be cousins from Singapore. Back came another uncle from Singapore, whom I never seen him for years. Oh.. That’s worst. I don’t think he even know who I am. As for my 3 ‘loving’ cousins, we didn’t bother to look each other in the eye(they literally hid themselves behind the papers). That’s life. Overall, we did had a little bit of fun.

But what made my year was when I got myself a new laptop!

A Studio 15!

And then I finally got myself a bag!

Now that really made me contented :) Credits to my parents of course. Writing this would be a token of my gratitude for them. Thanks a lot.

Lastly, I would like to thank Rina for all the compliments she wrote about me in her bloggie. I was thinking of posting a comment there but couldn’t. So it should be fine writing here and telling you once again. Thanks for everything! Appreciate it :)

signing off as -

Happy Sean

Dreams for thought

Wednesday was a real tiring day. It was IPRMSA's corporate theme day and me as a member of the club was supposed to be wearing formal attire to show some support to the club but I turned out to be wearing a shirt and a pair of long pants. How disappointing.. But that's me. My friend Dickson was the one semangat enough to wear formal attire.

Something strange happened on that day itself. Everyone seemed to be wearing PINK or RED? WEIRD. Anyway, it wasn't just a corporate theme day on Wednesday, but the IPRMSA club had also held an Artisan Cafe at the ADP block, which is block E at level 1. The foods - tuna potato salad, fruit punch, jelly, sausages and mashed potato with cheese sauce - were selling fast like hot cakes that we packed up and closed the "stall" about half an hour earlier than expected.

Me as the unsung member of the club helped out a little with the fruit punch. And that's all I did, not more. Then at 4, Ian picked Dickson and I up at McDonald's to Midvalley as we decided to catch a movie before heading to Madam Kwan's for Sophia's dinner. Unfortunately, the plan ended in failure. Credits to Ian who came late..

Never mind. Dickson came out with a "brilliant" idea, which was to go to Nana's place and play the board game- "Cluedo". We had fun playing that game and I was the newbie who didn't know what to do. After Cluedo, we played Monopoly like we never played that board game before. Like a bunch of small little kids, we were easily entertained by having millions of dollars in hand. We were too engrossed in buying properties and houses as well as laughing at each other for having to pay heavy income taxes and rentals that we had literally forgotten about the time.

We were 15 minutes late for the dinner (sorry) but we weren't the last to arrive, fortunately. Sophia's father greeted us with a welcome handshake and we were introduced to Sophia's friend from Brunei. It was great meeting them. As I was wondering where Sophia's mother was, suddenly she appeared at the entrance of Madam Kwan's with shopping bags in her hands. She greeted us as well and then we had a little chat while waiting.

Awhile after we ordered, the trio - Ali, Ariq and Ariq's girlfriend - had finally arrived. Most of us ordered either Nasi Lemak or Nasi Boujari. The Nasi Lemak I ordered tasted incredibly delicious and I suppose the Nasi Boujari was similarly delectable too. It was a great dinner. Thank you Sophia for inviting us and Sophia's parents for treating us =) We really had a whale of time there. Thank you once again xD

It really was a tiring day. I reached home at about 9.30 pm. However, I slept with a satisfying stomach that night :D No pics :P