My Life As It Is

I started taking a part time job a week before shifting in to Taman Tasik Semenyih. Thanks to Ryan, I was able to earn not just a nice sum of money to aid in my uni life, but also the experience of having an office job...not to mention meeting new friends. I was given the task of data entry for the company his father was working in; Malaysian Healthcare Sdn. Bhd. . It was a nice job albeit nearly falling sleep every half hour and so because the work was rather sleep-inducing for the first two times.

Me at work.

My workplace..nice isn't it?

After a week at work, I began my packing for Semenyih. Having been rejected from Nanyang Technological University Singapore, I opted for my second choice, Nottingham University Malaysia Campus where I will be studying Mechanical Engineering. I went to Nottingham U together with 4 more of my classmates, Ryan Wong, Chan Kun Eng, Saadeesh Gunasekaran and Heng Shu Peih. Incidentally, I am actually the only one from my old group of friends who will embark on the journey in Semenyih, with the rest either in Taylor's Lakeside, Monash, UK, somewhere else or still bumming off.

I am staying in a bungalow(renovated to fit 11 students) with Ryan, Kun Eng and Shu Peih. Each of us took a single room to ourselves with Kun Eng the only one to take the ground floor room. Ryan, Shu Peih and me opted for the top floor.

The house before renovation.

My room during renovation

The design will be a bane later

I had originally been offered a room in campus. A 4-shared one for RM355. However, two days after receiving the room offer, Ryan called me with this off-campus offer. The house was just a stone's throw away from the bridge connecting the housing area and Nottingham U. My room was RM500 a month. RM145 more expensive for a far more private room with air-conditioning, comfort of friends, your own kitchen and bathroom, and a room which I can roam freely. Why not? I immediately took the room, ignoring the in campus room.

Did I take the right choice?

Yes....and no.

My mum was not impressed by the design of my room, along with the fact that it took the landlady 4 whole days to get my toilet installed AFTER I moved in. The first three days staying in was a mess as the landlady did plenty of last-minute last-minute (this is not a typo) arrangements. The aftermath? After much contemplation, I got the approval. It was a nice room, there was no denying that. And I had friends living under the same roof. What more is there to complain?

The bungalow ready..the Merc is not ours though (Its Shu Peih's parents')

The bridge to the University

Stairway to heaven?

My room once its done

I enjoy the comfort of my room VERY much

Comfortable bed :-P

Kun Eng's room

Ryan's room

So that is my room and the house that I'm living in. It is nice. There is only two things that annoy me. One. The air-cond is working so good, I'm freezing when the temperature is 22°c. Two. There is so much dust when I wake up. So, basically, I have to sweep the floor everyday and the temperature has to be increased. Not much to complain about, frankly speaking.

Shu Peih's parents bought her a car for easy access to the supermarket, Tesco as well as eating places. I am proud to say that she has given me permission to use the car during certain times when she does not know the way. I have not driven an automatic car for real before.However. Her car is awesome. What car did her parents buy for her?

An SLK.

I sense you pausing. I sense your mind thinking "Well, its natural i guess. Her parents have a Merc E240, its okay if she gets an SLK." Yes, my friends. It is an SLK. An SLK.

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A Small Little Kelisa.

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=.='

I hear you laughing. I sense your infuriated feeling to just punch me.

Let me correct you there.

It is a small little Kelisa. But, there is something different with this Kelisa. It is powerful. Let me repeat that. POWERFUL.

We took this car to Sunway Pyramid just the day before to meet up with Theresa. Who drove? Yours truly. The feeling I get when I drove the car? Pure delightfulness. The handling was fantastic. The acceleration? Very good for a 1-litre car. I suspect the previous owner (The SLK was a second-hand, I failed to mention that) had a turbo placed in the engine, or at least a charged engine. I shall confer with Saadeesh when he returns from Banting.

Let me just give you a scale of how good this car is.

I took this car back to my home to get some stuff that i had forgotten to take.

On the way to Pyramid, a Honda City 2007 edition was being a prick and was trying to overtake me at a turning that could only let one car go at one time. I gave way until we reached a straight road. If calculations serve me right, I would have lost to the much better 1.5-litre Honda.

But no.

This SLK (small little lethal Kelisa) was going faster than that Honda. Of course, you would have to play with the gear changes a bit (D2-D3-D4) for better pick-up but ultimately, the Kelisa driven by yours truly managed to overtake the Honda.

Hopefully, that was not a fluke.

Limited Edition SLK

Sport rims..I like

A roommate, Sean Tan, hailing from Seremban got his Honda Jazz into an accident as he went back to Seremban for a night. Result? He brought back a meaner car.

