Yay, school's in!

Its that time of the year again. No, I'm not referring to CNY that's just around the corner, though I'm looking forward to it with much anticipation, one can never have enough money. Rather, its the start of a new semester once again. There's probably nothing I hate more fervently than the opening of a new school term, maybe besides the continual existence of cockroaches.

Why, you may ask, after a whole month of rotting and indolence, a month of pure boredom and placid monotony, I'm not looking forward to a new school term? Simple. One word: CORS. Ok, so it might not be one word, but still, it doesn't mitigate the fact that CORS is the root of all evil...I mean problems. While the insane server blockage and overflooding issues of the last semester were over, you can always count on CORS to spit out new crap faster than you can even say 'Retractable baton'. And so, yours truly was left 2 modules short by the end of round 2 of the bidding. The culprits? A bunch of year 4s who are apparently desperate to graduate; who have 109760186596120 points in their accounts to spare; and who don't give a damn which module they can take simply because they can use their trump card, the ultimate culmination of academic indifference: the almighty S/U. Add all these up, and you get a whole swarm of other students bereft of suitable modules to take, because of timetable clashes, lack of interest in certain modules, lack of S/Us, and ridiculously high bids by said year 4 desperados. I mean, who the fuck bids 3000 points for a goddamn GEM? Huh? By the end of my academic years in NUS, I seriously doubt I would even have accumulated 2/3 that amount. When all bids are outbidded for every single module, only these words can describe how the affected party must feel: OMGWTFSMLJKNNBCCBSONGBOHAPPYNEWYEARTHANKSVERYMUCHSEEYOUINHELL.

And to compound my misery, I've taken ill at the very first day of the term. No thanks to the stupid cocked-up weather we are experiencing nowadays. I mean, heavy rains that don't let up for days on end, let alone time enough to dry your undies? Sad, isn't it. As luck would have it, I got caught in the rain THRICE in 3 days. And now, besides nursing a cold, cough, fever and a throat so sore I feel as though a horse just banged me in the mouth, I can barely move without suffering from bodyaches and dizzy spells. Hell, I think a bout of pneumonia is even in the making. Pui. Stay tuned to further updates, if I'm still alive. *cough wheeze*

Happy 2006!

Happy New Year peeps, its a new year and a new beginning. May all your dreams and wishes come true, and if they do, please don't forget yours truly. Heh. Had great fun on New Year's Eve, thanks guys, for letting me start off the new year by winning your money in mahjong. Woot. Here's a list of new year resolutions that I intend (and hope) to accomplish:

1)Find a girlfriend
2)Get out of bed earlier
3)Grow fat
4)Get rich
5)More mugging, less mahjong and DOTA
6)More frequent updates here

You see, I've not forgotten about all you loyal fans, so I've resolved to TRY MY BEST in keeping more regular updates. Lol. So remember to come back often, even if there might not be any new posts. It just makes me feel good. Enjoy the new year!

Happy holidays, one and all~

Season's greetings, loyal fans, if there are even any of you left. It has been an extremely hectic semester and schoolwork has the annoying habit of leaving me drained, hence the dismal lack of updates. I'm sure you people aren't interested in what essay topics I wrote, or which lecture I attended, so I'll just skip the school bit and get on with the good stuff.

In case you didn't know, I just returned from a well-deserved week long getaway in the shopper's paradise, Hong Kong. It is funny that, I've been to the place quite a number of times when I was young, but it has never left a lasting impression on me, and yet, after my recent sojourn there, I just can't wait to go back. Maybe it is because I was too young back then to truly enjoy the trip, what with nagging parents and assorted other issues one faces when travelling together as a family. Maybe it is because of the multitude of gorgeous babes with a better dress sense than that of their female counterparts here. In either case, it was a very interesting and memorable trip, to say the least.

