=D

Today is a day that shall be written down in the history books alongside the day when a tsunami swept over the Malaysian political arena. However this historic day has nothing whatsoever to do with politics. It has to do with teeth. My teeth to be exact.

I am now officially braces free! =D =D =D =D =D
Yes, i will repeat just for the message to sink in.

I.

AM.

BRACES.

FREE.

I can now smile and flash my nice straight teeth everywhere i go. =D I can now eat chewing gum. (note that i have not been eating gum for 4 years! That was the one and only rule i stuck to.) I can smoothly run my tongue over my teeth without being obstructed by metal thingies. I will no longer have annoying pieces of food stuck in between the metal pieces when i eat. I will be able to brush my teeth with a normal toothbrush. In other words, i am liberated! Haha.

The removal of braces was done quite quickly actually. Amazingly it's much simpler than putting it on. Dr Looi just cut the wires and then proceeded to yank the whole thing out. Do twice for the upper lip and lower lip, then Ta-da, it's hello teeth, goodbye braces! It's the cleaning up (removing the cement and polishing) that took longer.

Though my mouth does feel emptier without the metal pieces that i was so used to.

I managed to dig up a photo from a few years back of me when i first started wearing braces. Way back in form 2, me thinks.
Here, look :

I am the queen of posing. Not.

and here's another one

You can see clearly how bad my teeth were back then

I strongly do not encourage clicking to enlarge. Anyway, see how cute i was? Ahem, I still am cute now. Heh.

Right, that was before. Now this is after :

See?? No more metal. =D

I told you i'm still cute. Lalala....

Will be getting my retainer on wednesday, which also happens to be the date of chemistry lab trials. !!! Hope i don't mess anything up and my limewater MUST turn cloudy!

ps-my limewater test for carbon dioxide never worked till last week. I was ecstatic. XD

This font size function on blogger is cacat-ed. It shows normal when in composing mode but comes out smaller. Eh, i want it to be normal sized la.
To quote a certain someone, this is "Stooooopid".

I did it.

I DID IT!!!!!!!

What did i do, you ask?

Nope, i didn't complete all my Maths tutorial. Yet.

Nope, i didn't accomplish any studying throughout the weekend.

But instead, I. WENT. DRIVING.

Haha..I know, 'big deal'.

For those of you who have been driving since like months and months ago, it might be of no importance but you see, i have not sat in the driver's seat since i last passed my driving exam. Which was sometime back in December 2007. I don't drive cause i don't own a car an also cause my mum only allows me in her Vios as a passenger. Not more than that. I think she fears that i might ram her car into stuff. Hahaha..So you see, the only car i've ever driven is the kancil and the only occasion i got to drive was during practices and the exam. I'm not sure where that puts me, in terms of readiness to drive in real life.

Anyway, yesterday evening, my super nice brother in law who pities me took me driving around the Batu Maung area. =) I got to drive his Ford Focus. Considerably big car. For someone who has not touched the steering wheel in 3 months, the whole drive went alright. I mean i didn't hit any cars or inanimate objects right? =P Though i'm not sure what my instructor of the day thinks.

I must've been living in the Stone Age in terms of car..interior gadgets or whatever you call them. Yesterday, i was looking for the lever to move the car seat forwards but i didn't find it. Who knew the car was so canggih, everything is controlled just by tiny flicks of your hand. XD I was ooh-ing and aah-ing over lame stuff like electronically controlled switches for the side mirrors and car seat. I don't usually sit in ho-liau expensive cars like BMW or Audi that are mostly controlled by electronic devices ok.
Heheh.

So after i drove around Batu Maung, we decided to continue all the way to Balik Pulau since this born and bred in Penang girl has not been there before. XD The drive there was interesting..well,only until a certain point. The twisty, windy and narrow hill road gets boring after a while..It's not much fun looking at trees and more trees. Anyway, we got all the way to the heart of Balik Pulau which is the so called town centre to buy some laksa but alas, the laksa shops were all closed. Headed for home after that little journey.

(i think this is getting very long..you can stop if you want)

And then dinner was Japanese food. at Shin Ju Tei. Wheeeeeee! Did i mention i love salmon? No? Well I do. Oh oh, lunch was at Pasta Mania. For okay food and self service, it was a pretty expensive place to dine at.

