Caramel Toffee //

- University of Auckland - Opp. Clock Tower -

… so that the stability of our country won’t be questioned further.

I’ve heard nothing but political shits when I ask my relatives and friends in Malaysia the same simple question of “How’s home?”

I’ve also noticed that more than 50% of Malaysian blogs (newly updated or pinged) are talking about political shits. The same thing over and over; all the slandering, namecalling (I swear, people can be so childish when they’re blabbering), etc etc.

Some of my international friends messaged me out of the blue: “Is Malaysia in some big political brawls now? I keep seeing Malaysians blogging about politics all the time. I thought they’re saying that your country is one of the famous mediators of peace or something…?”

You have no idea how ashamed and frustrated I feel after hearing this question.

How am I supposed to answer? Should I just give them this: “Well, actually, people simply like to fan small flames so that it gets really big. You know, make things all spicy to call for attention.” Or maybe I could simply say: “Don’t worry. I’m tired of all the political shits they’re writing about too.”

Can’t we have someplace reserved only for political bloggers? Correction. Can we have separate places for separate themes, like, ASAP?

I used to love Petalingstreet.org, and I use it still until today. But it gets REALLy tiring when all you see everyday is people blabbering about politics in the ‘Latest Pings’. And for goodness’ sake, they should refrain from double-posting the same thing. It’s a waste of good space.

I swear, blogs should have specific ratings too. We have 18PL for media broadcast. Why not blogs too?

I miss the time period between 2000 and 2003 so much. Blogs were more interesting back then although blogging platforms had less features.

- Unique Advertising of Drinks @ Symonds Street, Auckland -

Frm 1Aug, it will be $1 per call to talk to Cust Service on Prepay. You can still manage yr mob free online. For other ways 2manage yr mob &more info freecall 440.

From: Vodafone

Every service over here is all about limitation and money. I don’t know how much Vodafone would charge for GPRS, but it would surely be cutthroat. I’m upset with my internet connection, and Vodafone decided they want to mess with me some more.

Well, My Woosh wireless broadband is currently running on a dial-up speed, which gives me nothing but frustration after frustration of having to wait seemingly forever for a simple page to load.

Internet connection is datacapped. Three of my apartment mates and I share a wireless broadband plan with 51 GB bandwidth per month. The bandwidth would be reset back to 0% on the 21st of every month. And we ran out of our bandwidth last Friday.

I didn’t even get to download this month, having been busy with moving to the new server. I’ve been very conscious with my usage of the internet. I even avoided graphic-heavy websites to save the bandwidth.

Some people apparently didn’t think so.

I wish they’d be more concerned. Using Yahoo!Messenger and Skype eat up lots of bandwidth, and it actually bothers me that some of them are using both messengers almost all day long.

And the internet’s registered under my name.

How lovely.

I want Malaysia! No monthly bandwidth… Ahh…

- Wellesley Student Apartments, Auckland (20.05.08) -

I had to go through an unpleasant shower of drizzle on the way to class this morning. The rain was not heavy, but New Zealand’s famous strong wind made it difficult. Umbrellas could only save half of your upper body, and that is if you’re lucky your umbrellas don’t get blown or damaged by the wind. In ESOL210, we got further into the ‘Results & Discussions’ section of research reports. Pretty interesting, I have to say, but I still like ESOL210’s language focus practices. Those practices make me feel that it’s absolutely true when people say, “You find new things everyday!”

Mira and I came back to our apartment right after our ESOL210 class. June was preparing her breakfast, though I don’t really want to know what she was really preparing. We went to our rooms, just barely saying ‘hi’ to her as a polite form of greeting. I was having my brunch (White rice with chicken vindaloo and chicken tikka masala. Yum!) when the management staff of Wellesley Student Apartments (where I’m staying) barged in, happily announcing “Room inspection!”

