So. Monday.
I woke up at ten-ish, got ready for the day, did a hundred sit-ups because I had forgotten to do them last night (I had remembered the push-ups, though, so I didn't have to do those). Took a shower, put on some nice clothes, went out with Hannah for McDonald's breakfast.
I parked in almost the shittiest way that it was possible to park while still allowing for traffic to continue flowing past. Hannah sprinted out to get to the counter before 11am rolled around and the lunch menu began. I didn't repark the car. This was a mistake.
The menus had been spun over even though it was technically 10:58am and thus still breakfast time. Anyway, we couldn't see what we were ordering so we screwed up our order. I paid for everything and Hannah took two ringgits off of me. She said that she had given me RM10 and wanted change, but I told her she hadn't. She kept arguing and insisting that I was lying until I finally convinced her to check her wallet and sure enough, there was the RM10 she hadn't given me for her meal. She's a weird kid.
Our food took a while to prepare. There were only two hash browns because we had fucked up the order. Ian and Jan showed up a while later. Jan ate from the lunch menu and Ian had two half-cups of hot milo and two sausage McMuffins with egg. Ideally we would have had a different order, but it's late and you don't care what we would have ordered so I'm not going to bother explaining it so I can go to bed sooner.
After breakfast we went back to our cars. The one Hannah and I were using had a summons on it for RM100 for parking illegally. None of the other cars parked around had one. I was pissed off.
When we arrived home, I called my dad and told him about the summons. He told me not to worry about it since it was from DBKL so he could get it settled for just RM10. He told me to be downstairs in ten minutes.
Hannah was kind enough to let me use her laptop to take my CC turns. She said I was so lame and nerdy but it was worth it; I've almost won one of them. Victory feels good. Anyway, I was in the lift right when my dad wanted me to be downstairs, but some guys were moving stuff down a floor and so I got a bit held up.
I met my dad downstairs and we drove to pick up lunch for him, then we went to 1 Tech Park for my walk-in interview. I gave Elo a call to ask which floor I was supposed to go to. She told me that it was the third, so I went to the third. A little later she texted me and told me that it was the second, but I had found someone on the third who could help anyway, so that was nice. Unfortunately I arrived right when everyone was having lunch. The lady I met (Shamini?) told me about the job and that I should come back on Wednesday with a proper résumé for the interview. She also told me that there would be a typing test and an English test, but I got HDs for both English subjects and I just scored 66 WPM (They want at least 25) on this test I found earlier, so I think I'll be fine.
After the interview we went to the Citibank near-ish to Ikea so my dad could pick up some cash, then we drove into the city to find the traffic police headquarters to pay for my first summons. It was non-negotiable, but I could pay with my ATM card, so that was convenient. After I paid, my dad reimbursed me for most of the fine, which I didn't think was fair but it is impolite to refuse a gift, so I accepted.
When we got home I had Hannah take some pictures of me so I could use one in my résumé, then I lazed about the house for a while, and then we left again so my dad could go to a meeting at four o'clock. I got Hannah to come along for company by promising her some chicken tenders from Burger King. While waiting for the lift I asked her if she had her wallet or her phone, and she said that she didn't because her phone wasn't charged. I told her to just run over and plug it in quickly for a few seconds so there would be enough juice for the short trip, but she didn't want to. Silly girl.
After we dropped my dad off for his meeting, I let Hannah buy the chicken tenders. I gave her RM10 and told her to get as much of the stuff as she could with the cash she had. I drove a few rounds without seeing her. She should have brought her phone, that way I could have called her and known where she was and known that she knew where Burger King was. Anyway, she got the tenders and gave me the change, which was only two ringgits. I couldn't believe that Burger King would charge so much for just six pieces of chicken, so I sent Hannah out to get the receipt. It really was RM7. You can get a meal for RM9. I asked Hannah why she didn't and she said she wasn't sure. She should have brought her phone, then she could've asked and we would have had fries and a drink, too. Silly girl.
After eating, we waited around for my dad and played the Platypus game. Hannah was being quite unimaginative so she got me to ask all the questions, but everything I could come up with was awkward and inappropriate. Anyway, I told her that I wouldn't reveal anything she said to anyone else or else she could slap me anywhere, any time, so I won't say anything here. It's not like I found out anything interesting anyway.
When we got back home, I hung out in Hannah's room for a while. She had promised to upload the pictures she had taken to Facebook at nine so I could get my résumé ready while my dad was still awake to help me, but she only got the pictures up at ten and the internet died shortly after that, so my dad said I could make the résumé tomorrow. I wanted to set aside tomorrow as the day when I started studying for my Bahasa Kebangsaan final, which is on Saturday, but now I guess I'll have to do that and my résumé. Oh well.
We had tasty fluffy pancakes for dinner, so that was nice. I had five of them or something, and each one was delicious. I also did my exercises quite early which means I can head straight for the shower after I'm done with this. Yay!
Huh, the connection died right when I tried to post this and all my tags were lost. Bad things seem to be happening to me with perfect timing lately. Oh well, at least I still had delicious pancakes.
Showing posts with label just my luck. Show all posts
Showing posts with label just my luck. Show all posts
Monday, August 30, 2010
Saturday, August 28, 2010
So Redang Was Nice
I had a good holiday. It was really good timing; took my mind of the summonses and now I don't care that I had such a terrible day that day.
I'll try not to include too many descriptions and opinions in this post because firstly I don't want to spend all day on this and secondly because I want there to be stuff left to tell when people who read this blog (Ebony? Hannah?) ask me how the holiday was. Here goes:
We were supposed to leave at 2am on Tuesday, but we ended up driving off at 2:30am because we were tired and sluggish or something. We were taking two cars to get to Terrenganu: my dad's and my mum's. My dad's car had Hannah, my dad, and me; everyone else was in the other car. My dad drove most of the way. I started off by taking a nap while the Inception soundtrack played on my phone, then I woke up for a while and engaged my dad in conversation to keep him awake, then I took over for him for a while while he took a break, then we took a wrong turn which added an hour an a half to our journey because the signs were confusing, then I pulled over because Hannah's contact lens fell out of her eye because she was sleeping with it in, then I helped her get it safe, I drove while my dad napped (even though I still didn't have my license), then we swapped places again and I read some Greek mythology from a book we had brought along, then I napped again, then I woke up and we were at the docks at 8:45 and the boat was apparently leaving at nine.
I was going to rush to get ready for the boat trip, but my dad told me that he was mistaken and the boat was actually leaving at nine thirty, so I was able to take my time. While I was putting in my contact lenses, a kitten approached me and started bugging me. Just my luck that the only time I don't want to approach a new cat, it approaches me. I told Ian to restrain it, but he failed, and it knocked the lens out of my hand and onto its head. I retrieved the lens, rinsed it off, and carried on. After that I changed out of my shoes and long pants into shorts and sandals. I tried to approach the cat again, but when it noticed that I was interested, it decided to avoid me. Typical cat. I did my daily Bible reading instead. When I was done, I managed to get the kitten to stay put, and I gave it the attention it wanted when I was putting in my contacts. It reminded me of Cali.
Anyway, the boat arrived, so we gave the people our stuff and got on board. It was a fun ride over. I sat next to Hannah and shared the music from my phone with her. I also took some pictures.
When we arrived on Redang, we took our stuff to our rooms, then we went snorkelling around a very very large rock (or a rather small peninsula). We saw some tiny sharks and a turtle.
