So many things happened throughout this month I should’ve really blogged more often but all I can offer now is a recap to just wrap up 08.

YOUTH CAMP 2008

Camp was a blast. Full of fun and more importantly, God moved and touched many many lives in those few days.

This was the small group that I had the privilige to lead in morning devotions and stuff. Brilliant people really. Coorperative, responsive, attentive.

Ming Shen ended his camp a different person to the one who started it. His encounter with God was truly encouraging for me as it was yet another answered prayer.

SOARING EAGLES!! Yeah I know, rocking tribe name eh.. We got 2nd place overall and for the FIRST TIME IN ALL MY CAMP GOING LIFE, MY TRIBE WON THE TREASURE HUNT!!

MONASH UNIVERSITY

Camp ended on the 18th and offers were due to arrive on the same day but my bloody offer was delayed till the 22nd!! No complaints however.

Dear MR YEAK

Monash ID No.: 213***** (Please quote in all correspondence)

Full Offer for Semester 1, 2009

Bachelor of Medicine / Bachelor of Surgery

Congratulations. I am delighted to offer you admission to Monash University, Clayton as an international
student. You have received a full offer into the Bachelor of Medicine / Bachelor of Surgery.

Words cannot explain how I felt when I read that e-mail. All the hard work has paid off. All the worrying, studying and occasional stress break down has been worth it. Couldn’t have done it without His help though. Thank You so so much. For ISAT, pulling me through the interview and answering all my prayers.

Some of you guys know, but one amazing thing was that I prayed for specifically 382 for my final sem MUFY score, and guess what, He gave me EXACTLY 382! What are the odds of that!?

MY NEW TOY

Nut case camera which I love to bits! Got it together with the 17-85, a 50mm, 580ex II and lots of other goodies as well. A lil to the heavy side but its just pure quality, the build, ergonomics, and picture quality just brilliant. Duh, its the Canon 40d.

Been eyeing this baby since I don’t know when. Can’t believe I actually own one now. Been putting it to big tests really with difficult situations my G7 would die in. Results were alright, some were fantastic while there could’ve been more if not for my noob-ness in handling a dslr. Time, time..

AOIFE’S 18TH BIRTHDAY

What a party Aoife had. There was dancing, karaoke, funny slideshows of her and 2 crazy guys dancing around half naked with ribbons and heavy make up. Oh, and even a on the spot hair styling competition. Did I mention the food? Ohyeah, the food.. mmm…

The girls working their magic on his head. Uhh.. that sounded wrong. On his hair. mm.. whatever.

Random picture.

Can you see Megan stuffing her face with muffins in the background? haha!!

I love those colorful disco ball thingos.

Crazy patterns you can get with these stuff. Think I’ll try air graffiti one day. Thanks Alan for the idea. haha!

MYF Year End Celebration

As most of you would have read from Pearly’s blog, this year’s celebration was loads of fun. Hats off to the guys who planned out the games thingy.

Loh Chia Ching. He’s got too many crazy photos that we can totally show on his wedding day. His legendary video with Alan is still the killer though. The theme here was [cute]. Ugh, should have seen the make up on his face man. Girls rock la, bring make up everywhere. haha..

Oh yeah! Thats how you strike a catwalk! Attitude becks, ATTITUDE! haha..

Alan proved himself to be the KING OF NERDS. In camp, after camp. He just seemed so comfortably confident and happy in that role, maybe he just should be himself more often. haha!

Then as according to tradition, the form 3′s had their presentation.

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Stayed over at wen jing’s place that night and talked crap till like 6 in the morning. Didn’t actually plan to but that was how it ended up anyways. haha!

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So yeah, ironically there isn’t much about Christmas this December. Although caroling was really awesome and the dinner in KL with my family too was a blast, I don’t have pictures for them!

2008 couldn’t have ended in a better for me. I encountered God, had truckloads of fun, worked my butt out, experienced Melbourne, met some crazy awesome people and got myself into uni.

ROLL ON 2009 BABEH!! BRING IT!!

Past few months has been too crazy hectic for me to actually blog and stuff. Really went into the mode where all I did was eat, sleep, study, gym. Glad that’s over.

My last blog post was on the 24th September and too many things have happened along the way. I’m back home, loving it, but occasionally missing Melbourne as well. Occasionally, key word in that sentence. Nothing beats home. =)

As some of you may know, I visited SYDNEY! Pretty good place actually. For myself, one of the highlights of Sydney would probably be the Fish Market. Fell in love with seafood yet again. haha.

Fresh beyond compare. Huge prawns, oysters, lobsters.. crazy..

Lobster mornay, love it!

We actually went back for a second round to try out another store where we had snow crabs, lobster and prawns cooked in a different way instead of the fresh boiled ones we had on the first day.

And of course, no visit to Sydney would be complete without visiting the Harbour Bridge and Opera House of course. And yea, Bondi.

Love the lighting in this picture. Just after the sun has set.

