Kamal's ups and downs...

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2001

2002

Sunday, January 6, 2002 (11:59 p.m.)

Woke up at 7AM, got ready and went down with the others around 7.45AM. Breakfast was self-service, there were 2 big bottles of milk and orange juice on the counter, with numerous boxes of cereal and bread, plus a toaster. I wanted to use up my loaf of bread (its expiring soon) so I had my own meal of bread and peanut butter (which I happened to bring too heh)...we were required to wash our own dishes too, which I thought was quite amusing! We departed with the bus at 9am. Our first stop was to see some wild kangaroos, which amusingly enough are found on the nearby public golf course! On the way there 2 kangaroos jumped right in front of the bus, rammed themselves against some fencing then continued to bound alongside the bus before suddenly jumping in front of us again! It was really cool! Though I must say its a good thing Gavin braked in time :) We took a walk on the golf course, and Gavin said it was okay as long as we don't upset the golfers. Hmm...I wonder if one day tensions between the golfers and the kangaroos erupt and a huge fight results? Hehehe :) We took pictures, got awfully close to the kangaroos, then hopped on the bus and drove to see the koalas. It was a long walk uphill, but it was nice to see these big, furry creatures sleeping on the thin branches of the trees. Gavin said they only see the ground when they die- that's when they grow so old they can't hang on anymore then hit the ground like fruit. Hahaha...after the walk we had a short break, I tried some bottled cafe latte and it was really quite good! Much better than that Birdy Milk Coffee stuff KL has...

We continued on to a rainforest, it was really nice to walk along the short path thru it, and upon returning to the bus, guess what: it couldn't start! Gavin tried his hand at fixing it, failed then asked a guy nearby to help, no luck. The problem wasn't the battery but the starter (or whatever it is diesel engines use). There was another tour bus which was about to leave, so Gavin asked them to call for help once they reach the nearest pekan. We waited outside the bus for a while, then Sandy managed to get the bus started again! We all gave her applause and hopped back on, and continued our journey to the nearby town- can't remember what it was called, but it was our lunch stop. We were given an hour, and I desparately wanted to eat fish (lack of meat these past few days) but Joe and Ian didn't want to eat at the pricey fish restaurant, so LiHao and I followed them around until they settled on some cafe place which had fish and chips etc. I still wanted to eat my fish so I went off with LiHao, Joe joined us while we were walking and we finally ended up in the Wave restaurant, with less than 30mins to spare. LiHao ordered some beer-battered fish, Joe had some salmon and prawn on rye and I ordered an oven-baked trevally, plus some rock melon juice. Unfortunately we didn't consider the time it would take to prepare our order, and by the time the food came there was less than 10 mins to eat it! I ate a bit of fish (it was reallly good, came wrapped in a leaf with spices, rice etc.!) and asked them to pack it, Lihao and Joe managed to rush and finish, but by the time we paid our bill (my fish cost AUD26!) and rushed to the bus, were 10mins late and everyone was inside waiting for us! We said our apologies and got on board, as usual I sat next to Gavin holding my foil wrapped fish and packet of rice.

We started our journey to see some famous rock formations- the 12 Apostles and the London Bridge. On the way I fell asleep again, and this time Gavin shook me roughly and starting scolding me, "Now look here, I don't need people sleeping next to me right? I slept past 2AM last night, and had to wake up early to make sure you guys were up and about, plus I have to drive this bus around- if I see you sleeping again, I'll feel sleepy. And sleepy driver equals big accident. All you have to do is sit there and look out the window- I got to keep my eyes on the road and entertain the lot of you for 2 days! Look at you! You're still a young man! You should be full of energy! Now stay awake!". Despite that I still felt incredibly sleepy like I was going to faint at any moment! Fortunately after a little bit we stopped to take some photos of the seaside, then continued on before stopping for about 15mins while we walked on the beach- the sand here is much finer than JB. After that we finally reached the 12 Apostles, and I proceeded to remind Sandy to hit me on the head if she sees me nodding again, 'cos I don't want Gavin to catch me again! I think the reason for my daze is lack of sleep and decent food. After the 12 Apostles we went to Shipwreck Rd or something like that, the main highlight was the cove, and crouching thru a 3 foot high passage into a cave full of stalactites :) Once that was done we went to our final tourist spot- a series of steps down to yet another beach, though we didn't stay too long there. Then we were on our way home!