After that we had lunch. They had fresh, non-boiled vegetables, which I thought was great. The always-full bucket of delicious biscuits was still there, and so I helped myself to those. I also had some fried crab thingies that were tastier than I thought they would be. It was a nice lunch. Also there were these three kittens that hung around the canteen. They were all white and they had a white dad who was raising them. It was pretty cute.
When lunch was over, we had some time to kill before our first dive, so I turned on my music and took a nap in the shade. My parents told me that napping in the shade would still get me a tan. I was doubtful, but I went with it. They were telling the truth. Unfortunately, I hadn't put lotion on my legs, so they got a bit burned. Also I slept on my side for a while, so I ended up with a bit of an uneven tan.
Ian and I went on our first dive after that. It was a shore dive next to the rock where we had gone snorkelling around after we arrived. The preparation was a bit embarrassing, because even though we were certified divers, we hadn't dived in three years so we didn't know what went where or how to put anything on, so Stephen, the guy who was guiding us on the dive, had to help us out while making only the shallowest efforts to mask his annoyance.
The dive was nice. Ian and Stephen saw a very large trigger fish, which is quite a dangerous fish, apparently. I looked where they were pointing, but I didn't see it. We probably saw other interesting things, but I've forgotten. My dive log for that dive was "Had to re-learn how to wear equipment, had a good, trouble free dive. Saw lots of parrotfish, slugs, and anenomes [sic]. Everyone else saw a trigger fish but I didn't. Good, relaxed dive."
After that we swam around and played with the inflatable rafts or something. I can't really remember. I think I hung out with Hannah. We stopped when we got bored of the sea and said we were going to shower and have dinner.
I took a proper shower with soap and stuff (as opposed to just showers with freshwater so I'm not all salty and itchy after being in the sea), but while I was halfway through my dad said that there were some really big waves out that everyone was going to play in. I told him that I had already showered so they could go ahead without me, so they did. When my shower was done I went to watch them from a deck chair, then I fell asleep. When I woke up, they were all gone, so I went looking for them for a bit.
I found them and we had dinner. Every two days, the resort does a barbecue. The lamb was really, really good. The sweet potato was a little less so. I didn't eat enough lamb as I should have. Everyone else said the chicken was good, but I was too busy with the lamb to try any.
After dinner we went back to our rooms. Ian and I took turns using the computer to access the internet. I had the first turn, which I used to take my Conquer Club turns, then I let Ian have the computer while I napped, then I used the computer again to finish watching Sphere. It is a pretty awful film, which is a shame because the book is great. Anyway, after the movie I went to sleep. I slept well, even though the room was quite cold (the air conditioning was very effective and the sheets were tucked in very tight, so I didn't have slack which meant there was always space for the air to get under the covers).
The next day (Wednesday), I woke up, did my daily Bible reading, ate breakfast (Sausages and French toast; so delicious!), and then we went for a dive. This time it wasn't just Stephen, Ian, and I, though. There was also a European guy who had lived in Australia for a while and been on around one hundred fifty dives. That's a lot of dives. This time we took the boat out. The water was very choppy, so it was a fun ride. When we dived down, the first thing we saw was an eel. After that there were turtles. Then I realized I had fifty bars of air, so Stephen had me use his other regulator while we finished the dive and did the safety stop. I felt very incompetent. My entry for that dive was "Saw at least 3 turtles, an eel, some large fish and large slugs. Ran out of air early, had to use Stephen's air. Need to control breathing next time. Also saw a school of small barracudas".
After that we took the boat back, had a break of a little more than an hour, and then we were back on the boat for another dive. I ended it with 75 bars left in my tank, which is twenty-five over the minimum and more than Ian had left. The entry for that dive was "Managed to control breathing. Saw lots of anenomes [sic], two types of clownfish (orange & grey), felt strong current, had a generally calm and peaceful time."
When we got back we had lunch. I don't think there was much great food for lunch, so I just ate a lot of vegetables and biscuits. We filled in our logs and filled in our logs, and then it was time for another dive.
We had been to this particular dive site three years ago, and according to my log I had seen some barracudas before I had to surface early. This time around was a lot more interesting. I thought I saw a weird donut-shaped coral, but it turned out to be a tire. I tried to carry it out, but something pricked my finger. I wanted to see if it was something venomous or just a cut, so I squeezed my finger and green stuff came out. I showed it to Ian, but he didn't care. I later found out that blood is green underwater. That's pretty cool. Anyway, after that we saw a bunch of rays. Here's the log: "Saw 3 rays. 1 tail, one in some sand but very visible, one orange & purple & small. Saw large school of medium sized fish. Very, very, big waves. Also saw someone hold a starfish." The waves were indeed very big. I was checking my gauges during the safety stop, and every time a wave would pass overhead, it would go from registering 5 metres of depth to 6 metres of depth. Stephen joked that we may have to cancel dives the next day.
After getting back and storing my equipment, I went to the pier with Hannah, Ian, Jan, and my mum. The pier was new. It floated on the surface instead of being built on stilts or something, so it was unstable and very fun to walk on. We tried jumping into waves as they passed, with limited success. We also tried testing our balance on the edges. It was a good time.
When that was over, we went to play in the waves. The rest of the family was already there, actually, but Jan and I had stayed for longer on the pier, so we were the last to arrive. Along the way to the part of the beach with the biggest waves, I passed an attractive tourist who looked like she was around my age. She was building a sand castle. I wanted to talk to her, but everyone was waiting for me at the waves, so I joined them for that. When I got bored with the waves, I tried swimming over to where she was. Just as I was leaving the water to go strike up a conversation, she ran off into the sea to play in the waves with her parents, so I went back to join my own family. The waves were big and fun, but they broke my watch strap. Oh well, I fixed it (kinda) a few hours ago.
After the waves, I took a proper shower. It was nice. After the shower I went to check what was for dinner, but there was nothing outstanding, so we went to a restaurant nearby to eat instead. I had a grilled lamb chop, which in hindsight was not such a great choice since there was going to be limitless lamb the next night. Half of the lamb I got was overdone and not that tasty, too. The fries were great, though. I should have had the fish and chips, probably.
When dinner was over we got some ice cream, and then Ian went to the room to use the internet while Jan and I dug some holes under Hannah's supervision. Hannah eventually left, but we kept digging. Jan's hole ended up going halfway up his thighs. Mine was a lot wider, but it only went up to my knees. We built a wall around Jan's hole so it would look deeper, and then I added a ramp, and then I noticed that it kind of looked like the front end of a sperm, so we added a wriggly tail and soon it was done and it looked really great. My dad came by with a torchlight which meant that we could take some pictures. We were quite sweaty from all the digging, so we needed another shower afterwards. It was worth it, though, the sand-sperm looked great. Jan lost his spade, though.
After showering, I used the computer to read a bunch of Cracked articles and take my Conquer Club turns, and then I went to bed.
When I woke up it was Thursday and we had another diving trip to go on. Jan and Hannah had done enough of their course that they were ready to go on a boat dive, and my mum and dad were done with their shore dives and wanted to do a boat dive, so we all went together after breakfast and stuff.
We didn't see anything really interesting on the dive. We had rented an underwater camera, though, so Ian and my dad took some pictures. Ian kept swimming off without me, which was not cool since he was my buddy and buddies are supposed to stick together. Also, he was supposed to stick with Jan and Hannah's diving instructor, Chris, since she was the one who would know what to do if something went wrong. Anyway, our dive finished when Jan and Hannah dipped under the 50 bar limit. My entry for the dive was "First dive with family. My buddy kept straying. Didn't see anything interesting aside from angel fish and big rocks."
