When Dad called me that night you slipped into a critical condition, I froze in utter fear. I wasn’t prepared at all. Not now, not this early; was the only thing I had in my mind. I booked the first flight out of Melbourne the next morning as Dad flew to KL that night itself.

It was the worst flight I have ever had in my entire life. Eight whole hours of pure agony; completely cut off from the outside world while all the while knowing that you might leave anytime, anytime at all. I prayed, and prayed hard, if only you could hold on.

I kept revisiting the day I left KL. You were lying down, with a blanket of needles on your body as you were scheduled for acupuncture that morning as part of the traditional Chinese medicine treatment you held on so dearly in hope when Western oncologists waved the white flag on the relentless progress of cancer in your body.

Uncle was waiting outside the hospital with my luggage all loaded into his car. I held your hand and gave you an awkward hug all the while trying not to bend any needles. I gave you a long, hard look knowing it would be another six months before I’d see you again. I couldn’t remember what we said, but that motherly smile you gave stuck in my head all throughout.

I walked out of the hospital doors with a heavy heart, towards uncle waiting in his car. Little did I know my two-week stay with you in the traditional Chinese medicine hospital would be one of my last memories with you. “Don’t worry about mom,” uncle told me on the way to the airport, “Live every moment while you’re there in Australia. Your mom would’ve wanted that.” Every inch of me thought six months would just come and go, and then we’d be reunited again. I was so sure of it.

–

Eight hours did go by, and soon I found myself running past doctors and nurses, hospital beds and wards, stopping short just before the door to your ward in Palliative Care.

You were all smiles when I walked in. I clasped your hand in mine, while immediately noticing the tubes attached to you and your swollen right arm as a result of the upper arm fracture you suffered from the fall you had back in the traditional Chinese medicine hospital. My heart sank.

I remember just saying, “Ma.” I know you’d recognise me, but you were hardly able to speak. Neither was I, for your motherly gaze and that smile you wore was more than enough to sent me choking with emotion, tears, and a lost for words.

You were both attentive and alert, and had the complexion of a perfectly healthy person. How you managed to pull through the night before; cold, lifeless and gasping for air, only God and his grace knew. But the next few days we spent together in the ward with you as a family, dad, sister and I, was one of the most fulfilling periods in my life.

I’m sure you’d already know this, but we have the most amazing relatives around. Your sisters, despite their hectic office hours, braved through the notorious KL traffic to visit you every single day. So did cousins and grandparents who frequently tagged along whenever they could. Every day without fail, your ward would be filled with friends and relatives as we decorated the windows and walls with origami cranes and hearts, filling the room with love, songs, laughter and happiness all the while trying to keep that lovely smile on your face, which really wasn’t hard to maintain at all. And all these simply wasn’t possible without such warm and touching family ties.

“This room is full of love,” Dr. Tan would say as he concluded his morning check-up on you, looking around at all the hearts and cranes on the walls he continued, “Can you share some with me? I lack of love.”

Due to your brain condition and lack of energy for speech, you were slow and remained mostly quiet — in speech. But one of my fondest memories of you during those days with you was the little nods and expressions you’d make whenever we’d try to communicate or ask you something. There were times you’d mutter hilarious single-replies that sent everyone in the ward into laughing fits. You’d greet every visitor with that generous smile of yours and even occasionally with a soft “Hello.” whenever you felt a little better.

Mom, such positively is what you instill in others without much effort, even when you’re the one who is bedridden. Your spirit and willpower is without a doubt, the strongest in anyone I know. No one I know has the capacity to pull through six years of such a damaging disease without a single complaint. But you did.

–

When doctors took you off steroids later that week, you fell into a deep, serene sleep. That night, aunt celebrated her birthday with all of us in the ward in front of you. Everyone was there, grandparents, uncles and aunts, cousins and all. You were so tired you slept through the whole party. Photos of aunt cutting her cake with you sleeping away in the background still bring tears to eyes to this day.

You never really did wake up. We never really found out how conscious were you. You did manage a sip or two of milk the next morning with your eyes closed. But you looked so serene sleeping away all day and night we felt it was bad to wake you up.

You were deep asleep when you took your last breath.