This is a Nissan Murano Impul 725 SV

One of the things we had to worry about when living alone was our food consumption. We do not have easy access to cash since we were only studying and not working to earn a living. Our safe option? Home-cooking.

Thanks to Shu Peih, we managed to have a very very nice home-cooked dinner on Thursday.

Electric stove (Shu Peih) and mini rice cooker (Kun Eng)

Shu Peih frying the fish along with Ryan and Saadeesh

I have no idea what Kun Eng and Saadeesh were doing

Glass noodles with pork

Shu Peih cooking the chicken soup

Fried fish

Fried eggs with prawns

The dinner table

Tucking in as a family

It was a very nice dinner. Shu Peih excelled in cooking and also cooked Tomyam fried rice for today's breakfast with the remaining leftover rice from the dinner.

Tomyam fried rice

Since we are on the subject of food, let me talk about the restaurant we went in Broga. We had just properly met with Koh Hao Min and Loo Ming Hiong, former A-Level coursemates in Sunway U. Both taking Pharmacy in Nottingham, we decided to eat dinner in Broga. Seven of us (Ryan, Kun Eng, Sean, Shu Peih, Hao Min, Christine ( Loo Ming Hiong) and me) went in search of a restaurant in Broga. ( I'm terribly sorry for missing out Saadeesh T.T)

We went to a Chinese restaurant to try their food. Verdict? Excellent.

Here are the dishes.

Vegetables with egg white (forgot the name)

Sizzling hotplate Japanese Tofu

Fuyong Fried Egg

Butter chicken

Assam Fei Zhou Fish

We came, we ordered, we eat...

we happy...(though their faces didn't look that happy init?)

Nevertheless it was a good dinner.

This sums up my first week in Semenyih. There are just two more things to talk about before I conclude this post.

One.

A dog has fallen in love with Ryan. The dog follows him everywhere even up to the cafeteria in the university.

And so, Ryan has decided to christen the dog in honor of one of our A-level coursemates. Who do you think he named it?

Here's a hint..you might see him as a triple B in Garena

Two.

We had our induction a day after registration. Our Provost/CEO had conducted an experiment with Paul the Octopus and this is the result.

Unbelievable? Believe it.

I am having fun in Semenyih. It is like a rebirth into a new life. I do not intend to forget my life back in Subang as I have many fond memories there too along with many good friends still living there.

But for now, I am content with life here.

I begin my classes tomorrow.. I will not be as free as I am now to post in my blog. But I will try and find time.

And that is my life as it is.

CCW

Of Seafood and Paddy Fields

A few days ago, I followed a group of my friends to Kuala Selangor for a day trip. Yes, I managed to get permission to do so. The aftermath was of course, terrifying but I'm not giving a damn anymore. But more of that next time. So, Kuala Selangor. It was a 2 hour drive from USJ 2 to the restaurant we wanted to eat at, plus another half an hour for severe traffic jams along the way. The journey was not unpleasant. Due to the fact that my car had no fuel, I opted to hitch a ride from Alex with Jian Shen and May Qin in the car too. I do not remember the way clearly, but suffice it is to say that the journey was light and easy with good music, jokes and a snapshot of Alex and me in his mum's sunglasses. 

I can't describe how I look in this...

We reached Kuala Selangor with no particular incidents and trudged along to the restaurant which was located near to the parking bay. 

It was jam-packed with people. 

We learnt that there were 7 more groups before us that still did not have a table to sit. 

And so we waited. We chilled at a small coffee-house near the restaurant after touring some of the places around the vicinity. 

Finally, we got ourselves a table. 

While waiting, we played Alchemy..like a boss

Waiting for the food...for what seemed to be an hour

Well, we did wait rather long for the food but it was worth it. The food was awesome. I'm not going to spoil anything, so that's all i'm gonna say. 

Before we left for Sekinchan, we took a group shot as a remembrance that we have 'invaded' Kuala Selangor. 

Top from left: Elaura, Wei Mund, Sam, Suba and May Qin

Bottom from left: Alex, me, Jian Shen and Ling Ben

Sekinchan, here we come. 

The reason we wanted to go to Sekinchan was to have a view of the paddy fields in the area. What was first assumed as a boring thing to do turned into a two and a half hour stay there with many photo-shootings and posing shots. 

Gazing in the skies

Night shot of the paddy field

Another shot

Day shot of the paddy field

Geng Sekinchan

Geng Sekinchan

It was a good trip. 

It was also a trip with the aim of spending time with Jian Shen and Ling Ben who would be leaving to study in the UK. 

I wish them all the best. 

CCW