I’m back in Kuching, Sarawak. Nothing much to say except everything up to this point was very hectic. I had not had a proper sleep for 2 days, and my body was overdosed with Red Bull. My last few days in Perth was spent selling off everything that I can’t bring, packing everything that I can bring, helping Nicole move to her new place, driving Nicole’s parents around, and removing 8 years worth of junk in the house so that the new owners can move right in.

The amount of junk in my bedroom

Nicole’s parents are such a cool bunch. They were in town to attend Nicole’s graduation on the 26th February. Funnily, her parents seems to be happier on that day than Nicole herself. Her mom and dad are ever so ready to pose for my camera, whereas the graduation girl would hesitate like its no big deal. “Its just Curtin Business School, not Harvard Business School.” Sheesh, KL girls! 🙂

Curtin University of Technology Graduation Ceremony

The graduation ceromony was held outdoors in the courtyard on campus grounds. The weather that evening was cool and soothing, which makes it ideal to hold such event outdoors. The ceremony itself followed the SOP (Standard Operating Procedures) – boring speech, give out some awards, inspirational speech, give out more awards, one more trying-to-be inspirational speech, the end.

Fireworks! Oooooh…. Ahhhhh….

Probably the funniest moments during the ceremony was listening to the ang-moh MC trying to pronounce the long and complicated Indian and Thai names with great difficulty. The ceremony concluded with a spectacular fireworks display.

Maybe the Asian food here was meant to be for the Kwai Lo?
There were several foodstalls serving international cuisine later that night. Here’s the photo of the Asian food stall. Pardon my rusty Mandarin, but I think the Chinese word on the stall said Gui, which means literally – Ghost. Whoever designed that food stall must be a very disgruntled employee. 😉

Perth Cityscape on the 28th February 2005

By Sunday evening with a few hours left to board the plane, we managed to clear everything out of our house. Without a bed to sleep on and reluctant to rent a hotel room, Nicole and I went on a car ride around the city and ended up in King’s Park where we had a brief heart-to-heart talk. I took one last photo of cityscape of Perth.

The taxi to take me away from my home to my home

When we returned home, the taxi was already there waiting for us.
I arrived at Perth International Airport, still relatively calm. Perhaps I was sedated by the fact that I did not sleep for 2 days. Ignoring calls asking passengers of MH126 to go through the gates, Nicole and I spent our last minutes drinking coffee at Dome Cafe. I was still calm.

Perth International Airport

We hugged, and I walked through the sliding doors into the departure hall. Then I remembered how long it was going to be before I see her again, and all of the sudden I just lost it and cried. Say what you want about men crying, but I teared and wept even when I presented my passport to be stamped. What made it even worse was that Nicole’s parents were at the departure hall as well waving at me happily like nothing happening.

Kuching International Airport

So now I’m back in Kuching. Hot, wet, humid. And for someone like me who have been away for 8 long years, I’ll probably experience reverse culture shock. As much as I try not to, I’ll probably inadvertantly try to compare Kuching with Perth. Well, things are more or less back to normal now, and kennysia.com is more or less back in action.
Only this time round it’ll have more of a Malaysian laksa-flavour.

Re-editted from draft.

5 hours left.

5 hours left! Surprisingly I’m relatively calm, but I suspect
not for too long. I apologise I cannot visit blogs/reply comments/take a piss
these few days without paying $4 an hour for internet access here whilst being
surrounded by dozens of pimply-faced teenagers screaming obsceneties whilst
playing Counterstrike. Dammit, 5 hours left – I should be I standing tall by
the beach watching the sun rise, one foot stepping on a rock, wind blowing
my hair, acting sad yet strong, whilst Leaving on a Jetplane plays
in the background.

Stupid Hollywood.

Well guess what? I ain’t leaving Perth till I finish the final entry of my Reflections on Perth.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

The year was 2004.
Ok let’s jump straight to the point – 2004 sucks. Big time. You may remember
that in 2004, Bennifer became
no more. J-Lo married Marc Anthony. Rebecca Loos and Malaysian-born Sarah Marbeck
all claimed to have slept with David Beckham just so that they can earn a few
extra bucks from the gossip magazines. Britney Spears married Kevin “Golddigger” Federline
who happen to have two kids. And then there was The Nipplegate Scandal when
Janet Jackson’s left tit said "Hello!" to the whole wide world.

“Hello everybody! I am Janet Jackson’s left boobie! :)”

On a more sombre note, George Bush and John Howard lied about the WMD, spent billions of dollars in iRaq and both won re-elections, confirming two things: lying gets you to places, people care only about themselves. Sad but true. The largest natural disaster of its kind – The Asian Tsunami crisis took the lives of over 200,000 people on 26th December 2004.

I had mentioned numerous times in my previous entries how much I disliked 2004. That’s no secret. For many people 2004 is the year the world went through war, famine and suffering. For me, I went through a near-crisis in my relationship, multiple burglaries and the beginning of a difficult journey when the news about my father come about.