After that we had a break, and then another dive. This second dive was much better. Hannah was my buddy this time, so I didn't have to worry when Ian went swimming off on his own. I saw loads of gross worm-like things on corals and pointed them out at Jan so he could share my disgust. At one point I swam above Hannah and watched as she looked around for me for a few panicky moments before I finally descended with my face right in front of hers. That was funny. We also saw a huge stingray. I was behind it, so I got real close to its tail so some nice pictures could be taken. Apparently it was the same type of sting ray that killed Steve Irwin. Huh. Anyway, here's what my log said: "Saw lots of nice coral, lots of worm-type things on a volcano shaped coral, saw and got close to big-ish stingray, saw small blue-spotted ray, (orange & purple), Had wee bit of buoyancy trouble throughout dive. Second dive with family."
After that I took a shower, then I had lunch, then I went into the sun to get a tan. My plan was to listen to the soundtrack of Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog while I tanned my back, and then when that was over I'd flip over and listen to random songs while I tanned my front. When I was ten minutes from completion, my dad told me that I would burn and that I should join him on the pier to feed some fish. I told him that I had put plenty of lotion on so I'd be fine, and even if I did join him on the dock it's just as sunny there so I'd get just as burned. He finally left me, but then I realized that he was the one paying for the vacation so I might as well do what he says, so I went to join him on the pier. I aired my grievances and he let me finish my tan, so I did. When the last song on the soundtrack was forty-five seconds from finishing, Ian came by and tried to tell me something, but I told him to just wait for another half-minute or so. When I was done I looked around, but he was gone.
I found Ian and asked him what he wanted to tell me and he said that everyone was going snorkelling around the big rock/small peninsula. I told him that I'd just climb along the side and watch them, since I was getting bored of the sea. Right around then my dad came by and said that we were going to build a bonfire that night so we had to go with him to get some sticks. He said it would only take twenty minutes.
Ian, Jan, and I went with my dad to go get some firewood. We saw a pretty big monitor lizard along the way. I took a few pictures of it. It looked quite prehistoric; it was pretty awesome. Anyway, we brought back the sticks and our twenty minutes were up, so we wanted to go to the rock, but my dad said we had to dig a pit and break up the sticks and stuff. Once that was done someone from the resort came by and told us that we weren't allowed to burn stuff on the beach, so we had just wasted three quarters of an hour.
We finally got to go around the rock. I climbed around the side while the rest of the family (except my dad) snorkelled. Eventually I reached a point where I couldn't keep going, so I just jumped in the water and swam. A little while after I got in the sea, I saw a huge school of fish jumping through the water towards me. They stopped jumping before I could get close, though.
I met up with the others and helped push Susanna back to shore on her inflatable mattress. While I was doing that I saw a stunt plane doing stunts. It was pretty dang awesome. I kept imagining it crashing even though I didn't want it to. Fortunately, it didn't.
When we got to shore, Hannah told me about all the small reef sharks she had seen earlier (six at once!) so I told her that I'd go get my snorkel and join her to just look at the sharks. I did and we did until the sun set. In addition to seeing loads of little sharks (The most I saw at once was three), we also saw a tiny eel, and a bigger shark that was just a bit smaller than Susanna.
While the sun was setting, I took another shower. I had dinner in the resort's canteen since it was barbecue night. I had a lot of lamb. It was all delicious. I also tried some chicken. It was also delicious. After dinner we went to the restaurant for some fries to snack on. They were also delicious.
When we got back to our rooms I did a bit of packing, read a bit of Cracked, took some Conquer Club turns, and then I went to sleep. I had a nice sleep. While the rest of us were sleeping, my dad went out and lit the bonfire. Fortunately he didn't end up burning the resort down, so everything was fine.
I woke up at around seven on Friday. My dad had gone with Hannah to snorkel with the sharks. I had breakfast and did my daily Bible reading, finished up with my packing, and then went to try and finish tanning my front. Unfortunately, the sun was behind a cloud for the whole half hour that I was trying to get tanned. It was practically the only cloud in the sky, too. Oh well.
We went back with a different boat than the one we had arrived in. It was a lot more comfortable, but it wasn't as open as the other one so I couldn't take as cool pictures. Anyway, I listened to my music and before I knew it we were back on the mainland.
The contact lens kitten, Sammy Jenkins (Hannah and I first named him Lenny because of the contact lens that fell on his head, then we called him Lenny Jenkins because Jenkins is a good last name for someone named Lenny, then we called him Sammy Jenkins because Sammy is a better first name for someone name Jenkins), was still there. I gave him some more attention, and then we had to leave.
On the drive back, I took some naps and finished the book of Greek myths. We made a few stops and bought some snacks. Hannah's contact lens fell out again, but this time she just let it dry out because she didn't care. We pulled up at the McDonald's near Genting for lunch. We placed our order just a few minutes before the lunch discount expired. I almost finished the Adrian Mole book I was reading, but I had to stop with just a few pages left. When we were almost home, we dropped by Lucky Gardens to pick up my new license. It's a full license and it'll last for the next five years. Nice.
I didn't have time to unpack when I got home because my dad had a meeting to go to and I had to drive him there. I gathered up that day's newspaper, the Adrian Mole book that I was almost done with, and all the Star Two newspapers from Tuesday to Friday so I could read them while waiting for my dad.
I finished reading the Adrian Mole book. He's less of a twat in 1992 than when he began. I also learned from the newspaper that Malaysia had done something to rile up some Indonesians and now they were throwing faeces at the embassy in Jakarta. That was amusing. My dad's meeting finished and he took the papers as I drove him back.
When I got back home, I unpacked and then went on the computer. I spent a long time on it since there was a lot to catch up on.
My dad wanted to go for dinner because he was suffering from pork withdrawal. Jan, he, and I went to Sin Kee's for dinner. It was a bit of a hassle to find parking because of how busy the road was, but we managed. The chicken chop was yummy, as expected.
Back home I went on the computer for a long while, then I watched the TV and did my exercises for a while, then I took a nap, then I took a shower, then I went to bed at around 2:30am. I couldn't sleep because of how hot it was because the fan was still broken, so eventually I went outside and slept on the couch under the ceiling fan. I woke up at seven and went back into my room to sleep since the air-conditioning had cooled it down a bit.
Aunty Rosie came in and turned everything off and so I woke up an hour later because it was too hot. Then I tried to see if Hannah loves Audrey more than Stefanie and Saundra, but she proved that she cares for them an equal amount, and that amount is more than the amount she cares for abused children in Thailand and stuff.
Anyway, I spent the rest of today catching up on my friends' blog posts and writing this blog post. It only took me three hours to write this. I am pleased. Hannah, tell me my typos and stuff once you're done reading this.
Oh yeah, it was my mum's birthday yesterday, so to celebrate we're having breakfast for dinner today. All that bacon ought to satisfy my dad's pork cravings.
I'll try not to include too many descriptions and opinions in this post because firstly I don't want to spend all day on this and secondly because I want there to be stuff left to tell when people who read this blog (Ebony? Hannah?) ask me how the holiday was. Here goes:
We were supposed to leave at 2am on Tuesday, but we ended up driving off at 2:30am because we were tired and sluggish or something. We were taking two cars to get to Terrenganu: my dad's and my mum's. My dad's car had Hannah, my dad, and me; everyone else was in the other car. My dad drove most of the way. I started off by taking a nap while the Inception soundtrack played on my phone, then I woke up for a while and engaged my dad in conversation to keep him awake, then I took over for him for a while while he took a break, then we took a wrong turn which added an hour an a half to our journey because the signs were confusing, then I pulled over because Hannah's contact lens fell out of her eye because she was sleeping with it in, then I helped her get it safe, I drove while my dad napped (even though I still didn't have my license), then we swapped places again and I read some Greek mythology from a book we had brought along, then I napped again, then I woke up and we were at the docks at 8:45 and the boat was apparently leaving at nine.
