Fireflies

The beauty of nature.

Or as my brother puts it, "it's nature's way of Christmas lights on trees." XD

Darn, I've forgotten how gorgeous it looks.

The first time was back when Dad took the family down to Kuala Selangor. I think it was around the period when there was news of making a dam, so they wanted us to witness it before it goes extinct.

Second was my very first St John's cadet camp, I think it was 2002. It was in the initery, so we trooped off in big groups to see fireflies in the night. *O* Regardless of how terribly muddy the campsite was, that made it all better.

To quote Sir Hew

I'm sorry that this had to be your first camping experience. It's honestly quite bad for a first timer.

Hah. I can still remember, one wrong step, and your whole foot can sink into the mud. >.>
Sleeping on tree roots can kill your back, but I suppose it's better than having your camp collapse due to the muddy grounds. haha XD

Third was last Thursday.

They wanted to take my cousin brother somewhere. Instead of the usual Genting and Penang spots, there was either too short a notice to prepare or lack of time. Figured my aunts ould take him shopping.

And I so wanted to see the fireflies again, so I seconded mum's idea. =P And we get to have fresh seafood there.

It was surprising quite a lot of people. And the boatman was nice enough to put up with an additional person. (It's only for 4 per sampan, but *coughaddanother10buckstofitanextracough*) Also, he stopped quite near to the trees, so near that we could almost reach out and feel them fluttering around.

There's loads of them fluttering on the trees.

Wiki says

Tropical fireflies, particularly in Southeast Asia (Thailand and Malaysia), routinely synchronize their flashes among large groups, a startling example of spontaneous biological order. This phenomenon occurs through the night along river banks in the Malaysian jungles every day of the year.

The slow rowing was really nice.

The stars which twinkled above the dark night and the fireflies lighting up the trees below made quite a breathtaking view.

Totally amazing to have both the skies and ground to almost mirror each other in the beauty of Mother nature.

I'd say we're lucky, because midway through, there was repeated lightings, and the stars were hidden behind the dark, cloudy skies. But not before we saw the awesome view. XD

If you ever get a chance, do check it out. Definitely worth the hour's drive there.

Harry Potter & The Deathly Hallows

2 words

Price war.

Bet you've heard about the hypermarkets versus the bookstores thing.

Yea well. I got my hands on the hypermarkets version which was rm40 cheaper. Honestly, I was put off from per-ordering the books this time because of the super high price. And I'm not bias, because I had per-ordered both books 5 and 6. (and maybe book 4 as well)

I do enjoy reading, but when the prices of a book seems pretty unreasonable, I figured I would wait until it drops a little lower before completing my set. I usually get my books from MPH warehouse sales and those places. We were encouraged to read and mum and dad usually makes the effort to take us to those places and allow us to grab a couple of books to last us the year, or until the next sale. =P

But when mum smses Friday morning that it's up for sale at rm69.90. I went O.O Dears, it's way cheaper than having my pre-ordered book 5 and 6. Yea.

And since dad was going to drive my cousin who was going back to Melbourne with another aunt, to the airport and my bro and I decided to tag along for the farewell, I figured might as well go grab the book and head back to bed. =3

Except that we came back around 10am and that I got sorely tempted to read the whole book and I did finish the book in about 2-3 hours. Yea. XD

My reasoning was.....the book was way cheaper at Carrefour and we're already awake anyway. And if we don't get it quick, according to the papers, there was only limited stock. So yea, managed to bug my bro to tag along with me to grab the book. XD Tag, because the only ones in the house who's reading the book is mum and me. Bro didn't manage to finish book 5, never started book 6 and isn't exactly bothered about it.

Btw, ever since I finished and passed the book over to mum, she's been reading it. And is still downstairs with it. XD I kinda speedread through, and will reread it again later.

urmm.....read NO further if you're not into spoilers. I just want a little personal space to rant out some thoughts. XD


(highlight the white to read)




There wasn't much about Harry, Ron and Hermione in Hogwarts, because they were kept busy with what Dumbledore entrusted to them. The Horcruxes.

Neville turned up to be the most unexpected hero. XD Seriously. He became the leader of the remaining DA.

The Deathly Hallows was a reference to a legendary story about the 3 brothers. Each whom have asked Death for an object and died by Death's hands, with the exception of the third brother.

So basically, Voldermort was also after these 3 objects.

The random deaths list is O.o

OMG...Fred, Tonks, Lupin, Mad Eye, Dobby.......and Snape. And Hedwig.

