Oh April.

Prologue: *sigh* Not in mood for everything. Siput babi much.

April. Besides the upcoming Sarawak State Election in which the polling date falls on 16 April in less than 24 hours from now (in which I am eligible but unable to participate as a voter this time because I am marooned on Pearl Island and my mom refuse to provide me flight tickets to go home. Grr. Fine. Cruel fact of being on MBF or Mak Bapak Finance.), there are other events happening around my otherwise bored and lonely life here. Here are some of them.

-Going over the hills (To Bukit Canselori that is)-

Went over the hills a couple of time for different purpose. One dilemma of being in the most centrally located Desasiswa in USM is that you're not exactly sure whether you want to walk or take the bus because sometimes walking is faster. Another dilemma is of course whether your destination is close enough to a bus stop in which Bukit Canselori which various important administrative departments are situated aren't anywhere close enough and I will be required to alight at Pusat Bahasa (which requires me to backtrack) or DK SK (which requires me to climb a few more flights of stairs going uphill.).

7 April (Thursday). I am gonna exclaim the same thing once again: nothing reminds me more of a passing month than my rental invoice which requires me to made that dreadful trip once again up to Jabatan Bendahari (Treasury) and made my payment. Just look at how the sun outside blazes!

14 April (Thursday): Made another trip uphill again, this time doing it a favor. Went passed DK SK's office and saw this the Prius Hybrid parked at the PPSK's Dean's Parking Space. Prof Ismail Baba got good taste even though driving a Prius feels hipster-much.

And talking about favour, SzeSze asked for my help again for one last time to pick up her graduation scroll and her final transcript from Unit Pemprosesan Data dan Rekod Pelajar at Canselori. I went there first thing in the morning (8:45 am yo!) and it was a surprisingly smooth process (because I had all the prerequisite document readied and all such as the formal letter which luckily SzeSze typed herself cos I will be blasting off if she did that. I still need to print that out though along with Borang C.) and not before long, the envelope containing her graduation scroll is in my hand safe and sound! Consider mission accomplished and of course if there is an accomplishment, I have to celebrate it. Off to wantan mee at Plus 2! Here's a plate of wantan mee for you, SzeSze and please pick it up from me ASAP one way or the other. Finally, you're done with USM!

 

-Various escapades-

Hanging out with people who are still around means great time and companionship but at the expense of thinning wallet which was never fat in the first place anyway Oh whaddaheck.

8 April (Friday). Last day of semester (for those undergrads anyway) and birthday for Ah Kok! What else can we do on this kind of occasions as a university student? Karaoke of course which took place over Neway on Friday night...which means dinner buffet dayum...Happy 23rd Birthday Ah Kok!

Cheers to the birthday boy and freedom as the semesters end! It was fun belting out all sort of songs in Karaoke but it wasn't fun at all when the bill came...Granted it was Friday night which is the time everyone came out and GET DOWN for FUN FUN FUN and we went for the dinner buffet timeslot but the fruit platter (notice those two fruit platter with watermelon and orange and all?) and snacks is a FUCKING ripoff. It's compulsory to have that that stupid fruit platter if you have a certain number of people above and we still have to pay for that stupid RM20 plate of fruits. Grr. Remind me next time of not going to Karaoke on Friday night please.

Weekends with the SISTAHood in Penang (9 and 10 April):  Dinner at QQ Noodle House at USM Sungai Dua which is just a few shops down from Hidden Recipe, our usual hang out place. Originally a Thai restaurant (in which we went there once during third year I think?), the premise has been taken over by QQ Noodle House since last year I think with it's specialty whaddayaknow, noodles! This bowl of 炸酱面 is their cheapest offer on the menu at RM6. Hmm. Kinda reminds me of Life Cafe and Jade Pot back in Kuching.  Our purpose of meeting up is to discuss out upcoming plan of SISTAHood Escapades but of course when the main discussion ends, the conversation moves along to all over the places. Our dinner starts at 6:30 pm and ended around 10pm. This is how we roll yo!

Attendees: Chan Pao and Ah Ham.

Tailou Lawrence.

...and Ah Bui.

