Snigger!

Wow, I haven't updated my blog in two weeks! Don't worry, I'm not going to give up on blogging just yet, not after having this site for more than five years, arf arf! Just been super busy, what with the PR application, and work, and also working on music scores for FTL. Hmmm. Sounds like the same ol' excuses, doesn't it? Heh.

Meanwhile, passed the IELTS exam for my PR application with flying colours: an 8.5 grade out of 9, which, y'know, ain't too shabby. Chan Ghee has been my housemate for a week and a half now, and it's going well, I reckon. Initially took some getting used to, having someone else around... the other day, I saw movement out of the corner of my eye and practically jumped, only to realise it was just the new housemate, oy vey!! :P

Anyhoo. I promise to come back soon with more updates, so check back in again shortly, y'hear? Ta ta for now!

IELTS, Coffee Beans and Housemates

Hi all. Right now I'm at the Coffee Bean outlet at the British Council in KL, where I've just sat for my English speaking exam for my Aussie PR application. On Saturday morning I'd sat for the reading/listening/writing component, and for the most part it's been a piece of cake, if I may humbly say so, arf. I was required to write a letter apologising for not being able to make it to dinner, oy. And then I was asked to write on why zoos were more than just mere entertainment.

When I read the questions, my initial reaction was, "Okaaay..." I mean, I'd bought a preparation booklet for the exam, and it was filled with complicated graphs that needed interpreting, and long passages about world economics, and essay questions about the impact of, I don't know, migration or Adam Lambert on world population. So to realise I had to write about zoos was a bit of a relief/joke. I guess they scale the English level down to the national average of a country... which pretty much says it all, doesn't it? Oy.

In the meantime, the speaking test was a breeze, too. Examiner seemed strict initially but loosened up as we conversed, even smiled at some of the humorous stories I told her. She asked about - of all fortunate things - watching television and my TV-viewing habits, arf arf!! And then she asked about whether I travelled, and whether I was a good traveller (which anyone who knows me would know, I'm not. Nervous flyer, baby!). So that was that, and I think I did rather well. Hopefully. Fingers crossed. Results in early March.

In the meantime, there's the rest of the documentation for the PR application to be sorted out, including translations of various documents that are in Malay. And then later on there'll be health exams (oooer) and police background checks (eeeek) and all sorts of inconveniences, so... y'know... wish me luck, oy.

Oh yeah, yesterday I did a massive clean-up of the apartment in anticipation of my new housemate who's going to be moving in from March, in an effort to a) save him some time looking for a place, and b) save me some money. He's an old school friend of mine, and we've been keeping in touch and hanging out frequently over the years, and he was even Terry's and Debra's housemate in the early Noughties. Terry mentioned recently that Chan Ghee (that's him!) was going to come to KL for work and was going to start looking for a place. So, since the idea of renting out the spare room had been in my mind for a while now, I decided, what the heck! Let's do it! So yeah, housemate! Just like uni days, erk! It's going to be interesting, heheh. Wish me luck, oy.

With the apartment cleaning came the idea that I would move some furniture around, so I decided to experiment with the living room space. Now the couch is in a different position, and the exercise machine too, and the TV's at an odd angle (but good for viewing from the couch), and I'm kinda pleased with it since I think it really maximises the space of the apartment now. I haven't taken any pics yet, but as soon as I do, I'll post it up so you can see the changes, k?

Alrighty then, I'm gonna head off now. Contemplating if I should leave for work now (and try to get into the office by 11:30am), or just keep working from here until lunchtime and leave over the lunch break. I think the latter might be better, so save me stress. Like I said, right now I'm in Coffee Bean, having just had their 'Food for Thought' breakfast, which consisted of coffee, toast and half-boiled eggs, plus a rather incongruous side salad:

Diet is re-commencing tomorrow as I've put on a TONNE (quite literally?) over the Chinese New Year break, osh kosh b'gosh!!!! So I'm going to be ambitious and try to stick to it for the next four weeks (count 'em, four weeks, twenty-eight loooong days), to finish this round right in time for my birthday. Once again, folks... wish me luck, oy!

