The Long "Vacation" Is Officially Over!

Thursday, June the Fifth 2003

as early as ten in the morning we were already on our way to the island... yup! though i hardly slept during the night, i felt refreshed and rejuvenated... hahaha... such dramatic words... hahaha... actually... inside my tummy there were sooo many butterflies fluttering wildly... overwhelmed by what would i encounter ahead... unpredictable... and i wished that i wouldn't have to listen to things that could dishearten my chaiyok and soaring spirit... but i knew... whatever it was... i would never retreat from the battle... this battle... i must win! i must win!

around noon... i managed to meet the officer in-charged and asked her things to clear all my doubts and confusions... alhamdulillah... she assured me that i would be okay and fine and even gave me great advice that was immediately churned as an additional boost to my presently motivated self... hmmm... it is really nice to know that someone really understands what i've gone through all these past gloomy days... feeling recharged, i went to sara's office to say hi and perhaps to take lunch together... but she was not around... i was thinking to meet my supervisor sometime in the afternoon but without sara around, i changed my plan and tried to take a peek whether he was in his room or he had already gone out for lunch... yup! 'luck' was with me... as i went through the general office entrance to go to his room... there he was... standing beside his clerk and was about to get my phone number from the clerk and remind me about the so-called 'online registration'... it was like spoke of the devil thingy and of course there popped the devil! hahaha... anyway... the good news is... i'm not a devil... i am only an infamous trouble-maker as one of the academicians greeted me... "the trouble-maker has come back," he said... and i said, "horraayyy! someone has spotted one of my astrological traits... hehehe... blewp...

to coming back to the original point... yeah! please blame my silence and ignorance... i was not aware that my supervisor has been promoted as a 'timbalan dekan' and his room is now at the general office... okay... okay... my fault! anyway... we had quite an awkward conversation... maybe my guilt was at its highest notch and at the same time i tried to 'control macho' and 'control slamba'... of course some sarcastic remarks and gauntlets were thrown at me... i am his history... i am the first one... and of course i am honoured to be the one... said i... hmmm... did i cry? why must i... i smiled... i was not intimidated... i am rumput sanchai! i've decided to come out from the cave... to break the thick skin of self-abnegation... to be the real ultimate mummy again... thus... nothing could dissuade me... nothing could dampen my existing chaiyok spirit! nothing! chaiyok! chaiyok! chaiyok!

after the breathtaking meeting... we went to astaka gelugoq... dila's request because she really liked the ais kacang over there... i only had two bowls of iced lei chee kang and my laksa was left untouched... my appetite was silently sipped by the hot afternoon penang air and also by some technical problems that dila and me encountered which urgently needed to be solved so that everything would run as scheduled... we pondered... we listed down some plans... we called friends for advice... and we cast our glances far away as if the solution would come out from somewhere... nil... tired... we went to look for my coordinator to get the registration form but he was not around... we decided to make it a day and arrived at my long left apartment around five thirty in the evening... i was really looking forward to meet siti... gave her a hug... and exchanged news... normally she would be back around maghrib yet she was no where around... i tried to get her on her phone but there was no answer... oh dear... i found her medical letter stating that she had something that my sister had gone through previously... it was already late... we decided to look for her the next day at the hospital... i felt so foolish and sad blaming myself repeatedly for not being there during the time she was in pain... the worst was for not even asked about her health and well-being as frequent as i could... bummer! i am such a moron!

the night was getting late... i slept at 12.30 and woke up around 3.15 in the morning... as usual... unfortunately my phone line was disconnected else i would have the pleasure of getting online and thrashing stuffs out to you awang kenit... thus... the waking hour was spent by sketching plans and more plans... doing the laundry... and rearranging the room...

