End of Week 2

Phew... another week gone!

The main highlight of the week was the CF welcoming night on Tuesday. It took place at Grand Kampar Hotel and 10 churches around Kampar participated in the event organised by the UtarCF. The purpose was to introduce the churches in Kampar to the freshies who have just stepped into Utar for their studies. It was a great night for everyone who was there.

As for the rest of the week, nothing special happened throughout the week. Teaching and learning resumed. And we EL students started working on our assignments and preparing for presentations. Dates and order for the HOEL chapter review group (of 3) presentations have been decided. And my group has been scheduled to present on Week 4. Also, lecturers discussed abt finding replacement classes for CNY.

That's all to reflect on for this week. Adios! Oh and all the best to the Foundation students who are sitting for their final exam next week. God bless!!

I don't understand....

Why? Why? Why?

Why the ICTC staff is so lazy? They don't even wanna come to help students/lecturers who experience problems with the LCD projectors despited being requested to do so. This afternoon, I have class in Block A as Block B (where most of my classes are in that block) is used as venues for final exams of the foundation students. The laptop and LCD projector are brought in for Mr Soh to conduct his lesson. At first, there's some problem with the projector. Everything's being set up but the projector couldn't detect anything. So Winna decided to go to the ICTC to ask for help from the staff there. But she returned to the FAS meeting room, alone, saying the staff refused to come. WTH!! Hello!! We're just one block away from where the department is located yet they don't want to take the trouble to even come and have a look. C'mon lah!! We're not in Block G or H or even I that u need to walk quite some distance to reach us. FOR CRYING OUT LOUD, WE'RE IN BLOCK A. Why the staff refuse to lend a helping hand?

I understand that any vehicles which enter into the campus compound require vehicle stickers, if not the security guards will stop the particular car or motorcycle from entering the university. But the latest rumour that I heard is that even bicycles need to have those stickers. Not sure whether it's true or not but this is another thing I don't understand. Why we need to have stickers on our bicycles? Is it probably that the number of bicycles around the campus are too much that the management need to control the amount? And bicycles found in inappropriate parking locations will be chained up. At first when I'm riding my scooter into the campus for the previous trimesters, I wonder why there's invasion of parking spaces by bicycles at the parking areas for motorcycles (in front of Block C). Now I realise that students do not want to walk too far away from their venues of class. Bicycles definitely outnumber the rest of vehicles greatly and the sad thing is that there isn't sufficient parking spaces available. Last time, bicycles are seen parked along the bicycle lane inside the campus but now this is not allowed anymore. And the parking area near Block D (not the one directly in front of the block) which is the supposed parking areas for bicycles is very soggy and muddy.

I just don't understand why there's so many unsatisfactory things happen within the campus. Sigh!

CF Welcoming Night 2010

What an awesome night indeed!! Churches around Kampar gather together for this event organised by UtarCF. How good it is to see many fellow believers of Christ come for the event which purpose is to introduce the churches around Kampar to the freshies who just Utar this intake.

A total of 10 churches attended this event where 5 of them are listed in the brochure above, namely Wesley Methodist Church, Chinese Methodist Church, Gospel Hall, Praise Community Church and CGBC Campus Connect, who are the joint organisers.

I myself have reached GKH around 7pm. It was still early and there are some members who have just arrived. I chatted with them for a while. I even made 2 trips back to my own church to see if anyone's there as CGBC is just walking distance from the hotel. On the 2nd trip, some members arrived. When everyone's ready, we walked together to GKH.

We registered ourselves and received a freshies handbook before heading into the hall. Soon representatives from other churches started appearing and filling up the seats. Soon the event began with Jensen and Fiona were masters of ceremonies for the night. They welcomed everyone for being present there and handed over the time to Gale for some ice-breaking session. It doesn't what sort of game that we play, the most important thing is that everyone gather and have fun together.

