Wednesday, August 5, 2009

Coincidentally Perfect

It's been awhile since I poured my memories into my blog. So long that I've forgotten much of August, the last month that I spent in Malaysia. Although I only remember bits and pieces of it, I can say proudly that I've lived a PERFECT 21 years in Malaysia before going over to the UK. Why perfect? Well, like all my blog posts, it's a long long story and you'll have to tune in to know. I spent most of my last month in Malaysia going out with friends, and remaining of it with family and preparations. Glad that I was able to spend some time with friends from Local Uni such as Ching Hong, Eric, CheeLong and Ls, and friends from primary such as Tc, Lts, Woei Sheng, and Sih Aw, brothers such as Yl, Yz, Kc, ciong kaki before I left. I even got to spend time with Tommy, and he really never fails to amuse me with his unique way of thinking. Want an example? Of course you do! Tommy came back on the day of Chin Loong's bday party. And because of the way Tommy neglected his Klang friends the last time he was back, Leong Hoe kept kaopeh/bomb/shoot-ing him. Then when he came to realize about it, his mere reaction was:" Hmm... Don't know why Leong Hoe keep picking on me. I think it's probably because I have a girl friend and he doesn't." LOL, anyone?

It was a real emotional last month in Malaysia, all the more with Tc leaving as well. We organized a surprise birthday/farewell party for him and had a great time. We sent him off the next day and it was really something to see 20 grown up men crying like babies. Almost everyone had a long history with him. As for me, we go all the way back to primary 5. He was my rival, and we disliked each other for no particular reason. But we eventually became friends by accident. Though I changed school after the first sem of primary 5, I was coincidentally placed into the same secondary school with all my primary friends, and we were never separated from then, until that day. He was a brother to all of us. As he was about to leave the platform, memories with him flashed by, and he was there in almost every moment of my life until then. Then I pictured a future of mine without him, and the tears just kept flowing. We all embraced him one last time and he was gone. Though he will be missed, all of us will always be brothers, and I believe that our paths will be merged once again in the future. We'll be waiting for everyone to finish their studies, and we will continue our grand journey together.







" REAL MAN CRY FOR BUDDY, NOT FOR PUSSY" - One of the many quotes of TianYaw which will follow me for the rest of my life

Soon after that, it was my turn. After the departure of Tc, I was certain that I was gonna cry buckets when I were to go down that road. However, we all decided to have a "Happy" theme for my departure, and the initial plan was that nobody was to cry on that day. But, as soon as I hugged Andrew, his tears started flowing and my eyes were starting to water as well. Luckily, the next was Chee Long and the tears just faded because he is really the funniest guy ever, even just looking at his jiao bin (bird face) could make me laugh. I hugged my brothers, my family and said my goodbyes, holding the tears in until I was well out of sight. No doubt it was sad to leave everything that made my life perfect behind, and I had no idea how this experience would change things, but it was a gamble made for our future.

My 21 years in Malaysia came to an end. The journey so far has been pretty rough for me, but as always, coincidences happen that helps me continue on with faith. Most people would know that a lot of unbelievable-drama-like-coincidences happens in my life. Many of them happened in Malaysia and led me to who I believe is the love of my life. My journey here has not been shy of coincidences as well. I was coincidentally on the same flight as SiewYin, and thank God I was. I would be totally lost if she wasn't there. The 14 hours flight was already horrible, landing in London at 11pm was even worse, as they're no trains or busses at that hour. Good thing I got SiewYin and her friends to watch after me while I slept on the floor of the airport till the next morning. Then, I followed them over to Birmingham and I learned a fair bit about life in the U.K. from them. They even brought me to a Genting casino in Birmingham twice in two days. Talk about bad influence, eh? Just kidding! Here are some pics of Birmingham. Will upload Sheffield pics in the next post.














I then made my way to Sheffield on the 10th of September and Zhong Hann met me at the Sheffield train station. Zhong Hann was a senior of mine during secondary and his mom is also friends with my mom and he coincidentally goes to the same Uni as I do. And I'm really lucky that he was here. He showed me where I was gonna live and took me back to his place for dinner. The place that I was gonna live in was a dump. It was filthy, dark, and the furniture was all broken. However, I went over to Zhong Hann's place and it was really nice! It's the same kind of house, with such a big difference. So I was determined to transform my dump into a home. So after dinner I made my way back home, only to be frightened to death. The neighbourhood was pitch black and the entrance to my home made me feel like I was gonna get stabbed and robbed any time. I dared myself to enter the house. As soon as I did, things got worse when the chilling feeling of entering an empty and dark 3 storey house ran up my spine. I tried to fight the feeling as long as I could, but I inevitably ran back to ZhongHann's place and stayed there for the following 3 days until my housemates arrived. Sipeh kokji ar!


I got the chance to walk around the city a bit during those 3 days. Thoughts of home flooded my mind as I walked along the cold streets of Sheffield. It seems like a warm place (as a nice place to live in, because there is nothing warm about the weather, the weather is freezing!). However, it still lacks the warmth of home, friends and family. And as I was wondering, I got a message from Liang Chern's friend who stays in Sheffield. We didn't know each other but he invited me for dimsum lunch and since I had close to no friends in this city, I agreed and went over to meet him. And as I reached the place, I noticed that he (Neow, pronounced as Neo, not niao) brought along some friends. And out of all people, I saw Suzanne there. Another coincidence! Suzanne is my mom's friend's daughter who I met at my birthday party. To be honest, I never expected to see her ever again, let alone to see her in Sheffield. She happens to be visiting a friend of hers who happens to be a friend of Neow who happens to be a friend of Liang Chern who happens to be my buddy since primary. LOL! Small world? I think not. Huge coincidence? Indeed. So we had lunch together and I got to know a few more new friends - Eric (another one!), Steven (a much better one!), Shawn (another one but totally different!), and Rex. They were really nice people and they invited me for some bakuteh at their place in the evening. Since I was from Klang and I was pretty homesick, why not get some bakuteh? It was much better than having the crappy and not to mention expensive food here. So I went over to Steven and Eric's place, and OMG it was heaven compared to my dump. they shared this apartment and its living room was transformed into a entertainment area. They had a wicked projector with sound systems and even a PS3! We had some real good bakuteh and Shawn even made tong sui. So, the day of surprises ended with Shawn walking me back to Zhong Hann's place. He gave me a really bad impression at first because he kept inviting me to join him at the strip club. But, it turns out that he is actually quite a nice guy and there was a reason for him to persuade me into going to a strip club, though I don't know what his real intentions actually are. It seems that he knows a few of the strippers there, and they actually are graduates from the Uni of Sheffield. Unbelievable! At first I was thinking, why would anybody with that high a level of education work at a strip club? But it's actually because the earning power is there. They earn around 900 pounds a day, which is pretty ridiculous if you'd ask me. With pays that high, they should have courses to offer degrees in stripping! LOL!

Now, for the conclusion of the long story. Why would I say that my life is perfect? Even though there were many flaws and unpleasant things that happened to me in the past, I would never be the person I am today if I did not experience those things. I am grateful for everything I have, my family and friends and I am truely blessed with the guidance in the form of coincidences that happen to me. Therefore, I can't have any regrets, but will try to gain knowledge and experience from every particular event that happens. Take care my friends, and live everyday without regrets, and I'm sure your lives will be perfect as well.