Happy Halloween

Miss you guys.

The Typical Hiatus

The Typical Exam Hiatus


I'll update on the 11th of November.
Wish me luck.


Toodles.

High School Musical 3.

So I watched High School Musical 3 today.

Now honestly, I'd say it was good. Better than its predecessors by a mile. Or several.
Corny? To a certain extent, yes. In the cinema I was peeled on to the screen waiting for something cheesy to happen, and "God" forbid, it happened. Vanexxxa and Zac started singing in the rain. This really pissed me off. I'm sure the producers know about the criticism HSM gets for being corny and YET they had to put a scene as such in to the movie. I mean.. WHY?

Anyways, a couple songs are catchy (for real this time). The dancing is brilliantly choreographed as always. The movie however loses steam right up to the midpoint where all hope for it is pretty much lost. Then, it surprisingly picks up the pace right after, in more ways than one. I wouldn't want to spoil it for you people so I'll just leave that be. Lets just say the story line isn't as predictable as you'd think it'd be this time around.

However, the more this movie progressed to its close, I couldn't help but feel that heightened sense of nostalgia. The movie plays out in such a way that you'll have mixed feelings of joy and nostalgia, wherein you come to a realization that 'damn! it's actually coming to an end. you know, no more "What Time Is It?"s or "WILDCATS!" or "Getcha' head in the game"s. No more corny one liners, no more cliched story lines, and such.

Hate it or love it, most of you've watched all three of them. You will miss criticizing it or enjoying it, whichever you saw fit to do in the past.

As this attempted review comes to a close, I'd like to point that there probably WILL be more High School Musicals in the future. Circumstances are such that it has been made possible (with ingenious planning by the producers of course) but it won't be the same. Without names like Zac Efron and Vanexxxa Hudgens, it just won't be the same and this series will crumble to the ground.

But I don't really care anyways. I'm always going to remember the first three, the trilogy that started everything. I'm going to remember how HSM became a fad in schools across Penang for a certain time. How SOME people learned the dance moves to We're All In This Together (yes Siew Chai, you're no exempt). I'm going to remember humming its tunes just to piss people off. (oh btw I'm still going to do that since it's fun) and pretty much how it's just been such a phenomenon all over the world.

This third movie pretty much covers everything that is needed to fill in the blanks (if any) left by its predecessors. Continuing it with a different cast will dilute its effect on everyone. So my advice to Disney, NO MORE HSM. Move on to something else.

Personally, it took me a while to snap out of the effect the last few scenes of the movie gave me. It was just all that nostalgia I guess. Walking out of that cinema signalled the end of 'High School Musical' for me, the end of a phase and the end, whether you want to admit it or not, of an era.


What time is it? Time to attempt to study. Ciao.

PS: Happy 84th Birthday, tata!
(that's my grandad btw)

Change.

I've got three topics I'd like to partially elaborate on.

Firstly, I've lost faith in my computer.
Yesterday, I lost pretty much all my files. Untraceable. Today, my CD-Rom plays up. It can't read any CD I put in it. This either is a sign from the apparent God saying that I should leave my computer at peace and pursue the demonic task of reading the mind-melting cataclysm that is commonly known as Sejarah (Note, Sejarah. Not History.) OR my computer, which is relatively ancient, needs an upgrade and an efficient anti-virus.

Secondly, all remaining hope I had for my school, Penang Free School, to improve herself for the betterment of her students and teachers alike was lost today.
First I was walking around the school pretty much for an hour with my cellphone in one hand. I stopped to talk to teachers, even a disciplinarian and what response do I get for being in possession of a cellphone (which is illegal, if you haven't already figured out) ? Nothing. No uproar. No form of nagging. No advice. Nobody cared.
Next, Lim Ah Seng (pretty cool guy if you get to know him) told me he wants to talk to me. This doesn't happen very often. Looking at the pathetic state the school's Board of Prefects is in at the present time, I am undoubtly sure that he was about to offer me a prefect post. ME. I've had numerous discipline cases in school during my glory years. Apparently the BOP is in such a state even I've been offered a post. Sad, really. On the other hand, Mr. Lim might have certain urges he only sees fit to indulge upon in my presence (if you know what I mean). Let us pray that is not the case. :)