Fresh grad ready to kick ass!

The year started steady and strong. I was 22 years old. I was a fresh graduate who only just started my employment with Spectra, and still earning a few bucks here and there tutoring Business Statistics.

Nicole had just finished her course at Curtin University in July. With her
Student Visa finishing up, she applied for Permanent Residency in Australia.
So while we were waiting for her application to be approved, I encouraged her
to work casually as a farmhand in a place called Gingin, where a lot of backpack
travellers are also working there to earn some cash. Looking back, I regretted
letting her go.

Gingin – the place that took my girlfriend away and changed her into a different person.

Gingin changed Nicole almost into a totally different person. The people Nicole
stayed with in Gingin were mostly Europeans in their late-teens/early 20s on
their gap
year. The fact that they are so independant at such young age make Nicole
feel that she missed out on the best times of her life. I do not disagree with
that. In KL she lived with her parents, whereas in Perth I played the role
of the restricting boyfriend. One night in September while I was lying next
to her, she turned to me and said "I needed my own space."

I agreed, thinking that every couple need some time to be apart from each other for the relationship to grow. It was just a temporary phase that most couples need to go through. I could handle it.

But I was wrong. What I thought was 3 days become a week, then 2 weeks, then
a month, then 3 months. During this period of time I prevented myself from
trying to meet her. She was in Gingin with her German friends and I was in
Perth alone. We grew apart and many times we felt like just normal friends.
She would rather stay at her friend’s place for the weekend instead of meeting
me. The worst part was when we are supposed to go out with our group of friends,
I went there alone and when I was asked "Where’s Nicole?",
I had absolutely no idea. There was no longer ‘we’ in our relationship,
just ‘her’ and ‘I’.
I was in a relationship, but I never felt more single in my life. I gave her
the space that she need, but many times I fear that the relationship is just
not going to work out.

As if things couldn’t get worse, my car was continuously burgled. Those low-life scumbags would smash my car window ($250 repair) and took whatever was inside the car – sometimes nothing at all. I had my car broken into 3 times that year. Among the things stolen were some spare change ($10), my speed camera detector ($200), my jacket ($100), the faceplate of my CD player ($170), digital camera ($200) and my time spent to process the insurance claims (priceless). The stupidest thing was that I deliberately left my car unlocked so that they could steal anything inside if they wanted to – yet they still smashed my car window! Gerammmm….

My car, my house were broken into many times throughout the year

I had tried many ways to calm myself down, entertain myself a little and take my mind off all the commotion. So I bought a Microsoft XBox gaming console one evening as a Christmas gift for myself, wanting to spend time with it because Nicole was away in Gingin and the rest of my family were away in Malaysia. I had it for one night, just a one night stand. Until someone broke into the house and ran away with not just my XBox, not just my Playstation 2, but also my pride, my dignity, my love.

Dear thief, if you are reading this, I have only this to say to you… You can take away my XBox, but you can never take away MY FREEDOM!!!

At that point in time, it seemed as if everything that could go wrong, had gone wrong. None of them seemed to prepare me for what was about to happen on the 26th October, when I learnt that my father has contracted cancer. All of the sudden, my plans changed totally, and nothing else seems to be as important anymore.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

This is the last of my Reflections on Perth. If you have been following this memoir of mine, thank you. I know its such a dry read because I fell asleep several times whilst I spell-checked it.

And so, this closes one chapter of my life, and opens up a new one.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to the beach watching the sun rise, one foot stepping on a rock, wind blowing my hair, acting sad yet strong, whilst Leaving on a Jetplane plays in the background.

Goodbye Perth. The past 8 years was simply bloody amazing.

7 Days Left.
This time next week I shall leave Perth for good.
Nicole arrived two days ago. We have this much time to spend together before we leave each other, not knowing when we will meet again.
People often ask me, “Kenny, are you sure this is what you wanted to do?”
I gave them a very simple answer, “I have only one father.”
*~*~*~*~*~*
The year was 2003. Arnold became the Governator of California. The planet Mars became visible on our skies. The SARS virus hit most of Asia, causing thousands of deaths. Meanwhile, fashion trendsetters in Hong Kong released… Hello Kitty face masks! On a more serious note, Mahathir stepped down as the Prime Minister of Malaysia. Love him or hate him, everyone have to agree that he had made an amazing impact during his term.

Don’t cry for me, Malaysia…

On 20th March, George W Bush showed the world how powerless the UN is, and led the Coalition of the Killing to drop bombs over Baghdad, starting The Gulf War – Episode II. The entire world was in killing mode. On 13th December, Saddam Hussein was captured from his “Spider Hole”. By then, everyone seemed to have forgotten why the war started in the first place. The Weapons of Mass Destruction were yet to be found, but none of the big wigs seemed to care because they all think they are doing a good job by democracizing Iraq.