Then it's back to MCs again where they released the members of the floor to have dinner before the night went on. During that time, all the people there had fellowship with one another, getting to know one another while enjoying the food prepared. It's good to see Shirley Kwong back among us again after she's away for her sister's wedding few days ago. Then after 30 minutes, everyone's back to their seats again, preparing for a time of worship. Wendy Lee led the worship with Shu as guitarist and Renjie on keyboard. Slideshows of CF activities and information about churches in Kampar were put up, then followed by speeches from Eric Ong and Mr K. Later everyone was dismissed after a closing prayer from Pastor Nicky Ling of PCC.

I didn't capture any photos for this event so pls kindly refer to this link: CF Freshies Welcoming Night

Tarting fun

Baking tarts is really fun! And I enjoy it!

For the past week, I have been joining in the baking sessions since 16 Jan at Chang En's house. All the session were at night except for the recent one (which was held in the afternoon). For as the previous sessions, the tarts were baked for fund-raising purposes during the CF recruitment drive. Each day, different CG was on duty. But even with the schedule, some members from other CGs came to lend a helping hand as well. One of them was me of course. Except for Monday, I was spotted there for the rest of the days.

Wow.. making & baking the tarts is not easy as we have to follow the recipe and instructions carefully. The production of the tarts and muffins were done smoothly, from measuring the ingredients, mixing the dough, making the crusts, putting in the fillings then baking them in oven before the ready-made tarts were taken out and transferred into paper cups. Of course, casualties sometimes happened in the process. There's always some tarts that were ruined. But they served as samples for those helpers as they have the chance to taste the tarts that they've made.

5 types of tarts & muffins were made during the baking sessions:

1. Apple tarts

2. Blueberry tarts

3. Chicken pies/tarts

4. Banana muffins with chocolate chips

5. Corn-and-pineapple custard tarts (Production ceased)

Out of the 5, I love the blueberry tarts the most with apple tarts a close second. But the rest taste equally delicious.

Let me talk about the recent tart-baking session. This session is to make tarts ordered by Praise Community Church, Chinese Methodist Church & Kampar Gospel Hall. The 3 churches are taking part in the CF welcoming night @ GKH beside Wesley Methodist Church & CGBC Campus Connect. Eric Ong's CG on duty but Calvin, Clara, Felicia and me went to help out as well. We started work arond 4.30pm and successfully made the required amount ordered by both churches within 4 hours. As the tarts were being transferred, suddenly the box of tarts Eric was holding slipped from his hands and a few apple & blueberry tarts were destroyed. Oh no! We're almost done with the day's work when the incident happened. No choice but to make a few more tarts. So we extended our working hours and successfully made them. Then we cleaned up the place before we left around 11pm. Since we didn't have our dinner while making the tarts & muffins, we decided to go Ghany for dinner & yum cha.

There's still 2 more baking session on Wednesday and Saturday and this 2 sessions is to bake more tarts to sell to Campus Connect and to meet the order made by Chinese Methodist Church. Yay! I'm gonna help out in the these 2 sessions as well. Hee! After this, no more baking sessions but there's more exciting events in store for the CF members and the upcoming one (CF welcoming night) is going to be held at Grand Kampar Hotel. Looking forward for the event!

Here are some of the photos taken during the baking sessions:

The following are photos of blueberry muffins which were made on 21 Jan. Eric Ong thought of this idea and the muffins were made using the recipe of banana muffins (with the bananas replaced by blueberry paste). Only 8 muffins were made and they're not for sale (for testing purposes only).

Casualties:

Check out the following links for more photos:

Tart-baking

Tart-selling

End of Week 1

1st week over... and assignments start looming in!

As usual, during the 1st week, lecturers begin the 1st lesson by introducing the course outline, assessment etc. And in the same week, the assignments are given to us. Time to get busy!

CF is alive again with recruitment drive throughout the week. Not much new members signing up this time but good to see new faces joining the big family. Also beside recruitment drive, CF is having fund-raising for this year's CF camp, selling tarts and muffins. And for the past few days, I have been helping out with the baking though it's not my group's turn for some days.

Campus Connect CG is back as well. And this week's cell is themed MalaysiaFest where the church members get to enjoy nasi lemak and satay. And the discipleship training continues with the study of MasterLife #2: The Disciple's Personality And for next week, the working adult cell (on Tuesdays) is cancelled to make way for the CF Welcoming Night at Grand Kampar Hotel.

