2 days after our final paper, we went on a road trip to Malacca.

Head count!! There was me, Daniel, Kenn, Yan Yan, Boon Yean, Jimmy, Elvis, In Ming, Chunn Khye and not forgetting our star attraction, Wei Yiaw.

2 cars were used to get to Malacca (you don't expect us to walk to Malacca, do you? :P) and the drivers were Jimmy and Wei Yiaw. Wei Yiaw led the troop with me, Daniel, Kenn and Elvis accompanying him in his car. Jimmy led the 2 audacious gals, In Ming and Chunn Khye in his fleet.

The trip was, of course, drowsy. Not to say that the company in the car were boring, it was just that somehow, sitting in a car longer than 10 minutes tend to make me sleepy ...

Anyhow, we got to Malacca on Saturday afternoon and checked into the hotel. At first glance on the outside, I was like "WTF? This crappy old thing?" as the walls were staining of the sign of aging, maybe they needed a new paint job but hey, it bares a symbolic resemblance to a haunted building. Then, when we walked into the lobby of the resort, right before I walked in the door, the view of the inside changed my perception of the place.

It was breathtaking, the view of the pool from the inside (okay, seeing through from the outside to see what was on the other side, which was outside, lol). It captivated me for 5.379 seconds, but I was really happy the place did not turn out too badly.

We checked into 2 rooms, one which was larger than the other. I happened to step foot into the larger one, which was of course, extremely good. I see beds, I see lovely lovely beds! (Yeah, I was still tired lol). I lay on the bed for a few moments to rest up, besides, it only took me 2 minutes anyway, lol. The room beside us had water leakage problem, which made us think of the one and only horror show that was symbolic to this, Dark Water lol. But honestly, the water started to cause a bulge at the door which looks really swollen, as if the wood was exposed to a long period of hydration, which totally spooked me.

The girls made their way to this room seeing the other room could not fit them. As usual, I don't mind giving up those lovely, lovely beds :x and slept on the sofa (which was rather comfortable, by my standards @@).

After leaving our luggage at the hotel, we made ourselves to Jonker Street. Jimmy's friend who happened to be a Malaccan resident lead us there (honestly, you don't expect us to know how to get there by ourselves, lol). It was a revisit to this place again for me since about 7 to 8 years ago. We just had to try the chicken rice ball, as it was one of Malacca's specialty. Soon after, we had cendol, only for the reason of tasting gula Melaka, or 'black sugar'.

After having quite a scrumptious meal, we head back to the hotel and rest up for a little bit. Then we decided to head for a dip in the pool, which was short lived as the rain came pouring down like a blitz of scatter shots.

It was nightfall, and again, it was time for us to dine. We wanted to try Malacca's heritage, nyonya cuisine at first, but then Yan Yan knew a restaurant which had really good food at Jonker Street, but unfornunately, it had closed. I mean, 9.30 p.m. and it was closed? LOL?

This brought us to the option of exploring the night market along the street, which was packed with tons of food stalls. We tried a few things, such as a sausage on a stick, coated with a flavouring of choice (how interesting :)) and a 'Pun cai ko'(I don't really know how to translate this) which was a small disc-like gelatinous thingy, which tasted fine. Then, I found a stall that sold glasses, and yes, that was one of the things on the list which I wanted to get ever since 2 years back. When I asked for the price at first, which cost 15 bucks per pair, it made me look at my already empty wallet. I bitterly said goodbye to that gorgeous glasses.

Later, we head to a small shop which sold a numerous variety of actual meals, which I then ordered a bowl of Tom Yam Seafood Noodle (pricey >_<) for 5 bucks. As some of us had finished our meal, we took this time to explore more of what the night market have in store for us. At this time, I changed my mind and made my way back to the stall that was selling those glasses. I just had to have them, and there goes my 15 bucks.

As we drew to a conclusion to head back to the hotel (after each of us purchasing at least something, lol), we decided to head to a bistro. The funny thing was, we were so eagerly wanting to get in, but we were so undressed for the occasion. I was quite reluctant to get in at first, but who cares, these kind of things don't just come across everyday. We decided to enjoy ourselves and let nothing stand in our way of that, but then, we chose not to go in seeing the place was having pricey liquor (too bad =/).

We decided to go to a nearby 7-eleven to get some hard stuff and some snacks which we then crack open at the hotel to celebrate our moment of togetherness. Of course, I could not afford it even if the price has been reduced to an affordable state, I was broke and all I did was bought a bottle of 100-plus (geez ...) and a packet of Twisties.

