Strange Foreign Beauty

After 16 hours of unwarranted travelling, I finally got to my grandfather's old newspaper shop Saturday night at 9.30pm [local time], with an empty stomach after almost 12 hours without food.



The rather classy Sydney Airport Duty-Free Stores



Oh, how different things feel here, compared to the Australian city of Sydney that I have grown so used to in merely 9 months. First off, the weather is HUMID. Got off the plane and my hands already got sweaty. Second off, the traffic JAMS. If someone had the statistics to show, Malaysia would probably be in a top candidate for the country with the most car/motorbike-ownership to population ratio. Third off, people seem to look at me weirdly, and I usually eye them back warily and tense my muscles, just in case. If you have been checking out Malaysian news in the past couple of years, you will probably do the same. I'm not sure how safe it is anymore.

The lifestyle does have its beauty though. The FOOD... what more can I say? Even my grandma's simple homecooked food taste amazingly appetizing. Not that IH food back in Sydney is terrible, but the food over here is simply ... incomparable. Nasi lemak, chicken rice, curry chicken, roti canai ... all at cheap prices! Oh, and Papa Roti coffee bun is only RM2 [equivalent to around A$0.60].



A small sweet desert -- Tau fu fah

Just my lunch, sweet and sour pork, curry chicken with rice



Yum!

Cheap Papa Roti!



Homecooked food after 9 months is always welcoming

Though it has only been 9 months since I was last here, things have changed at home. My Indonesian maid who had been with us for 12 years -- ever since I was 7 -- has finally left home for good. I was surprised, as I didn't know of her leaving until I got back and found her room empty. Not only was she a great housemaid, more importantly, she was a great companion to all of us, especially my grandma. After all those years working and living under the same roof, she felt like family. But now she has left, to take care of her real family. One day, I will definitely go to Indonesia to visit her.

Now that our Indonesia maid has left, it's just my grandpa and grandma here at home now. My grandma has had to take care of the house all by herself -- with the help of another friend of hers -- and it shows: greyer hair, more prominent wrinkles, weaker voice. In addition to her added burden of chores, she still has to cope with degenerating eyes and persistent dizziness. Fortunately, my grandpa still looks pretty strong and fit.

Not sure what she was selling but there are plenty of portable stalls around my area

A developing area

tau

Tau Fu Fah dude with his bike

Driving again! Glad that I didn't forget how to drive!

Visited The Chinese Embassy to get my Chinese visa

Though this photo doesn't show it well, KL's full of skyscrapers!

While KL city is modern and beautiful, Kepong can sometimes feel like a ransacked town

Random two kids who kept looking at my camera while I was waiting in a bank. Asked their grandfather if I could take a photo, and he said sure.

Chinese herbal shop

Chnese herbal stuff...

My aunt's [formerly paternal grandparents'] house. I took the family photo on the left.

Nikon's D100, one of their first DSLRs

Makcik who sells Nasi Lemak almost every morning

Mixing up Chinese herbs

Grandfather's old shop

While home has been rather welcoming with its great food, I miss Sydney. A lot. It hasn't even been a week yet I already miss everything there is to miss about Sydney. The weather, the freedom, the spontaneity, and most of all, the people, my friends -- especially those who I won't be seeing in 3 months' time...

Sydney In a Year

Every beginning has its end.

Packing. Chilling. Saying goodbyes. That signifies the end of my first year of uni. 

It feels as if it has been a long year yet at the same time, a school year feels too short to have passed that quickly. Well, that's another school year of my life, lived, experienced, and gone. 

I like goodbyes. They can be sad and hard, but it feels like the end of a cycle, and the start of a new one. Everything feels as if it has been complete and concluded, while I'm off to take a break and come back fresher than ever.

Right now my room is a complete mess; everything's everywhere, and it doesn't seem like it's going to be cleaner anytime soon today. Well, if only I can put in a bit more effort! But I do enjoy packing as I get to stumble upon weird things that I didn't know I possess: such as sewing needles and thread! 

