Tuesday, January 22, 2008

Sweet 16

Thanks to Jess, everytime the word 'Sweet 16' is mentioned, screaming, completely blonde girls come to mind (which I detest... you know, those: 'Like uh... and she was like uh-hh... and like, ohmigawd, he was being totally uhhh...' -shudders-) Then, comes the name of one the CSI NY episodes in Season Three (where a millionaire gave his daughter a luxury car... but that's besides the point).

But all presumptions of 'Sweet 16' aside, today, really, was a sweet 16. In the most unblondish way possible.

So, I have a few thank yous to dish out.

To my cousin Wei Vern and buddy Jessica both fed my guitar fetish with a box full of guitar picks and a set of new guitar strings respectively. Thanks! -plunk-plunk-plunk-strum-strum-
And also 7ee, for the Body Glove backpack I've always wanted.

Jolene, thanks for pulling a Hermione and getting me an organizer. But since it combines two things I love so much, New York and Dogs, it ain't so bad. XD.
Also, thanks for the card and 'The Anything and Everything CD- the Carmine Giovinazzo very, VERY limited edition' with VCD tracks, DVD tracks and Freebies including Danny's 100% original glasses.

Conveniently, the CD was out of stock and all she got was the Adobe Photoshopped CD cover. -insert massive eyeroll here-
Ah well, one can dream. XD

Phaik Chern, thanks for the book. 'The Wicked Wit of Insults'. Very amusing book. So if you're going to brainwash me into becoming like you, might as well make me laugh while at it, right? ;-D

Mum, for a nice day in Queensbay getting my New Year clothes and a treat at Paddington Pancakes. And also another organizer. Geez... do you people think I'm that messy and disorganized???? :-p

Dad and my aunts, for the ang pows! -kaching!-

Bro, for the Body Shop 'Invent Your Scent Collection Pack'. Muahaha... turn green with envy, Phaik Chern...

Renee and Ee Lynn, for my birthday muffin. Yum!
And Ms Lee, for so much Maths and Add Maths homework...........

Tricia in advance. I seriously don't know what more I want, ok.

And everyone else (Nadz, Maria, Jonie, Dhiv, Esther) for their birthday wishes (Korean birthday wishes for Maria...). Anyone else I missed out, forgive me and thank you as well.

Without friends like you all, my world will be as boring as being eternally trapped in a room with nothing but Siviks and Moral textbooks to read.

Thanks so much. Love ya' all.

Like I said, today is a really sweet 16.

Off I go to watch Heroes Season Two... But I'm so far behind... even my English teacher has watched this season already. Hooor! Beli pirated, ya!!

Saturday, January 19, 2008

Together We Are Three!

Last day, and aren't we all relieved. Not sleeping properly, not bathing properly, missing almost a pint of blood thanks to those mosquitos... and school the very next day... what more can they throw at us?

I was up early, again... While Nadzira and Jo slept on, I walked around aimlessly debating whether to wake up Jess or not. It was 5 am... I decided against it for two reasons. One, she probably won't be pleased after the hellish Saturday night sleep she had. Two, I'm not really sure which tent she was in anyway. How would it be if I shone the bright torchlight into the wrong tent and woke up the wrong people... whoops!

So I went back to bed/cement floor, dozed for an hour, then only did I wake her up. Thank God I did get the right tent...

We sat at our familiar haunt again. Exercised again, as well as practiced the self-defence moves Mr. Michael taught, then had yet another Twinkie. After that, pack up. Tents came down and were stuffed mercilessly back into their bags (good riddance!), bags got shoved into one of the rooms, and we lazed around until we were called back into the hall.

Pn Sarimah read out a list of 'possible scenarios or problems faced by prefects' and we took a poll to see which problems were a... well, problem to us.

Then, out go the Form Fives and we Form Four prefects had to take a rules test. Don't scorn... we'll all have to study the school rules for our Civics exam soon! After answering the paper, the Form Fives came back in and the awards presentation began.

Pn Salmah and Pn Su both made speeches then, the food hampers were given out.

Best Team in Challenges: Lincoln
Best Team on Frat Night: Ghandhi
2nd Overall Best Team: Mandela
Best Overall: Mongkut ;-)

See! Best quality Mangkuks, tau! Made in China... uh... Thailand.

We were finally dismissed. Homeward bound where our lovely soft beds and hot showers were waiting for us. I slept the afternoon away and did not rise til' dinner time.