Thirdly, for all you losers out there (yes, rub it in) that don't know High School Musical 3 is out tomorrow, go shoot yourself. Or break out in song. Whichever works.
Anyways, it's out tomorrow and I'm going to watch it. I'm considering it my last bit of excitement before the next couple of hectic weeks begin. I have chosen not to bore you with a synopsis of the movie itself (assuming you would have bothered reading it in the first place).
Just take the cheesiness and corniness which I know is so obviously present in the series out of the equation and you might actually like it. Give it a shot, eh? You'll probably watch it anyways since everyone will, either to enjoy it (like I hope I do) or to constantly criticize it (like I'm sure you and an individual known as Chittesh WILL do).

In completely unrelated news, I've got a new safari hat.

I changed my blog skin btw (with the help of the Haneesha).
Hey, look! Supper! (get it? no? nvm)

Happy Happy Joy Joy

So firstly I'd like to point out that I've lost all my pictures, my videos, Heroes, Gossip Girl, Batman TAS, and such. Computer fucked me over. Apparently I had a corrupted local profile or some shit like that. Anyways, don't ask me for stuff, because I don't have them, Paalan.

Happy happy joy joy for St. Georgians.
Exams over.
Halloween.
Shopping.
Chilling.
Damn you Sartah and Aida LOL and thanks for your "empathy"

Chulan, you're officially Robert from now on. That name is too kickass to not use. Say, doesn't Robert sound like a pedophile's name? (Yes Dhivia, with an E not an A)

A month ago, I thought Heroes was getting to complicated for its own good. Watch Episode 6 of the third season, and you will not change your mind. On the contrary, you might probably give up watching the show. (or be really pissed off with Tim Kring)

Team Blair! ftw

I secretly want to deride at Chittesh's camera just to take the pain of not owning a camera as cool as his away. Seriously though, his camera is absolutely amazing.

Brown only!

I snapped a picture of my reflection in Paalan's eye. Look how clear it isss.


Aida, I decided not to video blog. Why? Because you kept interrupting me hahah. So I had to TYPE. thanks A LOT.

And finally, to my counterpart, I would personally like to vivify the fact that a person with close to impeccable English such as yourself does not deserve to live a shrouded and restricted lifestyle such as you possess at this point of time. Step out of that shell you so willingly hide in. Learn to chide, extol and connive. Possession of these three abilities will not only make life much more simple and incisive, it will also bring you elation.
These words may seem pointless coming from an individual such as myself. Just.. think. Please?

xoxo.


"Never trust a bartender with bad grammar."

Video Blog Entry 002

Video Blog. Entry 002

Here's to 03

Here's to:

Stephen; for scaring the shit out of me with Hotel 626 (right click the link and open in new window please)

Ooi Eng Lye; for giving me a set of keys to the Editorial Room for no apparent reason

Paalan; for FINALLY settling everything

Divya; untuk gambar-gambar

Dhivia; for umm.. yeah

Flight of the Conchords; for giving me a new alternate source of entertainment

Honey; for licking my armpits LOL (no she did not lick my armpits)

Pril; for the roller-coaster

and
to last night, which I must admit was pretty darn fun.


cheerio.

SK Batu Lanchang 02

A Little Place I Like To Remember As SK Batu Lanchang. Part 02.

2. Post-UPSR continued..


The above pictures taken at the Standard 6 Farewell Party.


Holy shit I looked like Varun.

Explanation of the couple of pictures above this: We did return soon after to receive a prize for getting 5As for the UPSR exam the year after. Short lived joy, for the life of secondary school began, and the memory of all that was was forgotten forever.

Thanks to: Ze Yin for some of the pictures and Navnith for the last two pictures.

Till then.

SK Batu Lanchang 01

Reminiscences.

