The Price of Growing Up

I was just listening to my iPod while posting the previous post when I heard a familar song playing through the speakers. It was "You Got A Friend In Me" from the Toy Story movie. Nostalgia swept through me as I started thinking about how I used to love watching Toy Story, which then ramified to other cartoons, like the Disney classics (Alladin, Little Mermaid, etc)

Then I thought about everyone leaving for greener pastures in another country. I thought about how everyone is already planning on entering the working world, and worried about how much money they'll make when they get out of uni. I thought about how stability was lost when I left for Australia.. I thought about how difficult it would be to keep in touch with each other, now that our lives are intertwined no more..


Wasn't it just yesterday when I would look forward to watching Disney Channel and despise sleeping because I have to wake up early to go to school. Wasn't it just yesterday when I used to chase girls around, throwing these silly toys that explode after a few seconds? Wasn't it just yesterday when I would hang out with the boys under the tree, or the gutter in the foyer?
Wasn't it just yesterday when I found out what having a girlfriend meant? Wasn't it yesterday when I so wanted to be older so I could have the privileges only adults could have?

It wasn't?

Felt like it though..

And now the speakers sing again, this time with yet another poignant song..

"When they get to the part

Where he’s breakin’ her heart

It can really make me cry

Just like before

It’s yesterday once more



Lookin’ back on how it was

In years gone by

And the good times that I had

Makes today seem rather sad

So much has changed"

Sydney Paradise! Part I

I see that everyone has left for some foreign country, so I would like to wish everyone good luck in their current hermitage, and hopefully they will fit in well etc...

As you all know, I'm back from Sydney! Sydney is pretty darn cool! Lotsa cool beaches, roads like Kuala Lumpur, and much better night clubs compared to Melbourne.

It started off badly enough.. Our plane to Sydney was to leave at 7.30am. Kristy, George, Ami and I were supposed to take a taxi to the airport at 4.15 am. Me being the lazy ass conveniently slept until I received a phone call at 4.30am, asking me where I was. Unfortunately it was too late for me to reach the taxi at Kristy's place, so I told them to head off by themselves. Then, Daniel went into superhuman mode and got everything ready with speed that would make Superman blush. 10 minutes later Daniel was outside JCH flagging down a taxi, who was more than happy to send me to the airport.

Obviously, I reached last, and was greeted by everyone warmly. A few were laughing at me for being late, but it was to be expected I guess. Heh. Anyways, had McD's (Aussies call it Macca's) for breakfast, and flew off to Sydney without further hitches. We immediately headed off for Maze, our Backpackers rooms. After placing our bags, we then headed to Hyde Park, since we couldn't check in until 1pm. We bought some food, and proceeded to eat it while sitting down on the green grass, with the sun shining down on our faces, a la Western style. It was a pretty soothing moment, and the two laziest people (Sven and I) tried sleeping, only to be awaken by the girls.

From left: Clemens, Sven

Enjoying time in the sun. From left: Ashwin(still don't know how it's spelled), me, Sven, and Clemens

Hyde Park

After a decent packed lunch, we headed to the Sydney Opera House, which I've actually seen before with my family, but what the heck. Still a beautiful spectacle. However, according to Clements, they sacrificed substance for style. It may look aesthetically pleasing, but the acoustics in the Opera House is allegedly pretty bad. The small stage inhibits bigger performances from being played as well. *Shrug*

On the way to Sydney Opera House

Having another lazy moment in the sun (on the Sydney Opera House footsteps!)

The whole gang. Clockwise from top left: Karmen., Ashwin, Sven, Yuka, Ami, Jarech (or Jaros, or Jaroslov), Kristi, George, me, and Clemens

Trying to act Japanese :) From left: Jaros, Ashwin, George, Clemens, me and Ami. Funny the real Japanese is missing

After lotsa picture taking, we headed off to the ferry area to check out the ferries moving about Sydney.

The docks

Me trying out Ashwin's glasses. Pretty cool eh? :)

On the ferry

Going under the awesome Sydney Harbour Bridge.

Quite ugly from far, the bridge's beauty only becomes clear when it is close.

An old ship (still operable I think)

Check out the submarine!

The myriad boats docked at Darling Harbour

Next stop was the Sydney Aquarium. The place wasn't too shabby, with some pretty cool creatures roaming around. Although I've seen them countless of times, it still didn't feel boring when I saw these huge sea creatures again.

Do you see that? Look closely, it's not seaweed.

If you haven't guessed it yet, it's an eel!



A close-up shot

This is probably one of the funniest thing I've seen. Don't worry, the turtle didn't break its neck swimming down or something. It was in this position the whole time I was there

Here's the turtle again.