For all the whining I'm doing, I have to admit, this camp was a nice experience. For one thing, we've learnt to laugh at each other and ourselves. We've learnt how to handle many rule-breaking situations and we've gained quite a lot more friends. Hey, when we spend three days together away from civilization and are forced to come up with nonsense sketches, deal with hooligan-ish students, race for toilets and so much more, we're bound to end up much closer to each other.

Prefects Board 2008, together we are one! ;-)

Off to climb the Bt. Larut pile of homework. Thank God it's Sunday tomorrow. Nites!

Friday, January 18, 2008

Together We Are One... uh... Two

Sorry if you had to wait forever for this post. Whoever said Form Four was a honeymoon year should really reconsider. Ah-hah! They should be sent to school with us and live through the never ending piles of homework, tuition after tuition, sports practice, club meetings and extra periods and school on Saturday! Fan-TAS-tic...

But you don't want to listen to our 15-16 year old young lady-like complains, so onwards with a full day two of prefect's camp! Hmm... it just occured to me, exactly a week ago at this time, we were in Pusat Sukan Air Pulau Pinang... eating dinner I think.

Ok, so we last stopped the story back at 4 am in the morning where I had a grand total of 2 hours of sleep last night. I think Julin as well but she actually can't sleep bacause she was too EXCITED and HYPER about it... go figure. Then again, don't bother. It's Julin, nuff' said. XD

All four of us in our camp crawled out of bed (or more accurately, crawled off the cement floor...) and like I said, sat at the edge of the camp area and enjoyed the sea breeze.

At 7 am, we gathered in a circle for morning stretching. Or what can only be categorised loosely as morning stretching. 1, 2, 3, 4... zzzzzzzzzzzz... -arm plops down pathetically-

Different people have different bathing strategies. There are those prefects who wake up in the middle of the night and bathe before everyone else, there are those who wait til a more rational hour and 'keh sio' with everyone else. Then there's those who don't bathe at all. I choose not to name individuals *ahem*.

Breakfast right after that. One...uh... I'm not sure what it's called, though everyone knows what it is... those Gardenia buns with some kind of flavoured cream in the middle? I always thought of it as Twinkies, dunno why. Correct me if I'm wrong, kay?

Next was the How to be a Good Leader by Mr. Michael Ng, whose credentials are very long and impressive. He's a really cool guy. You know those types of motivators you can't help but listen to? (As opposed to the types where you just nod off 5 minutes into the program...) After his teamwork and leadership talk as well as a singing session of Hoobastank's 'The Reason', he set us to work on our specific prefect unit's visions and goals.

Then, tea break where I had my 2nd Twinkie of the day. After tea, we presented our unit's goals and how we're going to achieve them. (Are we carrying out those goals now I wonder?) After that, self-defence with Mr. Michael. We learnt three basic but effective (especially the third one, right, guys?) defensive moves. Very fun. HIAH! :-)

Lunch time. Ta-pau food again.

Next activity on the list was called Challenges where the committee members acted out all kinds of scenarios that could occur in school and we were supposed to show how we handle them. Geez... the way they did it, it was as if our school was full of hard-headed hooligans. The bonus scene especially, where chaos simply ruled. There were people running around, people 'dying', chairs almost flying, screaming...

Tea break. 3rd Twinkie.

Now it was time to prepare for frat night and the BBQ dinner. Frat night... the time where we had thrown our dignities down the drain and concucted crazy sketches that made little, if any sense at all.

We had our BBQ first. Yummy, thanks to Pak Cik Din as well as Jannah and Shankeetha who did the barbequeing.

Then, we gathered in the hall and prepared for the grand show down of senseless sketches.

First up was team Ghandi, with their sketch about twin sisters Kiki and Lala. Obedient, smart Kiki (or Lala?) was hoaxed into going to school in bad-girl Lala's place (or Kiki? Ah... wateva...) to take an exam for her. There, Kiki bumped into a boy and it was love at first sight. Or rather, a symphony of Kutch-kutch Hotta Ay (I KNOW I spelt that wrong. Don't laugh...) at first sight. Head-over-heels in love Kiki messed up the exam and mum had a near-crying fit back at home. The End.