Till next time... :)

Home Sweet Blazes

Hey all. Whew, back in PJ at last. The rest of the Chinese New Year break was thankfully quiet and uneventful, and my spirits seem to have lifted a little bit, so it's all better now I guess. Spent the last few days in uncle's condo, just chilling out and preparing for an English exam that I'm sitting for tomorrow morning in order to apply for permanent residence in Aussieland. Wish me luck, everybody. Not sure I'm prepared for the exam... though hopefully it's not too difficult, arf.

Driving home was a little bit stressful... about 50km away from home, I realised my petrol level had dropped to the barest minimum, and the little petrol light was blinking. Ouch. Stupid me, when I left Penang I saw that I had four out of five bars full, so I thought, "Meh, let's take the risk." Reminder to self: always top up; never take the risk. For 50km I drove with that blinking light, feeling the car gradually strain and start to wheeze, while I searched for a petrol station. FYI? There aren't many on the north-south highway. At each of the rest stops, I saw toilets and food stalls... but no petrol kiosks. Oy vey, what a dilemma! I thought of exiting the highway into a small town, but decided to keep pushing it. Fortunately, at the eleventh hour I managed to find a large rest stop with a petrol station, so thank heavens, I filled up the tank so that I could drive the remaining 5km or so home. ARF.

Oh yeah, driving back, I also saw an oil tanker that was ablaze, on the road in the opposite direction. How exciting/scary: huge tanker on fire, think dark billowing smoke, cops and firefighters, and a massive traffic jam. Oy, I would've hated to have been on the other side of the road then!!

Anyway, that's about it for now. I'm back in my apartment just to unpack and do some minor tidying up, but will be spending the night at the folks' since Dad says he'll drop me off at the exam centre in the morning. Gotta be there at 8am (ouchy), so I'm gonna go now and get some rest. At 7pm. Yes. That's right.

Okay, byebye for now!

Greeting the New Year with a Bark. Or not.

Happy first day of Chinese New Year. Or whatever. Right now I'm at grandfolks' place, having spent last night at my uncle's condo, where my brother and I had also stayed at last year. Distant relatives are now in the living room, but heaven knows trying to socialise is too much effort, so I'm here sitting outside on the garden swing, blogging on my mobile in the 38 degree heat. Uh-huh.

Anyway, sorry for all this negativity. This grumpy attitude will pass, I'm sure. Oh, speaking of pass, I arrived at grandfolks' place only to be told that the poor sick puppy that we'd been trying to look after (see previous post) had died this morning. So, you know... way to greet the lunar new year! Poor puppy. Here's a pic in memoriam:

Rest in Peace, Blackie / Bobby / Boy Boy. Yeah, we couldn't decide on a name.

Rantings, Frustrated

Hey, all. Blogging from the back seat of my dad's car. We've just travelled about looking for a vet because my granddad's puppy has been really sick, and it's been throwing up the medications it was previously prescribed and losing weight at a worrying rate. Right now it's asleep on the floor, having just been sick again. But the vet we were hoping to leave it at for overnight observation is shut for the Chinese New Year holidays. So we're driving back to grandfolks' place, and will keep feeding it its meds and pray for the best. Sigh.

Oh yea, I'm in Penang right now. Chinese fukkin New Year. Have I mentioned I loathe it? I loathe it with a vengeance. And I seem to be more irritable and frustrated than ever this time round, which should be worrisome since I'm not even sure why. Then again, I've been feeling this melancholy for a while now. A sense of failure and feeling like I have nothing to look forward to in the future. Maybe it's depression. I dunno. I should find out officially once and for all, but it all seems so futile and too much effort.