Outside the Sydney Aquarium, we bought some delicious Gelato ice-cream (a unique Italian ice-cream made from natural products that produces a smooth and creamy texture) and sat down around the Harbour, silently lapping up our ice-cream while embracing the sweet radiance of the sun. Heavenly indeed.

After an hour or two, we headed off to Maze to check in. We ate at Chinatown, where I saw familiar food. There was Sizzling dishes, Laksa, Nasi Goreng Kambing and many others. I truly missed Asian food! After that, we headed to the first bar we visited in Sydney. Because we were given vouchers for free drinks in several bars and night clubs, we decided to check a few of them out. Scubar was quite disappointing, but a free drink's a free drink!

The next day, we decided to go off to Glebe Point to check out University of Sydney. And boy was I appalled at the condition of the uni.

Yeah, these ugly buildings are part of Sydney U

The only decent-looking building blighted by ongoing construction

Weather didn't help my view on Sydney U either

I'm not sure why people do this, but it's quite cool actually

Did a bit of shopping in Queen Victoria building

After profusely thanking God I'm in Melbourne U and not Sydney U (sorry all Sydney U students), we headed off to a Thai restaurant to eat some Thai food. The excellent food, plus a cute waitress made Glebe Point a worthwhile trip at least..

The second bar/night club we entered was Scary Canary and it was such a far cry from Scubar. Where Scubar was dinghy and empty, Scary Canary was brimming with life, and had a tasty interior to accompany the hustling people. Of course, the amount of hot women increased ten fold as well. But what I liked best about the place was the choice of music. Instead of playing music like any other night club, this one played House music WITH a live band, drums, guitar singer and all. The fusion was mind-blowing and really took my complete attention. The sizzling sexiness of the lead singer just made everything more pleasing.

The orange brackground masking her looks just made her that much more attractive.

I'm not sure what it is with Asian girls and tall blonde dudes but it was pretty interesting I have to say. Barely 5 minutes of dancing, Sven gets hit on by a not-too-beautiful-chick/slut and gets asked to head to the bathroom for some naughty time. However, Sven could only laugh at her, which offended her greatly, but it made a great story for Sven to tell. Half an hour later, he gets approached again, this time by a not-too-shabby Japanese chick. However, surprisingly, she left a few minutes later. It came to be that she noticed Sven since he came in but nothing materialised because Sven didn't come up to her. Poor Sven, he was thinking about the missed chance for a while.

To get his mind off the girl, we headed off to Star City to check out its casino. The entrance was mesmerizing, with a mini waterfall greeting us, as artificial rocks form a pool.

However, the casino itself was horrendous beyong words. The waiting list was a mile long, and according to the receptionist, we had to wait for at least 2 hours before we could find a seat. The problem was apparent when we looked around. There were only around 20 tables maximum at the casino, compared to Crown's 50 or more tables. The sad part was, they couldn't even find enough employees. There were poker tables left unhabited because they couldn't get a dealer. That was just disgusting, and made me lose my appetite for poker that night. The same problem was seen at all the other games, eg Blackjack, Roulette etc.

At home, the girls placing our passports together

Here we are at home, playing Bluff, Big 2, and Black Magic (and having lotsa fun in the process!)

The next day, we headed for the National Museum. We were greeted by a huge replica of Gigantosaur. Pity it wasn't real. I have always had this fascination with dinosaurs, and seeing them in their skeletal glory was a memorable moment for me. Malaysia really should find some dinosaurs soon.

Roar!

Some 'super smart' tourist took this picture, without realising the reason we took it in the first place. How can you miss the bloody dinosaur behind us? Lol..

A giraffe

From left: Mr Skeleton, his dog, cat at the back, mouse beside it, and Polly in its cage

The museum was interesting enough, giving me an insight into life in Africa, something which I've never really looked into. Also found out a few countries I never knew existed, like Lesotho and Eritrea. O.o . The bugs section was pretty cool too, considering I liked bugs too.

Afer that, we headed off to Bondi Beach. And what a beach it was! Sitting down in the cool sand while snacking on a McD's burger... Heaven!

From left: Karmen, Jaros, Yuka

Us trying to bury Sven.. In vain.. Have to find some other way to kill him ;P

View of the houses around Bondi Beach

From left: Yuka, Ami, Kristy, Karmen

.We went home exhausted, bus deeply satisfied with how the day went. Weather could have been better, but who cares? Later that day, we went to another night club near Darling Harbour. Pontoon was its name, and it was even more happening than Scary Canary! Only problem was they were playing contemporary R&B, which is not my taste at all. More hot chicks obviously! And again Sven was approached minutes into entering the night club. Because the girls were feeling tired, Jaros, George and I returned home with them while Ashwin, Clemens and Sven continued partying.