Yes, i was supposed to talk about my KL food escapades but was too caught up with F1 fever that i forgot.

Do try eating Tony Roma's when in KL. The atmosphere is almost like TGIF but one thing Tony Roma's has that TGIF doesn't is very good service. The staff are super quick and efficient, unlike the more laid back people in Penang. XD no offense meant. The food was great, although i can't remember the name of the dish now. It was de-boned ribs topped with some sauce(which i can't remember also) with chips and salad.

Anyway, as i was saying about the service, these people seem to possess mind reading abilities (at least the guy who served us seemed to) or maybe they were just being very observant. As soon as we were done with food, he instantly came to clear the table. Reappeared again with toothpicks and sweets. Note here that my bro in law was just about to ask our waiter for some toothpicks. Right after that, he emerged with pre-packed hot towels. One by one, he tore open the packets and handed the towels to us. It actually caught all 5 of us byu surprise. Never in all my dining experiences have i come across such service. Hahahaha.

And there was a dim sum morning at a random dim sum shop in...Puchong, i think. For 3 plates of chee cheong fun, 4 bowls of broth and an assortment of dim sum dishes, the total amounted to only RM 45++. So one person actually pays only RM 9++. Now where can you get such reasonably priced dim sum in Penang? The food was quite good too. Though i kinda disliked the jasmine tea. The flowery smell was a bit too much.

In Berjaya Times Square(the place where the Ferrari cap was purchased), there was this food outlet called Gasoline. The place has this prehistoric theme but there was a sphinx statue somewhere, if i remember correctly. They partition the place into small (read : cramped) cubicles enclosed by gauze curtains all the while maintaining the theme. Also, you sit on cushions, like the Japanese do. They claim to serve more than 300 types of dishes ranging from local, western, japanese, portuguese and i can't remember the rest. Though it seems the shop is mostly frequented by teenagers and students. There were a fair share of err..lala people. Food was okay but i got cramps after sitting in the small cubicles.

Fine fine, i'll stop yakking now.
=)

More pictures!

This time taken with an SLR camera. enjoy!

BMW-Sauber. Not sure who's driving.

Massa! Sad, he didn't drive well without TC.

Kimi in action

I'm not a fan of Renault but it is a nice shot

Whooooo! Expensive car

SL 500. *drools*

Uh.

Freak Magnet? Hhaha.

Trip to Sepang

Well! Before i begin, lets take a look at what i'm SUPPOSED to be doing.

1. Moral folio
2. Maths tutorial
3. Mechanics tutorial
4. More maths tutorial
5. Studying!!

Obviously, going online has top priority. Eheheh. =P
I've been wanting to update about the trip down to Sepang ever since i came back on Sunday but didn't manage to find time until today.

So, went to KL on Thursday morning itself and stayed until Sunday's race was over. By doing so, i skipped Friday classes namely Mechanics, Maths and Chemistry. Wheeeee! I know Adelene missed my presence. And Kiran wanted to scold me for writing nonsense on her book. Again. XD Ask her to show the statistics notebook to you.

Right, about Sepang.

My ticket was the RM 200 one for a hillside shaded free seating spot (but if you buy 4 tickets, you get a rebate and pay only RM 150). The cheapest ticket, RM 100 is also a hillside place but it has no shade. Yeah, RM 100 extra just for shade.

The view from where i sat

Continuation of previous picture

You see, i don't own an SLR camera so the normal camera can't fit the entire view into one frame. The long stretch of white pointy looking thing is -as you can probably guess- the grandstand. That's only the back part of the grandstand. The opposite side would be the facing the Start-Finish line. I read somewhere that the designer of this circuit designed the white pointy roof to resemble a hibiscus flower..Um, you be the judge.

I went for all 3 days, free practice on Friday, Qualifying on Saturday and the race on Sunday. Eh, not crazy ok..Must utilise the ticket to the fullest ma. Even parking itself costs Rm 50. I know, you're probably thinking "wah, crazy! So cut throat." But then, you'd have to walk reaaaaallllly -and i mean REAAAAALLLLLY- far to get into the circuit cause without the RM 50 parking sticker, they won't let you park in the compound.