The drive back wasn't that long- we took a less scenic route instead. We stopped at one point to use the restrooms, and Gavin got a scolding from the owner because apparently the restrooms were for motel residents! Gavin apologized and the man still kept scolding and looking really angry, so as soon as everyone was aboard again we continued on our way. We reached the place where we got the trailer and unhooked it, then discovered that the bus couldn't start again! This time Sandy couldn't fix it, so we called the local repair guy to come over, waited 30+ mins for it. I got accidentally got into a game of frisbee with the 2 japanese guys and Gavin for a few mins, but I really suck at it (like most sports)- either I throw it too hard or too low :( Fortunately the repair guy came so I didn't have to play anymore :) He managed to get the bus started and continued our journey back to the city, which we reached after 10pm. Gavin dropped off some ppl at St.Kilda then continued on to Spencer St. where Joe suddenly got off! We all followed suit and apparently Joe didn't realise that Gavin was going to Flinders, and we all followed him 'cos we thought Joe knew the best way to get back! Sheesh...we took a tram down to Flinders, then walked to Hungry Jacks but it was closed, tried Burger King but they didn't have any more VegeBurger so in the end we decided to make our own meals once we got back. We took a train to Clayton, Joe walked home and the 3 of us took a cab back to Richardson. I finished off my fish+rice, excellent meal, Ian and LiHao had instant noodles. Funny, I had my lunch at midnight!

Expectations for tomorrow: First SAP lecture+tute!

Saturday, January 5, 2002 (11:59 p.m.)

Woke up really early today, LiHao, Ian and myself rushed to catch the 7+AM bus, sad to say I was so weak that LiHao had to carry my bag for most of the walk :( We reached Flinders Stn. then walked and took a tram down to Spencer Stn., Joe was already there waiting for us outside the bus (actually we were a bit late, so our seats were kinda spread out) I was forced to sit next to the driver (gulp!) and after the conductor collected the cash (AUD99) our driver hopped on board, a young man (at most 30) who introduced himself as Gavin. He then got us to introduce ourselves before starting the journey. There was a Canadian lady named Sandy, who was a farmer/mechanical engineer. Then there's a French couple, 2 German girls, an American girl, 2 guys from Denmark, another 2 girls (forgot where they were from), a group of 4 Japanese (2 guys 2 girls), another 2 Japanese girls and of course us CompSci students. Now I was fairly sleepy and tried to stay awake on the highway but gave in and dozed for a couple mins b4 Gavin suddenly pushed my shoulder and pointed out the window saying, "Look a kangaroo! Oh wait, you missed it!" which managed to keep me awake for a while. We stopped to hitch on a small trailer to keep our luggage in, then continued our journey.

Apart from a short stop at a pekan for lunch (I bought a vegetarian roll, Ian had a bun, LiHao had a hamburger, no idea what Joe had..) the ride was fairly long, and I think after lunch we actually reached the Great Ocean Rd itself and drove along it for a couple of hours, looking at the ocean on the left, and the mass farmland on the right (how on earth do they make so much hay?). I nearly dozed off again and Gavin pushed my shoulder and asked me what time I slept- I could tell staying awake was going to be a real problem for me! We turned off at one point to look for the horse riding place since 3 girls wanted to ride (horse riding and surfing was included in the package, optional)- we stopped one car and asked for directions, and he said keep on going straight so we did. We drove on then asked some hikers for directions and they said keep on going. Then after a bit of distance Gavin thought we might have gone too far and tried to do a 3 point turn- very difficult! Sandy had to get outside and give him directions as he steered, because he wasn't used to driving with a trailer. Gavin managed the turn in the end, and we drove on down to a turning we missed earlier, which proved too steep for the bus and besides we weren't sure it was the right turn off either. So Gavin parked the bus on the side, got out and flagged another car. It was being driven by a young girl and her mum, with a toddler in the back seat. And poor Gavin got a whole mouthful of swear words from both mum and daughter, stuff like "How do you **** expect me to know where the **** **** **** is? You ****!" etc. and even after Gavin apologized he still kena, and then the car sped off! Gosh....well we made another 3 point turn and went up the road, beyond the part where we made our first u-turn, we even passed the swearing family again and when Gavin gave a friendly wave, they middle-fingered us! Then Gavin said they've had their second chance, next time we see them we should pull down our pants and press up against the window haha..we eventually found the place close to 4pm, dropped off the girls and went back to the main road.

