winning isn't everything

(missing you)


It's a sad thing that Batai debate english team didn't even make it to the finals this time. Well, there's still next time. Lucky thing the perbahasan team did go into the finals and guess what....WE WON!!!! The perbincangan was "Ibu bapa yang menyebabkan anak-anak terjebak dalam kancah penagihan dadah" and we were the opposition.



All 3 of us (me,daryl,keefe) had a strategy which was to POI or in this case 'izin laluan' the balau speakers to the max. We tried to tackle Wai Meng through POIs since he was like the backbone of the team and he only took a few and he just said "sila duduk" to the rest of the POIs. We really thought that Balau would win since they're speeches were full of peribahasa,pantuns etc. and ours as usual.....were filled with words you hear in everyday lives.



But we still won and congrats to Wai Meng for bein' best speaker. And today Pn Arbayah told us that we need to prepare for another perbahasan (again!) but this time it's actually for an audition for the school team.


Honest to goodness, I'm not too keen in joining the school perbahasan team this year what more with PMR comin' in October. Same as the other 2 boys. But we'll see how it goes....

CREDITS: daryl, keefe, hazwani hashim (thx for ur messages!), cik aznishah, 3 batai......


P/S to mum: howz life in US??missing you to the max rite now...

3 Batai debate/perbahasan teams rock!!!

3 Batai debate team rox!!! I wouldn't utter these words a few months ago but this week the 3 Batai debate/perbahasan teams really did rock! The English debate motion was "Attending tuition classes is a necessity to one's success" and we were on the oppo team. Our opponent was nonetheless our biggest threat, 3 Belian aka my old debate team.

It wasn't an easy argument but we won and Jo-Yi got best speaker(congrats!). But the real joke was the perbahasan team, actually. We went against 3 Belian...again! The topic was 'Belajar dalam kumpulan adalah lebih baik daripada belajar bersendirian' .(pembangkang) And our team consisted of me, Daryl and Keefe. We prepared for the 'old style' debate when it was actually ala parliment and the belianians were fully prepared.

Man, were we crapping at that time! The propo had all the fancy names and facts (Dr Fadzila Kamsah, Albert Einstein etc.) and WE? All we had was a few vague points and a 'survey' by Murdoch Uni. But at the end of day, our class......WON!!! We knew how to 'putar belit' according to Pn. Nordian. 'cause debate wasn't all 'bout having facts but also manipulating the opponents as well as your debating style which was what we did.

It was really cute to hear Daryl and Keefe spoke in BM. In fact it was funny to hear ALL of us to berbahas dalam BM when we always debated in English especially Keefe's phrase of : 'Sebelum saya melabuhkan punggung......" set the crowd to uproar laughters. And the opponent team also prepared 'pantuns' for their speeches. Not wanting to set an obvious differences on which team was more prepared and which wasn't at all, I came up with one myself during the perbahasan:

Anak Abu datang menyusul,
Dari kedai membeli petai,
Pihak pembangkang membangkang usul,
Kami sokong pendirian kami.

It didn't really rhyme especially at the last bit but hey!....it was better than nothing. So, next we're up against 3 Balau for both debate and perbahasan which's gonna be next week.

And to those people wo call me a traitor/betrayal to Belian and whatever crap......I'm sorry but it's not like I can do anything 'bout it. But trust me, none of the arguments we came across was an easy one for us.

3 batai debate/perbahasan teams rock!!!

blush-O-meter: 9.9

This week had been a crazy week and it's only Jan!!! Netball tournament is starting next week and I finally made it into the Nostalgia editorial board after I failed to join last year. But what I'm about to tell is something rather embarassing for me. I would say that this incident, by far, one of the most 'blushed cheeks' experiences I had encountered.

It was on Thursday when I went to Atria to buy my mum's late bday gift. I always buy presents a week or two after anyone's bdays. Anyway, while I was about to get off the escalator with my friends, my shoelace got stuck in it!! Which escalator was it??? Oh, yeah...the one in front of KFC where almost the whole of KFC was full with DJians having their lunch. Yup, that's the one.

Of all the escalators it had to be the one where there were a lot of eye witnesses that I know. Everyone was looking at me and wondering what happened. You know what they say: 'the fewer witnesses, the better'. So then there was this kind lady who called the security guard to help me while I was stuck there with my super blushed cheeks. Finally the guard came and he had to call another guard 'cause the 1st one couldn't pull my shoe off the thing.

Lucky thing my shoe lace came out after a strong tug from the 2nd guard. After that, I dare not show my face and went scurrying to find the present for my mum.

