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read between the lines
getting high (literally) just got some bad news at the start of this month. all i can say is, i don't think it was a fair verdict. but anyway, thankfully on the day after, i was able to get away from things for a while and escape to kl, having had an important meeting to attend to at the same time.that important meeting had to do with attending a certain embassy for the second time (as in the second time i had to attend this country's embassy albeit in a different branch/outlet). although i failed yet again in my request (the first was a failed effort in sg), at least i can say i tried...i've never done anything like it before, or for anyone before so i'll just accept it as a premature attempt of an experience and move on. [note: months later, the local paper's opinion section highlighted similar failures females like me had experienced -- no wonder my male peer got in without any hassle! but to be fair, the service i received in kl was a million times better than the stinking reception i got in sg (being shouted at at the first counter and being cut off while asking questions at the last).] my brother, who'd given me a lift earlier, was asleep, so i had to flag a cab and kill time. i was about to go to the city centre when i discovered that my cabbie drives all the way up to genting highlands for a reasonable enough sum! so in an impromptu effort to 'run away', i told him to drive me there. halfway up, he winded down the windows and i found the outside air much colder than the car's air-conditioning which we were previously breathing on. three quarters of the way up, the entire view around us fogged up so thickly that we literally couldn't see the road in front of us (nor a car, for that matter). at that point i was very thankful for the wider-than-cameron-highlands roads and slow-and-familiar-with-the-roads driver. finally, we reached the start of the cable skyway and i agreed to contact him later for my trip down. the cable ride up was nostalgic -- memories of half-hour early-morning talks alone with god surfaced, although at the time it was close to lunchtime and there were two other strangers seated behind me in the cable car i was in. i felt elated the minute the three familiar landmark hotels came into view at the peak and when we all got off at the platform. it's so hard to believe that it's been half a fricking decade since i was last at genting. still, my feet were still able to find their way down to the theme park area. the indoor theme park had a lot of considerable changes, and my favourite ride (a rollercoaster that swung so hard around corners it gave me bruises which i wore proudly) was under repair, so i tried waiting for the perennial favourite (bumper cars). we got up to seven people (a good enough number to start playing already...sigh) and half an hour before one of them gave up and his family of after that, it was time to take advantage of the lunch hour and conquer the outdoor theme park. my favourite rollercoasters were still around so they were natural first choices. i also decided to try the lake paddles even though it was drizzling (usually means less people which means less collisions and even lesser risk of capsizing, 'cos i can't swim nor float to save my life), and it was an amusing ride 'cos i ended up chat-messaging someone online a necessary update in the middle of a lake on a highland...hahah. the chairswing was still falsely freaking newbies out (the girl next to me who looked around my age range asked me if the ride was scary) but for an adrenaline junkie like me, being flung in the air without feeling ground beneath your feet was nothing jittery. some rides were no longer in operation and there was a new coaster that was under construction, but i was in winter-without-ice wonderland and nothing was going to get me down, not even a high presence of smelly middle-eastern men in classic galabiyya garb (no offence, but i haven't yet walked past a fresh, non BO-smelling galabiyya wearer -- not in our climate). nothing but the end of the day, that is. i took the cable ride and subsequently, the cab, back down to ground level. i directed him to a pseudo-sg mall and by chance, saw a banner advertising a free concert at klcc park with hoobastank as the headliner. long story short, i went down to the park the next evening to witness them and bunkface/azenders (the only other band worth listening to, mainly because sam sings in the style of billy joel armstrong) perform. i'm not sure if hoobastank says this at every concert, but they said we were their favourite location and thankfully, they rewarded us by closing the entire concert with their one-hit wonder the reason (they must be so sick of playing it but i'm glad they played it again, 'cos it's the only song of theirs i'm familiar with). one really commendable thing about this event was the security guards: for not being the usual roughhandling, rude mistreaters to fans like me who sometimes climb to higher vantage points to get a better view of filming things. i encountered various guards in my attempts at various locations and all of them kindly asked me to climb down (no shoving, no scolding) so kudos to them and the organisers that hired them. i had a surreal late-night supper after that with a friend, while waiting for my brother to end his own gang's supper since he's the only one with the house keys. anyway, to add to the jetsetting mood i was in, i flew direct from kl to sg in time for cell group on saturday, which i'll continue in the next entry. |
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