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This is not really a blog entry, just a small record for the 3-week gap in which I do not intend to write any blog entries – I’ll explain later.

*No images for this post, just words. Hah!*

Two weeks ago, I went back to Ipoh, and as I said before, somehow I cannot access the internet with my laptop using my house’s internet line. So I could not blog while I was in my hometown.

After I came back from Ipoh, I was faced with the sudden realization that my final examinations was only a week away, and I am still very, very crudely prepared!

I actually planned to study way earlier that that, or at least during my stay in Ipoh… But I guess what other students say is right – you can never study when you’re in your hometown. Haha…

Apart from that, the past week has been the host of a series of unsettling incidents, involving both myself and a number of people around me. Some of these incidents really raise my heavy concern, and most of the time I simply can’t do anything about it…

Since these matters involve other people as well, I have not given myself the liberty to reveal and discuss them, especially in the public domain – sometimes I really wonder what an online diary or blog is for, if there are ethical restrictions to what I can write and express. Huhu…

Of course, I am not complaining. I respect the privacy of other people’s interests and appreciate the fact that I was confided to, or being made aware in the first place. I just wish I could be able to gather more information and assist them more in those matters…

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Anyway, just a small coverage, it was a uniquely memorable Christmas this year!

Unfortunately, this was the first Christmas, since year 2002, that Sebastian was unable to go caroling with us. He had agreed to go with us, but made a last-minute back-out. Conversely, this was the first Christmas that Shuyi went caroling with us!

All in all, I’m glad to be back in my church this Christmas, many other people have returned from different places for Christmas too! However, my return to church this time has sparked a range of unnecessary but funny ‘gossips’ and ‘theories’ that even my parents unhelpfully joined the crowd – not gonna elaborate further.

Today’s December 31st – the last day of year 2007. I wish I could write something much longer and more comprehensive, covering the wonderful events that have happened during the year, but I can only start blogging again after this week… After my final exams. Hopefully I can get through my exams all right!

I can’t understand why the university has to schedule our final exams for this period! Christmas and New Year’s Day! I can’t even go out early for new year’s day countdown tonight because many of my friends are, actually, having some of their final exam papers TODAY! On New Year’s Eve!

Rawr!

Can we sue the university for this?

This Christmas, instead of the usual five to ten names, I prepared a fifty-name Christmas present receivers’ list!

Unlike previous Christmas’s, for which I bought presents of almost the same value for most people; this time, I sorted the names into levels – the higher the level, the more financial and effort priority would be given to the person’s present.

No, I am not being selective or biased towards my friends!

For 50 people, if I buy, you know, ‘cheap‘ items, it would be rather stingy of me to some friends who are much closer to me than the others; but if I buy equally ‘expensive’ items for all 50 people, I would be totally broke before new year!

Anyway, I started my Christmas shopping two weeks ago.

Before and during that period, I, with different groups of friends, visited different malls to get Christmas presents and also to see their Christmas decorations! Because like I said two entries ago – shopping malls are some of the few places where you can experience decent Christmas atmosphere!

Since some of the shopping malls were so nicely decorated, I’m going to spend this entry recording the Christmas decorations of a few notable malls!

Let’ see… I visited seven, so I’m going to describe each of them - starting from the one that ‘needs the most improvement‘, to the best of them all!

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Rank #7 – Sunway Pyramid

Basically, I couldn’t find much Christmas decorations in Sunway Pyramid, save an icy little Cartoon Network stage at the mid area with a sign saying “Welcome to the north pole“, which I find to be rather cute.

Actually, there were other nicer decorations as well! I can remember one that looks like a huge toy house, but as far as I know, it was actually set up by Memory Lane and they were selling souvenirs and stuff in it.

Since it was set up by Memory Lane, I don’t think we can consider it a Sunway decoration! Hah!

Their ice-skating rink was nicely decorated, with little Christmas trees mounted on the pillars!

Perhaps it was the fact that Sunway emphasized more on the outside that we found so relatively few decorations in the shopping mall.

Look, the street outside the Pyramid is brilliantly decorated!

Sunway Pyramid: Not too bad, but they sure have a lot of space to improve.

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Rank #6 – Berjaya Times Square

The main entrance of Times Square was dominated by a sole, gigantic Christmas tree with huge snowflakes hanging around the upper part of it!

This picture was taken from the second floor, quite a distance away. But if you stand beneath it, it really is huge!

The Christmas tree at Times Square reminds me of my own Christmas tree in my room, because they both have lots of red and white colour-striped candy sticks on them!

Also, Santa and his err… assistant, was in Times Square!

I’m taller than Santa! Lol!

Overall, decorations in Times Square was more of the ‘typical’ type, you know. The Christmas tree, Santa, and the usual bright and colourful stuff hanging around... Compared to the others, Times Square could really do with a bit of motivation in their Creative Department…

Maybe I was just unlucky, missed out some of their events… Or maybe I went there too early, and some of the decorations were not out yet… Hmm…

Berjaya Times Square: I didn’t get any candy or present from Santa! Maybe he thought we were too old…

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Rank #5 – Suria KLCC

Lol… KLCC… I don’t know what to say about it!