Friday, June the Sixth 2003

chaiyok! chaiyok! chaiyok! i hollered at dila's ears to wake her up at 6 a.m. and be ready for the day... hahaha... a big echoed holler resulting from both jealousy and excitement... really... she really slept soundly like a baby... memang sungguh menjeleskan... hahaha... chaiyok! i dragged her to the university's conference hall at 8.30 in the morning to listen to an enlightening talk "Multiculturism and the Writer's Perspective" delivered by Prof. Bharati Mukherji from University of California Berkeley... it has been quite sometime since the last literature input and i found the talk was excellent and deep... caressing my literary senses and waking them up from the unrestful slumber... thank you my dear supervisor for inviting me to the talk... anyway... hahaha... dila almost felt asleep... hahaha... maybe accountancy and literature can't really make an ideal pair... hehehe... kesian dila... after the talk ended we joined a group of mat sallehs during refreshment and delightfully exchanged stories about malaysia... they were very friendly indeed and cheerfully introducing themselves to us... unlike... some of my friends who didn't even invited dila and me to sit with them at their table... huh! do they even deserve to be called as friends?

around 11.30... i went to get my registration form from the course coordinator and met marina... my closest coursemate... we are in the same boat... we are in the midst of our thesis writing... most of my other coursemates are still attending and repeating the courses... yup! until now i am not really sure and can't figure out or understand why the courses are that tough to pass... is it because of our own limited capacity having not so much brain as our lecturers do? or is it because the lecturers just want to make our life a living hell? hehehe... i don't know... i really don't know... and that's the 'beauty' of doing a postgraduate study... hmmm... alhamdulillah i passed all the courses without repeating any... opppsss... but the thesis writing... dila said that i didn't fail the paper as a fail should be i.e. after a long a laborious effort but i failed the paper because i wanted to fail myself, experience what does it feel to fail, meditate, recover and bounce back from the mistakes... and furthermore there were some other reasons why i had to fail... fuyyoo... i didn't say this... it was dila's... hmmm... iyea ke? hehehe...

we had a lunch date with sara at the red house... it was a hectic registration day and we didn't want to go out far from the university for lunch and ghonjeng... sara then treated us baskin robins ice-cream to lift up my spirit and as a medical dosage for my new gotten migraine... erk... ice-cream? migraine? hahaha... oh yeah... how did i get that sudden migraine? before meeting sara, i dropped by at my supervisor's place to submit my research plan... my chaiyok spirit was soaring high and without further thinking my big mouth blurted out that i was interested to participate in an international conference organised by him sometime in august... my original intention and mindset was only as a participant who would listen and take notes... but... he said he wanted to give a bit of pressure and asked a.k.a paksa rela me to present a paper together with him... zappp... that bloody migraine hit me... really bloody because the banging in my head ceased to subside not until sunday... a bit pressure? seemed galloons of it... erk... anyway... i am rumput sanchai... chaiyok! chaiyok! chaiyok! gambate kudasai!

3.30... the so called 'online registration'... i got 888 out of 1,000... my turn number... the number that was needed to queue and get 'inline' to pay for the bills and register for the paper... hahaha... dila was luckier... she would also have to register on that same day but her university's concept of 'online registration' was getting an internet connection or going to the cybercafe, clicked at the registration site and registered the courses there... just from the comfort of your home... really efficient and techno savvy... unlike some people... me... anyway... out of an acquaintance's courtesy... she gave me her number... 596 and with that number i finished my registration around 6 something... huh! just imagine what if i had to use my original number the 888... my other coursemates got 900 something... i wondered when did they finish their 'online registration'... i don't want to make any comments but i really wish to say this, "hey dude! haven't you heard about online banking or credit card convenience?" hmmm...

i got the chance to watch juana... yesh! after maghrib around nine we went to the hospital to visit siti... my guess was right... she was indeed being admitted... ouch! guilt swept all over me once more when i received her sms earlier telling me about it which confirmed my guess about her wherebeing... though the visiting hour was over we were allowed to visit her for a short while... oh dear... there she was looking a bit frail... we exchanged news and stories about our well-being and i was constraining myself from dropping my pearls when hearing her tragic experience... i really wish that she will get well soon... may Allah bless her and give her all the strength and patience to endure the hardship of life... her act of kindness for still letting me to further stay at her house really made me hard to suppress my touched emotions... thank you siti and i will surely repay back what i owe you... get well soon dear! :-)

that late night dila cooked us mamee... hahaha... such a nutritional dinner... then i slept at around 12.30 and woke up at 3.15 a.m.... i continued to rearrange and clean the room... only at around 8.30 in the morning did i finish the task... hahaha... a new semester = a new outlook... semester vs. ovester (legally blonde)... the new semester has arrived and the 'next sem' plans must be realised... chaiyok!

