New days

Life goes on, and I think I'll be leaving blogger for quite some time. Now, I'm doing my Cambridge A-level Science in RIT (Riam Institute Technology). We all call the college  'riamtec'.

I was so edgy yet psyched when I first got into the college vicinity. It's going to be a total difference to my chung hua secondary school time, I guessed. Everyone's unfamiliar to me, well, I had seen some of the faces before (perhaps people who had the same tuition classes with me) but I still felt so brand-new.

There were orientation days on the first day and the second day. And, I was so bored on the first day. All the more the huge ceiling fan in the hall wasn't working and people sweltered in the hot stifling air. What's more, everybody was packed so closely together. We fanned ourselves, apparently not attending to what the person on stage was talking.

I got to know a very talkative boy on my left, who's from Limbang, and a Pakistan whizz-kid, who had graduated when she's 15 years old. She said it's very common in Brunei (She's from Brunei). She turned up in college in the age of 16. I was flabbergasted and went like, "Gosh, I'm 19!", and she giggled like a freak.

The talkative boy's name was Anthony, while the one and only Pakistan girl in riamtec was Nida. She sounded it like  奶大. Hey, I'm not perverted, okay, although I called my cat 'Nai Nai'. It's not the point anyway. Whatever.

Anthony was sticking to me during the break. I went to explore the compound of the college. I got to know the air-conditioned canteen with transparent glass wall behind the main block. It was thronging with crowds of students. I didn't want to elbow my way along the congested population, so I decided to get back to the hall.

After the break, we went to the hot kiln (hall) again. Guess what’s more 'surprising'? It's our executive chairman, Dato' Dr Fong gave his speech on stage! I didn't know why the time's dragging its heels so slowly, and obviously everyone's thinking his talk was akin to a lullaby, as how Nida pronounced on. "I couldn't stand it anymore," said Anthony, before he took out his i-pad and ignore the whole world with his Chinese novel and games.

Then, his microphone was cracking to life. Oh, that's it. His microphone wasn't on for the whole session! He must have pissed the committee members off because his voice might be a den to them. They purposely turned off the microphone.

After that, we got on stage for a snap. And the committee member told us to mouth the word 'money'. So, everyone's looking at the focal lens of the camera and went, "Moneeeyyyyy". The next day, our snapshot went viral through the daily newspaper, in which everyone looks like a freak.

After the photo-taking session, we were divided into several groups. I was in group 9 with two team leaders, Vivian and Ah long. Vivian had a plump body and a big voice box. She spoke as if she's shouting. Ah Long was very serious. We then sat cross-legged in a circle and were instructed to know the name of each other. They elaborated that it'd gonna be useful in the next game. A surprise came: the rain was pouring down in buckets. Everybody's shouting out their names for their introduction. At the end of the day, we were so annoyed that we stood closer to each other to know their names, as time's running out. 

And guess what’s even more 'surprising'? They wanted us to rattle off every team member's name! We were beating the sound of the rain to complete the game. After that, we went to play some games, such as passing the rubber band by using straw on our lips, station games, and more.

Lastly, we're knocked out and we were all homeward bound. When I returned home, I was speared from the realisation that I didn't know the location of my A-level class! My voice hung in the air, "Noooo..."

She's cute

She's cute, her name's Miu Miu. 

Miu miu is my pet, I mean, our pet. My family and I always loved to indulge Miu Miu's whim, even though she's quite stuck-up and overbearing sometimes. We didn't feel a jot of reluctance to be of her service, feeding her with cat foods as well as pleasing her. As she had swept us off our feet, we felt highly honoured to be her steadfast servants. On the top of that, miu miu got her charm over us when she did cuddle around our legs. It's furry and smooth, that's why we always stroke her fur. Nancy, my second younger sister, uttered that it's her booster! It's so true that we were all addicted to her.

However, her fur got hard on mum as she found it a hassle to sweep her locks of fur away from the floor everyday. But then, Mum didn't put any grievances, thinking that it's worth the doing. "No sweat," she said, after getting along with Miu Miu.

After waiting on Miu Miu for several years, we had got the knack of feeding her foods. We had to direct her to the place where her foods laid. It's very easy to know if she's hungry by listening to her meow. If it's a drawl, then she should be famished. After that, the plastic container would be opened before the food was popped on the back of its lid.

She'd start eating but sometimes she'd get fiddle-minded and look at you that she got no appetite. To see to such a problem, mum bought her appetizers that pandered to her likes. She once loved salty seaweeds, then Da Fa fish piece, and now, she preferred her favourite anchovies. We needed to topped them on her cat foods. Yet, last time she's still headstrong not to eat her foods, we'd need to talk polished sweet-nothings to her. In short, she was treated even better than any of the dowager empresses during the historical times. She required company during her meals, otherwise she'd wheel around and left after just a bite. After waiting her to eat her fill, we turned out to be her waitstaff, retrieving her food back to the container.

You'd think that they were complicated procedures but neither did we slip off any gripes, nor we did them in a slipshod manner. Deep from the bottom of our hearts we took miu miu as one of our family members and she got her rights and prerogatives as a household too. A sound that was akin to a chugging engine would be vibrating from her body, indicating her bliss. We didn't know it back then but we came to our sense when mum told us it's a telltale sign of her happiness.

She had no qualms about turning up when mum called her out. When she did, she'd meow at mum as though she's chit-chatting with her. She liked mum's huggies very much. She'd meow a few times as if telling mum to be ready, and she leapt into mum's open arms. Mum told her church fellows about miu miu's craving for hugs but they disbelieved her stories. My elder sis, joanna, shared it with her friends too and they were all awestruck. Besides, when she's seriously lack of love, she'd bite mum's face gently. I got hold of the evidence - I took some candid snapshots whenever she did them. She sought the attention from mum to give her hugs or foods by popping over her paperwork, mostly when mum's knee-deep in her accounting job in the morning. She approached and pinned her claws on mum's top. Mum couldn't help to hold her in her arms.

Sometimes, she enjoyed mum's hug too much that she didn't want to be put down! It resorted mum to bait her down by tricking her with anchovies. Otherwise, she'd keep clinging herself on mum and mum couldn't get on her jobs. What's more, I even pictured this - Mum's holding miu miu in her arms while talking with her friends whose arms were also dominated by their own babies. Those babies snuggled up to their mothers' shoulders and looking at miu miu who did the same with appraising eyes.

Miu miu got a clout over us and friends we got along. I remembered joanna told us that her friends who once frowned upon cats were changed after she filled them in about miu miu's amusing behaviours.