Sandakan

It was all 

unexpected love. 

i'm feeling turtl-ish

taken during my first visit to UMS

it feels good to see turtles again.

lest i forget.

Soon, this year is coming to an end.

The past one month has been crazily busy! CRAZY!!!!

Looking at the analysis of the results for F2 Maths final exam, i couldn't believe i have made it through another year with tonnes and tonnes of hard work, sweat and tears. And indeed, there's reward at the end of the race. i must say that i am pretty impressed with my self. :)

"be careful that you do not forget the LORD your God,
failing to observe his commands, his laws and his decrees that I am giving you this day.
Otherwise, when you eat and are satisfied, when you build fine houses and settle down,
and when your herds and flocks grow large
and gold increase and all you have is multiplied,
then your heart will become proud and you will forget the LORD your God,
who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery."
Deut 8:13-14

There were many opportunities to push myself to do more this year.

In this final week of school, i guess there's no better time to rethink and reflect on all that i have gone through.

it's been a fruitful year. and i know i have really done my very best in everything that i laid hand upon.

*great experience in Kuching for basketball competition. that was one of the most exciting times of the year where there's adrenaline pump everyday for one whole week.

*extra maths classes for the E Gang that bore fruit where all of them went from an E (fail) to at least a C, one even went from E to A. Ok la, except one boy la, he failed ALL his maths paper this year, oh poor thing. Anyway, it feels good to see their eyes lightened up when they got their maths papers. And it feels even better when they came back to thank you before they leave school for holiday.

*f4 bio - during Sept test, i scolded (this is an overstatement) a boy who got 7 out of 40 objective questions correct. i told him if he were to do this again, he is going to TELAN the OMR paper. And guess what, he passed his bio paper this time and improved a whole lot in other subjects too! Oh gosh. it's pretty unbelievable. well, i am glad that he put in effort to make things better for himself.

*f5 bio - i have really done all that i could. it's up to God to make things work. i have to remind myself that whatever the outcome is, it cannot be my fault anymore. Simply because i have done my best to teach them, to do extra classes, to meet some of them for 'private' tuition.

*Borneo Jungle School - what a great experience living in the jungle! A sakai like me have seen so little of the real world. The best moment - standing in the dark, all torch-lights were off, all you see is the starry night with all those weird weird sounds of insects.

*The sacrificial cow - that was the first time i saw how people slaughter a cow for Ibadah Qorban. And funny as it is, i kinda turned it into a science lesson while the adults are butchering the cow. I didn't know that the trachea of a cow is as big as the pipe that is fixed at the washing machine for the water to flow out. The best thing, haha.. the heart of the cow. For this i know why i identify so much with Cristina in Grey's.

Of course, not to forget the great times spent traveling around.. March Kundasang-Sandakan-LD trip, April-August Sandakan trip, April KK trip... with friends coming to visit.. blah blah blah.. :)

It's not just a bed of roses. i just don't feel like wasting time to count those thorns.

And tomorrow, i have one more assignment to do - kursus in semporna. hehe.

Enough of typing for the day!

i took a short break from school.

waiting for orang utan.

4 days plus in the jungle was really awesome.

the trip was tiring but yet there was so much fun. morning afternoon night - jungle trekking, jungle trekking and more jungle trekking. every day our activities started at 6 and ended at 9-ish. no time was wasted and it was all packed with activities, one after another.

it was really an eye opener. the japanese culture - the way they teach and learn. and the rainforest - it is really beautiful and fill with life. what amazed me was there are many weird looking insects and animals - some look like centipedes but they are actually millipedes. *_*

and i got my leech certificate from BRL - for donating my blood to the tiger leech.

:)

this is about after an hour. fatty greedy tiger leech!

overall, it's really a great experience :)

Chun Wah & Pei Sin

3rd June 2011, at Chin Woo Hall.

they have the biggest troop, the most cameras, the noisiest gang.. and there was so much fun!

pictures of their ROM.

she is the first among my group of close friends to get married.

isn't that awesome? :)

hatchlings

baby Green turtles.

one of my many favourite pictures of the turtle trip

it was a good week spent in a faraway place with no connection to the outside world unless when we're near the Laguna area.

