Day At Mamutik

On the bus to Jesselton Port

At Jesselton Port

Grumpy Jia Jia started smiling :)
(finally)

Why was she grumpy?

We were told to be at the bus stop at our respective kampungs before 6.45am.
What happened was Joyce came out at 6.50am and had a shock because there was no bus in sight, thinking that somehow because she was 5 minutes late, they left without her.

But such was not the case.

Then Joyce made a few calls and found out she was probably the only person waiting for the bus at Kingfisher residence area.
So she drove to Kampung E to wait for bus with her friends.

The bus finally came at 8.00am.
Too much or not, you tell me.

Anyway, Jia Jia was grumpy because she did not have enough sleep
(diarrhea and whatnot at 3am)
She then woke up at 6.30am, and rushed to meet the 6.45am bus stop dateline.

But lo and behold.
This is UMS, where nothing is reliable.

And thus the bus came and 8.00am due to bad management and planning by second years.

And Jia Jia became grumpy.

Raring to go :)

On the boat

Very hot, hor?
See, so bright.

To get to any of the islands you need to take a boat ride from the port.


Arriving at Mamutik

Lots of fishes at the jetty

Really a lot of fishes at the jetty...

To my surprise, Mamutik looks very much like Sapi...

When we arrived, Joyce went, "Wrong island ka?"
Until I saw the Welcome to Mamutik sign.

I'm starting to think that all islands near KK look the same O.o"

They have the same white, sandy beaches.

The same wooden style jetties.

The same corals and fish..

Nevermind, I will post comparison photos as I go along.

Corals at the jetty

Pretty girls at the jetty

Hahahahaha.
Let a girl have some fun, will you?

Yet more pretty girls :P

At the shallow beach

It's so bright and hot it looks dark.

Looks like something from a ClubMed brochure.
Without the people at the side.
Can they be photoshopped out? >.<"

Mamutik

Sapi


Sometime after snorkling for a few hours




Mamutik

Sapi

Hahahaha
Maybe I'm not convincing enough.
Anyway, all beaches have sand and sea and boats and jetties.
It's quite common they should look alike.

But the island vegetation, the fauna and the overall way the island was developed is very similar.
Heck, right down to the stinking, dirty, waterless cubicles they call a toilet.



This was some time before lunch, because we were hungry and food hadn't arrived yet,
so we entertained ourselves by snapping pictures.

The time difference from picture above and the picture below is pretty huge.
There's about 4 hours worth of gap between them.

See what happened was this.
(create mental pictures for each scene, its the least you can do when I cannot provide you pictures of the following activities)

Went snorkling.
(so no camera)

Felt tired.

Slept on soft white sand.
(wearing goggles, in case sand got into eyes)

Woke up.

More snorkling.

Got tired.

Sat in shallow part near shore, and got pummeled by waves
and tossed to the shoreline filled with broken and dead corals.
OUCH.

Got sunburned enough.

Went to shower outdoors.
(with clothes still on, of course, to wash off the sand)

Went into smelly excuse for toilet to dry up and change.
(no water inside remember?)

Then we come back to the present.

Dry, itchy and sunburned.
But feeling much better than wet, itchy and sunburned.

With salt-encrusted hair.
You'd have that expression too, believe me.
Hair like dried, almost flammable grass sucks.

Dying for a bath.





And thus is the end of the pictures.

But not the end of the journey.

Left the island about 5.00pm.
Reached Port Jesselton about 5.20pm.

Bus was full and was told to wait for the second round.

Waited.

And waited.

Bus came at 7.00pm.

UMS is really so extremely unreliable.
Period.

Clumsy

"..going, coming,
thought I heard a knock
who's there?
no one.."

Dear lonely isle,

I think I fell back into the hole.
But I'll climb back up.

I'll be okay.

Just....not now.

It's gonna hurt when it heals too,
It'll all get better...in time.

love, Joyce.