Another high point of my vacation was the amount of shopping I did there, and the budget I had to work with. Since my air ticket and accoms were FOC, thanks to my dad's Flyer Miles, and Steven and his family respectively, it meant that I had more to spend. As if this wasn't enough, my meals there were so kindly paid for by Steven's mum and grandmother, both of whom incidentally, have the inclination to order loads of food and then expect poor Steven and I to polish off every last bit. I have a healthy phobia of dim sum and pasta now. Apart from the fact that I felt like I was being fattened up every meal like a turkey awaiting the Thanksgiving slaughter, Steven and his family were wonderful hosts, kudos to them.

Being the lazy bugger that I am, I will end off this entry with a Merry Christmas in advance. Below are some of the photos I took during my trip. Enjoy your hols people.

CORS = Cocked up, Obselete, Retarded System

Yesterday was the start of tutorials balloting. It was a nightmare. I've always thought CORS to be a stupid system before, but now I absolutely loathe it. Yes, I was one of those suckers up at 9am trying to log into CORS. I know its not done on a first come first serve basis, but hey, I wanted to get it out of the way so that I could spend the rest of the day on other more productive activities instead of clicking on the damn mouse button. Sadly, but not unexpectedly, it didn't turn out the way I had hoped. Sigh, the best laid plans of mice and men.

Its kinda amazing really, how kiasuism is an integral part of Singaporean culture. I assumed that by logging in at 9, I could beat the crowds and finish my balloting in a jiffy. I was horribly wrong. Evidently, every single bloody person in NUS had the same idea. I was stuck at the log in page for close to 45mins, and when I finally did access the ranking page, the fucking server crashed. 'You've reached this page because your session has timed out.' Hallelujah KNNBCCB. And after that, the server slowed to a pathetic crawl so slow my grandma could outrun it. The reason? Overly kiasu freshies camping beside their computers the night before, waiting for the stroke of 9am, screaming 'YEAH!! I'm gonna log in and get my slots before all you suckers out there! I r0x0rs!!' as they jab the log in button 10000000 times. Morons. Its like having a 100 people making a run for the door in the event of a fire, and everyone gets clusterfucked and stuck and fried to a crisp in the end. Someone needs to tell those noobs, ITS NOT FIRST COME FIRST SERVE YOU RETARDS! Grr......

Then again, its not entirely their fault. The system is just plain fucked up. I mean, bidding for modules and balloting for tutorials? WTF? Why can't NUS adopt other institutes' model of choosing your mods, and having a fixed timetable allocated? It sure as hell saves us alot of trouble, time wasted sitting in front of the computer and energy spent clicking the mouse. And that's not all. Our wonderful 'world-class' institute has the moolah to build a spanking new campus in Bukit Timah, but none left to upgrade the bloody CORS servers. Its just like spending money to buy a condom when you don't have a girl to screw. And the way bidding and balloting are done is so inefficient. I mean, what's the point of having deadline extensions when everyone's just trying to log in all at once? You could extend it right up to Christmas and it would still be jammed. They should just implement a bloody queue and impose a strict time limit of 3mins for everyone to settle their stuff in CORS before they get logged out automatically. But nooo, what do the CORS admins do? They sip their coffees in their centennial mugs, press the server reset button, and lean back in their comfy chairs sniggering at our pathetic plight. Damnit, we students are paying through our noses each semester, and what do we get in return? A stupid retarded online system that fails on all counts.

I finally got my balloting done after like 13hrs of pressing F5, thanks to Steven. And the best part is, I didn't get the slots I wanted. Right now, I'm seriously comtemplating hunting down those slackers at the Com Centre and stuffing a cactus up their asses. Have I mentioned that I hate CORS?

Happy Birthday Singapore

You know, birthdays are really special and wonderful events. The crowds that more often than not come uninvited, the garish and corny looking decorations, the expensive looking and disgustingly sweet cakes that usually end up on people's faces rather than in their tummies...yeah, it is a memorable time indeed. So it is with great pleasure and enthusiasm, as I wish Singapore a very happy 40th birthday. Pardon me if I don't seem to be waving my flag too vigorously, I sprained my wrist while brushing my teeth this morning.

