Sports stuff

One of the things I miss about AC is that it has its own outdoor and indoor pool so whenever I felt like swimming I just dragged a few friends and did some laps. Cambridge doesn’t have a university pool, unfortunately, so I finally decided to register with the local swimming pool. It can be quite crowded at times but at least it’ll satisfy my craving for swimming.

Oh yeah, have I ever mentioned that I only started learning how to swim when I arrived in the UK? It was good times, but was sort of a torture. I guess I’ll write a bit about it someday.

We just had our first UCCMixed (i.e. Cambridge 3^rd team) match in the local league tonight. Two games overall, we lost the first one (that I didn’t join) and we won the second one (that I joined). Does that tell you anything, hee hee?

Well… actually, we played against different teams so you can’t draw any conclusions from that =(

I was told by one of my team mates that I have a very weird upper serve. This is confirmed by other people there. When he first saw it, he was like, ‘How’s that gonna go in?’ And then it came flying into the court. Honestly, I’ve never realised since I never watched myself play, and I don’t know whether having a weird serve is a good thing or not. I probably got the technique wrong or something.

Sorry for the shaky pictures. Were taken with my mobile phone when I was outside the court.

Yaz.

My Cambridge Interview Experience

Okay, as promised, I think I’ll share a bit about my experience in having an interview in Cambridge. Unlike a lot of other universities that only have ‘interviews’ as in ‘we just want to see your face and have a chat’ session, in Cambridge you’ll need to expect a proper, serious interview. Only then will they decide on giving you an offer. Or not. Before I start, I just need to say that this is just my recount of my own interview, so it should by no means be treated as ‘a definitive guide to Cambridge interviews’ or something like that, since there are different types of interviews and I only know about my own. To clarify, I applied to Cambridge to do Chemical Engineering.

It started when I looked at the Cambridge prospectus to prepare for the application process. To tell the truth, with so many colleges being featured in there and they all seem pretty similar, the prospectus confused me a bit. Of course, at that time I knew nothing about the different colleges, which one is richer, bigger, more famous etc. etc. In the end, I just decided to choose a college that has the type of interview that I like: Trinity.

Pretty funny that even without prior knowledge, I end up in one of the richer, bigger and more famous of the lot.

Depending on the subject, some colleges have a normal interview, an interview with Thinking Skills Assessment or TSA (sort of like an IQ test in a way), or an interview with a technical test. I realised that my people and social skills are probably mediocre, average at best, so I ignored the normal interviews. My mock TSA test (they have a model of the test online) is around 60-ish %, not bad but definitely not outstanding so I ignored those too. That left me with the interview-with-test type, which is okay for me since I’m definitely comfortable with the technical test compared with just an oral interview. At least now I have something to fall back on when I screw up in the oral interviews by either:

a) failing to be eloquent and charming or

b) spewing complete crap when asked questions like ‘What can you contribute to Cambridge?’, ‘What are your strong points?’ and ‘Why do you think you want to study in Cambridge?’ or

c) (and this is what most people dread about Cambridge interviews) being utterly gobsmacked and speechless when asked questions like ‘What do you think about extra-terrestrials?’ or ‘If you could make up a word, what would it be?’ or some other bizarre questions of that nature.

So among the interview-with-test type colleges, I picked Trinity at random. My application was accepted and they asked me to go to Cambridge (since I was in the UK at the time) for my interview. That was in December 2004.

So I went there, stayed the night, and did the test the next day. It was a combination of physics, chemistry/material science and maths. The thing to remember here is that if you find the test hard, then you shouldn’t worry about it. They purposely made it so that you won’t be able to answer everything, and that’s for a reason which will be apparent later.

Some time after the test, I walked to the place where my dreaded oral interview is going to be held. I went in. There were two people: a woman who dyed her hair red and another blonde woman (I don’t know who the first person is but the second one is my current Head of Department and Director of Studies). I sat on the chair, and the interview began.

The good thing: they don’t ask me some mind boggling questions that you have to bullsh*t your way through i.e. situation (b) or (c). I think you can still get those kinds of questions though, even in an engineering course interview so it’s wise to be prepared anyway. The bad thing: lo and behold, they have the test answers that I wrote with them! So here’s the reason they make the test difficult: they go through your answers, and they note which questions you have difficulty with, and they ask you about them in the oral interview. Personally I think it’s kinda cruel. The purpose of this is so that by presenting a problem that you don’t know and giving you hints during the interview to guide you to the answer, they can see your thought process i.e. how you think to solve the problem. One of the questions that I couldn’t answer is about unit cells, which honestly is not in the IB syllabus and the only time I’ve encountered them was when I read Chemistry 9^th edition by Prentice Hall. They have this crystal lattice model in front of me to demonstrate the unit cell and I swear I can feel the gears in my brain grinding as I try to work out the answer. Fortunately, I managed to solve it, and I think they were impressed. So am I, if truth be told.

There was a question which leads you to estimating the density of air. It began with ‘The weight of air in this room is about the same as half a dozen eggs…’ or something like that. Normally this is a killer question for me since I am horrendous at estimating things. I can’t guess the distance/weight/height of things without actually measuring it. However, I was proud of the answer that I gave: I basically ignored the question and wrote ‘Well, in the data book that I’ve read, the density of air to three s.f. is…’ and I put down the value. I think the interviewers had a laugh from it. Just to clarify things, no, I don’t go around memorising values in the data book. That would be stupid. I just did a number of physics questions some months before and since I had to look up the value a few times, it sort of sticks in my head. So I guess I’m just lucky.