I was going to rush to get ready for the boat trip, but my dad told me that he was mistaken and the boat was actually leaving at nine thirty, so I was able to take my time. While I was putting in my contact lenses, a kitten approached me and started bugging me. Just my luck that the only time I don't want to approach a new cat, it approaches me. I told Ian to restrain it, but he failed, and it knocked the lens out of my hand and onto its head. I retrieved the lens, rinsed it off, and carried on. After that I changed out of my shoes and long pants into shorts and sandals. I tried to approach the cat again, but when it noticed that I was interested, it decided to avoid me. Typical cat. I did my daily Bible reading instead. When I was done, I managed to get the kitten to stay put, and I gave it the attention it wanted when I was putting in my contacts. It reminded me of Cali.
Anyway, the boat arrived, so we gave the people our stuff and got on board. It was a fun ride over. I sat next to Hannah and shared the music from my phone with her. I also took some pictures.
When we arrived on Redang, we took our stuff to our rooms, then we went snorkelling around a very very large rock (or a rather small peninsula). We saw some tiny sharks and a turtle.
After that we had lunch. They had fresh, non-boiled vegetables, which I thought was great. The always-full bucket of delicious biscuits was still there, and so I helped myself to those. I also had some fried crab thingies that were tastier than I thought they would be. It was a nice lunch. Also there were these three kittens that hung around the canteen. They were all white and they had a white dad who was raising them. It was pretty cute.
When lunch was over, we had some time to kill before our first dive, so I turned on my music and took a nap in the shade. My parents told me that napping in the shade would still get me a tan. I was doubtful, but I went with it. They were telling the truth. Unfortunately, I hadn't put lotion on my legs, so they got a bit burned. Also I slept on my side for a while, so I ended up with a bit of an uneven tan.
Ian and I went on our first dive after that. It was a shore dive next to the rock where we had gone snorkelling around after we arrived. The preparation was a bit embarrassing, because even though we were certified divers, we hadn't dived in three years so we didn't know what went where or how to put anything on, so Stephen, the guy who was guiding us on the dive, had to help us out while making only the shallowest efforts to mask his annoyance.
The dive was nice. Ian and Stephen saw a very large trigger fish, which is quite a dangerous fish, apparently. I looked where they were pointing, but I didn't see it. We probably saw other interesting things, but I've forgotten. My dive log for that dive was "Had to re-learn how to wear equipment, had a good, trouble free dive. Saw lots of parrotfish, slugs, and anenomes [sic]. Everyone else saw a trigger fish but I didn't. Good, relaxed dive."
After that we swam around and played with the inflatable rafts or something. I can't really remember. I think I hung out with Hannah. We stopped when we got bored of the sea and said we were going to shower and have dinner.
I took a proper shower with soap and stuff (as opposed to just showers with freshwater so I'm not all salty and itchy after being in the sea), but while I was halfway through my dad said that there were some really big waves out that everyone was going to play in. I told him that I had already showered so they could go ahead without me, so they did. When my shower was done I went to watch them from a deck chair, then I fell asleep. When I woke up, they were all gone, so I went looking for them for a bit.
I found them and we had dinner. Every two days, the resort does a barbecue. The lamb was really, really good. The sweet potato was a little less so. I didn't eat enough lamb as I should have. Everyone else said the chicken was good, but I was too busy with the lamb to try any.
After dinner we went back to our rooms. Ian and I took turns using the computer to access the internet. I had the first turn, which I used to take my Conquer Club turns, then I let Ian have the computer while I napped, then I used the computer again to finish watching Sphere. It is a pretty awful film, which is a shame because the book is great. Anyway, after the movie I went to sleep. I slept well, even though the room was quite cold (the air conditioning was very effective and the sheets were tucked in very tight, so I didn't have slack which meant there was always space for the air to get under the covers).
The next day (Wednesday), I woke up, did my daily Bible reading, ate breakfast (Sausages and French toast; so delicious!), and then we went for a dive. This time it wasn't just Stephen, Ian, and I, though. There was also a European guy who had lived in Australia for a while and been on around one hundred fifty dives. That's a lot of dives. This time we took the boat out. The water was very choppy, so it was a fun ride. When we dived down, the first thing we saw was an eel. After that there were turtles. Then I realized I had fifty bars of air, so Stephen had me use his other regulator while we finished the dive and did the safety stop. I felt very incompetent. My entry for that dive was "Saw at least 3 turtles, an eel, some large fish and large slugs. Ran out of air early, had to use Stephen's air. Need to control breathing next time. Also saw a school of small barracudas".
After that we took the boat back, had a break of a little more than an hour, and then we were back on the boat for another dive. I ended it with 75 bars left in my tank, which is twenty-five over the minimum and more than Ian had left. The entry for that dive was "Managed to control breathing. Saw lots of anenomes [sic], two types of clownfish (orange & grey), felt strong current, had a generally calm and peaceful time."
When we got back we had lunch. I don't think there was much great food for lunch, so I just ate a lot of vegetables and biscuits. We filled in our logs and filled in our logs, and then it was time for another dive.
We had been to this particular dive site three years ago, and according to my log I had seen some barracudas before I had to surface early. This time around was a lot more interesting. I thought I saw a weird donut-shaped coral, but it turned out to be a tire. I tried to carry it out, but something pricked my finger. I wanted to see if it was something venomous or just a cut, so I squeezed my finger and green stuff came out. I showed it to Ian, but he didn't care. I later found out that blood is green underwater. That's pretty cool. Anyway, after that we saw a bunch of rays. Here's the log: "Saw 3 rays. 1 tail, one in some sand but very visible, one orange & purple & small. Saw large school of medium sized fish. Very, very, big waves. Also saw someone hold a starfish." The waves were indeed very big. I was checking my gauges during the safety stop, and every time a wave would pass overhead, it would go from registering 5 metres of depth to 6 metres of depth. Stephen joked that we may have to cancel dives the next day.
After getting back and storing my equipment, I went to the pier with Hannah, Ian, Jan, and my mum. The pier was new. It floated on the surface instead of being built on stilts or something, so it was unstable and very fun to walk on. We tried jumping into waves as they passed, with limited success. We also tried testing our balance on the edges. It was a good time.
When that was over, we went to play in the waves. The rest of the family was already there, actually, but Jan and I had stayed for longer on the pier, so we were the last to arrive. Along the way to the part of the beach with the biggest waves, I passed an attractive tourist who looked like she was around my age. She was building a sand castle. I wanted to talk to her, but everyone was waiting for me at the waves, so I joined them for that. When I got bored with the waves, I tried swimming over to where she was. Just as I was leaving the water to go strike up a conversation, she ran off into the sea to play in the waves with her parents, so I went back to join my own family. The waves were big and fun, but they broke my watch strap. Oh well, I fixed it (kinda) a few hours ago.
After the waves, I took a proper shower. It was nice. After the shower I went to check what was for dinner, but there was nothing outstanding, so we went to a restaurant nearby to eat instead. I had a grilled lamb chop, which in hindsight was not such a great choice since there was going to be limitless lamb the next night. Half of the lamb I got was overdone and not that tasty, too. The fries were great, though. I should have had the fish and chips, probably.