The Little Place I Remember As SK Batu Lanchang. Part 01

1. Bus Life

Back in the day when school wasn't pathetic like it is now, when teachers actually thought, when there were still headmasters/mistresses that knew what the hell they were doing in office, yes. Back then, going to school wasn't a chore.

Everyday, I would look forward to getting onto C49. Every morning on the bus would be as fun filled as ever, with people like Ashwin, Goh Wei, Krishna, Wei Yan and Shiva. The 6 of us were pretty much the rulers of the bus. We controlled everything that happened. Every moment on the bus was a moment of mischief. We always pissed off the bus driver (Ah Yeow I think). But we had this understanding between us. It was just the way things were.

This lasted for a long while, until the next generation emerged and members of the first generation moved on to high school. By the time I was in Standard Six, Ashwin, Shiva, and Goh Wei had moved on. Wei Yan separated from the group, leaving Krishna and I. We lasted I guess, with the new standard ones and twos. Things just weren't the same without the original 6 being fully intact. The level of intensity of the mischief had decreased by a huge amount. Back when I was in standard one, I remember throwing chewing gum on Krishna's hair, stealing my bus driver's cane (he had a cane to use to threaten us if we made too much noise. Hah I remember all of us just shutting up when he used to bring the bus to an abrupt halt and wave that cane around like some kind of magician), among other things.

Nonetheless, I remember and truly cherish a lot of those days in C49. All I can hope now is that I'm not the only one that remembers. Somewhere deep down inside, the other 5 remember.

2. Post UPSR

For most of the 6 years I spent in Batu Lanchang, so many things happened, scandals(believe it or not), young love, adoption of a cat, the near death of a treasured fish, the destruction of the school pateo roof, heck co-curricular Thursdays can even be classified as a thing. So much happened. So much to remember and type.

Inside joke (all ex-SKBLers of the year 2004 PLEASE know what I'm talking about)

En. Cumaran: Pada 8 Januari 1941, Lord Baden Powell telah meninggal dunia-
Entire class: WOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!


Move forward to after UPSR now, a whole 2 months of completely nothing to do. Pictures. That's what you need to see.


More pictures at the top.

Video Blog Entry 001

Video Blog
Entry 001

Shit... and sausages?

Shit


... and sausages?

Firstly, please be thankful I did not succumb to the urge of uploading a picture of shit because I was on the verge of doing so.

So many of you are probably 'wtf'-ing right now. I was thinking about my blog name, unforbidden indulgence and came to a realization that that name never really had much meaning to me, for all my indulgences have never (hopefully ever) been forbidden in the first place. Therefore, having a name unforbidden-indulgence would have lead people to believe that I live a very stressful life and am restricted by my elders such that I don't enjoy life.

Life is stressful at times, no doubt but I've not hated life to an extent that I've wanted to kill myself more than twice. Anyways, bottom line is, unforbidden indulgence was something I thought would sound cool as a blog name when I first started. I've obviously become smarter.

Besides, having the term ' shit and sausages ' as my blog name will make it more eloquent, hopefully.
The real reason I thought of the name was because I was thinking of the word shit (for reasons I will not disclose) and I felt like eating sausages (which I did after changing the blog name).

So there you have it. Please don't ask why I changed it to shitandsausages ever again.

Kthxbye :D

Vienna, Austria Part. 5

Vienna, Austria. Part 5.

YES PEOPLE. You are unupdated. If you haven't started reading my Vienna Story, go read Part 1 on the 6th of October. If you have followed day-by-day, go to Part 3 and read up.

9. United Nations

Atam showed us around the United Nations in where? Nope, not Vienna. The United Nations building is on no mans land. It runs on its own. Being the United Nations and all. Cool huh?

Jalur Gemilang, bitches!



10. The random things/places.

The Schonbrunn is a HUGE palace. We covered this place on new year's eve. We didn't have much time because places closed early, being eve of the new year and all. There's a huge garden outside of the palace where people just stroll around and exercise. No kidding. I didn't go in the palace but my brother did and he said it was really nice inside. I can only imagine. I made my first ever snowball in the Palace Gardens.