I have been looking forward to leave since a couple of months back. Back then, pressured with assignments and activity, I remember working in the computer lab and drifting off to daydream about home and travels; what I'm going to do, what I'm going to eat, where I'm going to go. Now, it's all turning into reality. 

This is the first big summer break that I have big plans. Malaysia, HK, China, and possibly Japan. Plans can't get better. At least not while I'm still 18. 

Next stop, KL. 

Madness - it's November!

Hey all,

Classes are finally over while I anticipate the coming of exams in the next 3 weeks. The past three weeks have seen me receiving some of my major assignments for different courses [of which some I did poorly while others I excelled it], finishing up a group assignment, and perhaps most interestingly, forgoing the opportunity to become the chairperson for IHMA next year.

Well, that credit goes to Tiffanie, who I believe is a more than worthy candidate for the role. She's hardworking, creative, organised, committed, and responsible -- substantial qualities that I admire deeply. Along with my gladness for her, I'm also happy of my decision to let go. With the pressure off my shoulders now, thinking clearly, I believe that I would not do well as the chairperson. Perhaps not because I'm not good enough, but because I have other priorities in mind. But despite not going for the chairperson role, I do intend to be part of the general committee next year if I do make up my mind to stay in IH.

Yes, I'm currently still have not made up my mind as to whether I will stay at IH next year. It's a great place, lots of activities, lots of friends, lots of fun, and I don't need to cook! But looking ahead, it's an ideal sheltered community, one that's not an accurate reflection of the working world. However, people have argued that I'm not even working yet and I should live in International House for as long as I study. A point, which I find agreeable. Perhaps I'm moving too fast. Perhaps I'm being too harsh on myself, by trying to force myself to accelerate my growth at a faster rate than is healthy, or optimal. I do definitely would like to have the feeling of earning money and carry my financial burden myself, but perhaps now's not the right time for that. I'm sure I would have a chance to do so in the future; or rather, I'd HAVE to do it in the future. I'll make a final decision by this Friday.

Speaking of the future, I'd be turning 19 in only a little over a month. 18 really did pass quicker than I anticipated and even though I usually subconsciously like to tell myself that I'm 22, I do acknowledge and feel proud that I'm actually only 18. To be honest, I feel like a very capable 18 year old, one who has gone through more, know more, and understand more than most other 18 year olds. And the younger I stay, the better I feel about myself: all this ability, at only 18 years of age -- with potential to grow and improve. Well, I'm actually digressing from the point that I wanted to make, which is that I need to appreciate the one precious month that I have left before I'm 19. Over the past few months, I have not been 'conscious' of the fact that a month goes by fast, but it actually does. A month, four weeks, more or less thirty days. That's not a lot of time, to be honest. Gotta grasp this short month and live like an 18 year old.

November! Finally, it's that month that I've anticipated so much since August/September for various reasons. May everyone have a good month.

A happy picture of me with Bo An, this November...

Three More Weeks!

Hey all,

Week 10 of school just went by and that simply means that there are 3 more weeks of school left! Well, classes at least. I'd still have 1 week of study vacation holiday and 2 weeks of final exams after that. Despite having gone by the period of the semester when most assignments are due, I still have 1 more major ECMT group assessment due between now and the last day of class. So: I'm not exactly free of schoolwork just yet.

Work has been tedious for the past couple of weeks. It's getting less and less busy, and with nothing to do, time passes incredibly slow. My bosses have also been rather hard to talk to lately, perhaps because I told them that I am going back home before Christmas -- the busiest time of the year when they need more staff to be available. They told me that it was bad timing. Well, I can't help it, because home is home and that's as important as it gets for me. If they do decide to set me off next year when I come back, I probably wouldn't be too opposed to the idea as working while studying has definitely been a setback to my university life.

