Engineering Life worth Living

Bismillah. Assalamualaikum. Alright, I guess a month and a half has passed since the winter holidays. I did make a promise to write out my remaining Winter Holidays Experience. So now for Part 2 of the tale.

Sydney. Some may regard Sydney as the business central of Australia due to the massive number of large Multinationals based over there. The city of Sydney is huge and full of businesses, whether they are commercial or service based. Personally, I don’t like big cities. It’s too crowded and there are less chances of being able to enjoy the city life. Some may like it but will eventually in the end prefer the quiet, scenic lifestyle rather than the hustle and bustle of the big metropolitan environment. I do however like to visit Melbourne. While it may be as big as Sydney but there is a certain charm to Melbourne that attracts me to it. Even though I’ve been there twice, I can’t still get enough of Melbourne.

Alright, the Sydney trip. The journey was all by on my own. It’s not too bad traveling alone as there is no one that could hold you back but, I do like the company of another every now and then. So basically this is my..let me see..1, 2, .., 5. Yup, 5th trip to Sydney. So I’m pretty confident of traveling on my own in Sydney. The reason for me going to Sydney was to get an award that MASCA is giving which initially I didn’t feel like being there to receive it. I mean, would you fly 1000 kms and pay 300 dollars to get an award? But then, I thought about meeting my friends and this would be my last winter, InsyaAllah, in Australia. So that changed my mind. Plus, I need to practice taking shots. Lolz.

So on the way to Brisbane airport, I met another mate that was also on her way to Sydney but we were not on the same flight. Hers was an earlier one. Nevertheless, she missed her flight and had to get into another one. I don’t think this is relevant to my tale but Sydney isn’t so grand, so whatever. The flight itself was full of z’s for me. So not interesting at all. At the terminal, I meet Rahmat and Rozhan. They were going to participate in the games and by some luck took the same flight as I did. We chatted for a bit then I bought a weekly ticket and was on my way to my mate’s place in Sydney, somewhere near UNSW.

That night, the Malaysian Sydneysiders have a thing called Tong where Art and Singing were showcased. I was only there because my mate (Ananda) asked me whether I wanted to follow him. Of course I do. I’m not an anti-social-living-under-the-shell sort of person. No offense, but I didn’t enjoy the songs that much. Maybe because I was just too tired from the travel. However, the photographic art did caught my attention. Some of them were just normal situations. Only a capable artist can make it look highly fascinating.  I met Puan Zaidah and she bought me dinner. Thanks Puan Zaidah. Lolz. So, a few dollars saved. After a few hours, it started raining and we went back to my mate’s place.

So then, 2nd day in Sydney. I went to the accommodation venue for the games (Meriton Tower Apartments) and met with my friends from Adelaide. We chatted and had breakfast together. If you could consider having a kebab as breakfast that is. Then I met my Queensland friends and hang out with them during the day.

I followed them to the games briefing in UTS and saw and chatted with some other friends. At this time however, I was feeling famished and thought about eating the food that they were serving. But, alas, someone said that they were only serving sausages so I followed some other friends to a Malaysian Restaurant nearby. I believe it was called Kafe Kasturi. I ordered Char Kuetiau. Foodwise: OK but pricewise: it hurts the pocket by quite a margin. But I’m hungry so enough said. Then I went back to UTS and met with some friends as well as new friends. Then I watched Flop Poppy performing as an intro to their act in the WLDU charity gig. I’m not going to mention more on the WLDU concert since I didn’t bother attending it and I’m leaving on the morning before the gig to attend Hj Rosli’s talk. Personally, Hj Rosli’s talk is more satisfying and free.

The next day, I went to the football field to catch my friends in action for football. It was raining heavily when I arrived at the venue. The fields were basically not suitable for playing. They were a mess. Stylish play will not work on those kind of conditions. Imagine this, if a ball gets stuck in a puddle of water, the ball will just stop dead in its track and try as the players might, either by trying to kick each other on the leg or some other techniques, the ball will not move. But the games did go on and Queensland managed to win 3rd place after losing narrowly in the semi-finals. Narrowly as in the opposition scored a goal in the first seconds of the game and just defending their lead with help from the field. I was also there watching netball and tennis and taking pictures at the same time.

I decided to crash in my Queensland mates’ place as it is easier for me to get to the venue from there. So after dinner, I started moving out from my other friend’s place to the apartment that they were staying.

3rd day: I went to spectate for the rugby matches as well as for futsal and basketball. Congratulations for the Queensland Rugby Team for getting Gold in their event. It’s been an overdue dream for all of them. Oh yeah, I did took some photos and that was it.

I managed to sneak out for a while and took pictures of some Sydney Icons.

On the night, I went with the Queensland delegates to the Dinner that was held in Paddington Town Hall. I swear that the bus driver is making a short trip seem longer than it is by taking weird roads just to tell his stories. I was dressed in a formal suit which I believed was overkill. The theme mentioned Rockstar but must be either formal or traditional. Excuse me? Formal Rockstar? Since when? Traditional Rockstar? Now that is just ridiculous. But oh well, I guess I didn’t have enough creativity or the effort to think about it. I particularly didn’t like the dinner. The food wasn’t great for the price it was charged. I mean, you are attending a dinner and paid 100 for it but the food isn’t marvelous. Now what would you think? No offense to the Sydney organisers if you are reading this but that isn’t right. Then there is something called the prize giving ceremony. It was alright until the part where swimming was announced. It just went on and on and you know what, the winners are all from NSW. No wonder they wanted to include swimming but it’s their right if they are so desperate to cling on to the trophy. Overall, a good job to the organisers. Congratulations, nevertheless. I apologise if this blog entry might offend you.

So yeah, I took the award and then we left for the accommodation. I was really happy that they didn’t organise a public After Party like Melbourne did two years back. Allah could punish all those that are in the place even though he or she didn’t participate. Alhamdulillah. But still, I heard that there was an After Party for Malaysians in one of the clubs. Clubbing isn’t a Malaysian culture and as Muslims we should avoid even the thought of going to the place. Fear Allah and Love Allah, for Allah brings the Greatest Punishment.

This time, I felt like punching the bus driver due to his constant yapping about Sydney. We are already tired and you still want to keep us in the bus? “Someone’s gonna get a hurt real bad”. Finally we arrived at the apartment and did whatever we need to do.

The next day started really early for me as I need to catch my flight back to Queensland (Gold Coast airport). I did however managed to catch up with Pidut, my ex-schoolmate and had breakfast with him. If only we knew that I will be going to meet him again in Adelaide in a few weeks time after the games. So, I caught the plane with nothing really interesting happening along the way. Then I arrived and Gold Coast and had the longest 3 hours of my life. The journey from Cooloongatta to Brisbane took ages. I took two buses and two trains to get back to Brisbane. Oh the torment. I promise myself that I will never ever land in Cooloongatta again for a domestic flight.

Epilogue:

– Went to Hj Rosli’s talk that night

– Caught the flu the next day

– Journeyed to Cairns that Wednesday

I guess that is it for now. I’ll tell you of my Cairns trip next time around. Wassalamualaikum.