Well, that’s the short (or long) of it. Hope I didn’t bore you. I got an offer afterwards asking for a 42 and 7,7,7 in higher subject. For those of you who are/were doing the IB, you’ll realise that this is a very cruel offer. Still, they’re Cambridge, so I guess they can afford to do that. So, the lesson? The interview’s just halfway. You still have to work hard afterwards to meet the offer.

That about sums it up, then. I usually stay in Cambridge in December so sometimes when I see the current interview candidates, some relaxed, and some nervous, unsure, waiting in anticipation… I can’t help smiling and be reminded of the time when I’ve been through what they’ll undoubtedly be going through. Can't help but wish them all the best either, since I know how challenging it can be. Good luck!

Yaz.

Urghh!

Sick. Sore throat. Will update later.

Yaz

Phew!

The day of the deadline of the first exercise. I managed to complete mine in good time, so no problem there. In my last post, I did mention that I can laugh at people who are still struggling to finish the exercise. Unfortunately, though, that didn’t happen. Why? Because they all skipped lectures to finish it! Cheeky buggers. There goes my chance to gloat evilly at people.

I read in the papers that there exist some people who spent up to £3500 for their kids to have a better chance of getting into Oxford or Cambridge. Seriously, are they crazy or what? Apparently, there are some agencies and organisations that offer services to train applicants to face the famous Oxbridge application process. Honestly, I know you have to make an extra effort to get into Oxford and Cambridge e.g. finishing UCAS application early, an extra personal statement, the dreaded interviews, getting good results etc. but still, £3500 seems way over the top. Unless you’re rich and couldn’t care less about that amount of money, of course.

Hmmm… seems like a long time ago that I first arrived here in Cambridge for my own interview. I guess some time later I’ll write a bit about it.

Yaz.

Resuming life as a student again

Hey ho! Finally, a breath of fresh air. For the past few days I’ve been busy working on this coursework (literature survey, to be exact) and I’ve just finished writing the main body some time ago. Granted, there are still the abstract, conclusion and reference that I need to write about, but let’s not worry about those too much. Of course I know that it’ll be kinda crappy since even though we were given three weeks to finish the darn thing, most of us only start in the last week. Me included. Well, the deadline’s on Thursday so I still have time to smooth out things and laugh at people who are panicking because they have their hands full with this.

On a different note, I’ve now accepted… no, make that fully embraced… the fact that there exist some people who are buff and sporty and are into rowing and other physically-exerting stuff… who are much more intellectually superior than me. I guess you CAN have everything.

Yaz.

Eventful Saturday

Yesterday was the Scholar’s Admission Ceremony in Trinity College, which resulted in me wearing a suit, white bow tie and gown for the event since I’m upgraded from a Junior Scholar to a Senior Scholar this year. To those who don’t know, in Trinity, if you get a first class in your first year, then you’ll be awarded the Junior Scholar, which gives you room ballot privilege, £150, food allowance, among other things. If you get a first again in subsequent years, or if you get really good result in the first year, say, top five in the university, then you’ll be a senior Scholar instead, which gives basically the same but better privileges. £250 prize money, for example.

The ceremony’s pretty much the same as last year. I got the same book (and I’ll just put last year’s pic here since it’s the same thing) but this year I managed to get it signed by Martin Rees, Royal Astronomer and Master of Trinity College. It’s basically about Trinity’s history, but since history’s not my thing I haven’t even gone past chapter one.

The Great Court Run (last year’s link here) happened again this year but there’ll be no pictures since I was not there. Instead, I went to London for the Petronas open house & Eid celebration. It was nice to meet the new faces of Atlantic College students. There are eight Malaysians this year instead of the usual five.

I didn’t stay long, however, since there’s a volleyball training session in Cambridge at four. This year’s UCCMixed team (essentially the 3^rd team) looks promising, and I noticed a few people who are definitely the 2^nd team’s level, but they are in our team for some reason. Probably because they didn’t make it in the 2^nd team’s tryout or they just can’t be bothered with the time commitment or competitiveness of the 2^nd team. I certainly hope that we’ll perform better instead of losing to a secondary school team like last year.

And finally, since I was at King’s Cross station, I thought I’ll take a picture of the famous platform 9 and ¾.

Yaz.

Yaz

Some of you might be wondering, but the nick ‘Yaz’ was given to me by my room mates in Atlantic College. It was then picked up by my houseparent and after he called me Yaz in a house meeting, everybody else followed suit. Except the Malaysians, of course, since they have known me for longer and they’ve always called me Yazid. Not to mention that it feels weird if I hear them using the nick. So yeah, it’s basically a nickname for my non-Malaysian friends to use, mostly AC people though since not many called me by that name in Cambridge.

The thing is, there has been some rather weird traffic coming to the blog from rather dubious Google searches. I decided to check and I found out that Yaz is actually a type of oral hormonal contraceptive. In other words, it’s the thing that you take (via your mouth) if you don’t want to get pregnant. Ha ha, that was hilarious! Just thought to clarify that for people who stumbled here by mistake =)

Oh, and no matter what, I still love that nick. It sounds cool.

Cheers,

Yaz.

It’s one day late but…

…I just want to wish everybody who’s celebrating it (me included) ‘Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri’ or Eid Mubarak. Take your pick. Eid was on Friday in the UK but in some other parts of the world it’s on the Saturday (today) so I’m not really that late after all.