Next, was team Mongkut! -applause- :-)
Ours was a Tarzan and Jane story. Tarzan was best friends with a female gorilla but immediately falls in love with Jane. Gorilla gets mighty jealous and plans to get rid of Jane. (I don't think about the PG13 implications behind this...) Two Mission-Impossible-but-not-too-bright types of hunters came up and shot Jane, mistaking her for a gorilla. See what I mean? Along comes the Jungle Bomoh and her trusty assistant. After many trials and errors involving no Holy Water, no Coca cola and no Sprite, they finally revived her with Spritzer water and the chant 'Cawanmushimashimaro Ajinamoto!'. Tarzen meanwhile becomes hysterical over the loss of Jane "GO AWAYLA! YOU'RE NOT JANE!!!" and Jane comes back and they marry and live happily ever after. And Gorilla found a new mate. The End.
Tarzan's performance (Senior, Florence) earned her the I Am Legend title at the end of the camp. The Bomoh (Min Yan) won Hidden Talent.

After that, team Mandela. They went creative and made 'The Making of...' version of our camp. They had a bossy director with a torchlight camera and an assistant using a biscuit tin as the uh... black and white 'Action! Kiap!' thing.... Geez... what is that thing called anyway??
The team captured a lot of hilarious moments like all the hysteria on Pulau Jerejak as well as imitating a few memorable quotes and actions from different prefects throughout the camp.
The story ended with the whole cast quiting and the director trying to do everything herself, finally confessing all she could do was say Action and Cut. The cast returned in the end. The End.

Finally was team Lincoln. They presented their version of 'So you think you can dance'. There were ballet dancers who couldn't do splits, clumsy hip-hoppers who slammed into everything (at one point, one of them slammed into a table, hard. And it might not be on purpose...), two girls doing the tango (a lot of falling down) and the Indian dancers (who won...). Cue the 'Oh, Muthu!' and 'Oh, Minachi!' and slow mo running. Also, Muthu kept on confusing names and kept trying to hit on one of the judges 'Jangan lebeh-lebehlaaaaa!' This judge, Yusmawarr, won Personality Make-Over.

When it was over, we had our laughs, now it was time to cry. The radio turned on and we attempted to sing some songs. Seniors started hugging and crying and it was so darn touching. If I cry next year, no one is allowed to snap pictures. XD. So the singing session didn't really go on after all. We ran off back to our favourite bench and sang as a little group to the sea.

Sleeping that night was a bit better since we were so darn exhausted. instead of two, I had maybe... uh.... 3 hours. Ah well... it's an improvement. And I caused Jess to have to bunk in with Phaik Chern as I had rolled over to her spot while asleep. But I think we were all more comfortable that way.... hehehe. It rained sometime during the night as well.

I gotta mention a few things that happened in my tent, just for laughs.

Incident number one: Ajinamoto.
We were lying down in our tent talking when suddenly in mid sentence, Jessica stretched her hand out with amazing speed, made a grabbing gesture and screamed "AJINAMOTO!!!!"
She actually said "I saw a mosquito!"
Now her new Japanese war cry is Ajinamoto. And she does it amazingly Japanese-like.

Number Two: I'm so STHOOPID!
I was murdering mosquitos everytime I see them. Again, lying on our backs, I saw a mosquito flying past overhead. WHAP! I killed it. Then, I did the stupidest thing ever. I opened my hands and the mosquito carcass fell onto my face.
Me: Must never do that again.
A minute later, another mosquito flew by. WHAP! And I opened my hands again. One spilt second later...
Me: ARGGH! I'm SO STHOOOPID!
And Jessica bursts out laughing.

Number Three: Nadzira's strange sleeping habits.
On the first night, it got windy. Jess, Jo and Nadz were asleep. I wasn't. One part of our tent began flapping around, making quite a noise.
After one terrific FLAP!, Nadzira bolted upright, looked around for all of three seconds with half-lidded eyes, then slammed her head back onto her pillow. I thought she was awake now so I looked over. She was asleep. Sleep-sitting? Creepy.......

Ok. Part Three soon. School tomorrow. Better head in. Nite!

Monday, January 14, 2008

Together We Are One

Prefect's Camp 2008. Time for 59 of CGL's finest *ahem* to be dragged off out of civilization to learn to be more... well, civilized people. No phones, no computers, no MP3s, hard gravel/cement beds under the stars and filthy bug-filled bathrooms for three days. Survival of the fittest, baybeh. Ok, perhaps 3 days isn't that bad. But since we're all tired and snappy and sleep deprived, why not complain anyway. It's human nature. XD

Since I'm not allowed to be liberally humourous and whiny in my report for the school magazine, I'll be liberally humourous and whiny here instead ;-).