When dinner was over we got some ice cream, and then Ian went to the room to use the internet while Jan and I dug some holes under Hannah's supervision. Hannah eventually left, but we kept digging. Jan's hole ended up going halfway up his thighs. Mine was a lot wider, but it only went up to my knees. We built a wall around Jan's hole so it would look deeper, and then I added a ramp, and then I noticed that it kind of looked like the front end of a sperm, so we added a wriggly tail and soon it was done and it looked really great. My dad came by with a torchlight which meant that we could take some pictures. We were quite sweaty from all the digging, so we needed another shower afterwards. It was worth it, though, the sand-sperm looked great. Jan lost his spade, though.
After showering, I used the computer to read a bunch of Cracked articles and take my Conquer Club turns, and then I went to bed.
When I woke up it was Thursday and we had another diving trip to go on. Jan and Hannah had done enough of their course that they were ready to go on a boat dive, and my mum and dad were done with their shore dives and wanted to do a boat dive, so we all went together after breakfast and stuff.
We didn't see anything really interesting on the dive. We had rented an underwater camera, though, so Ian and my dad took some pictures. Ian kept swimming off without me, which was not cool since he was my buddy and buddies are supposed to stick together. Also, he was supposed to stick with Jan and Hannah's diving instructor, Chris, since she was the one who would know what to do if something went wrong. Anyway, our dive finished when Jan and Hannah dipped under the 50 bar limit. My entry for the dive was "First dive with family. My buddy kept straying. Didn't see anything interesting aside from angel fish and big rocks."
After that we had a break, and then another dive. This second dive was much better. Hannah was my buddy this time, so I didn't have to worry when Ian went swimming off on his own. I saw loads of gross worm-like things on corals and pointed them out at Jan so he could share my disgust. At one point I swam above Hannah and watched as she looked around for me for a few panicky moments before I finally descended with my face right in front of hers. That was funny. We also saw a huge stingray. I was behind it, so I got real close to its tail so some nice pictures could be taken. Apparently it was the same type of sting ray that killed Steve Irwin. Huh. Anyway, here's what my log said: "Saw lots of nice coral, lots of worm-type things on a volcano shaped coral, saw and got close to big-ish stingray, saw small blue-spotted ray, (orange & purple), Had wee bit of buoyancy trouble throughout dive. Second dive with family."
After that I took a shower, then I had lunch, then I went into the sun to get a tan. My plan was to listen to the soundtrack of Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog while I tanned my back, and then when that was over I'd flip over and listen to random songs while I tanned my front. When I was ten minutes from completion, my dad told me that I would burn and that I should join him on the pier to feed some fish. I told him that I had put plenty of lotion on so I'd be fine, and even if I did join him on the dock it's just as sunny there so I'd get just as burned. He finally left me, but then I realized that he was the one paying for the vacation so I might as well do what he says, so I went to join him on the pier. I aired my grievances and he let me finish my tan, so I did. When the last song on the soundtrack was forty-five seconds from finishing, Ian came by and tried to tell me something, but I told him to just wait for another half-minute or so. When I was done I looked around, but he was gone.
I found Ian and asked him what he wanted to tell me and he said that everyone was going snorkelling around the big rock/small peninsula. I told him that I'd just climb along the side and watch them, since I was getting bored of the sea. Right around then my dad came by and said that we were going to build a bonfire that night so we had to go with him to get some sticks. He said it would only take twenty minutes.
Ian, Jan, and I went with my dad to go get some firewood. We saw a pretty big monitor lizard along the way. I took a few pictures of it. It looked quite prehistoric; it was pretty awesome. Anyway, we brought back the sticks and our twenty minutes were up, so we wanted to go to the rock, but my dad said we had to dig a pit and break up the sticks and stuff. Once that was done someone from the resort came by and told us that we weren't allowed to burn stuff on the beach, so we had just wasted three quarters of an hour.
We finally got to go around the rock. I climbed around the side while the rest of the family (except my dad) snorkelled. Eventually I reached a point where I couldn't keep going, so I just jumped in the water and swam. A little while after I got in the sea, I saw a huge school of fish jumping through the water towards me. They stopped jumping before I could get close, though.
I met up with the others and helped push Susanna back to shore on her inflatable mattress. While I was doing that I saw a stunt plane doing stunts. It was pretty dang awesome. I kept imagining it crashing even though I didn't want it to. Fortunately, it didn't.
When we got to shore, Hannah told me about all the small reef sharks she had seen earlier (six at once!) so I told her that I'd go get my snorkel and join her to just look at the sharks. I did and we did until the sun set. In addition to seeing loads of little sharks (The most I saw at once was three), we also saw a tiny eel, and a bigger shark that was just a bit smaller than Susanna.
While the sun was setting, I took another shower. I had dinner in the resort's canteen since it was barbecue night. I had a lot of lamb. It was all delicious. I also tried some chicken. It was also delicious. After dinner we went to the restaurant for some fries to snack on. They were also delicious.
When we got back to our rooms I did a bit of packing, read a bit of Cracked, took some Conquer Club turns, and then I went to sleep. I had a nice sleep. While the rest of us were sleeping, my dad went out and lit the bonfire. Fortunately he didn't end up burning the resort down, so everything was fine.
I woke up at around seven on Friday. My dad had gone with Hannah to snorkel with the sharks. I had breakfast and did my daily Bible reading, finished up with my packing, and then went to try and finish tanning my front. Unfortunately, the sun was behind a cloud for the whole half hour that I was trying to get tanned. It was practically the only cloud in the sky, too. Oh well.
We went back with a different boat than the one we had arrived in. It was a lot more comfortable, but it wasn't as open as the other one so I couldn't take as cool pictures. Anyway, I listened to my music and before I knew it we were back on the mainland.
The contact lens kitten, Sammy Jenkins (Hannah and I first named him Lenny because of the contact lens that fell on his head, then we called him Lenny Jenkins because Jenkins is a good last name for someone named Lenny, then we called him Sammy Jenkins because Sammy is a better first name for someone name Jenkins), was still there. I gave him some more attention, and then we had to leave.
On the drive back, I took some naps and finished the book of Greek myths. We made a few stops and bought some snacks. Hannah's contact lens fell out again, but this time she just let it dry out because she didn't care. We pulled up at the McDonald's near Genting for lunch. We placed our order just a few minutes before the lunch discount expired. I almost finished the Adrian Mole book I was reading, but I had to stop with just a few pages left. When we were almost home, we dropped by Lucky Gardens to pick up my new license. It's a full license and it'll last for the next five years. Nice.
I didn't have time to unpack when I got home because my dad had a meeting to go to and I had to drive him there. I gathered up that day's newspaper, the Adrian Mole book that I was almost done with, and all the Star Two newspapers from Tuesday to Friday so I could read them while waiting for my dad.
I finished reading the Adrian Mole book. He's less of a twat in 1992 than when he began. I also learned from the newspaper that Malaysia had done something to rile up some Indonesians and now they were throwing faeces at the embassy in Jakarta. That was amusing. My dad's meeting finished and he took the papers as I drove him back.
When I got back home, I unpacked and then went on the computer. I spent a long time on it since there was a lot to catch up on.
My dad wanted to go for dinner because he was suffering from pork withdrawal. Jan, he, and I went to Sin Kee's for dinner. It was a bit of a hassle to find parking because of how busy the road was, but we managed. The chicken chop was yummy, as expected.
Back home I went on the computer for a long while, then I watched the TV and did my exercises for a while, then I took a nap, then I took a shower, then I went to bed at around 2:30am. I couldn't sleep because of how hot it was because the fan was still broken, so eventually I went outside and slept on the couch under the ceiling fan. I woke up at seven and went back into my room to sleep since the air-conditioning had cooled it down a bit.