Good thing was that mum actually liked the present. I bought her a pearl bracelet (don't ask 'bout the price) so I guess the whole I'm-so-freakin'-embarassed incident was worth it.

Moral of the story: Tie your shoelaces once you start walking.

a birthday dinner

Mum's birthday fell on 11th of Jan (Thurs) but since the whole family was crazy busy this week, with me busy with school homework, dad busy with his work and the birthday girl itself was busy with her uni's theatre week, we didn't celebrate on the exact day.

Instead we celebrated my mum's birthday today at a Swiss cuisine restaurant, Chalet in Equatorial Hotel. I ordered beef tenderloin (a total yummy!) while my parents ordered Swiss cod or something like that. While we had our desserts, (mine: apple tart) the string quartets played a b'day song for my mum and serenaded our table with a Beatle's song, Yesterday. The staff even gave a free birthday cake!

I could see that her face glowed with happiness with all the treats and celebrations she had gotten. It warmed my heart to see her so happy on her special day after a whole week of stress and hardwork due to her job.


HAPPY BELATED B'DAY, MUM!!!

an autograph

Have you ppl ever watched the series 'REALITI' which was once aired on 8TV last year? You know the one where Ashraf Sinclair played as the wannabe rapper? Well, have you seen the guy who played Melody's(played by Chelsea Ng) dad, the guy who pushed his daughter to the limits so that she will become what he wants her to be.

Guess what?? My mum scored an autograph of his while he attended one of my mum's seminars. For those of you who still have no freakin' idea who is Kee Thuan Chye, this is him:


And this is the autograph he signed especially for me. LOL!

Oh..yeah, I AM having a wonderful life now.

school's here..again!

After 7 weeks of full rest at home, I'm ready for another year of schooling and this year I started in a whole new environment which is my 3 Batai class. To be honest I expected negative outcomes by being in this class. You know by being the only one from Belian and not knowing ALMOST more than half of the class, I thought I would be singled out on the first few months.

I was wrong. Batai people are very friendly and I don't regret being in this class. For starters, some of them gave me welcoming gestures for being in their class. I appreciate that, thank you.

I was elected as AJK Kebersihan. From a prefect to AJK Kebersihan. Not bad. Seriously. The reason why I quit being a prefect was that I'M BORED of it. After ALMOST my whole schooling years (so far) had been devoted to my school prefectorial board, I think it's time to take a time out of it.

I'm enjoying every bit of my life now. YIPPEE!!!

'the dead tree belongs to me'

All I did for holidays so far was eat, sleep, watch TV, internet (you get the picture). My parents were kinda pissed off with me for being such a lazy bum these holidays. I mean, how many of you people actually open up a 'real' book and study it during holidays??? How many???

So they nagged me a few days ago and asked me to start preparing for next year, start doin' my art work since I suck badly in art and also to pick up my violin and to start playing back after I had put it to 'rest' for more than a month.

I started doin' my drawing yesterday. I ran out of art blocks so I had to do it on A4 paper and colour pencils. Whatever, my job was to do a drawing and get it done no matter what material I used. I noticed that when I listened to Jessica Simpson's 'I Belong To Me' while doin' my art work, it got me really inspired to do it and finish up the piece (which most of the time I have problem to even get started).

So, by listening to the song plus the frustration of being nagged 'bout.... and WALLAH!! This is my master piece:


I know it sounds lame to make such a big deal out of a drawing that looked like it belong to some kindergarten kid but I'm actually kinda proud of myself of having to draw something that didn't look that weird without the help of ANYBODY. After like 3 months of not doin' anything artistic, I thought I'd lost my touches (not that I have any magical touches).

I don't know why I drew a dead tree, actually.

having a hard time getting surveys done

I had an assignment which I was supposed to complete from the Young Reporter's Workshop I attended in the early Dec. I was supposed to do a survey on 5 people on global climate and water conservation and hand it on 15th of Dec.

But being the forgetful me, I totally forgot 'bout it after having a blast at my cousin's house for a week and missed the deadline until the NST people rang up my DAD and reminded him 'bout me not submitting the bloody assignment. They actually rang up my dad!!! WOW! This is more serious than not completing my schoolwork. They gave me 'till 20th Dec to finish it up. I feel a bit abused here (I have to photocopy survey forms, find respondents, etc etc.And what do I get? Nada!

But I went to Ikano, anyway, to do the survey. I know I could interview the same people (mum, dad, grandma, grandpa, etc...) but I opted for something different. Journalists don't interview the same old people over and over again, do they? So, in I went to the post office with my mum.The PO seemed like a perfect spot to do a survey since the service was slow and people would wait a long time.