There were classes throughout Friday morning so I wasn’t feeling very celebratory. But it's not that big of a deal, same as last year I suppose. And I totally forgot the expression ‘Eid Mubarak’ so on Thursday night I texted people saying Happy Eid, which sounds completely wrong. Oh well…

In any case, I’ll probably drop by London next Saturday for some free food. There’s also one tomorrow but I haven’t decided yet whether to go or not. We’ll see how it goes.

Yaz.

Alright, I’m angry.

I usually cook two portions of meal each day in Ramadan, one for iftar and the other for sahur. Yesterday, though, I went to the iftar organised by the Cambridge Islamic Society (ISOC) so I didn’t cook anything, thinking that for sahur, I can just eat some instant Uncle Ben’s two-minute microwaveable rice in my kitchen cupboard or something.

However, I woke up this morning, ready to eat, and the food is gone! I can’t believe it! If it’s a spoon or plate then it’s understandable (not to say it’s okay, and I left notes in my plate cupboard to warn people) but somebody actually had the audacity to steal some food items that you clearly have to microwave to eat. Since the other food item that I have are some frozen chickens that I definitely don’t have time to thaw and cook, it looks like I have to go hungry for the day. Bastards.

Yaz.

Two Days…

… since the opening day of the most despised film in my entire life (and that’s not a hyperbole). Usually when I think a film is bad, I’ll just move on and forget, but I’ve never hated one with such passion, especially considering that it wasn’t released yet at the time I started hating it. My utmost regret is that it’s being made at all, but since I can’t do anything about it, I’ll just derive my pleasure on how it tanked in the US cinemas and received generally bad reviews. Really, that’s the best possible outcome for now, since if the film is a success, they might make sequels and because they’ve diverged so much from the book for this film, the future sequels will be unrecognisable as well. Except the only downside is that the film might turn people off from picking up the book, which is a shame really.

For those of you who have no idea of what I’m talking about, it’s a horrible adaptation (and I used the word loosely here, if you can call writing a new story altogether an adaptation) of The Dark Is Rising, a book which is part of the series that’s also called The Dark Is Rising. You can read my previous rant about it here. But really, it’s such a hatchet job at an adaptation that no self-respecting fans of the book or Susan Cooper (the author) will not be pissed off at it. You can even tell things aren’t going well since they changed the title of the film twice after they released the trailer. From initially ‘The Dark Is Rising’, they changed it to ‘The Seeker: The Dark Is Rising’ and finally, a few days before the film is released, it changed again to just ‘The Seeker’. My assumption is that after reading the book properly, as well as other books in the series (no, they haven’t read the other books in the series while filming it, so they had no idea of what's going on in the story), they figured that they have no similarities at all with the film that putting ‘The Dark Is Rising’ in the title is nothing less than fraudulence. Or maybe they just got so many hate mails from fans of the book to change the title.

For now, I really hope that they will stop making sequels, and that someday someone will buy the rights from them and make a truly proper adaptation of my favourite book from childhood, the way it’s meant to be.

Yaz.

Ranking

I just had my first meeting with my DoS (Director of Studies) yesterday for chemical engineering and she gave me a piece of news that can both be considered good and disappointing. On one hand, I am in the top ten in the final exam ranking last year and the only Trinity student who got a first class (hence her star pupil, as she jokingly put it). On the other, being in the top ten is just a vaguer and grander way of saying you are ranked number ten and bearing in mind that there are fifteen students who got first class, that’s just two-thirds of the way down. That’s pretty disheartening, considering that even though I got ranked number 65 in my first year in Natural Sciences, that’s halfway in the middle of the hundred something people who got a first. Now, I know it doesn’t quite scale like that, but I can’t help feeling like I should have done better. In fact, seeing my disappointment, that’s what my DoS told me, “You’ll do better next time, won’t you?”

BP came to give a talk about their summer internship yesterday evening (which I’m giving serious thought to, considering this is my last summer here and I haven’t done any internships at all) and as I mentioned in this post one year ago, they gave free copies of Perry’s Chemical Engineers’ Handbook (which normally costs around £60) to everybody who got a first or two-one. One thing I found when lugging it around back to college: that stuff’s quite heavy.

Yaz.

Noooo! They’ve ruined The Dark Is Rising!

Okay, you know when you have a favourite book? A book that you really like, say, one that you read when you’re a child, was instantly engrossed in, and became a part of your childhood. The Dark Is Rising is such a book for me. I wasn’t exactly a kid when I read it, more like a fifteen-year-old teenager, but I remember reading Greenwitch, the third book in the sequence (which is also called The Dark Is Rising), enjoyed it immensely, and started scouring MCKK’s (my secondary school) library for the rest of the books. Unfortunately, it has all but the last of the sequence, Silver on the Tree, and I was left hanging until a few years ago when I bought the book on the internet. Just a note, you can read it in the order of book 1,2,3,4 and 5 or even 2,1,3,4,5 for the reason that (some of) the key characters from book 1 and 2 are different and they only meet in book 3 onwards. However, starting with book 3 is totally not the right way to read it. Oh well…

For those who have never heard of it, The Dark Is Rising (the second book) is about Will Stanton, an English boy who discovered on his eleventh birthday that he is the last of the Old Ones, beings of the Light, and that he has to find the Six Signs to stop the forces of the Dark. The book is deeply embedded in British and Celtic folklore and Arthurian mythology. It also received the 1974 Newbery Honor award.

I found out a few months back when browsing IMDB that the book is being made into a film. At first I couldn’t believe it since it is my favourite book, then I was really excited. However, after searching a bit more on the net, I was flabbergasted, and not in a good way.