Aunty Rosie came in and turned everything off and so I woke up an hour later because it was too hot. Then I tried to see if Hannah loves Audrey more than Stefanie and Saundra, but she proved that she cares for them an equal amount, and that amount is more than the amount she cares for abused children in Thailand and stuff.
Anyway, I spent the rest of today catching up on my friends' blog posts and writing this blog post. It only took me three hours to write this. I am pleased. Hannah, tell me my typos and stuff once you're done reading this.
Oh yeah, it was my mum's birthday yesterday, so to celebrate we're having breakfast for dinner today. All that bacon ought to satisfy my dad's pork cravings.
Sunday, August 22, 2010
Saturday Was Shit for Jan, Sunday Was Worse for Me
Yesterday was Awards Day. It reminded me why I quit BB. I'm still glad I did, and I still wish I would have left earlier. There is no point to it if I have no friends. I was the only regularly attending person in my age group for, like, three years. There still aren't any 18-year-olds in 10th KL.
Anyway, we (my mum, Hannah, and me) started off by having breakfast in McDonald's, which was nice. After that we picked up El-Hanan and Joel, then we drove over to FGA. Along the way my mother revealed that she was a racist (or at the very least, a bit of a bigot. I thought the Dutch were supposed to be tolerant) and that she thought Obama was a Muslim. Her proof was that she had friends who knew people in America with "inside sources" in the White House. Mmhmm. She also says that he was raised in Indonesia, which is a Muslim country, therefore he's Muslim. Isn't Malaysia a Muslim country? Does that make me a Muslim? Whatever, she's my mum and thus I love and respect her despite her ignorance.
Awards Day itself was pretty boring. I slept through the Junior Section awards. The performances were lousy to mediocre, except for the dancing which was quite good but they weren't on the stage so only the people in the front row could see what was going on in full. Ian got promoted to an officer, and Jan got nothing. Now he knows how I felt. At least nobody less worthy than him got promoted, though. I watched Victor get promoted to corporal over me last year. I encouraged Jan to quit, but he's probably going to stay as long as Cherie's still in 10th KL.
I drove Hannah back home. I still had my sunglasses. They were gone the next day.
I watched a movie on my computer. Maybe not. Whatever, I was either napping or watching TV or on the computer until six, then we went for McDonald's. I spent the last of my money (except for RM10 so I could afford my RM5 tithes for the next two Sundays) on my meal. Hannah said she would pay for half of my meal, but she changed her mind and only gave me RM3. It was good enough for a lime sundae.
When we got home Hannah said she'd watch one of my movies if I watched Peacock, so I did, but she didn't. Peacock had Ellen Page and Cillian Murphy and I don't even know why I'm still listing names. It's a habit I'll break by watching a movie without any Inception actors next. Hope that works.
Anyway I got annoyed with her and decided to bug her, but she grabbed a knife from the kitchen and threatened to stab me, so I dropped the subject and took a nap. When I woke up, it was 2am. I watched the first episode of The Office (UK). It's great. Martin Freeman's in it. He's Watson in Sherlock. That's great, too.
I went to bed at 4:45.
Aunty Rosie tried to wake us up the next morning, but we weren't going to church since we had to pick up the Tans so we told her we didn't need to wake up. She turned off the air conditioning anyway.
At 10am Hannah came in and told us we had one hour to get ready before we had to go pick up the Tans. I told her that I didn't want to drive so Ian would have to take them. I told Ian that he had to wake up but he didn't listen, so I got out of bed and got ready to drive. Ian and Jan took their showers while I was reading the Bible, and Ian was still in the shower when I was done, so I went on the computer for a bit.
When Ian was done with the bathroom, I took my shower and put in my contacts and shaved and deodorized and such, and soon I was done and ready to go. I told Hannah and Jan, but they were taking their time in the living room or something, so I transferred some songs from my computer onto my phone. Hannah started panicking because she thought we were going to be late, so I finished up and went downstairs with them. It was 11:30 and the Tans were supposed to land at 12:30.
When we were in the lift I realized that I didn't have my sunglasses, so I went up to look for them but they weren't on their usual place on my desk. Hannah gave me a call while I was looking around for them. She was insisting that we didn't have time and we were in a rush and stuff, so I decided not to look for them any more and went downstairs. I was hoping to find them in the car, but they weren't there.
Along the way to the LCCT, I asked Jan and Hannah why they came along if they were just going to listen to music and ignore me anyway. I told them they should've just stayed at home so there would be more space for Uncle Elisha and stuff. They said that Ruben and Stefanie were their friends so of course they wanted to come. I told them that if that they should have just driven and left me at home. Hannah and Jan said they couldn't drive, and I said that I couldn't either since my driving license had expired at midnight, twelve hours ago. I told them that I'd probably encounter a police roadblock or something and get fined since I've never been pulled over before and I was bound to get pulled over the one day that I was using an expired license since life is shit like that. Hannah didn't hear anything I said because she was too busy listening to her music, but Jan heard me.
Anyway, I told Hannah and Jan that I'd take the fast lane there since Hannah was insisting that we were in such a rush. I told Jan that his job was to check behind us to make sure that nobody wanted to overtake us. I got a random text from Audrey for no reason and I asked Jan to read it. It just said "Hi". Then Jan started telling us about a dream he had where I took a turn too fast and killed everyone in the car. While he was recalling this dream to us, we were approaching a speed trap, but I didn't notice the cop with a radar gun until it was too late to slow down. I saw a flash which meant that a picture was taken and now my dad was going to get a summons for his car and I was going to have to pay it. I blamed Hannah for rushing me and Jan for distracting me with his dream.
I kept asking Hannah to call Stefanie to check if they had landed yet, but she wasn't getting any reply. When we were getting close to the LCCT there were a whole bunch of traffic lights that were all red, so any time we saved speeding was wasted at the lights, so we could have not sped and arrived at the exact same time and not received a summons. Stupid.
The traffic light right in front of the LCCT had a broken green light, so I was waiting at the junction for a long while before I figured out that I could go forward when all the lights were off. It was the opposite problem that the traffic lights outside Bangsar Shopping centre had, where the red light was broken and so you had to stay put when all the lights were off. The first time I encountered that I assumed off meant go and my motorcycle and me were almost destroyed by oncoming traffic with that mistake.
Anyway, we pulled up in front of the arrivals area, but there was no sign of the Tans. I called my dad and told him about the speed trap and he said that I could split the fine with Hannah. We waited for half an hour before we got a call from them. I got more and more annoyed for every minute that passed because it made my prior speeding more and more pointless and the summons more and more aggravating. Anyway, when they finally called it took them ages to figure out where we were even though they were right in front of us and I was sounding the horn to try and get them to look in our direction.
When Stefanie and Ruben got in the car we found out that Uncle Elisha wasn't even coming since he had a friend who was going to pick him up, so the whole drive over was pointless because they could have just gone with Uncle Elisha's friend back to Puchong and have us pick them up from there later. That way we could have saved petrol, slept in, and avoided the bloody summons.
On the way back we had Ikea hot dogs. This time there were onions, at least, so that was nice.
When we were coming back home from lunch, there was a police checkpoint near the golf and country club where I had never seen a police checkpoint. Of course Ruben and Stefanie weren't wearing their seatbelts. Nobody ever does. I don't understand it. It's such a simple bloody thing to do and it saves lives and prevents fines and it just takes five seconds but nobody in this bloody country bloody bothers. Anyway it didn't matter because I was being pulled over for speeding.
