Leaving Kuching

Time in Kuching was fun.

I am currently in Singapore.
It's 3:12am now on the 4th of May. Been here since the 1st.
... Will fly off to Sydney on the 5th.

Had a blast in Kuching throughout my 5-month stay.

(Above) Jerry, Kenny and Lionel @ Starbucks, Kuching "International" (insert jokes here) Airport before departure to Singapore, 1st May.

(Above) Shu Wei looking to pot into the middle pocket at Snooker 2000 - a day before departure after dinner at Hartz, 30th April.

(Above) Buddies slugging it out for one last onion ring - yes, it was staged, at Oregano, 27th April.

Within the final 2 weeks in Kuching, I managed to catch drinks/food with Khai Ching (sorry wey - I name you 1st... so I must be forgiven!), Cassie, Chween Wee, the long lost Chew Hock Yong, the busy-at-work Harry Ting, Perth buddy Mark Wong, close friend Ing Ling, primary school dude Tan Chun Liang... and my band of brothers - Lionel, Jerry, Kenny, Shu Wei and Mei San (sister?).

Unfortunate case Shyang is in Sibu (or "was", rather, since he is now back for good in Kuching), Dougie is in Nottingham (time to get out of the library mate!), Dodo is in Moscow (eh dude I went to Lucky Plaza and no I did not see the futsal shoes you asked for), Chow Yee is in London (it's an addiction - shh I didn't say a thing hehe!), Hsiao Siang is in Oklahoma (to Liverpool's CL exit I offer you my heartfelt condolences), Laura and Lawrence are in KL... caught up with Siang back in December though, and that was awesome. Good times, mate.

Of course in my 5 months in Kuching, I have met almost every friend imagineable. Caught a trip to the Mulu Caves with Perth buddy in crime Ricky (and returned with a friend named Theng - more on that in the future), visited Lawrence in KL with Lionel for a full 7 days, caught up with Melanie, Matty, Stevie, Jeremy, Nicole, Joe and Nut in Perth, and worked alongside awesome people at my attached law firm - June, Ang, Mag, Alli, Imr, Maia and Val. Asrul was back in Kuching from Perth as well so a few football sessions took place at Sports Planet. Oh, saw Charlyn a few times, Kaeshih on a couple of occasions, Zhang Han often at yum-cha sessions or under my workplace running his photography business, Adrian, Kion Ming, Vera, Ying Ning and Ai Shih (last was unplanned) during Chinese New Year... I should really not forget Ying Ying, Yi Ping (yes I remember that awkward-for-you Laksa session), Diana & Joanne (Diana's a gem - met in Kuching, then was the warmest person in Perth) and the rest of the Perth people who Mark introduced a year or so ago - Bryan, Wui Hao, Xin Chen and Gerry... cheers for the Futsal session while I was in Perth for grad and the dinner at Sparrow!

(Above) Perth amigos @ Lil Sparrow, Northbridge, 14th March.

Can't name everyone but heck you all will be gayly, brokebackly missed.

A new chapter is unfolding in Sydney.
Could take 8 months, could take 3 years, or 4, or 5...
... uncertainties up ahead!

23 years old. I feel if changes are not taking place...
... then I am not progressing.
So on that note, I think I am on the right track.
Cheers for the future, and I see all of you in it.

Qi

Hermit Crab

Face up to challenges, and grow.
Disagree with what the enemies agree, and grow.
Agree with what the enemies disagree, and grow.
Step out of the comfort zone, and grow.
Think outside the box, and grow.

I will not back into my shell.

I am not a hermit crab.

Detoxifying Laptop

A few months back I was looking at buying a new laptop (still is, actually). Problem is, I do not have that kind of money, and I cannot bring myself to ask from my parents.

So on Thursday evening, I decided to do a massive clean-up of my computer! Anyone who saw my laptop prior to the "cleaning-up" will know my desktop was clustered with icons and what not. I downloaded a few programs to help detoxing my dying laptop - Start-up Optimizer, Registry Optimizer, Tune XP, Advanced WindowsCare V2 Personal, HijackThis, Tweak UI, SmartDefrag and Normal Malware Cleaner. I also had some pre-installed programs - Registry Mechanic, AVG Anti-Virus and CCleaner. Some programs I would suggest, some less so, depending on your level of tech-savvyness.

Apart from ridding my computer of spywares, tracking cookies, empty registry entries etc, I also arranged (at long last!) the files in my computer, moving some into one of my many external harddisks! After running SmartDefrag (which defrags, obviously), another program downloaded for Mission-Clean-Up-Laptop, a few tweakings using Tweak UI, and some beautifying, my laptop's desktop looks like this...