Apparently, the people involved in the making of the film had decided to take it upon themselves to ‘adapt’ the book in a way they see fit. And by that I mean they totally butchered the story. It is now changed so much it’s horribly beyond recognition!

Now, before you start, I know you have to change the book a bit to make it into a film because of the different media. That’s pretty much obvious and everybody knows that. However, there is a line between adapting a book and making an entirely new story altogether! From what I’ve gathered, the only things that are the same are the names of some of the key characters and the fact that Will has so seek the six signs.

As a start, they scrapped all the Arthurian reference! I mean, what the heck? That is entirely integral to the story since it’s part of the storyline. In fact, two main characters (one appearing in book 4) are directly from the mythology. By removing that, you’ve effectively removed the backbone of the story itself. Which also means there’s no way they can make book 4 and 5 into films, since you won’t have much of the story left. Apparently, the scriptwriter acknowledged that he hasn’t read the rest of the series, which is absurd, since that’s a very stupid thing to do if you’re making an adaptation.

What’s more, they’ve changed the main character’s nationality to American, furthermore distancing the film with the English mythology. His age is also changed to thirteen, since they probably thought an eleven year old hero will not appeal much to teenagers. They changed the magic from subtle to flashy (a la Harry Potter style). They’ve also totally rewritten the characters. They changed Will’s family from a caring one to a stereotypical emotionally distant, pick-the-younger-brother type family. His older brother is now an agent of the dark. Instead of the English countryside, there are now police chases in the malls and kung fu fights on top of fruit carts. There are a lot more changes, and you can find a list of them in this blog in livejournal here. There’s also another big change, which I’ll get into later.

Sadly enough, I was planning on seeing the film despite all the disservice it has done to the book, simply because it’s my favourite book being shown on the silver screen, if nothing else. However, now that I’m back in Cambridge (with fast internet), I saw the trailers for the first time. And I must say, I’m not impressed. They’ve turned a perfectly good book into a cliché-ridden, typical kiddies story. What’s more, I’ve made the decision not to see it because the trailers confirmed my worst fear:

They’ve totally changed Will Stanton.

Now, Will is one of my favourite book characters of all time (the other one being Granny Weatherwax) and one that I adored so much when I was a kid (or rather, teenager) and is still now. He’s a calm, collected and thoughtful kid (that comes with being an Old One) and is described in the books as ‘wise beyond his years’. In the film, the impostor Will is a bratty little kid who tries to be cool and fit in. He blows up cars and hurled his brothers with his super powers when he’s frustrated. They even gave him a love interest! Now that is utterly PREPOSTEROUS!! In the trailer, Will is quoted as saying “I'm supposed to save the world? I don't even know how to talk to a GIRL!” I was so shocked it’s not even funny. Now that is one thing that Will Stanton will NEVER, ever say. And I mean never!

I realised that to see this film means I’ll be ruining the Will I envisioned in my head, so I’m not going. I know that it’s not really his real character, but it’ll be hard to get it out of my head if I see the film, and I don’t want to be reminded of it every time I pick the book to read. I’m appalled enough as it is now with this horrific treatment of my beloved book.

Yaz.

Hey there!

I’m now back in Cambridge. Well, actually, this is the third day since I’m back so it’s not really a big deal anymore, which also means I should have posted this sooner (e.g. the first day) but it wasn’t easy to move stuff and set the place to how I like it to be lived in. Ever tried moving ten boxes from one end of the college to another? My advice: avoid if possible, especially when none of your friends are back yet to help with it.

Speaking of which, my room this year is great! The first thing I noticed, and also the thing that most prominently makes this place worthwhile is it has a fridge installed! It also has a sort of mock fireplace that has been boarded up, which is a pity. The downside of the room, however, is that the kitchen is downstairs, so I have to walk a bit to cook.

Computer table

Bed and studying table

Fridge. Left door is the way out. Right door is the bathroom

Actually, by far, the best room I’ve ever lived in is the one in my first year. I’ll give a quick rundown:

1^st year

Pros

• Best room ever. Enormous! Like my across-the-hallway-neighbour Dom said, “Compared to yours mine is like a box.” Actually, it's not really that much bigger but you get the idea.
• Has a fridge, two tables (one for studying and the other for computer), lots of sofas, mock fireplace, and a proper bookshelf.
• Kitchen’s just nearby

Cons

• The only thing I can think of is that it’s located on the road where Sainsbury’s is, so it can be a bit noisy at times. Also in the morning it faces the sun so you will often be woken up by it, although this might be a good thing. It depends.

2^nd year

Pros

• Biiiiggg wardrobes. Lots of storage space.

Cons

• Far from Sainsbury’s, my department and the dining hall.
• No fridge in the room
• Kitchen has no oven. Also if you cook in the afternoon it will get really hot because of the sun.

3^rd year

Pros

• Fridge in room, two tables, boarded-up mock fireplace…
• Not far from my 1^st year room so it is also strategically located

Cons

• Kitchen far away
• Not much storage space, though I’ll probably manage to squeeze my bags and boxes somewhere…

Oh, and just to mention, all those room have en-suite bathrooms. I can’t live without it.

I’m a senior scholar this year, which means I get first dibs on choosing the rooms. Guess I’ll choose properly this time, with research, room visits etc unlike last year where I actually didn’t know what the room looks like until now.

Classes will not start until next Wednesday so I have plenty of time to relax/do nothing/get bored. At the moment I’m in a One Piece marathon. Episode 120 something and counting…

Yaz.

