Month: July 2003

Car accident

Day 3 in back in Kuala Lumpur = Car accident.
What the fuck! I was driving to Steven’s Corner to meet up with my high school girlfriend, Choi Hsia. While I was just few blocks away, a car stopped suddenly in front of me. I was late. So I looked at the back mirror screen to check out for cars and there were none. So without hesitation, I shifted my gear to R and reverse. Suddenly, *kaboom*

It was a white Proton Wira that was actually parked on the side of the road and it’s front portion exposed on to the main road. It was totally invisible from the back mirror. Ah, I got out from the car and confronted the owner, a middle-aged Chinese couple. I was expecting a peaceful discussion but apparently not. The husband burst out in anger, shouting and scolding me. I didn’t expect a middle-aged uncle bursting in anger. Apparently he loves his car very much and he doesn’t drive it often. (The car was shiny white). His front bonnet was dented, couple of parts scratched and couple of things cracked. I then offered him my phone number
(Translated into English from Cantonese)
“I don’t want your phone number!”
“Then what do you want? I got only RM50 in my pocket. Go fix your car then give me a call” (In a calm voice)
(Same argument went over and over again)
“I don’t want your number!”

Our cars were blocking the road and hence we moved out cars to the petrol station nearby. As I got out from the car, the uncle seems to cool down. He wasn’t angry anymore and we even joked. He asked me where I’m from and we had a little conversation. He told me that couple of weeks ago someone damaged his car when he parked his car in Carrefour Shopping Centre. He found RM150 slipped on to his window screen.

His wife called a relative who deals with cars to quote the damage. It will cost RM300. I told him to call me after he fixes it. But he still didn’t want my number. I don’t know why, probably it would be troublesome. He then offered to settle the thing for RM150. I checked my wallet but I only had RM140. I gave him all the money. All I had left was RM2.20.

A fortuneteller once told me that my wealth would not deplete no matter what but I would not be very rich. I would always have money in my pocket. So far it’s always true. I managed to have a drink with Choi Hsia. She offered to lend me some money but I immediately rejected her. However, after much persuasion, I decided to borrow RM10 from her. However again, she was generous enough to give me RM50. 😀 Thanks!

ALL DONE!

After consuming 3 Panadols, I still have a massive headache. Last night, I was down with high fever and I felt like dying. And now, my back hurts due to moving heavy luggage last night. Uh, My body is over exhausted.

Despite that, I had some chorus to do before I leave England for good.

I finally packed my luggage for shipping today. The shipping company driver came over to collect my stuff. It would take about 1 month for it to arrive in Malaysia.

It was raining heavily today hence a hoodie was essential. I had to walk under the rain to get to Watson 16 to collect 120 quid from the new tenants for the sale of our TV and fridge. However, the cleaners threw loads of our stuff such as toaster, sofa, vacuum cleaner and rice cooker. Hence we suffered a big loss.

I also got my bank statement mailing address changed, bought loads of gifts for my friends and cancelled my phone contract.

Everything has been settled now. Cant wait to leave on Sunday 😀
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Peak District Adventure – Part I

Peak District is another national park not far away from Sheffield. Its watery and mountainous terrain attracts millions of tourist a year. Dad wanted to see Chatsworth, an English mansion owned by the Duke Of Devonshire. Surrounding it is, a beautiful garden and park that stretches 105 acres.

As we arrive as Grindleford (the nearest train station from Chatsworth), we were greeted with green mountainous scenery. However, there was no ticket station or what so ever building around the train station. All we could see is a coffee shop

Me: Hi, Is there a bus station nearby?
Lady: I?m afraid not. You might need to walk down to the village.
(Lady walks off)

Oh no, I’m stranded in Grindleford. Chatsworth house is apparently not within walking distance and the nearest village is pretty far. I immediately bought a tourist guidebook from the shop.

Eum, I’m heading down to Chatsworth. How do I get there?

