Category: General

Frederick and I woke up extremely late. We were supposed start our journey to Birmingham at 8am. If it were not for Charles, we would be sleeping till late afternoon.

We took our sweet time, cooking, eating and even went online to check mails. We got out from the house at 11am and fetched one of Charles’s friends on the way.

The journey to Birmingham from Sheffield takes about 1 1/2 hour. I slept throughout the journey. zzzz
The British International Motor show is held in NEC Arena, Birmingham. That place reminds me of Hollywood studios with its huge geometrical buildings and small entrances. As usual, everything is expensive. The parking cost 8 quid, the entrance fee cost 15 quid and even the ice cream cost £1.30.
The Motor show consists of 5 huge halls and each hall has its own attraction. The new James Bond car, produced by Jaguar was on display on a frozen platform. There were 3 cars on display but only 2 of them has the James Bond equipment (ie missiles and machine guns) strapped on them.

I’m not a fan of cars. I can’t name any sport cars or whatever spare parts a car have. Attending the motor show was just an excuse not to stay home on a Saturday evening. I was bored throughout the whole day but kept myself entertained by taking pictures. Frederick, Charles and his friend were car fanatics. To them, the motor show was like heaven. They didn’t mind lining up to sit on the driver seat of the cars. And when they take photos of cars, they made sure that they took at least 2 or 3 picture of the same car.

The car fanatics complained that the Motor Show isn’t good enough. They were expecting heaps of concept cars but all they had was just couple of concept car and a lot of commercial cars. The motor shows seemed more like a market rather than an event of promoting the expression of idea and technology.

I was almost bored to death during the end of the evening until something happened. While Charles was looking at the Porsche cars, one of the lady staff asked whether did Charles like the car or not and soon a conversation started. I overheard their conversation and I decided to join in. She was telling us her experience in Malaysia. She got a friend who works for Malaysian Airlines and somehow she ended up ending seafood in Fatty Crab. She did all the talking, all we did was just laugh and comment a little bit. Suddenly, she invited us into the Porsche VIP lounge. Obviously, without hesitating, we gave us guest passes and the next thing we’re in the Porsche VIP lounge. Brilliant!

The VIP lounge consists of 4 Porsche on display and a small café upstairs. We couldn’t believe our fate that we are sitting on a Porsche alone and playing with its function. I immediately fell in love with Porsche. Its outer design is amazingly sleek and its interior, my god, its as if there’s a computer installed into car! It has a GPRS navigation function, SMS function, excellent sound system and so on.
We took pictures like mad despite that we’re they only young people around. The others seemed like middle-aged professionals.

The café was next. We rested in the café for an hour, drinking free juices and eating free food.
We finally left at 7pm as soon as the closing announcement was given. It seems that we spent 7 hours in the Motor Show today. I guess it was well worth our money.
– 11:00PMDownload Melbourne Shuffle ripped and coded by Wei Chen.
– 4:00AM

I missed my 9am class this morning. Shit, it’s the second seminar I missed this time.

I’m going to Birmingham with Frederick and Charles tomorrow. Gonna take some pictures!
– 11:29PMCelebrating Halloween in the UK is a great experience. Even the television shows are affected. They were showing The Simpsons Halloween Special on TV and even Halloween Costumes dressed contestants in the Weakest Link.

I totally forgot that kids would be running around collecting candies on Halloween. I was cursing loudly when I heard the doorbell rang because the door wasn’t locked. As I open the door, I was surprised to see a kid wearing a witch costume screaming “trick or treat!”

I was totally unprepared for it and I combed the house for candies. I remembered that I still have some expired biscuits (they were really good biscuits but I couldn’t finish them) I gave the kid a whole bunch of it. Hope he wont get diarrhoea tomorrow.

Muay Thai classes will be held every Thursday starting from this week. The classes were full of people again (unlike Sunday classes, the class was virtually dead). The usual regulars returned. I partnered with Toby, the guy who I partnered last Sunday. He’s quite humble unlike some of the arrogant British I know. At the end of the night, we made a profit of 150 pounds. Scotty held a small meeting after the classes. Basically, it’s more of a Giles, Simon and Scotty meeting. Fiona and I never said anything. All we did was just nod and agree. Anyway, there wasn’t anything to disagree or talk about. Everything is running smoothly and we’re making a huge profit. I guess no one is complaining.