With the nation having its great birthday bash, how could I not join in? I don't wish to be seen as being unpatriotic and a wet blanket. Besides, I had nothing to do at home anyway besides counting the number of comics and textbooks lining my shelves and talking to my bolster. So, when Yufen and Yanxiang suggested that we head down to Marina South to have a look at the carnival, I didn't need much convincing. Heh.

As per routine, I arrived late, thanks to my little afternoon nap. I was amazed at the huge number of mindless drones brainwashed into attending the event at various locations throughout the island. I mean, I missed 3 trains because it was so packed, I doubt even Wenjie could have found enough room to stand. Disgusting. And what's with all the red shirts everyone seems to be wearing? Patriotism comes from the heart and is expressed by actions like voting for the PAP, hanging the national flags, serving NS...but definately not through a retarded fashion sense. That is just being plain spastic.




Yes they are watching you from up there too. If you don't vote for them, they will bomb you into smithereens.



Met up with Yanxiang, Yufen and Xiu Ting after fighting my way through 50000 people at Marina Bay. Being the garang patriots that we are, we opted to walk to the carnival instead of catching the bus like what most sane people would do. By the time we arrived at the big open field where the live telecast was being shown, I was half dead with exhaustion. Yanxiang said I was weak. Indeed I was, weak with hunger that is. Besides, I didn't have training like they do in the form of recreational shopping walkathons. While watching the flypasts, we helped ourselves to Yufen's homemade gourmet tiramisu. It was nice and creamy, and would probably cause me a heart attack sooner or later, but hey, I live for the present. The cake barely lined our stomachs, so we decided to hop down to Marina Square to catch the fireworks before heading to dinner there. Sadly, it was not to be. The bus back to the MRT was packed, the train to City Hall was bloody packed, and Raffles City itself was OMGWTFBBQ packed to the brim with people dying to catch a glimpse of the impending pyrotechnics extravaganza. Now, the thing is, when the masses were brainwashed into showing up for the event, evidently the process was an overkill and resulted in the death of their mental faculties for common sense. We went up from City Hall MRT to Raffles City, and was promptly sucked into the human tide. It would have been all well and good if the crowd had kept moving, but it came to a halt after we had barely moved 3m. Apparently, some fucking retards right at the front had decided that they would wait for the fireworks where they stood, and thus effectively killing the traffic and jamming the place up. We were stuck just outside Cafe Cartel, where the view sucked balls and the air was stifling. To make matters worse, 50% of the crowd was made up of banglas. Its funny really, how they seem to flock to every single fucking event that comes with nation wide celebrations, like National Day, Christmas or New Year's Eve. Idiots.

When the pyrotechnics started, I couldn't see shit, what with lampposts, buildings and trees obscuring my view. My shots of the display were pathetic, and I gave up after some bangla jostled me and nearly made me drop my camera. Sigh. I was disappointed, but not more than Yufen and Yanxiang, who were practically hopping with excitement the whole evening at the thought of watching the sky go boom boom. In the end, we squeezed our way to the Esplanade, where we were caught in yet another jam. By this time, I was so hungry, I was seriously starting to consider eating the tree in front of us. After 20mins of indecision and procrastination, during which I was having visions of ba chor mee, char kway teow and fried carrot cake, we finally wound up in Thai Express where we had a rather unspectacular and expensive dinner. My shrimp paste rice was ok, but watching the 3 girls choke down their food was kinda hilarious. No wonder Yanxiang said she still wanted her ba chor mee after we left the place. Lol. Next time, we should just settle for the nearest hawker centre, or dial 62353535.

The opposition goes boom!













With the nation's big day over, it means school's about to begin for real. Sigh. Maybe they ought to consider declaring the birthdays of senior PAP members public holidays too. Whee. That's patriotism for you.