I think by the time we reached the Great Ocean Rd Inn it was just after 5pm. Gavin collected AUD25 from each of us, then started distributing us- there was a room with 6 beds so most of the girls went into that, there was also a room with 4 beds and after swapping with 3 other guys the 4 of us managed to get the room to ourselves :) Lihao and I took a short nap, the others went for a walk and around 6.40pm we walked downstairs to the cafe for dinner. Our meals were supposed to be prepared but they weren't so waited at our table until 7.30pm. Since all the tables were big, we sat next to the 2 japanese girls- Atsko and Kaneko. Atsko has been studying in Melbourne for a year, and Kaneko has been visiting for a month, and of course now with summer hols they've been taking tours here and there. That silly Joe didn't utter one Japanese phrase at all! I wonder whether he did go for any classes last year....communication wasn't that easy but we managed to talk a bit before the food came. Apparently alcohol was rather cheap, since Ian had a glass of red wine, Kaneko had white wine an Atsko had beer. Thank goodness Lihao and Joe don't drink- the smell of alcohol makes me ill :( After dinner our group went for a drive to the lookout point, but I was rather tired and opted for sleeping early. The others came back around 10pm, I tried to sleep but there was a loud band playing in the cafe until 2am! Ian and I couldn't sleep with all the noise seeping thru the floorboards haha..

Expectations for tomorrow: Finish off our tour!

Friday, January 4, 2002 (11:59 p.m.)

Woke up around 9.30am today, went to the admin office to see about getting my room changed, I couldn't get Soo Ming's room unfortunately, but I managed to get a room next to Lihao (3C4) so now there's 3 of us in a row :) After packing up my stuff and dumping it in my new room, the 3 of us walked to the Campus Centre to open bank accounts. Then I learned something: Aussie Banks are mean. Their Classic account gives 0% interest, and in fact reduces by AUD5 per month unless the balance is more than AUD2000 (I didn't bring enough cash to make that an option). Their Premier account gives 3.5% interest (yay!) but only if u never withdraw money from it, and you must make a deposit of any amount each month or the interest will be gone. On the plus side it doesn't shrink but is forced to grow. :P Faced with these options I decided not to open an account, signed off some travellers cheques instead for cash. We had to wait for one of the bank officers to return before Ian could open his a/c, so we had some breakfast at the cafe (I had a spinach roll+orange juice) then while Ian and LiHao were discussing stuff with the bank ppl, I took the opportunity to walk around the campus centre, bought an AUD10 Ezycom card so I can call Bel later (gotta remind myself I'm 3 hours in the future now haha), waited until almost 12pm before they finished. We took a bus to town (the Clayton pekan) and discovered the Indonesian restoran was closed until next week(!) so since I wasn't feeling that hungry anyway we went to Mcdonalds. Since I can only eat ice-cream there I tried the new Monster Sundae-its some sort of blueberry with these really painful tasting candy strewn on top- what a waste!

I bought a Zone 2 monthly ticket from the train station- cost me AUD55.90. After that we browsed around the Chinese kedai runcit's, Ian and I bought some bowls, and Lihao found some vegetarian instant noodles for me, so the 3 of us walked to Joe's house- well actually its his friend's place but its really nice! Plus since his friend went back he's staying there by himself now, cool! I had my noodles while the others lazed about, had some bulla ice cream from his fridge too hehe :) We watched a bit of Babylon 5 then said bye to Joe and left. I bought an issue of MAD from the newsstand while waiting for the bus, haha they made good fun of Harry Potter! I spent a lot of time in my room trying to get my SMTP server to work, in the end I gave up...maybe I'll sign up for a yahoo email or something, so far I can receive tmnet but can't send. I called Belinda at 10 something, glad to hear her voice again...couldn't talk long though since she was going out, so we talked for about 20 mins or so, I talked to my sis a little bit too. My dinner was quite lame- the others had some instant noodles, and I had crab meat from a can + bread. Yuck. Since I got a tour with the others for the next 2 days, I slept right after that.