We then head back, had a party in the larger room, of course. The party was abruptly interrupted by the sudden appearance of a birthday cake to celebrate Daniel's belated birthday. Actually, we knew it before hand, we just wanted to catch Daniel off-guard and it did the trick, and fortunately for us, it went well. We then watched a horror flick on TV called 'An American Haunting', which got me up all night as it gave me a fright when I wanted to head for bed, but my fatigue kicked in just right and I was off in slumber land once more.

The next morning, we had breakfast, complimentary of the hotel, which actually was available for 4 people only. As sly as we were, we snucked in when no one was aware of it, and made the 4 free meals into 10, lol. The food was not bad, but it was going really fast. I only had a small taste of the nasi lemak and some hash browns, oh, and not forgetting some bakery stuff.

As we all finished our breakfast, we packed our stuff and checked out of the hotel. It was brief, but it was enjoyable. As we checked out, our next destination was the A'Famosa Water Park. As expected, this was a theme park that has the theme going. It had numerous water rides, but when it comes to land rides, they have zip. As always, I wanted to go for the super-scary rides, but back then, I never had the guts to do it, but it was like a moment of truth, our last time for us to be together, why not make it memorable?

We tried different rides, and then we spotted the ultimate one. The super dive, or its original name 'High Speed'. Of course, the girls did not join us (as to the reason why, well, let's just say they have their reasons). So, most of the boys went for the high and fast plunge down that slide, and I had to take off my shirt (OH GOD!). I was a little afraid at first, but then again, my randomness kicked in and made me dive down that chute. It was not scary at first, but when it started to plunge at first, it got my heart racing. Then, when I got out of the covered chute, I was like 'Why can't I feel anything under me?'. I was like OMG! as I felt like I was floating in mid-air, then I plunged into the opened chute with all the water splashing into my eyes, which did calm me down (if my eyes were opened while I plunged, I think I might faint). As I made my descent, I was like overwhelmed. I did an extreme ride and I was thoroughly enjoying it. Wei Yiaw and Kenn went in before I did and I was expecting Elvis to do the same, but he didn't, oh well.

After finishing those rides, we had our meal, not considered a lunch, but not a tea break either. The food was okay, after all, we paid like 12 bucks for it ...

We then dried up, packed our stuff and head back to our respective cars to drive home. We bid Malacca farewell and got back on our journey to continue the rest of the chapter in our lives as KDU students, diploma students.

It was an experience like no other, and I was thankful to have experienced it with my true friends, will miss you guys lots, and hope we will meet up again someday.

So, the time has come for all the doors to close, and perhaps new doors of opportunity to open.

I was kind of bumped out by my performance in OOP, which becomes a major factor that scrutinized my judgment to actually study up for SDD, but the very least, I forced myself to study even the slightest part of the subject.

It did paid off, but not to a satisfactory level. The paper had its ups and downs, some were as easy as baking a pie, and the rest was like holy shit!

No doubt I knew it would be a disastrous outcome (my grades) for this here subject, I still put aside that, and embraced what was, the ultimate freedom.

As always, we hit the karaoke stand for another 'pain relieve' session where we blared out our pain and stress, which in a weird way, does help soothe the aching head of the matters that seem to bother us.

All in all, the day went well with a happy ending, just like from the fairy tales. As to where we go from here, only God knows.

Wishing all my college mates a good career in the future, and don't forget what was, and what have been :)

Hakenden.

Well, it was my third day and but with most of the other times that I have felt the re occurrence of sloth and laziness, I did not take much initiative to study.

Forcefully, I had made a big mistake neglecting them and it really pisses me off. It was hard enough trying to stay away, but getting closer to it was so much harder than I thought.

With much doubts, I slept another night with the lingering guilt that I cannot seem to get my mind off. The next day, I woke up abruptly from my dad's call.

It was like, 1p.m. CRAP! I forgot to set my darn alarm! It was like 1 hour till my tragic fate with the exam. I rushed to shower and went for my college as soon as I could, along the way I had my brunch (sort of). I took this small opportunity to read my Java book just to clear my guilt.

I got into the hall at about 2p.m. I managed to arrive in the nick of time. Taking my seat, I slowly browse through the paper. As expected, the number of codes that were needed to type were abundant ...