Saddam Hussein’s statue toppled in April 2003. Saddam Hussein himself was captured in December 2003. Still no signs of WMD.

2003 was easily the best year I had in Perth. I was 21 years old and I was about to start my fifth and final year at Curtin University.
Dating a KL girl is both good and bad. The good thing was that I started to pay more attention trying to look good. The bad thing was that as a result, I started spending A LOT of money buying plenty of designer clothes unnecessarily. Suddenly, I realised how fun it was to buy my own clothes. I discovered the world of Retail Therapy. Slowly but surely, I turned into a brand bitch, and I didn’t even realise it myself! Spending every cent of my bank account balance instead of putting money towards savings is a very bad habit and its not something I’m proud of.
I had saved up a lot of money from all that tutoring the year before. Curtin students (in fact, all uni students) always had the bad habit of doing last minute cramming for their exams. So what happened usually was – when they found out that there’s so much stuff to study, they panic. And when they panic, they call Kenny. And when they call Kenny, Kenny got rich. 🙂 It wasn’t easy though, because in between studying for my own exams, I had to make sure that my students are prepared for their papers as well.

From thrifty, to affordable, to brand bitch.

Regardless, I had saved up about AUD$1,000 by the end of the year. The exchange rate at the start of 2003 was AUD$1 to RM2.60 – and that’s more than enough for me. I stopped by KL with Nicole before I depart for Perth, and we spent so much money we almost bought the KLCC twin towers. Whilst previously I could only afford to buy some “ochipala” RM20 clothes from Sungai Wang plaza, this time round I had no regrets splurging up to RM80 on a pair of Calvin Klein underwear. I told my mom that, and she said “Your kacheng made of gold one is it?”
Anyway, 2003 was the year Nicole transformed for the better. With my encouragement, she was elected as the Deputy Convenor of the International Students Committee. Her circle of friends expanded, she became less dependant on me, and generally Nicole just became a much happier person compared to the way she was the year before. I was definitely happy for her. As my own group of friends slowly left Perth, I started hanging out with her group of friends more and more – which was how I started knowing people like Jacky, Tiffy, Dine & David, Jamie & Angeline, Candice & Steiner, etc.

(Back L-R) David, Tiffy, Wennie, Joey’s Bro, Jamie, Phang.
(Mid L-R) Joey, Dine, Angeline.
(Front L-R) Nic, Kenny

Nicole moved out of my place soon and started staying with Candice in King’s Park. It was a good change for the both of us. She became more disciplined. My mother and Nicole found a common ground and they became friends again. World War 3 ended and I couldn’t be happier.

Kenny and Rey Mysterio Jr during the WWE Smackdown Tour 2003

Life was cruising for me in 2003. It was easily one of the most carefree life I had during my time in Perth. I was in the world of my own with my family and Nicole. My nephew Jayden was born. I watched Craig David in concert. I hung out with my favourite WWE wrestlers when they toured Perth. I even get to travel to eastern Australia, Shanghai and exotic places like Seoul. Instead of tutoring high school students, I started tutoring Business Statistics 101 to rich international students at Uni, and that allowed me to fetch up to $30 an hour.
University work wasn’t too bad, except for my final year Engineering thesis. Being a smart ass that I thought I was, I chose a rather difficult topic for my final year thesis that involved both Physics and Engineering Departments.
I had a supervisor from each department. The Physics supervisor was coincidentally the Head of School of Physics. He was largely dissatisfied with my work and often criticised me for not being scientific enough. The Engineering supervisor on the other hand had absolutely no idea what I was doing in the Physics department, so as long as I appeared confident, anything I said to him that sounded correct, will be correct! But then I figured it out… since this is an Engineering thesis, regardless on how atrocious my Physics supervisor think my work is, only my Engineering supervisor will be marking it bah!

Meausirng the thermal expansion of materials. Fascinating piece of bullcrap.

Honestly speaking, I had absolutely no idea what I was writing in my thesis – I was sure it wasn’t something my Physics supervisor would approve of. 🙂 All I remembered was that I praised my Engineering supervisor like he was the Sultan of Brunei in the Acknowledgement section. I submitted my thesis… and in the end, I received a whooping 87% for a pile of professional bullcrap!
I must be a genius. 😉
As if that’s not enough, things continue to go uphill from there. I had the last Uni exam paper of my entire life on the 6th November. Then I received a phone call – Spectra decided to offer me a job as a Software Engineer, and that I shall start work on the 13th November 2003! Needless to say, I took up the offer, and that’s where I worked until today.
*~*~*~*~*~*
I was young, fit and able. I had my finance, my career, my family and my love life all sorted out. I was on top of the world, and life couldn’t be better.
But its exactly when you started thinking that way, life throws you a curve ball, and your whole world starts crumbling around you.
I was on top of the mountain in 2003.
The following year, my mountain crumbled.