Expectations for tomorrow: Going to tour the Great Ocean Rd! But I'm soooo tired....

Thursday, January 3, 2002 (11:59 p.m.)

Met up with Ian, his parents and his brother at KLIA at 3.30am today, we checked in together and found out our flight (supposedly 6AM) was delayed until 7.45AM!!! We got a couple of complimentary breakfast coupons though, and waited around until around 5AM before going to eat breakfast with my mum (Ian's family went back at 5) at the nearby cafe. Close to 6AM we said goodbye to my mum and took the rail to the departure lounge, and camped at our hall until 7AM which was when we were finally let in (very few passengers waiting to get in surprisingly) customs asked to look inside my bag at my CD-Writer, no problems there. Ian had a nail-clipper which he declared, also no prob. We waited for a bit and our plane finally arrived, offloaded a LOT of Mat Salleh, who immediately turned around and went into our departure hall, going thru the xray stuff again! Why couldn't they wait in the plane? Anyway close to 8AM we boarded our plane and our flight began.

Lauder Air is different. We flew on a 777, which had the cool personal monitors and stuff, but all the movies were in German/French except Cats and Dogs and Toy Story 1. So apart from watching Cats and Dogs 1.5 times, desparately trying to get some sleep (and failing most of the time), I was bored! I really needed some sleep too since I didn't get any last night :( Breakfast was either ham/bacon so I said no of course, Lunch was fish which was really good! We touched down at 7pm (Aussie time), our attempt to go thru the green lane failed :( but luckily the red laners didn't ask us to open our bags (whew!). Joe and Francis (one of his friends) were there to greet us, its a good thing too 'cos Ian and I were too late to catch the coach LiHao booked for us (poor guy! Wasting all that money on phone calls...). I went with Francis to buy a VegeBurger from BK, then we all got into Francis' car and went to the Halls.

We got there shortly after 8pm, LiHao met us at the hall office- apparently our hall registration problems were all CLAUDINE'S fault, but now our registration is ok, Ian got a room next to LiHao (Richardson Hall) and I got a room in the next stairwell, near the top. Francis and Joe helped me carry my luggage to my room (I think it was 4 flights of stairs!) it was quite ok really, fairly big. Ian and LiHao came upstairs in a few mins, we sat around for a bit talking while I ate my vegeburger, then decided to go out for dinner at the Chinese restoran nearby. Lihao and I didn't eat, the others had broken rice, and after dinner we drove to a supermarket to stock up on supplies- I bought bread, peanut butter and milk, then Francis dropped us off at the Hall and went back with Joe. I was feeling kinda tired, so after taking my bath and fixing up my computer with LiHao's help I slept around midnight I think. I'm lucky, the bathroom here has a lock for the door- the toilet is in the bathroom along with the shower (sink outside the door). The other bathrooms have separate doors for both toilet and shower, so basically with the bathroom I have here I can 'chup' the shower right after using the toilet hehe :)

Expectations for tomorrow: Change my room. Go to the Indonesian restoran for lunch.

Wednesday, January 2, 2002 (11:59 p.m.)

Woke up early today, had breakfast with Dad then we went to the Asus center to settle my notebook problems. The technician's English was poor, plus he wasn't keen on replacing the notebook right away and made us wait and wait for an hour, before my Dad finally got his boss to see us who told us about the warranty problem- apparently Asus has discontinued my model, and thus deleted the SN from their database :( While the technician was replacing my USB ports and battery, the other guy typed out a letter to say my notebook is a licensed Asus product etc. blah blah blah in the end I got my notebook back A-OK at 11.30am. Dad and I went to the bank and requested AUD4000 worth of travellers cheques, had lunch, came back and signed the cheques (I had to sign 80 pieces!!! Lenguh tangan I...:( Then we went to Kakak Shantha's house to leave my car, sat around a bit at her place, then Dad dropped me off at home before going back to work.

