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| Friday, 1-Oct-2004 00:00 |
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The Past
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Hmm.. the past... funny how it can sometimes suddenly catch up with you... a few eeks ago I went to a near by bank to re activate my account. It happens to be that the lady at the counter serving me was actually from my lower secondary school. She said I looked familiar (apparently I look familiar to a lot of people - does this mean i have a common face?!) and after a few minutes trying to determine what we have in common school wise, it apeared to be our lower secondar school. She was not from my class though so it was quite releiving cos it would've looked bad had i forgotten a classmate!!
Well that's not the real point. the point being that after getting back frm the bank i quickly looked for my Form 3 Yearbook... and boy did that bring back memories!! I believe that all of us learn and change but it seems that the me back then was a totally different to the me now!! It's amazing how much has changed. Boy, i even read the old Sci-fi story i wrote for the yearbook. Everyone who knows me knows that i don't read - at least i don't read novels and stuff so that particular article was such a refection of the Sci-fi that I watched back then in '96!! what a journey down memory lane it was...
Man.. wouldn't it be fascinating if we could re-live the time when we were all younger...
Oh well... anyways, I'm in the middle of compiling the best moments of Afif in Taekwondo. Believe it or not I've been doing it for 13 years now!! So i thought I'd post a few pics up just to remind me of my past... I can be really sentimental at times.... Have a good weekend everyone!!
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| Tuesday, 21-Sep-2004 00:00 |
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Looking back on Japan
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Taken from inside a bus. A VW look alike. Quite cute really
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Only in Japan... Kinki University!!
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Cool drain cover
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Just thought I'd remind myself of what I've gained from being in Japan for 12 days...
The people: Japanese people are very polite and cultured people. Service in shops and restaurants is top notched. They love their bowing. English is not very widely spoken and if they do speak english its gonna be American English. Some Japanese music is not bad actually... but their band names can be dubious. Japanese women are very well groomed and all women wear make up on when their out of the house. Japanese men pluck their eyebrows.. sometimes they do end up looking quite lady-like. Hair coloring is a comon thing in Japan. They love their hair collors. Some Japanese schools actually do have uniforms identical to what the girls in Salormoon wear! They love their gadgets. Akihabara has gadgets you'll never find elsewhere! Vending machines are as common as rubish bins in central London.. maybe more common! outside tokyo, it's easier to find a car dealership than convenient store! Never buy their bottled ice tea... you never know what you're gonna get! Jap city cars are funky and errmm... square and boxy. Most cars in Japan have some sort of modification done on it regardless of what type of car it is, be it a hatch back or an MPV... most common upgrade is the obligutory exhaust muffler. Almost all cars, including lorrys have GPS sat-nav. Japanese chopstick is shorter than the Chinese chopstick. Western people might not be used to the Japanese style toilets. You pay the bus fare when you get off the bus. Japanese Kanji alphabet is the same as the chinese alphabet but pronounced differently. The japanese have 3 commonly used alphabets. Korean people look very similar to Japanese people. Counting in Japanese, Korean and Chinese is similar but not the same...
That's all that i can think of right now. I'm posting some cool and weired pics that i found unique to Japan...
Sayonara
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| Sunday, 19-Sep-2004 00:00 |
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Weekend thoughts
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It's actually 2 am right now. Just downloaded an old song i lost so i'm kinda listening to it over and over again before i go to bed... hehehe.. Meanwhile I thought I'd write something. was about to post a few more pics but i think it's too late in the night for that. Would like to talk about taekwondo a lil tonight. Been training for the first time today. been helping out in the classes mostly since getting back from Japan and Leeds. Discovered my co-ordination isn't very good anymore  not been training enuf lately. We train outdoors here at the school and the air here in Malaysia is very humid, about 94% humidity during the day (today accordng to Yahoo Weather) which makes it very hard to breathe when you're starving for air and also makes you sweat bucket loads by doing the simplest of moves. Supposed to train twice on Saturday but couldn't make the evening class. I think 1 day a week training is not enuf. Eventhough i sat at the back of the class and didn't do much at the Leeds classes, the frequency of the classes did help me improve my flexibility. Flexibility isn't at its best at the mo and don't start with stamina. WTF taekwondo is very aerobic as well... Gotta work on that. Kays, the song is getting on my nerves now. going to bed. Good morning to a new week!!