Outside of school and work, I have been working out of course. This week has been rather productive as I went to Wentworth park twice to make use of the recreational facilities there. Some quiet time by myself while working out during the golden hour felt refreshing. The body has also been quite honest lately and I feel stronger than ever. Last Thursday, I also went to the Magical Music of Disney concert performed by the Sydney Youth Orchestra. I got the ticket a couple of months ago and almost completely forgot about it. The concert turned out to be fantastic as it brought back old memories of childhood. Listening to the wonderful music and remembering the plots of these Disney classics (ie Tarzan, Aladdin, Hercules, Mulan, Lion King, Beauty and the Beast etc.) now made me realise how meaningful and deep these Disney films are. Despite the fact that almost every protagonist fulfills his/her goals, make optimistic friends in the process, and gets their romantic interests in the end, the storylines are full of cultural symbolism that teach kids a lot about the world.

Magical Music of Disney Concert

Photography-wise, I got a second-hand Fujifilm X100 as an experimental camera recently. Have been wanting to get this beautiful retro-styled camera a couple of months ago but prices then were too high. Now, with the recent release of quite a number of cameras, the X100 has dropped in price and I managed to get a relatively new second-hand one with a lens hood set for less than $700. There have been plenty of mixed reviews regarding the camera, with a majority of people absolutely adoring it and a minority of people despising it. With the camera in my hands now, I think I am part of the majority. The camera, so light and quiet compared to my D7000, is beautifully crafted and thought-out. It resembles an old film rangefinder with its shooting design: with aperture control on the lens and shutter control on the shutter dial. Performance-wise, it surpasses my expectations, with ISO up to 3200 usable and almost noise-free! The white-balance is also unbeatable, producing beautiful tones in colour and B&W. However, perhaps the thing that makes this camera so unique is its interchangeable hybrid optical and electronic viewfinder. I have never owned a camera that uses either, and so far it has been a great joy to use. Totally unexpectedly awesome camera. With a quiet shutter, I have been using it to take street photos, and below are a couple that I managed to snap just yesterday. 

The X100... (Taken with D7000, processed with Silver Efex Pro)

Students studying for an exam on a Friday evening

Walking towards the exam hall...

Project Solitude

Hey all,

If you have been keeping up with my Facebook or Flickr, you'd know that I've recently just completed a photography project called Project Solitude. It's a rather short project, with one photo for five consecutive days.

The motivation for this project came from my experiences this semester. There was a period of time when I felt really tired, lethargic and unmotivated. I felt like I was just living a life made up of routines: going to classes, going to work, do homework, eat, shower, etc etc. I didn't feel like there was much adventure in life. No new experiences, not much outgoing stuff (mainly because I wanted to save money), and lately, limited engagement in sports. As a result, I felt secluded and lonely, with too much time to myself to think about things that did not seem to matter or would never happen. All of my previous commitments were partially compromised: I was hardly involved with the USyd photography society and Buddhist society. In other words, I wasn't healthy mentally and emotionally.

Although it felt bad at first, thinking that I wasn't doing anything useful by living in solitude, but slowly I started to appreciate it more. I realised that solitude comes to everybody once in a while, and most of the time, we need that quiet and lonely moment to understand ourselves better. This resulted in this new photography project, and also marks an initiation to leave the secluded world of mine and to work and keep myself busy and adventurous again.

Upon completion of the project, I'm actually really glad of what I've accomplished. Though it was short, I thoroughly enjoyed the process of planning out every day's photo (you can see the plans below). I'm particularly glad that I have a really reliable buddy of mine, June, to be my photographer for 4 of the 5 nights. Han, another reliable buddy of mine, filled in for her on the 4th night. I also had Kevin Joh, my buddy in the States, to help me with a couple of the poems that I've included with the photos. Overall, I felt that this wasn't merely a photography project, but also an excuse to hangout with my friends. Thoroughly appreciative of that. Thanks guys!

Anyways, since you guys can check out the final photos on Facebook or Flickr, I'll just post the shooting plans that I outlined and you can see how much the final photos adhere to them:

Day 1

Day 2

Day 3

Day 4