I'm not sure what happened that night but Sven told me a hilarious story about Ashwin. Now, Ashwin has always been an enigma to all of us; he was fun to have around, but we could never tell what was going through his head. So, according to Sven, here's what how Ashwin narrated his chance meeting with a girl in the club.

"So, I was dancing with this hot Indian chic, who has this huge set of boobs, and I was dancing with her. Then she took out her wallet to take some money, dropping a dollar coin. I picked it up.. And took it!" By which point he took out the fated coin and showed it to Sven and Clemens, grinning his usual grin. This was greeted by howls of laughter by Clemens and Sven. You would have expected him to give the coin back in exchange for a kiss or something, but NOO, he had to take it. Lol.. Typical Ashwin.. What's even funnier is his accent, which is a weird fusion between an Indian, Mauritian and French accent.

Girl's room. Yuka doing some weird thingy

Defeat and Triumph! And Defeat again..

I remember mentioning about my trip to Crown's Casino again this Friday for a freeroll tournament. And boy oh boy, what a night! (Actually two; went back again on Saturday)

The day started off quite shitty, with me finishing up an assignment at 4 in the morning, and waking up not too long after to pass it up. All I could think about was the tournament, the torture was almost palpable.

I met up with Sven in the library so we could go to Crown's Casino together. Adam and Roo were supposed to come with us too, so we went back to JCH. I thought it would be a good idea to dress as well as possible, so I went for the grunge look again, this time with jeans instead of proper suited pants. And, seriously, the similarities between Roo and Amresh just keeps piling! We were to reach Crown's by 5.45 to register and such, but Roo just took his bloody sweet time, telling us that he'll be down in 5 minutes when it was more like 20. We had to practically drag his ass out of the college. Because of him we were late, and so we had to take a cab instead of the tram.

Me looking super-suave! Need to get a haircut though, ;P

Upon arrival, we met up with Kevin (Mauritius), and the newbies registered to receive their new, shiny Crown's Casino card. Estelle was nowhere to be seen, so we had no choice but to go down to the tournament to register. We all received a slip of paper each from the counter, indicating our table and seat position. After a hefty amount of Good Lucks and nervous handshakes, I was off to my table, table 31 to be exact.

Kevin and Sven. Dunno why I took the picture in the toilet

I was seated in the same table with Roo. Right beside him actually. Unfortunately, the manager spotted me talking to Roo like a friend would, and moved me to another table. To Sven's table to be exact. After a few pro forma checks and waits, we were off!

From left: Kevin, Sven, and Adam

My first hand was pretty decent, with a Queen and a King, offsuit. I limped in to the flop, and to my apparent luck, there was the Queen! The flop came out an 8, a Queen, and an Ace, 8QA. Wanting to make a statement to the rest of the players, I put in half of my chips, which was 500. To my absolute horror, the guy to my left followed, while everyone else folded. The turn came out as a 4, which we both checked, and lastly the river as a J. Knowing that I had no choice but to bluff my way out, I went all in, hoping to put enough doubt in his mind for him to fold. He took a while to decide, but he obliged, knowing that folding would effectively mean his removal from the tournament. And that's how my first tournament went! Getting kicked out on the first hand! How wonderful!

I gave a wry smile to Sven, and walked off in total embarassment. Who in the world would expect the guy in a suit and a purple shirt to get out so easily? It was just unbelievable... I then watched how Roo was doing from the railings. He turned out, and had a ludicrous look on his face when he saw me standing there behind him. Roo, being the amateur he is, was just being plain Amresh again, in terms of that infamous "Indian luck". With only one more hand to play before he runs out of chips, Roo decides to all in with a 6 and a 4, offsuit. The flop came out as Queen, Jack, and nine. I thought that Roo was a total goner, but the turn showed an 8, and the river was, you guessed it, a 10! With no one having a King, Roo manages to share the spoils and save his ass. And he just kept on playing weird hands like a 6 and a Jack or something to that extent..

Sven and Roo

After a while I just got sick of watching. It really sucks to get kicked out so fast when everyone else is still battling it out. Even Estelle managed to arrive and took her seat in Sven's table. So, what else could I do? Cash game! I registered for a $1/$2 No Limit table and changed $60 worth of chips, as last time. I then walked to the table, still looking considerably immaculate in my suit. I put the chips down and played on. And what do you know? Daniel still got the moves! Playing a Tight-Aggresive stance, I stuck to the strong hands to win me money, and it worked like a dream! With just two big wins, I managed to bring my total pot to $210! After losing a dollar here and there, I decided that enough money was won, and cashed out to see how everyone else was doing. I was greeted by Adam, Kevin and Estelle, who were knocked out while I was at the cash table.