The whole Snape/Lily backstory was really sad, it's kinda mostly the part I teared up with. I mean, here's the guy who's been misunderstood like the whole series. He's been one of the bravest ones. uwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

He must have really really loved her since they seem to have meet even as children yet accepted into Hogwarts. To go to all these lengths to protect her only son. DD:

Lupin and Tonks. WTF....

They died together somewhat, in the midst of the great battle. No other details. But to have left their newborn son, all orphaned. T^T Teddyyyyyyyyy.

We learnt more about Dumbledore, so much so that he became to feel more as a human, instead of a grand master wizard who can do nothing wrong. That and his whole aim, for the greater good thing.

There's way too much going on to be put into words.


All in all, I really did enjoy the book. Compared to Book 6, it was much more enjoyable and thrilling. Dark yes, but the tone was necessary to give the series it's grand finale. Oh, and be warily that you'll probably be crying by the 3rd quarter of the book. Book 6 was the book which I was able to read half and left it hanging for like a week later to complete it.

Book 7 was packed with a lot of excitement. I kinda pity anyone taking up the challenge of turning this book into a movie, that's seriously a killer task. XD

Oh and the epilogue was rather off for me. I would love to know what happened to more people than just the main characters. XD What's with the 19 years later thing >.> Why 19?

Pets

So.....Monday.

After dropping my cousin and brother at home, I head off to college.

Until I saw a little puppy running along the road. O.O

Away from home.

The little fella was running haphazardly along the road where there were freakin cars. DD:

I---i debated on what to do...since I was this close to college, and a bit late to boot.

So anyways, I parked the car somewhere close and tried to call the fella.

Thing is, the fella was too busy running away, into the paths of other cars.

This young lady walking looked at me and asked, 'Yours?'

'No, not mine'

'Then who's?' *stares at puppy running further away*

'Dunno, but but but there lots of cars' *watches as more cars slow down*

'What should we do'

'It might get runned over.........' *puppy + car = nuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu*

'Some people will even purposely knock it over' *puppy peing on the road* ORZ

DDDD:

Darn fella keep running further and further. Being on slightly high heels and late for class makes you think twice about chasing the fella.

And it was an adorable puppy. ;o;

I tried one more time. Got back into the car and went after it. I think the lady walked on....

It finally came to me when I called for it. So I grabbed it and dumped it onto the front seat.

Then it strucked me. What am I suppose to do with it........*crash*

I meant, like I have a class to go to. And there wasn't any identification other than a plain collar.

I drove over to the row of houses I thought I saw the puppy run out from. And thank goodness saw a pair of young girls looking around.

" 'cuse me, did you lose a puppy?"

Oh yea. It was lucky I found the owner. And I felt kinda happy I did something good.

People always say your conscience will tell you what to do, but it's not true, both your heart and head tells you different things.

If it was a huge dog, I wouldn't have the courage to go near it. Or if, I didn't manage to attract its attention the second time, I might have decided against chasing it.

How do one run after a dog who's running away from you.......

In the end, I guess, my thoughts were, if my dog ran away, I would be grateful to have her safely back home.

Overloaded

I had an awesomely packed weekend last week. XD

One of those times where everything seems to be happening all together. ORZ

Saturday morning, I dropped by school to help out with the first aid examinations. Kinda weird actually, it's usually done by the officers, but I suppose they were busy with life, like the other week at USJ13.

Wasn't too bad. I got bandaging again, so yups, knew it all. Ohoho~ I suppose I did get rather annoyed and shouted a bit more than necessary.

But but but you would too, if everyone keep coming in and out and people were getting help when they're not suppose too.......>.> And I had a written exam half completed on the table. XD

Oh well.

Almost the same situation at USJ13. Why do they keep asking me how to do itttttttt *crash* I would like to see them try that on the officers, who were usually our examiners. Dare they? =P

So anyway, I thought we have to retake the exam, hence the half crappily done written paper, until towards the end, I found out I did not have to take it. ORZ

That ended pretty late in the afternoon. I was going to go to Bon Odori that evening. But then.

I got home.

It was a huge mess. >.> What was suppose to be a little bit of touch up ended with a bit more painting to do. So I figured I have to skip it. Because coupled with the fact that my presentation, which as due the next day wasn't quite anywhere near done. hahaha *dies*

So I spend the evening, cleaning up and finishing my stuffs.

Good part I finished my slides and all. Bad part, it was 3am.

The rest of my family trooped off to the airport to pick up my cousin brother who was coming over for the week.

The phone rang around 3am, which I was finishing up. My aunt had called to ask for dad's no, since apparently my cousin ended up at the LCCT. So it turned out to be a good thing that I wasn't with them. Somewhat XD

Sunday was nerve wrecking.

