BTN Camp '08

*Disclaimer:Very long post

Location : Panorama Taining Camp,Langkawi

(In the middle of the island,neither near a mountain or the beach)

Duration : 5 Days 4 Nights

Participants: 219 JPA Scholars (INTEC-Russia,KTT-Indonesia,IMU-Canada,UK)

Previous BTN camps for me: 1

Enthusiasm for this camp: Very Low

Took a flight from Lcct in to Langkawi together with Li Ying,Bela and Hafiz, the pilot probably thought we were rushing because he got us there way before the scheduled 1 hour flight ,we had 20 minutes to spare to be correct.
I see Islands..if only i were really on a holiday
The Coast Of LangkawiBela called a Mr Affendi and we were directed to a Panaroma Hotel.When we got to a taxi service counter, they seem to ask.." Pergi ke kursus ya?" How come everyone seems to know?We didn't say camp, we said hotel.Nevertheless, after enjoying our last few tourist/holiday moments we headed for camp.

Hafiz:Gimme a B
Chee Mei:Gimme a T
Bela:Gimme an N...BTN

We were as happy as trainee's can be because we found out our accommodation was unlike the previous camp which has multiple double decker beds in 3 adjoining dorms and a common bathroom,we were upgraded to hotel rooms.Okay maybe a very dilapidated hotel room but it did come with air-conditioning.What more we could ask for ?Li Ying and I had very low expectations for the camp.We were going crazy over the thought of not having to use common bathrooms, i doubt we would be similarly excited if it was a holiday trip.Dilapidated!!
Scary Pic...Different reflection


An hour or 2 to kill before the rest of the trainees arrive, oh did i mention the rest of the other 215 trainees were coming in by ferry after their long 7 hour bus ride from KL?What fun.
While waiting....

Camp officially starts..everyone please ignore coloured clothing
Dresscode : White Shirt, Black Slacks
I nearly died going sitting through 4 ceramahs(Talks) or they would rather call it Pembentangan Kertas Kerja (Paper Presentation).Before each one,we would need to sing a song called Menara Bangsa.I dunno who the lyricist or composer was,but i'm pretty sure everyone wants to give him/her a whack for creating such a weirdly worded and irregularly tuned song.

Then we had small group discussions called LDK(latihan dalam kumpulan).Contents are a little too sensitive to be mentioned here.In short,it's about our country and it's constitutions as well as the citizens.So if you wanna know more,use msn k.The only time i had fun was during the 2km run.Needless to say, even that was an evaluation.And they couldn't pick and easier route,i swear there is at least 4 or 5 uphill runs with the last being the steepest then it's back to the starting point the same way.That was kinda off the only physical activity we got besides a few movement test to gage our physiological age.I turn out to be a 44year old aunty.Darn...Kembara(Trekking) was literally a walk in the park, the most challenging part was going under a small fallen tree then continuing the journey on tar road :( No mud, no river-waste of my time looking for cheap shoe to throw away)

This is Li Ying's hobby after Ryiadah(leisure probably,i dunno what it means) time

All in all the camp was not as bad as we dreaded,they never force us to wake up for moral class at 5.50am anymore.Can sleep till 7am then morning parade.Meals are still 6 times a day as usual.I now understand why Robert Kwok (Malaysia's richest man/Sugar King) is so rich,malaysians use a lot a lot of sugar in their drinks.Moral classes aren't moral classes,it's video time which means sleeping time for me.And exams are just a way to sum things up.

The graduates from BTN camp after exam...Holiday Spirit

Freedom to fly like the eagle
I Love this shot...Looks more like some Pendekar Silat rather then an eagle

High FiveFerry and plane tickets very expensive
How can any Langkawi visit be complete without this big bird?
View from the ferry
My ride home
I'm kinda missing camp now.Not the course but the whole interaction.I don't get to wake up to watching Li Ying and Wei Wei studying.Always rushing for morning assembly,food,classes,talks and afternoons outdoors.I guess after 5 days, it has become routine.Living with people is really the best way to get to know them,i miss the friends i made too.It is without a doubt I've learnt patience and perseverance maybe not for the same reasons the facilitators in camp would like but i do know that i have to take my place in society some time.What can i say,when you can't beat them..just keep your mouth shut.

P.S : Anyone bound for BTN camp,don't waste your time reading the brown,blue,orange and yellow book.It has no relevance what-so-ever to the exam questions.Just bring your common sense.

Yat Lou Sun Fong !!!

Despite the blurness of the whole thing,plus the fact that i manage to travel alone without the safety of my handphone, i do still remember taking many many trains to send the Pharmacy scholars which i've known since INTEC.Needless to say it's pretty sad that they're leaving.Karen nearly made me cry.But i held it back,no more cry baby scenes here.Hey look on the bright side,i'll be in the same country in 3 months.Karen...Hui Yen..cook tom yam and wait for me k.