It’s almost time…

… to go back to the UK. Just another ten days. Can’t wait.

Today was the second day of fasting. To be honest, it feels kinda weird since this is my first time fasting in Malaysia in five years. I sort of like fasting in the UK. With it being cold, you don’t get that tired, or thirsty. And the fact that breaking of fast can happen as early as half past four. That was really something. I think I might have irritated the hell out of some people by whining about how I wish I can be there instead of here for Ramadhan. Ha ha, sorry to… well, you know who you are =)

There is something going on that made me feel extremely unhappy. However, since I’m currently in Malaysia and am somewhat sheltered, I haven’t felt the full force of it yet, which I probably will once I'm back in the UK. So, when I get back, expect me to have a long rant about it.

Yaz.

Just to tell you...

Ha ha, I know, I know, it's no excuse for being silent for almost a month or so, but in between playing games, reading, watching stuff and a few excursions to KL there isn't really anything interesting to tell.

Anyhow, I'm going back to the UK and Cambridge this 24th for my third year. Am really looking forward to that. So if there's nothing else going on hopefully you'll hear from me then.

See ya!

Yaz.

Back From Camp

Hey there! After ten days I’m finally back from the aforementioned camp. At first I didn’t feel like making a blog entry about it since it was just so and so and the things that I learnt there (things like positive mental attitude and the like) weren’t exactly new. Still, I think might as well let you know that I’m alive.

The thing is, the camp was supposed to be held somewhere in Port Dickson but due to a recent case of dengue there (or so they say) the venue was changed at the last minute to somewhere in Ulu Langat. Not exactly a promising start, plus the fact that we were packed like 20-30 people per dorm just added salt to my wounded expectations. But looking back, I think it’s a good thing though since I’m not exactly a social person and the dorm arrangement made me able to know quite a number of people that I wouldn’t have otherwise.

Course contents aside, I think the benefit that I gained the most from the whole thing is actually peace of mind. See, back in Cambridge, some of my friends always teased me that I’m working for the side of evil (they have this view that all oil companies are evil) and the only retort that I can come up with is that we actually improved the living conditions of the people there by building hospitals and facilities (and this is true). However, during camp, I’ve been assured that my sponsor doesn’t just do business deals with anybody. In fact, we’ve turned down a couple of business offers from certain countries because of their shady behaviour. Knowing that was a relief to me.

After the camp, we were transported to Negeri Sembilan for this homestay program at this place called Laman Bangkinang. It was alright, and the fact that the families stuffed us with food makes it even better. However, I couldn’t shake the awkward feeling of calling other people mom and dad so I sort of wove my words around to avoid addressing them directly while appearing inconspicuous.

We also visited this school where we kinda tried to motivate the students to be successful. I don’t know whether that worked or not but it was quite fun. The two eleven year old kids assigned to my group were quite adorable, and even when our session with them was finished, they went out of their way to come and see us during our other activities later in the day and the day after. To tell the truth, they kinda clung to me, which I don’t mind really.

Well, that’s basically it about the whole camp thing. Among other news, I went to the National Library yesterday and they have this new system of checking out books at the kiosk machines instead of it being manually done by the person behind the reception counter. It is nice to see this step in the forward direction. Now, if they would just buy tons of new books I’ll be satisfied.

Until then,

Yaz.

Of Pools, Books and Camp

It was green. The water was suspiciously green. It would not look out of place in, say… a lake in the middle of a rainforest, but definitely not in a swimming pool. A pool is supposed to be blue. Light blue that you can see the bottom, but NOT green, or a mixture of green and blue. I used to say turquoise is my favourite colour. Guess I have to rethink that.

Alright, backtrack from the beginning. I was feeling like I did not have enough exercise, which is true and not just a feeling, so I took a bus to PADE, this aquatic centre in Shah Alam, which also served the purpose of getting me familiar with the Shah Alam area and the bus route, since I don’t get out that much. Anyway, upon arriving, I had to wait like, another hour since the actual session times are different from the one on their website, and if I go swimming straightaway I would be kicked out in just thirty minutes (they have a few two-and-a-half hour sessions throughout the day and the ticket’s per session). That was fine since I can just hop on the bus, go around and familiarize myself with Shah Alam and come back (despite the lengthy wait between buses, it was really great that RapidKL introduces this day-ticket thing, reminded me of London). So I went back after an hour and was told the outdoor pool was closed for cleaning, which is a pity because even though people driving by can see me, the pool is outdoor and crystal blue clear and looks like fun. Still, I was there, so I just bought the indoor pool ticket (which was RM1 more expensive than advertised on the website) and changed.

That was when I discovered the condition of the pool. It was a sharp contrast with the outdoor pool, which shocked me, since if you can take care of one pool, then why not another? I swam nonetheless, since it was not that bad (it was neither toxic green nor bubbly) and it should have been chlorinated, but still, I tried not to get too much water in my mouth and fervently hoping that there will be no after effects such as sore throat and the like. Thankfully, I’m still fine. But all in all, I was looking forward to swimming, and I was disappointed. Maybe it was because I chose a less busy time to go swimming (Monday afternoon, I was swimming alone for twenty minutes until somebody else came) and the outdoor pool was closed because there being not many people makes it easier to do maintenance. But really, is it my fault?

And there’s also the fact that the website was not very informative. Of course, you can always call the pool to know something, but I don’t like the hassle of dealing with people, especially with the existence of a site which should do the same thing. I would love to say that one should not create a website and not maintain it, but then again, that’s what I’ve been doing, so I’ll keep quiet about that, he he.

