Drastical Twist

2 weeks have passed ever since I bid adieu to Jalan Sultan Ismail. Life has been very busy recently. So much to write but so little time available. Before the memories slip through or faded, think I better capture the bits and pieces of them that still remain in my mind.

There has been a drastical twist in my life recently.

30 March 2007, Monday - A Talk Had Taken Place
It was a replacement holiday for Awal Muharam. I met up with CH for a talk and the result was fruitful. Yes, I'm going on freelance with her.

4 April 2007, Wednesday - Exhausted
Planned to tender my resignation, but held it due to the urgency of an assignment and my sense of responsibility. Worked late and reached home at 10pm. Drop dead tired...

5 April 2007, Thursday - Resignation
Officially tendered my resignation. Had lunch with KC at Kim Gary, Avenue K for a catch up. Bumped into Virus whom I have not seen for a long time. He is still the same with his labels: sense of humour, loads of F words, and smoking. Had a talk(exit interview) with my ex-Boss in the afternoon, shared with her my reasons of leaving and my feelancing plan. Expected early release as the industry practice.

6 April 2007, Friday - Oh yeah, last day!
Received an official notification as this day as my last day. Expected early release but not this fast. Anyway, it's good for I could bid adieu to Jalan Sultan Ismail earlier and have a good rest before I start my freelancing on 16 April. At night, I packed my stuff getting ready for a Cameron relaxing trip for the weekend with OX fellows.

7 to 8, April 2007, Sat to Sun - Chilled out at Cameron Highland
On Sat morning, Xena rang me up at around 6:35am telling that she would be arriving at my place in 5-10 minutes time for the pick up. Awaken by the call, I checked the time. Shit! I overslept because I forgot to set the alarm clock! Quickily gave pig head a call, he's supposed to gather at my place by 6:45am but had not shown up yet. There were still a few items which I had not packed. Hastily dumped those items into my bag, grabbed my tower and my handphone, and speeded down to downstair for my shower. Yes, I brought my handphone along to the bathroom because pig head would arrive at anytime and call me. :) Half way through my bath, pig head had arrived and called. What I could do was to answer the call and asked him to wait for a while. Wow, I broke my own record, and managed to get myself ready just before Xena arrived!

We headed towards our destination in a total of 4 cars, 19 of us, with 1 car coming from Penang to meet at Simpang Pulai Toll.

Here are some of the highlights:

Robbed
We gathered at Sungai Buluh Toll for our breakfast. Jesus Christ! The plate of Meehoon Mee with a fried egg and some sambal sauce that I ordered cost me RM4! I felt like being robbed alive! It's so expensive and totally not worth the money. If I ever drop by Sungai Buluh Toll again for food, this Malay stall will definitely be banned! Too bad that I couldn't remember the its name but I remember it's location.

Drifting
I was sitting at the middle at the back of Xena's Rexton 4WD. It was spacious at the back. Anyway, being light in weight, I was sort of like drifting when the Rexton drifted along the winding route up to Cameron. I positioned my legs a bit wide, separated by the divider to gain some stability, stuck my fingers on the 'ceiling' of the car, like a spiderman most of the time, swaying left and right. While I was busy swaying, the pig head sitting on my left was already snoring, fallen asleep.

Hot
The weather in Cameron Highland was hot in the afternoon. Felt the sunlight burning when it shone directly on my hair and skin. Apparently, this is a result of global warming. Cameron Highland is no longer cold in day time.

RQ - The House Fly Killer
As usual, we went for tea at the Boh Tea plantation. It's the house fly season and our tables were surrounded by house flies. They were getting on RQ's nerve. Guess what, she folded the newspaper that 1 of us brought along and started the house fly genocide operation. Piak! A house fly died on the spot after just 1 shot! This really stunt us on RQ's speed and accuracy. Piak! Piak! Piak! More and more died. Later, she changed weapon, took out a piece of paper from her bag, folded it and continue the killing. The most amazing part was, when a fly was struggling to its last breathe, RQ stepped on it to ensure it was confirmed dead! Ahahaha.... Of course, TBK was making use of this to tease her on her cruel act. This house fly killing operation brought me back to the memory of house fly capturing when I was small. It's not easy to hit a house fly with any form of hard material as the weapon, it will fly off before your weapon is even near. Thus, I normally used a small plastic bag (hold the middle part of it, causing the opening of the bag to form a cover) to capture house fly. That worked perfectly fine for me. Seeing how easily RQ was hitting the pathetic insect, I was wondering whether house flies in Cameron were slower and more stupid or RQ was super fast. Hahaha...