P.S: I'm sick again, this time with tonsilitis and a fever resulting from the infection plus diarrhea resulting from the fever, if any of you even care. Wonderful isn't it?

Freshies - the pussies, the garang and the retards

Ok firstly, I'm neither dead nor incapacitated. Fortunately, or unfortunately depending on your point of view, I plan to live a long life. The reason for the dismal dearth of updates this past month? I have to admit, I totally forgot about my blog. You know, its like brushing your teeth, performing a routine gets really boring, and you tend to avoid doing it. After some time, it completely slips off your mind as though greased by KY jelly. Ok ok, I'm sorry for not updating, depriving all you loyal fans out there of your weekly blog-ertainment. I hope none of you are in rehab for withdrawal symptoms.

Now that the troublesome stuff is out of the way, let's get down to the actual update itself. The thing is, I can't really recall what occurred during this period of extended absence. Sorry, but my memory's been kinda hazy lately. One thing I do remember though, is the wonderful little debacle in the local charity scene. Yes, I'm referring to the clash between SPH and T.T Durian..I mean Durai. No, I'm not gonna talk about it, since every other bloody blog out there has undoubtedly covered the issue in detail, but suffice to say, I'm still laughing. Alot. Hey, now this could be the reason why my memory's been so poor, I've been laughing so much my brain's deprived of oxygen. Heh. Moral of the story: Don't fuck with SPH, not unless you want your golden tap stuffed up your ass.

Let's start with something I remember, like last Friday's Fright Night. Yes, you heard it right. Fright Night. Sometime 2 weeks ago, Zaobao, Joshua's friend from his OG, 'invited' us to join Fright Night as actors. Since we were sitting on our asses doing nothing most of the time, we agreed quite readily. I figured that, I could probably scare me some numbers out of the cute girls in the FOW. Heh. Being good boys, we followed the instructions sent to us by the coordinator and arrived at 2pm on Friday for our make-up session. Makes me sound really like a professional actor, doesn't it? Sadly though, the make-up artists weren't really good at the job. I had to endure 30mins of boredom and the disgusting feeling akin to applying sunscreen as the make-up artist swabbed my face in white. My hair certainly didn't help make matters much better, since it kept getting in the way, and I ended up with a white fringe and sideburns ala Yang Guo. To top it off, despite the prodigious amount of face paint that got slathered on me, the end result was uneven and kinda blotchy. And smiling makes the layer of paint crack. Ouch.

Dinner was served at 6pm, and was a real pain in the arse, since I had to maneuver my utensils with the precision of a surgeon to avoid messing up my make-up. Once that was done with, we left for our separate stations. Now, here's the interesting bit. I was posted to the S3 female's toilet on the 5th floor. I have to say, it has always been on my list of things-to-do-before-I-die, to actually visit the women's toilet. Heh. Sadly, it didn't live up to my expectations. No, I didn't get to see anything or anyone, so you people can stop probing. Another 45min was spent decorating the place to add to the atmosphere, which meant bloody words had to be painted on the mirror with poster paint, positioning of the baby doll in the cubicle so that it looks hidden instead of dead and being dumped, deciding on our hiding spots etc etc. So it was with much trepidation and anxiety, as we awaited our first prey of the night. Hey, you think only the freshies are scared? I was pissing myself at the thought of not pulling the scare off properly, and the prospect of an overly-gungho freshie using me as a punching bag.

Why the worry? Firstly, the script given to us was so corny, I had to keep myself from sniggering as I read it. Next, I was assigned the role of being the ghost of a little boy. Now, tell me, do I remotely resemble a little boy? Huh? More about the story: apparently a pregnant woman was involved in an accident that left her horribly disfigured. Needless to say, her baby was lost as well. Her husband abandoned her because of her looks, and unable to take it anymore, she decided to kill her son in a fit of brainless despair before taking her own life. Yours truly was the innocent boy whose life ended so suddenly. Corny isn't it? As such, my role required me to dress up like an adolescent. The plain white shirt and shorts were ok, but my hair was ruining my image of a little kid. Instead, according to me 'ghostly' female partner, I looked more like an Ah Beng more than anything. That hurt. Lol. So I had to resort to using a cap to cover my shock of blond hair, to not much avail. First disaster of the night.