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| Wednesday, 15-Sep-2004 00:00 |
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Finished un packing
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Frantically trying to unload the car after it came late
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Working till late night preping the car
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Technical scrutineering
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As the title suggests, I've officailly finished unpacking... it's more of a self declaration similar to when America declared the war in Iraq over a few months ago.. hehehe.. Basically I've found places to pu all my stuff from England... might some fine tuning but it'll do for now. I can now get on with other things I wanted to do. First of all is the article for Siswa Petronas... I will start on that tomorrow...
Did tonnes of email replying today as well!! Felt proud with myself for getting myself round to do that. I'm very bad with emails I hafta admit. Hope this fotopage manages to compensate.
Read in the newspaper today about the cheap flight deals MAS is offering durin the MATTA fair. Flights to the UK and NY from just RM 1628, Japan & Korea for RM 948 & RM 898 and Beijing for RM 838!! just when I ran outa cash.... Oh well... I am toying with the idea of going back to Leeds and taking a month or two working there before Petronas offers me a job. But i think it might be better if i find a temp job here first as my grand parents are organising a huge family get together this Hari Raya... Raya is about a month and a half away... I shouldn't really miss that...
I have 2 things I wanna do tomorrow... 1: Start writing the article and 2: Get some exercise and some stratching done - my flexibility is weening... For that, i need an early night!! So i'll leave it here for now. Some ppl wanted to see the event pics of the J-SAE event and pics of the Leeds car.. I must oblige so here are some pics!! Nite2!!
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| Monday, 13-Sep-2004 00:00 |
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It's a new week... its monday again...
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I don't know why but my weekends seem to be very 'action packed' lately. I think its probably because i lay and rot for most of the week... So it's a new begining to a fresh new week.
Looking back on the people I've met this past week, since i got back from Japan. Met most of my college friends in Seremban yesterday when i went to a BBQ of a friends. Bumped into a neighbour the other day as well. He was like 10 when we used to play football in the playground. I was 15/16 then. Every year when i come home from Leeds i see him grow. At one point he was huge (side ways) but now he's 17 and looking like a young man. Lost a couple of Kgs along the way too..
aahh... just makes me feel old...
Ran into a dorm mate of mine during my upper secondary years as well over the weekend. He's now hapily married to his love since the age of 16... Aww.. i feel so happy for them. Great to catch up with them... Seems I'm way behind in the marriage game.. oh well.. when it happens, it happens...
I feel that i should start writing an article to the Petronas student newsletter about my recent trip to Japan. I'd like to share my experience and hope that my experience can aspire others to get involved in Student SAE racing events an hopefully do better than me!! I did do loads so it'll take a lot of self discipline to start and keep on writing till i finish the article. Once it's done I shall try to post it some where on the net and link it to this fotopage.
Taekwondo's going well i guess. My instructor wants me to go for an instructors course sometime next month so that I can start a class of my own. I reckon I might just start taekwondo lessons at where ever i'll be posted... But that's a long way to go. Neeways... Starting to get sleepy now. I'll post some more pics with this. This time for the guys I'll post more pics of Cars and Bikes as well. Have a good start to the week!!
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| Saturday, 11-Sep-2004 00:00 |
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More Pics...
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One of the many silly english-named Japanese bands...
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A temple in Tokyo.
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Tokyo tower
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Many things to do today so I thought I'd Just post some more pics. Going to a charity Dinner tonight with parents for my mum's school. Not really looking forward to it but it's something to do tonight...
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| Friday, 10-Sep-2004 00:00 |
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Just Some pics
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At the train station at Narita Airport.
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Me with some of the Petronas Pre-Uni students
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Shinjuku
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Too sleepy to write anything at the mo. Been moving furniture around to accomodate my stuff that arrived from England on Monday.. Uploading some pics instead. Have a good weekend everyone...
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| Wednesday, 8-Sep-2004 00:00 |
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Tidying up
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Arrived safe and sound last night. wanted to put up some pics but it's too late.. will do it later. Came home to a huge wooden crate and 2 large boxes.. my stuff from england has arrived!! Finally... This also means i get my desktop to play around in rather than my dinky lil laptop. It also means I have shed loads of stuff to try to put away and sort out... hmm... house is going to be in a mess these few days i guess.
