Meet the Choongs

Ever since watching the series Heart of Greed, taking family portraiture photo or at least having all of them come together to have a family meal has been high on my wishing list. Please note it is on my wishing list, and it would be a different story if I said that it is on my must-do list. To reminisce the past pictures of everybody congregated under one roof during joyous event like Chinese New Year, I have to travel back in time at least some 10 years ago. Farcical it sounds I know. But the fact that everybody is so tied up to life made this kind of thing feasible. Life is a big word, well, you know it. Let’s not get too deep into this.

Yesterday, something somewhat unlikely to happen in the past decade happened. Grandma was the mastermind behind of this, which is grandpa’s 80^th anniversary birthday celebration! This is definitely a wonderful chance not to be missed, by me and everybody else in the family. After all, we are so blessed to have an old man who is in his first 80s and still go strong.

Our most beloved and respected elders

As dusk approaches, we were all present in the private room of a nearby restaurant. “Are you my cousin?” asking one of the lads while looking on doubtfully. I guess this is what we get after getting separated for so long. Alright, don’t get carried away that did not happen. At first, the situation somehow was a tad of blends of awkward and tense, thankfully that did not last long and soon after some noise-makings the party got started! Singing, chit-chatting, eating, drinking, playing, joking, photographing, it was a fun-filled evening. Of course not forgetting the main agenda of the night – grandpa’s 80^th anniversary birthday. So dad led the singing and the celebration started with Happy Birthday melodies performed by everybody surrounding grandpa in the middle together with his cake. The next thing we could see was an unbelievable scenario of a newly turned 80-year-old man dancing spontaneously in the crowd which got everybody’s glasses fall onto the floor.

Grandpa gets HIGH

We were all stunned and at the same time too slow to react. We should have danced too! As I mentioned earlier I always wanted to take the photograph of the whole family and I am just glad that I am finally given the opportunity. Surprisingly I never thought of the moment I could become the photographer myself to capture the family portraiture that I am longing for as for all the while I have been imagining all of us spending money at the commercial photography studio to have us framed beautifully and eternally in the pictures. They say good things come to those who wait, with the gear on my hands, and the given beautiful backdrop of golden lights, I cannot ask for anymore, I am simply delighted.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO THE CHOONGS

*Due to privacy concerns, these are all the photos I could share to the largest extent whilst the portraiture shots will be made undisclosed.

Gotcha

Have it not been the sudden declaration of mid-semester break two weeks earlier ago I should have by now starting to enjoy my actual mid-semester break, which should include a whole lot of activities that I can only be dreaming of them this instance. Should all things go accordingly I should have *starting to dream now* attended quite a few of events starting from Saturday, by kicking off the break with a visit to the Kuala Lumpur Photography Fair (KLPF) at Mid Valley. I have not been to any photography fair this year and at the same time I have been looking high and low for a suitable backpack to carry my camera as well as my laptop (I have not encountered a bag that is really say buy-me-buy-me at my first glance yet). Apparently there will be trade fair, talks, showcase and a model shooting competition too in the fair. On another note, one of the agendas on my planner is the Dogathon, which is a carnival held annually in my university for dog lover, and I was about to attend it too. You should start seeing me posting photos by now if the mentioned dreams were to become reality. And the reality is that I am actually having my midterm test! The sudden break had caused the midterm test to postpone to another week later which started from last Monday after the resuming of holidays. Basically, my plans are ruined, pretty ruthlessly.

Talk about university life. Week 7 is approaching, it is almost like the half of the first semester, until the imminent midterm test, only it hits me that, oh my goodness test are coming, assignments are incomplete, presentations are half-way done etc. These things are making me wondering what had kept preventing me from accomplishing what I should have done. Clearly there is something I need to work it out or else the water will only become muddier. On a different note, I joined the Buddhist society in university. Becoming a part of this society is nothing much more than pure co-incidence whilst I believe fate has destined me to be a part of it I want to make sure the affinity shall be prolonged. I attended the first class of activity last Sunday and I got this little surprise. They had this out of the blue but a memorable birthday celebration for me. The seniors were explaining about the rules and regulations that each of us the new members should abide and unexpectedly names of several other newbies including me were called out to the front of the crowd. We were questioned by the seniors whether or not we know what we did wrong, as if we were like prisoners. I hardly recognize and do not know what on earth I had actually done wrong. It was kind of annoying and embarrassing to be questioned over and over again in front of so many people. So the lights went off and the next thing I could hear was the song “Happy Birthday to you”. Truthfully I nearly pissed off by the anonymous actions right before the lights went off. They got me I guess.

Saya Perkasa Putra

The killing orientation week has finally ended, as now I am already in the midst of Week 3. Looking back at all the text messages that I received from everybody, especially from my family and my friends, I owed everybody a deep thank you and I do not like to say this but I will have to say it out this time. The support and courage I got from everybody really mean a lot to me! Let me just put it in this way, I will barely survive without all of you, THANK YOU! That just showed how a dreadful and painful freshmen’s week I had to put up.