We got split up into 3 groups to present our topic. I think my skills went.......urghhhhhh and I kinda mixed up asphyxia and hypoxia. Darn, first aid book had nothing on aspyhxialar.

But the examiners we got were pretty cool and nice. They gave us really useful feedback and didn't intimidate us much. XD

I think most of us would pass, since they've already failed almost half of the original 60 who went for the TTT(training the trainers). They said, if we failed, there's a chance we get a reassessment. But it'll be done in front of a real life audience. O.o So yea, keeping my fingers crossed. For the next 2 months of so, it takes for the results to be released.

And I didn't know there was a theory exam until like that morning they told all of us. Best part, it's all MCQ except for the last skeleton diagram we're suppose to label. We had the SAME diagram for the first aid exam, I thought I had to take, albeit with less labels to label.

dotdotdot. I'm pretty sure I have half of them correct since I glimpse dmy book after ORZzing over what I didn't know.

It's seriously weird how things work out in the end.

We rushed back from Kajang to attend the USJ13 5th anniversary dinner. Kinda make you feel the tweensy bit of the green eyed monster named Jealousy.

They've got so many VADs and dedicated members to make it work. We've way older and more established. haiiiiiiiiii.

And I saw Sir Chung. ORZes. I just spoke to him over msn a few day back and he said he was still in Dubai. What? You've been back since July 2nd? Wat theeeeeee. Konon. Suka muncul tiba-tiba type.

Another thing was, because I've been going for the TTT, when I was told that the attire for the dinner was formal, it popped to my mine, collared shirts and office wear. Which I would have ended up wearing, had I not checked with one of the members during the presentation.

Turned out to be those prom wear.........I r smart or plain idiotic.

At least I ended up with a blouse and skirt. So yea. Somewhere in between. XD

Most awesome part, everyone have seen my cousin but ME. And he was staying 2 nights over at my house.

That was also why, I suggested we go catch a movie on Monday, to make up for it. Since my class starts pretty late.

I totally caught up on my sleep Tuesday night. The VL (visiting lecturer) totally messes my timetable, and I had an 8am class on Tuesday. Goodness, I could barely keep my eyes open for the 2 classes I had. Seriously tired.

Oh, the irony....

Green concert.

What a load of crap and crabs.

So, I had volunteered myself for the concert duty last Saturday. One which was held at the Bukit Jalil carpark.

First of all, the only sign that refers to recycling was the 2 booths selling the Green Concert T-shirts and other random magazines. All the other stalls and booths were either promotional related, ie Celcom, magazines, some developer, food and drinks. (mostly burgers and kebabs and bandungs, etc etc)

Second was the complete lack of rubbish bins around the area. And I only meant the normal bins, there wasn't a single recycling bin around btw. >.>

Third, the artists were obviously reading a piece of paper which they have gotten before appearing on stage, to say a few recycling related info. Ie, earth and stuffs. Ah blaaaaaaa....

Fourth, the people were not paying the least bit of attention. Like durrrrr.

Fifth, the stupid concert caused MORE pollution. Noise. Rubbish. Air.

By air, I meant smokers, and make no mistake there were a whole load of them.
By noise, the singing, which I can't understand a thing.
By rubbish, one can only look at the floor and understand what I meant.

No offense, but when they meant foreign artists, most of them turned out to be Indonesions, which attributed to the huge amount of Indons.

One of them even ran up the stage and kissed the guitarist and lead vocalist of some popular group. DD: Yea, that was like the most popular band for the night.

And not your normal decent ppl, these was mostly groupies with long hair, the punk look, smoking and all. Which becomes intimidating when there's a lot of them.

Also explains the number of policemen and RELA members around. Personally, I was more afraid for our younger members, who were around 14-15, the others being of age to go for Flag's Day duty instead.

The good part, there wasn't much injury involved and goodness, our members didn't get bothered. Except for the occasional teasing, which we ignored.

It was also lucky, I got stationed behind the crowd, because there was wayyyyyyy less smoke. It got suffocating to be in front, as we found out, while ronda-ing around. And less ppl.

But like I said, what a lot of bullshit. Excuse my manners.

It grates my nerves when some stupid green concert promotes more pollution than it was suppose to stop and reduce it. Only in Malaysia, I suppose that a green concert turns into a trash concert.

Another fellow member mentioned, that he went to the FRIM day, and overheard a mat salleh complaining.....

How can this be promoting recycling, when there's not a single recycling bin around?

As the poor fella was looking for one to put his can in.

And if you're wondering, yes, I do my bit to recycle. My dad got the whole family involved.