(Lady asks his friend but the friend doesn?t know how to get there via public transport)

She then asked a couple who got into the counter to order food.
Lady: These two gentlemen seem lost. They’re heading to Chatsworth. Do you know how to get there?
One of the couple: No, but we can give a lift.

Our face lit up in delight. The lady kept on repeating, “You’re lucky!” to us. No doubt we were lucky.

However, the couple just arrived and had to eat breakfast first. Together with them, 2 children and 2 dogs. Apparently, they were walking the dogs in the woods. While waiting for them, Dad and I enjoyed a cup a coffee.


Once they were done, we headed straight into the woods. The couple parked their car on the main road and we had to go through a forest (with pathway of course) to their car. After 10 minutes, we got into the car and reached Chatsworth in no time. We thanked the couple profusely.

Chatsworth
Dad and I entered the garden first. Surprisingly, there were loads of chickens around. The chickens outside the garden were scavenging for food from visitors. However, inside the garden, there were chickens three times the size of a normal chicken.

The rest of the garden was decorated with bushes, flowers, rocks, mazes and a cascading waterfall. There was a huge man made lake with a fountain called Emperor’s lake. Apparently, a huge lake far away from the man made lake provides the lake’s water. The rest of the garden was very nice. It has few greenhouses to plant fruits such as grape and flowers.

However, we didn’t go far. Dad was tired from walking.

Dad was more interested in the house, as grand royal things interests him. The house has tons of Chinese porcelains, biblical painting, Roman statutes and even books.

Porcelain fanatic.
After pointing some China to Dad, a lady approached us and offered us a book. It’s a list of description of the China we saw. Dad rejected it by saying, he’s just telling his son about the history of China (porcelains). Then both of them started discussing about the history and process of China. Dad used to collect antique China when he in Sabah (a state in Malaysia). He got it from the natives who lived deep in the jungle. Apparently they got the China from Chinese merchants long, long time ago. The natives didn’t have plates and utensils that time and the Chinese merchants wanted exotic materials such as birds’ nest fro the natives. Hence, they traded.
Lady: You are brilliant (Lady points finger at dad)
Dad: huh? Me? No? (Lady interrupts)
Lady: I mean the Chinese were brilliant. You invented porcelain hundred and hundreds of year ago before the Europeans. (She refers Chinese as you). I mean hundreds and hundreds of years ago!

She seems damn fascinated with the Chinese culture.

Dad was very happy with the tour.

To be continued..

Graduation day

Octagon Centre was crowded with soon to be graduates and their parents, relatives and friends. Everyone was smiling happily as the camera flashes onto everyone’s face. Everyone grabbed anyone they knew to take photos together.

By 9:30AM, we proceeded into Octagon Centre. The soon to be graduates sat on the middle while guests are seated on the spectator’s stand. But the event was uber boring. For half an hour we were subjected to torturous traditional organ pieces. I sat around a bunch of locals who I’ve never seen in my life throughout my entire 2 years stay in Sheffield.

The convocation ceremony was entirely procedural. The big shots walked into the hall while everyone stood up, we lined up to get our certificates by getting on to the stage one by one and lastly, the event ends after a short speech by the Dean and Vice Chancellor. Sadly, there wasn’t any hat throwing ceremony.

Dad and I proceeded to the professional photograph session. The man with his huge digital SLR camera, made Dad and I stand in a unique pose (this body part turns here, and that body part turns here and so on). He even forced us to smile by shouting, “Be happy!”




More @ http://www.xes.cx/pics/graduation2003/

Good news
I got my luggage back from Watson 16! Screw Robert Neal! We had a short chat with the new tenants. They were pretty nice. In the beginning we thought they are going to screw us for the mess we created but thank god they didn’t know anything about it. Khai Fei had to scout the house before we head back to Watson 16. Initially we were worried that no one will be there to open the door for us. Fortunately, the new tenants moved in hence we had no problem gaining entry. However, we had problem moving my stuff out from the house, as it was too heavy. I found out that I packed canned food, packets of Milo and loads of useless stuff inside. CM, Siew Lee and Wen Dee helped me to move my things. Thanks guys. 😀

Tuesday
London was great! I met up with Daniel and Ka Bien. Daniel accompanied Dad and I to the British Museum and we met up with Ka Bien for dinner. Dad didn’t join us for dinner cause he had jet lag and had to sleep early.