Amount of people who turned up on Friday

As you can see from the picture above, not many people attend the Friday free practice sessions.
It's a plus for photography aficionados like my sponsor of this trip. =P

That's him in red

They get to take gazillion shots of the cars without people blocking their way. And, some photographers -pro or otherwise- get to show of their humongous lenses. Which looks pretty weird on the camera when the lens is like 5 times the size of the camera. Forgot to take a picture of one dude with telescope-like lens, unfortunately.

When they say Sepang Circuit is very grand and super ho liau, there might have been a tad bit of exaggeration.

The signboard at the entrance

The other signboard

The entrance. Note the Kimi supporters

When you think of 'mall area', the thought that comes to mind is shopping haven with multiple shops. Alas, this is what the mall area looks like.




The mall area is nothing but an enclosed area with 5 to 10 booths selling similar F1 merchandise. Mostly Ferrari merchandise to, i must add. And the merchandise don't come cheap. A cap costs RM 150 and a the price of a shirt ranges from RM 150 to RM 220. Mostly cater to the foreigners only la..
(i got my Ferrari cap at only RM 15. Teehee =P)

A RM 15 and a RM 6.90 Ferrari cap.
Can buy me original one if anyone got money. XD

They also had a Petronas booth showcasing the BMW-Sauber F1 car and a Mercedez Benz booth. The Petronas booth has nothing much but the Mercedez one has some pretty nice cars. The SL 500 was the nicest and sleekest looking one there.

Why do they not showcase a Ferrari???

Mercedez-Benz

Close up. Why do they not put a poster of Kimi and Massa??

Luxury cars on display

The CL 500

This is the model of the Safety Car used during the race

Also, they don't allow you to bring in your own food and drinks. They 'spot-check' your bags and toss out your bottled water and make you eat your food outside the entrance. So of course people get hungry during the race and are expected to buy from the stalls. The stalls cut will hike up the price as per usual. I only know one bottle of mineral water is priced at RM 5. Didn't want to bother finding out about the prices of other drinks and snacks sold. Just so you know, the parking areas are on oil palm plantation grounds. RM 50 parking lot. Expensive expensive.

And the toilets are nothing to be proud of. Typical Malaysian hallamark. Hhaha.

Notice the fence and barricades which seperates us from the cars. Being so far and all, you can't really tell which driver is in the car unless you take note of the helmet. That can be quite a challenge unless the helmet is yellow like Massa's and Lewis's. And being so far, can't take close up shots of the F1 cars with a normal camera.

It's Massa. I think.

That's a BMW-Sauber

Still, the sound of the engines are really awesome. Quite loud but tolerable la..Though i had on ear muffler thingies cause BAR Honda's engines were annoyingly louder than everybody else's. And BMW-Sauber engines sound like they were going to explode every time they change gears round the corner. Aiya, Ferrari engines are the smoothest and the bestest best ones la. XD

Here's a pretty cacat video of Ferrari during Qualifying. I think.

Anyway, i got to see the cars live! more importantly, i got to see Kimi and Massa LIVE!!!!!! I was this close -ok, fine..not THAT close- to the drivers during the Drivers' Parade on Sunday. Though i didn't manage to take their pictures during the parade. Too many people moving about blocking the view. Everyone moved down nearer to the tracks when the Drivers' Parade was about to start.

Everybody loves Kimi

Compare number of spectators on Friday to Sunday's full house.
Note the red flag flying and the red spots in the background.

It was very fun to people watch on Race Day while waiting for the race to start. Sure, there were other events to fill in the time like Formula BMW Series, GP2 Asia and some mini races as such but people watching was much more entertaining..besides swatting spiders and insects of course (the grass is choked full with annoying little insects). =D The Caucasians are an interesting lot, there were more avid photographers with gargantuan lens, and lots of die-hard fans, especially for Ferrari. =) *warning : photos of topless guys ahead

The Wear-Hipster-Pants-To-Show-Undies style

The smoker gang

The 'gaya' look

Start 'em young

The Massa camp

The Kimi camp

This little boy can do a superb imitation of F1 cars

Nekkid guy

Whoops. Wrong photo. XD

More nekkid guys!