I met Jason on the way back, he had somehow got the timing wrong and just missed them entering the gate.Both of us were being such a scrooge that we decided to transit on the KLIA transit.Confusing? Let me put it this way. The trip from KLIA to Bandar Tasik Selatan direct is RM26.50.But If we made a stop at Putrajaya before heading back,total cost is less then half.Since we had the time,why not?Or so we thought.We casually forgot that lrt closes before 12.Darn,we had to take the taxi.And Jason despite living most of his life in Australia, he was adamant to bargain with the taxi drivers.I admit it was a good try but i didn't see the whole point of arguing with a whole bunnch of them and in the end it'll just end up with them cheating us on double price anyway.Did i mention that i manage to extract interesting details for my Sydney trip from Jason the whole journey back?Hehe.If i were to research on the place might as well the Australian who lived there.

Got a message from both Karen and Hui Yen telling me their plane had some problems and had to head back to KLIA not long after i reached back.They were still stranded when i went to bed.Hopefully they had a bigger and better replacement plane and manage to run in time for the connecting flight.

Countdown

BTN camp : 5days

Sydney : 25days

Do you love your country?

Guess what JPA decided to throw onto my lap today? I knew it was going to come eventually but i really don't like getting surprises just one week before the actual thing.I've been officially informed to attend a camp Kenegaraan from 16th till 20th in Langkawi.Sounds pretty cool rite?I doubt i'll be having a holiday there.Well at least i'm not gonna have to repeat the camp at the same place like my poor Pharmacy compatriots.Yes people,I've been for the camp once.Why do i have to go again?Go figure,apparently camp validity expires according to the new JPA policy.Does that make sense?On top of that,i have to pay for my own traveling expenses there.Talk about saving tax payers money.And people are saying the Government is not helping them save money.

Now it's time to for the big dilemma, blow a lot of money on making last minute flight arrangements or endure a 7/8 hour bus ride to Kuala Perlis?Be a scrooge or a splurge?Saving or comfort?Since i have plans for next month, my conscience has told me to save and take the bus.Hey it's not like i haven't done any marathon bus rides before.Pg-Johor 10hour rides used to be a norm when i was high on traveling.Thanks Michelle for reminding me about that.It all seems more digestively acceptable now.

The Click Five Concert Photos

( Left)Lead Guitarist -Joe ...........(Right) Lead Singer/Guitarist-Kyle Patrick

During the debut of the new single by Ethan...

On the keyboards...BenLead Singer/Guitarist-Kyle Patrick

There's Drummer Joey doing his thingEthan the bassistSaying bye bye.

Catching The Wave

It's Click Five time!Anyone coming? 8pm Arena of Stars,Genting.See ya there.

Nice gal finish last?

Has there been times when you go all out of the way just to be nice,(you know like planned everything just to make it look casual but it took a whole lot of consideration in actual fact) but in the end just to be misunderstood?Well it happened and it was by someone close to me or well now i doubt i would choose the word close anymore, probably related will do.I know i'm not an angel or even the most sensitive person or most affectionate or most giving person or most lovable.However i was pretty sure i meant every nice gesture i ever did in my life.Specifically gifts,i have never given because i don't want it anymore but on the contrary because either i loved it so much or someone else loved it so much.Seriously i don't do hand-me-down gifts or recycled gifts.Even with the cheesy-est of Christmas gifts.This feeling of being hurt is unlikely to fade.Especially when it involves a parent.I can't justify myself and i don't understand why i should have to.Is it just so hard to believe that i can be nice?

The Day of No Workload

Went in to work today and found out my supervisor was on EL( emergency leave).Hope she's alright since she did mention to me she coughed out blood last week.And by all means it doesn't point to anything good,i'm just hoping it was due to excessive coughing rather then any malicious sign.But all that leads to the fact that i haven't got any new assignments to do.Darn,i tried to kill time by reading 3 copies of newspaper in the slowest manner possible but it didn't help much.

So i pretty much decided to take the afternoon off in pursue of something more useful like my letter of Good Conduct.Did anyone know that it kinda has a validity date on it?Now i'm going to tell you it does,about six month.So don't try to be a smarty pants and apply too early
Whatever it is, I had to go thru the trouble of catching an lrt, to get on a KLIA Transit ,then get a cab to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.Throwing in terrible timing.The whole affair took an hour and a half.

The Ministry building

Way up on a small hill

Getting the letter only took less then half an hour.Great i though,getting back to the KLIA Transit station was the hard part.Ben and I did a run to catch a bus since there wasn't any other mode of transport besides calling a cab with killer charges.It's so nostalgic,like the times i used to run after a bus in UiTM college in my baju kurung.However we did get out 50 CENTS worth of a bus rite.It gave us a tour of Putrajaya before finally entering the terminal 40minutes later.I didn't time it but i don't recall the taxi ride taking more then 5 minutes and that was RM8.
All is well since i did manage to get another thing out of my to do list.One checked many more to go. Nobody on the bus!!

Pretty building i saw on the tour.