まだ新年に入ってばかり、もうたくさん大変な事が起きました。
ちょっときついと思う。
大分は悔しくて悲しいですが、でも少なくても嬉しい事もある。
それは良いことなんだろう。。。
It's barely 3 weeks into the new year of 2008, yet it seemed like a year's worth of events had occurred. It had been such a turbulent 3 weeks, I don't even know where to start. It's like out of a sudden, I have been put through an endless series of tests to check where my (emotional) breaking point is. Nevertheless, amidst the days of frustration and tears, I also experienced warmth and hope.
#1 - New Year's Revelation
For most of our new years, my family and I would join some merry-makers, ushering the brand new year. If we aren't at Dad's company dinner in some hotel patio, we'd probably be joining the hotel guests in the coffee lounge where the band will sing while tourists and staff dance and make jolly fun. *cough*hangingoutwithparentsstyle*cough* Because spending the new years with my parents and sister is most important to me, I rarely hang out with my peers at clubs or hip parties.
However, this year Mum suggested a dinner in a bistro-restaurant at the sea, so we thought it'd be something novel. The restaurant sits on top of the sea, at the pier facing a beautiful sunset. It had chic decor and seemed like an exciting place to celebrate the new year.
Bistro-on-the-sea
However, when we set foot inside, it was evident that the management was haphazard and ill-prepared to deal with MANY customers. I mean, this is a new place, and all Pgites are people who love to try out new places, so this chic place is bound to be flooded on New Year's Eve. But there was only one manager running around trying to organize e-v-e-r-y-t-h-i-n-g and one poor cashier girl trying to get guests to pay up before entering the premises. The rest are foreign worker waiters who do not have the authority to manage the event. Our seating reservation was screwed for reasons I still do not know, and Mum was pretty infuriated that we didn't get the veranda table she initially booked. We finally got a table with not too bad a view, but it turned out to be some sort of a blessing, I think.
Dinner was buffet, which was only average in my opinion. One thing I was very unhappy about was they gave us huge, heavy ala-carte plates for buffet. I could barely hold the plate with one hand, how am I to get food from the buffet line? When I actually returned to my table with my food, my hand ached from holding the plate that weighed a tonne.
There wasn't much entertainment after dinner, we were basically sitting around waiting for midnight, while taking in the sea breeze. However, by 10pm, more patrons entered, filling up the whole place. The entire restaurant was changed into a club, and more youngsters came in in large groups for drinks. The family-atmosphere escalated to rowdiness, and Mum began to feel uneasy with the clubbers and noise. We weren't particularly enjoying sitting in the stench of alcohol and tobacco, so we left the place some 1.5 hours before midnight.
We ended up hanging at the pier a stone's throw away from the restaurant, enjoying the sea breeze and waiting for fireworks. It was quieter compared to the restaurant-turn-club. However, half an hour before midnight, a sudden cacophony of glass smashing and metal stuff being thrown from the direction of the club pierced thru the quiet. Alarmed, we turned to the direction of the club, and much to our shock, an entourage of very angry young people were forcing their way into the club, smashing all the beer bottles, glass tables, metal chairs and decoratives along their way. It was like watching a gangster movie come alive. More glass smashing sound was heard as the group entered the club, destroying whatever they had in sight in anger. A brief moment after, the entire group came running out and away from the club, supposedly before the cops come after them. The aftermath: broken glasses everywhere, tables and chairs were thrown over and sinking into the sea, Christmas trees were turned upside down, and other guests started leaving.
Thankfully we had left earlier, if not, we might had been caught in the fray. But I wondered what happened to the guests inside the club. In Malaysian style, the authorities came long after the angry group left - like what use is there, all culprits had gone scott-free.
This is one new year I get to see first-hand how inept young Malaysians are at anger management. And I am so disappointed to see such immaturity plaguing my society.
#2 - A Catty TaleRemember Siren? The stray kitten I was feeding when I was back home? Apparently, she had siblings. We ended up feeding, not one, but 5 kittens. Although perplexing, it was interesting watching the kittens interact with each other.
Siren, very adapted to life-being-fed-by-humans, was particularly nasty to her siblings, which were brought down from the rooftop where they had been living this whole time in hunger and isolation. Two of her siblings,
Noisy and
White-Paw, actually had been watching us feeding Siren all this while, and they were so hungry that they jumped down from the roof to get food from Siren's bowl. However, Siren had no intention to share her food, so we actually had a live show of cat-fight in the middle of the night. White-Paw is what you call "scaredy-cat". She's always crouching behind a brick and snaring at us. The two later additions,
Black1 and
Black2, were also very apprehensive towards us, and received the same nasty treatment from Siren. However, Siren soon loosen up to her birthmates and they were even seen to sleep together later.
Five tigers guarding our backyard
Sleeping together in the flower-pot, which doubles as their playground. Cuuuute, ain't it?
It's cute to have kittens in your backyard, but not particularly so when they stink like hell. God bless you in your stray days, kittens.
#3 - The Elusive PropertyJust when I thought we have found a good house for lease at a good location, the 'owner' dropped us the bomb that he is not the registered owner of the house and the house is not approved for lease. A torrent of other complications arose with regards to that house, and after several very stressful days of intense contemplation, I decided to drop the house and risk searching the already-inflating market for another.