Yea well I could make it look more like a Mac by using StyleXP or WindowBlinds to alter the theme but my laptop is dying - as such, memory-consuming changes are kept to the very minimum! I need a new laptop goddamit.

... how about you contribute to the "Buy Charles a Laptop Fund"? Where's the love.

Qi

Cousins

I have more cousins than you can poke a stick at.

By cousins I mean the offsprings of my dad's siblings.
... so really, specifically, it's , paternal first cousins.
Haha, offsprings - I just made them sound like animals.

Let's see how many of them in total (I've never counted before!).

Jin, Bon, Kee, Pun, Ying, Ben, Shang, Zai, Zhao, Sharon, Yiping, Qing, Kiun, Jun... in that order.

(Above) With Kee, Ben and Sis

(Above) With Pun

(Above) With Qing, Zhao, Yiping

(Above) Kiun, Bro

14 paternal first cousins. Throw in Me, Sis and Bro and my Grandma has a total of 17 grandchildren. Oh my, that's a lot of grandchildren. In terms of order in the Liew Family, I am the 5th eldest. In terms of order of boys in the Liew Family of my generation I stand 2nd.

If I add the number of maternal first cousins I have, I will end up with a number closer to 30. Shocking - we could have 2 football teams with 2 full benches of substitutes.

How many do you have? I win laaaaa...

Qi

1st Day of Chinese New Year

First Day of Chinese New Year today (or was it yesterday seeing as it is now 1:56am?) and it was hell tiring! I got to shower in a minute so I will make this brief just so I have a record of where I have gone today...

(Above) 1 of many uncles, 2 of a few aunties, 2 of a handful of cousins, bro, sis and me @ Po's Place

1) Went to grandma's house @ 10:30am, met sooo many relatives it's almost criminal.
2) Visited Lawrence's house @ 1:30pm, wished the parents HCNY then I drove off with their son!
3) Attended Lionel's Open House @ 1:50pm. Great "masak merah" from the mom.
4) Went to Ing Ling's house @ 3:00pm - oh my don't get me started on her "dressing-up" (or lack thereof!).
5) Went to Harry's house @ 4:00pm.
6) Went to Adrian's house @ 4:30pm - haven't seen him for a long time, great to catch up.
7) After a short rest, I joined my family for visit to Auntie Leng's place @ 7:45pm. She has pretty hot daughters. Shhh!
8) Then off we went to Auntie Ngo's place @ 8:30pm.
9) Last visit of the day was at Sam Shook Goong's place @ 9:15pm.

9 houses in total, holy whack.

(Above) Me and Lawrence @ Lionel's Place (or room, rather)

(Above) Lionel, Ing Ling, Me and the very hip-hop Lawrence @ Ing Ling's Place

(Above) Me and Harry @ Harry's Place

After all that, I went back to grandma's place and engaged in some pretty meaningless conversations (haha!) with Auntie Moi, Auntie Lin, Uncle Goo, sis, bro and I.

Drove to Lionel's house @ 11:00pm to play a couple of hands of Black Jack (or African-American Jack?).

Long day tomorrow again - as per usual!

Qi

迎春花开报春来

春去春又来. 春来了.
春节既是万家团圆、其乐融融共渡家庭美好的时刻.
春是Spring.
Spring 也来了!

The Spring opened its doors to coincide with the Chinese New Year (aka 春节 for the bananas out there) shopping craze, and boy was it a masterstroke. Sure, The Spring may not be big compared to the other mega malls I have been in West Malaysia, Singapore, Australia and New Zealand, but it is easily the biggest in Kuching. The Spring redefines the meaning of "variety" by making a mockery of the choices available at previous shopping hotspots Ngiu Kee, Riverside Parkson and Tun Jugah.

Not one to miss out, I have lost count of the number of times I have been at The Spring. I guess you could say I am well and truly Sprung...

Yea, Sprung, definitely.

Go Make Memories

Look at us. This picture was taken approximately 7 years ago. A lot of us in the Red Crescent Youth Unit Number 4 have gone on to become tight friends. Everyone is now off pursuing their own desired future paths.

Top (from left): Miss Tay, Puan Lim, Johnny Kiu, Yee Shin, Ying Ning, Wan Yin, Chau Ling
Middle (from left): Lionel Lim, Kenny Chang, Chee Yong, Tze Tung
Bottom (from left): Lawrence Wong, Lenny Kueh, Sze Shyang, Me, Heng Teck, Chang Sa'ar

Those care-free days will never come back.
Such is the beauty of memories. Go make them!

