Roundabout, Roundabout, Where'll We Go?
I'm typing this from the grandfolks' place in So Hour; I arrived a couple days ago--but I'm getting ahead of myself already.
First, I must deeply apologise for the immense delay between posts; not that nothing of note has occurred, and not that I've had no time or inclination--I've simply been such a horrible procrastinator, and it does keep slipping my mind and only popping back in when I'm in no position to do it--on a bus, for instance, or moments just before falling asleep. Well, I'm typing up a post now and so you can be grateful for it... though of course, my future self will be grateful too when I come back to see what's been happening.
So what's been going on? Not much, I may say--or maybe, a lot, although I don't necessarily remember it all or remember it well. My memory's like a sieve these days... or rather, it's like a somewhat clunky old computer that breaks down every now and then and loses a bit of data when it's back. Not the best of states to be in, and you'd think this would encourage me to blog more and avoid the gaps of memory, but *shrug* as it is I post like twice a month or so. A horrid state of affairs, yes I know.
And ye gads, is half the semester already gone? Yes it is--it's nearing the end of September now, which means I shall spend all October catching up on August and September before November arrives and I must face the third round of exams since arriving at the University. In fact it's already the recess week which means that quizzes will soon be coming--there's one next Monday, in fact, and I thought it was Tuesday! one day of studying gone--and I'm the first one to admit I'm in no shape to face 'em.
School's been the usual over the past few weeks; tutorials, classes, labs, and so forth. Easy Kill appears quite oddly gratified about my being in a different class from him for labs, because he claims it forces me to do all my own reports now... though, really, I did do all my reports last year. I merely heavily referenced his reports too just in case of making mistakes; though considering I didn't get the best grades for last semester's lab work, maybe it's about time I stopped referencing his stuff too--if I'm about to get bad grades, I shall get them on entirely my own fault, haha!
The Tech. Comm. experiment seems to be proceeding as smoothly as can be hoped; I must say I'm quite glad we chose such a low-maintenance thing--I mean, how badly can an experiment that consists mostly of photographing flowers in vases turn out?--although, of course, Easy Kill will get the greatest credit for actually carrying out the experiment, since we're using his house and he bought the flowers and he prepared the solutions, etc... and all the rest of the group did was sit around and discuss and make some little calculations and read journals--oh, heavens, reading the journals was tiring, and tedious, and writing the reviews of them... it was called Literature Review but really. What literature!
Other than that? Well. Hm. It's school, and everything seems to be incredibly difficult and gives me a headache or eyestrain just reading the notes... Though of course I should be studying now! And I do wish I had a bigger better brain, but whatever I have I just have to use for the time being.
It's recess week at the moment; in fact it's Friday so recess week is just about over. For me it began last Friday the moment school ended; most of the Singaporeans on my MSN Contacts think it only began on Monday. Still, by Monday I was already in KL--I left Singapore on Saturday early morning, and had to skip the Night Cycling for it which is a pity (I do enjoy cycling and haven't had the chance to do it since Fifth Hun) , but at any rate I got to KL. Interestingly enough, getting about within KL is more difficult than getting between Singapore and Malaysia; the airconditioning at every LRT stop was out of service and dripping condensation into a plastic blue bucket, industrial fans were the only source of air circulation, and usually there was only one person manning the ticket counter--the ticket vending machines were all out of order despite claiming to be usable.
You will not be surprised to know that the line of people waiting to buy tickets from the lone person was about 50 meters long, and most of it was Malays and rather sweaty (not that the two conditions are related). I also haven't quite got used to being on trains that I can see to both ends of from the middle either; it's rather an unusual experience for somebody who's been taking the MRT all along because THAT is too long, and too crowded, for both ends to be visible from any one position in it.
In any case I eventually managed to get through the massive tangle of public transport within the place, and got to the Coconut's at about 4 or so (I arrived at about 1, but was delayed by such things as lunch, a haircut, and the aforementioned public transport snarlup, not necessarily in that order).
After that? A blur of activity and SMSes, a lot of going out and coming in, a lot of buying (and no selling at all), a lot of eating, and a lot of time spent hanging around with the Coconut's family (but unfortunately not the Coconut herself because we were having a little spat then)... and a memorable 5 hours which I spent hammering the basics of algebra and straight-line geometry into Free Tea's head. And then I left for So Hour on Wednesday.
I shall detail the journey: I left from the WM LRT stop on Wednesday morning to the Jammed Mosque (LRT fare RM2.10), and then walked to the common bus terminal, where I found that all buses going south (which meant mine) had moved to a different terminal; but I still had to buy the tickets from the common terminal. So I bought them--from a different company, because the one I normally use was mysteriously unstaffed. (RM26.) And then there was a shuttle bus to the new terminal, which was driven by the happiest bus driver I'd ever seen--and the prices made it clear why he was so jolly: RM3 for a one-way ticket! Most bus rides on that particular company's buses cost RM1 regardless of distance. And then I got to the other terminal with a ticket marked Pearl Station (which is where I wanted to go) and I got ushered onto a bus marked New So Hour. It, however, stopped at Lark, which is several hours away from both New So Hour and Pearl Station; so I had to take another bus (RM 5.30) to Pearl, and then a taxi from that (RM3) to my grandfolks'.
See what I mean when I say that travelling within Malaysia is more difficult than travelling out of, or even into, it?
