3 more days....

3 more days from today to finish Mass Communication 1st year, 1st semester!
...that is fast...

Hell of a week it is!
Sleepless nights, messy table, packed schedules... yes...
although Mass Communication students dont have to face final exams for this major, we have lots and lots and lots of assignments to do. Further more, assignments are our marks to pass the units.

our generic formula is:

fail assignment = fail unit

so, we have to work twice as hard in assignments to make sure I pass the unit.
although much effort has been put into my assignments, my marks are still in unsatisfactory level *my own level of satisfaction*...

overall, the two MCI units are a pain in the ass. Lots of researches, lots of readings, lots of writings, lots of presentations, lots of reports... but lucky me, I'm done with 3 out of 6 units for MCI with an exemption.

The FTV unit was a challenge as well, with movie screenings every week and a journal for each film we watched. The storyboard was tough but I love drawing, so it was ok... the essay was tough but like I say, "read to understand to write better". This week, our 11 weeks journal is due on Fri, 2nd nov at 4pm. GAMBATEH!!!

Well...got to go back to my work. Got to finish them by Thursday night. Once the assignments are all over, we're off to PARTY!!!

The Children of Rumah Ampik Returns Home

hmm...the title sounds a tacky....
but, anyway...

'THE CHILDREN OF RUMAH AMPIK RETURNS HOME'
by Itik Kuek

SCENE 1 - CURTIN UNIVERSITY CAMPUS

"Home?"
"Yes. I miss home."
"Rumah Ampik?"
"Yes. I miss the tuak!!!"

SCENE 2 - ON THE ROAD

"How do we get there?"
"We have live GPS system in the car. No worries. We won't get lost."
"Alright. Let's hit the road."

It was a half an hour drive from Senadin to Jalan Miri-Bintulu. Three cars heading towards Rumah Ampik. As soon as they saw the sigh 'Rumah Ampik', they screamed for joy.

"We found it!!!"
"We're home!!!"

SCENE 3 - RUMAH AMPIK

"Apa khabar?"
"Baik."

Three girls; Catherine, Angeline and Karen, along with three guys; Daniel, Iqbal and Irwin reached the longhouse safely and were greeted by Tuai Rumah and the families there.
Everyone was happy to see everyone...hmm...YES! Happy to be home...


We brought photo frames of individual families and also our group photo with the Tuai Rumah from our last visit. There were food and drinks and of course, the TUAK!
Yes, it was tuak and beer again!!!

There were again, ngajat...hmm...actually, all of us were rusty with the steps but, who cares, just dance.

Photo presentation to the families. Photo taking sessions with the families and everyone in the longhouse.

And not forgetting the peak of the event...
*drums roll*

CATHERINE AND DANIEL'S SHOWDOWN

SCENE 4 - LEAVING THE LONGHOUSE

"Gawai datang lagi, ya!"
"Ya, kami akan datang lagi!"
"Jumpa lagi!"

Yes, that was our promise to them. Next year's Gawai, we'll be back! We left the longhouse and back to Senadin, with bottles of tuak...yup...you got me right, TUAKs!!!



HOPE TO SEE THEM AGAIN SOON!!!

Origami

how small is this origami?

This little origami bird is one of the smallest I've done so far. But, I'm still attempting tries to do even smaller origami bird...

anyone up to this challenge???

The day I came back to Miri after 'week free'

hmm...'week free'? is it really 'week free'? hmm... i wonder...
anyway, it was partially a 'week free' for me. i was back home. i had kuching food. i meet my kuching friends. i drove the Picanto................

Anyway, 'week free' is over and now it's back to Miri! My flight was on Saturday, 20th October at 12.55pm. Woke up early that morning; followed mum and dad for breakfast and sent dad to the shop. Well, he didn't say anything to me before I drove off, just a short 'good bye and take care of yourself there'. I think he is used to me coming back and leaving somewhere. I had been doing that for the last 3 years.

Went home to pack and watched some TV - cooking shows on Astro - and later mum and I drove to the airport, checked in with a luggage and went to 7th mile for lunch. Yes! Had the 3 layer teh-c-peng on the day I arrived in Kuching and the day I left Kuching... After lunch was airport. I hugged mum and walked into the departure hall only to find out that I was the only one left to board the plane! I walked so fast to the plane and found a sit in the aisle. And I had an hour of shut eyes all the way to Miri...