The Wantan Story
We had steamboat for dinner. Forgetting that Julita (our Malay outdoor friend) was along and that we are not supposed to use the cooking utensils at kitchen of the MNS challets to cook non-Halal food, Xena, our chief cook did bring along some meat paste for making wantan and some meat balls. It's gonna be a waste if we just threw them away. Thus some of us getting set for dinner at the dining hall, feeling hungry while waiting for those who had just got back from a hike at Gunung Brinchang and taking their shower, we decided to proceed with the wantan production using the disposable chopstics and other utensils that we brought along, and had a wantan steamboat with the electrical steamboat pot that Xena brought along. There were about 60 over giagantic wantans and meat balls altogether. At first we were worried if we could finished them. In just a few minutes time, we managed to sweep clean all of them! Unbelievable! After our wantan operation was over, the rest started turning up. We pretended nothing had ever happened and continue eating the normal steamboat that we had prepared. Ahahaha... Amazingly, we still had space for the steamboat and we enjoyed our dinner.

TBK + Orang Utan Vs The House Fly Killer = WAR!!!
Whenever TBK and RQ meet, they will try to shoot each other and as usual, TBK will be the looser. Now with this Orang Utan from the North (a really hairy and dark one), another rival of RQ, TBK was like found an alliance, and the war had become a triangle one. Haha... Wondering whether TBK's and Orang Utan's birth dates and times were in conflict with RQ's. It was damn funny, listening to the conversations of them shooting RQ - the House Fly Killer, 2 against 1. Fire on the hole! Well, it's friendly fire, they just love to tease each others for fun, no real rivalry.

Morning Gunung Cantik Stroll
Had a nice cosy sleep on Sat night as it was cold. Woke up fresh on Sun morning. I had dried wantan mee (without any wantan, all were disposed into our stomach discretely on Sat night. hehe...) with fried egg, vegetable and fried sausage with sambal belacan. Had a cup of hot Milo too. After having breakfast, we went for a stroll at the tea plantation, enroute the Gunung Cantik trail. As the name sounds, Gunung Cantik really has very cantik scenery along the route. The air was fresh, the weather was nice and cosy, the scenery was beautiful and I was just feeling good.

Tea At Cameron Valley
On our way back, we dropped by Cameron Valley to sip tea. This is a yum cha spot that I always like in Cameron for its nice scenery though there's nothing great about the tea. Had a little bit of chit chatting and we moved our butts for lunch before heading back to KL.

Endurance Test
We headed back to KL using the old route via Tapah. The roads were more winding. As our Rexton drifted along, I felt the revolution of my stomach, sending signals to look for toilet for some serious business. I did accomplish my big bisiness in the morning. Probably eating too much sambal belancan during breakfast, my stomach got a little bit upset as the side effect and was striking. Isshhhh..... There wasn't any toilet till we reached the Tapah Toll! The only thing I could do was just to endure it. I kept swaying in the car as there were endless sharp and winding corners. Ahh.... It was torturing! I just prayed hard that I could safely reach the Tapah Toll toilet without any undesired 'outbreak'. I was trying to think of something else to shift my focus away from this emergency. This was really an endurance test for me. Yan yan yan yan yan... Finally, after about close to an hour, we reached the Tapah Toll. I rushed to the toilet and completed my business. Phew, What a relief!

10 April 2007, Monday
I went for a massage at Jessie's saloon. Oh no, it was pouring heavily when I competed my massage. Couldn't go off, did another eye treatment to help reduce my dark eye circle. Couldn't really remember what else did I do on that day, I guess basically, I was just resting.

11 April 2007, Tuesday - Business Registration
As I am going on Services Agreement mode for my freelancing with CH, I went to The Mall building in KL to do my business registration under sole proprietorship. Spent about 8 hours there to complete the whole process, more tired than working, for the queueing up and waiting. Felt a little bit proud, I am sort of like having my own business! Am actually taking a bold step. Anyway, no risk, no gain.


12 to 15 April, Wednesday - Home Sweet Home
Went home to have a good rest. Had ample of good food (my mum's cooking), TV, newspaper, and rest. I went for a jog too in 1 of the evenings. Life was simple, tranquil and relaxing back home.