It took awhile for us to notice something was amiss as you spat out water you failed to sip on. We started calling out to you, shaking frantically for you to wake up.

I ran out to the nurse’s station, choking with tears and disbelief, stammering at a bunch of nurses, “My mother. Breathing.”, I swallowed hard, “Stopped breathing. Please, come!”

–

It was the 9th of April. And we were all by your side.

With six years of cancer under your belt, it was a miracle you were in little or no pain at all.

Your wake was unlike any other. Not that I have attended one before, but close friends of yours came up to us saying there was definitely a joyous air surrounding the otherwise solemn aura of funeral parlours. “I wouldn’t worry about your Mum now,” Aunty Gui Li told me and Shuyi, with a slight smile as she gazed towards you.

It was like a grand finale of a theater play; where all the cast make a grand reappearance on stage and when we’d feel a tinge of sadness upon knowing that the show has come to end.

Characters of the stories you have been telling us of your childhood; your adventures with high school friends, of your popularity among boys in school, all showed up in real life. People we’ve never met before walked up to sister and I, “I sat beside your mother way back when we were in Primary One,” a former classmate of yours would tell us, “You should know that she was an amazing friend to me.”

–

Mom, Melbourne’s such a lovely place. I wish you could see the things I see, go to the places I’ve been. It’s a whole new world out here, and I’ve opened my eyes to a lot of things. I had been looking forward to you coming, wishing I’d be able to show you just how beautiful Melbourne is. But that’s okay, Dad and sis will still be coming over after my finals and I’m sure they’ll very much enjoy their time here.

Dad’s at the height of his career. His efforts in his field are starting to garner attention throughout the country. Something I’m surprised that it hadn’t happened sooner, given how dedicated and meticulous of a man he is. You know him better, Mom. After all, you’re the one who chose him.

Shuyi’s doing great, too. She’ll be doing her A-Levels really soon and frankly, nobody’s worried about her given her track record in academic success. I see a lot of you in her, Mom. And and that only means she’ll be shaping up into a fine young woman by the time she completes her studies in the UK.

Don’t worry about us, Mom. As you can see, we’re coping fine. We take comfort knowing that death is just the end of one life, but the beginning of another; a beginning of something more.

Sometimes we’d grief or cry, but that’s just us trying to adapt to that void; little things we’d come across on a daily basis that inadvertently leads us to be reminded of you. You were, after all, our mother. And there’s no denying a mother’s place in a child’s heart.

But Mom, though you are no longer with us, your spirit and legacy will live on.

Mom and us

Happy Mother’s Day, Ma.

2010 was a wild, wild ride. Where do I even begin to describe it. I originally planned a mega-post looking back at the year, blow by blow, and to end everything with a blast. But as always, things got ahead of me and that post-to-be never came into fruition. All year long post ideas came and went. At times I’d wonder if blogs are still relevant now with Facebook, Tumblr and Twitter taking over online self-expression. Yet here I am, back in my old liar, figuring out how to make up for my most inactive year in blogging yet.

I thought I’d updated when I got myself a new phone back in May to replace my 3-year-old W810i.

Danbo and the Legend

Then I thought I’d show off my latest addition to my arsenal of lenses: the amazing Sigma 30mm f/1.4 EX DC HSM in October.

Danbo and the Sigma 30mm

In November, I figured I would update about my awesome, spiritually enriching trip to Japan.

Motomitamaza, Atami with relatives

Then in December, I had planned to churn another mega post to depict the mega flop that was our Mechatronics Systems Design project: a Rubik’s cube solver robot.

Cubeless

This was easily the letdown of the year. So much hope and effort was put into building this that we couldn’t accept failure; nor could we see it coming. But our final demonstration was a flop, and writing about it now still leaves a sour taste in my mouth.  Nonetheless, along with teammates Wilfred and Kheng Shin, building it was great fun and despite everything MSD is still one of my favourite subjects yet.

Rubik’s cube solver in action

2010 though, was so much more than what I had hoped to blog about. But as they say, ‘What happened in 2010, stays in 2010′.