Have you?

Have you ever felt you are in a position where you need to get someone to do you a favour but the other person has been putting it off and it is causing you hardship and stress and loss of money in buying replacement items but you cannot get him/her to hassle because he/she is not obligated to do you that favour and you do not want to put further strain on a friendship that has already loosened considerably over the past couple of years?

I have.

Tiring Festive Period

Lately there is hardly time to catch a breath!
So many things to attend to, mainly fun of course. :)
Let's see if I can recall what I have been doing...

Ricky, my KL mate from Perth, came down to Kuching, and lived with me for 10 days. So from the 14th of Dec until the 24th of Dec, I brought him around chucking at him all the local delicacies he could handle. You name it, he's tried it (and a little bit more!). On and off, Lionel, Lawrence, Kenny and Jerry joined us... like going up to Ching San Yuen (Lawrence, Kenny), Cultural Village (Kenny) etc. I managed to squeeze in meetings with Ying Ying, Jia Yiing, Eugenie and a couple of others. Met Jing, Cassie and Yee Wei before that.

(Above) @ Ching San Yuen

(Above) @ Cultural Village

I also went to Mulu during that time, from the 18th of Dec until the 20th of Dec. This Mulu trip was by far the most random trip I have ever taken. Ricky was keen on going to Mulu so despite it being the wet season, we decided at 4.00pm on the 17th of Dec to go to Mulu against all advice. We went straight to Sak Soon Travel Agency and got ourselves flights at 7.00am the next day - absolute nutcase. Mulu trip was good.

(Above) Day 2 of Mulu - Do ignore the expression.

(Above) @ Deer Cave, the largest cave passage in the world

Ricky left at 11am of the 24th. Sent him off, caught up with some overdue sleep before I went to Lawrence's house for the afternoon. Went to Bella Italia for Christmas Eve dinner with, let me see, Chien, San, Yee, Rence, Kenny, Wei, Siang, Shyang, Laura, Kshih and Maomao :). I introduced a few of them to Bella before and they all loved it so since we failed to book a table for 12 at Bla Bla Bla, Bella was the next best place.

After that, we went for a few drinks (perhaps a few too many for some lol) at Lounge 2 at BDC. Shu Wei treated us all to a bottle of Jack Daniel's. Thanks man. It was a decent night-out, made better by me rubbing our lucky draw ticket on Kenny's shaved head. It was to prove fruitful as we won the prize 10 seconds after that!

(Above) @ Lounge 2

Went home at around 2am, slept at around 3am, and was picked up by Lawrence at 7am on Christmas Day to go to Lionel's St Faith's Church's Christmas Day Service. Had breakfast with Lionel's Dad, bro and Kenny before that though. After Church we headed to Lawrence's house for a few rounds of FIFA 2008.

Had lunch with Hsiao Siang, headed home for an hour, before we played football. Harry and Jerry joined us. After football, we had Christmas Day dinner (or was it Ivan's Birthday dinner?) at Siang's place. Curry was great, Kachama was intoxicating and prawns were fresh. Oh and I won 1 coin too many...

Next day? Back to work after 6 days off!

Good Ol' Perth

2nd December today. I have been back for 6 days - reached Kuching afternoon of 26th November. I am not missing Perth, even though I spent 5 long years there. Maybe it's because I know I would be back there one day.

What I do miss, is the many people I got to know and love over the years. I was doing a clean-up of my computer, and came across a lot of pictures taken in Perth. Below are some in chronological order.

Warning: Dramatic change in body fat up ahead.

The people from Murdoch College. I started my 5-year stint in Perth doing Year 12 - the Australian version of Malaysia's STPM. As you can see from the picture, I was so bloated. In Lionel's words when he saw me in Kuching at the end of 2003... "a ball".

A group of friends I grew very close to over the years. From left to right, Rick, Kai Lin, Matt, Ru, Jeff, Raine, Myself and Karn. The picture was taken at Analakshmi, an Indian vegetarian restaurant situated near the Perth Bell Tower in 2004. This is memorable because of all the open tables IN the restaurant, I booked a table OUTSIDE the restaurant out on the balcony. It was at night, it was close to winter, and it was by the river... All night I was greeted with "Thanks Charles!". Haha, nuts.

This is my surprise birthday party of 2005. So much effort from everyone to make it a memorable one. As you guys can see I was all dressed up, because "initial" plan was to go the Burswood Casino. So Jeff picked me up, and said he forgot his wallet. Fishy, fishy. Went to his house and voila, walaoeh. Joelle's cake was so good.

