HALF THE WORLD IN A DAY
Never mind, luckily got a second trip at 12.45pm.
The Japanese House and Garden was at Fairmont Park, the world’s largest urban park. 18th century style (1700-ish) with wooden Japanese Cyprus barks for the roof, tatami mats for the flooring, rice paper-room dividers that slide open and close, wooden-planked verandahs, furniture low to the ground (won’t fall and pin anyone to the ground in the event of an earthquake). Nice nice. The garden was great too, with a koi pond, small stone bridge, spring flowers and shrubs. So pretty.
Later
Malaysians @ Penn had a farewell dinner for seniors at Estia, a fancy-schmancy Greek restaurant downtown (1409-1410 Locust St). It was a difficult decision to make, between Italian, Greek or Mexican, but the mesmerizing and magnetic aura emitted at the mention of the name of this ancient civilization swayed our decision towards it.
As usual… we hooligans made a huge buncha noise by talking and laughing the place down. Lights were flashing all over the place because we kept taking pictures of ourselves and the food. We had to use flash because this was the dim type of restaurant, only awashed with a soft yellow glow from the lamps on the wall.
When the bill arrived, (ouchouchouch), I reached painfully for my wallet and took notes out, when suddenly, the President of the Malaysians@Penn announced the breakdown of the bill, “Okay, seniors free, Steph free, everybody else $30 each. The club will be funding more than half of it.” WAHHHHH. I protested of course, “Where can, I’ve only been here for barely a semester, so many people here deserve a free meal more than me.” But they wouldn’t hear another word… blessed sia.
The toilets were great. Mediterranean-themed houses are so much fun, no? Started imagining what it could be like, yellow walls, rustic stone tiles, wrought-iron furniture, and stucco exterior design.
One second I want a Japanese-Zen theme for a place, then one second later I envision a Mediterranean-style home. Well done, Steph. Pastor was right… we want so many things that we end up keeping our eyes away from the prize.
One theme from East Asia and one from West Europe. What to do? Shigh. Get something in-between lo. South East Asia. Malaysia. Haha, back to square one.
posted by stephanieNGseokmei | 1:56 AM
2 Comments:
Yesterday afternoon, I attended an address by YB Dato Abdullah Badawi, our PM at the PICC, which stands for Putrajaya International Convention Centre. It is a gorgeous rounded structure which can be seen from the Putrajaya mosque. It looked majestic sitting on a hillock in the distance. "It looks near but you can't walk there, it is very far" said one passerby whom I had stopped to ask my direction to the PICC. It turned out to be true. Along the straight road we passed several brand new huge buildings which house the House of Justice, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Plantation House, and several other Federal government buildings.
The PM was a bit late. As he strode with his contingent in just after 3 pm, we all stood up and sang the Negara Ku.
The huge concourse was filled with the best intellect from all the institutions of higher learning in the country.
The PM spoke on his favourite topic of 2006. In his one hour or so address, he challenged the best brains of the country on their contribution to the relay as he described it, the relay started by the nation to reach the developed status in 2020. He even fixed the "Merdeka Date" as Dec 31st 2020. "We have one additional year by fixing it on 31st Dec rather than 1st Jan."
"We shall all try hard, very hard to achieve it. China is way ahead of us. India is a late comer, but it is progressing, and even Vietnam is beginning fast."
"Maybe 80% of you in this Concourse would be around in 2020. We have the 9 Malaysia Plan, followed by the 10th and the 11th Malaysia Plans. We have to achieve it"
Therefore the question is,"Where would be in ten to fifteen years from today"
I shall challenge you as he challenged the audience. "Is there another word for ikrar?" "Is there a substitute for "ilmu".
One old Professor from University of Malaya stood up at Question time and asked: "Mr PM, why is it that there are more than 300 professors in our UM and you have to choose a woman to become our new VC?" " I bimbang that our ranking is going to fall further."
HAHA. dei.
not matured.
PHAT with an F =D
and maybe much fairer (for once!), from the lack of outdoor sports, and from the 2 months of winter.
Waasaaps =)
Thanks annonymous, for the great post. The PM's speech sounded great. Your name in the future, please, it you don't mind =)
Unless your name's really Anonymous in your IC, in which case, I apologise.
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