Emotional Times.

(Warning, this is an emotional post.)

It's not everyday your friend survives cancer. Richard Yap, I salute you. A man of courage and strength, you will inspire us all by your amazing bravery and courage in the face of cancer. You have endured more pain, suffering and trauma than most of us will ever undergo in an entire lifetime in the last few years. Yet your sense of humour remains, your wit and mental faculties are better than ever and you came out of this experience a better man.

Next week i have semester exams but despite that I came back to KL this weekend simply because i heard Richard is coming back from major surgery in London. Many people see this as being very thoughtful etc. but for me the reason for me to come back is simple. It's not everyday your mate survives cancer. I am actually dissapointed that more people who knew him and still stay in Taman Desa did not come to visit him.

These few days spent with him gave me new perspective on life and death. It gave me a renewed vigour to live and do something with my life. Seeing someone survive that sort of experience should give everyone what years of therapy cannot. It should give people a reason to live. The most touching thing about visiting him though was not his reaction, it was his mothers reaction. That lady is a gem of a person and she was so happy to see everybody who came to visit him. But more than that, the look on her face everytime she looked at her son's face was just pure joy. It was as if she knew that everytime she looks at him it's a bonus. Whether his life was changed forever by the sickness or not, I will never know for sure. But what i do know for sure is that both his parents' lives have been changed forever by his sickness.

I've never been too much of a religious person but in this case, all the doctors over the past 3 years may have contributed but there is one who can claim the greatest amount of credit for curing Richard and that's god. So whatever religion you may subscribe to or practice, thank god for saving a young man who has a full life left to live.

IELTS and Oil.

So this week i left college early. Escaped from my jungle prison on Friday instead of Saturday because of IELTS test on Saturday. If you don't already know, the International English Language Testing System is an english language qualification that most universities where english is a medium of instruction require for admission. On that note I booked a test date, paid up the RM520.00 that's required and came yesterday to sit for the test. Left at around 7.30am to the British Council office in Wisma Selangor Dredging which is next to Public Bank in front of KLCC. Hectic test after test ensued from 8am to 3pm. Finally when i was done i met up with a friend who i met at the IELTS test to watch Iron Man!

Ironman was alright, not too factually accurate but then again it's a comic book movie. Loads of thrills and spills. Nice big explosions and kick ass robot armour. Last scene was a robot armour vs robot armour battle. Quite exciting. Don't hope for too much of a touching storyline though and there is no romance at all the movie which is a relief.

So the big news of the week was that i got the Petronas Scholarship. Saw the announcement on Petronas' website. To say i was elated would be an understatement. I was over the moon. There is a grey cloud in all this blue sky though, the next 16 years or so of my life are pretty "mapped out" to say the least. I go to college for another year or two. I go to UK/US for another four years and once i graduate I'm bonded to work for Petronas for 10 years. It may sound very gloomy but hey, Petronas is paying 600k++ to educate me and I get a solid job at a top oil company for market rate salaries for 10 years, economic downturn or no economic downturn. Quite fantastic deal really. By the way i'm going to study Geophysics or i mean Petronas wants me to study Geophysics now that i've effectively sold my soul to Petronas.

Bye world, See you when i'm 33.

The Big One, Eight.

That's right. As of 28th April i have officially turned 18 years old. On a lighter note here's what happened that night...

Now that i'm 18, i'm as far the long arm of the Malaysian Law is concerned, fully prosecutably legal. That means from now on, if i break the law it means that i can be prosecuted in a court of law to the fullest extent of the law. Which sucks. A lot. In fact i see very little bright point in turning 18, I still can't vote, I can get arrested, If somebody sues me I have to pay full damages, I can't stand for elections, I can already drive(if i wanted to) from 17, I'm no longer eligible for child rate. It sucks being 18. Can't wait to turn 21... If there are any bright points about turning 18, i'm missing them. Bye