Alright, that’s enough complaining. In other news, I’m overjoyed to find out from Amazon that Wintersmith will be released in paperback at around September. Heck, I don’t know how long I’ve waited for that one. It just looks odd when you have a series and the books were like paperback, paperback and suddenly… hardcover. It doesn’t go together. Also, Jasper Fforde’s new book was out in July. There was even a book signing event in Borders in Cambridge, unfortunately I wasn’t there at the time, due to me being back in Malaysia. Oh well, I’ll buy these two when I get back to the UK, unless, somebody wants to buy it for me as, say, a present, hee hee.

Finally, probably a divine intervention to all my complaining about being bored and not enjoying holidays in Malaysia, I have to attend this camp thing organised by my sponsor, next week. It’s probably a whole load of motivational talks, group activities… you know, that lot, with a homestay programme thrown in. Unfortunately, this means being separated with my beloved computer and all the games in it that I prepared to alleviate boredom during summer. Hence, even though the camp might be fun, at the moment I’m too despondent to be parted with my computer to see reason.

That’s all folks,

Yaz.

Spoiler?!

I’m frustrated. Furious. More than that, I’m enraged. I feel like killing somebody. And I’m surprised that some people have the audacity to show their stupidity where the whole nation can see them.

The thing is… I was reading the paper today when a headline of an article caught my eye. Really caught my eye. As you probably know, the last of the Harry Potter books have gone on sale. I haven’t bought it yet. If you read my previous posts you’ll also realise that I’ve only read the sixth novel recently. Since I read it so late, I’ve known who died in that book before reading it. Not anybody’s fault; I was having dinner with some friends when the subject of Harry Potter slipped into the conversation and somebody inadvertently mentioned the spoiler. Perhaps because we were really into it, that that person thought that everybody there had read it; and almost everybody had read it anyway. So it was alright, sort of. And she did apologise to me afterwards.

However, this time, it was not forgivable. The books were just on sale for a few days. Regardless of whether millions of people are reading it right now, or the fact that you’re covering the news of fans rushing to the bookstores to buy the books, you just don’t put a spoiler on the newspaper. And most definitely NOT on the title! You don’t say “Fans are [insert emotion here] because [insert spoiler here]”. This is not some kind of amateur journalism, this is one of the most widely read broadsheet paper in the nation! What was the writer thinking? In fact, what was the editor thinking? Gee, thanks. You just spoil the ending for thousands of people. Such professionalism.

Sigh… in some other countries they take spoilers seriously. The fact that a spoiler like that can be published in a major newspaper shows that the mentality of people, at least some of them, in this country is not mature enough, at least where books are concerned. I wish they’ll be bombarded with tons of letters of complaints. The least of the satisfaction that I can get.

Yaz.

The Library

See, the thing is… I can’t really say for sure that the National Library deserves the ‘National’ in its name. Well, the main building is huge, and it has several floors with lots of shelves filled with books but they’re really lacking in what really matters to me. I’ve known lots of clever people, and it just goes that they all read books like ‘Seven Habits of Highly Effective People’ or ‘The Road Ahead’. They tend to indulge in books about self-motivation, self-improvement, or political and philosophical thoughts. But me? I prefer fiction, mainly fantasy. Ha ha, so much for the clever image that I’m trying to build.

But I disgress. The thing is… the fiction section of the National Library is in a separate building. I last went there in 2006 before I flew to Cambridge for the winter term. As such, I was expecting new books after my one year absence. However, to my dismay, there aren’t any. There aren’t any that I’ve noticed anyway. If possible, there seemed to be even less books than my last visit.

So there you go. The library is probably a disappointment to any fiction freaks like me. In the end, I ended up borrowing two ancient and tattered copies of book 6 and 7 of the Wheel of Time (I left my copies in Cambridge, haven’t gotten round to reading them yet). They look so fragile that I’m afraid to read it, just in case they suddenly fall apart and I have to pay for the damage to the books. Still, in any case, I’ll keep going there cause you can’t go to a bookstore every time you have a book craving.

Yaz.

P.S. Don’t you hate it when you found a series in the library and they’re missing like, the first book or one somewhere in the middle, making you unable to read the series? Yeah, me too.

P.P.S. I found Sergei Lukyanenko’s Day Watch for RM70 in Kinokuniya. It was quite surprising! I bought the Night Watch for half that price in Cambridge. Guess it’s a good thing we have all these second-hand bookshops that I can peruse at my leisure.

Update

Hey there! Been awhile. In case you were wondering, I was sick. Caught a cold straight after getting here in Malaysia. Must be the shock of the climate change. Then I was whisked away to a place with no internet connection for like, ten days. Hence the reason for me disappearing off the face of the earth. However, now, as a friend put it, I’m back in civilization.

One thing I don’t like about holidays is the lack of things to do and people to do it with. I prefer the December and Easter ones, because I’m not going home and I can always visit people in the UK and do something. But summer is just three long months without much people contact, not to mention the dial-up connection. I once offered to change the connection to broadband, but the ‘rents don’t agree since for nine months of the year I’ll be gone and there’ll be nobody using it so it’ll be a waste of money (one year is the minimum for broadband service). Good thing before I go back home I stocked my computer with animes, movies and games so at least there’s something to do. Though recently I’ve discovered this aquatic centre nearby so I’ll probably spend some more time there. And I also might go to the national library to read some fiction. Ha ha, it’s a holiday and the place I’m looking forward to is the library.

