Malaysia Festival 2011

Malaysia Festival two-thousand-eleven, a taste of cultural heaven.


Enlivened by the colours of the Malaysian flag, this year's logo symbolises Malaysia’s favourite drink – the Teh Tarik! The flow of the tea takes the form of iconic landmarks across Sydney and Malaysia, expressing the idea of pouring and sharing the vibrant Malaysian culture with the Australian community.

This would be my eighth M-Fest and my good friend, Logann (the Chief Executive Producer of the event), promises it to be the best. Well, judging from this year's website, it certainly does look like it will be the best!

Organised by the Malaysian student community in Sydney, it will be held at Tumbalong Park, Darling Harbour, like it has for the past years. This year marks the 21st year of M-Fest and I am looking forward to the cooking demonstrations by celebrity chefs Alvin Quah and Billy Law of MasterChef fame.

The event will see 15 of Sydney’s best Malaysian restaurants, including Kopitiam, Mamak, Café Kasturi, Jimmy’s Recipe, Aseana Food Village, Chinta Ria, PappaRoti, Jackie M and Abang Sam, serving traditional Malaysian favourites like the roti, nasi lemak and laksa.

Performances at the event range from traditional Malay, Chinese and Indian dances to today’s celebrated music. This year’s line-up features Malaysian artistes by invitation. Perhaps the most exciting bit about M-Fest is the raffle prize draw with many attractive prizes to be won. And of course, it includes the much wanted return MAS ticket to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Other prizes include food vouchers from M-Fest sponsor restaurants and food hampers.

Hopefully, I would be able to meet some old friends there, as well, as I have managed to in the past.

Only one week to go, people! Sunday, October 9, 2011 will be the day! Come along to this FREE event!

Sports Carnival 2008

You must be wondering why I still attend events organised by the 4 Malaysian student unions. To cut to the chase, and also to admit, it is because I freaking BOTHER and haha, I like to be where there are many people.

So, I set my alarm to wake me at 7 in the morning. When it rang, I turned it off and ended up waking up half an hour later. Ah, just in time to go to Coles to buy myself a bottle of Nutella, I thought. Arrived at Coles at 8 sharp, just to be reminded that daylight saving has ended, which means I was ONE HOUR EARLY...

Sigh, nevermind. So I forgotten to turn my clocks back an hour. Thank goodness for petrol stations. Managed to buy my breakfast and lunch there. I ended up arriving really early at the Sports and Aquatic Centre of the University of Sydney. Super early lor...

Main reason for being there was to support Jenny. You should see Jenny in action on court and off. So, er, excited and into the game...

Must be the Gatorades and the Red Bulls that she's had that's making her so pumped up:

The carnival also served as a meeting point, too. Met up with MGM and MFest dancers from last year, like Ru Jih, May Wan, Edison and Kok Kit, who is also my primary schoolmate.

Ah, not forgetting the Mauritian turned Malaysian, Jonathan Leung.. haha..

I've not had so much fun in a long time. This kind of fun only comes when you feel like you are part of a group. On this day, I definitely felt like I belonged. What's funny is that I barely knew this group of people in the morning. By the end of the day, we were exchanging phone numbers, e-mail addresses and snapping photos. I'd have to thank Jenny for introducing her new committee to me! But then, I was also in a self-introducing mood that day, or in Jenny's words, "expanding network mood": Hello, I'm Chrys, er, I didn't get your name. Nice to meet you!

Out of all the new friends I made, I liked three of them the best; Pek Lynn, Vivian and Shaun:

That was what I was up to the entire day, other than cheering for MASA (yes, yes, I am betraying MSA but, hey, I know more people in MASA and they are way cuter and more happening). But, as usual, MSO took the trophy home. They beat everyone else flat in volleyball, basketball, netball, soccer and badminton. MSA won tennis. I think. I cannot recall the results. But, I do know that MSO is overall champion (again), MASA is second, MSA third with SUAMS in last position.