Damn the flight was horrible! The plane was rather new. The pilot was rather new too, I guess. The whole way was bumpy and shaky and dizzy. I was about to throw up but I held back until the plane landed. Sigh! So, waited for my luggage and met Catherine who came to pick me up. I was carrying 3 bags; 1 laptop bag, 1 personal stuffs' bag and 1 food bag.

Delivery time!
Went for Kuching Food Delivery in Senadin. Went to Curtin Villa to deliver sio bee to Samson and Jasmine. The others were not around so delivered Catherine's laksa, ngo hiam, sio bee and sio pau to her house while lepak'ing there for a while. Later in the evening, we delivered to Valerian and Angeline came by to get her ngo hiam. Joel came by to hostel to pick up his sio pau and ngo hiam. Well, that was the delivery I had to do!

Out of the blue, after so many years in KL, I suddenly felt so so so so home sick that night. So, I made myself busy with cleanings, chattings, assignments to make myself happy...

Then I fell sick that night - sore throat, flu, feverish............
That was my day...

Osteoarthritis...at this age???

Sigh sigh~
The last thing I wanted to do in Kuching is to see a doctor. Lucky for me, the doctor was not around when I touched down in Kuching so I waited until Monday for my visit. I went to the clinic with my mum regarding my left arm which was hurting since the night in the longhouse...anyway... a week ago...

I have no idea what I did that had my left arm in pain and swelling. It started on Saturday night in the longhouse and went on until Monday where I noticed that it swells on my palm. I thought it was just muscle pain - like what I usually have - but it turned out to be on and on and on. The pain was like a switch; on and off whenever it fells like it. So, I put some balm on it and 'balut' my hand with bandages to keep it warm.

The next day, I went to see a doctor in Miri who told me it was just the tendon swelling due to either 1)carrying heavy objects, 2)sprained my arm, 3)hit my arm on something hard... but... I didn't recall anything on the above mentioned... She prescribed me with medicine and pain killers to ease the pain.

And again...the pain went on and off the next couple of days and I finally decided to consult the doctor here in Kuching, so I went with my mum and to my surprised, the doctor said I have 'Osteoarthritis'!!! OMG!!! She said I might have overused my hand unconsciously which had finally made my hand to give up on me - there was no liquid flowing in my left arm which causes pain and swelling - so there goes another shocking medical news for me ~ sigh sigh ~

Well, I had a short lecture from my mum and from today onwards, I ought to take good care of my hand, especially the left arm ~ even until today, after taking medication, the pain is still there whenever I overused the left arm...

I pray that it'll heal soon and although I know that this pain is going to go on until I'm old, but, for now, I need my arm to work perfectly all the time!!! God Help Me!!!

Osteoarthritis???

Back in Kuching!

Finally, I'm back in Kuching!
Flew back from Miri on the 13th October 2007 with the 2.25pm flight from Air Asia. Natasha was flying back with me in the same flight as well. Hadn't slept the whole night through so I was totally drained out; eyes were like panda and my left arm was still sore even after a week already. Had two bags packed, one front and another back, trying to balance myself when walking into the departure hall.

Well, it's the first time the flight was early. I mean, Air Asia is never early. It's either on time or delay! YEA! Something has changed after 3 years of delay flights from KL. Boarded the plane at 1.45pm and flew at 2.10pm and reached Kuching at 3.10pm.

First stop, 7th Mile 3 layer teh-c-peng and pork leg rice! Yum Yum....
It was Saturday so had to go for church at 6pm. Slept about half an hour before mass and tiredly went to church; rosary prayer and later mass.

Dinner was really really light. Had cha kueh in 3rd Mile while my brother was having RM4 kueh chap~! After sending Aaron home, I followed mum and dad to Petra Jaya for raya visiting in my mum's fren's house~belacan beehoon was the best choice there...and I had and will have it every year during raya open house...

Had a long chat there, and after food, my eyes were closing bit by bit. I was so tired, body was aching all over and my arm was killing me. Went home at about 10pm and went for a quick shower before sinking to my bed and slept.......................

Woke up the next day like after 12 hours of sleep and went straight out with my fren, Tiffany for lunch... hmm... it's only a day here in Kuching but the next couple of days are work, work and work....

Peace!

Angeline's Bday!

10th October 2007; Wednesday

Angeline Mei Mei's aka Angeline ak Ambik's 20th birthday!

birthday girl!

