Long Way Round

The book was not great, but it definitely wasnt boring either. It's that kind of book which, even though it wasnt poetic in the way that CuriousIncident or ExtremelyClose were, nor is it as descriptive as LifeOfPi, it is still so very captivating because it's written in the way that it reflects the authors. Am I making sense?

Gotta love autobiographies!

Check out this website for more info

Reading Salmon Fishing in the Yemen by Paul Torday now. Will update when done

Convocation Day 30th June 2008

Thanks for all those sms-es from Malaysia, sorry I couldnt reply. I'm officially bankrupt now :P

Anyways, the convo day was a blast (except for the fact that the ceremony started at 3pm and we had to return the robes *34 pounds weh!!* by 5 pm. Bummer.)

Ran about the whole morning to get a lot of stuff done. Practically ran to city centre, kononnya to do some shopping, and ran into these two..

Amir and Kah Wei! In kilts! Amir then flashed me wth haha

Ceremony itself was quite interesting. I was the third person to be called up the stage, but thankfully nothing went wrong lar. Knelt and got 'capped' ("touched by roti canai," as dad puts it) by this guy who sat on the big throne-y chair, with other lecturers sitting behind him. No pic of the ceremony itself cos left camera in the hands of technologically challenged dad. He brought his manual camera..nehh..the ones ppl use in the stone ages where they had to squint to look at a 1mm x 1mm x 1mm screen thingy to take pic lehh. But gave him my digital cam to use instead.

Nevermind, not important. Dengan susahnya I suppressed the feeling of wanting to burst into laughter when the academic procession paraded in. wah, super solemn (except when Prof Wilson appeared, so cute!), not to mention the fact that they were moving at a speed of 8 inches/hr.

After the ceremony ended (1 hr onia aa), a piper led the way and the lecturers etc crawled out again. Followed by the graduands. Only marred by the fact that once we were out of the hall (we were supposed to be paraded to Lord Todd's for the reception), we got side-tracked by Prof Peter, to take an IMU group pic. So the lecturers paraded (at a cacing speed), with no one following behind.

All together now...muuuahahaha!

Pity lar, I really wanted to follow the piper (so cute liddat), but instead, kena di-paparazzo-ed to take the pic. The official photographer was like so kesian, cos he had to ward off the parents with their gazillion cameras.

Never underestimate Asian parents on the day of convocation okay!

Obviously my dad lost, side view teruk teruk. Spot the me! Prof Peter in red in the top right corner

Cheok Xin and I (in my pp3 clothes omg!)
Getting kitted out with CheahVoon in our hall. Super jakun, never wear before mah. Didnt know where the blue bits were supposed to hang
Getting ready in my room. A pic that CheahVoon took as a proof that I HAVE eyelashes! (albeit a bit on the short side). She was like going,"Aiyooh, what to do with my long lashes??" Cilaka punya budak! Too long look like Bambi k!
CheahVoon's mohawk highland cow, after makeover by Ming. by the way, i'm going Pollock tomorrow! Hi highland cows!
Me with Lay Ean, one of the phD students who helped me so so SOOO much with my research project. Caught up with her in the morning

With SuAnn, OBVIOUSLY I had no flowers, OBVIOUSLY I'm unloved, OBVIOUSLY I can go hide in a corner and pluck the petals off a sunflower and count, "I am loved. I am not loved. I am loved. I am not loved"
With two of my favourite-est lecturers in the whole wide world! Dr Dufes and Prof Wilson (with a super super lopsided hood on his 'silly gown')
In front of Barony Hall. No, that was STILL not my flowers, Woon Chin's flowers too long, so could pretend that was mine.

PaMaCheah and PaMaChua. And no, that WASNT my teddy bear. Wallowing in depression now T_T

With KimHoe
With my two juniors from Samba-yeah days haha. Time flies!
With Saranjeet, my Scottish buddy 2 waitresses and 1 guy in kilt
Why do I have to take the nicest picture when Im NOT in my gown anymore?? With YihJing, who looked so pretty on that day!

All in all, a great day!

Happy Convo Day guys!

...

So my convocation is tomorrow. The day where I officially graduate and leave my comfort zone of a cycle of studying for exams, rushing for assignments and going for lectures. Routine which already is second nature to me. Wake up, wash face, go for class, come back, panic, take exam, sleep, repeat cycle.