Probably my hardest time in life is my first week in university. Being away from home is not really a big concern for me. What really freaked me out is the idea of being alone in a total stranger place. Now that is what the whole thing is about. From the north to the south, what a transition. That was the first stumbling block to me as I do not really familiar with places in the south. All the while I am under the perception that places down south are just not that, you know, things at the bottom will simply never make the cut. It just never really interests me. I have been living up at the north since kid and I think things on the top are “good”. The feeling is like when Newcastle United had to travel all the way down south to match against Southampton, and worst of all if the Magpies lose… Ok let us stay on track. It will only be a geographical matter, perhaps I should start to learn seeing and accepting what is around me, who knows when the south of Kuala Lumpur might become a place as beautiful as Southern France? Before that, let me ask you what could you possibly do if given a time frame of 120 minutes? There is a word saying, “Tunggu keretapi bagai tunggu buah yang tidak gugur.” If you have not heard of it, tell the rest that I said this! A half an hour car journey could take up as long as two hours travelling by public transport. I suggest the first thing which should be improved in order for the south of K.L. to become a beautiful place like the Southern France is the public transport system. The next thing on agenda would be the toilets in most of the restaurants in town and followed by the litters and rubbish which can be found easily behind every “lorong” of the restaurants. Ok let us not stray too far away again. So I call this post “Saya Perkasa Putra” because of two reasons. Firstly I am going to share a bit of bits in university life up to this point, and secondly to proudly annonce that I had undergone every single moments (although I am not that certain if I really did) of the orientation week which was named the “Minggu Perkasa Putra”. Say I am great in naming.

Let us kick off with the place which I will be staying for the coming 12 months – the hostel. I can not really afford to say it is “my” hostel, I just can not do it! Terrible experience I had when cleaning the room on the first day. Guess what? There were ants making hell freaking lots of nests under the carpet when I pulled the whole piece of thing up! Seemed like I am the guest now and the ants are the master of the room before my arrival and these tiny creatures were crawling all over my body when I brutally demolish their homes but forgive me I had to. It took me like a month until today to finally call the hostel “my” hostel. After countless times of “home-improvement”, it is starting to give me the feeling of my own “home” (but still, nothing beats the real home). The best “home” feeling is expressed when I go back to my hostel in a worn-out condition, specifically after commuting with the frustrating and time-wasting public transports everytime, I would cool myself down for a moment and then smack my head onto the bed and slumber. I only have to study for four days in a week for the first semester, I managed to make myself free of classes on Friday, which allows me to go home on Thursday night and return to hostel only on Sunday. However after some consideration I decided to join the co-curicullum which falls on every Saturday morning, that means I have to return to hostel on the night before Saturday to attend the activity and go home again right after the activity ends. I am pretty much a frequent traveller now, who is sick of the system of the public transportation. Life outside home has been gradually getting better as time goes on and what I need now is only more and more exploration and experiences which will be beneficial to me and most importantly makes my life easier. There are fully air-conditioned with modern decal tinting campus buses which look like one of the express buses out there moving within the enormous campus areas which I think is five times the size of a TARC. Sounds like “best aje kan?” Anyhow due to the large population of the students, regardless local or international students, there will always be excessive demand for the services of the buses, which are relatively scarce, hence suggesting there is a problem in which we economically call it “shortage”. This problem become prevalent during “peak hours” like in the morning, during lunch and dinner and some other periods which might still be unknown to me yet. Sometimes I would think it is a big problem, but at times I would not. The library in the university is also known as one of the most comprehensive libraries it has to offer in the country. Apparently some RM10 million will be spent to maintain the library anually, although it does not look like a multi-million library to me. It would still be my frequent hangout spot as it is the only place I get connection onto the internet. Yeah I know what you are thinking right now. My hostel claimed there are wireless internet connection within the premise but to my disappointment the signal will be in all-time low and weak, which means I will never get to online from the inside and comfort of my room. Crap. The food is the final part I am going to share with all of you. Alright, I eat Chinese food outside everyday be it lunch or dinner ever since I discovered it and I will never eat Malay food again, unless under unavoidable circumstances. That is it.

A lengthy post this is really. I have been spending the last five days to come out with this post. It is just a co-incidence that this post would be probably be published today (if I can go online which I do not think it is likely going to be) which is my birthday. I would also like to take this opportunity to thank all of you who turned up yesterday for my birthday bash. It would be meaningless had it not been your presence. Organizing a celebration is not an easy task, I would like to credit my gratitude to Ms Lim Yi Ning and others who were in part of the planning. I think I will attend Jia’s birthday next year. (Wicked. I got Jia’s text wishing me happy birthday right after I am done with the last sentence.)

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I have a long list of people to thank. These people are none other than my friends. To me, I like to call them mate! In a text message, I love to begin with “Mate!”. Once in a while, these people would come along to lift your heart. That’s the beautiful part of friendship happen to human kind. And it did happen!