The Muay Thai Society held a small social at Cavendish again. Fiona and Scotty handed me 2 drink coupons. I got to drink 2 bottles of Vodka for free. However, the social wasn’t really great. It was just Fiona, Scotty and Giles. I didn’t see anyone from the club. Probably everyone had his or her own plans.
I left Cavendish after I finished my drinks and headed to Kingdom (club).

I didn’t dress up as anything this year (last year Khai Fei and I dressed up as the 2 Musketeers). But it seemed that almost everybody on the streets was wearing some costume. There was this guy who dressed up as Ali G and even acted like him. Another guy who painted himself green wore a ripped t-shirt. He looks exactly like the incredible hulk. Alex dressed up as a transvestite in Japanese kimono. He won the prize for guy’s best costume.

Kingdom is a shitty club. They play R&B music all night long. I stayed in the VIP room (MASSOC booked the VIP room for everybody), drinking free drinks (Chee Feng and Frederick bought me drinks), eating free food (MASSOC provided free food), took photos and chatted all night long.

The Chinese society joined the event as well. They purposely called MASSOC to book 50 tickets for its members.

I bumped into Choi Man (BBC from my Japanese class) and chatted with her for a while. We tried conversing in Japanese but it didn’t turn out well and we ended up speaking Cantonese. Apparently she knows David (another BBC who I bumped in Malaysia in a Pet Shop). Both of them are from Nottingham. What a small world!

Yong Chun, as usual, was drunk. He was running around kissing guys again. While his sidekick, Chee Ling was fine in the beginning. But after couple of hours, she started running around kissing girls.
Frederick dressed up as Obi Wan Kenobi and even borrowed a light sabre from Jonathan. Everybody was playing with the light sabre the whole night. There was this black guy who was telling me that in the US, there’s a light sabre that could be detached and assemble (??) and looks exactly like the one they had in the movies. I went like “oh really?, Oh I see?, Wow!” throughout the conversation. The fellow left as soon as he finishes his sentence. hehe

While Frederick and I were walking back to Frederick’s car, a group of British guys said. “hey is that Luke Skywalker? Is that Darth Vader? No! It’s Obiwan Kenobi!” And they started chanting “Obi Wan Kenobi, Obi Wan Kenobi, Obi Wan Kenobi” throughout the streets we were walking on.
It was a good night despite the lousy music. I don’t understand why people can dance to pop music with heavy bass. I spend the whole night talking to people and consequently got to know them better.

A great Halloween night!
– 7:25PM

The test was good. I managed to answer most of the question.

I got a problem now.
The Sheffield Uni. Muay Thai Society is having a Halloween social at Cavendish pub again. As a committee member, i’m obliged to go but i’m hardly know anyone except my other committee members.
MASSOC is organising another Halloween night at Kingdom (club) later tonight ( i’ve already bought the tickets).
Now i’m torn between this two events, the muay thai social or MASSOC halloween?????? And worst of all, i got a 9am seminar tomorrow. I dont know which priority should prevail.
– 5:20PMHappy HALLOOWEEENN PPL!

Gotta run now, Japanese class in 15 minutes. We’re gonna have a small kanji test later.

p/s new pictures will be uploaded later 😛
– 1:45PM

grrr…I wasted 3 days downloading Jackass: The movie from Kazaa, fucking 500mb file. It wasnt Jackass at all. It turned out to be Fight Club.
– 8:17PM

I’m going to get my hair braided! After 1 year of having long hair, I decided to change my hairstyle. I made an appointment at Hair by Christmas at Broomhill this afternoon. According to the lady who is supposed to braid my hair, she will not be free until 12 November. Furthermore, it will take about 3 to 4 hours to braid it and a payment of 14 pounds an hour. I have already paid 10 pounds as deposit. I guess I still have 2 more weeks to think about it.