I almost forgot how it’s like becoming a Facebook wall zombie; enslaved by replying to a bottomless pit of wall postings coming in all day. And getting sore thumbs from all that texting. But on a day like this, you wouldn’t mind.

For today’s the day I turn twenty-one.

Goodbye 2010; Happy 2011!

Fail

‘Nuff said.

P/s: Happy triple-10!

Edit: On second glance, I thought ‘Right after test’ does not make much sense now — why would anyone still study right after a test? At least as dictated by the Malaysian Education System, that’s downright dumb. A bit of rationale into why I thought so: I know a lot of us who would linger right outside the exam hall after we’re cleared to leave, dissecting every question and that’s where I usually realise how I got questions wrong. And a lot of times mistakes made at times like these are the ones that stuck.

I sighed, relieved; and at the stack in front of me waiting to be sorted. I gave procrastination the finger and started rummaging through what’s to throw and what’s still needed — sorted in four piles. Numbers, formulas, workings — must be Math 3. Free-body diagrams, graphs and excel sheets — off to the Machine Dynamics 2 pile. Before long, I was speeding through the pile of notes, tutorials and lab sheets I shoved under the study table the day I finished my final exams concluding Year Two — two months ago.

Everything written on those papers now felt distant. Every time I paused a little longer to examine the scribbles of workings and circuits, memories I didn’t want to associate with again come floating back. Long, cold and silent nights spent cramming for the finals into the wee hours of the morning; whole afternoons spent on one or two math problems; walking into the examination hall the next morning drowsy, nervous, and grossly under-prepared; and then that wave of utter terror as I look down at the questions blankly, head dripping profusely in cold sweat.

I’m Done

Lifeless digits and grades on my computer screen stared back at me three weeks later, mirroring the utter disappointment that was my Semester Four final examination results. Staring at them was me, equally lifeless. Suffice to say, I was looking at my worst results yet, two years into my degree.

As the dust settled, I began to see how this might just be a fitting conclusion to Year Two. A hard slap in the face was what I needed to kick me out of over-confidence and under-preparedness. Because my final two years in degree demands of no such recklessness. With Year Three kicking off tomorrow with a whole new slew of intimidating subjects, only time will tell if this high-price of a lesson was worthwhile.

Hitting the bottom of the stack, I labelled and stacked the useful notes back together before shelving them properly with the rest of the previous semester’s notes. The floor where I was working on was empty once again as I picked up the last pile of notes — the ones to be thrown. I watched as the pile descended into our to-be-recycled paper box, stirring up another plume of dust.

This time I smiled, as I shelved all my worries and uncertainties of the past, shifting my gaze towards Year Three.

Words find themselves hard to stick in one piece as they escape his mouth riding on a heavy Middle-eastern accent. Incomprehensible syllables collapse into hypnotic murmurs that mutes the world into a muffled silence as I resorted to lip-read his 350-WPM bullet-train of sentences. All the awhile drawing my dreamy gaze onto every silent flap, sway and whirl of his arms.

I shifted my focus to the projection screen in front of the class that’s supposed to show figures and formulas and notes but nothing came into clarity. I squinted, but my weary eyes did the opposite — the world around warped into blurriness as my eyelids fell shut at the opportunity.

Large. Blank. Void. Nothing.

Clueless in the morning light.

The mid-term break right now does little to slow down what I feel is our toughest semester yet. Yes, it’s been a whole half of a semester since I wrote anything or uploaded any photos. Speaking of which, I guess I have been taking my liberation off Project 365 a little too heavily.

Endless piles of assignment, tutorial and lab work dictates firing up Adobe Lightroom an unnecessary luxury. What more clicking around with my dSLR. Not that I feel great about it. I left behind readers of my now-dormant photoblog and if I may say so, a following on Flickr that accompanied me through my 365 journey. Danbo’s lying beside my laptop enveloped in a thin but unmistakable layer of dust. Comments such as the one ejana left on my 365 finale shot broke my heart.

Lost in a sea of sand.

My inner shutterbug wants more than anything to get out.

But as they always say: desperate times, desperate measures.

Done!

I started this project without much expectations, with only the desire to observe the limits of photography with a dSLR. I was brimming with excitement with my new dSLR camera then — though I wasn’t new to photography – but what better way to do that than to dive head-first into this project?