I didn’t mind this part. What I minded (and still mind) was the outcome. Our rooms were all okay, but we got a Red warning notice regarding the kitchen wall and the microwave. What pissed me off to a greater extent was June herself. She started saying about how we should get the microwave clean and the kitchen walls sparkly, or otherwise we’ll be fined. I was not in the mood because of the rain, and June just had to go and be her usual obnoxious self. Most of the time, I tolerated her presence and her constant egocentric chatter. This time around, however, all I wanted to do at that time was yell into her ears. What got me so pissed off?

1. The microwave was half-broken. By this, I mean that we can use the microwave as convection oven and for grilling, but not the microwave function. How ironic that we have to call it microwave despite this faulty trait. We have not used it for God knows how long. The last time I used it was more than a month ago, and that was to bake cakes. Two weeks ago when everyone cleaned the apartment together, Mira and I were in charge of the kitchen. We scrubbed everything dry. My hands were all twitchy for two days after all the cleaning and scrubbing. Whatever that can be seen from inside the microwave (including orange streaks that look so much like corroded metal, and they probably are) is not removable. Try smoothing the surface with your hand. It’s all smooth, not a fickle of dust can be picked up. But June, being obnoxious, dared to ask us “Did you use the metal scrub or not?” and dared to make that unsatisfied look on her face.
2. She was the one who used the microwave last. A few days ago, she messed the lounge up with her stuff and spent the whole night baking muffins. She was telling us about her sister’s birthday and how she was going to take pictures of her friends posing with the muffins and saying “Happy birthday, [insert her sister's name here]!”. It was funny how she asked me if that’s a great idea, but then she answered on her own that “of course it’s a great idea!”. In other words, whatever happened to the microwave after our cleaning session was her fault. She was the only one who used. And she dared asking Mira and I to clean it again?
3. Not only she’s obnoxious, but she’s also a hypocrite. She paste a note on how we should not leave our pots and pans in the kitchen, and that we should wipe the table and all. Did she do all that? I can recall many times where she would just leave her pots and pans, and her plates or tupperwares on the dining table or on the kitchen counter, or in the sink. And until now, she keeps dirtying the dining table with breadcrumbs. She leaves for her class without minding the mess on the table. Great, June. You’re such a pot who dares to call the kettle black.

She’s lucky she didn’t do her ritual of asking me (or any of us) “Which one looks better?” and “Which one matches with this one?”. If she did, I would have blown up and yelled straight to her face. Quoting my friend Hijrah’s blunt remark, “If you’re originally ugly, you’ll be ugly either way.” I would have yelled it to her face had I not know what self-control means. Another thing I can’t stand about June is her egocentric ways of dealing with people. If she wants to speak to any of us, she has the habit of rattling the doorknobs to try to barge into the room. When she finds the door to be locked, she would bang on the door incessantly. And very loudly.

There is a limit to kindness, and there certainly is a limit to tolerance. We’ll have to tolerate her for another six months. Oh, the horror. Let’s see how much longer I can keep my self-control in check.

I got a letter from the Scholarship Division of MoE today in which I was asked to fill in a form and fax it to them as soon as possible. That’s what I did, and thank God the phone in my room doubles as a fax machine too. At first, I made a stupid mistake by forgetting to put the form face down, so I pretty much sent an empty fax to them. I corrected the mistake and sent the fax again. A few minutes later, I got a fax from them which irritated me to a great extent:

The fax number 03-xxxxxxxx cannot be used.

Please fax to number 03-xxxxxxxy.

(Jot this down and inform everyone).

Joy. It’s a formal letter and they made a mistake like this? Return the money Telekom Malaysia charged me for the fax!

Okay, I’ve finished ranting. At 8.30pm earlier, I got a surprise visit from Ain, Alia, Daniel, Basir and Jo. The boys went for a dip at nearby hot spring and later, the two girls joined in and they went to the beach. I was surprised when they called me up saying they were going to drop by, but really, I haven’t seen them for a while. Alia, Ain and Daniel attend Australia’s Queensland University of Technology (QUT), Basir at Exeter’s College of St. Mark & St. John (Marjon) and Jo goes to New Zealand’s Victoria University of Wellington (Victoria). We chatted a bit, and had a laugh about the mistake made by the Scholarship Division.