The hotel we stayed was amazingly huge. Our floor itself has already 400 rooms. But dad complained the room doesn’t have aircon. We had to open the window and expose ourselves to the noisy traffic outside.

Museum
Dad has been telling me how fascinating British Museum was. During the height of the British Empire, we foresaw the colonization of countries by the British Empire. It was once said, ‘The sun never sets on the British Empire’ as the British has colonized many parts of the world. But those unscrupulous motherfuckers stole many items from those countries and brought it back to England and claimed that they were gifts from the rulers of those countries.

We set off to the British Museum as soon as we got in to the hotel and met Daniel there. The entrance was free but 3 pounds can be given as a token of appreciation. Hmph, I wouldn’t pay a single cent to see a display of stolen good (VCD is an exception of course).

Our main attraction was the Greek and Rome, Egyptian, Chinese and South East Asia section. The Greek and Rome section, oh boy, it’s superbly boring. It’s all about statutes, this god that god, stones and philosophical shits. The Egyptian section was ten times better even though the display of dead bodies was pretty morbid. However, the Egyptian considers death as a pathway to another life hence bodies are preserved so that they could reenter their body in the future. Chinese section on the other hand focused on wealth. There were loads of royal artifacts stolen from the Imperial palace during the Ching dynasty. As for the South East Asia section, I don’t remember what I saw there. I couldn’t find anything about Malaysia. Hence there you are, Greek and Rome section about life and art, Egypt about death and Chinese about wealth.

Harrods
Daniel brought me to Harrods shopping centre, one of the most expensive shopping centre in UK. I bought a tie for my convocation. It costs me 15 quid and that the cheapest I could get. Harrods is pretty strict as ‘please do not take pictures’, ‘please do not stand here’ and ‘please carry your bags’ were heard in Harrods. But there’s one section that we could take photos. It’s the Princess Diana and Dodi shrine. Picture of Diana and Dodi were put side by side with 2 cups on the table. Apparently, the cups were left as they were after their last meal.

The place was so big that we couldn’t finish walking it.

Encounter with the famous (finally)
Guess whom I saw in Leicester Square’ Claire Danes in black silky dress, Kristanna Loken in pink and Mr. Arnold Schwarzenegger! There were loads of people crowding around Odeon. Apparently it was the premier of Terminator 3. The atmosphere was pretty hype up as we waited for the trio to appear. As the trio walked out to the balcony, people screamed in excitement. The kid next to me kept on shouting ‘Arnold Schwarzenegger!’ Kristina Loken is damn tall. She’s even taller than Arnie (probably by a head). I could see her head popping up from a crowd, as she was the tallest in the crowd. Oh yeah, she doesn’t look gorgeous in real life. The trio gave a short speech and I remember Arnie saying, ‘I’ll be back’ once. The director of Terminator 3 gave a reluctant short speech as well after Arnie pushed the mike to him.

Unfortunately, Daniel missed the event cause he had a little problem in the train station.

Day II
Encounter with Japanese
While we were waiting for the river cruise ticket counter to open, Dad made me talk to a group of Japanese. He wanted me to ask them to ask them to take a picture for us. It took me a while to recall the Japanese that I have learnt 9 months ago. And it went,

Me: sumimasen, shashin o totte kudasai (Excuse me can you take a picture for us’’
Japanese man: ‘hai dozo’ (sure)
(Picture taken, Dad and I posed on the walkway of River Thames)

Me: Arigato Gozaimasu (Thanks)
(I bowed in gratitude and walked away)

