merry blessed christmas!

to those spending this christmas night in the open air mamaks and roadside eateries, enjoy the breeze mates! to those spending this christmas night at home either with friends or family, enjoy the company you all! and to those spending this christmas night under the stars, the clear after-rain, fire-work lit skies, think of what you were doing last christmas. and then look at where you're at now. how have things been, really? you be the judge.



and to those spending this christmas night alone (typing out a christmas blog post?), what you doin?! go get food! drinks! people to ingest them with! come on lah. only comes once a year this. what am i talking about here. that's it! bye! adios! have a good time! the turkey, wine, cookies and coffee's callin! woohoo let's paaaartay~

th-th-th-that's all folks!

day three

while being able to bring home memories and momentos, the trip had to end sometime. there would always be a last time for everything though.

7.05 am - sunrise in pangkor

like the last breath of seabreeze, the last view of the ocean and its skies, the last fly infested meal, the last stroking of the kittens, the last feel of the moist morning sand between your toes, the last ringing note from the guitar, the last walk to the pekan, the last time you had to squabble with others for use of the bathroom, the last game of mafia..

12.30 pm - i'm eating here, go take someone else lah!

still, it won't be the last time for some things. it won't be the last time we have meals together as a club, it won't be the last time we play card games together as a club, and it's definitely not the last time mbc is going somewhere together on a trip. oh yeah. and it's also definitely not the last time mafia is updated. so come to the monash merchandise (mm) shop sometime (beside the student lounge) and catch up with the folks you met at the trip, and get to know others who couldn't make it, as well as old timers who keep coming back for mbc's activities.


what can i say? it's something in a club that draws you back. be it slogging away at the book wrapping counter, persuading passerbys to purchase a packet of cookies or some donuts, or even enjoying yourself with the games prepared every networking party.


presenting the monash business club trip for the 2nd semester of 05 - pangkor. see you guys soon aight? peace out~


p.s. stay tuned for the next exciting adventures of mbcjournalist as he embarks on a deadly quest. a scintillating set of interviews with a few of the minds behind mbc 05 and beyond!

eh borrow sunblock lotion.. you didn't bring also?!

day two

the next day dawned nice and bright. a couple of guys awoke to nasi lemak a la flies and a little morning mafia. occupied with food, drink, and games, it took the guys only about 2 or so hours to realise that they were in fact girls in the trip. seems that they decided to sleep in, so being the gentlemen that they are the guys left them alone to their late morning snooze. besides, there were mafias to be caught.

sooner or later though, everyone had to get up for island hopping and snorkelling. one of the highlights of the trip.

12 pm - driven by locals, mbc members were
chauffered to coral island

1 pm - mbcians prepare to brave the deep.
snorkel gear courtesy of pangkor rimba camp

once we had our fill of salt water, beach rock climbing, and for some of us, actually seeing fishes, we headed back all together for lunch and a little games after that. and of course, a little male bonding with the ultimate male game that doesn't require any gadgetry - mafia.

2.30 pm - fuzzy duck! fuzzyduck! fuzyduh.. fuhduhzy uhh

4.30 pm - the game is now in session. the unwritten rule is
to get rid of the noisiest people. >.O

and presenting our most artistic pictures yet (due to the waves and the setting sun i guess), a few of us dared to try the banana boat and a little kayaking to coral island and beyond.

5.00 pm - banana boating! a natural alternative to emily rose

6.00 pm - the open seas. freedom.

washing up after a long salty sandy day, we were met with abrar and his dudes for a little barbequeing, another highlight of the trip. with sand between our toes and the roaring rising tide behind us, we enjoyed fresh crabs, clams, and roasted fish. i must say the food was good, the ambience superb.

with updated versions of mafia, the violence junkies stayed up practically the whole night killing, spying, healing, arguing, accusing, and who can forget, silencing.

10.00 pm - a little late for dinner, but abrar cooked up a storm!

10.15 pm - they're cooking for themselves over there! but if you hurry
you can charm danny into handing over his chicken wings

10.20 pm - all i'm left with are two clams!

