So, finally (thanks to Kp bugging me about it :P) an update :)
1. SPM
The ordeal was finally over on the 8th of December 2009. No more high school ever! To be honest, it hasn't totally sunk in yet, but I'm kind of starting to freak out about next year. I mean, I suddenly don't know what to do with myself :/ Like I've got about 6 months of freedom. There are talks about going to Cambodia for a month or so with my Nilly to go do some service and a Voice of Baha Tour that I need to get round to and college or IB in July and Japanese classes in June/July... There's just too much to think about.
Oh, and getting a job! I spotted an opening in a pet store in Giant! :) Wouldn't that be awesome? Working in a petshop. Pet-Shop Ally :P
Oh, and I found out I'm in the 2nd or 3rd batch for NS, but for the above reasons I can't go for either so I'll most likely be deferring.
2. Penang 09
By now, if you have me on Facebook, you've probably seen the BUCKETLOAD of pictures my cousin Sofie's put up (Alayna's pictures will soon be joining them) from the Big Ol' Sreeni Vacation in Penang 2009. I think the last time we had a vacation this big was when I was about 6. There were 21 of us in total: my family (6), Aunty Omna's family (7), my Uncle Sha'in's family (6) and my grandparents. I think we took the longest trip to Penang I've ever made. The journey there took us 7 hours! We left at 7am from our house, stopped in Ipoh for dim sum then continued to Penang. From PJ to Penang Anisa rode in Uncle Sha'in's car so the rest of us got to have loads of fun singing and listening to Michael Buble and the Princess and the Frog soundtrack :). Then from Ipoh to Penang, it was my turn to sit in with the baby monkeys (my little cousins :P) in the back seat of Uncle Sha'in's car so I was blasted with Taylor Swift, Miley Cyrus and 2 Andrea Bocelli songs, all of which were on repeat. I came out horrified at myself for humming to You Belong With Me.
When we got to Penang, we had lunch at a hawker centre in view of KOMTAR. The people in our Waja decided to take the ferry to Penang so we'd gotten there about half an hour before the rest of my family showed up. The food there was so-so, but it what surprised me was that they had teppanyaki and sushi there! I mean, seriously, since when have they sold Japanese food in hawker centres? Anyways, we had lots of char kuay teow and some of us had oyster omelette (which caused some -ahem- gastrointestinal problems later, thank God I didn't eat it). After that, we headed to the hotel.
Bayview Beach Resort had taken over Park Royal as being my favourite place to stay in this hotel and it still is, when you consider the price and the cleanliness. It kinda deteriorated this time though, cause I was always used to the place being relatively empty with just a small group of people at the hotel. This time, since it was a long weekened, there were 2 Malaysian tour groups, 1 Japanese tour group, a wedding (ceremony + dinner reception), a meeting for Panasonic Air Conditioner people, the Bayview Annual Dinner and someone else's dinner going on while we were there to add to the regular tourist rush so it was really quite packed.
Us cousins (my sisters and me plus Shayna, Sofie and Nil) all bunked together in a family suite so the girls shared the two double beds while Nilly and I took the single beds. A while after getting settled in our rooms, we headed down to the beach with the little ones (Atira and my little monkeys) even though it was raining. After that, we headed to the pool and then we changed for dinner. We had dinner in this really old restaurant called Guan Guan or something like that. It's a little ways down the road from Park Royal and the food was pretty good. After that, we went to the bazaar for a while, got a couple of DVDs (including Star Trek Voyager's Season 1, which I've been meaning to get for ages) then headed back to the hotel.
The next morning, everyone had the buffet breakfast. Basically, we ate like pigs. The beef sausages were really good and the Cinnamon rolls were even better. I think they put oats and lot of butter in with the cinnamon when they make them so it has a kind of grainy, delicious texture. Yummylicious to the extreme. Oh, and eating there has made me realize that the best green tea I've ever had and I probably will ever have is that Genki green tea I got from Tesco. Nothing else has come close, not even the green tea at the hotel.
After that, we went to the beach and it was raining
again. Seriously, what's up with it raining so often when we're in Penang? It wasn't very heavy but none of us bothered to go put on sunblock, which we paid for later. I think everyone got sunburnt. Anyways, while we were there we found some sea slugs! And I played my guitar by the beach (one of the best feelings ever). After a while, the oldies (aka adults/parents/grandparents) started making their way to the beach. After a while of just hanging out, it started to get more and more sunny and Sofie and Shayna decided they really wanted to go parasailing so everyone started going one by one. First, Shayna and Navin went up and they flew kinda lower than everyone else cause Navin's really heavy, lol. He's not fat, just heavy :P Their landing was the best: they just kinda crashed, lol. Then after them, it was Sofie and Alayna. Their takeoff was the best. They kinda started running along with the line pulling the parachute then Sofi suddenly tripped and Alayna tripped on Sofi's legs then they both suddenly took off. It was pretty cool. Somewhere around this time, Sonia talked me into going up there too, even though I didn't really want to and I still don't want to, I'm kinda glad I did it after all.
After Fie and Nina, was Sunil and Anisa. Then it was Sonia and Atira. After Sonia and Atira was me and Shameera. Worst. Experience. Of my life. I started singing before I they even strapped me in the harness and the whole time the parasailing team was giving me all these weird looks, but I don't really blame them. I must've looked kinda weird, frowning into space going "Oh Mr. Sun, Sun, Mr. Golden Sun, please shine down on me..." Anyway, Shameera was a trooper. The whole time I was on my way up there, I was either screaming, panting or going "oh my God" over and over. Shameera was going "breathe Ally, hey we're supposed to sing remember?" And getting me to sing songs. I feel like SUCH a pansy but I couldn't help it :( Thinking about it now still makes me feel kinda sick. After me was my Uncle Sha'in and Shafireh. Shafi is awesome, she wasn't freaked out at all!
After that, we went to the pool. The funniest thing EVER happened while we were there. When we were all swimming, there was this whole line of people, from old men to little 5 or 6 year old kids, old ladies to 20-something guys lined up by the pool just staring at us. At first, I didn't notice them cause there were lots of people at the pool, but suddenly, it got kinda weird cause they ALL just stared at us and when you stared back, they didn't look away. They were there for like 20 minutes just starting at us. It was kinda freaky. Anyways, after that, everyone went back to the rooms and that was when we realized we were riddiculously sunburnt :P