As it turned out, Kevin also went to the cash table, but didn't do too well, losing $87 in the process. To mitigate his hurt, I offered him a drink of his choice during dinner. Anyways, would you believe it; the last table comprising of a bald dude who could do fancy moves with his chips, Sven, who plays quite often, and Roo! I mean, Roo! The luck he had was to the point of fantasy! I heard about how he didn't even know that he got a Flush and almost walked off.

A machine to test the amount of alcohol in your breath. Hilarious gadget, but absolutely essential in a place like this. Would have tried it if it wasn't for the $1 charge.

Roo then miraculously knocked out the other guy to go tete-a-tete with Sven. I totally expected Sven to steamroll Roo, but it wasn't to be. With the luck of the empyreans shining down on him, Roo won the showdown all-in in a 50-50 situation. The timer ran down to 0, and Roo was proclaimed the winner of the tournament, with Sven coming in second. It was just unbelievable.. Roo won a hefty sum of $250, and Sven winning a respectable $150. Overall, Roo, had one four-of-a-kind, 3 flushes, 2 straights, and lotsa of other crazy combinations. Of course, he still fully deserved his win with his 'risky' calls and unpredictable decisions. Kudos to him!

It was pretty much a great night overall, with three people winning big (me included!). Only Kevin didn't do too well, but the Scotch I bought for him cheered him up pretty quickly! We didn't do much, and went back home to sleep.

But that's not all! On our tickets, there was a promotion for the Mega Satellite tournament on Saturday. It is basically a preliminary round for a major tournament, and the best part was, it was free too! I got up at around 10, and had to rush to get ready. Roo, as usual, needed so much pushing to get moving. He obviously didn't learn his lesson from yesterday.. Sigh.. ;P Anyways, we met up with Sven there.

A view of the casino. This was taken during the tournament break. This was risky enough, and I got reprimanded by a dealer. Screw him!

This time round, the competition was way more intense. The first prize was a $16,00 prize, including air tickets, lodging and food to the next round, which was to be held in Moscow! This is one of those tournaments that gets you all the way to the finals in Las Vegas. The place is usually packed, but today was ridiculously suffocating, with hundreds of people lining up to try their luck for the $16,00 grand prize. We had to take a ticket from the ticket machine, and wait our turn, just like a clinic. After an hour or two of waiting, we finally got our seats. Tension thickened again, as the significance of the situation settled upon us.

The people at my table were a whole new breed altogether from yesterday's noob tournament. With much bigger prizes at stake, all the big guns came down. The seriousness in their faces was pretty terrifying indeed. However, as luck would have it, a girl was seated beside me. And boy was she a stunner! As pretty as an Asian can be, she had the looks of a model. She had straight black hair, and big smouldering eyes. Coupled with her flawless complexion, her poise and grace only added to the fluttery feeling inside me. Sven came over to talk to me, and the first thing he said was, "Wow!". Beautiful indeed..

Best thing was, she could actually play! She obviously knew her stuff, and was unlucky to go out. Unfortunately, she left before me, and thus made it impossible for me to try anything, if I had the guts to do so. Luck wasn't with me as well that day. Without a good hand for all my hands, my heart jumped a beat when I saw a pair Queens in my hand! Immediately I put in half of my chips, to lure in some money. Only two people called, which was ideal as the odds were on me. When the flop came out, all small values, I decided to go all in. One guy folded, but the last one called. With that we both opened our hands, with me showing my pair Queens, and him, a measly 6 and 7, offsuit. What the hell? He called $400 worth of chips with a 6 and a 7, pre-flop? On any other situation, he would have been eaten alive by me. But as luck would have it, a 3 came out on the river (5th card), giving him a fucking lucky straight.

Frustrated, I took a walk around. Not long after, Sven came out, with a shake of his head. Again, Roo came up tops from our group, and he deserves my congratulations again. We shouted to him that we were going to eat, and went to the food court. After talking for a while, we went to the casino again to try our luck on the cash games. To cut the story short, Sven won $150 while I lost $60. That brings my total net to a healthy positive $105. That's quite decent considering my experience in a casino.

Still giddy with poker mania, we headed to Estelle's house for, yes, another round of poker. But we also went to check up on PJ, who contracted a weird stomach virus, and had to be sent to the hospital. We ended up talking about everything under the sun, and left at around 4.50 in the morning. We met with Sandhya, Estelle's friend, a Singaporean of Indian-Swiss heritage.

Picture from Emma's birthday party, which was quite a while ago, 31st of August. The guy in the white shirt is PJ Roca (France), and the striped shirt dude is Adam (America).

And so ends Daniel's journey in the casino forever. Not! :)