Ram called and said he wanted to do something later around 5pm, so I packed some stuff in my bag, lazed around a bit, Michelle smsed me to say she might drop by after dinner, I waited and waited- in the end Ram didn't show up, plus Michelle got back late (around 8pm) after she had done her charity work, so in the end I tak jadi keluar with anyone :( I arranged to meet Ian at 3.30am at KLIA, then spent an hour trying to figure out a way to smuggle CDs to Australia- Joe told me to duplicate them, and by the time I discussed it with Georgi it was past midnight- took an hour plus to duplicate 6CDs, plus burn some stuff for me to take into Australia...sigh...I took a quick shower and left for the airport with Mum at 2.30am.

Expectations for tomorrow: Flying to Australia!

Tuesday, January 1, 2002 (11:59 p.m.)

Woke up at almost 11am today hehe...spent the morning messing around with my comp and doing a little packing, Ren Yi called to say he couldn't make it today :( then around 2pm I felt a bit hungry so I called up Shen Han and Wing Tatt and asked them if they were free, they were so I picked up Wing Tatt, went over to Shen Han's place, installed my 36X CDROM in his PC (I sold it to him for RM30)- took almost an hour but I managed to get his IDE devices set up correctly as C,D,E (whew! that's what happens when you don't know the jumper settings). Shen Han needed to pick up some ubat from Jln. Gasing, so we went in my car to the place, picked it up then went back. I was feeling ravenously hungry, and suddenly realised why- I hadn't eaten lunch yet! Hahaha..

We went back to Shen's place, dropped off the medicine then I drove Shen Han's Kancil (he lost his lesen, so I got a chance to drive it...still can't beat my 1.6!) to 1 Utama. We ate at Mcdonalds, I bought an adapter and soap, we walked around a bit then went back at 7pm. I dropped off Wing Tatt, then went home, rested for a bit, watched Sliders and slept around 11pm.

Plans for tomorrow: Get travellers' cheques, leave car at mechanics, finish packing!

Monday, December 31, 2001 (11:59 p.m.)

Went to kolej at 10.30am today just to drop off Choon's tape in the RL- wish I hadn't forgotten it on Saturday :( I went to Vasu's for my haircut, then bought some stuff from Georgetown, then bought food from Mamitas and Meidi-Ya, had lunch @ home then slept from 3-7pm. Mei Yee called at 8pm, apparently she's got plans with Suet May tomorrow afternoon, so I guess our lunch plans might be cancelled :(. I called Michelle and we spoke for a bit, might see her on Wednesday before I go, depending on how busy we are. Then Ram called at 10pm to say the gang was going to Hartamas to eat dinner, but since they were going to Souled Out I couldn't join them (its on my boycott list) so I stayed at home and watched tv instead...today's Sliders ep was surprisingly ok, got to watch a bit of Blue Streak and Stuart Little too! I called Bel at 11 and talked to her for a while, then at 11.30pm went down to Bangsar but the others weren't there yet!

It was so difficult trying to get to Bangsar and trying to find parking that Kevin got fed up and went home instead, leaving Ram and Ong there to join me at about 12.15am :( The 3 of us walked around a bit then spotted Vivian, Justine and Mindy in Alexis, so we walked in and talked to them a bit. Vivian left quickly with her other friends, and Ong and I managed to convince Ram, Mindy and Justine to go somewhere less noisy- eventually we ended up at the stalls. Mindy and I had some satay, Ong had a burger and the others just had drinks- I wish they had jumbo juice though...I was really thirsty! We talked about a lot of stuff- kolej, primary school, and other issues too but by 2.30am we had to leave. After the long walk to my car (closest place to park was SKBB) I sent Ong and Ram home, then reached home myself at 3am. I suppose this year's New Year's eve celebration wasn't as good as last years, but it was OK- probably 'cos we just sat around talking in a small group, which rarely happens anyway. 2002 onwards it will be house parties all the way, no more travelling to Telawi area- its a waste of time for us really.

Expectations for tomorrow: Dinner with Wing Tatt and Ren Yi etc.

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