Japanese man: Ah, Doko de nihon kara ikimasu ka’ (Which part of Japanese are you from?)
Me: iie, Watashi wa Mareshia jin desu. Demo Daigaku de nihon go o bengkio shimasta. Demo watashi no nihongo wa jyouzu ja nai desu (I am Malaysian but I studied Japanese in University but my Japanese isn’t that good)
Japanese women: kirei kireii!! (I think they were assuring me that my Japanese is alright but kireii means beautiful or clean in Japanese. I guess it also means good)

Conversation went on in Japanese for a while. They kept on bombarding me with questions. I guess they felt pretty proud to find a Malaysian that could speak Japanese. The Japanese man had 2 women with him. The man is from Kyoto while one of the women is from Tokyo. I vaguely remember what they said cause they kept on asking me a lot of questions as if they were testing my language skill.

Japanese man (In a slow tone and proper Japanese (not with slang an all): Nihon ga itta koto ga arimasen ka? (Have you been to Japan?)
Me: Arimasen desu
Japanese man: Nihon ni ikitai desu ka? (Do you want to go to Japan?)
Me: Hait, ikitaii! (Yes!)
(He sounded like my Japanese lecturer)

Dad gave me a thumb up after they left. I guess the amount of money he has put into my education hasn’t gone to waste. He also advised me to speak to Japanese on the street whenever I see them.

Another encounter with language
Unfortunately, something happened just now. While I was in the computer lab, a Chinese lady in her mid forties from the opposite table, approached me. She asked,

‘Are you Chinese’’
‘Yes’
‘Ni hui chung wen mah’ (Do you know Mandarin)
‘Hui, tan xi wo de chung wen pu hau’ (Yes but it’s not that good)

She came over and passed me a piece of paper and asked me to translate it in Mandarin.
‘Wo kan dau ni de yin wen hen hau. Yao ni pang mang.’ (I see your English is quite good. Can you please help me’ (She saw me talking to the girl next to me, see below)

I was talking to this voluptuous Spanish pharmacist sitting next to me (Wei hai, she initiated the conversation ah). She showed me a website of a company. She was fascinated (and also laughed) at this shareholder of a major company who had no university degree qualification but a diploma holder. The shareholder was also involved in loads of public international activities which is surprisingly more than the Chairman. Now the shareholder is the President of Boeing German. She said she wants to meet up with that guy and ask him how he did it.

Back to the lady, she gave me a pen to write Chinese character. I had to explain to her that I cant write Chinese characters well and instead I tried to translate it orally. However, I failed miserably. She muttered loads of Mandarin that I couldn’t understand. I had to explain some words with actions and examples. For example, I explained the word experience with ‘experience zhiu shi heng xin ni koh lai ying kwok wan shuah (Experience is something like you come to England to play, Ha ha). She somehow got the meaning. I guess I managed to explain something to her. She thought I was from China but I had to explain to her that I’m from Malaysia and studied Malay. We chatted for a while but there were loads of words I cant say in Mandarin. I can’t even say the word “just now” in Mandarin. How shameful.

Graduation day tomorrow. Gonna try out our gown tonight 😀

p/s sorry for the long post. haha took me few hours to type it.

Bad Day @ Sheffield

Saturday
Bad start. I lost my entire luggage that I left in Watson 16. They changed the locks in Watson 16 and no one lives there now. I called Robert Neal, our agent, to access the house. Instead, I got scolded. He warned me not to call him anymore and literally called us sick fucks. He slammed down the phone. I was furious. I called him back. I said, ‘Robert Neal, you are illegally obtaining my property, I will bring legal action against you.’ Unexpectedly, He laughed. I was absolutely furious. I slammed down the food and said, ‘siew lan ah siew!’. Few minutes later, he text me and said,

