Slice Of Life #247 - Chinese New Year - Tuesday, January 28th, 2020

    "Thank you very much," I told one of my relatives, accepting a red packet from him. I added the red packet to my pile of red packets.
    I was in Ipoh, my dad's hometown to celebrate Chinese New Year. I liked Chinese New Year, not only because I got red packets, but also because it also allowed me to rest. It also gave me extra time to do homework (which, honestly, doesn't really apply to me because I complete all my homework before Chinese New Year to avoid having to do homework during holidays like this).
    I also loved going back to Ipoh, as I got to go eat at amazing vegan restaurants that have things (such as cakes) that are vegan that cannot (or are hard to) be found in Selangor.
    Unfortunately, this year, we only had 3 days (including the weekend) of holidays because of Chinese New Year (sad), which didn't allow me to go back to Ipoh for too long.
    I like to open my red packets after Chinese New Year, which means that I have to wait for 18 more days before I can open the red packet - which is really testing my patience. For now, that's what I'm gonna' do. Wait for 18 days to pass until I can finally open my red packets. That's all for now!

Slice Of Life #246 - Badminton - Tuesday, January 14th, 2020

    I smashed the ball hard, then took two steps to the middle of the court. I turned quickly and ran towards the net to hit a drop shot. Then, I turned again and repeated the same thing.
    I was at my badminton class. My teacher was a person who used to play doubles for the Malaysian team. "Come on!" He urged me. "Keep going!"
    I was taking badminton lessons more frequently now, especially because my teacher wanted to train up my skills in certain areas because he thought that I had the potential to train in his "elite group". Today, he was training my ability to react to drop shots and hit the ball to the back of the court to try and make the opponent run.
    My badminton coach's goal for me was to hit 20 consecutive shots running back and forth, but I had passed that goal by a lot, as I was already at 80 shots. I breathed short, shallow breaths as I ran back and forth, clutching my badminton racket.
    Time flew as I hit the ball again and again. Finally, I managed to get to 150 consecutive shots before my coach stopped me. "Great job," He said.
    I grinned from ear to ear. I had done it.

Slice Of Life #245 - Happy New Year! - Tuesday, January 7th, 2020

    I know that this title would have been better last week, but last week, I happened to be in China, where I couldn't access Google, so I couldn't slice. I currently am sitting at the dining table, eating my breakfast. I'm eating it later now because it's the holidays and I'm waking up later (not really a good thing), so I'm eating later. My mom's made pretty good pasta for me to eat this morning, but the drink tastes pretty bad because she put some turmeric in it (just trying new things).
    China was pretty fun. I got to go to Lijiang and Kunming, where there was lots of beautiful scenery every time we turned a corner. I managed to get some pretty good photos because of the good scenery there. In Lijiang, I got to go to the Jade Dragon Snow Mountain and the Black Dragon Pool (see picture above).

This picture wasn't taken by me, but I had taken an almost identical one from the same place. The picture here is taken from the Black Dragon Pool, a national park in China. If you look closely, you can see the Jade Dragon Snow Mountain covered with snow looming in the distance.

    In Kunming, I got to go see the Stone Forest, which basically is a forest of stone, if you look at the picture below. We spent a whole day there before leaving to go back to Malaysia. The stone forest used to be located in an ocean, but the water from the ocean caused the rock to erode and eventually, the rocks started to look like this (with some help from tectonic plates, of course). In some places in the forest, you still can see some lakes and fallen rocks due to earthquakes, making the Stone Forest a really interesting place.

This is the bird's eye view of Stone Forest, although not all places in the forest are like that. There are lots of very interesting places in this stone forest, and I hope that you have a chance to go there sometime!

    Well, this pretty much wraps up what I have to say this week. Bye!

Slice Of Life #244 - HOLIDAYS! - Tuesday, December 24th, 2019

    It's the holidays! Finally! I can stay at home and relax now! Currently, I am at home, drinking a pack of soya milk and a pack of double Belgian chocolate with pistachio milk because there has been no water supply to our area for 3 consecutive days. Because of that, no restaurants are open (well, some are, but I have feelings of doubt that the water they're using is clean water) because they don't have any water to use. Later, we're going to Subang Jaya, to the town next to us (about 30 mins from my house) to eat because they aren't affected and have a good water supply.
    Apparently, the river that we're taking our water from got contaminated because some people dumped oil into it (note to the person who dumped oil in it: seriously?), and now they have to clean the water (somehow) before they can send it to the water treatment plant.
    The river was fully cleaned yesterday, but we still have to wait for the water to come to us because the water needs to be processed and then sent to us. We're not only about an hour away from the treatment plant, but we also live on a hill, so I'm anticipating that the water's going to come to us sometime later today or tomorrow because it's going to take some time for the water to come to us.
    Now, I'm going to go set up my clarinet because I want to practice some songs and do something productive. Wait... For some reason, I can't put together my clarinet! I'm going to wait until my clarinet teacher comes later for my lessons.