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I did visit Bondi beach but the weather was awful that day, hence the lack of pictures. Sydney Tower was interesting too but I felt it was abit of a ripoff honestly.

Sydney, very much worth visiting in the end. Great food, awesome views, too much to tell in a simple blog post.

As most of you guys know, we were there for the Medicine and Dentistry Interviews for University of Adelaide! woot!! Victor, Joseph, Chia Ee, Shu Ann, Denise and I flew down together, meeting Hassan, Majid and Nawaf at the airport.

Day ONE

In the 2 days, I took the cab more times than I’ve taken taxis in my entire life! Seriously, it’s not easy to take buses in a place where you know nuts about directions and stuff. We learnt that the hard way though. 5 people with “awesome” sense of direction taking shortcuts through parks without maps in a whole new city!! In other words, we got lost! haha..

Made the most out of it though, taking pictures and stuff. haha..As you can see from all the smiley faces, we didn’t realise we were going to get lost yet at this point.

So yeah, after a walk through the park, thinking that we’ll exit on the street where our hotel was on, we found ourselves in a totally different place.

Victor looking for directions, Denise thinking, chia ee emo-ing, Shu Ann stoning, Joseph sleeping?

It was crazy hot that day but we found our way back to the hotel eventually. Was dead tired and most of us crashed for the next 3 hours before dinner. They say food in Adelaide is cheap, which is probably true, if you know where to go. We ate at some chinese restaurant and ordered dishes and stuff, its more fun that way. haha! Ended up paying just the same as Melb..

Mapo tofu, if Jalene was there she would be going crazy. haha! It was good..

This is by far the most decent picture of them. Victor tends to do like super gay stuff with Joseph when taking pictures. Then again, I do have a collection of him camwhoring with chia ee, loh chia ching style, gosh these two guys must never meet!!

So yeah, that was pretty much day one down. We all went back to the hotel after that to make some last minute preparations for the interview the next day. Ohyea, we bought breakfast for the next day too, stuff like sandwhiches and chocolate milk. Victor went for redbull. Like wth, who has redbull for breakfast!? Crazy! haha..

Day TWO

The interview was not very scary. Casual stuff, talking a lot on personal qualities and so on. I seriously need to work on selling myself better. haha! Met many other Taylors people there too. So before flying back, Shu Ann wanted to eat cake. Random. haha!

Took a cab back to Adelaide Central Plaza and found a cafe there called The Coffee Club.

The girls.

Denise is actually Chia Ee’s friend visiting from Malaysia. So she wasn’t there for the interview actually. So nice lar! *hint hint*.. haha! Shu Ann is from Trinity, so yeah, pretty productive trip, got to know 2 new people.

Yeah, Victor, grass is always greener on the other side eh? EAT YOUR OWN CAKE!!

I got the mixed berry cheesecake. Reminds me of my moms blueberry cheesecake!!

It was not bad. The jelly part on top wasn’t that nice though. The one my mom makes is nicer!!

Chia Ee took this photo, didn’t realise that I look so not sexy when eating. haha! Was wearing glasses that day cuz I wanted to look more studious for the interview. haha..

SO yeah, that’s basically the Adelaide trip, didn’t stay back to visit the tourism spots there. Just flew back straight to the better city, MELBOURNE! Seriously, Joseph missed Melbourne when he’s in Adelaide more than he misses Malaysia when he’s in Melb!

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Moving on, some of you may have seen the tagged photos on my facebook, but if you haven’t, here’s a preview of the next post.

THE ROYAL MELBOURNE SHOW!!

Was talking to a friend lately about all sorts of stuff till the wee hours of the morning which really has made me realize all sorts of stuff. How different everyone is, but how alike sometimes our goals and aspirations are. The rat race. doh..

Being a Malaysian out here in Melbourne is not difficult, the ratio of asians to locals is almost 1:1 in the city anyway. And being Malaysian, we all have that accent that makes us distinguishable from other nationalities. But other than the accent which may even fade with time, I ask myself how Malaysian am I anyway?

Being a Malaysian born Chinese, I feel we’re the group of people with the least “national image”. Or whatever. Everywhere we go, we’re “second class citizens”. And it doesn’t help that the political situation and so on in Malaysia is nothing really to be proud of out here. For those who even care about culture, we know more about China and the Chinese culture, and for the rest of us who don’t give a nut about it, we well, know nuts.

People would say, “who cares? what has Malaysia given you as a Chinese!?” Well honestly, truth be told, not much. I want to be patriotic, I want to be proud of Malaysia for more than just the food and tourism, but I just can’t find the reason to be.

“a poor player, who struts and frets his hour upon the stage, and then is heard of no more.” (irrelevant)

Then again, I’m crazy proud of Sitiawan. HAHA! You guys can tell me about how you have subway in your schools or how you hang out at starbucks after classes during high school, I don’t care. NOTHING, beats Sitiawan. I think I shall just self declare Sitiawan as a seperate country and fill in my nationality in forms as “Sitiawanian”. Someone start writing The Sitiawan National Anthem!!

