the first blog of 05!!!

welcome to my new home!! i thought i'd never move to blogger.com, but then i decided i wanted to own a domain, and to be honest, the geocities.com/dave_david86 was so cumbersome.. plus i wanted to make my blog as cool as possible, and i started to realise my knowledge in html was a bit limited.. plus i dint have time to learn more abt websites.. knowing that u can easily do colours with blogger.com, i've decided to move here.. it should be even better over the next few weeks.. i'll still maintain my geocities website, for photos or archival purposes..

well, it's been ages since i blogged.. intentionally of coz.. i wanted to take a break from blogging and make the heart fonder, and perhaps improve the quality of my blogging which i feel has been a bit on the decline.. it's like John Grisham or Celine Dion.. a great artiste needs a break to get new ideas.. :)

obviously travelling does give u new ideas.. or should i say ideas, coz going back to Malaysia, is not really new.. in fact the more accurate word would be "changed" rather than completely new i guess.. which is to be expected considering i hadn't been in Malaysia for 340 days - 6 January 2004 to 10 January 2005.. and for the first time in my life, i felt like i was old and stuck in my ways.. which is prob a sign that i'm no longer a teenager.. btw realising that i turn 19 on April 23 is prob the most surreal fact in my life.. the fact is 19 is just one step closer to 20 than 18.. visiting my old school just highlights the fact that i've become a relic of the past, not really like Babylon, rather like Sir Richard Hadlee.. you're still around but u're no longer part of the game which u were once revered for and familiar with.. can u imagine it, my friend's sister is now in Form 3, half the ppl who were ur juniors just 3 years ago are not there anymore - studying in college or overseas, prob - and the other half are now the seniors and running the school.. prob never visit my school again coz the familiarity is there.. i just don't recognise anyone there anymore.. apart from teachers.. but it's a 100 to 1 ratio mate..

sure Malaysia may have changed a lot in 340 days.. Sri Hartamas/Mont Kiara could be a different area from Damansara, like Lower Hutt and Upper Hutt.. there's a Hartamas Shopping Centre to open soon for crying out loud!
it used to be just Heights, Kim, Utama which shared names with Damansara.. now there's Mutiara, Perdana, Sunway.. areas which only started to exist 2 years ago!! the point is, that it was good to come back home to where u started.. and it was good timing too.. perhaps i was losing it a bit personally.. but it was a good break.. and loads of shopping.. and football.. yes in that region u're literally inundated with football day and night.. for those who can afford it, u can get cable TV and watch English football almost 24 hours a day.. and now they even cover the FA Cup, which they previously dint when i still lived there 365 days a year.. for those who may not be able to, there are heaps of mag titles covering the world's favourite game.. mags from England become Malaysian editions here and they're all pretty good.. and of coz that time Singapore won the Tiger Cup which in my old and stuck-in-the-past ways i'd say yes, and Prince Charles has married Camillia.. which has happened now..

of coz it's a different lifestyle compared to here.. in quiet Dunedin, and in fact New Zealand, the nights are quiet.. here well, the nights don't have to be quiet.. u could go to the mall if u want.. as it turned out, the idea of walking around aimlessly in a mall the size of the entire George Street mall from Knox church, started to fade after the first time.. i guess it's not really my-type-of-thing-to-do unless there really is something to get.. it was quite evident after i came back from Singapore and did Orchard Road and bought a really cool camera from SIm Lim Mall - 600 bucks, 5.0 megapixel, and 2.5 inch LCD screen - despite the rapid advances of Malaysian malls over the past 5 years, i still like Orchard Road v much, although clothes in Malaysia are still much cheaper.. then again fairly even stevens there with our blood brothers.. :)

speaking of blood brothers, for the first time in my life, i actually felt connected, or rather interested in my dad's family - as in his uncles and aunts who all live in Singapore and who we are fairly close with - however, i prob was still young to appreciate when we or they last visited.. in fact hadn't gone down to Singapore since October 02 until this yr.. ended up visiting the extended family - my dad's grandfather's sisters and their children, children-in-law.. and for the first time was actually able to talk to them.. and yes i was able to talk a bit of Mandarin to the elderly.. kinda like.. remember Marge Simpson wanting to teach piano even though she barely knew how to play..I only have to be ahead of the class by one lesson.. felt really pleased seeing my relatives after so long.. a trip to the past i should say.. plus the fact that i talked quite a bit with my father's sister - my aunt - who was in the Philippines when i last came back in 03-04.. this was one heck of a trip to the past..

the weirdest thing was prob seeing people from Dunners in Singapore, which is literally almost ur backyard.. if Tim and Sean had actually contacted me while they were in KL - if they were - it would have been weirder.. right on my door.. anyway i stayed with Mel for two nights, and stayed with Peter in other side of Singapore for other two nights - that's how i ended up seeing all my relatives - saw Su Yin in Border's, Auntie Dorothy's family, Kevin, Brent(!) and Lydia(!!)..

Singapore was obviously a highlight.. coz well i love Singapore.. i'm quite an organized person which is why Singapore does appeal.. but i still enjoy Kuala Lumpur and Damansara Heights, coz it'll always be a part of who i am even though it may not be ever present in my life as it used to be.. in fact it was the first visit to Malaysia since we "officially" moved to Dunedin.. kinda like Kevin Pietersen returning to his home South Africa to play for England.. or Joe Rokocoko, an All Black returning to Fiji for a holiday.. i still felt like a Malaysian and proud to be one, but on the other hand, i was now also strongly tied to New Zealand..

so what else to say abt my exciting tour to the land 10 hours west of NZ? i think my Mandarin has improved slightly thanks to forcing myself to speak only Chinese to grandparents, as has my Hokkien.. that's the thing i hate abt dialects, esp the Chinese ones.. Mandarin is actually much different from Hokkien - and Cantonese for that matter - pronounciation wise.. so it's hard to figure which is which.. later i realised that it's the same word but pronounced differently.. for example, I is woh in Mandarin, and looh in Hokkien.. but they're the same word, just change the wo/loo..

in the end, it was sad to leave Malaysia.. it turned out to be a very enjoyable 4 weeks.. the only negative i guess was ending the tour with a gastro-intestinal virus - i was actually still sick on-flight.. don't really know what happened there and dun want to tell ppl i was eating dinner the night b4 that i was sick after that.. maybe when i return.. and the weather which being close to Chinese New Year, was not surprisingly dry and hot.. did thunder and lightning as i know it in the last week though.. but otherwise it was actually pretty hot.. why am i complaining when up ahead there's gonna be colder days in Dunners?? the heat was actually p good.. and finally, i guess dint really manage to see my school friends, although that was kinda expected coz with most of them studying in the UK, their holidays were much shorter.. with that in mind, i was quite lazy to organize things as i usually do.. but that's why u have reunions.. :)

a long first blog as i thought, after so long.. this will be a really cool blogspot once i get it running!! it's actually part of a wholesale of changes for 2005.. i've also got a new email add at hotmail which btw is davedavid86@hotmail.com, that is also my new messenger address.. no more xtra coz now we've got broadband at our place so really no point paying 29.95 for my xtramail when i hardly use my mail.. originally was thinking of upgrading to Geocities Pro! coz it was cheaper than xtramail, and came with email, more memory space for my blog.. but then a student shouldn't really be spending each month on that sort of thing..