Sleeping guys guy and a lady

Nekkid guys with colours of Italian flag on hair

Told you there were a lot of interesting people walking around..those with pot bellies, man boobs, underwear baring, scantily dressed...etc.
Oh yes, i wore 3 red items on Race Day. A red shirt, red Ferrari cap and my red socks as shown above. XD Another video of Ferrari below. Try listening to the sound, though not as good as the original one.

Last note : I had and still having rashes now, a little token of appreciation from the little bugs in Sepang.

Update for the week

Breaking news :
I've officially dropped Further Maths. Well, not really official since i have yet to obtain my signed form from Dr Teoh and submit it to the finance department..ANYWAY, I will not be going for Further Maths classes anymore. I'm not sure if i'll regret this decision in the long run -hopefully i won't- but for now, i'm glad for the extra free hours for studying. Yeah, i'm going to miss feeling the Furter Maths euphoria. Haha..
(Niresh, don't rub it in)

Discoveries :
I am talentless.
Can't whistle,
can't do my 'rrrrrrrr's with my tongue,
can't do the lip-smacking sound thing,
can't waggle eyebrows,
can't waggle my ears,
can't touch type.

However, i CAN roll my tongue.
Hahaha..

Bit of interesting info :
Today, Rubhini just named me her fashion icon in college. *laughs* i'm flattered. XD XD
THe first thought that came to mind was that of Twiggy, from ANTM. Hahahaha.

Fashion icon, Twiggy

Upcoming test :
Totally clueless on what to study for Moral test tomorrow. Don't know to what extent do i need to study the teori-teori, nilai-nilai and all that cheeeem philosophical things. Worst part is, it's all in bm and the sentences can be so long that i forget the first part of the sentence. Just think SPM karangan style. Also, the sentences sometimes contradict each other...Which is why i get confused halfway through reading and then lose focus.

Weekend plans :
Will be away from Thursday till Sunday. F1 Grand Prix beckons. =D (no mechanics, maths and chemistry! Joy!) I'm planning to wear at least one red item. Teehee.
Yeah, i know what this Friday is. Saturday and Sunday too. Which is why i'm kinda upset that these events fall on the same week that i won't be around...

Ok ok, going to study Moral. Or at least try to.

Post-SPM results post

Cheers to the 'Fantastic Four' for our straight A1's. =)
There better be a GOOD photo of us in the REVIEW 2008 *hint hint*.
OR ELSE...
=P
Too lazy to mention about the day's events. Go check out Jas's blog for more details.
To all fellow SPM takers of year 2007, cheers for getting through the last leg of the secondary school chapter of our lives. Good or bad, just be thankful for what we have. =) and then life goes on..

Oh, and as Denise put it, EST=Extremely Stupid Test.

Politics

From ex-prisoner to Penang CM
He has indeed come a long way - from the solitary existence as a political prisoner to newly-minted Penang chief minister.

Outgoing CM and Gerakan acting president Dr Koh Tsu Koon and wife were also present despite that his party was completely wiped out in the state, leaving it without any seat.

The DAP and PKR newly-elected representatives, including president Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, were also at the ceremony but conspicuously missing were 11 elected representatives from Umno.

Lim unveiled a set of plans for the state government today, where he aimed to introduce a series of reforms ranging from doing away with the New Economic Policy in favour of a non-race-based policies to requiring government officials to publicly declare their assets.

-Extracted from http://www.malaysiakini.com/news/79648-

New government for Penang! =) Let's hope that they'll bring changes to our state.

Pre-SPM results post

Remember the Further Maths test the other day? Well the good news is I didn't get zero out of 20. But i did get 4/20. FOUR! 20% out of the whole thing. Haha. That's like the worst i've ever done for any math related thing. XD Though the Korean girl did get full marks for it.

Surprisingly, i wasn't too upset about it. I think it was because i knew i could've done better (like 12/20) had i not been careless..You know those questions where you get one tiny detail wrong, whatever your write after that will all be wrong? Yeah, that was my problem.