11.00 pm - it's hard to take him seriously as gamemaster.
his biceps ripple when he moves his arms

to the sea, to the sea! the white gulls are crying,

the wind is blowing, and the white foam is flying.

west, west away, the round sun is falling.

grey ship, grey ship, do you hear them calling,
the voices of my people that have gone before me?
i will leave, i will leave the woods that bore me

(pg 935)

day one

the sun was still hidden beyond the horizon when 40 students from various courses convened at the sunway foyer to board the bus that would take them all the way to lumut.

8.00 am - catching up on sleep

the rain started around the time we left selangor and didn't let up. upon arrival at the lumut jetty, we were besieged by ferry people looking for passengers. zz remained adamant that we already booked a ferry. soon after some bald guy brought us to our means of getting across the sea to pangkor.

11.45 am - aboard the ferry to pangkor.
harry potter 1 was playing

our arrival on pangkor was heralded by clear skies and breezy winds. we were ushered into little pink vans, 10 to a van.

12.45 pm - pink vans around pangkor

soon, after traversing windy roads slick from the downpour, we arrived at pangkor rimba camp where we were to live for the next 3 days and 2 nights. we soon discovered the extent of our accomodations. there were 23 girls, 17 guys, and 3 dorms. i'm not sure how this happened but it turned out to be 12 girls, 11 girls, and 17 guys to a dorm each. one dorm had one bathroom.that's it.

one bathroom contained a shower head, basin, and a toilet of the squattable kind. so imagine 17 guys, all sandy and sweaty after a day at the beach.. coming back to their dorm which has one bathroom.. and finding out that it's occupied. by a girl. after grimly mulling over this for awhile, we had some food and games.

2.30 pm - blow whaaat??

athalia and liz, our games people, gave us a bunch of straws and orders to build a tall thing. we were divided into groups and came up with names like putu mayam, sleep deprived, alpha-q, and alpha-q back.

3.00 pm - straw towers

after that session of team building, we wandered about. some of us got into mischief with a tyre swing by the beach. some played volleyball, some captainball.

4.30 pm - how to stay young:
take one tyre, two girls, and a generous dash of scream

6.00 pm - ganas enough for you??

after some physical exercise (studying for exams is a good way for stress buildup and weight gain) some headed off to a place with shops down the road, or what we fondly called the 'pekan'.

7.00 pm - curry seafood stew! *drool*

after a little snack at the pekan (sampling some pangkorian seafood, fish sticks, etc) and a little dinner back at the chalet, abrar (our rimba camp guide dude) lit a fire for us! so there we were roasting marshmallows and getting a view of the night sky.

11.00 pm - some hot girls, sweaty guys, and steamy marshmallows

see you tomorrow!

monash business club: a history

hey there. ordered your drink? cool. pull up a stool and gather round. jin-tian's just about giving out the cards. oh no, wait. there seems to be some sort of a mix up. oh well, we'll let the mafia heads discuss balance matters. in the meantime, let me tell you who we really are. and what we do when we're not playing games.

if you're new to monash you would probably realise, sooner or later, that there are only a few clubs that meet regularly. mbc is not one of them. meet regularly? come on, we have our studies, our social agenda, our yum-chars to think about. oh those in the mm shop department are different lah. they have duties. the rest of us more or less take it easy.

kidding.

first the ideas would be mooted about at the committee meeting. after agreeing on something to do (what is there to agree on lah just copy from last year) the ideas are then passed on to the activities department where they will be materialised from theories on paper to actual events in real life. the public relations department does the advertising of the event and persuading people to show up. what is a party without people anyway? answer: more food for organizers.

ahaha kidding. really wan.

then when people come, have fun, give a little business to the club, and leave, the editorial department steps in to write up a report or an article about said event. the monash merchandise department mostly just hangs around the mm shop. they sell lots of pens there. no you can't get these from the bookstore. these babies are MONASH pens. to show people you're MONASH MATERIAL.

anyway for those of you who didn't know, we had a trip to pangkor last weekend. 12th to the 14th of november. but that is a story for another post. i just want to ask, for those who didn't go: why?? and for those who DID go: WHYYYYYYYYY?????

kidding lah. ahaha

it wasn't that bad. for more details, look out for 'pleasant pangkor', coming soon. for now, here are some pictures of some stuff we get into.

book sales + recruitment drives

networking parties

organizing trips for monashians

appreciation dinners for active members

cookie sales

barbeque parties

attending the monash ball together

hint: click to see the bigger picture