We didn't have enough of each other on the night before so we mooted another hangout session on 10 April, this time lunch over Kim Gary at Queensbay. Their set meals are pretty filling with drinks and soups. I ordered 中华大碗饭 but as usual for how we the SISTAHood usually hangout, food is not the main priority but companionship and chatting away like no one's business is! We sat around for about 3 hours again chatting about everything on the surface on the earth until even I feel kinda edgy seeing people started lining outside of KimGary outlet waiting for seats while we still refused to budge lol. One prominent feature on that day's conversation though is about smartphone, to be precised Chan Pao's new HTC.

Here's Ah Ham testing out ChanPao's HTC camera!

ChanPao helping Ah Ham in taking photos~

Tailouwong...

...and yours truly. It has been a while since I appeared on my own blog anyway. So hi there! While HTC are all flashy and all with all sorts of feature, there's one thing that ChanPao's HTC can't do: tagging photo on Facebook. She uploaded a couple of our camwhore photo immediately after we took it but she just can't figure out how to tag the pictures with people's name. Incidentally however for me, my N72 (leeching off Baskin Robbin's free wifi) can! lol.

After we had our lunch and enough chatting, we head around Queensbay for a little shopping...ok, it's mostly the ladies doing the shopping looking out for handbags and shoes and wardrobes and lingeries while the men hangs around aimlessly. In the end, we head off (after I picked up vital grocery supply such as Hup Seng Crackers over Jusco!) to McDonald over the basement food zone and had McDonald Chocotop Sundae cone while waiting for the ladies to be done with their shopping!

That's all for whatever happened since the beginning of April til now. Upcoming events: a date with my supervisors discussing about all things academic tomorrow (Friday) morning. Expecting some musics before my actual proposal presentation on 28 April. Not to mention PPA-13 Paper Submission deadline on 30 April in which I haven't touch a thing yet and failed to do so even though had been subconsciously occupied with it. Am I going to die by the end of the month? Will I survive?

Epilogue: One last rant before wrapping up tonight. I found the extra attention given by the Westies/Peninsularites/Malayans/Federal/the rest of Malaysia towards Sarawak just because there will be an election on this Saturday is too unnerving for my comfort. Just look at the amount of coverage on all form of media from television in which national news broadcast on all channels (RTM or MediaPrima) devote at least 15-20 minutes of air time to Sarawak election (heck, RTM even founded a new digital channel just for election coverage. Whoever that has Astro, tune in to channel 180 or go online.) to cyberspace in which all news portals working 24/7 keeping all their followers updated from the news on the ground live as well as instant pundits sprucing up all over the place commenting and spamming on every little issues about Sarawak. Politicos and their machinery are working round the clock as well, making rounds to "keep in touch with the electorates" and "listening to their issue" (quotation mark intended for its connotation.). You know what? I feel disgusted. Very disgusted. It was just two weeks ago when no Westies/Malayan cared a hoot about Sarawak and but Sarawak is "all too important to Malaysia". To whom are we actually important for? Hypocrisy at its worst, I would say.  All the national politicians (note: Westies/Malayan) are making round around Sarawak giving off all sort of soundbites to feed the public and media. On one hand, Barisan National are calling the voters to keep them in power so that they can continue with their "Transformation" while at the same time, dangling all sorts of carrots big and small such as projects and allocations and all those glitz in front of us (with allegation of using sticks at certain area.). The Pakatan Rakyat one the other hand try to sell us the idea of "Change", screaming away all the misdeed that Barisan National and Taib has did to Sarawak and promise they can one up BN better with more promise of "fair governance" and "eradicating deeply rooted corruption of Taib Mahmud". At this point however, I feel very much alienated, not just because I away from home for Pearl Island but as well as having no idea on how both sides are actually going to deliver and implement whatever they promised during campaign. To make it worse, supporters of both sides actually loves these SHITS.  I bet when the dust settled on 17 April, Sarawak will be ignored and left behind by all those Westies/Malayan again. Endless subjugation. This hypocrisy has actually strengthened my personal believe that asserting our sovereignty (A distinct society and region within the framework of Federation in one end, Secession and Independence on another. Right now, I am swinging towards secession. Fast.) is the only way to ensure equal treatment and justice for Sarawakian. Extra attention that comes only when you Westie/Malayans needed us whichever side you are is pure hypocrisy.

Coming to all Sarawakians home! FUCK Politicos.