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ah lee: old template was getting crazy boring!!

kenk3n: post up pictures of your new hair!!!!

1. Hit the beach with Urbs.
2. Adelaide interview.
3. Royal Melbourne Show.
4. 10fifteen!!!
5. Past year papers.
6. Study……
7. Application stuff…

Ugh, why do I have the feeling that this 2 week break is going to fly by mercilessly? doh..

Anyway this is just an extremely short update. Will be hoping to take HEAPS of photos during the holidays. Ohyeah, as most of you may know, I cut my hair, Prison Break fever is up and running, and I know this is old news but Liverpool outwitted, outplayed and outscored Man Utd. Watched it with 2 times more United fans than Liverpool ones. Gosh did it feel good. Waiting for Aaron to come online so that I can taunt him soooo bad.. haha!

So many things actually happened in the past weeks but I never really got down to blog about it. Probably will just post some photos in the coming posts. Have got like uber many pictures from the school concert especially.

And, for those who don’t usually see me on MSN or don’t have Facebook, here’s my new “hairstyle”. It may seem familiar.

I know, I don’t usually do this, but I was bored, I saw the window, the camera, the tripod, so why not? haha..

SUMMONING THE REST OF THE BOTAK CREW, SHAVE IT!!! COME ON!!!!

If you’ve seen this video before and somehow DID NOT SHARE IT WITH ME EARLIER, haha, I’m gonna smack your head over with my dictionary. Kidding kidding..

Obviously this was taken quite some time ago during the peak of autumn. Love the way the leaves decorate the pathways and the colours all around. Messy yet vibrant. Winter is nearing the end now with spring approaching which is a good thing. Getting sick and tired of bald trees.

One of my favourite portraits. Natural unstressed smile and natural (no peace sign) pose. It was her birthday that day and yeah, good korean lunch, great cake and of course, even greater company.

Some random structure near Federation Square I think. There are quite a few of these around there. Have no idea what it symbolises. Guess I’ll never fully understand art anyway. haha!

Took this on the way to one of the steamboat places all the way at Tooronga. Nothing much really. Boring light trails. Could’ve exposed it a little bit longer though. Nevertheless, not TOO bad a photo I think.

Finally, it was Daniel Yeak’s birthday yesterday. Or today. Depends on which timezone you’re on and when you’re reading this post anyway. Blargh, 20th of August, that’s the date. Happy Birthday DA NIU. Photo taken outside Baskin Robbin’s in some suburb somewhere in Melbourne. Can’t really remember. haha! Ohyea, he’s 9. One more year to double digits. Gosh.

Seriously it’s not the cold sometimes that bothers me. It’s the weird glances I get from people while walking around the streets. haha! So far donations has been very very encouraging, surpassing 1/3 of my target in 2 days.Thanks everyone!

And the best response to my “out of season” wear would be from none other than my English teacher again I guess. Seems like I quote him quite a lot here.

Mr Leggo: “Daryl are you praying for summer, or were you just too lazy to take your ironing out!?”

Had a very good Friday night. Hint: Sizzling lamb chops, barbie dolls, lots and lots of hair gel. haha!

Forgive the blurry picture. Will post up more pictures from the night once I get it from the others.

It’s one of Australia’s biggest youth fundraising events by World Vision for the children of India. Basically, volunteers are given little booklets to collect and raise funds. Not only that, there is the “Famine” part as well.

For 40 hours, we are to go without something that is really important to us. Food, technology, furniture etc. And I’m proud to say that I am part of this event. Although I haven’t started collecting funds yet, tomorrow will be the day.

And I hear you ask, what is it am I going without? After much contemplating, and with some help from Ian Tay and Elvin as well, I have decided that it shall be WITHOUT warm clothing from the 15th to 17th this month.

Yea, the crazy guy in a T-shirt, shorts and sandals during Victorian winter is going to be me.

How can YOU help?

Simple. GIVE ME THE MONEY! haha!

Every $40 helps 8 kids for a month. And my target till the 30th of September will be $300. Yeah, that’s just for now. Once I reach that, I’m going to double the amount again.

Guys this is a great chance to like they say, “do something real”. These children are starving, forced into slavery and basically just working their butts out to live another day. Any amount will be hugely appreciated. And remember, $40 helps EIGHT children for a WHOLE MONTH.

Or if you just really don’t have a heart at all and feel nothing for poor, suffering children, just support me as I go 3 days without ANY WARM CLOTHING. That’s something worth paying for right? Seeing me freeze my butt out there in 8 to 14 degree weather. Just wanna experience being deprived of something really needed.

Or even better as I raise the stakes, CHALLENGE ME to fast from something for the 40 hours. And if the price is right, it WILL be added to the list.

And no, I won’t be hiding in my room.