Boy, was I wrong! The people there were really in-cooperative. They gave me all sorts of reason to avoid answering the survey. For god's sake, it's just a survey! One man said he could not speak English, (well,ok, that I can respect since he was an old man) and others when they said they could, after looking at it, they refused to fill in anything. One even complained it was time consuming and said she was in a hurry. Oh,yeah? Then why did I see her sitting at the same spot for another 20 minutes just staring at her nails when she could have actually answered a survey which would only take 5 to 7 minutes???

Haizz....so my mum and I just approached any one we spotted and asked them 'bout global warming and water conservation (including two young men trying to sell us something!)

I found out that Malaysians can be so unconcerned about their surroundings.What's wrong with answering a bloody survey??? Maybe it was a bit tough. Here are some of the questions:

1. What is global warming

2. Who is responsible for keeping water clean and how?

3. How will you save water from now on?

I noticed that when they were asked these questions, they hesitated before answering. Which just shows that we still don't get enough exposure on how to save the earth and make it a better place to live in.

Hey, government and NGOs, your campaigns on water conservation, save the rivers, yadda, yadda, ain't working!!



A copy of the survey that so many refused to answer....

reporter in the making

On 2nd & 3rd of dec (last week), I went to an NST workshop called the 'Young Reporter's Workshop'. Yeah, I'm on my way to be a journalist...NOT!! Actually my parents sent me to this workshop to kill off some of my boredom due to the school holidays.

So I did learn some of the basic reporting skills needed to be a reporter. On the 2nd day of the workshop, my team (Bombastic Reporters!!) were supposed to interview a restaurant operator 'bout their water supply and they sent us to a 'mamak' restaurant. I don't mind being sent to a 'mamak' restaurant since I myself sometimes favour their food.

But the problem was that, the workers there didn't speak English and spoke a minimal of Malay. So I had to speak to them in very slow and simple Malay. I asked one worker, "Air paip dekat sini, belanja untuk sebulan berapa?" Loosely translated, the question meant: How much is the water usage here for a month?".

The guy answered me, "Ada banyak. Itu satu teh tarik RM 1.20. Milo ais, semua ada." Translation: There's a lot. One 'teh tarik' is RM 1.20. There's also Milo ice, there's everything,"
He thought I was asking him 'bout the drinks in the restaurant!!! Oh, well, I can't actually blame them, can I?

So then, we still had to go back and write up a story on water usage and water conservation in a restaurant. With practically nothing in hand, I still had to write the news and make the best out of it.

But it was rather interesting to be able to join this workshop. I did meet new friends and friends that I'd known before. But one thing for sure, I don't want to be a journalist 'cause writing is not really my 'cup of tea'.

the poet in me

I'm suddenly inspired to write poems now. I guess I felt inspired when I went to my mum's poetry reading the other day. Before this I only knew how to READ not write poems. I guess it's time to unleash the poet in me now....if there's any. LOL! Here's a piece of poem I just wrote:

I Was A Fool

Oh yes, I was a fool,

To think that our friendship was like a love pool,

Filled with kindness and honesty.

We started great,

'Friends forever', you said,

Then came the time,

When you put me aside

for another friend.

Was it a girl friend or a guy,

I wonder why.

As the days and nights passed,

It finally came to me,

You were just a friend living in another shadow,

Putting up a terrific show,

Making others believe you're the innocent one,

And yet I was a fool,

To believe you as the person you're not.

So there, you go. It's based on something I experienced before. What do you think. Is it any good....for a first-timer?

a night in a pub

Holidays are damn freaking bo-ring...I don't know 'bout you people but I rather be in school with my friends rather than just sitting at home doing nothing. Anyway, yesterday I went to a pub in KL. Yes, a pub, baby! I think I was the only under-18 teen who was there.

Unfortunately, I wasn't there with a boyfriend neither was it with my best friends. I was there with my....parents! Actually my mum was there for a poetry reading session in the pub called 'No Black Tie' so my dad and I just tagged along to give her a moral boost.

She was supposed to read 3 of her poems to the audience and I think they actually enjoyed it. My fave was the last piece which was "On the death of a great man". A very touching and inspiring piece of poem. It was 'bout my late grandfather who died way before I was born. Which was a sad thing because judging from the poem, he sounded like a really nice husband, father and grandfather which I'm sure he was.