Yesterday, Cherry brought me out for dinner. I thought it was going to be a plain and pleasant gathering. Brilliant person like me would had never figured out it was a PLANNED BIRTHDAY BASH! The moment I entered the restaurant I saw Jolin and his girlfriend. I thought we bumped into a dating couple unexpectedly. As I glanced around, (Hey)it’s Luke and Boon Keong! (Hang on)Didn’t Luke says he and Boon Keong are going to attend some Buddha event? (No!)It strikes me now. It’s all PLANNED! I can’t believe it for seconds. Mixtured feelings I had. While we were waiting to be seated, Scott, Henry, Choobs, JC, Desmond, CF, Gary, Lance and Wallace came up and showed up like a team of football players, although none of them looked like one. I knew what is going to happen next. It’s my birthday celebration! I had some moment of silence, maybe I was too excited and totally surprised by this. It just happened and never in my wildest dreams I thought it would be today. It’s actually two weeks earlier than the exact date. In the next few hours we had fun. We were all in joyous mode. I was simply over the moon. It simply lifted my heart and I’m pretty sure that Nyin enjoyed too. Both of us kind of shared the same feeling throughout the night. I’m going to etch the moments into my memory with blade now. Going to bleed a lot, go away now.

Happy birthday everyone! Million thanks. F&F.

Darren van der Waals is the new Sean Kingston

This time last year, I was soaking myself in the beautiful beach of Langkawi, together with 10 other companions. We went hiking up the hill, trekking down the jungle, hopping round the islands, we just explored the island. Browsing through the photographs that we took during the journey, it was discovered that Darren’s hair were still growing, so I made this:

They are like brothers, aren’t they? And Darren can sing too! This ain’t coexistent. Absurd, nonsensical, wacky are the exclusive adjectives for him. He certainly brings joy to every one who knows him! Erhmm to the new Sean Kingston – Darren van der Waals!

On another note, we stunned Chun Fei and Luke totally with our unique way of birthday celebration. It was crazy. So crazy that it prompts me to think twice that we might had as well stun the whole of McDonald’s. It was just another hard-to-delete memories. Happy birthday to both of you!

In the afternoon, I went to Deco’s place to help him out on his computer. The computer’s performance dragged our time dearly. Deco was so actively encouraging by giving me and Darren treats continuously. I just can’t thank him enough for all the treats.

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Scott Boy! It’s this moment and this time again, health is very important! “U must drink water all d time.” So I wish you to have a healthy body like a dragon! HAPPY BIRTHDAY A!

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1997 – I entered class 2A. I was alone all by myself. I heard rumour, rumour about a boy called Ng Zheng Feng had a crush on CYY. Who is Ng Zheng Feng?

2007 – I’m writing this. Today, it’s his birthday, he turns 18 and gets mature and charming older.

He was once known as Ash(because he was a Pokemon fanatic), and then he wanted me to call him as Black(which I don’t know why), and just last year, he made himself famous with a nickname – Bandaraya(as his not-so-choosy style in observing, targeting and liking girls or DDD) After all, in BM, Bandaraya simply means apa pun mahu. He is also my vice-brother. We had an ‘official’ adoption back in 2001. The adoption was partly influenced by the Digimon animation series. In the series, there were 2 sibling characters – Matt and TK. I liked to imagine as if I’m in Matt’s shoes, and Black potrayed TK’s role in reality. Now, when I think back, I feel we were so childish but those were the times.

Fast forward to today, you keep pointing the finger at me because I never celebrate your DOB. So, I have a plan. But it will not work out, because you’re in Singapore now. 10 years, I didn’t realized how long it is until I write this. That’s how long the period of our friendship. When we were in primary school, you were my frequent company for lunch before extra class. I wonder if you could recall the memories? We would sing the Pokemon theme song when we were on our way back after extra class. Your mother asked you to write an essay, but you didn’t do. She reprimanded you in front of everybody in the class by taking me as a GOOD example because I did what she asked. HEHEHEHE. I remember you were damn weak in BM. I think I should stop, I feel not good when I write these, except for the teasing part. But you know it yourself well. Nobody in this world would know you so much better other than me! Undeniable. Even I can’t help myself admitting that I know you best in this world! So, what’s so special about your ex girl? What you said and done in the past doesn’t worthy anymore. You best start prepare yourself well for the coming new year. Reload with ammos, brush up your shooting skills, be prepared, be very prepared, to haunt down all the DDD in Kampar next year! Along the lengthy war, if you think should there be any DDD who fits me, with arms wide open, I’ll be expecting to hear from you soon. It’s the utmost important that you should not forget your BROTHER. Okay! I’ll let it up until this point. Remember! I’m your BROTHER! HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

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Mirror, Mirror on the wall,
Who is the most beautiful girl in the world?

“LIM YI NING!!!”

Hahahaha! Happy birthday to you! Hehehe