Like, the 30-metre tall Chirstmas tree in KLCC would be, err, EXTREMELY grand and impressive, if it wasn’t for the fact that it has been there for, I think, FOUR or FIVE consecutive years now – the same old tree every Christmas!

I can still remember watching the Suria KLCC commercial on TV when I was still in Ipoh, few years back, the Christmas tree looked so tall and grand, and I was thinking something like: “Wow… The shopping complex in the Petronas Twin Towers in KL! Of course they have such grand stuff!”

But now, it’s really starting to get boring…

Of course, I understand the cost consideration of simply throwing away such a huge piece of decoration, but still… They’ve got to think of something new soon! Most shopping malls change their Christmas ideas annually!

Suria KLCC: Take the tree down, give it to the old folks’ home, plant it outside the Twin Towers, sell it on eBay… oh I don’t know! Just change it ler~!

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Rank #4 – Mid Valley

The decorations at Mid Valley were, all in all, quite special!

They’ve got a huge set of flower-themed decorations at the centre court with a number of tall Christmas trees. At first glance, the centre court looked like a nice little garden during autumn, but with flowers blossoming everywhere!

Inside the ‘garden’, there was a stage on which people took pictures and kids played.

It was very amusing at that time when the people kept asking strangers around them to take pictures for them. I can remember this particular couple of ladies who asked us to operate their camera for them; and even after we left, went on another floor, visited some shops, and when we looked down from above, they were still there – at different positions, still taking pictures!

They must be very photogenic!

Later that night, there was a performance on the stage. It was some kind of Disney performance and dance – from what I made out of the music… Haha all my photos of the performance are blurred, so I don’t think I’ll post them.

Mid Valley: Not bad, really; lots of money spent on flowers, but somehow it just doesn’t seem too ‘Christmas’, to me.

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Rank #3 – 1 Utama

1 Utama has the cutest ever Christmas decorations in town!

An enormous 38-feet toy soldier stood proudly, overlooking the tiny little shoppers like us, along with a dozen other smaller soldiers beside it!

The best part of it, they could actually move! The hands holding the drumstick really moved up and down and the head of the giant toy soldier was slowly moving side-to-side! It was very amusing to see the way it swayed its head while hitting the drum!

Check out how big its head was!

I think the hat itself is almost (or bigger than!) the size of my entire body!

Too bad there wasn’t any performance or anything going on when I was there. My friend later told me that there will be performances on the stage, around the little toy soldiers!

Anyway, I found a funny thing there, someone labeled the wrong price tag on this Christmas tree bell… It costs a hundred Ringgit!

Scary, isn’t it?

1 Utama: Very special and charming, any kid would be crying to leave the area.

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Rank #2 – The Curve

It was snowing at The Curve!

When I was there, a ’snowing event’ was on, there were people spraying artificial snow (which was actually foam) at The Street from the walkway above – for, I think, around 15 minutes!

The feeling was very special when you actually see ’snow’ flying around, children around you were playing with and trying to grab it, feeling the cool night breeze brush on your face, standing on a street with rows of brightly lit Christmas trees on both sides, and finally with a small live band beside you singing: “Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!”

Wow!

It sure was nice.

Next, stepping in The Curve, I found a nice, warm decorative cottage in the middle – with a piano, fireplace, and a couple of cosy couches inside… Oh, how I wish I could just get in, sit down, and sleep!

But too bad it wasn’t open for public…

All around the cottage were gigantic snowflakes hanging in the air and snow-covered ground with cute snowmen and reindeers!

And beside the house stood a towering Christmas tree, I think like two-storeys tall!

The entire concourse was made into something like a winter wonderland! Actually there was even a small ‘ice-skating rink’ to the left of the house – for kids. It wasn’t really ice, just roller skates, but the kids were enjoying it, and the sight of it all was really nice!

The back of the house is just as nice as the front!

The Curve: Magnificently done, I particularly liked the snowing part!

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Rank #1 – Pavilion KL

I know I’ve already mentioned about Pavilion two entries ago, but anyhow, I just can’t leave it out of the list!

Hands down, Pavilion is definitely the most ‘uniquely Christmas’ mall of all the those listed in this entry to me! They’ve got a three-storey-high, brilliantly glowing, silver ‘Christmas tree’ – with lots of bright chandeliers hanging all over it!

The majestic structure stood gracefully in the middle of the concourse area, with the perfectly symmetrical escalators on pointing up on either sides of it… Wow, you just can’t help but stand there and admire its magnificence!

Not only that, other small things like the dimly-lit withered trees along the path and the glittering lights hanging from the ceiling simply fit perfectly together with the overall grandeur!

What’s more, the ‘tree’ is occupy-able! See the brightly lit ‘layers‘ on the tree? They are actually pathways for a whole choir to stand on!

Haha, you must really admire how stable the whole thing is! I can imagine the choir members at the highest level must be totally sweating and mumbling to himself: “don’t looking down, don’t look down…”. Lol!

