Ping pong/mamak food on Wed/blogging in Malay?

*caution -- long post ahead

I feel like a ping pong today.

Home -- Caulfield -- Clayton -- Caulfield -- Home

Had to drop by Caulfield on my way back to (try to) get an overnight loan copy of something I needed. Bah it still wasn't available (been waiting all day for it) meaning I had to waste extra time waiting for train. Underestimation when I say today's been WINDY.

Blown here blown there its a wonder my books haven't been blown away..

Now there's 2 assessments due tomorrow, plus a test -- thats the unfortunate part. Fortunate thing is - I just replenished my Nescafe supply. Contrary to belief, I am gettting sick of not having much sleep.

K.L. knows how busy I've been (and still am) lately and has nicely offered to come cook on Thursday. We're still deciding - steamboat or just plain dinner (wth curry?). My class ends late so I'll prob be doing the "eating" part that day =P

Talking about curries, Wednesday's Merdeka Day. Life goes on over here. Uni's still on, shops still open and no "thousand flags on one car shows" on the road. BUT, and this's a BIG BUT - we're having something on in campus!

Mamak food.

They're getting Bismi (a mamak in Melbourne) to cater Malaysian food (buffet) on Wed night. Not too sure whats on the menu but shd have roti, murtabak, briyani, teh tarik etc. Wait till you hear bout how much it costs -- AUD 15 0_O

Amazing really, the price I mean. Convert it and think of how many rotis one could possibly buy back home?!

Actually, forget about converting it. I'm still going.

Also considering this - Merdeka Blogger Project (whoops it looks like the site got hacked?) - to blog in my chosen language on Merdeka Day. Most have been talking about blogging in Malay. Still thinking bout it cos its really been ages since I've written anything in Malay. The only times in the past few years where I've spoken Malay's when:

• at mamak -- "Boss, teh ais satu!"
• to the taxi driver -- "Bang, ada pergi XOXO" to which they typically reply "takde/jam lah"
• at government offices -- "terima kasih"
• er.. I don't remember anymore..

So this's whats happened to 12 years of acquired skills in Malay. I can remember how people liked to start off speeches with "Selamat petang Tan Sri XOXO, Datuk Dr XOXO, Datuk XOXO, Datin-Datin, Tuan-tuan dan Puan-puan sekalian....." which exemplifies Malaysians' "attachment" and importance placed onto honorific titles. Hopefully I can regain some usage of Malay language by Wednesday enough to blog about whether they had teh halia or whatnot at dinner..

Still on language - realised my Chinese writing skills have diminished somewhat. Went for a talk at the Chinese Methodist church last weekend where we had a visiting professor from Taiwan. He gave a talk on "The Journey to the West" (西游记) and associating that with the concept of sin in Christianity (ingenious and very original ideas!!). A very good speaker indeed. Jotted some notes and had to replace some words with "XOXO" when I was unclear of the exact strokes. Will blog about that session if I have time next week (very much in doubt though)

Also a thought's been stuck in my head. Someone mentioned something 2 days ago and I've been doing abit of thinking. It was mentioned to me - "perhaps you feel obligated to be nice/friendly to XXXX just because you know them". That was good insight and I realised thats kinda true. There's perhaps no substitution for growing apart and having different perceptions of how life is.

blog more later.. back to work.