Fast forward a year later, as I hit the upload button on my final shot; hitting the red ‘X’ on Photoshop and then closing my Project 365 folder, I felt a rush of joy that accompanies the sense of liberation. An immense weight dragged off my back. Nothing was more gratifying than seeing the auto-generated completion counter on my photoblog showing a proud, ‘100% done!’ I blinked, for a moment, this is it?

Then the sadness sets in. The shoot-process-upload routine has become a ritual I perform every day to please the 365 gods I’ve devoted myself to for a whole year. Project 365 has become a part of my life. I wake up worrying about what to shoot; space out in lectures thinking of a setup and go to bed relieved that I have the day’s shot done and uploaded. Now a mere click puts all that behind in a blink of an eye.

This is going to take some getting used to, I thought.

Day 183/365: Reaching the halfway point.

Emoness aside, the project is by far, the lengthiest self-motivated long-term endeavour I’ve ever successfully completed in my life. That’s why it’s gonna deserve a good, hard look back on how I did it and the obstacles that plagued it’s entire duration.

Getting that shot

Taking my camera everywhere I go

When I started Project 365, I knew I had to bring my camera everywhere I go. Tugging my camera around during outings are okay, the real obstacle was when I had to inevitably bring it to campus — daily. The last thing I wanted was being labelled a show-off who just can’t help showing off his shiny new dSLR every single day. And let’s face it – a dSLR, even the tiny 1000D – isn’t as unobtrusive. The moment you yank it out, a good number of people within eyeshot would definitely look your way. There are times you’d wish to have a big banner above your ahead bearing the words, ‘I’m on Project 365! Suemeifyoucanttakeit.’

DSLRs are way more obtrusive compared to compacts.

So yes, I brought my camera with me to campus every single day for the past year. It spends most of the day tumbling around in my backpack, only seeing daylight when I’m with my close friends – who’re fully aware of my project – when I see a shot or feel comfortable enough to whip my camera out.

The creative spark

Maintaining a Project 365 stream requires a daily dose of creativity I didn’t have. While there are days chock full of activities and events that ends up in a post-processing nightmare, more often than not there were those boring and uninspiring days that beg of you to give up.

The first thing I’d do when the clock strikes – literally – at the eleventh-hour, is to quickly browse through Flickr’s Explore photos. Granted, not all Explore photos are great ones. Computer algorithms can only do so much to compile a collection of ‘good’ photos every day from the Flickr archive, but there are quite a few legitimately good shots out there daily that might give just that spark.

Then there’s the 100-steps challenge. The idea is to drag yourself and your camera outdoors, walk a hundred steps and start taking photos of anything at the end of your path. I don’t follow the hundred-steps rule that strictly, but I often find myself taking strolls in the garden snapping high and low so I can be done with the day’s photo. There are also days after classes where I take a detour somewhere for a short solo photowalk that can be very rewarding at times.

Danbo saves the day!

Somewhere in the 200’s into the project, I decided to get myself Danbo, an action figure from the manga, Yotsub&! I don’t think I’ve formally introduced Danbo yet, so here goes. In the manga, Danbo is actually a robot costume made of cardboard and was donned by Miura to entertain a curious Yotsuba. Despite appearing only very briefly (a single chapter, to be exact), the robot with geometrical features stole the hearts of many.

Day 334/365: Danbo getting cold feet.

There’s a reason why I thought Danbo would be helpful to my Project. I was intrigued by how expressive — or the lack thereof — Danbo can be. Tilt his head up, he can express anything from being dreamy to excitement. Swing his head back down, he’ll appear downright sad or just simply, afraid. And that sort of flexibility is especially useful when you have to shoot something daily. =)

The Workflow

A typical 365 shot you see posted takes an arm and a leg to produce. Taking the shot itself is just the beginning — the real headache starts in the digital darkroom. The photos go through rigorous polishing work in Lightroom, of which the best of the best are subjected to a stringent selection process before the last photo standing is delivered to you.