The officer asked for my license and pointed out to me that it had expired last night. He asked me how fast I was going and I told him I didn't know since I didn't know where they had measured my speed and if I had been keeping my eye on the speedometer I wouldn't be in that mess in the first place. The only reason my eye wasn't on the speedometer was because Stefanie was going on about Vampires Suck and I was getting upset that people were actually watching that bloody idiotic piece of cinematic excrement. It's a shit excuse for speeding, though, so when the officer asked if I was going to pay I told him that I was. I asked him how much it was and he said RM300. I asked him where I could pay and he said that they have offices all over the place. I asked him what the deadline was and he said I had one month. I asked him how fast I was going and where they had caught me and he said that I was going 108km/h in either a 60km/h or 80km/h zone, and also they had their speed trap under the overpass from the Golf and Country Club. All throughout my conversation he kept asking me if I was going to pay for the summons or not. I think he was implying that I had a choice (bribery), but I didn't bribe him because I don't want to contribute to this country's corruption problem, and more importantly because I didn't have enough money on my person for a decent bribe.
When I got back in the car, Jan asked me why I didn't just drive off when they asked me to pull over, which really goes to show what kind of a person Jan is (a rather stupid, morally bankrupt one).
I stopped by Lucky Gardens to drop off my license at the driving centre so I could get it renewed. It was closed, so I gave the lady who ran it a call, and she said that I should drop by with RM160 and an appropriate photograph so that I could get my full license and I wouldn't have to renew it for another five years.
I went back home and complained to my dad about everything that happened. Ian came in and told me that everything was my fault, which was true, but it wasn't helpful. My dad took me for a drive to try to calm me down. He asked me to imagine the worst-case scenario, which was that Hannah wouldn't want to split the first summons, so I'd have to pay RM300 for that on top of the RM300 for the second license, and also that my dad wouldn't pay for the license renewal so I'd be out RM760, which was RM10 more than I had in my bank account. My dad said that he would pay for the license, so at the very least I'd still have RM150 left in my bank. He also told me that my mum got in an accident a while back that cost him RM2000, which put things in perspective for me and that got me to calm down a bit. He also told me that Hannah was even worse off than me financially and that his suggestion that we split the fine was just that, a suggestion, so I couldn't count on it happening.
He dropped me off at home and went to go play some golf. I told Hannah that she wouldn't have to pay for her half of the fine as long as she finally did the things she had said she was going to do anyway, which was basically to watch Cloverfield and a bunch of other movies and also to use up a box of wax strips that we had lying around. The reasons why she had agreed to do that in the first place didn't really matter to me, it was more the fact that she had said to me that she would do those things but never did, even though I did everything she asked me to do and stuff. So she's supposed to watch Cloverfield after she goes swimming, but I think she'll find some excuse not to and she'll still get away with not paying for the fine. If she doesn't do that, then I'll be pleasantly surprised. If she does, then I won't do anything for her any more, especially things that involve driving. My license is expired anyway.
Tomorrow I'm going to HELP to get my transcripts, then I'm going upstairs to Pusat Bandar Damansara to get some correctly-sized photographs for my license, then I'm going to the driving centre to drop off my license, the photos, and my dad's money, then when we get back from Redang I'm going to collect my license, then I'm going to the JPJ to settle the two summonses, then a week after that I'm going to call about my new IC, then when that's ready I'm going to go collect it, integrate my driver's license and ATM card into it, and finally I'm going to activate its Touch 'n Go and get some credit in it.
This post in a nutshell: Last year I didn't get promoted because I probably didn't deserve it even though someone who deserved it less got promoted over me, so I quit; this year Jan didn't get promoted because of some bullshit because he deserved it but at least he knows how I felt, but he's not quitting because his girlfriend is still in; also I got two summonses today because it didn't occur to Ruben and Stefanie that they could've carpooled with their dad and so I'm going to be RM600 poorer; also I've got to face a lot of bureaucracy in the next two weeks.
Anyway, we (my mum, Hannah, and me) started off by having breakfast in McDonald's, which was nice. After that we picked up El-Hanan and Joel, then we drove over to FGA. Along the way my mother revealed that she was a racist (or at the very least, a bit of a bigot. I thought the Dutch were supposed to be tolerant) and that she thought Obama was a Muslim. Her proof was that she had friends who knew people in America with "inside sources" in the White House. Mmhmm. She also says that he was raised in Indonesia, which is a Muslim country, therefore he's Muslim. Isn't Malaysia a Muslim country? Does that make me a Muslim? Whatever, she's my mum and thus I love and respect her despite her ignorance.
Awards Day itself was pretty boring. I slept through the Junior Section awards. The performances were lousy to mediocre, except for the dancing which was quite good but they weren't on the stage so only the people in the front row could see what was going on in full. Ian got promoted to an officer, and Jan got nothing. Now he knows how I felt. At least nobody less worthy than him got promoted, though. I watched Victor get promoted to corporal over me last year. I encouraged Jan to quit, but he's probably going to stay as long as Cherie's still in 10th KL.
I drove Hannah back home. I still had my sunglasses. They were gone the next day.
I watched a movie on my computer. Maybe not. Whatever, I was either napping or watching TV or on the computer until six, then we went for McDonald's. I spent the last of my money (except for RM10 so I could afford my RM5 tithes for the next two Sundays) on my meal. Hannah said she would pay for half of my meal, but she changed her mind and only gave me RM3. It was good enough for a lime sundae.
When we got home Hannah said she'd watch one of my movies if I watched Peacock, so I did, but she didn't. Peacock had Ellen Page and Cillian Murphy and I don't even know why I'm still listing names. It's a habit I'll break by watching a movie without any Inception actors next. Hope that works.
Anyway I got annoyed with her and decided to bug her, but she grabbed a knife from the kitchen and threatened to stab me, so I dropped the subject and took a nap. When I woke up, it was 2am. I watched the first episode of The Office (UK). It's great. Martin Freeman's in it. He's Watson in Sherlock. That's great, too.
I went to bed at 4:45.
Aunty Rosie tried to wake us up the next morning, but we weren't going to church since we had to pick up the Tans so we told her we didn't need to wake up. She turned off the air conditioning anyway.
At 10am Hannah came in and told us we had one hour to get ready before we had to go pick up the Tans. I told her that I didn't want to drive so Ian would have to take them. I told Ian that he had to wake up but he didn't listen, so I got out of bed and got ready to drive. Ian and Jan took their showers while I was reading the Bible, and Ian was still in the shower when I was done, so I went on the computer for a bit.
When Ian was done with the bathroom, I took my shower and put in my contacts and shaved and deodorized and such, and soon I was done and ready to go. I told Hannah and Jan, but they were taking their time in the living room or something, so I transferred some songs from my computer onto my phone. Hannah started panicking because she thought we were going to be late, so I finished up and went downstairs with them. It was 11:30 and the Tans were supposed to land at 12:30.
When we were in the lift I realized that I didn't have my sunglasses, so I went up to look for them but they weren't on their usual place on my desk. Hannah gave me a call while I was looking around for them. She was insisting that we didn't have time and we were in a rush and stuff, so I decided not to look for them any more and went downstairs. I was hoping to find them in the car, but they weren't there.
Along the way to the LCCT, I asked Jan and Hannah why they came along if they were just going to listen to music and ignore me anyway. I told them they should've just stayed at home so there would be more space for Uncle Elisha and stuff. They said that Ruben and Stefanie were their friends so of course they wanted to come. I told them that if that they should have just driven and left me at home. Hannah and Jan said they couldn't drive, and I said that I couldn't either since my driving license had expired at midnight, twelve hours ago. I told them that I'd probably encounter a police roadblock or something and get fined since I've never been pulled over before and I was bound to get pulled over the one day that I was using an expired license since life is shit like that. Hannah didn't hear anything I said because she was too busy listening to her music, but Jan heard me.