I did learn new ways of reading poems either in english and malay after attending this poetry slam and hopefully can put it to good use sooner or later.

heading for the future

The schooling year of 2006 has finally come to an end yesterday. It has been a great year....in the beginning. But as the days nearing it's end, I think the excitement of the year started to decline. The great thing about 2 Belian is that it's full of classmates that are willing to help you through your hardtimes and to cheer you on during your happy times.

But I have to say that some of them do hate each other sometimes and giving them that evil looks and stares and I think I'm in that group of being ignored by this people.

Anyway,I think it's a good thing to move up to Batai next year. I was sad about it earlier but now...hey, it should be fun to get to know new people closer. I already have a my seatmate in Batai next year. Thanks to Valerie who was really generous to offer me to sit beside her in class.

Forgetting the past and heading for the future. But of course I won't forget all those sweet memories I had in 2 Belian. Just going to forget those bitter memories I had these past few weeks.

life without maid

I was cleaning up the fish pond in my house or let's just call it a fish-pond-without-any-fish-in-it the other day when SPLASH! I went into the pond. Anyway, a night before my open house, mum decided to buy a pair of guppy fish for the pond so that the next day people won't ask why isn't there any fish in the pond.

Unfortunately, 2 days later, one of the fish died and the other one had gone missing without any trace. We even tried putting droplets of aromatherapy oil inside the water to give energy to the fish, minutes before it died but I guess the time had come for the thing to go.

And now, with my maid gone back to Indonesia for a month, I had to do everything on my own. From ironing my own clothes to cooking my own food or rather heating up all the leftovers. Now I know life without a maid and it ain't easy, you know? I guess I was too dependent on maids.

I better be going now as I have a sink full of dirty dishes that need to be washed.

3 BATAI.......OH, NO!!!!

Pn Julie called me aside yesterday to tell me a news that really cluttered my brain right now. In a relaxed tone she told me,"Zafirah, awak akan ke 3 Batai tahun hadapan. Awak seorang je yang pergi yang lain in Belian akan stay". WHAT!!!!! I'll be in Batai where as all my friends are in Belian????

How could this happen to me? Some of my friends and teachers told me it's a good thing to go there 'cause it means I'm making a 'lil progress. Mum said I will get a new set of friends with a new environment.

Heck! I don't have time for a new environment next year. Fitting in a new environment takes time and I rather be using my time to prepare for my PMR next year. But whatever, I can't do anything 'bout it now. I thought of staying in Belian class 'til Form 5 but wth......

Well, I guess Batai shouldn't be that bad. For one thing, they have a great debate team there (if the members of their team this year remains in Batai next year) and for another, this maybe for the best of everything........hopefully.

goodbye, pn nancy!

One of my favourite teacher, Pn Nancy has left SMKDJ for good. We had a retirement celebration for her and I played the violin while Nunu and Jac sang the 'Getaran Jiwa' song. Though some criticised the song being too boring and what not, I don't care a bit 'bout it. We chosed this song especially for her and we were there to entertain Pn Nancy not those people and as long as she was happy with that song, I'm more than glad 'bout it.

She was a marvellous and dedicated teacher. Never in my 8 years of schooling in 3 different schools (excluding my kindergarten's times) have I seen such a dedicated teacher who was willing to come to school on holidays to train her students, to pick up a student who lives 20 km away from her house just so that the student can attend choir practices (that's me!) and she had gave in a lot to the society as well as the school.

She reminded me of one thing yesterday. She told me not to forget to invite her to my wedding one day. OOOKKK.......I think I'm too early to think 'bout inviting whoever to my 'wedding' right now but ok, I will not forget to invite her.

Pn Nancy Lee......a one in a gazillion.

a day of unity

Me, Nunu, Syamir and Jay minutes before the concert (gawd I look weird!!!)

Yesterday's Konsert Perpaduan was a....success. We had 2 sessions of concert and I'm happy to say that both sessions were full house! The first session which was at 3pm, Datuk Seri Ong Ka Ting came and the second session which was at 8pm, some guy from the Ministry of Education came.

The objective of this concert is for unity. Well, the title says it all. The day was filled with students and teachers of various races working hard together to put up a great concert. You could really see the teamwork from each participants.

As for SMKDJ, I think we did pretty well. Our choir group sang 3 songs which was in BM, Indian and Cantonese. All of us planned this performance way back in June. So, you know how hard we worked for this thing.

Even though there were some bumps and hitches along the way, i.e. some choir members pulled out from the group, not coming for practices (I did that quite often..) but we still manage to put up quite a spectacular show and I have it all to thank for to Pn Nancy for always pushing us to do the right thing and of course, the choir members who were loyal enough to stick with the group 'till the end.