But I'm here at any rate, and enjoying the life.
First, I must deeply apologise for the immense delay between posts; not that nothing of note has occurred, and not that I've had no time or inclination--I've simply been such a horrible procrastinator, and it does keep slipping my mind and only popping back in when I'm in no position to do it--on a bus, for instance, or moments just before falling asleep. Well, I'm typing up a post now and so you can be grateful for it... though of course, my future self will be grateful too when I come back to see what's been happening.
So what's been going on? Not much, I may say--or maybe, a lot, although I don't necessarily remember it all or remember it well. My memory's like a sieve these days... or rather, it's like a somewhat clunky old computer that breaks down every now and then and loses a bit of data when it's back. Not the best of states to be in, and you'd think this would encourage me to blog more and avoid the gaps of memory, but *shrug* as it is I post like twice a month or so. A horrid state of affairs, yes I know.
And ye gads, is half the semester already gone? Yes it is--it's nearing the end of September now, which means I shall spend all October catching up on August and September before November arrives and I must face the third round of exams since arriving at the University. In fact it's already the recess week which means that quizzes will soon be coming--there's one next Monday, in fact, and I thought it was Tuesday! one day of studying gone--and I'm the first one to admit I'm in no shape to face 'em.
School's been the usual over the past few weeks; tutorials, classes, labs, and so forth. Easy Kill appears quite oddly gratified about my being in a different class from him for labs, because he claims it forces me to do all my own reports now... though, really, I did do all my reports last year. I merely heavily referenced his reports too just in case of making mistakes; though considering I didn't get the best grades for last semester's lab work, maybe it's about time I stopped referencing his stuff too--if I'm about to get bad grades, I shall get them on entirely my own fault, haha!
The Tech. Comm. experiment seems to be proceeding as smoothly as can be hoped; I must say I'm quite glad we chose such a low-maintenance thing--I mean, how badly can an experiment that consists mostly of photographing flowers in vases turn out?--although, of course, Easy Kill will get the greatest credit for actually carrying out the experiment, since we're using his house and he bought the flowers and he prepared the solutions, etc... and all the rest of the group did was sit around and discuss and make some little calculations and read journals--oh, heavens, reading the journals was tiring, and tedious, and writing the reviews of them... it was called Literature Review but really. What literature!
Other than that? Well. Hm. It's school, and everything seems to be incredibly difficult and gives me a headache or eyestrain just reading the notes... Though of course I should be studying now! And I do wish I had a bigger better brain, but whatever I have I just have to use for the time being.
It's recess week at the moment; in fact it's Friday so recess week is just about over. For me it began last Friday the moment school ended; most of the Singaporeans on my MSN Contacts think it only began on Monday. Still, by Monday I was already in KL--I left Singapore on Saturday early morning, and had to skip the Night Cycling for it which is a pity (I do enjoy cycling and haven't had the chance to do it since Fifth Hun) , but at any rate I got to KL. Interestingly enough, getting about within KL is more difficult than getting between Singapore and Malaysia; the airconditioning at every LRT stop was out of service and dripping condensation into a plastic blue bucket, industrial fans were the only source of air circulation, and usually there was only one person manning the ticket counter--the ticket vending machines were all out of order despite claiming to be usable.
You will not be surprised to know that the line of people waiting to buy tickets from the lone person was about 50 meters long, and most of it was Malays and rather sweaty (not that the two conditions are related). I also haven't quite got used to being on trains that I can see to both ends of from the middle either; it's rather an unusual experience for somebody who's been taking the MRT all along because THAT is too long, and too crowded, for both ends to be visible from any one position in it.
In any case I eventually managed to get through the massive tangle of public transport within the place, and got to the Coconut's at about 4 or so (I arrived at about 1, but was delayed by such things as lunch, a haircut, and the aforementioned public transport snarlup, not necessarily in that order).
After that? A blur of activity and SMSes, a lot of going out and coming in, a lot of buying (and no selling at all), a lot of eating, and a lot of time spent hanging around with the Coconut's family (but unfortunately not the Coconut herself because we were having a little spat then)... and a memorable 5 hours which I spent hammering the basics of algebra and straight-line geometry into Free Tea's head. And then I left for So Hour on Wednesday.
I shall detail the journey: I left from the WM LRT stop on Wednesday morning to the Jammed Mosque (LRT fare RM2.10), and then walked to the common bus terminal, where I found that all buses going south (which meant mine) had moved to a different terminal; but I still had to buy the tickets from the common terminal. So I bought them--from a different company, because the one I normally use was mysteriously unstaffed. (RM26.) And then there was a shuttle bus to the new terminal, which was driven by the happiest bus driver I'd ever seen--and the prices made it clear why he was so jolly: RM3 for a one-way ticket! Most bus rides on that particular company's buses cost RM1 regardless of distance. And then I got to the other terminal with a ticket marked Pearl Station (which is where I wanted to go) and I got ushered onto a bus marked New So Hour. It, however, stopped at Lark, which is several hours away from both New So Hour and Pearl Station; so I had to take another bus (RM 5.30) to Pearl, and then a taxi from that (RM3) to my grandfolks'.
See what I mean when I say that travelling within Malaysia is more difficult than travelling out of, or even into, it?
But I'm here at any rate, and enjoying the life.
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