An Hour Has Passed...

    According to my clarinet teacher, my upper joint has expanded because of the hot climate in Malaysia, and because of that, I can't assemble the instrument. Later today, I have to bring my clarinet to a shop so that they can fix it and do something about it (I don't know what they're going to do). My clarinet teacher is going to go home now because there's nothing much he can teach me without my clarinet. (I'm sorry!)
    I hope that we're going to get some more water supply later so that I don't have to keep going to other cities to eat. I'm going to end this post here because I don't have anything else to write about now. Bye!

Slice Of Life #243 - Currently... - Tuesday, 16/12/2019

• I am in the library at school (school is over).
• I am watching a very funny video.
• I am laughing like crazy.
• I'm going to do some math instead.
• I just remembered. Today's the last week of school before the winter break! All tests are over! Yes!
• It's the end of the unit, so we have to find unit rates or comparative rates on campus. We're doing some of this (homework) in math class because it's quite a long project. We need to make a video about the comparative rates.
• I'm going to go to the band room now to practice some piano because the library is about to close (it closes at 5:00pm).
• I have reached the band room. I'm going to not only be practicing all my exam pieces and scales that I need to know, but I also will practice a song called Allegretto Grazioso that I have just learned last week.
• One of my band teachers, Mr. Christensen, is playing amazing music on his trumpet right now!
• I've managed to play most of Allegretto Grazioso correctly, and it feels really satisfying!
• There is a guitar in the room and I am plucking some strings on it (I don't know how to play).
• I am experimenting with the guitar but am not breaking it.
• My music teacher just sang "Do You Want To Build A Snowman" when a student ran by (LOL!)
• I am checking my email.
• No new messages.
• I am going to leave the band room now to go downstairs to eat my dinner now.
• Bye!

Slice Of Life #242 - Life As It Is - Tuesday, December 10th, 2019

    Currently, I am eating my dinner as I am writing this post. I'm eating an early dinner because I have Boy Scouts later from 7:15 to 8:30pm, and I don't want to have to eat dinner after that. I've already finished my homework (HIP HIP HURRAY!), so I don't have to do anything after Boy Scouts. Unfortunately, I have math tomorrow, which means that I have math homework tomorrow (there is always math homework unless it's just before a long holiday - ie. 3 weeks).
    Today, I went for my 1st Peer Helper meeting (I got selected!) and got my green Peer Helper T-Shirt (which was S - small - size), but it was too big for me 😅.
    I don't really have anything to write about right now because nothing much happened in this past week. On Wednesday, we have our band concert (yes!) and I'm really excited for it because we sound amazing and I also want to hear the Grade 8 Senior band (who honestly are a lot more amazing than us).
    I'm going to watch YouTube now because I am bored and have nothing else to do. Bye!

Slice Of Life #241 - Tents in the Rain - Tuesday, December 3rd, 2019

    I opened my eyes and yawned. I stretched my arms wide and looked outside. I saw lots of tents already set up, with lots of kids running around, having lots of fun. Finally, I thought to myself. We're here!

    Along with the others, I got off the bus. 

    "Patrol leaders," Our scoutmaster, Scoutmaster Graham, said to us. "Please come with me."

    Because I was a patrol leader, I went with Scoutmaster Graham. It turned out that we needed to choose a camping spot for our patrol. We decided to camp in one big circle just for that sense of safety (I don't know about you, but I feel safer that way). Scoutmaster Graham then told us that it was now up to us patrol leaders to coordinate setting up the tents.

    "Guys, if you're in my patrol, please come with me!" I told my patrol. "We need to set up the tents."

    Everyone in my patrol followed. Suddenly, I heard a loud, rumbling sound. I looked up to where it had come from. I saw grey clouds overhead. They looked as if they were staring down at me like they were about to do something bad.

    And indeed, they did. There were only mere seconds before I felt the small drops of water plummet down to the ground. Before I felt the rain speaks to me in a language I couldn't understand. Before I felt like the rain was shouting at me and asking me to run away.

    And so, I did. I ran towards one of the cars to unload the tents. "Run, everyone!"

    I sprinted like my life depended on it. Now it had seemed like the sky had revealed it's sheer power, the rain really tormenting us now. It seemed like the rain had some communication to the ground too, with countless muddy puddles on the ground.

    I snatched a tent from the car, ran to the piece of flat ground that we were going to put it in, and ripped open the bag. My friend quickly pulled the tent out and quickly laid it on the ground.

    Great, I thought to myself. Now our tent is wet.

    I started to frantically connect the tent poles as fast as I could. After connecting them, I frantically put the poles into the flaps for them in the tent. I raised the tent and staked it to the ground. Fortunately, my friend helped put the rain fly on before even more water got into the tent.

   "Get in!" I shouted to my friend.

    I lied down inside the tent and wiped myself off with my towels. After that, I didn't do anything for a good 3 minutes, relaxing and enjoying the amazing sound of the rain trickling off my tent.