I aced the theory as I am taking this exam, for the SECOND time. The UML diagram translation was not much of a problem, but the internal coding was really ****ed up.

No turning back. No regrets. Just go for it, that was what my inner sanity was telling me.

With that, I exit the hall, praying that this would all go well, for tomorrow will be the ultimatum ...

Hakster

As always, sort of a jet lag like experience for me.

I practically didn't study much for MYH because part of me find it to be very boring, as well as the urge has gone after having finished what seemed to be the feel of a dreaded nightmare, MWS.

So I stepped into the hall, the one, the very same that I had sat in for MWS, room 110.

Much to my surprise, the question came out ... tougher than expected.

It was very much comparable to Mr. Alex's style of question presenting, the only thing that made my day for that paper was that the characters in each of the scenario was based on X-Men characters ...

Firstly, there was Cyclops. Okay, so I thought it was some one-eyed dude and etc. Followed by Rogue (referred as she, which gives away that she's from X-Men) and Logan (pfft ... Wolverine).

Anyways, the questions were quite tough, and I was at a blur. Trying to decide if I should stress more on answering, or stress more on finding out that this was turning out to be a little bit more devastating than I had imagine.

But I had to move on, no point struting over wasted efforts (was there even effort placed in it in the first place?)

I left that hall and didn't look back, I just kept on walking, and walking, and walking ...

There were mixed up emotions fluttering before me and I could not really get a grip, but I told myself that I had to take a deep breath, it's not over, 2 more days, I must hold on to my sanity for a little longer.

Hakenden

I woke up at 12pm or so today and I was thinking, "So this is it ..."

Earlier on (like 7am or so) I hit the bed to rest from the scariest killer study routine I've ever done in my life. Maybe it has all paid off, maybe, I just don't know.

It was 2pm, I walked into that room with all of my classmates sitting at their own tables, scribbling profusely to place what they have been studying for. I was so nervous, I could barely breathe. The funny thing was, I did not show any physical signs of being afraid.

I opened the sheet and to my surprise, it was rather easy. I could finally feel the air brushes through my lungs again, and I can finally lower my heart's pulse.

Although it was easier than expected, I have a very very strong feeling that I will fail this ...

God, have faith in me (or rather, give me some luck), I hope I can just barely scrape through and pass this exam, I wouldn't wanna stay anymore as a diploma student ...

Hakenden

Among all the songs I've heard that 'seemed' to be of connection to demonic sanctions, nothing comes as eerily as the Toccata and Fugue.

This song is breath-taking, in a word. Although endorsed by its powerful and dark nature of the piece, it is actually one of the most energetic piece done by Bach himself.

Many reviews have come to a conclusion that this may not be one of his pieces as it defies what most of his works were. As most of his Fugue was with a more linear and simplistic harmony, this was of a more sinister and twisting symphony.

No one would have thought that a Fugue like this for the piece of organ would produce something that hides such an evil force which sends chills down one's spine. Some may perceive it as such, but I find it to my liking.

As much as this piece have been given 'life' time after time with a shroud of darkness, this music will live on as long as there's still the untimely battle between good versus evil scenario.

Pronounced as 'Bone Odour-ree', the one event that truly spurs me.

This japanese festival caught my attention because, instead of us, chinese celebrating the passing of our ancestors by the customary tomb sweeping event - complies to being a very very sad recollection of the memories we had with our ancestors, the japanese tends to bring forth a magical and something about it always puts some sort of a happy feel to it, instead of mudane sadness.

While chinese visits the tombs and graves of our ancestors, the japanese goes to a large plain field and setup small little stores, just like a little carnival and people visits each of these stores to purchase items that ranged from edible to plain souvenirs.

One of the common stores found in a Bon Odori is 'gold fish catching'. Participants are given small nets to catch gold fishes in a large open bucket and whatever you can catch, you keep it. This is highly amusing if you think catching fish to be a boring task, you'd be surprise.

Another common store found in Bon Odori is that of a little knick-knack store. The knick-knack stores usually sell home-made items like small little dolls made out of porcelain or even a customary beaded chain. All in all, this is one store most gals would not resist to visit (not to mention not resisting to buy them).

It truly is a wonder how they could celebrate an event such as this. Probably, a memorial to those who have made us, us and given us a life that we live until today.

Oh yeah, I'm also hinting to you guys if you wanna go to our very own version of Bon Odori :P

Peace

Hakenden