Sally the Snowball.

While waiting for the train to come pick us up at the bottom of Durnstein, we went into this pub and in this pub, I, being the Keshav I am, messed around with the salt and pepper. I made a face before being told off by the pub owner. Yes I named it too.

Peter the Pepper-Eyed

In Prague, I had rabbit meat for the first time.

It tasted like chicken btw.



Also in Prague, my cousin Marisha went into the bathroom of the art gallery and the sink taps are freaking GOLD SWANS.
dat' shit be tight


11. Happy New Year, bitches!


New Years Celebration on 2008 was a blast for one reason and one reason alone : Fireworks
Atam invited some of his close friends over for a party. We even met this lady who was born in KEDAH of all places.
I don't quite remember how or where he got them, but Atam had TONS of fireWORKS. Not the cheap ass fire crackers you get back in Malaysia. ACTUAL FIREWORKS. And since Atam lives in the penthouse of his building, he has access to the top of the building. From the building, we had a 360 degree view of all of Vienna.
As soon as it was 12 am, it began. The single most brilliant display of fireworks I will ever witness. It lasted TWO HOURS. 12-2 am roughly. And aren't you lucky asses grateful I recorded it? (Probably not, eh?)

So that's that people. Vienna, Austria, as I witnessed it. People talk about wanting to go to France and Italy. France is a bore. Except for the Eiffel Tower. And the chicks. I haven't been to Italy yet but seriously seriously consider Austria a must-visit place before you die a sad, painful death.

and with that, enjoy the fireworks :)

Thanks for staying around for these 5 posts.
Till the next time, xoxo.

Vienna, Austria Part. 4

Vienna, Austria. Part 4.

6. Feliz Navidad

Considering the fact that the whole point of going to Vienna was FOR Christmas, we didn't really do much on the 25th. It was pretty simple. The simple dinner, with the simple turkey, with the simple champagne, with the simple Christmas songs, with the simple Barackhristmas Tree. :D You see, Atam's a loyal democrat and he's supporting Barack Obama. So instead of decorating his christmas tree (which was a REAL tree btw) with ornaments, he just hung Obama badges and stuff. It was very the cool. I don't think I've told you in the previous posts right? Atam works in the United Nations. He's posted in Vienna so that's why he lives there. As soon as he's done there and gets posted somewhere else, we won't be able to stay at that awesome place of his. Let's hope he stays put :D

The Barackhristmas Tree

7. Prague

We hopped over to Prague for a while. My uncle's wife's sister lives in Prague so we went to visit for a night. My nieces are ADORABLLLLLLLLLLE and super friendly too. I was like hi. Next thing I know they were dragging me to go play with them and they like kissing my face LOL

Those two things are my niecessssssssssss

Anyways, we walked quite a bit in Prague. We went to the Metronome (go read up yourselves), saw the Astronomical Clock, went on the picturesque Charles Bridge ( I think you'll recall contestants from the Amazing Race Asia Season 2 having to find a route info on this bridge ) and visited Prague Castle.

Charles Bridge is pretty long and connects 2 different parts of Prague. ( Prague is split in to 7 parts I think, named Prague 1, Prague 2, Prague 3 and so on ) There are lots of statues on the bridge that depict various saints, patron saints and sculptors. There are also these stalls set up on the bridge that sell stuff (seriously) and mimes. MIMES :D

Prague Castle is one of the largest castles in the world. It's full of old ancient stuff and the architecture is yet again.. amazing. Hilarious(?) note : Nobody has anything against the likes of the Czech Republic (Prague's in CR fools) and Austria. It's so safe that even the prime minister of Prague needs no security. The prime minister's primary headquarter is in the castle itself. So when we were there, he just drove in. HE DROVE IN. He got out of the car and just walked in. Nobody paid any attention to him. He just walked in like any other person living in Prague. Now compare this to Malaysia. Even for one relatively unknown minister, there'll be like 50 patrol bikes clearing the way for him -.-

We met up with my uncle from England who came to Prague for the weekend. Walked around and visited an art museum. It wasn't exactly a museum per say buttt it was more like an art gallery! Right that was the word I was looking for. Pretty cool too. Though some of the paintings looked horrible and were still admired. There was one of a goat and two ducks. Yes, I remember that one. It was my favorite of the lot.