Updated about me section.
– 8:35PM

It’s Su San’s 21st birthday today. She’s sharing the same birthday with her twin sister in Melbourne.
She invited us for dinner at Ving Hwa Chinese restaurant in the City. My friends and I were pretty late and by the time we got there, there were already 2 tables full of people celebrating Su San’s birthday. The first thing I did was wishing Su San happy birthday.
6 of us, Chuo Ming, Fred, Han Choong, Frank, Alan and I sat on a small table and started eating. The food was pretty good but it was pretty expensive. It cost us 13 quid per person for 7 dishes.
It seems that some girl is going after Frank. I even heard the girl confessed to Frank last night. muahahahah Go for it Frank!
6 of us basically didn’t interact with the others on the other tables. All we did was eat and chat. The only time we went over to the other tables was when we were taking a group photo.
Su San seemed happy. She thanked everyone who came.
–11:30PMJanet, Mindy and I went to Sam and Cynthia’s new place. They’re staying in Marlborough road with 3 other English girls and a Japanese. The Japanese, Yoko, is very shy. She doesn’t talk to guys or even greets them. However, according to Sam and Cynthia, Yoko talks a lot to them. They refer her as a conservative girl. But I think she’s a total bitch. She can’t even say hi or greet me even though we stayed at the same Hall last year.

Ben (not Ben Hon the ass, hehe, this Ben is a British Born Chinese; Sheffield Uni Law graduate) was cooking in Sam and Cynthia’s place. All of a sudden, he gave Janet, Mindy and I a big plate of pasta each. Still feeling full from lunch, I could barely finish it. I threw the leftovers into the dustbin.

Ben just graduated last year and now he’s looking for a job. Unfortunately, he couldn’t find any. Now he’s waiting to enrol into the LPC (Legal Practice Course, it’s the qualifying course to practice as a solicitor).

We started talking about children’s shows. Someone said that one of the teletubbies is gay. The purpose is to make sure the children wont grow up homophobic. Mindy even said that there are elements of political philosophy in cartoons. She said that Smurfs (those blue little things) live in a communal way that reflects Communism. Papa Smurf, our all time hero, with his red hat (note: RED symbolises Communism) dictates the Smurfs community. Every other Smurfs has to follow his orders and all of them are equal.
– 6:00PM

Muay Thai classes again. It was the first time I ever felt so bloody exhausted. My neck aches like hell and it could hardly support my head. Scotty (our president) and I were literally throwing each other by grabbing each other’s neck. Furthermore, the gym test almost killed me. Since I was already exhausted with the neck wresting with Scotty and skipped lunch, I feel on my knees and couldn’t move another step at all. I rested and then stood up. I felt so dizzy and nauseous till I had to stop. Fortunately, I felt much better within few minutes.

Our Muay Thai society is having problems now. By next week, all our members will have to payfor the membership fee for the Sports Centre (the place we’re renting now). That means, our members would have to pay 1.50 for every session, 5 for the Muay Thai membership fees and now another 30 for the Sport Centre’s membership fees. 36.50 just to keep fit? Outrageous! We protested to the managers but he couldn’t do anything. Scotty bust into anger and threw a fit saying “I worked so hard and put so much effort into this society and now you’re shutting us down just like that?” But in the end, he decided not to put all his anger on the manager. He’s going to speak with the Sport Centre administrators soon. But if we couldn’t strike a good deal, we’ll move out from the Sport Centre.
– 11:40PM
16 October 2002 Wednesday
Frederick and I threw out the rubbish (mainly card boxes) that was blocking our entrance corridor for weeks. We packed them up and shoved them into Frederick’s car and searched for a rubbish dump. We finally found a rubbish dump at Crookes Rd, just opposite our Law Faculty. However, we are not supposed to throw anything inside. Frederick and I got out from the car and started dumping all the boxes into the dump before speeding off. It was hell of an adrenalin rush.

16 Watson Rd is online! Frederick and I installed broadband today. It was hell of a job. Our worst problem was getting Charles’s computer to share the Internet connection with the other computers. Hours later, Frederick solved it in the end.
– 10:00PM