My mom is sleeping on the bed as Im typing this, dad snoring away in the room opposite the hall. Both of them travelled nearly 11 thousand kilometres to be here. Nearly 15 hours of DVT-inducing flight time. Excluding transit. Like MamaChua put it,"If it's not for your convo, I wouldnt have come" (Mother Chua is super afraid of long haul flights)

But I'm very glad to have passed with results that I know they'd be proud of. Mum keeps saying how relieved they are to be able to support me to the end of my education. The last burden, to put it bluntly. The last child, with two brothers already working and having a stable life. With my convocation tomorrow, so begins the next stage of their lives. Getting old, enjoying life as they should, without a worry in the world (except when is AhMing going to get a boyfriend).


I'm going to be a (pre-reg) pharmacist tomorrow, come what may. Irregardless of whether I fall on stage during the ceremony tomorrow (like May, tee hee hee) or whether I break the seams of my pants (am a tub of lard now) when kneeling down on the stool and being capped in front of ooh, I dont know, 300 people? (Not to mention that it'd be relayed to another lecture hall plus over the internet)

After 17 years of burying myself in books (metaphorically speaking of course), I'd be venturing out to the great unknown, with only the barest idea of what working life would be like as a pharmacist.

To tell you the truth, pharmacy isnt my calling. It isnt what Ive wanted to do since young. Drugs, interactions, diseases, formulations. Not exactly glamorous. Not exactly the occupation you'd write in your 'What I want to be when I grow up' column in your primary school report book. What it is, however, is that it's a safe choice. And practical. And respectable.

How very Asian isnt it?

But I'm glad to have done what Ive done. I cant say I LOVE pharmacy now. But it's interesting. At times. True, I couldve studied harder, I couldve made a fuller use of my time, I couldve done so much. But like Daph said in her blog, I dont regret anything that Ive done.

I had the time of my life going through primary and secondary schools, college, IMU and Strathclyde! Why would I want to regret anything??

Primary school. UPSR. Where I first experienced the euphoria of getting straight As. Where I met people like Chai Ling and Phui Yee (whom I had a great time catching up with today)

Secondary school. PMR. Straight As. SPM. Cried for the first time for getting mediocre results. Where I met friends-for-life MonFong, Celia, May and Dezy. Plus a whole lot of others whom I still keep in touch with today. LeanChiew, JunHui, Vani, ChungHuan, Nazirah, and other occasional 'hi, how are you, what have you been doing' on facebook and friendster.

College. Where I got extremely complacent. Totally embarassing results for my AS and equally embarassing results for my A Levels. I met people like YeeMun, Sonia, Lili, Sumitra (r.i.p. girl *just thought of you yesterday night*).

IMU. imu imu. Where would I be without you? How would I have met crazy people like PeiLing, VoonYuen, XinYin, SuAnn, PhuayFhern, Alicia, XinHui, Christine, LeeYin otherwise? To say that I had fun in IMU would be an understatement. I guess I changed the most in IMU. I had enough experience there to last me a lifetime. Friends that I know I will remain in touch with till Im gray and old.

They made pharmacy bearable. They made pharmacy fun, lab sessions not as boring, lectures more tolerable. Otherwise all those atenolols and sulphonylureas and vaginal rings would have driven me mad already.

Instead, here I am. Typing this in my room in Garnet Hall, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, Scotland. 15 hours from officially entering adulthood.

Convocation is tomorrow.

Before I forget

Just a little note.

1. Catch-22 sucks, eurgh! Forced myself to read it during my 'stay' at Zurich Airport.
2. Karen Quinn's 'The Ivy Chronicles' is readable. Nothing spectacular. Totally predictable, non-intellectual book
3. Cathy Glass's 'Damaged' is good, but very disturbing (esp since it was based on a real story)

And no, I have NOT finished Don Quixote and War of the Worlds yet.

And I've bought 'Long Way Round' by Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman. Also bought 'Salmon Fishing in the Yemen' by Paul Torday. Both from the British Heart Foundation at the West End.

Too many to write about, too little time.

Still alive!

Just got back like 2 days ago, took mum and dad around Glasgow today, going Edinburgh tomorrow. Will upload pictures in a while

Okay, I was lying.

