From Down Under part II

zanglang — Sun, 17 Jul 2005 14:08:00 +1000

Sorry for posting late, if you’ve known me long enough you wouldn’t be too unfamiliar with my habit of delaying things until the absolute necessary. =P It’s not as if I could help it though, I don’t get internet access at home yet (read Internet), and it’s an awful long walk from my cousin’s to university. Anyway, back to topic:

Food: You do not know how torturing it is when you’re especially fast with math… all the while just walking down a supermarket aisle, or browsing food stalls, or just looking at anything that has a $ sign on it. A Hungry Jacks (aka Burger King, only with a different name. Apparently the name Burger King was taken) meal costs $15 (ringgit), a Subways sandwhich around $20, a 325ml Coke costs $2, a pack (no, not the buy 5 free 1 pack you see in Giant, the 80grams packet) of instant noodles costs $1, and an egg, the most basic of all protein sources… 60sen! Look, I’m no miser, but I’m missing my $3.50 Burger Double Daging Special, $2.50 Nasi Lemak, $0.99 Coke, and $0.50 Roti Canai already. =P

Internet: I’m limited to a quota of only 150mb a month, where I have to purchase more bandwidth if I still want to surf. If I were using Streamyx I’d have used up the same pathetic amount in an hour. Worse, I can’t check POP3 mail, I obviously can’t afford to use P2P, I think I’m not allowed to use IRC, and I have to manually configure proxies for each and every darn program I’ll need. The semi-good part? I can use the same account in campus with wifi, at home with dialup or at the school with their computers. Convenient? Think again. They’ll be all using the same quota. The only good part? It’s free. =P However, I haven’t acquired my home telephone line yet, so no internet access unless I walk 1km++ to university. Which sucks.

Weather: oh man it’s cold! It’s usually around 25 degrees and fairly cool in the day, but goes as low as 5 degrees at night. It’s a good thing they usually have water heating built-in, but I wonder if anyone ever gets frostbite from the tap water just doing dishes after dinner. It helps to throw on an extra shirt or jacket… which reminds me, I wished I’ve just ignored that darn luggage weight limit and brought more clothes. Looking at a half-empty wardobe sucks.

Toilets! No, they’re usually exceptionally clean, I’m not enough of a obsessive-compulsive to moan about hygiene. If you are though, you should skip this paragraph. You’ve been warned. =P Anyway I found myself thinking: when Aussies go about doing their big business on the throne… are they actually content with only using toilet paper to… er, unstick, unmoisturise and polish themselves afterwards? Wouldn’t it be more convenient to have an extra water faucet? I mean, surely dealing with leftovers au naturelle (sp?) by the power of hydraulics would be wayyyyy more efficient than the law of geseran. Just Imagine! What if some, er, particles were too… attached to the… walls that mere paper would not suffice, and while walking out when you think you’re done the… cheeks would be rubbing any said particles against each other…

(cough) Sorry. I’m always been told I have too vivid an imagination. Now where was I?

Ah right. And the life. Fellow Kuala Lumpur-ians are probably all too familiar with 1am mamak sessions, but it almost seems like there’s no such thing as night life here. Shops close really early. Not a soul in sight on the streets. Right here in the suburb it’s so quiet at night the only sound I ever hear is silence echoing in my ears. The fact that my cousin and fiance do not watch TV or listen to radio / music makes it worse… It’s so quiet I swear I would go mad if I don’t put on some earphones, turn on Winamp, turn up the volume and blast myself silly with techno mp3’s.

And it’s just too hard to turn in at 12pm when your subconciousness keeps trying to convince your body

it’s-only-10pm-no-I-think-my-watch-is-correct-
aiyah-yours-ciplak-one-of-course-2-hours-fast-lah-
come-on-the-night-is-still-young.

By the time I do wake up it would be 11am. Sigh, looks like it’ll still be a long long time before I’ll get used to things.

libcoffee.net: From Down Under part II

From Down Under part II