In any case, I’ll probably keep the blog alive with a few postings every now and then. Don’t expect too much, though.

Wherever you are, hope you guys have an excellent summer holiday! Righty then, I’m offski.

Yaz.

Packing, Leaving

It’s basically one of my least favourite parts of being overseas: putting all your stuffs in boxes, not to mention throwing some away because they won’t fit; getting the melancholic feeling when you see an empty room instead a room with your stuffs strewn all over it; and enduring a thirteen hour flight back home. Gee, what a way to celebrate one’s birthday.

Then again, maybe it’s just me. I know others who were tremendously excited on the prospect of going back home. Crazy people.

Anyway, I wish to say thanks to everybody who had wished me a happy birthday on Facebook and other places. Now that I’m going back to primitive dial-up connection, I might not be able to update my blog as much, so in the near future, if you’re wondering whether I’ve dropped off the face of the planet, then rest assured. I’m still breathing… somewhere.

The next time will be from Malaysia. Cheers!

Yaz.

Good News!

Well, since it’s overdue, I’ll give a recap about what happened during the May Ball, but first, let’s give way to a much more exciting piece of announcement:

I got a FIRRRSSSTT!

Yep, that’s right. A First! A First! A First! First! First! First! FIRRRRSSSST!

My friends and I went swimming in the morning until noon. Then on our way back we decided to stop at the Senate House, where the results are posted, to check them. I was really nervous, for reasons that I’m sure I’ve explained before. I think my friend was, as well, since he dreamt the night before that he got a two-two. So we went there, approached the notice boards and looked at the results. I saw my name absent from the First list and my heart sank. But then it wasn’t on the 2-1 list either. ‘Well, that can’t be right. There’s no way in hell I can get a 2-2,’ I thought. Then I realised it was the year above’s results and ours were just below it. And there’s my name, in the midst of Firsts. I think I screamed out a bit, just like the one above. Ha ha ha.

Oh yeah, my friend got a first too. We were delighted!

The May Ball was awesome. I heard that last year a bulk of the people attending have to queue for like two or three hours to get in but this year I stayed in a friend’s room who lives inside one of the main courts so we got in earlier than the rest of the people. They have tents with different kinds of food inside and at the Neville Court’s cloisters they have champagnes on ice. Not that I tasted it so I don’t know how good they are but from comments I heard apparently they were like £80 per bottle, which is quite expensive as champagnes go, so they must be really good. Next, going out to the backs they have a tent for oysters, nice and fresh. In hindsight, I should have gone back for seconds, thirds and fourths (well, I did go back for seconds) since the oyster tent was only available for three hours until midnight.

There were also tents of Mexican foods, chocolate truffles and cookies, pizza, smoked salmon bagels, ice cream and chocolate fountains, available in milk or white, in which you can drench your strawberries in. They were really good. There were also swings, a giant slide and bumper car rides. Unfortunately, I didn’t take lots of pictures that night. The only ones I have were shots, or rather videos of the fireworks performance, which I must say, was probably far better than the Cambridge City Council’s on Guy Fawkes Night. So there you go.

Notice the river was packed with people. They’re not really attending the ball. They were just folks wanting to catch a glimpse of the fireworks up-close so they parked, or moored their punts on the Trinity part of the river. If somebody falls in, I doubt that person can resurface easily die to the sheer number of punts on the river.

They were also offering punt rides for the night, which sadly, I didn’t take advantage of, since my friends were more interested in the bands and music that were playing. Which reminds me, I’m not usually a fan of live music and bands (though I sometimes dance in my room, with the curtains drawn close) but there was one that was really good and I couldn’t help but join in. I think it was called the Go! Team, or something.

The Ball lasted from nine until six in the morning, but there were always things to do, so you won’t get bored, at least not until the last half hour, when things were winding down. They serve coffee and tea all night too to keep you awake. Personally, when I was tired of walking around I always nipped into the tent where they have stand-up comedians, most of which were really really good. One in particular reminded me of my Londoner ex-roommate, the way they talk is exactly similar. It was very enjoyable listening to the lot.

At the end of the ball they took the survivor’s photo, which is the photo of people who had lasted the whole ball. I was in there, though I’m not sure if I looked okay or if I looked shabby and exhausted with bloodshot eyes.

And yeah, my friends (yes, more than one, and on separate occasions) complimented me on my bowtie, which looked really good, especially for someone who had just learnt how to tie it that very afternoon. Yay, I felt elated!

So yeah, that’s the ball as I remember it. There were other finer details as well but telling each and every single thing here might be pushing it, he he he.

Yaz.

I just learnt…

…how to tie a bowtie!

Went to Marks and Spencer the other day looking for a bowtie. There I met this guy in my college at the bowtie section, so I asked him, ‘Buying a tie for the May Ball?’

He said, ‘Yeah.’

‘You’re buying the one that you have to tie for yourself?’

‘Definitely’ was his answer.

Because of that, I felt reluctant to buy one of those clip-on ones. Guess it’s kinda the same as when you’re in primary school and you wore those clip-on ties. Not bowties, but normal ties. I think I was also influenced by an interview with an army officer that I read somewhere, in which he said he’ll never be caught dead in one of those clip-on bowties.

So here I am, a mere few hours before the May Ball begins, learning how to tie a bowtie. Here’s the end result, what do you think?

Well, couldn’t have done it without YouTube, so I’ll be forever grateful. You know, when I stand at the mirror, looking at it, I can’t really help not feeling a bit like, err… Bond. Ha ha ha.