But the weird thing was that Diong actually got interviewed by 8TV newsteam. Out of almost 500 participants who were there, they chosed him. Unbeliavable! But I couldn't understand what the interview was all about 'cause it was in chinese but still...he wasn't the ONLY chinese around.

SELAMAT HARI RAYA!!!

My famiy and I on the morning of Raya


Hari Raya has come again. A day that is waited by Muslims around the world after a full month of going through pain and sacrifices of fasting. I just came back from Raub, Pahang (my maternal grandma's kampung). Usually we will celebrate the morning of Raya at KL first than only we go back to Pahang but this year, my mum decided that she wants to spend more time before Raya with my grandma.

With all the ever-tasty food, (lemang, rendang, ketupat and the list goes on) my stomach is bloated 'cause I ate too much of everything. But I guess it's Raya, so I should be able to compromise once in awhile. During Hari Raya, we will get 'duit raya' or at least kids will get it. Sadly, as each year comes by, the amount of 'duit raya' I receive are declining. Why? 'Cause I'm getting older! The day will come when I will have to give the kids money instead of receiving it.

Selamat Hari Raya to all my Muslim friends and Happy Deepavali to all my Indian friends.

the (ok, ok) exam marks

My dad has finally got back from his London trip after more than 2 weeks of being away. He bought me a really nice brown sling bag, shirts and jeans and the NEXT perfume. My mom is freaking jealous with me since he bought me more stuff than her. LOL.

Anyway, I got back by end-year-exams marks. Here they are:

BM: 87 (dropped a lot)
ENG: 90 (a suprising rise)
SC: 88 (ok, ok jer)
GEO: 87 (same as ever)
SEJ: 96 (whoo...but not good enough compared to Jia Yi)
KH: 86 (dropped as well)
SENI: 88 (an amazing marks for a subject that I hate the most)
MATH: an A (better)

And with that I got no. 7 in class.
Sathiya said that if he doesn't get top 10 in this term, than he will be transfered to a Kelana Jaya school. He didn't...so like what Zhan Wen said, "Happy Kelana Jaya, Sathiya!!!"

home-baked cookies

Yesterday, when everyone else was probably occupied by watching tv and chatting online, I spent the day baking chocolate chips cookies for Hari Raya. This year I decided to bake instead of buying the cookies.

I got the recipe from the Internet. It was supposedly a Famous Amos recipe. How did I get it? A woman wanted to buy a Famous Amos recipe since she loved the cookies so much. She asked the worker there, "How much is a recipe if I want to buy one?" The worker said, "Two fifty". Well, then she gave her credit card to pay for it. When she got her bills, she realized it was RM 250!! That woman thought it was RM 2.50.

She threatened to give the recipe to whole Malaysia if the worker won't return back her money and they didn't. So, the woman wrote the recipe and gave it to as many people as possible through the Net. So, that's how I got the "Famous Amos" recipe. To be honest, she was kind of dumb to think that a recipe can cost RM 2.50. How can the recipe be cheaper than the cookies?

How true is it, I don't know. We can't really trust the Internet, can we? But I still went ahead with the recipe and the result: heck, it didn't look like Famous Amos at all!!! But it did taste ok but not as good as the 'real' Famous Amos cookies.

So much for trying to bake but trust me, you won't die of food poisoning if you eat my home-baked cookies. LOL!

thank god

Finally......the craziest month of this year has finally ended. End-year-exams are over!!!! I can now eat, sleep and breathe properly. Don't ask me how my exams were. I wasn't really in top form due to some ailments.

My friends asked me, "You're fasting while having exams?" I nodded. They said, "Huh, pity you. I must drink and eat a lot during exams. If not, I cannot think properly."

Well, don't pity me for I have nothing to be pitied for. Pity those who are in the war zones. The kids and teens who are in Iraq, Lebanon, Kosovo and the list goes on. Sometimes we are too comfortable and pampered that we never stop from what we're doing to thank GOD for what we have.

Instead we keep asking for more and more. Those people in the warzones don't even have a place to shelter them for the heat and cold, no food to keep them alive and sometimes they don't even have parents to comfort them when bombs blast off on their own land.

But we have more than that. We have parents that give us ALMOST everything we need, a house equipped of whatever things we can think of and definitely we have enough food on our dining table in fact too much food that we're being labelled a 'FAT NATION'!

Yet we never appreciate all this. For once in our lives, stop complaining and thank God for what we have for we don't know what is waiting for us in the future. Maybe one day we might turn into a bloody nation from a nation which is peaceful before that. But of course, I wouldn't want to bet on that. But still......