Sober

And I don't know
this could break my heart or save me
nothing's real, until you let go
completely

so here I go
with all my thoughts I've been saving
so here I go
with all my fears weighing on me

three months
and I'm still sober
picked all my weeds but kept the flowers
but I know
it's never really over

and I don't know
I could crash and burn but maybe
at the end of this road I might catch
a glimpse of me

three months
and I'm still breathing
been a long road since those hands I left my tears in
but I know
it's never really over, no

three months
and I'm still standing here

three months
and I'm getting better, yeah

three months, yeah three months

three months
and I'm still breathing

three months
and I still remember it

three months and I wake up

three months
and I'm still sober

picked all my weeds but kept the flowers.

Sober
Kelly Clarkson

Moving Muscles

Dear lonely isle,

Today, everyone should go out and buy 4D.
Because Joyce did physical exercise.

Went swimming with my housemates today; Bee Bee, Mei Kuan, and Chia Wern.
For those of you who know about Bee Bee and Mei Kuan, I have great news for you, Chia Wern, my new room mate, is even smaller than them >.<"
Size-wise. Body frame-wise.
Which makes round round Joyce look like something akin to the great, deep sea-faring mammals in the ocean next to them.
People with great legs. Why do I keep attracting them?

Anyway, we went to the public pool at the Likas Sports Complex. Sorry guys, no pictures. Didn't really want to risk bringing my camera and having it stolen or what-not.

*Must check out the place first ma...My first time there, know?*

The pool was a standard Olympic size pool with of course, the standard freaking cold water that accompanies all indoor or covered pools.

Sad to say, all my effort building up stamina sometime last year when I used to swim every morning with Ziggy baby went *poof* with tiny clouds of smoke.

This is why not doing anything even vaguely strenuous for long periods of time is bad for you, because it makes you extremely wimpy and soft and useless.
Yes, because Joyce went kempis halfway along the length of the pool >.<" And not to mention broke the record for what could be possibly the slowest time taken to swim the length of an Olympic sized pool.

Partly due to the fact that I cannot remember or even recall the last time I did anything even vaguely strenuous.

Haha whatever. I can gloat because my poor room mate cannot swim at all :P
But then again, what I can do isn't exactly something to be proud of anyway...I just float a long faster than she does. When she learns how to float lah.

Oh I went round looking for a new swimsuit that day, because my current old one is pretty tight for me. Actually, 'pretty tight' is probably an understatement >.<"

If you've been swimsuit shopping lately (as I have), and buy your swimsuits from brands like Speedo, Ogival and whatnot, you find that they measure the swimsuit size according to your bust size, or more accurately the circumference of your chest.

Cheap string bikinis do not count because they are all labeled 'free size' and have what passes for possibly a handkerchief for dolls to cover your 'vitals' because there cannot be any other use for pieces of cloth so small. Yes I gave them a try, and no, tried as I could, I could not stretch them wide enough to feel PG-13 rated, much less secure.
And no of course I didn't buy them.
I do not stoop to obscenity.

Anyway, back to buying swimsuits.
If my bra size and measurements are anything to go by, it's that my chest circumference should be 34-35 inches. So I thought my old swimsuit was probably 30 or 32 inches in size which accounts for the tightness. But after checking the worn out label on the suit my eyes widened in amazement, shock and possibly horror (okay, maybe not horror, but kind of like how somethings are weird but yet fascinating at the same time?) that the actual size was 28 inches.
That's like 6 inches in difference.
Imagine how my breasts feel.
Okay, don't imagine. I was just kidding.

No wonder I look literally like an airport runway wearing the suit. The poor dears were squashed so tight they became flat. (Yes, fats are quite soft and can flatten if you squash them)

So yes, I think I have justified getting a new swimsuit. Problem is, Sabah for some reason DOES NOT and is possibly INCAPABLE of selling even marginally or reasonably nice looking swimsuits.
They're either horrendously small or horrendously ugly. (Some were horrendously weird. Anyway, the point is that swimsuits here are quite horrendous. But I'm sure you know now.)