Seriously though, there are generally two types of shots I do in my 365 — snapshots and set-ups. Snapshots are usually quick takes of life as it flies by, like that quick moment as a child hands out titbits to a monkey; or candid photos of my friends in the labs. Set-ups are exactly what it means, ideas and subjects that are set-up in advance allowing me to explore different angles and variations in the process.

I use Lightroom for cataloguing and post-processing of my photos. Photos would normally go through adjustments such as white-balance, exposure correction, split toning and curves to name a few. Candidates for posting are then exported in full size and thrown into Photoshop, where sharpening, brushing and any other pixel-level editing are necessary.

The final shot for the day is then exported from Photoshop and uploaded to Flickr via the very useful Flickr Uploadr. While I throw the photo into Uploadr, I’ll do the write-up for the Photoblog post and grab the photo URL from Flickr as it finishes uploading. The moment I hit Publish, the photo would be up fresh on both Flickr and my photoblog.

Number Crunching

I love statistics. Numbers tell a story when presented. And a 365 report wouldn’t be complete without some solid numbers to show off.

I could’ve plotted the following graph off the back of my head:

It shows the time the day’s shot was taken and when it was uploaded. This graph could’ve roughly been my internet-surfing habits for the past year (especially the Postings plot).

While pretty self-explanatory, I like how the graph reflects my love of shooting during the golden hour. Seriously, who could resist taking photos when everything is cast in a shade of gold? The graph also shows evidence of a few (28 days, to be exact) shots that were taken after the day technically ended at midnight (0000-0200hrs). When life got too hectic, I gave myself a little leeway to end the day only when I retire to the sheets, not after the clock hits 12 midnight. If I’d spend a day and gone to bed without a shot, then only it’ll be a missed day.

Another interesting graph to look at is the comments-per-shot plot. I’d take the opportunity to explain why I cross-post my photos to Flickr and my Photoblog. Flickr is a massive photographic community that’s bound to bring recognition to your photos if they’re worthy of it. But not wanting to leave my friends / non-Flickr readers out of the fun, I created the photoblog.

So photos posted to both sites have distinctive sets of audiences. I’ve also found out that the volume of Flickr comments are understandably based mostly on the quality of the images; whereas Photoblog comments can be influenced by my write-up if I occasionally share some thoughts and updates, if not based on how good the photo is. The graph clearly shows how Flickr comments can in-proportionally spike due to Explores but with Photoblog comments hovering about the same average all throughout. Interesting.

I’m actually surprised to find out the type of shots I’ve been taking for the past year are rather healthily spread-out. I thought Nature and Campus would’ve snatched a good chunk of the pie. Of my arsenal of lenses (of two), I clearly show huge bias towards the nifty fifty. One reason that might even remotely affect this was that my kit lens was sentenced to a 61-day stint in the Canon ICU back in May.

The Last Words

I’ve said it on my final 365 post and I’ll say it again. What started out as a project with low-expectations became a fulfilling experience thanks to all of you — readers of my Photoblog, awesome Flickr contacts, fellow coursemates and fellow photographers that made Project 365 a blast. You guys are the catalysts to the completion of this project, no less.

I opened the door committing myself to this project last year without much certainty, it is without doubt that I emerged from the other end of the path a different person today. It’s amazing what a year of photography can do.

A project of a lifetime.

I’m now enjoying life after 365. So much so that I haven’t been shooting for the past week! Haha. While I’ve said that I won’t be continuing on another project 365, I figured that I should give it another round in the (distant) future. It was really tough at times, but it was well worth it and definitely deserves another try. =)

With that, I officially sign off this ultra-lengthy post of an equally lengthy project of a lifetime.

Let not the lack of updates to this poor blog deceive you though, for you bet, the semester was so jam-packed that I promptly shied away from the Add New Post button. But this blog wasn’t left idle for nothing.

We pulled through preparing a case study report and presenting it later..

Kheng Shin talking on the Da Vinci Surgical Robot

We spent hours on end building, programming, testing and programming, and programming, aaand programming a Lego robot for the Robotic Competition..

Troubleshooting robot problems while Kheng Shin snapped us

..which exceeded our wildest expectations when it secured a shiny 3rd place.

Victory

We got a taste of industrial machining when we grinded and milled a nut and bolt out of bare steel cylinders.

