Training.

Amazingly, I finally started my training for Mount Kinabalu. I told myself that I will try to go Kiara Hill in TTDI at least 3 or 4 times a week just to build up my stamina. My brother actually suggested I join a gym but I don't think I'll have the motivation to go there!

Frankly, living in Auckland for 10 months did actually boost my stamina. Being such a small city, most places are in a walking distance. Nevermind the fact that I had to climb up the slopes everyday just to go home!

Pre-Auckland, I would stop every few minutes on the Kiara Hill simply because I couldn't breathe! That's how unfit I was! Yesterday, I managed to finish the entire hill without stopping. What a personal achievement!

Jun, how's your training going?

Envy.

"Hello, my name is Beejay. BJay. BJ. My owner hasn't decided which name will suit me better. I am a 6 weeks old Beagle."

My brother's puppy. So freaking cutelah!! The tail wouldn't stop wagging and he kept licking me.

It's been a long time since I have a puppy at my house! Oh, I am so green with envy!

Graduation.

Hello people! I am back in KL! I had an awesome time in New Zealand. Didn't know I missed Auckland so much until I actually stood at its soil again. Sad but true.

First thing first, Yi Fan, LOOK AT WHAT HAPPENED TO THOSE JAPANESE GUYS!

I almost couldn't recognize Yohei with all those beard/moustache on him. Anyway, deepest condolences to Yohei, whose grandmother just passed away :(

Shingo's new "I-got-electrocuted" hairdo. Somehow, Japanese people get to get away with all those funky styles!

Okay, after the initial shock, let's go back to my graduation. It was definitely one of the best time of my life. Judging on my own abilities and history of near failures in most of my exams -_-"', I couldn't believe that I can actually graduate from a university! I could go on and on about how I wouldn't graduate but I am not gonna do that. Instead, I'll share some of the pictures I took on the graduation day!

Yen Ling and I are all geared up for the street procession, which begins in Albert Park.

Lovely flowers from Yohei. It was so sweet of him. He couldn't come for our graduation because he had to fly back to Japan to attend his grandmother's funeral so he bought both of us a bouquet of flowers each. And the reason why he gave me the orange gerbera because it matches my hair! How thoughtful!

The start of the street procession. I suppose all of the graduands felt quite honoured because the uni actually called in the police to stop some of the main traffics in the city so that we could complete the procession without having to wait for the traffic! It was a 30 minutes walk from Albert Park to the Town Hall, where the ceremony was held.

Graduation, Auckland-style! It started to drizzle shortly after the street procession started. And stopped once the procession ended. Damn Auckland weather!

My ceremony was at 2.30pm. By the time everything is completed, it was about 4.30pm.

That little blue book is the 2007 Autumn (with global warming, it felt more like Summer) Graduation Programme. Instinctively, most of the graduands started flipping the book to search for their respective names once they are uncomfortably (with those gown, who could seat comfortably?) seated.

A symbolic gesture from the Chancellor (he put on his cool red-coloured trencher on my head) and I am presented with my long-awaited, torture-filled degree! There's this whole long story about why we are not supposed to wear our trencher before being presented with our degree. From the graduation handbook, I found out that it is apparently 'inappropriate to wear your trencher in public prior to this moment'.

Trencher? Check. Degree? Check. Graduates? Check. Job? Errr... not for me at least...

Parents beaming with pride.

42 Wakefield Street, AUT Business Faculty. I've been brought down, I've gained inner strength, I've braved through tough presentation and teammates and made myself proud. It all happened right here.

Roger Baxter, my Business-to-Business Marketing lecturer. Nice man. And he remembered my name! Considering that I was only in his class for like, 3 months?

An interesting situation to note. 22nd March was my graduation right? So its 223 in numbers term. So I bet $5 on that when I was in SkyCity Casino. Guess what? I won $300 out of that! Feeling rather lucky, I relied on my instinct to bet another round. For no particular reason, I bet $5 on the number 4. Its not a very lucky number and it doesn't really appear on the 3 dices combination often, that's why the winning is 1-63. Since I bet $5, I won $315. I watch as 2 of my $5 chips became a huge stack of chips worth $615!

As I just had dinner at Orbit, the revolving restaurant on Sky Tower, the winning kinda covers the bill. Also, since I couldn't bring home quite abit of my stuffs, the winning covers my excess baggage charges to ship my stuffs home!

Excited?

Tomorrow is the day. My flight back to New Zealand is at 9.30pm. 10 hours later and I'll arrive in Auckland.

The thought of being in NZ after 4 months seems exciting. I miss all my housemates sooooo much!

So much has changed since I came home. Whatever it is, I hope we can still have fun like how it was last year!

Wiser?

Someday, the candles are going to fill up the entire cake. Damnit...

You know how people always say you'll become wiser once you get older? Wise is not exactly what I am feeling right now. Maybe old, but not exactly wise...

God, I wanna cry!

Thank you very much for all your sms-es, calls and blog post. Really really appreciated it :D

Booked.

Arrangements for the Mount Kinabalu trip is currently in progress (Thanks, Nik).

Just purchased KL-Kuching and Kuching-KK flight tickets from AirAsia. Heading to Kuching to attend a friend's wedding and then we're gonna fly from there to KK.

Oh, I can't wait for the trip! Its gonna be so fun and exciting. And not to mention extremely tiring for someone who needs to start working out soon!

Komunis & Kampung.

Added a new blog link titled 'Komunis & Kampung', a blog by Amir Muhammad, the documentary director for 'Lelaki Komunis Terakhir' and 'Apa Khabar Orang Kampung'.

I personally feel like watching both the documentaries even more after the Government banned it. Don't get me wrong. It's not a rebellion towards the Government. It's just my own curiosity and my preferences for documentaries.

I've seen a couple of great foreign documentaries which documents the true accounts of specific topics. Now, I would like to see some great ones from my own country for a change!

Perfect-LAH!

Went souvenir hunting at Central Market with Yi Fan. Seriously, I have never imagined myself shopping for Malaysian souvenirs. Why would I need them anyway?

Before stepping my foot into Central Market, I have no clue whatsoever about what I could get for my weird Japanese partner-in-crime in NZ.

Then I came across this t-shirt. It is very hilarious how non-Malaysians try to use the lah in their sentences. They simply put lahs wherever they like!

This is, in my opinion, a perfect souvenir for him!

WTF?

Talk about surprises. Apparently, my blog is a spam-blog. WTF??

"This blog has been locked by Blogger's spam-prevention robots. You will not be able to publish your posts, but you will be able to save them as drafts."

Okay, Blogger. You better have a good explanation for that.

Here's from Blogger (3/3/07): "Your blog has been reviewed, verified, and cleared for regular use so that it will no longer appear as potential spam. If you sign out of Blogger and sign back in again, you should be able to post as normal. Thanks for your patience, and we apologize for any inconvenience this has caused."