Yaz.

I Can’t Get Out of Here?!

The thing is, I thought after exams you’re supposed to be free to do whatever and go wherever your heart desires. Instead, I found that not to be the case, for me at least. Don’t know how that happened. A friend in London who was also my housemate when I was in Wales has asked me to visit him there lest, as he put it, he’ll be sad (I must admit, I’ve been putting that off for more than two years already). This time I was planning to, but then I realised that there’s always something going on here in Cambridge these days: a few volleyball matches, end-of-year barbeques, end-of-year get-togethers, the May Ball, and the most awaited unveiling of the exam results, which will happen sometime next week. I really wanted to be there when they announced the results to see it for myself since with this sense of impending doom that I feel at the moment, there’s no way I’m gonna ask somebody else to check it for me, but alas, we don’t know for sure when, exactly, is that going to happen. So there you go. I can’t extricate myself from this place until the end of term. The best I can do is to hope that the results come out early and I have the last few days for a London peregrination, even though that means I have to rush through my packing to go back home.

There was a booming display of fireworks across the sky last night. Right when I was about to go to sleep too, how convenient. Well, that signifies one thing: the May Week is here, and the colleges have started to organise their May Balls. Wonder which college was it last night. Well, I’m really looking forward to the Trinity Ball on Monday. There’ll be food, overflowing wine (and non-alcoholic drinks too, of course), chauffeured punts, fireworks, and not to forget succulent oysters. From nine o’ clock up until dawn. Wonder if I can last that long.

Yaz.

Pollens

I guess I’ll call today ‘The day of the pollens’. But seriously, I’ve been watching from my room window and those white pollens were everywhere, fluttering around ever so gently with the breeze. Some were swirling in my room, even though I opened the window just a teeny bit. Must be a heck of a day for people with hay fever.

Not much happening at the moment but there are quite a few things to wait in anticipation for. There’s the Trinity May Ball, which is going to be on the 18th this year. Speaking of which, I don’t have a suit for it yet. Or a white shirt with pointy collars. Or a black bow tie. Wonder if I should just hire a suit for the night or buy one that is passable to wear some other time. Sigh… to buy or not to buy. That is the question.


Unlike last year, this year we’ll get the exam results before the end of term. And unlike last year in which I wasn’t worried about the results, this year it'll be a nerve wrecking wait. There are people who kept telling me, "Oh, you'll be fine. You'll get a first" and to be honest, that just unnerved me even more since people have put expectations on me. Guess this is what happens when you know you did badly, though to be fair the exam WAS hard, and there was a general consessus about this. Oh well... just wait and see.

Yaz.

Choir

Hello people. I had quite an enjoyable day yesterday. There was an event going on in Trinity… well, two actually… namely the Trinity College choir singing from the college rooftops and from punts on the river. The rooftop one was held at noon while the latter happened at around nine in the evening. I recorded some of the singing on my camera but I stupidly adjusted it to a crappy setting and… well, the videos suck. Shows how much I know about cameras. Anyway, watch at your own risk.

This is the one held at noon.

The other one is held at dusk on the riverbank behind Trinity. My seating position isn’t really the best one… you can’t even see the choir people singing. And there’s the fact that I don’t really have an ear for choir music so I can’t really say anything about it. However, what I can say is that the whole thing by the river feels nice, lots of people gathered together during twilight at the bank with singing voices permeating the whole area. I sat there with my friends and we just chilled and drank some apple juice. Other people brought wines and stuff, hee hee.

And… as compensation for the crappy videos, I also uploaded last year’s one, which is a bit better, I think.

Yaz.

P.S. I would have posted this earlier but youtube takes like one day to process the uploaded video, so there you go.

Failure

This might not work forever due to the ever-changing contents of the internet but in the meantime, it's still functioning and is funny as hell. Type 'failure' into google and click the 'I'm feeling lucky' button. Found this somewhere in the net.

Yaz.

It’s over

Finally, after one year of hard… or maybe not so hard work I finally gained my freedom. My exams ended last Friday at noon. Phew! The thing is, I only managed to blog about it now because a few things had happened that conspired to keep me occupied, namely computer games. I swear, I tried hard but I can’t tear myself away from the computer and stop playing. Must be all those pent-up exam frustrations.

Anyway, I’m sorta back to normal now, or at least as normal as you can get when you know you have a whole month of doing nothing in front of you. My exams went okay… errr, actually that’s not quite true. I was thoroughly and utterly disappointed with my last paper, in which I’ll probably get less than fifty percent. It was that bad. I’m sure I’ve never done any exams so badly like I did that one, not counting Olympiads and the like, of course. Well, everybody else is in the same boat so I guess that’s a comfort, in a way.

We had a punting excursion planned as a post-exam celebration. It was held that Friday afternoon. I was planning to miss it since I have Friday prayers but Henry, our year representative and CUCES president managed to sweet talk me into going. I know it’s because he needed all the Trinity College members that he can get to hire the punts. Still, I relented anyway. We boarded the punt at Trinity and I asked the people in my punt dropped me off at Queens College for the prayers. Going to pray by punt, can’t say I’ve heard that one before.

I’ve told a few people, some engineers and mathematicians, that I’m free now and they told me to stay away just in case they feel like causing me bodily harm. Ha ha, I guess not everybody’s finished yet. As for me and my newfound freedom, I still don’t know what to do with it. Oh well, I’ll think of something. Go somewhere, maybe. As for now, I’m gonna finish FFIX.

See ya!

Yaz.