Everyone met up pretty much on time at 8 am Friday morning at the Batu Uban Jetty (there's a Batu Uban Jetty? Yes there is.) to ferry across to Pulau Jerejak (there's a Pulau Jerejak? Yes there is a Pulau Jerejak too... again, how dare I call myself a Penangite... :-p) Heck, before this, I never acknowledged Pulau Jerejak as more than 'the big island opposite Queensbay Mall'.

We were divided into four groups, named after great leaders. Mandela, Ghandi, Lincoln and Mongkut. I'm in Mongkut and if anyone dares to make another crack about Mangkuks, I swear I'll get Chow Yun Fatt as King Mongkut to give orders to behead you all.

Once at the island, we divided into 7 teams to play the three telematch games on the beach. Passing water balloons (wheeeee... O.o), searching flour for sweets with out faces only (and imerging looking like snowmen as well as inhaling a load of flour) and the mad bull race (spinning round a cone 9 times and running across the beach (hilarious... we had a bunch of drunkards running haphazardly down the beach, falling down and getting sand on our faces to join the flour).

Then, a walk across the suspension bridge, a test of bravery and steadiness. Some prefects just waltzed through like it was nothing while others were screaming and edging along the bridge inch by inch. More often than not, the braver ones were the ones thromping down the bridge, causing it to wobble left and right, scaring the one's behind her witless. Poh Ean did an amazingly accurate impression of the screaming prefects later on during Frat Night.

Next was the Flying Fox activity. Again, some leaped off the surface and slid down the rope like they did it everyday while others... AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!! -reaches platform face completely pucat-
You get what I mean...

Lunch was next. And everyone was impressed. Instead of the usual ta-pau food you come to expect during these camps, it was a hearty buffet lunch. Everyone had great helpings of everything... but not overdoing it as we had abseiling afterwards.

Abseiling was where we climbed up high to the top of a metal platform and made our way down on a rope. Once again, there are various breeds of prefects. The quiet, steady 'whoosh' down the rope with unreadable faces, the 'WOOHOO' types who slid all the way down without holding the rope, and the 'Sob, sobs, sobs' ones who can't seem to let go of the rope for more than half a second.

And when it comes to the instructors who were supposed to be supporting our weights on the ropes so we wouldn't fall, a bunch of us were telling them how to do their jobs...
Us: Abang, pegang ya!
Abang: Ya...
Us: Pegang tau!! Pegang!!
Abang: Ya, ya... saya pegang...
Us: Abang!!!!!!! PEGANG!!!! Jangan bagi lepas!!

After that, we piled back onto the ferry and headed back to Penang Island, onto the bus (whose air-cond doesn't seem to work) and off to Penang Water Sports Centre in Batu Feringghi.

Teams got to putting up their tents, while others looked on, due to the lack of tents. After some chaos in trying to find accomodations for everyone, the 100m dash for the toilets began. I always got to the shower early thanks to the close alliance with the all-round champion-sprinter for-toilets, Jessica. XD.

After washing off the dirt of the day, (or as much dirt as possible) we had dinner, (now the basic ta-pau camp food) and laid out our beds. If you call a blanket and a folded up towel which served as mattress and pillow respectively a bed... Then, housekeeping, where rules of the camp were explained by commitee members, ties were learnt to be tied and a group discussion for school rules were held. Then, off to bed.

We're ahead of schedule by a more than an hour, and weren't we glad. Piling into our tent, we tried to go to sleep. Tried. My tent's location was as bad as it could be. Right beside the toilet, so footsteps trudging noisily through the gravel could be heard all night. One hour past, no one in the camp could stop talking. It was hot. There were mosquitos feasting. 2 hours. Noise died down a little. Exhausted, but still no sleep could come. 3 hours. 1 a.m. Jess and I got up and sat at the bench outside for a good long while. Nadz joined us for awhile and so did Julin. Went back to sleep and kept on waking up in regular intervals all night long. Thunder rumbled, Mat Rempits roared, waves pounded the shore, more footsteps going to toilet. All through the night. I heard it all. I envy everyone else who actually slept more than 3 hours. I had 2.

Climbed out of bed at 4. Stayed out on the bench by the ocean, just enjoying the breeze and waiting for the sun to rise. It is really peaceful and beautiful and you curse the fact you didn't have a camera...

I'll write day two when I can. This is getting quite long and I don't want to overfeed you. You'll get tired. I am... XD
Bite sized chomps, yea. Til' next time.

Vivid Crimson out.