Forming a bolt on a lathe machine

We’d never look at music boxes in gift shops the same way again after cracking our heads implementing one in Embedded Microcontrollers.

Music Boxes are a pain to program I tell you

We celebrated our achievements in the scholarships presentation ceremony..

Scholars of joy

In a few hours time, we’d head into the halls. Where the air-cond chill and endless rows of isolated tables arranged in a perfect grid overwhelms your surroundings, as if designed specifically to thwart your confidence. As we approach our designated desks, although in sweaty palms and short, cold breaths, we sit down in dignity.

Danbo studies

For it is with dignity we make 4-months of hardship — worthwhile.

Good luck!

I never liked farewells.

Returning to KL used to be a yearly affair, it was only when I flew here 10 days ago I realised how long I haven’t returned to this place — an easy one and a half years.

My attachment to the capital city of Malaysia is a unique one. I was born in Perak and although every single one of my relatives are scattered across the Peninsula, I’ve never actually lived there. I practically grew up in East Malaysia, where my parents have been attached to. There is always a conflict of interest with regards to my sense of belonging, often do I lay torn between the two land masses — one bearing memories of my whole childhood, friends, my life; but the other, filled with family and relatives — cousins, uncles, aunts, grandparents. Earlier that afternoon, I bid farewell to my uncle and aunt who dropped me off at KL Sentral.

The Coffee Bean @ KLIA LCCT

I’m carefully sipping through a cup of Ice Blended Caramel Coffee as I type this on a Wi-Fi connection that dropped 2 minutes ago. An European couple is sitting next to my table. The husband taps away on his iPhone while the wife slowly flips through a stack of fashion magazines. Neither uttered a single word since I sat beside them.

The World in your Palms

The Coffee Bean is surprisingly packed — the crowd here noticeably different from the crowd in say, McDs. There is little interaction — save for a few businessmen in that corner — everyone’s immersed in technology, be it laptops, iPhones or Blackberries.

Sending my sister off.

Just two weeks ago, we sent off my sister who is now doing A-Levels at Kolej Yayasan UEM en-route to the UK under a MOE scholarship. It’s a 2+3+1-year course that would end up with her graduating as a teacher. Unlike me, she already has a definite path laid right before her. A promised future.

As we were on our journey back to KL after a whole gang of relatives, cousins, aunts, uncles and grandparents alike saw her off, my uncle told us that we’d probably won’t see her very often from now on. I pondered about it for moment, and thought, ain’t that the truth.

Sister over breakfast

I guess I haven’t really sank into the whole leaving-home-study-abroad-graduate-and-work thing yet. Never could I fathom the reality of my sister leaving the family, void of seeing her everyday, one less voice echoing off the walls of our family home, although much less competition in the ever-present battlefield of sibling rivalry, yet I must admit, I didn’t see this coming.

So many things do we take for granted in life. Like the company of siblings, our parents, the family. Blinded we are by the fact that we won’t live together as a family forever, under the same roof, dinner on the same table. It’s all a fact of life where one day we’ll all leave the family we grew up with; the home we once played, quarrelled and fought in.

Welp. Guess it’s just life isn’t it?

The deafening crescendo of mechanical rumble disrupted my train of thought as the plane lurched forward in reaction to the tens of thousands pounds of pure thrust spitting out from a pair of jet engines at full throttle. I grasped the armrests of my seat as the plane rumbled down the runway; lights dancing around the windows against the night sky. Then the sinking feeling sets in — my body’s sense of balance telling me that the plane had left firm ground.

Take-off

My heart sank. I never liked farewells.

Nonetheless, this time I went with a whole different company of friends — Natalius and Ms. Chong planned a day trip as soon as the Saturday of the week of our last paper itself. Six of us went in two cars that morning.

Kayaks on Beach

Despite spending retreats to permai every semester break of my life, I’ve never driven there myself. There’s always someone else to be the driver. Not this time though.

The road to Damai is pretty straightforward, but there’s one patch I never seem to remember — the roundabouts in Petra Jaya. I get them mixed up all the time and I wasn’t spared a wrong turn this time either. And I had to make wrong turns both going and returning. I’m not usually bad with directions but I somehow managed to proved so during this trip, heh.

