Race

(I'm backdating this, so memory recall might not be great)

My company's Sports Club has been surprisingly active this year, churning out events every two months or so, which is nice as I get to know my colleagues better outside of work.

This time, we had set out to do a Treasure Hunt, similar to The Amazing Race, travelling across Klang to Putrajaya, KLIA 2, and ultimately Port Dickson.

So below is a snapshot of our team ("The Evil Treasure Hunters" - not my idea) at the start of the race.

From left: Me, Ryan, Ya Houy and CK

Before we starting disliking each other (jokes!)

We did rather well for a bunch of newcomers (CK excluded), as we breezed through the first half with little fuss.  The second half saw us make some errors as we were rushing to finish the race (there was a time limit with penalties for late-comers).

Ultimately, we finished third!  Plus we got to spend the weekend in PD roaming about so that was great.  

The Mewah Dairies' Teams

I had also stumbled into Bryan and Celine when we were at the PD Waterfront post-event so it was nice getting to see them after two years.  Bryan recognized me from afar from my signature(ish) beanie.  And Ya Houy was giving me stick for it earlier that day...

Islands In The Stream - 

Dolly Parton & Kenny Rogers

Python

Assistant Manager: "Leaving work so soon?  Don't you still have things to do?"

Arguably, it was past official working hours, so I've little incentive to stay back on a Friday evening.

Me: "Yes, I still have work.  But I need to be in Subang in an hour's time.  So I'll see you next week!"

I made a mad dash through the locker room at work, forgetting to collect my pendant from the locker as I keyed in the GPS on my phone to Sunway University.

I was meeting up with Miss Malissa, my Sunway lecturer when I was there some four, five years ago.  

She gave me a brief tour of the new facilities, the newly relocated, refurbished and renamed Center for American Education (CAE, formerly known as American Degree Transfer Program, ADTP) as well as the impressive new library and expanded canteen before having dinner at a nearby cafe. 

Conversations ran long as we covered a vast range of topics over the three-odd hours I was there.  But a few notably stood out, of which I should:

1. Really, really try to find time to talk to transferring students about to go abroad and 
2. To strongly consider the taking up a Graduate Research Assistant (GRA) position with the university.

The former is rather tricky, since the sessions are held on the weekdays (to cater to students).  But I did submit my CV to her for the latter.  If that gets me into grad school, that would be great.  I'll just need to wait and see.

Lastly, there's a NASA Hackathon happening in KLCC in some three week's time so I was invited to form a wonder-team of fresh-grad misfits.  Here's the lineup:

Chin (Machine Learning enthusiast)

Roger (Game designer)

Danny (Aeronautical engineer)

Me (wildcard, coffee-grabbing, people-managing, presenter?)

As such, I'm starting to learn Python 3x programming.  But I'm a technophobe at times so this will probably amount to nothing.  Here goes...

Send Them Off! - Bastille

Shut

He fucked up.  And it was clear to see.

A moment ago, he was cruising back home to family, football talk on the radio, hand on the wheel.  He was tired: work this week involved more running around the factory than normal.  All he sensed was the discussion on player form, and the warm lighting illuminating the highway.  He was calm, floating for a brief moment...  then it turns dark...  silence.

BANG!!  

A slamming thud sends his nerves pulsing, his eyes widen to readjust to see the roadside barrier too close to his left side.  Horror sets in, as he immediately realigns to his lane.  His heart sank into the pit of his stomach as he glanced at his now-bent side-view mirror.  Beyond that, a 20-metre drop onto a separate highway.

He can feel his face flushing now, heat spreading to the back of his ears and temple.  He fucked up, big time.

Shortly a petrol station comes up as the driver pulls over to assess his wrongdoing.  Black streaks run across the side chassis, as he pushes his mirror back in place.  No dents, but what the fuck?! he retorts.

He tries to calm down as he returns to the driver seat.  Screams drown out the radio announcement as he curses his idiocy.  He'll hold onto this secret for the time being, unsure if it'll ever see the light.

The sound of bent sheet metal would accompany his sleep for the coming weeks. 

Don't Like.1 - Kanye West, Chief Keef, Pusha T Big Sean, Jadakiss