Art Gallery

Uncle H and family stayed at the Hilton Prague. So we just went along for a while and said our goodbyes since they were leaving the next day. It is here, that I finally got around to using the net properly and I messaged Chong on MSN. ( Chong this is for you. You better be reading this )

So they left. We went back to Vienna. It was the 30th of December.


8. Vienna lol

Gosh I've just realised how I have hardly told you ANYTHING about Vienna. Vienna's old. The buildings are old. WELL PRESERVED. It's beautiful lah. I don't know what else to say. It's just beautiful.

People travel around in carriages pulled by horses, hot dogs can be bought EVERYWHERE, special delicacy : hot chocolate mira schlag (hot chocolate with whipped cream), full of museums ( history museums, art museums, weapon and armory museums, nature museums, most of which I managed to go to) and two major palaces (one of which I went to, called the Schonbrunn which I'll cover slightly later)

Not forgetting choir performances and orchestral performances. Vienna is where the great composers Ludwig van Beethoven and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart were born. Music's always been a major part of Vienna. There are a couple of major opera houses that lay host to many weekly performances by the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra. We managed to go to one of the shows. Personally, it's not my cup of tea but the other enjoyed it and it wasn't HALF bad (for me that is).

Austria, Vienna. Part 3

Austria, Vienna. Part 3.

So I won't waste time.

3. Driesden Durnstein Castle

This place is located just outside of Vienna. In the late 1100s, Richard I of England a.k.a Richard the Lion Hearted was captured by someone... his brother I think lol. No no no wait I'm thinking as I type. The Lion Hearted dude was on his way to MEET his brother and was captured by this other dude called Leopold of Austria :D

Anyways, from the most unreliable source of information, Wikipedia, : Richard and his retainers had been travelling in disguise as low-ranking pilgrims, but he was identified either because he was wearing an expensive ring, or because of his insistence on eating roast chicken, an aristocratic delicacy. ( btw what the fuck @ eating roast chicken ) *Wikipedia explanation ends*

In his solitude, he wrote a couple of songs and wrote something in French. yeah. Feel sorry for the man.

So NOW, the castle is in complete ruins and is open to everyone. There's a small town at the bottom of the hill where the castle is perched up on and it's called.... Durnstein Town. (original aren't they?) But just being around there, you could kinda imagine what it'd have been like way back then. Living in a small town and having a mean dude ruling over you, like you see in the movies. Woohoo picture time! ( FEEL HAPPY >:( )

The road up.

Durnstein Castle Ruins

from the bottom.


Highest view point.



4. The Town of Melk

I don't remember much about this place. I remember it being home to some really old monastery. It's located right next to the river Danube. Surely you know what that is right? No? Well then kiddies, pay attention. The Danube is the second longest river in all of Europe flowing passed TEN countries, Germany, Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, Croatia, Serbia, Romania, Bulgaria, Ukraine and something else. But yeah, that's pretty long, no?

The architecture of this monastery is simply stunning. Inside and out. There was a tour that took us through most of the monastery except for the monk headquarters LOL. So many beautiful tapestries and it didn't feel like I was anywhere recognizable for a short moment. I don't have pictures unfortunately. Sorry folks.