As the freshies took their turns to enter in pairs, I was supposed to be hiding behind the toilet door, squatting down and looking eerie. I was then to drop the marbles I'm holding and proceed to pester the freshies to pick them up in the dark. Sounds quite a feat eh? Well, things didn't proceed the way we had planned. The first pair practically barged into the toilet in a show of bravado, with the guy kicking the door like it was his arch enemy or something. It doesn't require much to figure out what happened to me, who was squatting like an idiot all the while behind the door. After getting my bearings again, I realised the freshies were staring at me, waiting for me to utter some ghostly ululation. So, I dropped my marbles on cue, all the while holding their gaze. Then I realised that it was practically impossible to locate the marbles in the dark. Sigh. Nonetheless, I requested they find my marbles in a low voice. Here's the next problem. Apparently, the freshies must have hearing impediments after going through days of cheering and whatnot, since more than 50% of the pairs that night mistook 'marbles' for 'mother'. So much for my efforts.

That's not to say it ended in failure though. We did manage to make a few girls scared enough to cry, and to our credit, we managed to squeeze out terrified yelps and squeals from the guys as well. There was this pair of girls who looked almost ready to faint when they entered, and our team of dedicated ghosties freaked them out so much, they were cowering in fear and succeeded in backing into the hand dryer machine, which promptly came to life, thus scaring them even more. Heh. Some of the guys were really pussies too, there was this portly chap that looked pretty nervous as I fixed my rigid stare on him. As he bent down to hand me my marbles, I made a sudden grab at his hand, and he literally went 'Eeeeeek'. Bwahahaha. Then, there are the idiots and morons who spoil the whole act too. One genius couple, actually switched the lights on before entering the toilet. Our storyteller outside was so shocked, they were almost over the threshold into the toilet before she could stop them. Idiots. And then there was the 'Counterstrike' guy, who had to ensure every crook and cranny was free of spooks before he and his partner would enter. That meant he had to kick the door open, and then use his leg to flush out any ghosties that might be hiding behind the door. That also meant he nearly succeeded in kicking me in the head. Hey if you are reading this you mentally retarded asshole, I hope a tree falls on you. And you better hope you are dead before I get there, because I won't be as merciful as the tree. Finally, there was this couple of fucktards who were screaming even before they reached the toilet. They screamed as the storyteller told them the instructions, they screamed as they opened the door. Heck they even screamed when I was halfway through asking them to find my marbles. It would have been great if they were actually screaming out of fear, but apparently they were doing it just to show the girl with them they had balls bigger than their heads. Morons. How about I shove a couple of umbrellas up your asses, that would make you scream. Grr....

All in all, it was a pretty fun night, but it tended to get a little boring at times. Hey, you would be bored too if you had to act out the same shit 50 times in a row. So it was a relief when the coordinator signalled the end of the exercise, and we cleaned up the place before dragging ourselves back to LT25. Joshua's station had ended earlier, and he was already cleaned up and ready to go when I got there. Talk about chop chop. We had agreed earlier that we won't be spending the night over with the others, since the freshies would be in for a whole day of cheering again on Saturday. Ughh. Joshua left while I was washing up, and I left soon after, heading over to YIH to meet Darryl and his guitar club chum for a night of jamming. Heh. The benefits of knowing people in power. Darryl suggested I try auditioning for his club's drummer position, and I'm tempted to. But sadly, my skills are probably gonna get me kicked out on my butt even before I'm through with my first song. Oh well, I could probably try scaring the judges, I've had enough practice anyway. Lol.