Went to sort out more Petronas stuff today and managed to lock myself in the emergency exits... Damn that was stupid.. (and embarrasing...) U see, if anyone's ever tried to use the elevators in KLCC towers will understand. you can never take one elevator to the floor you want. plus elevators are double storey so one elevator only does even numbered floors while others only do odd floors... i think i've sort of got the hang of it now. The deal with Petronas is I'm affraid... more waiting.... Although I did bump into model Nasha Aziz on the way to the car park... she is quite tall and I mus admit does look quite oldish now... dragging into her 30's...
Oh well... at least i bought loads of plastic car models i can ocupy myself with for a while... hmm.. And i gotta upload some pics soon... my fotopage is turning out to be a text page!! Sleepy... thoughts of Japan still linger....
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| Sunday, 5-Sep-2004 00:00 |
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Game Over
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That's right guys... game over. The car arrived late on the second day of the competition. This means we missed all of the static events - the cost report and technical presentation. That meant that we would have no chance to win anyway... the night the car arrived was frantic!! managed to get through scruteneering the following morning and everything was looking up until we went for the brakes test. Engine slowly lost power and then, would not start again.... spent that day and the rest of the competition trying to rectify the problem. It was an old problem that croped up again.. it was not to be... we ended up displaying our pretty car to the Jap unis. The University of Texas Antario won the competition in the end. Oh well... the rest of the week was awesome.
We visited the Honda collection muzium and saw cool past, present and future cars and motorbikes. Another part of the Motegi circuit was home to ASIMO, honda's walking robot. the show was amazing and ASIMO was very impressive! Bought an ASIMO T shirt as well...
the day after we got back from Motegi, we all went go carting with the guys from Kanagawa. Us lot against them lot. I must admit I'm getting quite addicted to carting now. Deffinately wanna get my own one day!! it was no doubt that we had the faster driver.. I on the other hand was not that fast but managed to not be the slowest from Leeds despite having a reputation as the granny driver! We had a western dinner after that and went errm.. Karaoke!! apparently its very different to karaoke elsewhere in the world. Was quite fun actually.. never thought i could errmm... sing?! hehehe.
The following day we were brought to the Nissan R&D centre in kanagawa. was very interestingand we were brought to the suspension testing fascility, the wind tunnel fascility and the cras testing fascility. we wished that they had real live testing happening when we were there but naa... we got to se some smashed up lexi (plural of lexus) and some nissans. managed to get a glimps of the new Skyline GT-R!! cool ey. it's still hasn't been launched in Japan yet.
went to Akihabara today - the electric city of Tokyo. Found many new cool funky stuff. Found out the PSX, the successor to the PS2 has been out here in Japan for ages!! will get one when i get a job as it plays DVDs as well and has a built in hard disk. Very cool!! had dinner with friends just now. Starting to like Japanese food now... hmmm....
Going home on Tuesday. One more day to hang out in Tokyo. Feeling really sleepy now. Sleep deprived these few days. Catch up when i get back in Malaysia!!
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| Wednesday, 1-Sep-2004 00:00 |
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Japan
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Things have not been going well here... I've basically got frustrated with the car and gone up to the Hotel which is about 30 mins walk away to get on the internet. The weather right now is really hot - very similar to malaysia. Japan is a strange place. Almost no one speaks english and they have 3 different alphabets!! Knowledge of Kanji or Chinese script would've helped...
So far i haven't spent so much on food yet. Supprisingly eating out here is a bit cheaper than in the UK, as long as you don't go to posh places. Jap chicks are over rated and the guys actually pluck their eyebrows!! man, that's scarry!!
Event ends tomorrow but the car only arrived last night so we've already missed the bulk of the events. Now the engine won't start. Things aren't look good. Went to the Honda Museum here and also went to see ASIMO, Honda's walking robot. That was cool. So far it has only been a little work and sightseeing... And there was a typhoon yesterday morning!! that was cool... Neeways, better be on my way. It'll take another 30 mins to walk back to the pits.
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