I've heard this news a few days ago, but I'm really glad this is happening: Peace Malaysia is organising a three-day international conference called Peace in Palestine, and the best thing is some Israelis have been allowed to join (5 only actually, but it's an improvement).

For your information, Malaysians are not allowed to travel to Israel. This is printed in black and white in our passports. I don't think that Israelis are allowed to travel to Malaysia too; I mean, using normal passports. It was worse more than 10 years ago. I saw my old passport one day and apart from the fact that Malaysian were barred from travelling to Israel, we couldn't travel to South Africa.

I guess this had something to do the fact that Malaysia was opposing Apartheid. I suppose they are trying to use a similar tactic now to force Israel to conform (to what the Malaysian government think is right). Don't really know the story from the Israelites point of view, but we always hear that Israel troops are occupying Palestine land.

Oh by the way, opposition party PAS (Parti Islam Se-Malaysia) pulled out of this conference because 5 Israelites (representatives from NGOs) were allowed to join. Huh? I dunno what they're thinking... These Israelites are people who sympathised with the Palestinians loh... PAS was not in the main committee and they are worried that the outcome of the conference will be favorable to the Israelites.

I've stumbled upon some websites about Hakka people （客家人--sounds like "hag4 ga2 ngin3" in Hakka）recently. Anyway, there were some rather interesting articles. I'll share some of them here:

The only state that the Hakka people ever possessed was the Lan Fang Republic. Kwangtung Hakkas briefly established a Hakka state in Western Kalimantan in 1777 and lasted until 1884. The first of ten presidents was Low Lan Pak, a Meixian Hakka. In 1884 the Dutch attacked the republic and after 4 years of battle the Hakkas were defeated and fled to Sumatra. From there they moved to Kuala Lumpur and Singapore where they contributed significantly to the establishment of the state of Singapore. The capital of this Lan Fang Republic is a place now known as Pontianak (vampire!).

Famous Hakka people include Sun Yat-Sen, Yap Ah Loy and Lee Kuan Yew.

The Hakka dialects are one of the oldest languages of China and constitute one of the seven major language groups of Chinese. The language is very similar to the official language spoken in the Tang dynasty (618-907 A.D.). The Hakka language is also referred to as Hak-fa, Hak-ka-wa, K'ak-wa, or Makkai-wa.

This website gave lots of info: http://www.asiawind.com/hakka

Well, I've bought a guitar... finally! Yippie! I bought an "unknown brand" guitar which is so-so for RM280. I think I was in a rush to get a guitar and that caused some judgement error... but that aside, gotta start learning fast!

My brother told me a great site to find Chinese/Cantonese mp3's! The web add is http://mp3.baidu.com/

Got a new haircut a few days ago. Haha... needs to be kept by hairspray to look nice. Not very used to it lar... Coz it makes my hair a bit dry... This all thanks to Wai Kit loh (not Soo Wai Kit lah... Wong Wai Kit). I asked him to 介绍 me a good hairdresser one... He says he's going to bring me to do a facial one of these days... Haha...

Gotta bulk up fast (in 3 months) if I'm gonna look any different to my Singaporean friends... haha... not that they are forcing me to do that, but I'm just trying to set a target. And besides, Jeffrey's mom commented that since my Singaporean counterparts are undergoing rigorous army training, shouldn't I be working out too? I guess I have to agree... long live the Kiasu spirit! haha...

Just finished sending application forms for the scholarships whose deadline is today. Must really thank Jeffrey for telling me about the deadline. I didn't expect it to be so soon and I was taking my own sweet time...

Anyway, I totally abhor the application process for NTU! Have to fill in so much! Then, I have to send my "O"-level results and an appraisal form to be filled by a referee via snail mail! Aiyoh... so 麻烦.....

I've been inspired by my stay in Jeffrey's house to learn guitar. I'm definitely going to buy one this weekend...

Still have more application forms to be filled...

I've found a cool forum site dedicated especially to Malaysian students worldwide. Found it when I was looking for information about scholarships. Their members include JPA scholars, ex-JPA scholars, ASEAN scholars, ex-ASEAN scholars, Form 5 Form 6 students, Masters students etc. So nice to hear about fellow Malaysians abroad.

The website is http://www.recom.org/ You can access it by clicking "Worldwide Malaysian Students Network" at my "Links" category...

Went to my secondary school today because I forgot to take the 1119 English certificate the last time when I went to get my SPM sijil (certificate).

By the time I reached the school, it was about 9.50am. Went to the pejabat (general office) and to my dismay all the kerani (secretaries) were out. But the sign outside the pejabat said that the operating hours are from 8.00am to 12.00pm. So where were they? Pergi minum teh I suppose... Malaysians always like that one. Super inefficient. Ay... I wonder if Wawasan 2020 can wait? Maybe 2040 sounds more feasible. Anyway, when the kerani did eventually come back, it took less than 2 minutes for me to settle everything.

I've been pondering over my results these few days... wonder if it is good enough for a scholarship? There are tens of scholarships in Singapore that I can apply for, but they all require me to be a Singapore citizen.... *sigh*....

Anyway, I've been looking up information about universities in Melbourne these few days... I have an uncle staying there and it might be 'convenient' for me to maybe stay over at his house... haha... but anyway, from what I've researched, the admission period has already ended long ago and some courses don't have a second intake. Plus, their scholarships are too meagre and unattractive + I don't come from a filthy rich family, so it's almost a NO to Australia.

So that leaves me with ASEAN (or Nanyang) Scholarships...

I have to say I'm in a total mess now... my mind is so messed up and confused by all the courses and stuff I can't concentrate!...

end of blogging today.....

Went to Singapore on Friday morning to get my 'A'-level results....
My secondary school teacher sat beside me... talked all the way from Batu Pahat to JB....

Getting more and more nervous as I approached TJ.....

They were showing slides in the hall when I reached coz I was late. It was the 4A's ppl... didn't see my name... so disappointed...

Anyway, in the end got my result slip:

Mathematics-----------A 'S' paper----------Merit
Physics-----------------A 'S' paper----------Merit
Chemistry--------------A
Further Mathematics---B

General Paper----------B3

So this leg of my life has officially ended... I'm off to the next chapter...

Went out with some friends yesterday to The Summit. We played 2 rounds of bowling, and I fared terribly! Dunno what's the problem...the balls just seem to slip off my fingers prematurely...I couldn't even score 100...

Anyway, I feel great because I haven't had much chances to go out with my friends here back in Batu Pahat... everyone working and stuff... I wanted to watch a movie but most of my friends were not very interested (no money ar... etc.), so I didn't get to watch loh...

Concerning movies, there are 2 movies that I've watched in the last 5 months or so that I totally adore... 'Sepet' and 'Turn Left, Turn Right'《向左走，向右走》. 'Sepet' is a Malaysian-made movie, and the word 'sepet' is used to describe 'eyes that are like slits'. I watched 'Sepet' in Singapore last year, and only now is it showing in Malaysia! I watched 'Turn Left, Turn Right' in my relative's house in Klang... it's really a very lovely story...

他们彼此深信,
是瞬间并发的热情让他们相遇,
这样的确定是美丽的,
但变换无常更为美丽.