Busy day

21st Jan
Whoa!! I was away from my room for most of the day, only to be back around 3am the next day.

To kickstart the day, I went to campus as usual but I was one hour earlier before the 1st tutorial. As CF is having fund-raising and recruitment drive this week, I was there to help out. Around 11am, I left the booth to attend Mr Renu's Language Teaching tutorial. By 12.30pm, I was back at the CF booth again.

According to my schedule, my next tutorial class was at 5pm. Oh no! CF first meeting also start at the same time. So I decided to join the earlier class at 2pm. Wow.. Mr Soh was mad at me when I told him I'm from the 2nd tutorial class, but he allowed me to stay on. He also suggested that I come back for the 5pm class for about 15 minutes. And I agreed. During the class, he explained abt the group assignment and later allowed the students to discuss abt which topic they want to do after having divided themselves into groups of 4 or 5. I didn't join in as I've made up my mind to stick back to my own tutorial group.

After the class, I headed to the new library to search for some books as I am doing some research on Sociolinguistics & Mass Media and Society (MMS). Managed to borrow a few books. And as I was queuing, I looked at my watch. Oh crap! It's almost 5 and I had to rush back to Block A for Mr Soh's 5pm class (my actual tutorial class). After 30 minutes being there, I asked for Mr Soh's permission to leave and proceeded to head to the dry cafeteria for CF meeting.

When I reached there, the CF members were just about to start playing some games. Glad that I made it in time though I missed the worship session. As I glanced around, the existing members outnumbered the freshies. Everyone had lots of fun. Then everyone settled down and Eric Ong welcomed all the members (both old and new) to the 1st meeting. He introduced the current committee members to everyone esp the new members. All but Shirley Kwong were there. Shirley was unable to make it cos she's busy with her sister's wedding. Then some committee members explained their so-called portfolios to the members. Wow... now I realise that being a part of the committee of a club/society/organisation is not easy as they have heavy burdens & workloads on their shoulders. To Eric Ong & co, u all have done great jobs and I will continue to give my fullest support in everything the 13 of u do for CF. Love u all!

CF over by 7 and I hurried home to get ready to attend service @ Campus Connect. Managed to get there in time and had dinner nearby the church. Shirley Lee led the worship and several announcements were made before PC shared her sermon. Regarding the announcement, the CF welcoming night @ GKH was highlighted and the usual working adult cell was cancelled b'cos of this.

After service, I had some light refreshment before heading to Chang En's house (2269) for baking tarts for the fund-raising as it was our group's turn. When I reached there, my fellow CG members just started. I joined in and we had fun making apple tarts, blueberry tarts, chicken tarts & banana muffins with chocolate chips. We worked until 2 something the next day. I have been helping out since the fund-raising tart-making sessions were started few days ago.

Towards the end of the day, Eric Ong had an idea of making blueberry muffins. So we followed the same blueberry tarts recipe and made those muffins (for testing purposes only.. hee). After that, we began packing and cleaning the place. As Calvin encoutered problems transfering the boxes full of tarts, Eric & I decided to escort him, Clara, Fiona, Konnee & Prisca home while they're transporting the boxes while pushing their bicycles. We went our separate ways after the boxes were safe in Calvin's house.

Pictionary fun time

CGBC Monday cell is back! And to kickstart the new trimester, the 1st meeting is themed MalaysiaFest and there's a makan session. There's nasi lemak and satay. After giving thanks for the food, the ladies proceed to get their food followed by the gentlemen. Some ppl like MJ even brings some friends along and it's good to see Adeline Wok back in Campus Connect after she's away for internship last year.

After everyone has finished eating, it's time to have some fun. MJ introduces a game called Pictionary. All those attended were divided in to 5 groups and each group has to send one representative out. That person is given a word and he/she has to draw it out but it has to be done without any noise or letters. 3 categories available: Simple. Intermediate, Expert. The points are allocated differently depending on the level of difficulties. Several rounds are being played for each level. And after a few rounds, one group hasn't scored any points yet. So a final round is played before the points are added to determine the winner. Anyway everyone enjoy playing the game no matter which group emerges victorious.