SCUBA stands for Self Confessed Underwater Blundering Ass

I'm back! Did you guys miss me? Hehheh...I didn't drown or anything, sorry to dash some of you buggers' hopes, but I sure did come close to it. So here I am, still alive and kicking and entertaining you folks after surviving my repeated underwater sojourns. Wanna know more about my little trip? Then read on. But if you are inconsolably upset about my return, maybe you should take a breather. Here, have a tissue.

Pre-trip preparations are always a pain. It took me half a day to finalise the list of stuff to bring, and another day to get whatever I'm missing. The problem with me is I tend to overpack. I packed for this 2 days 1 night trip as if I was going on some week long vacation. And after I got all my stuff, I realised that my bag wasn't big enough to accomodate everything. Sigh. So in the end, I had to resort to throwing some crap out and folding everything else over and over again. Just like packing my fieldpack back in good old BMT. But seriously, one thing I've learnt from the army, is that almost everything can be folded and compressed to fit into your sadly inadequate bag. Things like toilet paper, toothpaste, and even packets of instant noodles. Amazing isn't it?

Met up with the guys on Friday evening at 7pm outside Scubanaut's office. It was then did I realise how big our group actually was. I mean, we had 7 guys from 4th platoon, plus Weifeng's classmates and church friends, Waikeong's hall friends...we numbered 18 in total if my memory serves me well. And so, I was kinda expecting to be making the trip over to Mersing in a coach. I was sadly disappointed by our mode of transport. We were to make our trip in... 3 sad looking, beaten-up mini buses. Wonderful ain't it? We departed the office at about 8pm, arrived at the Woodlands checkpoint at 8.30pm, and got stuck in the usual weekend jam for an hour. Vehicles were practically crawling, about 5m every 15mins. Traffic was so fucked up, I saw people alighting from buses to walk the last 1km to the checkpoint. We, on the other hand, were stuck in a puny, overcrowded mini bus with a faulty air conditioning system that made us sweat like pigs (no offence, Stuart..heh). After clearing the causeway, it was then another 2 hrs of insane F1 style driving by our driver Raymond before we finally reached Mersing. He takes curves and bends like Jay Chou in the Initial D movie, cuts into lanes by squeezing into single car-length spaces, and travels on the opposite lane more often then he does on the rightful lane. I'm still pretty amazed that we managed to reach our destination in one piece. Lionel was practically shitting himself beside me during the ride. Lol.

Grabbed me an authentic Ramly burger before boarding the boat. When I got a glimpse of the boat, my mind started screaming in gibberish. It was a tiny little bum boat not more than 5m in length and 3m in width, and it was supposed to take us all the way to Tioman? A big wave could probably have capsized it. And so, despite my misgivings, we all boarded it, while I managed to secure myself a position just next to the railings since there weren't enough seats. Its all about preemption, I was starting to feel a little seasick from the rocking. At least I was in position to spew my guts over the side when I needed to. Fortunately, or unfortunately, we transferred to a bigger ferry after 30min out to sea. Fortunate, because I finally had a seat. Unfortunate, because the ferry was rocking from side to side like a cradle on steroids. My face must have turned greener than my no.4 uniform, since everyone knew on sight I was about to puke. All 3 hrs of the ride, I was cold, damp, miserable and fighting to keep my Ramly burger from exiting. Despite attempts by some of the guys to distract me from my suffering, I was positively indisposed as the boat chugged its way to Tioman. I've never been good on long rides out at sea, even the 15min journey on the fastcraft to Tekong makes me queasy. One lesson learnt, never eat before taking a boat ride.

We finally arrived at Tioman approximately around 4.30am Saturday morning. We were all dirty and tired, and obviously looking forward to a nice warm bath and a good sleep. But the day's shocks weren't over. In fact, the most stunning discovery came when we opened the door to our room. Inside, the room was perhaps 8m by 4m, with 3 single beds and a double decked bed that looked like they might break anytime. Lighting was provided by one miserable bulb, while the air conditioner looked like it belonged to the scrapyard. And the horror of horrors, the toilet was small, primitive and filthy by my standards. Thankfully they had a working heater. I can't imagine what I would have done if it was out of order, maybe attempt to swim back to Singapore. Anyway, the room looked so pathetic, all of us referred to it as a 'bunk' synonymously. Yiwei looked particularly devastated by the sadly antediluvian facilities. I can't blame him, I was pretty upset as well. Sigh. But fatigue got the better of us all, we took our showers and promptly slept like the dead.