Anyway, whatever. I'll smile and pretend to be happy in the company of relatives. But I swear, the first one who comments on my weight in a bad way, I will not hesitate to react in a bad way. Yes, I'm thinner now than before, but I've been eating plenty lately. Mostly to make myself feel happier when I'm down. It works for a while, then I regret all the bingeing and I wind up depressed again. So to cheer myself up, I binge. See the cycle? Even when I'm not hungry, I feel compelled to stuff my face so I can feel comforted. Fukkmylife.

Happy fukkin Chinese fukkin New fukkin Year.

A Pig-Headed Perspective

That's the title of the latest article in my column on The Nut Graph. It includes another sneak-peek at our 1997 rendition of By Jeeves, so please do check it out!! Click on the image of the piggy to go to the article. Cheers!

Blast From The Past #1: What Have You Got To Say, Jeeves?!

Would you like to see something really, really scary? Here's footage from a musical Terry and I did when we were 17, back in high school. Yup, it's no joke... we filmed the production, and just yesterday I found the video tape (video tape?? What's that??) and managed to find a store that was able to convert it to DVD format. So I hate to say this, but I think I just might share bits and pieces of this scary production on this blog every now and then, arf.

A bit of background info: in 1997 we staged a drama club production of this musical called By Jeeves, with me playing the titular Jeeves, a butler, and Terry playing my employer. Watching the video now makes me cringe in both horror and awe. Arf arf. Oy vey. And yes, finally, a glimpse of Nick as a chubby teenager. Yikes. (Edited to add: Actually, that's not true. See the photo I uploaded earlier this month, heh!) Anyway, hope you enjoy... but I warn you, once you click on the "play" icon, there's no turning back. You might never... be the same... again...

Ode to My Blog; Avatar and Coffee

Oh poor blog,

Thou art

Temporarily neglected.

Fear not, poor blog

For I,

Thy humble writer

Shall soon return

With pen in hand

Which shall prove useless

Because we don't blog

With pens.

Meanwhile, I finally saw Avatar in Tropicana City Mall last night (which was also my first time at the mall, whoohoo!). Enjoyed the movie, but not nearly enough to make me "have" to see it in 3D. It really did feel like Pocahontas with blue people, arf. Still, it was entertaining. Cools.

Ummm. That's really it I guess. Oh, I'm currently sitting at the Coffee Bean in Uptown, also my first time at this outlet. Wow, this really is a week for trying new things isn't it. (Note the slight sense of sarcasm there, arf.)

Till later... ;)

The Consequences of Bad Habits

Here's the latest article in my column Merely Playing on The Nut Graph. Are theatre productions with a religious theme now at risk of being vandalised or firebombed?? Click on the picture to read the article, and click here for other Merely Playing articles!

It's A Small World After All

Still alive, boys and girls! It's been a busy week at work, what with my new working hours that commence at 1130am, forcing poor old Nick to finally shift out of his college hours and start hitting the sack a little bit earlier and getting up a little bit earlier too! Unfortunately I've had to do the latter without improving much on the former, and believe you me, it's exhausting going to bed consecutively after 3am and having to get up at 9ish in the morning, oy vey! Heh. Anyway. I'll get used to it, I'm sure. I hope.

Nothing much else to add, apart from the weirdness this evening when I was riding the elevator up to my apartment, and the elevator stopped and an old acquaintance from college and subsequently Murdoch Uni walked in. Cue the: "Oh, my God, hello!"s and "What are you up to these days?"s. Turned out he was visiting while on holiday from New York, where he lives and works, and his family lives in this very building. How's that for a small world. Oy.

There was a fire in KL city tonight, and the Twitterverse was abuzz with it, because the top storey of a building was ablaze and it could be seen for miles around. Turned out it was a building thankfully still under construction, but you should have seen the way the internet blazed hot with the news! (See what I did there? A fiery pun.) Suddenly Malaysians near and far were checking up on one another, making sure everyone was okay, trying to establish fact and distinguish it from rumour and fiction. In your face, foolish Malaysian minister who claimed online social networking was a bad influence on society!

Okay, that's about it for now. My new article in my column on TNG will be published in the AM, so I'll come back and update the blog with it when it's officially online. Till then... ;)