Girls' Day Out :-)

Ah, it was almost CENTURIES since the book-chewing and brain-cracking hermit had last went out and take a breather with her friends!

Today, I hung out in Taiping Sentral with my friends, Xin Ying and Soo Teng at almost 11a.m.

It was a long wait for Soo Teng (Soo Teng, please forgive my straight-forwardness... ) so Xin Ying and I just walked around and admire the Christmas decorations in the mall. Soo Teng arrived around half an hour later: She went to school to return the textbooks, and guess what, she actually WALKED all the way to the mall! Good gracious, it is of little wonder that she was quite lethargic...

However, that little hitch did not spoil the day.

We strolled around the not-really-crowded mall and stumbled across Pei Hua and her classmates who were embarked on a quest to look for jobs during the holidays. (Ha ha... I might have to look for one too, but my dad told me to find a job only AFTER I have finished my driving lessons. That is CRAZY!!!)

Flashing back the beautiful and mesmerizing childhood memories...

(Left: Soo Teng; Right: Xin Ying)

Well, this is, by far, my favourite self-cam picture.

After much "exploring" around the mall, we headed straight to the box office for the "Puss and Boots" tickets. It must be a lovely movie... Anyhow it is, we will see for ourselves! As there was much time left, we went for McDonald's for lunch.

It was 1.25p.m. Oh no, we really have to HURRY! Soo Teng then suggested the tiring shortcut-STAIRCASE!!! Well, it was way faster than using the escalator and is friendlier to the heart as well. :-) It was just a matter of ascending two floors minus the crowd and shoves.

Phew! Aren't we lucky? We got to the cinema just in time! This is it...

As I said, PUSS IN BOOTS. I had a great affinity to cartoons obviously... (Well, I will narrate the details of the movie in my next post. It is a long story indeed.)

It was my first time watching movies in 3D. Putting on the special glasses made for watching 3D movies over my thick-rimmed glasses was no big deal, but to watch the effect clearly, I had to tilt my head a little to the right... Sigh!

Nonetheless, the fun-filled movie was worth the itsy-bitsy, teeny-weeny trouble. The movie could made you laugh your guts out, especially the part where Puss In Boots and Kitty Softpaws were dance-fighting at the beginning of the show, and the other feline members played music with everything available (including fish bones, for goodness sake!) Laughter was around in the cinema during the movie screening, but of course, there were some heart-pounding drama (such as the plot where Puss in Boots joined forces with Humpty Dumpty, his best friend, and Kitty Softpaws, his female counterpart, went to steal the legendary magic beans from Jack and Jill.)

After the hilarious movie treat, Old Town White Coffee was our next stop for some chat, pictures (again) and tea.

From left: Soo Teng, Xin Ying, me, Shir Li

It is late at night now... almost eleven... till then, revoir! I will continue posting tomorrow (and maybe, DAILY? The only hitch is that the Internet in my area is down)

Anyway, I will be going for a holiday at 10th to 12th December. Thus, I will be posting after these days. Bye...!!!

7 December 2011 marks the end of the paper chase for all the Form Five students in my school. As the lucky day crept in stealthily and silently, all the Tamil language and Chinese language candidates put in utmost effort to shove as much facts as possible into their heads, and eyed at the papers apprehensively and wrote meticulously. "Zish, zish, zish..." with some hints of "Crack..." of the correction tape, the pens were those which actually broke the utter silence in the examination hall.

Time flies. It was soon 1pm.

"Perhatian kepada semua calon, masa sudah tamat, berhenti menjawab. (A short pause) Semak semua butir telah lengkap, ikat semua helaian tambahan. (another short pause) Guru pengawas akan mengutip kertas anda".

Translation: Attention to all candidates, time is up, stop answering. Check that all your details are complete, tie up all the extra sheets. The invigilator will collect your papers.

Loud applauses and cheers ensued. The then somber atmosphere in the hall was completely shattered into pieces. It signifies nothing but- FREEDOM! Now, it is the time to say adios to reference books!

As I scanned through the piles of the examination papers and worksheets that I had done for the past few years, I reminisced on the quest assigned on all Treacherians-no, but ALL the Form Five students in Malaysia in order to pass the examinations in flying colours and soar into the future high and wide. It was all about dilligence and insanity straks. There were countless examination drills, endless (and perhaps, a little monotonous) talks dedicated to the techniques in answering questions in SPM, zillions of minor examinations and "Gerak Gempur"s conducted in school, tons and piles of homework and revision worksheets which were meant to gear us up for the Grand Finale- all for but FOUR weeks of the examinations!

These books will be just slightly shorter than me,

if they are stacked up.

Books? Bah! Bye! :-)

Looking back at my school days, I could not imagine the magnitude of effort and energy dedicated by the students, parents and teachers in order to strive against the torrential waves of the examinations. Throughout the eleven years of my life as a student, there were way too much of unchained memories which colour the fabric of my life.

It was months of fierce struggle. However, to be frank, that was not enough for a nerd like me to squeeze all those overwhelmingly lot of information into my brain. In fact, I actually crammed up my facts in Physics. I virtually did not understand what was I writing- or CRAPPING about in the paper. I could only keep my fingers crossed that my paper will be alright.

As for Accounts, whoa, I must say that luck was on my side! It is undeniable that the paper was quite challenging, but I somehow managed to get the "Kunci Kira-Kira" in Question Two for the second time out of four of my Accounts examination in school. (Obviously, my school does not teach Accounts to Science students, thus I did not sit for Accounts in my Monthly Assessments.)

However, best of all, I can finally say goodbye to my "Pet Aversion"-History. Honestly, I am a hundred-percent History buff and the "B"s and "C"s which are norms in my History subject had often marred my otherwise all "A"s school assessment results. My Trial Examination is actually the FIRST time that I have ever scored a distinction in this mind-breaking subject. Now that I have regained my liberty form the plague of examinations, I will just have to push all those "troubles" to my sister who is two years my junior.

Having strong affinity to languages, I will definitely miss language classes terribly, especially my Bahasa Melayu teachers, Puan Norani and Puan Sormon, and my ever-dedicated English teacher cum foster mother in school, Puan Sharifah. (For your information, My school holds such "Mak Angkat" programme for the targeted SPM candidates, in hope that they will be more motivated to excel in SPM)

I used to despise writing when I was younger, but, throughout the years, I grew to take up writing as a passion, and have a penchant to quotes and the beauty of language.

Now that the waves of the examinations have descended into the golden horizon, it is time for me to move on to another altitude in life. Clearing out the piles of secondary schoolbooks from my messy room does not mean that the fun and fury in secondary school will be erased out of my mind, too. In fact, I will always cherish life in high school for now and always. I will definitely miss my boisterous class, my ever-dedicated teachers and my friends, too, who will be parting soon and heading towards their destiny.

I just hope that it is not the case of out of sight, out of mind.