Anyway, I told Hannah and Jan that I'd take the fast lane there since Hannah was insisting that we were in such a rush. I told Jan that his job was to check behind us to make sure that nobody wanted to overtake us. I got a random text from Audrey for no reason and I asked Jan to read it. It just said "Hi". Then Jan started telling us about a dream he had where I took a turn too fast and killed everyone in the car. While he was recalling this dream to us, we were approaching a speed trap, but I didn't notice the cop with a radar gun until it was too late to slow down. I saw a flash which meant that a picture was taken and now my dad was going to get a summons for his car and I was going to have to pay it. I blamed Hannah for rushing me and Jan for distracting me with his dream.
I kept asking Hannah to call Stefanie to check if they had landed yet, but she wasn't getting any reply. When we were getting close to the LCCT there were a whole bunch of traffic lights that were all red, so any time we saved speeding was wasted at the lights, so we could have not sped and arrived at the exact same time and not received a summons. Stupid.
The traffic light right in front of the LCCT had a broken green light, so I was waiting at the junction for a long while before I figured out that I could go forward when all the lights were off. It was the opposite problem that the traffic lights outside Bangsar Shopping centre had, where the red light was broken and so you had to stay put when all the lights were off. The first time I encountered that I assumed off meant go and my motorcycle and me were almost destroyed by oncoming traffic with that mistake.
Anyway, we pulled up in front of the arrivals area, but there was no sign of the Tans. I called my dad and told him about the speed trap and he said that I could split the fine with Hannah. We waited for half an hour before we got a call from them. I got more and more annoyed for every minute that passed because it made my prior speeding more and more pointless and the summons more and more aggravating. Anyway, when they finally called it took them ages to figure out where we were even though they were right in front of us and I was sounding the horn to try and get them to look in our direction.
When Stefanie and Ruben got in the car we found out that Uncle Elisha wasn't even coming since he had a friend who was going to pick him up, so the whole drive over was pointless because they could have just gone with Uncle Elisha's friend back to Puchong and have us pick them up from there later. That way we could have saved petrol, slept in, and avoided the bloody summons.
On the way back we had Ikea hot dogs. This time there were onions, at least, so that was nice.
When we were coming back home from lunch, there was a police checkpoint near the golf and country club where I had never seen a police checkpoint. Of course Ruben and Stefanie weren't wearing their seatbelts. Nobody ever does. I don't understand it. It's such a simple bloody thing to do and it saves lives and prevents fines and it just takes five seconds but nobody in this bloody country bloody bothers. Anyway it didn't matter because I was being pulled over for speeding.
The officer asked for my license and pointed out to me that it had expired last night. He asked me how fast I was going and I told him I didn't know since I didn't know where they had measured my speed and if I had been keeping my eye on the speedometer I wouldn't be in that mess in the first place. The only reason my eye wasn't on the speedometer was because Stefanie was going on about Vampires Suck and I was getting upset that people were actually watching that bloody idiotic piece of cinematic excrement. It's a shit excuse for speeding, though, so when the officer asked if I was going to pay I told him that I was. I asked him how much it was and he said RM300. I asked him where I could pay and he said that they have offices all over the place. I asked him what the deadline was and he said I had one month. I asked him how fast I was going and where they had caught me and he said that I was going 108km/h in either a 60km/h or 80km/h zone, and also they had their speed trap under the overpass from the Golf and Country Club. All throughout my conversation he kept asking me if I was going to pay for the summons or not. I think he was implying that I had a choice (bribery), but I didn't bribe him because I don't want to contribute to this country's corruption problem, and more importantly because I didn't have enough money on my person for a decent bribe.
When I got back in the car, Jan asked me why I didn't just drive off when they asked me to pull over, which really goes to show what kind of a person Jan is (a rather stupid, morally bankrupt one).
I stopped by Lucky Gardens to drop off my license at the driving centre so I could get it renewed. It was closed, so I gave the lady who ran it a call, and she said that I should drop by with RM160 and an appropriate photograph so that I could get my full license and I wouldn't have to renew it for another five years.
I went back home and complained to my dad about everything that happened. Ian came in and told me that everything was my fault, which was true, but it wasn't helpful. My dad took me for a drive to try to calm me down. He asked me to imagine the worst-case scenario, which was that Hannah wouldn't want to split the first summons, so I'd have to pay RM300 for that on top of the RM300 for the second license, and also that my dad wouldn't pay for the license renewal so I'd be out RM760, which was RM10 more than I had in my bank account. My dad said that he would pay for the license, so at the very least I'd still have RM150 left in my bank. He also told me that my mum got in an accident a while back that cost him RM2000, which put things in perspective for me and that got me to calm down a bit. He also told me that Hannah was even worse off than me financially and that his suggestion that we split the fine was just that, a suggestion, so I couldn't count on it happening.
He dropped me off at home and went to go play some golf. I told Hannah that she wouldn't have to pay for her half of the fine as long as she finally did the things she had said she was going to do anyway, which was basically to watch Cloverfield and a bunch of other movies and also to use up a box of wax strips that we had lying around. The reasons why she had agreed to do that in the first place didn't really matter to me, it was more the fact that she had said to me that she would do those things but never did, even though I did everything she asked me to do and stuff. So she's supposed to watch Cloverfield after she goes swimming, but I think she'll find some excuse not to and she'll still get away with not paying for the fine. If she doesn't do that, then I'll be pleasantly surprised. If she does, then I won't do anything for her any more, especially things that involve driving. My license is expired anyway.
Tomorrow I'm going to HELP to get my transcripts, then I'm going upstairs to Pusat Bandar Damansara to get some correctly-sized photographs for my license, then I'm going to the driving centre to drop off my license, the photos, and my dad's money, then when we get back from Redang I'm going to collect my license, then I'm going to the JPJ to settle the two summonses, then a week after that I'm going to call about my new IC, then when that's ready I'm going to go collect it, integrate my driver's license and ATM card into it, and finally I'm going to activate its Touch 'n Go and get some credit in it.
This post in a nutshell: Last year I didn't get promoted because I probably didn't deserve it even though someone who deserved it less got promoted over me, so I quit; this year Jan didn't get promoted because of some bullshit because he deserved it but at least he knows how I felt, but he's not quitting because his girlfriend is still in; also I got two summonses today because it didn't occur to Ruben and Stefanie that they could've carpooled with their dad and so I'm going to be RM600 poorer; also I've got to face a lot of bureaucracy in the next two weeks.
Sunday, September 20, 2009
Guess What I Stepped on When I Went to the Kitchen to Get Something to Drink?
A cockroach. And I was barefoot. After a very brief freak-out as it scrambled away, I thought "eh, fuck it, I've already stepped on him, won't make much difference if I do it a couple more times". That bugger was fast, though, and he managed to scramble into the darkness before I could smear my sole with his insides. When I had turned on the lights and returned, he was nowhere to be found.
Knowing my luck with roaches, he'll probably turn up again pretty soon, most likely on one of my limbs when I am in a state of undress. When that happens I will finish what was started tonight.
Your days are numbered, you roach bastard.
Knowing my luck with roaches, he'll probably turn up again pretty soon, most likely on one of my limbs when I am in a state of undress. When that happens I will finish what was started tonight.
Your days are numbered, you roach bastard.
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