And I have some Family Day thingy for my course coming up next week, and we're going to an island to play. And I have to wear my very tight swimsuit and look boobless *sobs* T_______T

On hindsight, I now know what muscles are involved in swimming the breast stroke because I can feel every single one I used today, probably more than is possibly necessary or required.
Oh, no worries, it's not THAT bad, I can still lift my arms straight and reach for the skies.
One at a time though, and very slowly.

Yes, I already know how unfit I am. I'm suffering for it, remember?

But I had a good time :)
Teaching roomie how to swim, kempis-ing at the side of the pool feeling great because I moved muscles and put (possibly) some fat to work to earn their keep for the extended stay and usage of space in my body.

And the best part of it all, having a good, hot dinner after all the relatively hard work done :)
(Relative because while it is not hard work at all for everyone else, but for my standard of nil exercise, I gotta say I made myself happy and a little bit proud today ;) *tries to pat self on back but failed because arms refuse to cooperate after being tortured, and thus resorts to mentally patting self on back*)

It's been a good day. Of sorts.
Now if only my muscles can feel as good as I do and stop complaining.

love, Joyce.

Superior Saturday

"I, Arthur, anointed heir to the Kingdom,
claim the Sixth Key,
and with it the mastery of the Upper House.

I claim it by blood and bone and contest,
out of truth, in testament, and against all trouble."

Wheeee~ Good book :)

Finally got my hands on it.

Amen.

Excavation : In Progress

"..I'm going to smile cos I deserve to,
it'll all get better- in time..''

Dear lonely isle,

I think its been long enough.
Been sitting around waiting for the sky to fall on me and the world to crumble around my ears.
Hid out here in my cave and blasted the doorway to cover the entrance.
But there were no loud crashes or earth shaking tremors.

Think its time I dug my way out from under the rubble to have a peek to check if the world changed while I wallowed in my misery and convinced myself that everything was over.

If the sun still shines in the morning sky and the stars still twinkle in the moonlight,
then the worst that could've happened didn't.
Or possibly hasn't happened yet.
In which case, it still isn't time to hide yet. Nor is it time to run away yet.

And because it isn't time yet, it's time to move on.

I've got too much work waiting to be done, too many things left to be had, too much life waiting to be lived.

love, Joyce.

Back up, back up,
take another chance.
Don't you mess up, mess up,
I don't want to lose you.
Wake up, wake up,
this ain't just a thing that you
give up, give up.

Don't you say that I'd be
better off, better off,
sleeping by myself and wondering
if I'm better off, better off
without you, boy.

The Little Things
Colbie Caillat

Broken

"..every night she cries herself to sleep,
thinking why does this happen to me,
why does every moment have to be so hard?.."

Dear lonely isle,

Everyday I find myself struggling to hang on to something I cannot feel anymore.
To trust in what I don't believe anymore.
To hold on to what I cannot see anymore.

It's like waking up one day to find that the world has moved on without you.

If life is one long morning rush, I think I overslept.

Sometimes I think that everyone gets entitled to a certain amount of happiness, and if you spend it all at one go, you are then unhappy for the rest of your life.
I feel like I've already spent all of mine.

I keep telling myself, times like these don't last forever.
What if they do?

How long is forever?
It can be as short as a day, or span eons.
Forever, I'm told, is as long as you want it to be.

How long is your forever?

Feels like I've been sad for such a long time.
Certainly, my heart weighs like lead.
So heavy it drops to my shoes, beyond the soles of my feet, and into black emptiness and abyss beneath.

In truth, sometimes I don't feel like waking up.
The world is another day I find so hard to get through.

love, Joyce.

New haircut.

I like :)

Tired

"..and I don't know,
this could break my heart or save me,
nothing's real,
until you let go completely
so here I go,
with all my thoughts I've been saving,
so here I go,
with all my fears weighing on me.."

Dear lonely isle,

You know how some mornings you wake up and find that the world looks grey?
That the colours weren't as beautiful as they used to be?
You know how some mornings the sun is so bright, it's too bright?
It hurts your eyes.

Some days you just feel it.