Before everyone is dismissed, PC distributes copies of MasterLife 2: The Disciple's Personality to some members who have began doing the discipleship training during the Oct 2009 trimester.

Shakespeare

This is a joke shared by Mr Mahalingam during his lecture.

The joke is like this:

"Who/What is Shakespeare?" he asks.
Then he shows one finger and says this is a spear. Later he shakes his finger and says, "This is Shakespeare."

Commencement of Y2S3

Let's get it started!

Today's the 1st day and it's glad to see my fellow coursemates again. We had 2 subjects: Sociolinguistics and History of English Language. As I've mentioned in my earlier post, our lecturers for both subjects are Mr Pritam & Mr Mahalingam respectively.

Let's talk abt Sociolinguistics 1st. There's a girl from Vinuraj's batch joining us in this subject (Vinuraj is one of my senior in PJ). Her name is Jessie Ching and apart from this subject, she will be joining Hui Ching's batch for another 2 subjects. She's supposed to be in the final trimester of the whole course this time but she's transferred here because she's repeating a few subjects.

Let's move on to talk abt the lecturer Mr Pritam. Wow... he's so tall, abt 190cm I can say. As usual he outlined abt the subject, what is it abt, what's the learning outcome, assessment blah blah blah.The same goes for History of EL. Assignments come early as we're supposed to work on 2 assignment throughout this trimester. Mr Pritam explained all this in the 1st lecture and began teaching in the second. Mr Mahalingam also did the same thing during the 1st hour of the lecture and taught a little in the 2nd

CF's having recruitment drive + fund-raising again..... for one week.... apple tarts, chicken tarts, blueberry tarts, corn-and-pineapple tarts... the fund-raising is for this year's CF camp around Oct.... and the 1st meeting on Thurs, 5-7pm @ cafeteria btwn Black D & E!!

MalaysiaFest @ Campus Connect later at 7.30pm. Yay!

Back in Kampar

ただいま (I'm back)!!

Reach Kampar around 5pm. Clean my room 1st and it's filthy dirty. But manage to get the job done by 6.30pm. Then unpack all my stuff and arrange them. Attend church service @ Campus Connect after dinner. Eugene leads worship and, in his sermon, Bro Peter touches the recent arson attack on churches in Malaysia which ignited from usage of the word Allah. Up to date, there are 10 churches under attack.

There isn't much ppl this time around as most of them are not back yet. And some are having their final exams at the moment and Alvis & Shumin among them while Shuyi's long trimester is coming to an end as well. All the best to them.

As for me, I'm back in Kampar early because there's a few things that I need to gao dim before the trimester begins. A brand new year, a brand new trimester, new challenges await me but I believe I can overcome them as I put my faith & trust in the Lord God Almighty. Amen!!

The return to Kampar

Kampar, here I come.... in a few days time!!

Haha... time breezes past just like the wind. A brand new trimester is 'bout to begin soon. For this trimester, I'm taking 5 subjects: Sociolinguistics, Language Teaching, Language Learning Theories, Mass Media and Society & History of English Language. And before the trimester starts, I know 3 of the 5 lecturers and all 3 of them are Indians. One of them is Mr Renu who will be teaching us Language Teaching. This is the 2nd time he's teaching us after Psycholinguistics. The other 2 lecturers are Mr Pritam (Sociolinguistics) and my academic advisor Mr Mahalingam (HOEL). As for the remaining 2, the answer will be revealed when the trimester commences on 18 Jan.

Speaking abt HOEL, my batch was being left out when Mr Maha taught the subject during the May 2009 trimester. That time, Shu Ern's, Kyle's & Ngee Derk's batches were taking this subject together. Gerammya! It would be good if the 4 batches were taking the subject at the same time.

Here, I would like to congratulate Calvin Nanthan for completing his foundation and welcome him as my junior. Welcome to the world of English Language, bandanna guy!!

Exam results

Wow... it's finally out!!

I check Intranet just now to see my exam results after getting the news from my friend y'day. I get a B in Japanese & C+ in MLE while Bahasa Kebangsaan exempted. GPA 2.65, CGPA 2.62.