Rocky Beach Bokeh

Siong Huo was jokingly skeptical if I was on the right road all the way but I proved him dead wrong when we reached the sandy shores of the Damai beach.

Waterball

We wasted no time jumping into the water with our newly-purchased ball. But because the sun was so blazingly hot and we didn’t want to get baked on the nicely-heated sand, we jumped into a stream in cool tree shade instead.

Natalius’s mighty kick failed to launch the ball

Kicking around in the tiny stream bored us pretty quickly. It was only a matter of time before we charged towards the wide open sea, hot or no hot.

We soon found out though, that it was rather tricky to actually launch a stationary ball on water into the air. Further observation would show that the density of water dampens our swing towards the ball. If that wasn’t enough, the displaced water effectively pushes the floating ball forward, causing us to miss the ball completely more often than not.

Ball Flip Fail

But when it comes to having fun, the rules of Physics doesn’t apply anymore. Hell, screw Physics anyway — the finals are long history already. =P

So we kicked and splashed around like we’ve never been to a beach with a ball.

Ninja Beach Kick

Then suddenly Heng Hong surprised us with a mighty ninja-kick sending the ball flying towards Singaporean shores. Okay it barely made it over Siong Huo’s head but it was the kick of the day.

Natalius flips the ball

Natalius wasn’t so happy with Heng Hong’s sudden fame so he sabotaged the ball and headed to drier sand and started to show some skillz. Suddenly he felt like an 80 million British-pound player.

Anyway, we were soon bored with the ball and decided to conquer the rocks instead.

Siong Huo and Natalius heading for the rocks

We dared ourselves to scale the largest monolith we could find in the area.

The brave Mt. Rock Permai three

So we camwhored a bit and savored the sea breeze from atop the rock. Chee Min and Heng Hong joined us later but we soon scrambled down the rock as it got too baking-hot for us to sit on.

Sea of Bokeh

Because we fried our butts while sitting on the rock, we retired to sea to get wet again — this time we tried kayaking. We were supposed to head out in three two-person kayaks but only one was available for another hour. So Heng Hong and Chee Min went out first while we helped them out.

Push

While both of them were out paddling around the Damai bay, we waited for the other kayaks to return so we could head out together and have a kayak-flipping war. But the Permai beach management suddenly decided to halt the kayaking rental service before we had any chance to hop on.

Out to the sea

Long story short, we couldn’t join them. But with the kayak rental service hut left unmanned and thus, no one to supervise the returning of kayaks, we swam out and as Chee Min and Heng Hong paddled near us, we flipped them off their kayak and sabotaged it for ourselves.

Chee Min and Heng Hong were tired of paddling around anyway so Siong Huo and I took over captainship of the kayak — free of charge. =D

The Bokeh Monster

The last time I paddled a kayak was during NS, way back in 2007. What mattered back then was speed in order to win the water games. But now we spent every ounce of energy left on a slow paddle along the coast when we passed another beachfront of the Permai camp where a few couples were embracing in the water.

That sight led to Siong Huo and I talking about relationships and stuff while we drifted back to the beach.

By then, we were all tired, exhausted and hungry. We unanimously decided to have a late lunch at Hartz Chicken Buffet back in Kuching. In no time we were invading the doors of Hartz like hungry zombies smelling like the beach. Luckily we had to whole outlet to ourselves or else we could’ve scared everyone else off. =D

Hermit crab digs

I was so occupied in gobbling down chicken wings and mashed potatoes I didn’t take any pictures when we were in Hartz. Go figure. But yeah, we called it day after lunch, all stuffed, drained and wearing a layer of tan that is still peeling off as I type this, but nonetheless we had great fun.

So it’s the semester break again. I’ll certainly miss the company of friends back in campus as boring as semester breaks can get. I’ll be flying off to KL tomorrow with my family to send off my sister furthering her studies to the West, but that’s a post for another day.

Until then, Happy Holidays everyone.

So — *slaps on a 3-foot-thick face* — during the mid-term break five uh, weeks ago, the family tagged along Dad to Sibu where he had official duty. We spent the night at Betong before continuing on the journey along the Trans-Borneo highway to the third largest city of Sarawak.