On some days I realise that I'm a lot happier when I used to be a lot heavier.
Now when I feel better about myself, I find I seldom feel good at all.
I'm seldom happy, and I feel more lonely than ever.
Sometimes I wonder if happiness means having to feel like a whale all the time.
And to not like how you look in the mirror.

Some days I wonder about the plastic water scoop in the bathroom.
Even though I emptied all the air, it still floats.
And I wonder, why sometimes when we feel as though we are all but spent, drained completely, empty. Hollow. Void.
We still float. We still try.

I find it ironic that you can not know what you want, but yet be very clear on what you do not want.

I find it sad that we often search the most for that which eludes us.

Sometimes I think it's just unfair that we search so long to find what we really want, only to have it taken from us. Waved in our face to remind us of what we have but yet do not possess.

Sometimes I think the saddest thing is to watch what we build crumble slowly in front of our eyes, to watch it being taken apart bit by bit, painstakingly and lovingly built bonds weakened and torn down, like a frame by frame documentary of the demolition of a building that took generations to build.

Sometimes I feel like an empty shell of the person I've once been.
With nothing left but echoing memories and dust in the corners of my heart.
With sunken eyes and dark circles that tell of haunted nights and sad days.
Sometimes I feel like everything is just getting too hard.

I'd like to think that things will get better in time, but I think I know better.
Because some things don't get better, they get worse.
And just when you think that the turning point is right about now, you often get surprised.
Because that's just the way it is.

Sometimes I wonder where do the happy days end and when does today begin, but I can't find the line of transition.

You know how you make yourself think of mundane thoughts at night because you don't want to cry anymore?
I find that I can't be honest with my feelings because all they lead to are puffy eyes in the morning.
And sleeping with wads of tissue paper and a half-used roll beside your pillow.

These days I feel myself building walls around my heart.
Laying down a brick every night, slowly erecting wall after wall of solitude around the gaping pump.
Just trying to protect it from hurting anymore.

love, Joyce.

Ashes

"..the world's on fire,
it's more than I can handle.."

Dear lonely isle,

What do you do when you feel like your world is crashing down on you?

What do you do?
When the loneliness of silence stills your lips.

What can be done?
When everything spins out of your control.

The pain of withholding what you know though it eats you up inside.
Like a dirty secret you hide in the closet, or a skeleton you bury under a bush.

Where do you keep your silence?
In your pocket, like spare change, to be handed out to peddlers and grocers.
Or behind the grim vaults of banks and funds?
In the unassailable fortress of your mind, deep and lost in the subconscious.
Or writ on your face, as clear as the stars on a bright night?

How do you keep your silence?
With a knife to mark the place in your heart you scarred to make the pledge.
Or with a string around your finger to remind you what you ought not to tell?

Why do you keep your silence?
Pains that cannot be erased by just words, actions that cannot be forgotten by mere time, or maybe just the fear that echoes in the chasm of your heart.

Numbness.
Eventually you bury what you cannot deal with.

Like a gaping wound salvaged with crude bandages, just to keep the sight of raw flesh and dark blood away.

And with bloodstained hands you deny, you try to wipe the dirt from your once pristine vision.
Hoping that all will be as it once was. That everything is okay.
And that nothing really happened.
That the streaks of blood and dirt that mar your view are nothing but specks of dust.

Denial is nothing but a means to escape. A means to an end you cannot accept.
From the truth you cannot face. From the pain you cannot erase. From the hurt that cannot heal.

love, Joyce.

T______T

Too happy.

Happy Weekends

~17th May~
Jia Jia 's and Phebe's Birthday

Birthday Girls

~25th May~

Shopping in KK
Lai San's new haircut

Wanna cut my hair too! T___T
Need a haircut badly...

Shopping in identical blouses :P


~1st June~
(More) Shopping in KK

Lunch at Secret Recipe

Dinner at Wong Kok Char Chan Teng

Happy people pigging out :)

Hope to have more happy weekends :)

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On another note,

Going back in 3 days time!
Wheeee~
*hops around*

I'm so excited! XD