What followed was another week of frenetic scanning of classifieds, calling some twenty-over property agents, viewings, negotiations and frustrating decision makings. It was one hell of a week I never want to go through again. I could not concentrate on preparing my seminar; every 3 mins I would be clicking on the refresh button on the classifieds website. To add salt to wound, I had to periodically attend some talks in an international conference held in campus and had also a deadline to meet with my supervisor over preparations for my seminar presentation. On top of all that, I had academic classes as well as my language and music classes. It was like, in several days, all horrible things piled on me, one after another. I began to feel financial constraints as most of the houses we viewed fell within the range of $1800-2500 rental per month. So much so that I actually entertained the thought of quitting PhD and get a real paying job.
Amidst the madness, the strings of fate toyed with us. You see, the case is like this:
My friend's friend had a friend, Z, who intended to rent out his property which is located in the area of our interest. So my friend introduced me to Z, and we made an arrangement to view his apartment. Both me and my housemate, J, took liking to Z's apartment, but since Z was asking for rental that slightly exceeded our budget, we tried to negotiate with him for a lower rent, of which he told us he would consider. At the same time, we kept searching for other apartments, before landing on the above-mentioned 'complicated' unit. So after ditching 'complicated' unit, I happened to browse the classifieds and saw an advertisement of apartment for rent that happens to be the block next Z's apartment. Naturally, I contacted the agent and arranged for viewing of this new unit. When we reached the location, the agent told us there was a typo error and the unit we will be viewing is located in the block where Z's apartment is. And voila! Upon reaching the unit, Z was standing at the door waiting for us. So it was HIS apartment placed on the ad! Talk about coincidence. All of us, Z, my housemate and I had a good laugh. We asked him to consider renting the place to us if we agree to give him the rental he initially proposed. However, this time round, he has increased his asking price to a higher amount in accordance with the market price, which again, slightly exceeds our budget. Again, we asked him to consider us.
As the situation was becoming more desperate, my housemate J asked his friends to see whether any acquaintance happened to be renting their property. J's friend told him that she has a friend whose friend is renting out his property in our area of interest. J excitedly told me the good news, but when I heard of the location, I warily suggested to J that he should ask for the block number, just in case it is Z's apartment again. So J asked his friend and his friend's friend about the exact location of the apartment. Guess what? It IS Z's apartment!
What are the odds??
My friend's friend's friend is Z.J's friend's friend's friend is Z.My agent's agent's client is Z.The mind map looked something like this:
In a light-hearted conversation, Z exclaimed,
"You guys are so desperate ah?!" Why did we end up seeing each other for three times, through different portals?! All of us had a good laugh, and agreed it must have been fate.
But fate or no fate, Z's still putting up his apartment for a price that was slightly beyond our budget. In the end, we managed to find another decent apartment around the vicinity for a lower rate. Although we didn't make it to Z's tenants, it was nice to have met such a warm guy and in such a series of fateful encounters.
#4 - 6 month PhD SeminarIn the midst of all the stress coming from property hunting, I was scheduled to give a seminar on my PhD project. It is part of the School's requirement that all PhD candidates have to give a 30-minute presentation to the public on the topic of their research project. And of all timings, they just had to arrange me to give the seminar at such a time when I had a greater crisis in hand. It was the most harrowing two weeks of preparation for me, because I could not concentrate on drafting out a good presentation while frantically hunting for a house at the same time. It stressed me more that I had a deadline to meet my supervisor to discuss the flow of the presentation, and do a mock run in front of her. I didn't want to give a sloppy job, but I was totally not in the state of mind to produce a good presentation. Somehow, my supervisor sensed my harried state of mind and allowed me time for preparation to the very last minute.
Surprisingly, (not to sound boastful), the presentation went very well, and I was given positive feedback about my presentation. Which took me by complete surprise because first, I didn't have much data to present, and second, I finished preparing only 1 day prior the seminar. What was even a more pleasant surprise was that the chairperson of the seminar had a deep (and positive) impression on my seminar, that he said very nice things about my presentation to my supervisor. いやだな。。。
Well, at least that went well, and I don't have to worry about giving a progress report anymore for the remaining of the semester. What a relief!
#5 - Jobs Change, People ChangeJust when I thought the unpleasant upheaval is all over and I could finally settle down in peace, three of the staff in my lab announced that they will be quitting their jobs by the end of the month. P had came to the end of her contract, SanSan and R decided to switch jobs for personal reasons. While P's departure was anticipated, the other two's announcement came as a shock, not only to me, but the whole lab. All the while we had been quite a closely knit lab, and losing the three of them is akin to losing some sunshine in the lab. SanSan has been such a warm and easygoing person, so everyone has pretty much became attached to her, and to have her leave would make us very lonely. R's departure came as a shock to me because I have been the one who worked closely with her on my project, and I had been learning a great deal from her experience. To have her leave would mean I would be steering the entire PhD project on my own. It is simply an intimidating thought to have to do it all alone.
However, I accepted their decisions and can only wished them well while I struggle to absorb as much knowledge from them as possible before they go for good. Nevertheless, their departure had brought my supervisor back to the frontline of research, which means I would have the chance to learn directly from my supervisor. Which is good for me, of course. So, there IS a silver lining behind every dark cloud ^^
Well, 2008 may not had a great start, but I'm looking forward to a busy and fulfilling year ahead. My one resolution (which I hope to uphold) is to build up patience, strength, compassion, and maturity to help me face life's adversities one at a time. Hopefully I remain this resolved in the 365 days to come!
～みはる～
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