With microphones on every level of the ‘tree’, the sound volume of the choir was really good, and the selection of songs was even better. I wonder how frequent they’ll be performing there…? Daily? weekly? Or were we just lucky – on that day only?

Anyway, next they even have performances by costume-dancers!

All in all, Pavilion ownz Christmas this year!

Pavilion KL: My favourite so far! The role model for shopping malls’ Christmas decorations and events!

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So there you have it! The top seven nicest, grandest, ‘Christmas-est’ malls around!

OK… OK… I know there might be other nicer, grander, and ‘Christmas-er‘ malls elsewhere, but these are the ones that I’ve been to this Christmas, so the others don’t count in my blog!

Anyway, I’m going back to Ipoh for Christmas next week, I dunno when can I update again, so… Merry Christmas!

Yesterday, I was ill. Had fever, a severe headache, runny nose – essentially all the symptoms of a really bad cold.

In fact, I’m still feeling unwell now, but I think the fever is temporarily under control by medication. Oh… I really hate these rainy days!

Last night, I took my medicine and planned to go to bed rather early; because the next morning my friend and her family were going overseas, and her father charged me with the task of following the family to the airport, driving the car back, and safeguarding two of their cars while they are on vacation.

A fun task, but challenging nevertheless. The car that I was supposed to drive back is a rather huge one – something that I am not that used to driving; and furthermore, it’s manual! I quite suck in handling manual cars, you know! Hehe…

Therefore, with such a task ahead of me, I had to totally get enough sleep, otherwise…

BUT THEN,

It seemed like my current house, which was already in a terrible condition – with annoying wiring and piping problems -, didn’t want this poor guy to get any rest!

Last night, the bathroom on the second floor, whose pipes were already severely blocked and pending repair, gave me a memorable Christmas present by overflowing and literally flooding the whole damn second floor common area!

*All the photos you see in this entry were taken after the major flood was cleared. Everyone was too panicky to take any photos before that! So the real situation was really much worse than what you see in the photos!*

I was preparing to go to bed so I did not notice the water creeping into my room through the slit beneath the door!

No one paid any attention to the loud sound of water flowing down the staircase, all assuming it was the sound of the rain – it’s been raining everyday!

Suddenly, we heard Sebastian yelling from downstairs – “OOOI…!!”

All of us upstairs thought his “OOOI…!!” would be followed by some typical “... create DotA lor!“ or “… yum cha lor!“; but instead, it was “… water coming out from the toilet upstairs ah?!“

When I looked at the direction of my door, I yelped – the door mat was already completely drenched, and part of the carpet was already infected by the eeeky, smelly, disgusting bathroom water!

Opening the door, I was completely stunned on the spot.

The common area between our rooms was filled with moving water! Moving water that was coming out from the abandoned bathroom and flowing down the staircase like a bloody waterfall!

Nick, who occupies the room opposite mine, had his computer sitting on water! (his CPU is on the floor!)

Moving our way downstairs, we saw in terror that half of the living room was flooded with yellowish water!

I half imagined Jon’s pet rabbits would be, like, floating around and struggling and drowning; but of course that did not happen! It wasn’t that serious!

At once we took action. We started barricading the doors with anything that we could find, to prevent more water from getting into the rooms.

It was also at that point when we realized that the internet router, the wire extension, an electrical port, and a jungle of wires were on the floor, drenched in water!

Immediately we switched off everything in the area and put those items on higher ground as Heng stepped into the super-duper disgusting bathroom with a bucket and started transferring the flood water into the toilet.

Apparently the bathroom floor drain and the toilet do not share the same pipe, and very luckily for us, the toilet pipe was not blocked!

You have no idea how disgusting and smelly the trapped water was!

Slowly, the water stopped flowing and we proceeded to the exhausting process of sweeping the water from upstairs to downstairs, and from the living room, out of the house.

It was endless – we kept sweeping but the water was so much that it took a very very long time to clear!

We actually planned to go watch Hitman at Mines that night but no doubt we had to cancel it – of course earlier that day I had already known I wouldn’t be able to go with all the headache and fever, but I didn’t imagine that everyone would be staying home together and clearing a house flood!

After clearing the water, a friend came with a huge pile of newspapers from his house and we put thick layers of paper covering the floor; as it was bound to stink considering that it was bathroom water that had just flooded our house…

… bathroom water, get it? Anything – solid or liquid – from anywhere could be inside! Ewwww!

After the floor became relatively dry, immediately we started washing the stuff that were soaked, including my doormat, some fabric, my bag and other stuff.

One of my new bath towels, which very unfortunately fell into the flood, was disposed of. I don’t think I would dare to use it no matter how many times it is washed!

Everything ended very late that night, and for the whole night we were anxious that it would happen again, while we were sleeping!

Luckily it didn’t!

This afternoon, the agent of our house asked a contractor to come and try to fix the problem, and guess what he said?

“Major blockage, might have to drill walls and stuff…! Err… Let me talk to Cindy first!” (Cindy is the agent)

And he left.

Let’s hope he comes back soon and fixes it soon, I don’t think we can survive the floods for more than a few times!