In between, I also took some time to walk around campus, walk Ru Jih back to International House, as well as Chris to his Jewish College accommodation. Ended up finishing off Ru Jih's packet of peanut M&M's, posing to let her check whether I look more like Charlene or Gillian, and talking about relationships. Sigh, Ru Jih, still young la you, enjoy life la. Chris gave me a tour of his college and showed me the MILO can that he's on.

After the sports carnival, Jenny and I went out for dinner in Newtown with Miow. That was when he told us the exciting story of how Nic was issued a speeding fine. He even recorded it on his phone! Dessert was had at the Taiwanese tea place on George Street with Edison. Such a gentleman, he. Not only did he pay for my tea, he paid for my signature hot chocolate as well! Thank you, yea... We finished off the day gossiping, critisizing, hypothesizing and laughing at the wateredge of Darling Harbour.

Easter insanity

It's the Easter break now and all hell has broken lose. When I was supposed to be catching up on research, but I went window-shopping and screaming my lungs out at the Royal Easter Show. Not to mention busy catching up with friends and my ex at the Malaysian Sports Carnival.

Too bad I don't have pictures of Shaun and I on the sling shot. Actually, I take that back. Thank goodness I don't have pictures of that coz I look absolutely petrified. Urgh! $30 for the most heart-stopping 30 seconds of my life! That went my Friday.

Saturday was wasted waiting for Shaun to get his new 'hi-tech' toy - his new Nokia which uses the 3 network. He just can't wait until his plan with Optus ends! So now he has a handset which has a 2.0 megapixel camera! Then, the most unexpected of the unexpected happened. Melvin actually accepted our dinner invitation and brought Josh along for steamboat! Had a great time with them - no awkwardness, just good laughs. I miss that part of Josh, the part who doesn't just disses me in front of a whole crowd just coz of our bad history. Then Melvin had to start a bout of ghost stories, which had Erin, and I sleeping in Shaun's room with a lamp on all night!

Then, the day we have all been waiting for - the day Nic plays netball!!! Haha, I must say that was the most happening netball match I've ever attended. We had nicknames such as 'Woman Dominic', 'Wanker Dominic' and 'Miss Dominic' because he played the WD position. Nic was made famous and he has us to thank. Jun Hui had the whole SUAMS gang cheering 'cheerleader' style:

"Gimme a D! [D!], gimme an O! [O!], gimme an M! [M!] etc... What does that say? DOMINIC! Go, Dominic!"

Now, let's leave it to the pics to do the talking.

Coogee Beach

Date: March 11, 2006
Time: 12:30pm
Venue: Coogee Beach
Event: SUAMS Welcoming BBQ

FYI, SUAMS stands for Sydney University Association for Malaysian Students and the barbeque was to welcome the freshies into the great and exciting life of students in Sydney ala Malaysian style. Haha, there's where I don't fit into the picture. 1) I am NOT from Sydney Uni. 2) I am NOT a freshie. =P

Oh, but I did get food for free. That's coz Miow is the Sports Director and he was sweet enough to get some chicken-tasting hotdogs and a cup of cordial. Couldn't tell what flavour it was, though. Oh, I wasn't the only person who was out of place. There was Ta Seng, our navigator. Haha, oh, but he was a hit with a group of girls. They thought he was really funny.


Erin with some food....


Ta Seng and Shaun with more food....

As I felt bad for eating food that I wasn't supposed to, I didn't eat much. I ended up getting an apple pie from Mackers with Ta Seng. We then went for a hike up the cliff. The view was stunning! Should look at the colours of the rocks and oh, the blue, blue sea....






We also had a brief dip in the baths. It's an enclosure, which is like a pool, just that this one is a natural one, in the seas. Bummer, don't think I have a picture of that. Will remember to take one when I go to Coogee again coz those at Bondi and Manly aren't as 'friendly'. Oh, and the sun!! Look at what it did to Nic..


Spoilt the day with an unknown tantrum. Urgh.... sometimes I hate being myself coz I don't understand half the things I do or say.... Now, don't say I didn't warn you about my mood-swings and temper tantrums. Stay away from me!!!