This is the Mooncake Festival of 2006 at Su Qin and Ann's place. I lived with a homestay family for 3.5 years, but moved out in the middle of 2006 to live by myself at Johanson Promenade. How lucky was I to get to know Edward? He was like a brother figure, and helped me heaps in adapting to the new environment. With him around, dinner was never a problem!

This was taken April 2007. Went Down South with 3 Kuching friends and a Greek/Aussie. From left to right, Tung, Chuan How, Myself, Sin Joo and Paulie. We covered a lot of places in just 3 days. It was the first time I actually drove in Australia, and it was quite an introduction as well, driving over a thousand kilometres all up. Very sleep-deprived, but very fun.

Shared the best Thai food in Perth @ Saowanee's Place, North Perth, with Ricky, Nicole, Cherie, Jeff, Rick, Kai Lin, Raine and Karn. This was initially meant to be a farewell dinner, but then we decided to have another one at Joy Garden!

These are most certainly people I am going to miss heaps. We played indoor soccer everyweek at UWA's Recreation Centre. Quite a few Kuching lads in there, like Heng Teck, Asrul, Xin Long, Brandon and Wui Hao. Sure, I will have a lot more futsal sessions in Kuching... but it's just, well, different. The compact play in Perth (when playing 1 bay) calls for a different approach when playing, and my understanding with Bryan bears striking resemblance to my understanding with Lionel... maybe even better.

This was taken 3 weeks ago. Nicole was behind the camera (how nice of me huh, dragging her to take picture). I truly love and appreciate Mr and Mrs Leong. They took fantastic care of me for over 3 years when I lived with them, and I will never forget how Mrs Leong cried when I left. I have grown to know them so well, along with their sons and grandchildren.

Tina, Lisa, Melanie, Myself and Ricky. This was taken 2 weeks ago after Aeroboxing class - me and Ricky's final Aeroboxing class before heading home to Malaysia. I am a true veteran, being the only person having attended 4 years of Aeroboxing - beating even our instructor Lisa. Our class usually goes up to 7 or 8 people... with a few regulars like myself.

This was taken last week @ Joy Garden, with just a few of my closest friends. Someone not in previous photos but in this one is Gianni. Gianni came to live with me in Kuching for a week 2 years ago. We then went to Bangkok and Pattaya together, and then spent a few days in Kuala Lumpur. He does Law, like myself.

----------

These are just some of the many pictures. Never got to take one with Diana, who I came to know better near the end of my stay in Perth. The chabo hates taking pictures! Anyhoo, been great fun over 5 years... should have got to know a few people better as well - people like Nicole my housemate who, despite having seen her sleepy eyes and bad hair in the morning, I feel has more sides to her. No one to walk you home from University anymore, bratty! Oh Matt if you are reading this... sorry we never got to catch up during the busy period.

Ricky will be coming down to Kuching in less than 2 weeks. Close buddy from Perth, and I shall unleash upon him all the great food Kuching has to offer... like caterpillars and crickets.

Qi

Very Thai

Went for the Thai Festival @ Russel Square on James Street in Northbridge. According to its official website, the Thai Festival "arrives in Perth for the first time with huge showcase of Thai food and culture in all its forms bringing the taste of Thailand to people in Perth." And boy oh boy did we taste Thailand.

Above: The Spicy Thai Chicken Salad

Above: Baby sausage (tasted salty, sweet and sour... no really)

Above: Thai dude making "Money Bags" for fying

Above: This is like, 10% of the crowd

Apparently I look Thai. A couple of years back, I was at a bus stop when a Thai student asked me if I was Thai. And after going to this Thai Festival, I am convinced I look Thai!

Seller 1: สบายดีรึเปล่า
Me: ???
Seller 2: คุณต้องการซื้ออะไรครับ
Me: @#%*&...

Nut and Joe, my housemates, were part of the organising committee - pretty cool organising a huge event like this I would think. I went with Ricky, Nicole, Cherie and Michelle, and it was good fun. Who am I kidding? Whenever there is food involved, it's going to be fun. I saw Khem - haven't seen in for 3 long years. Caught up with him a bit... he put on a bit of weight I must say. But chubby is cute... right, Nicole? Right this moment, Nicole is nodding profusely in agreement.

After some glorious food, Ricky dropped me by Udub's sports center as I caught up with Mark and the other boys for a 3 grueling hours of indoor soccer.

Bliss. Back to my 18,000-word research paper.

Qi