Our 'bunk'..lol

Sleep was not a luxury we had however. We had to drag ourselves out of bed at 8.30am to breakfast at the wonderfully rustic 'restoran' with an equally ironic name: 'Salang Dream' or something along that line. The food however, was surprisingly tasty. It wasn't a 5 star
gastronomic experience of course, but hey, it sure tasted better then the junk they served us back in NS. After breakfast, we proceeded with our confined water dives, during which we learnt drills, drills and more drills enough to send a RSM bonkers. Not that they weren't important, but theory and real life are worlds apart, and drills can't guarantee one's safety for sure, as shown by my little misadventure the following day, more on that later. But shallow as the confined dives were, at about 5-8m at most, we still managed to catch a few glimpses of corals and marine life, though it was far from what postcards and internet pictures would have you believe. Still it was a rather enjoyable experience being able to drift about in the water and looking down upon the marine ecology. Feels rather like flying. The water at Tioman was really clear, unlike the seas off Singapore, where you can't see your own hand even if you were to wave it in front of your face.








Some of the marine life in Tioman


One thing about scuba diving, is that the pre dive preparations and equipment checks are really irritating. Lugging an air tank that probably weighs more than I do, along with the BCD on my back, sure isn't my idea of fun. Slipping into the wet suit isn't something I particularly look forward too either. Well at least I have it better then Stuart, the closest analogy to him putting on a wetsuit, would be the wrapping of a rice dumpling. The process of getting him into his suit requires lots of tugging, pulling and squeezing, along with 2 assistants. Lol.








Mingjun, Weifeng, Lionel and me


We ended Saturday with 3 confined water dives, before heading back to shore for some chow at the same old 'restoran'. The instructors told us to get a shower first before having dinner, but being ravenous guys that we are, we waited for Yiwei to take his beauty bath before we decided to skip the showers and grab some food first. Surprise surprise, we arrived at the 'restoran' only to find that we were the only people around. Turned out that the others were still bathing or chatting in their rooms, the main culprits being the girls. For the sake of integrity, us guys decided to wait for everyone to arrive before starting dinner, despite the growls our stomachs were making. Waikeong looked hungry enough to eat Stuart. And so it was with a sigh of relief we greeted the others when they finally deigned to show up. After dinner, we left the table early so that we could get the salt off our skin. Back in bunk, while waiting for each other to take his bath, Yiwei suggested we head out for a Ramly and some pratas later, followed by a couple of drinks at the bar. We all fell asleep before the 2nd one among us was done bathing. And it was not even 10pm. Lionel managed to bug us awake after everyone's done showering though, and we dragged our sorry asses out to find most of the stalls closed for the night. Wonderful. In the end, the other guys grabbed a Ramly each, and Yiwei and Mingjun purchased a couple of beers, before we all headed back to our bunk for some shut-eye. The girls in the room next to ours were still up chatting at this point, while Weifeng and Stuart were busy trying to 'cheehong' the bunch of girls who were Waikeong's friends. Haha. Its kinda funny, seeing that they were Waikeong's friends, but Stuart was the one entertaining them most of the time, while Waikeong was slacking his ass off with the bunch of us guys. Stuart is da ponner cheehong lah. Heh.