Catherine and I brought Angeline to Canada Hill just minutes before midnight to do a simple birthday celebration for our little sister with two other friends. We had a bottle of non-alcoholic sparkling juice and 4 pieces of cakes.



We were hoping to see stars that night but too bad, the skies weren't clear enough to see. So, we chill out for a while, having some cakes and juice before heading back to do more editings...

....all smudge with cake....

...angeline taking her drink...haha...had to drink this way coz we didn't have any cups around...

syok sendiri! sigh sigh

from left to right~
karen (big sister), angeline (little sister), catherine (middle sister)
*the Ambik sisters*

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, GIRL!!!

A weekend in the Longhouse (Day 2)

*alarm rang*

Time was 7.30am the next day. I woke up with a soar left arm. I didn't sleep well the night before because my arm was aching and I couldn't move it at all. So, I woke up and took a cold, morning shower and get myself freshen up for the activities in store for us.

Breakfast was in my foster home where we had curry puffs, donuts and fried bee hoon, all for us and there were so much food there! We ate up and got ready...

...the 'just woke up' face...

Off we go!
Tuai Rumah brought us into his 'kebun' which was a very, very, very long walk under the sun. The walk was rough coz we had to walk on rocky grounds and my leg was aching but it was fun after all. The fun part of walking to the 'kebun' is that we can eat the things there, fresh from the ground. We had 'tebu'; lots of them, ubi kayu; huge ones, bananas; huge ones as well, berries from the bushes, wild mango from the trees........ it's just food, food and food all the way.

the 'kebun' and first stop...the TEBU

Angeline with her tebu...refreshing

Catherine's first 'tebu'

Tuai Rumah showed us how to tap rubber from the rubber tree and Catherine tried her skills on one of the trees there...

We went over to a fish pond where there were small, small fish in there. We watched as Tuai Rumah fed the fish...hmm...yah, I'm right. We actually stood at the edge of the pond and watched.

the fishing pond... I thought there were big fish but its just baby fishes inside it

We managed to bring some wild mangoes along our way back too...

its the fire where we burn our ubi kayu in it...yummy....

waiting for our ubi kayu....we want one...

hahaha...look at the ubi kayu...yum yum

our huge ubi kayu

It was a tiring, hot and tiring again... walk both in and out of the 'kebun'. But, a kid who followed us there didn't even wear slippers! How could he walk on the rocks without slippers???!!! I seriously respect this kid. Even for us who have shoes were already hard to walk, what more to say about this little boy....sigh sigh...

*chop, chop, chop* and again... we are back to landscaping!
This time, there were 2 grass cutters and a few parangs for us to chop chop the grasses along the road. We went and chop chop for about half an hour before they called us in to get refresh for lunch. It's food again! How nice was that....

Iqbal with the grass chopper, mowing the grass along the road

Well, we decided to do a performance to the people there before we leave, so, we went for our practice and later had our lunch and our practice again...

Catherine's move...traditional or modern dance???

the guys practicing their 'Dikir Barat' performance

*vroom*
OH NO!!! The bus arrived earlier than we expected and we haven't even chop the trees yet... We quickly finalized our performance and got around the center of the longhouse for the 'chopping tree' ceremony. Tuai Rumah started the ceremony first with a dance around the tree and later took out the parang and chopped the food hanging on the tree and also the tree....hmm....is that how I am supposed to explain.....hmm....

Irwin's moves

Angeline's moves

my moves

Catherine's moves

Soon after he was done performing, one by one of us went up and did our dance and chopped something from the tree.

It was fun looking at everyone of us dance with our own moves... sometimes, the communities there were laughing at us, it was funny.... we were laughing at ourselves too. Finally, the tree was all chopped off. I think everyone had fun chopping the trees.... GOOD JOB GUYS!!!

So, as I mentioned just now, we had our performance before we left. The girls performed a 30 seconds of 'Puteri Santubong' dance while the guys did 'Dikir Barat'. After our performance, we packed our bags and said goodbye to our foster families and the people there.

the guys' 'Dikir Barat' performance

our small gift to Tuai Rumah

The people of Rumah Ampik were very warm to have us there with them for the weekends and as for me, I learn a lot throughout these two days; planting, drinking, dancing, eating, dressing up in traditional costumes.....

*bus engine rumbles*
We boarded the bus and bid farewell to the people there. It was an experience and I would love to go back there again...


Cheers,
Kay.