5. The Austrian Alps (aka Look ma, snow everywhere!)

Sorry I had to. This place is sooooooooooo high up. SO HIGH UP ABOVE EVERYTHING. And there was snow everywhere! We had to take a train up to a certain point. Then we had to WALK. It was an awesome walk though. I remember carving my name on to one of the trees. Someone else's name too :P . So as soon as we reached civilization ( because most of the houses on the way up were vacated because of snow ), first thing we see? Skiers! There was this large square opening packed with flat snow and people were skiing. The place even had a bubble lift that took you up to a higher part of the mountain and you could ski down from there on a slope! It was so amazingzinggg. So naturally we didn't have enough time to ski which SUCKED beyond all suckiness. BUT we took the bubble lift up anyways and the skiers were like 'wtf'. I thought I was high before, but at the top bubble lift station.. WHOA. At the top, we saw a lookout tower which was EVEN higher then where we were! My mum didn't follow my bro and I for some reason or the other. So we walked passed the daredevil skiers and walked up the hill that took us to the tower. Then we CLIMBED the tower, which was like 6 stories high. I remember there were cubes of ice at almost every step so it was hard to climb and I fell once or twice :D Finally, at the HIGHEST point any human could go without putting him/herself at risk, the view was 'HOLY SHIT WHOA' . My bro and I took it all in. Everything. The view, the atmosphere, everything. Then we walked down the tower where I fell again. Thrice. bitches. anyways we got down and had some hot chocolate and hot dogs ( which was our regular meal in Austria ) and went on home.

Pictures:


Skiing.

This was the view from the base bubble-lift station. High right?

This is the view from the lookout tower.

It was absolutely amazing.

Vienna, Austria Part. 2

Vienna, Austria. Part 2.

In case you aren't smart enough to figure this out on your own, read part one before reading this.

So before I go ahead with more places I visited, I need to introduce a few more people.
Uncle H ( whose full name I have unfortunately forgotten ), Aunty Shanti, and Rithu. They're close friends with Atam and they stayed at his place for Christmas, like we did. Rithu's 22 and she's in to literature and art and stuff like that. It was pretty cool meeting someone like that... hardly find any in Malaysia. The three of them arrived on the day after us and the first place we visited together was...

2. The Vienna Woods

This place is the shit, people... especially during winter. To get to the woods, you need to take this metro train from somewhere in the Vienna Town underground. It takes you to the outskirts of Vienna. From there you need to take a bus on this winding road that goes upwards... pretty cool. This woods is placed up high on a mountain. This mountain also lays host to many vineyards and old houses. When I was there, temperatures were as low as 2'C or 3'C. The woods was covered with snow. Damn thinking back now, the place looked like it was from a fantasy movie or one of those animation movie things with umm snow.. yeah. That. Anyways, you can look at the pictures below this after you're done reading. The woods has many different trails all over the place with each trail bearing it's own personal attractions. We took a couple of them (according to Atam, we took the better ones so that was good). Both trails took us passed different vineyards and several houses that were vacated due to the snowfall. Some houses were even completely covered with snow. We didn't really get much view of the vineyards because most of them were kinda ...well.. dead. Winter.. remember? That kinda sucked.

After a couple of hours of walking in the woods, Atam took us to this shack-pub-ish place for late tea. Oh gosh it was brilliant. Let me try and give you a mental picture. It's an overcast evening. Imagine a shack made of wooden planks just a story high. Inside the shack, candles are the only source of light at each table. There are one or two proper ceiling lights only, so it's kinda dark. Tables and benches made of wood as well. Arty paintings on the wall, mostly abstract. This place wasn't a high class place by any means. It's run by this Austrian lady who makes the BEST HOT CHOCOLATE EVER. Seriously. It is by far the BEST I've ever ever ever ever had. And and and she sells this large sausages right, and it's filled with hot sizzling cheese. And picture relaxing in this small warm cozy shack after walking around the woods in such an algid condition. Absofuckinglutely brilliant feeling.

Here are those pictures, with captions to help explain them :
(for the most part you can ignore the people in the picture and just focus on the background :P )

Shut up.

Brilliant, right?

Ignore the people please :)

Seriously it makes the picture much nicer lol

Vineyard

I just realized how awesome these pictures are. AWESOME RIGHT?


Outside the shack.

Remember when I said it was dark? This was taken without flash enabled.

Inside the shack (with flash)

So I think I'll leave the rest for tomorrow. I'll let you people absorb all this in first. Come back tomorrow for Part Three.


Till then. ;)