*shall put up more pictures later.

sunny!

grassy

taken at Bkt Tengkorak, Semporna

orange.

at KK.

it was another great weekend spent away from this THM place.

:)

let's drive away

and so i had two trips back to back. First in Kuching and that was a good, fruitful one. i had a 1 day break in LD and whoosh, the Kundasang trip!

we left home at about 6.30am.
the drive was very nice, despite the many crazy potholes.
we talked. we talked nonsense. we complained. we sang.

you'll definitely pass by the entrance to this plantation.
i have always wanted to take picture of the flowers with the clear blue sky.
it makes me feel as if i'm in another country.
:)

We reached Kundasang at about 11.30am and went in to Kinabalu Park. we spent some good hours in the park.

The next morning, we went for sunrise and then the COW PLACE!!

Mt. K.
These 3 were taken from the Desa Dairy Farm :P

I guess one of the beautiful surprises is the visit to Mahua Waterfall in Tambunan. The winding road into the park is kind of scary but it's good that we didn't turn back halfway. The scenery was breathtakingly beautiful.

and we found a huge pill milipede.

Our journey continued in Sandakan and we went to Labuk Bay. Not to forget the seafood breakfast at Sim Sim.

at Labuk Bay.

Back in LD.

i'm happy.

2nd thought on "what's ahead"

1st trip to Kundasang, 5-6th Nov. taken in a cloudy/rainy afternoon.

2nd trip to Kundasang, 14-15th March. taken in a sunny, bright morning.
Mt K can be clearly seen.


i walked further down the trail this time.
and i still think that i could have walked a little bit further.

:)

the first pic is kind of 'cooler' and more mysterious.

and i had one of the best-est holiday/road trip. more pics to come when i have the time and the turtleband is behaving well. i'm still looking through the pic, about 730 of them but not too many jimo shots. geee....

this is what i call 'surprise'

Waterfront, Kuching.
Dewan Undangan Negeri at the back.


i was away in Kuching from the 8th til 12th morning. we left school on the 7th and went on a crazy 6.5 hours of bus ride from LD to KK. The night spent there was - ahem, kind of pathetic, i must say. That's where i realised how homey my 'home' has been to me.

Before the whole basketball thingy, i wasn't really hoping to win big. i was just hoping that we at least maintain the 3rd placing. ok, i secretly did hope that we can win, or come in second in place and got sent as representative of the sabah/swak/labuan (SQL zone).

and then, there comes the news that only the champion will be sent as representative. haih. the chances is even slimmer because in view of the opponent teams and the girls' level... what's left for us? :(

whatever it is, i told them.. just go and see how things unfold themselves.

this is the first game on the 9th, against Sains Labuan, under the hot sun. our match was scheduled to start at 11 but it delayed til 11-ish and ended at about 1.30pm. we won 31-29.


it's not easy to be the coach. the students played all out. i have to think of the strategy to defend and counter attack. i have to think who to substitute because they got tired easily under the hot sun. whoosh. and that labuan coach kept shouting to his players 'PRESS PRESS PRESS!!!!!!!!!!!'

sheeesshhh.......

the first victory was sweet. a sweet surprise. :)

after the 2nd match of the day. we played against Sains Miri and menang tipis, 25-24. front row, the girl in front of the one with the ball was our 'saviour'.

we started of very well, leading the game with quite a few points apart til the 3 quarter. 20-18. 20-20. 22-20. 22-22. 24-22. at the last minute, we were at a tie of 24-24. I was practically shouting at those in the court, trying to restrategise to keep miri from scoring.

I was like, "How can we lose this game when we started of so well????!!"