Saturday, June the Seventh 2003

jalan-jalan negeri perak... we left the island around 11 and headed to jawi exit to go to parit buntaq... we wanted to drop by at kak su's house and pay her and the newborn baby a visit at kampung setar... the place was mesmerising... yellowish paddy fields were ready to be cut and processed... dancing gleefully amidst the soft gush of wind... standing humbly under the sun... those paddies are bowing in grace waiting to serve mankind... ahhh... peaceful indeed...

abang khahar, kak su's parents were not around... they were in perlis... we stayed until 1.30 p.m. and after series of relinquishing our thirst and emptying our bladder... hehehe... we decided to continue our journey down to kuala kangsar using the old route or jalan dalam... we passed through bagan serai, sungai kepar, selinsing, kampung dew (fuyyoo! omputih tuuu... according to opah my great ancestor cycled his bicycle from kuala kangsar to kampung dew just to get two kilos of rice during the japanese occupancy), kamunting, changkat jering, simpang halt, jelutong, bukit gantang, kampung pauh, padang rengas and finally arrived at kuala kangsar... we bought hot banana fritters and cucor udang infront of kota lama mosque and zrasss... to opah's house... after the afternoon tea around 5 p.m... as the banging in my head was getting louder and uncontrollable i was definitely and totally knocked out... pengsan koma tahap cipan kaki lapan... woke up at 8.30 for half an hour to bathe and eat dinner... then continued sleeping at 10 until 8.30 in the morning... fuyyooo... i really felt like einstein and hua zhe lei... kah... kah... kah...

Sunday, June the Eighth 2003

alhamdulillah... the almost 15 hours of sleep had enabled me to feel better... no more banging in the head... no more the dreadful lethargic feelings... and of course... i was ready to hit the road again... dila had to register for her hostel... it was 11.30 a.m. and there were so many vehicles on the highway... then i realised and remembered that the school holidays and the long semester break were over... people were rushing home to get back into business... i drove extra careful and only stopped for awhile at r&r tapah to buy my favourite vadee... lucky me... i managed to get the last four pieces... nyum... nyum...

gombak ooo gombak at around 2 p.m. and dila registered for her room... yeah right... level four again! pish... posh... pish... posh... i helped her cleaning up the room from 3 p.m. until 10 p.m... this was the first time she had to clean up her new room this hard... obviously the previous owner of the room was not a responsible and clean person... the fan was black and thick with dusts, ankabut webs were hanging loose here and there, the windows were absolute mess, there were garbage under the bed, on top of the cupboard and book shelves, the walls were tainted with remaining tapes and ugly patches of posters... iurghhh... yukky indeed... dila never got a room as messy as this... this was the worst ever... it makes me wonder what kind of girl living in this room before and my truest sympathy to the person who is going to marry this girl... i pray and hope that she would change her attitude :-|

Monday, June the Nineth 2003

11.01 p.m.

i am still at dila's place to spend another night here... my original plan was to go to ampang and spend the night at opah an's house, to do a bit of laundry over there and thus to get online and copy and paste this offline entry into the forehead of awang kenit... hehehe... however... fortunately/unfortunately dila is now at the field having a demo training and i do feel too tired to climb down the stairs... heheh... thus... here i am in her yet to be decorated room editing my offline entry while listening to f4's... muahs... muahs... hehehe...

this entry might be the most significant ever for me... what i've gone through these past few days really set as a promising tunnel towards an opening... the lights that may shorten the length of this ever roaming and walking shadows... the ultimate exit that i've been searching all these years...

today... my whole morning was spent at the library registrating myself as a member and doing some readings... i guess i need to get rid of this library phobic thingy... hahaha... so, membership of any other libraries? heheh... let me see... perhaps nu, mu, mmu, unitar... soon...

okie dokie... i feel abit drowsy after eating bakso... errr... let me lay down for a while and wait for dila to come back... her three other new roommates are nowhere to be seen... two juniors from human sciences and one international student... hahaha... speaking london sokmo la dak dila... hahaha...

okeh... i'll stop the rambles now...
CHAIYOK mummy CHAIYOK!
full stop.