Afiq's

Easter Holidays!!!

I must say, other than debate, easters was a great holiday for me. This was mostly thanks to Danni, Amir and Chuah for helping me out most of the time and also individuals whom I got to meet up to catch up on old times because friendship is precious, too precious to let go. Anyway, for this holiday, I was able to go to the Sydney Easter Show to get myself a Spongebob hat and also another hat for Cat's birthday. The show was very similar to the Canberra show except that the scale was much much bigger with even an exhibition on jacuzzis that look like big boom boxes. We then met up with a whole lot of INTEC acquaintances at Darling Harbour where a long photography session ensued. We finally walked back to the uni and I was at that point walking with an extremely full bladder for almost two hours. Guys, I'm sure you know the feeling, brrr(it was a chilly night I might add). That was all on Danni's turf. Oh, I really liked Sydney's domestic airport as all the important MNCs (read: Krispy Kreme, Boost, etc) was at hand to be bought. I also discovered the wonderful food called Pide which I now have a penchant for, once in a while which is a problem as Canberra does not have that many Turkish or Lebanese food.

Then, we flew to Malbourne. Melbourne is basically less hectic as Sydney as Sydney was a bustling city whereas Melbourne is more of a planned one with not that much traffic. It was a city ran by trams. I went around Melbourne to discover more MNCs (read: Nando's Subway, Max Brenner, etc) which made the trip worthwhile. Btw, if you're wondering, Canberra also has Nando's and Subway, it's just that I'm glad Melbourne had them, haha. Visited Melbourne uni and realized that both, Sydney and Melbourne uni were way bigger than ANU. Quality over quantity, I say, no offence meant. Also visited the market which had a lot of interesting stuff which I didn't find interesting but is interesting for others. I also went to Chapel Street to meet up with Cat and friends to go shopping with at Chapel Street. Chapel Street was said to be the high end but I wouldn't really know since I didnt't shop in the end. Further on in this trip I went to shop at the factory outlets to get clothes. I then realized that Canberra also has a factory outlet that's similar which made me feel more appreciative towards Canberra.

I also got to watch 300 at the IMAX theatre for the first time. It was a great feeling for me. Regardless that the plot and script of the movie wasn't magnificent, the atmosphere was so good that I enjoyed the movie including the conspiracy theories that it was trying so blatantly to sell. Subsequently I also watched Sunshine which had Michelle Yeoh in it. You can read my review of it at my friendster page.

There was also a party by Pan which me and Danni crashed (as we weren't locals). It was a good party with good food which is always an important element as when the stomach is happy, people complain less. Thanks for the food and drinks, girls!

There was a whole lot more that happened during the trip but I feel would take me too long. Therefore, I'm going to end this entry by saying thank you to all who made the trip a great experience. I managed to meet new people and got to know friends better. You know who you are and I just want you to know that I appreciate all of you. May my next trip be as great if not better. Ciao! 

My First Easters

Thus ended my first Easters. It was one great tournament. Sure they could have served us more edible food but, what the heck. First, the summary of the debates. We were against Melbourne 4 and lost due to a strategic error. This was followed by a string of wins against UNSW 3, UQ 3, Monash 2 and Melbourne 2. After going against almost all unis, I commented to my mates that we haven't gone against the hosts. Lo and behold, we were up against Sydney 1. We lost that round but we felt we did good.
After the debates were done, break night beckoned. The listing of teams was made up of mostly UQ, Sydney and Melbourne. Then, we heard ANU being announced. I didn't hear the team number but everyone said it was ANU 2. I'd have to concede that I was depressed as I was, to a certain extent confident to break. Danni came by to congratulate me for breaking. I told him I didn't break. After sitting around thinking of my non-breaking, me and my teammate felt we should get some feedback from our silent round judge. After talking to our judge, we felt that we might have had good speaker points. There was doubt in us, so we went to the tab director to check on the breaking teams.
I was so shocked to find out ANU 3 were the ones who broke. I was repeating OMG! over and over again. We then went to sleep early in hopes of achieving something.
Next morning started well and we had to go against Melbourne 7. After 1 win and 1 loss against Melbourne, there was a 50-50 chance to actually win this octo-finals.
Unfortunately we lost to them for lack of engagement with the affirmative. Therefore, that ended our hopes of actually defending ANU's title last year.
Regardless of the loss, the experience helped a lot in my debating and getting to know people. The event was made great with some UWA girls doing a lot of crazy stuffs that even the ANU kids didn't do for scav hunt. Also watched a drinking game that was made so freaking funny as everyone were debaters. When people had to name countries, people started questioning about the legality of using Taiwan and Palestine. The game became a wacky game as as it turns out, people weren't tired of debating yet and would probably have done more if the game hadn't ended. In the end, the event was made great as I got to know people, even those from ANU even more as I have to admit that I haven't even met some of them before coming to Easters.

Till next time,

Ciao!