Sigh... it seems my CGPA didn't improve much. Looks like I have to work much harder and spend more time on my studies in order to make improvement. I believe I can do it!!

Schools reopen

Wow... time flies!! It's back-to school time for schoolchildren all around the country as schools reopen today for most of the states (except for Kedah, Kelantan & Terengganu which started y'day). Those kids who step inot the schooling world as Year One students are the main focus compared to others as this is their 1st time going to schools to get to know new friends. Many parents are seen bringing their children to schools. Some students are excited while some are scared to go into classes.

U should be wondering why am I highlighting this when I am now studying in uinversity right?

Well, I myself have gone through 13 yrs of schooldays: 6 in primary & 7 in secondary. Out of the 7 yrs I was studying at SMJK Sam Tet Ipoh, 2 of them was during Form 6. Wow... that was the most memorable moments I had cos Sam Tet is a boys' school and only during 6th Form, boys and girls can be found studying together in a classroom.

U6F3 2006 with Form teacher Ms Ng (centre)

F3 with Mdm Thilaga (seated, in blue)

U6F3 with (seated, from left) Ms Chee, Mr Tan & Mdm Tong

Mr Cheow (seated) with us

Mr Liew (in red shirt) and us in the Chemistry lab

While those Year One students are getting used to wearing school uniforms and following the rules & regulations, I myself have experienced all those for more than a decade. Now I'm free to wear any clothes I like to university, but still need to abide in to the rules & regulations of UTAR. The very last time I wore my school uniform was 7 Dec 2006, where I sat for my final STPM paper (Physics). After the exam over, I was relieved that I can finally take off my white short sleeve shirt and green trousers for the last time.

6th Form Night 2006 at Hee Lai Ton Restaurant

6th Form Night 2005 at Florex Restaurant

My 10 lovely F3 angels
From left: Sophia, Voon Fee, Millie (in front of VF), Joanne, Kelly, Peggy, lihjiun, Evon, yelin, Nicole

F3 boys celebrating Sin Fei's birthday

Best buddies: Me and Wee Siong

I miss those days!!!

F3 Gathering

Y'day night around 7pm, I attended a Gathering organised by my fellow F3 classmates. Venue was at Bibimbap, a Korean & Japanese food restaurant located near Greentown Business Centre.

At first, my friend, who was the organiser, told me the location abt the place we're gonna have our Gathering. She even told me that the place was called Island Red Cafe. But when I reached there, I was confused. Few days before the Gathering, I passed by that place and noticed there's a signboard saying that it's Island Red Cafe. But there's a banner at the side of the place and Bibimbap was printed instead. Pathetic right? So I called Peggy to confirm that that's the place.

Soon Peggy & a few friends turned up. And after settling ourselves down, we placed our orders. Then we started chit-chatting cos long time didn't see one another. I noticed that the environment there was quite nice and soothing. Our food came and some ordered ramen (Japanese noodles) while some ordered rice-in-a-bowl. Wow... the ramen I ordered was quite tasty. Then Wee Siong, who is currently studying in NZ, brought along a bottle of wine to share with everyone.

From left: Gerald, Chee Yen, Sin Fei, Yik Keong, Wee Siong, Pui Kei, lihjiun, Kelly & me

Left to right: Gerald, Chee Yen, Sin Fei, Yik Keong, Wee Siong, Pui Kei, lihjiun, Simon & me

Then after paying for the food & drinks we ordered, we all left the place and headed to 糖水街 (tong sui kai), a hawker centre opposite Sam Tet Primary School. Having eaten at Bibimbap earlier, 11 of us just ordered drinks. I ordered a Mixed Fruits Blended, guess how much it is? RM4.00!! Oh my goodness, so expensive!! And something bad happened while we're busy talking. Apparently, a snatch theft took place where a poor woman lost her personal belongings.

Left the place around 11pm. Looking forward to have Gathering with them again... soon. But we'll meet again in a months time cos The Year of Tiger is approaching as 1st day of CNY falls on Valentine's Day. Awww... how sweet!!

Goodbye 2009, hello 2010

じゅう

きゅう

はち

しち

ろく

ご

よん

さん

に

いち

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2010!!!