Anyway, i think i'll drop Further Maths la. Yes, it is an interest. Yes, it makes me happy being able to solve questions. Yes, it makes me feel smart-er. But i need to focus on my future education plans, which Further Maths is not a prerequisite. And i'm wasting too much time on it. Will finalise decision by next monday. Heh.

Moral moral moral. Yuck. And the lecturer...Uh, let us just say he's not much of a help in making things better for us in his class.

O yeah, met up with Denise today. =) It's been about 3 months since i've last seen her. Going to see her again tomorrow. Then we can catch up like the 'Fantastic Four' days. Wheee!
About today, had this miscommunication problem in the afternoon. Aimy thought Lynn was going to Gurney so she drove us there. Meanwhile, Lynn thought we were at Denise's house, so she went there instead XD then she had to drive to Gurney in the end. What did we do in Gurney, you ask? Well, 4 people sat down watching 2 people eat. Haha..

Because of our little lunch rendezvous, for the first time ever i was late for Moral. 50 minutes to be exact. He wasn't giving one his usual presentations and he doesn't even bother if you come or not come so yeah, kiran and i just nicely walked in.

I seem to have this problem of controlling my laughter.
It goes like this : someone says something silly/funny, a really loud guffaw which cannot be stopped comes out of my mouth.
It has happened many a time in college and today, it happened in the lift. Burst out laughing while in the lift with kiran when an aunty sort of hiccuped-burped. The said aunty gave me smile and then a weird stare. Haha. I know it was bad of me to laugh at her, but i failed to control myself. =(
Mental note to self : learn how not to burst out laughing at the wrong time

In 12 hours, we'll be facing the white slip of paper with our results on it.
AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!
I am not going to think of it.
I am not going to think of it.
I am not going to think of it.
I will be abe to sleep tonight.
I will be able to sleep tonight.
I will be able to sleep tonight.

Who To Vote This Election

According to the 100% accurate kennysia.com Who-To-Vote-This-Election Decision Generator™, I am voting for...

DEMOCRATIC ACTION PARTY!

Who Should You Vote For This Election?

Heheh. Go try it! Though we're not qualified voters yet but it's a sign of who the "pemuda harapan bangsa" will be voting for in the coming 4 years. AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.

Short, time is.

AHAHAHAHAHAHA. Got both questions in the Further Maths test wrong. No thanks to carelessness. How could i have overlooked the fact that (n^2-1) can still be factorised?? Ish. And to think that i felt so happy being able to solve an insane question from the yellow book.
SO.
That was my first experience of a Further Maths test which i flunked wonderfully.

I kinda enjoy Further Maths though i might not have brains like the math whizzes..It's fun being able to solve a ridiculously chim question but then again, it's frustrating to not be able to get the solution. Pure Maths is no fun compared to Further Maths. Only thing is that i don't have much time to study for other subjects..I spend so much time doing mostly homework that Physics becomes neglected. And Chem too.
Might drop the subject IF i cannot cope with it.

Trials are in April!!!!! That's like one month away.
And AS is in May!!!!! That's like two months away.
Oh boy.

SPM results coming out on the 12th!!!!! Don't think i'll be able to sleep the night before..I can just visualize Mr Han giving me the results slip. I so don't want to see it. It's such a wrong occasion to meet with high school friends again..
Classes are as usual in college though. No day off for us to collect our results. Mr Gan might even be giving a pop quiz for Moral. I hope he's not as evil as before. We've already missed the 2nd pop quiz. And to think we were planning to skip college. Who in their right minds will be able to concentrate on something as pointless as moral???

Bah.

more numbers

One moment i feel smart for being able to get the right answer then the next moment, my euphoria is shot down by completely wrong or close-but-not-right answers. This is so annoying.
I need more brain juice. Either that or i need the Diffusion Theory to work.

Numbers

Further Maths short test next Wednesday, Maths and Mechanics on Friday.
The horror!

I slept in Chem lecture yesterday. Heh. Nothing amusing happened to keep me awake, so i slept.

Bowled for the first time ever too. No kidding, i've never gone bowling until yesterday. Came in last, undoubtedly. With a grand score of 20/100. Wohoooooo!

Nothing much else to say.
Till the next update, seeya.