‘Read your contract. Study landlord-tenant law. We will inform the police of the sick perverted material that was found in the property’.
I was puzzled. What perverted material? I replied perverted materials are not against the law and owning one is not against the law.
However, he replied, ‘Perverted material that shows pictures be dead/raped children is bad v.bad’ I was puzzled again. Was it one of Frederick’s sick books again?
I replied, ‘I don’t know where you come out with all those things. As I already said, I moved out from the house a month ago. I have nothing to do with the mess they created’.
He then replied, ‘We no longer own the house. Deal with pc properties on ecclesall road. I think the cleaners dumped everything as the place was infested due to rotten food in kitchen I realize it would be impossible to prove. The material was in the front basement room. There is nothing in the house. The new tenants have the keys.’
I almost gave up. My clothes, my books and my precious sentimental valued gifts from my friends. But on the brighter side, without those things, I could save money from transporting my luggage back. However, when Wen Dee got home. I told her about the incident. At first she was pissed too but soon she realized that the sick material was her Forensic Medicine textbook (Forensic Medicine is a subject taught by our university about methods of investigation on dead bodies hence it has loads of pictures of dead bodies)!
I immediately told Robert Neal and asked him nicely whom can I contact in order to get my luggage back. However, he replied, ‘Call it what you want. All were disgusted. Maybe one day you will see the big picture of what you did. Please don’t call. Good luck 4 the future’.
My last message was, ‘If you’re uneducated enough to read the front cover of the book, so be it. I don’t blame you for your stupidity. I will seek help from the authority to get my luggage back’. I bet he had fumes out from head. Haha.

Sunday
Another bad start as my day started off badly. Dad was stranded somewhere in Sheffield because the taxi driver didn’t bring him to the exact location of the hotel. Then, I had to rush out from the house to find him but since it’s a Sunday morning, there weren’t any taxis around. Furthermore, I found out that my right contact lens dried up cause the solution leaked out from the storage.
However, I got thru all of those obstacles. I called a cab from my house, wore my glasses and called Jackie, the owner of the hotel where my dad will be staying. Jackie offered to find my dad for me and she did in the end.

Apparently, the hotel, Southfields, was rather obscure. The driveway to the hotel was very dodgy, filled with overgrown weed. Therefore, the taxi driver didn’t want to drive in and dumped my dad on the driveway entrance. He walked into the driveway and found an entrance to the hotel. He didn’t dare to enter cause he thought it’s somebody’s private home and left the place to seek help.
However, since it’s a Sunday morning, no one was around. He had to call me for help. Even though Southfields Hotel looked dodgy from the outside. The interior was beautifully decorated. It resembles a grand English home. According to Jackie, it used to be her matrimonial home but after her husband left her for her best friend and she lost her job, she had to do something about it. Hence she turned the house into a bed and breakfast hotel. Dad’s room was very nice. It was decorated with typical English furniture and even has a teddy bear placed on top of the bed. Furthermore, she decorated the living room area with her collection of souvenirs she got from the countries she visited.

Apparently, she used to work with British Midlands and got to travel frequently.

I’m heading to London tomorrow morning. See you guys on Wednesday 😀

back in Sheffield

Ah, I better hurry up. I have 10 minutes before the computer lab closes. And it’s only 11:50AM. *groan*

The flight back to UK was pretty good. Loads of leg space and I slept throughout the journey. I woke up 2 hours before touch down and watched couple of good movies.

The house I’m living now is a 6 bedroom house with only ONE toilet. But it feels pretty empty. Wen Dee is still in Switzealand with her parents while the rest of the people in the house aren’t around. However, the house seems pretty nice.

Ah, I’m beginning to miss Kuala Lumpur. damn..!

ok gotta run people, gotta run to Watson 16 to get my stuff 😀

going back to sheffield

I’m heading back to Sheffield tonight for my convocation. My dad will be attending my convocation on Wednesday and he’ll be leaving for Sheffield tomorrow.

I’ll be staying with Wen Dee at Kell J’s place (for free). And on Monday, Dad and I will be heading to London for a night.

See you guys soon!

Btw, Happy birthday Irene! 😀

11:00PM I’m in Changi Airport now, using the free internet access computer. I’m bored 😀