The famous Sibu Express Boat Wharf — 3 exposure HDR

Almost six whole hours on the road later, we found ourselves in the midst of the bustling town of Sibu. Dad took us straight to the famous express boat wharf  — a nostalgic sight I haven’t seen in some good 10 years. And boy had this laid-back town changed over the years, most prominently with the addition of Sarawak’s tallest building — the Wisma Sanyan.

Wisma Sanyan: The tallest building in Sarawak is not in Kuching, mind you.

Incidentally, our hotel was right next to this towering monolith and the country’s largest town square it looks upon. We sighed a breath of relief when Dad pulled up onto the lobby of RH Hotel, which was thankfully a universe away from the bare-boned one we spent the night in back in Betong.

The room — and my workstation throughout the stay

So this was where we spent the next 5 days.

Hanging out in the corridors

Camwhoring

Coffee?

My Sis and I was also lucky enough to find access to the executive floors one bored morning. We literally explored every corner of that 14-storey building. Funny thing was, the lift blocked access to the executive floors the next time when we tried to bring Mom and Dad up.

RH Hotel’s Executive Suites

Because the rooms came with complimentary breakfast at the hotel restaurant for two, we took turns to head down every morning for a scrumptious buffet breakfast.

Breakfast was never this good

When not eating in the hotel, we’d head out. I must say though, RH Hotel has the most strategic location. It was just a stone’s throw away from the Wisma Sanyan mall and the humongous Sibu Town Square. Not to mention, only a walking distance from countless eateries of Sibu’s CBD. Seriously, you have to be really lazy to stay hungry there.

Throughout our stay, the rain gods were kind enough to spare their lightning spears and water hoses. For it didn’t rain even a single drop in the five days we were in Sibu. The clear skies all day long eventually led into beautiful sunsets over the Rejang River. Ones that scream for you to get out and shoot.

Sister and dusk at the Sibu Town Square — 3-exposure HDR

Which was exactly what I did.

Mom and Sis at the Sibu waterfront park

We also walked over to the  really well-kept Sibu waterfront park for an even better view of sunsets.

On the last day, we had lunch at the Sibu Central Market. Dad recalled of how they display livestock for sale in the market — all wrapped up in newspaper tubes with only their heads bobbing up and down. It was a must-see.

Live chickens in the Sibu Central Market

It didn’t take long for us to find the live chickens. While initially amused at how they were left with their heads excitedly bobbing, some of these poor birds just hung their heads low — as if in hopeless despair. I felt a tinge of sympathy as I shot them through my viewfinder. Don’t get me wrong though, I’m not turning vegetarian anytime soon. Chickens are..well, chickens. It is their fate, however unfortunate.

Nonetheless, we headed up to the 1st floor of the market to savour some authentic Sibu food for the last time. Not missing, of course, the oh-so-overrated kompiah — dry and hard oven-baked lumps of flour sprinkled with sesame seeds. I never understood how could people eat them as-is. Other than its bland taste, its dry and rock-hard texture could seriously break some teeth.

Sibu kompiah stuffed with minced meat

But, when you slice a kompiah in half, stuff some juicy minced meat into it and deep-fry it into some golden-brown goodness — you’ve got the best delicacy 60 cents can buy you (prices may vary). It was the first stuff we ordered as soon as we sat down.

Knowing all so well one cannot leave Sibu without a large bag of kompiahs, we headed to the old Sibu Market after lunch to get ourselves some of them freshly-baked from authentic kompiah bakeries. If you’ve never seen how kompiahs are baked, here you go:

Fresh batches of kompiah in a traditional Chinese oven

The bakery workers wasn’t all that happy about me pointing my camera into the kitchen as he swiftly moved into the frame to completely block my view. As if I’m planning to copy and patent their space-age tech to mass-produce kompiahs in my mega kompiah factory. Although that isn’t such a bad idea. =)

So armed with a huge bag of steaming hot kompiahs we embarked on the journey back home with only Dad to thank for bringing us along for this trip while he worked is ass off. This is my Dad for you. Thanks pops!