What is New Zealand known for? Its a tie between dairy products, rugby, the place they shot Lord Of The Rings, and undoubtedly sheep. Sheep outnumber humans here in New Zealand seven times which basically means there are seven times more sheep than there are humans. Thats a whole lotta sheep.
I was out with Rahmat to get some stuff for the car (which we didn't get because it was easter, and nothing was open), when Iylia texted me, the text read "we have a new pet". I replied asking what pet?, but he never answered. When we got back to our house, we found out what the pet was....
It was a sheep or a ram to be exact. I certainly did not expect this. I was seriously thinking we had a rat in the house, or a cat suddenly decided to call our flat its home, but a ram in our backyard? never. Sam actually discovered it and ran in to get Iylia, who went out and petted the ram, and when he tried to tie the leash (it had a leash, sort of, which led to us concluding that it was someones pet) to our clothes drying thing, the ram got mad and chased Iylia all over. Luckily, Adzhar happened to drop by, and took control of the situation and proceeded to tying the animal to the clothes drying thung....all of this happened before me and Rahmat came back, which was a shame, because Iylia getting chased by a Ram should be an amusing sight.
Iylia called animal control, and we just hung out there waiting for them to come. The ram was actually very friendly, but it did leave presents on our lawn, and a bit on the pathway leading to the clothes drying thing. While waiting for animal control to come, we did what anyone would do in this situation...took pictures and videos of it, as I don't think it would be happening again anytime soon. Check my youtube for the actually aimless video of the ram. Haha
After 20 minutes of wholesome sheep fun, someone came and asked "you guys didn't happen to see a sheep running around did you?" which would have been a really weird question on any other day, Turns out it was the neighbor across the street from our house who was the owner. Iylia immediately called off animal control and our excitement for the day was over. Only in New Zealand.
On another note....my cousin Kak Intan got married yesterday, without any complications and was told Fahmy lafaz skalik jer...bravo. I am really happy for her and her husband, but yet a bit sad because I couldn't be there with my family to celebrate the occasion. So to Nor Intan and Fahmy, Selamat Pengantin Baru, semoga ke anak cucu.
Alright, here goes. I am a Malaysian, and I consider myself a pretty patriotic one. However I never really indulged myself in the politics of Malaysia. One could say, i'm pretty buta politic. As all Malaysians have undoubtedly have already known, we just got through our 12th election last weekend. The results have spoken. BN suffered a big loss, losing their 2/3 majority vote in Parliament. I checked on Subang, and saw that BN lost that as well, to DAP, I was like wooah. Pembankang menang siut. I was actually worried....
Then I stopped, and thought to myself,..."ok...BN lost to DAP, so now what?.what was the significance?"
Someone explain to me what's gonna change?. I know. using Subang as an example, the overall feel of Subang won't change much. I can understand if PAS was to take over Subang, there would probably be no more Asia Cafe, and yes like I told makcik in Dublin, women probably won't be able to shoot pool anymore at Asia Cafe anymore, because there would be no Asia cafe, and because its not proper for women to play pool? Ok maybe I'm being overly harsh on the what ifs when PAS is concerned.
But seriously, to someone who actually had no big problems with BN, someone explain to me what will change. I asked Sheng and Eugene today, and probably shouldn't have done that, because if you know Sheng, he'll have a long factual explanation, talking bout economies and such, while if you knew Eugene, he'll just talk bout the subject aimlessly. Which left me basically where I started, I need terms I can understand.
Theres probably an issue with corruption, and the fact that prices of everything are rising. I know the opposition are promising changes in the NOW, but after watching an news clip of Tan Sri Dr Koh Tsu Koon, where he explained, in order to implement the changes promised by DAP in particular, taxes are going to be raised, and that consequently effects the future generation. With corruption, hey, I'm gonna be a pessimist bout this and say it won't go away. Reduced yes, vanish? no way.
I read LSG's blog and he mentioned the election as well, and he was writing specifically bout Nurul Izzah, who in all my blurness in the arena of politics and general homeland knowledge, is the daughter of none other than Wan Azizah leader of PKR. She won her battle with Dato' Sharizat, and after googling Nurul Izzah's name, and then saw her picture...I wondered, in a totally comical thought (kena state, maner tau kena saman ker)....did the voters vote for her because she has the caliber, or because she looks more attractive, in my opinion on a poster than Dato' Sharizat. I mean if I was like a neutral voter, and a normal joe, I would pick Nurul Izzah hands down just because. I can safely say guys work that way.
Often at family gatherings, when I sit amongst my family members, and listen to their stories, complaining bout this and that about the government, I guess its kind of interesting and maybe a bit refreshing to see Malaysians do want change and it actually happened this time. We'll see I guess, how well the opposition delivers, and also interesting to see how BN reacts. Will the loss trigger the change in them? I hope that BN or oppostion, in all their battles, don't forget about Malaysia and Malaysians.
Reporting after the last out of place "emo-ish" post.
New Zealand the second time round for me was exactly that, revisited, no thrill of the guy who left home the first time, but someone coming back home to his current home base. Everything was pretty much where it should be when I came back to Palmy. The flat was kinda hectic, with most of the guys holding up here to avoid starting paying for the halls too early. That meant stuff were lying everywhere, living room packed, mine and iylia's room had visitors, and I lived out of the suitcase for another week. After most of the guys moved into the halls, I cleaned up my room, unpacked my stuff, rearranged my furniture in my room, started making it my own again.
Anyways, house matters aside, MUMSA had its clubs day booth up, and boy oh boy, we had loads of new members signing up. To date, there are, if not mistaken, 12 new scholarship students from the respective sponsors. Thats an increase from last year. Either Massey is becoming a popular destination now, or we (the "old" students) did a good job of marketing Palmerston North, and Massey, either by word of mouth to respective juniors, or we just made this place "happening" because we are that cool. haha. Not counting the scholarship students, we have a handful of new private students as well, making this year, undoubtedly the largest number of members for MUMSA.
The kickoff event held by MUMSA was the bbq, held at the ICC (again),which would turn out to be a bit on the small side, as almost all that registered on clubs day turned up plus Mr.Prez decided to include the post graduates and their families to join as well. The event was really organized from start till finish, which led to Eugene commenting, "Malaysians ker nih? semua dah prepared before hand, and on time pulak tuh", which I thought was funny and honestly a very sensible question to ask. Food was prepared almost a day before, and chicken was pre-cooked (so that people won't have to wait long for their chicken to bbq) with 3 hours to spare. People turned up on time, and as I said before, the place was packed. But all in all, MUMSA collectively did a great job in my opinion.
The haunted maize maze was revisited again. The event this time was joined by some members from WMSO. The venue was different from the last time MUMSA went. It was in a place called Marton before, 40 minutes away, but now its a brand new maze, in Sanson. 25 minutes away. I have to say, it was nowhere near as scary as the one in Marton, and half the time to complete it. But to look at the glass half full, we had a good time, hanging out with the newbies, and our friends from WMSO, which is all good.
Oh yeah, classes. Started, 3 I like, 1 don't like mainly because of the lecturer, and out of the 3 classes that interest me, only two I actually pay attention to everyday because of the excellent lecturer who makes you participate, so you don't really have time to let your mind wander off.