Sunday got off with a better start, since I did managed to get at least 7 hrs of sleep. Started our first open water dive after breakfast. We boarded the dive boat and headed out to Coral Island, just 15mins away from Salang Beach. The dive went on as normal, there was much more to see compared to the earlier dives: sea fans, scorpion fishes, sting rays...it was at the bottom of Sea Fan Canyon, when I met my accident. Akil, our dive instructor, had halted in front of me, and I did the same. The others in my group started joining us from all directions. One genius, I didn't manage to identify him or her, descended right on top on me, and succeeded in kicking my regulator out of my mouth just as I was taking a breath in. Needless to say, I ended up swallowing a mouthful of seawater. In my haste to regain my breath, I must have forgotten to purge the regulator after I put it back into my mouth, since I recalled sucking in more water instead of air. At the thought of a faulty regulator, my mind went into panic overdrive. I obeyed my mind's first instinct: surface and get air. I frantically clawed and kicked my way upwards to the surface 25m away, and though 25m might seem a short distance when you are on land, it sure isn't when you are underwater and ascending vertically. All the way up, I was fighting to get some air into my impoverished lungs, and all I got was more seawater. The only thought running through my mind was 'This is it, I'm dead'. At some point, I must have been close to losing consciousness. Then I saw some lights ahead of me, and thought: 'Wow, so its true, you do see lights when you die.' Actually, I was just 2m from the surface. My natural buoyancy brought me back up, and I've never tasted such sweet air in my whole life. My lungs felt like they were on fire, and my throat was raw. Raihan, the divemaster, surfaced beside me, and asked me what happened. I explained to him in between laboured gasps, and he immediately towed me back to the boat some 50m away. It wasn't an easy swim. The current was pretty strong, and even with our BCDs on, and Raihan's excellent physical condition, it took us quite awhile before I was safely back on the deck. There, I rested for 45min, as the others surfaced awhile after I did. Lionel realised I was missing after my ascent, and sounded out to Akil. But noone seemed overly concerned that I just had a close brush with death, in fact most seemed pretty jolly about the whole incident. Sigh. Next time, I'm cutting their regulator hoses. Buggers. Haha.

Went on the 2nd dive later without incident, and finally fnished using up all the shots on my underwater cam. Headed back to shore for a quick shower, and lunch, before loading all our gear back onto the boat for our return trip to Mersing. This time I learnt my lesson. I managed to obtain some pills for seasickness from Rosemary before the ride. Amazingly, I didnt feel the least bit nauseous during the trip back. Either the pill must have worked, or I must have become immune to the effects of the constant rocking and rolling after 2 days of diving. Anyway, the journey back to Mersing was rather uneventful, besides some chatting and picture taking sessions, I spent the rest of the ride dozing. I would have spent the time trying to get to know the girls better, but Stuart was doing the 'cheehong-ing' and I didn't wish to interrupt while he's on a roll. Heh. Upon reaching Mersing, we had another 3 hrs on the road ahead of us, though it was reduced somewhat by Raymond's driving. Lol. This time, he took the Tuas link instead, the Woodlands causeway was probably more congested than the intestine of a patient with constipation. Got a call from Weida informing me that the BBQ was ending, and seeing that I was still in Tuas, I had to make a hard decision by telling him I wouldn't be joining them after all. Haha. I did suggest meeting in town for a drink, but apparently Mushroom was dead drunk, and needed to get home before she passes out like a log. Sigh... girls. If you can't hold your liqour well, then don't drink lah. I usually can't walk straight after 3 tequila shots, that's why I avoid alcoholic beverages. But now that I know Mush can't drink for nuts, next time I'm getting her a jug of beer, and then robbing her blind while she's out cold. Whee. Back to my trip, we arrived at Scubanaut's office at 10pm, unloaded the gear, had a brief AAR, and headed to Forum's Macs for dinner. Over dinner, Weifeng suggested we join him for the Advanced Open Water Course in July. Given what just happened to me in the day, I'd sooner go bungee without a bungee cord. The only way to get me back into the water, is to get a chiobu to dive along with me. At least if I do drown, she will be the first to render CPR. Hehheh.








Group shot on the ride home

P.S: More photos to come soon...I think. Heh.