And then in the last 15 seconds, the saviour-girl was given two free shots. She missed the first one. all pressure was on her.
second shot - YIPPIE!! she did it!!

and a few seconds later, there goes the whistle!

second victory in a day. Double the sweetness.
bad news, one of my main players sprained her ankle and we have another important match the next day.
sigh. the whole night i was thinking "what to do, what to do?"
"how how how?"

i don't have pictures of the 3rd match. we played against Sains Sabah. the points were quite tight, and the girl who sprained her ankle requested that i put her into the match. i hesitated. she said she can wait near the ring and shoot once she got the ball. and it worked tremendously well. we had a good lead by the second quarter until the 3 quarter. Gee, what's with the number 3?
At the middle of 3 quarter, it began to drizzle. the court got wet and slippery. the whole game had to slow down and that actually gave us great advantage. the opponents have no way to close in the gap and we won 22-14.

We knew we won't be able to win the fourth and last match, against Sains Kuching. We lost 14-42. Our aim is not be 'goreng-ed'. That score wasn't too bad, but it could be better.

after the last match against Sains Kuching. The students were happy. So am I.

All the victories were surprises to all of us, albeit we're still disappointed that runner up will not be sent as reps like those previous years.

we're prepared that this would be the end of our basketball journey for the year 2011 and shall do better next year.

We had a closing ceremony on the 11th night. By the end of the ceremony, that's when they announced another surprise. They have decided that the champion and the runner up will be sent to the peninsular in May for national basketball competition of all residential schools.
ROAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!
:)

we couldn't believe our ears and we kept asking each other is that real.

all we can say is..

"PERCAYALAH"

at KKIA. a jump of victory.

there's going to be lots of hard work once the holiday is over. basketball trainings will be the priority besides going in for classes. extra bio classes. etc etc etc.

this trip has taught me to percaya.
believe and have faith.

20th and 26th

why am i feeling 'obligated' to post something on my birthday?

:)

thank you for the birthday wishes
i love February.

holiday

cheers!!
it's Chinese New Year again! :)

i have about 10 days break, minus off the time set aside for traveling to and fro.

cousin's little boy.

about 2 weeks ago. taken using iphone by my cousin, and after being re-sized by facebook. Tried to salvage it a bit by changing it into black and white. healthy little Regan Khaw with daddy's hand.

I shall start planning some photography therapies.

i'm back from The LAB Tour

it was an awesome weekend. the super long hours of train ride. the rain. the walking around. the big B's..

we had 3 SLRs, 2 DSLRs, and an iphone, oh, and my K770i. and a super big amount of pictures taken over the trip. not too many jimo pictures though. the jimo-ness somehow slipped away from me during LAB tour. whatever.

i am quite lazy to form proper sentences, so, phrases will do. :)

AJ, George and TimCheng at Telaga Tujuh.


Ben at Kuala Perlis.

*splashy*

sunset at Kuala Perlis.

There are many other pictures and i am lazy to wait for it to be uploaded. and this is the best booze tour i ever had. we had free shots in 1812, good thing Bolton won! going ga-ga in Coco Valley. trying crazy things. running out to the beach during heavy rain and wondering what are we trying to do.

the thought that came by the end of the trip?

Life is short. Brave the rain storm.

changed it to b&w. and this adds some creepiness to
Ben's version of The Legend of Telaga Tujuh.



Let's
Do
It
Again
!!

let's kick

this was my last assignment for the year. 3 days of Ko-K activities, i was one of those who were in charged of taking pictures for sports event. so cool, kan?

finally, the long awaited year end holidays is here.


i won't miss that place. definitely.

and i am glad that i can stay away from the shack for 6 weeks and forget about the lizards, the bugs, the spiders, the moss, the mould, etc.

those were form 1 and form 2 kids. ah, i am lazy to put up more pictures. it's time to rest after the super long and tiring 12-hours journey.

it feels good to be back in this side of the world. ;)

we remember 'moments'

our moments

for you,

the beautiful souls in my life

the white.

the orange and the pink.

you're amazing just the way you are.

;)

no more borneo paradise for 2010.
now i know how 'geli' it is to walk in
the mangrove swamp during high tide,
stepping on lots and lots of pneumatophores.