captain ball

d

the author decided to remove the post coz she felt tat others mite not like to be written about. but ya, she jst wanna say she had fun on the field on sunday with a bunch of great ppl. :)

stray

i felt strayed in penang this round...
a

houses around komtar

odd ones

old old houses

lonely wait

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My last trip was exciting. But this time i felt so paria without a car and direction. Like a stray girl wondering around in a foreign town. I'd to blinked at taxis or negotiate with kereta sapu & prayed for buses. Either alternatives has it's own risks. Bus mite not come, kereta sapu mite leave, taxi drivers will rob u (by your permission).

f

Take going to Queensbay mall for instance, from USM, i took a bus to bkt jambi. Didn't feel i fit in there, so i took another bus to Queensbay mall. (actually, i din know where i wanted to go, simply popped a name- wherever the bus would take me. On few occassions, i even asked the bus driver to tolong beri tau saya bila sampai). So ya, imagined being dropped off at a free way. Crossed 7 car lanes to Queensbay. (Any sane mummy would forbid their kid so).

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There weren't any public bus service at Queensbay. Save ludicrous taxis again. (Rm 25 were the starting rate, even if your destination is 7-15 mins away). No kereta sapu this time. So i actually walked a few miles down to sg nibung bas terminal. thx God the bus came. I got off at jelutong (bus-stop at pic above) where my host picked me up.

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some jottings over the week :

- dropped a pencil inside my piano keys.

- my car got splattered with paint. thx god for my colleagues who fought for me. i was in freeze mode. thx god the paint was water base.
- komtar's like dead. however i'd feast of the eye. saw an old chinese couple holding hands there, a madman flinging some junks at pedestrians, trishaws, tourists...

- in both of my flights, i got the whole row reserved jst for myself. (plane's rather empty)

- penangites are mostly helpful when i asked for directions. Busy shopowners, counter girls, bussengers...

- it's good to have friends. I made one in my taklimat over USM. She came from a mixed parentage of malay & chinese. Was very curious about my religion. She's got some cousins who are christians.

- when i was waiting, like waiting, really waiting for bus (if there's any?), i half wished i'd be kidnapped home. now i'm starting to appreciate certain dark green cab, even though i din call for it. ;p

- i'm asking myself if time = pennies, how wd i invest it in? i gota be intentional about the things i'd wan to do. otherwise, i'll be jst trailing along... i guess i'd like to blame the uncertainties...but i can't.

- i'm tired of keeping the frills. kinda like things simple.

- a man of the northern thai hill tribe needed 1000 baht to send his son to school. he din have the money. So he prayed. Just b4 registration, he caught 2 big fishes at a lake, weighing about 7kg which he sold at 500 baht each. I saw the fish pic ! taken by my host who's active in missions among the thai bei hill tribes.

weirdings

Ok, so i was tagged by hl to write on my weirdings :

6 weirdings by el'z :

1. the right upper half of my sensory-motor nerves are neglected.
i chew on the left jaw. watch with my left eye. hand the phone over to my left ear. misses most of my right shots. yet i'm RH. most of the time i'm just confused between the two.

2. i can't make up my mind about what to eat.
it came to the point that food suddenly appeared on my table without me ordering it - ppl just order them for me instead. hope that indecisiveness doesn't extend to other areas. u know, like julia roberts in runaway bride? ;p

3. i'm usually the last kid on the block to notice who's with who.
like, one yr later... i was also named miss blur no.1. read here.

4. i love the smell of tobacco
i've got tobacco flavored perfume and some tobacco ashes on my bag to make me feel refresh

5. I sleep and wake up in stages... i work in momentum
u can catch me in pig mode or workoholic mode at diff season in life.

6. when i feel stressed out, i'll start to scribble nonsense over my wall
so that's why nobody's allowed in my room. too much abstract art. oh oo..

Well, that's me for now. but i'm sure the list is longer...since what's normal to me mite be off for them. btw, 4 & 6 are false. any other weird stuffs commited by me ??

once upon penang

life is about remembering and forgetting...

f komtar*

fffe

Returning to the place that bore me at the very hour where I was deciding for my future was prophetic. See, this is my first time touring alone - to my birth place - for interview to go away. It was like freeing myself from the umbilical cord. most ppl took their pilgrimage way earlier thgh... :)

Penang hill
After my interview, I took the cable car to the peak. Wanted to hike up, but someone warned me earlier that i was a girl. Penang was lovely from top. I could see the long stretch of Penang bridge. The neighbouring land didn't look that far. Think the island grew. I am glad to see a few lumps of unstripped hills though the land were laid with brown roofs. And tall rectangles (hotels, apartments) sheltered the beach side.

Walked to Methodist centre. It's about 700-800m away from the tourist spot. After trotting 50ms on a lonely path dotted with butterflies (they have intricate batik printed wings. I think the government painted em' to attract tourist), mom called. Go back said her. So ended my solo journey.

cable car in Penang Hills back in 80s fffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffff

swinging myself at methodist centre. (recall the prev post with me on swing? i started young ;p)

Ayer itam
The taxi's price is nonsense at Penang hill. So walked me to ayer item town instead. With a partial map & hp as my assistants, I headed towards the intimidating Kek Lok Si temple, wanted to sample food at the famous market here. But halfway through (bit lost also), I spotted a few busses and hopped in quickly (the bus would wait till it's full before they move). "To Komtar I go" said I. Suddenly my host called and hijacked my trip. Home I went.

Why do all the caring people have to destroy my adventure? I stayed with an old couple who pastored my family church in penang. They're nice.

Batu Ferringgi
Next day I took kereta sapu (rm 5) to komtar. Was I to ask for bus-stands, the Penangites would suggest that I walk instead. (komtar = puduraya; most bus-stop seldom work thgh). From there I traveled on to Batu Ferringgi. Penang is... Hong Kong-style flats, Old straits-like terrace houses with wooden silted windows, british colonial mansions, suave hotels & condos... a medley of architectures & culture squeezed in an island. You’ll also find churches, temples, idols –at every nook and crook of the street.

It was 2 in the afternoon when I hit Golden Sands. A stretch of white flour, ang mos & water sports sellers I descried. The beach was too sunny for a sight and the sand too hot for a stroll. Met up with a friend there. (Well, one good reason for joining i-bridge ;p). We trashed into Rasa Sayang. Btw, the rates start with 4 digits. The security guards could tell that we were non-guests. Rights... Laters, we went on a eating spree & i'd a free tour around Penang.

cendol, laksa, oo-jian, lok-lok, kuey teow teng, wan tan mee, prawn mee, otak-otak, apung --> went into my stomach at penang.

birth of the maestros (or so my parents tot).

ffffff lil' big bro @ botanical gardens
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p.s - dad took the camera. No photos :( took the komtar pic fr a postcard n edited it in photoshop p.p.s - You can board star shuttle fr sbg parade straight to lcct. It's only rm 9 !! p.p.s - tmnet finally mended my slow connection probs. after 3 calls... blogspot kept eating my paragaphs and pics ! technologies. i love and loathe thee.