Will upload pictures maybe when I reach back KL :P

In August :P

So far, parents' reaction to Glasgow and the stuff I ate and did for one year :-

1. Gregg's TOTALLY TOTALLY HEAVENLY SAUSAGE ROLL (Ming's and Voon's ULTIMATE comfort food -----------------> Mr and Mrs Chua's verdict ----> "Eee, so salty! Not nice!"

Terbabom No. 1

2. Sensations potato chips (Nearly all IMU students' FAVOURITE and MUST BUY esp during tesco's half price discount and ULTIMATE PARTY/SLEEPOVER FOOD) ---------------> Mr and Mrs Chua's verdict -----------> "Eee, so salty! Where got nice!"

Terbabom No. 2

3. Haggis (admittedly, not comfort/delicious food per se, but a MUST TRY when in Scotland!) ----> Mr and Mrs Chua's reaction ----------> "Eee, I dont want! Innards! Eeeyer!" (This, my dearest friends, is coming from people who eat chicken feet and congealed pig's blood). Going to buy deep friend Mars Bars in Edinburgh tomorrow and tell them it's pisang goreng or something.

Terbabom No. 3

4. Irn Bru (Ming's favourite, and apparently, ONLY Ah Ming likes it cheh) --------> Mr and Mrs Chua's verdict ---> "So sweet!". Cheah Jie Jie's verdict ---> "Ooooooooooooooooookaylar"

Terbabom No. 4

5. Semangat-ly brought them to Glasgow Uni, and pointed out Kelvingrove from the hill and asked mum if wanna go, Mum said "If museum I dont want to go"

Terbabom No. 5

Nevermind! Am optimistic Edinburgh's Royal Mile will impress them!

St Giles Cathedral, here we come!

Guess where I am now??

I'm in Viernheim, Germany!

I have EXACTLY 10 minutes to go, after that every minute on the internet will cost me 0.35 euro.

So.

Tomorrow will be heading to Cologne, then to Amsterdam, so if there's anything just msg me lah!

Also, I brought 3 pairs of shorts and ONE SINGLE pair of jeans. I have worn my jeans for 4 days now. It stinks to high heavens, but there's nothing I can do about it, cos the weather is FREAKING cold!

What summer?? Got tertipu-ed by Kah Yee who kena suntanned while on hols, why why why? Maybe shouldve gone to Prague instead!

And here's a shoutout to Alicia and Xin Yin!

Happy Birthday girls!!!!!!!!

Wish I could be there to celebrate with you guys! MUUAAKS!!!

I do beg your pardon!

For the keganasan yesterday!

See, I was stressed, cos there were too many things going on at once. I had to book something for my parents, and the booking got screwed up, then I panicked cos it screwed up after the credit card went through, then I got super ticked off with an order I made with a store online, cos it was 2 weeks overdue, and had to send off emails and make calls and was put on hold with classic music to keep me company, and I wasnt too happy with someone yesterday cos of something else, but after a good chat-while-dozing-off-to-sleep with Lee Yin (Dino Saw! muahaha!) and then having a good good rest on the air bed and the weather was soo perfectly cold yesterday and I was all snug and warm under my duvet and I woke up feeling great

To add to that 'greatness', I went shopping! But not specifically specifically for myself lar. Just had to run some errands and I got these!

A big-fonted (fonted??? wah, English masuk longkang kao kao), no-thinking-required book from Cancer Research UK..oh wait, issit the British Heart Foundation? (see, I told you I'm getting addicted to charity shops!). Only for 1.5 pds! For when I become homeless and had to 'mau kai' at the airports tomorrow.

For my stupid 'dream, love-at-first-sight' ballet pumps. Ive got two blisters now! Can buy a phone already with what I've invested in you! My love affair with you is fading already!

Anyways, this will be the last post till..er..end of the month. Leaving for London tomorrow morning (by bus! But nevermind, Ive bought hyoscine! 7 hours can!), then warding off the cold and pretending to be a homeless refugee and sleeping toughing it and keeping my eyes open wide wide (dont scoff, my eyes can actually become big at certain occasions) cos Mrs Chua said,"Don't blur blur ah! Dont strangers say follow you follow ah! Be careful ah! Dont sleep ah!" at Luton airport, then taking the morning flight to Zurich on Saturday, then beg for euros and take my bath and brush my teeth in the bathroom sleep at the Zurich airport while waiting for Mr and Mrs Chua the next morning on Sunday before we embark on our 8 day Europe trip!

Wah, breathless from blogging already.

Selamat tinggal!