I'm still here

I've been very quiet over the last few weeks. It's mostly been because I've been trying to finish my thesis while packing and coordinating my move to Malaysia. Gosh. I can't believe my time here is up. After three and a half years in Christchurch, I'm finally moving back to my beloved hometown - Kota Kinabalu. Between the move, thesis-writing and the chaos at home, I haven't had any time for blogging or bloghopping. Believe me, I've been meaning to read the updates in my reading folder but circumstances just don't permit it.

Although I have been super busy, I still managed to snap heaps of photos of all the things I love in Christchurch. When I do have the time, I plan to give you a little tour of my life as a student and some other bits of Christchurch beauty.

For this post, let me just tell you what I've been up to the past few weeks, okay? I'll only talk about the significant events.

Packing

As I said earlier, we're moving back to KK very very soon. We’ve been packing like mad over the past few weeks and cleaning the house for our landlord’s final inspection. Inspection day was Sunday and boy, was I relieved when we finally handed over the house keys to Mr. Butcher.

To me, there's nothing fun about packing. The whole process was so stressful, I almost had a meltdown. First of all, I felt like crap packing tons of stuff because my ribcage was sore the whole time (will tell you more about this in the next section). Second, we had way too many things to pack and get rid of. Deciding which item to ship home, donate and sell was physically and mentally draining. I didn’t think we own so many things, given the fact that we're living in a one-bedroom house, but when we started packing, I realised how much junk we accumulated over the last 3 1/2 years. Third, when I'm busy packing, I become very moody. And I look frumpy. Not that I’m a candidate for Sabah Model Search any other day, but when I do the house chores, I go into a don’t-come-and-see me mode. When you put all three factors together, you get a very volatile human being.

But that's all over now and I am so relieved to have the packing behind me!

Being a trader

Apart from packing, I was also busy selling all our household goods and other items on Trade Me. Trade Me is something like Mudah.com. I find it very exciting selling stuff online especially when the bid exceeds my reserve price. Hehe. These are some of the things I've sold on Trade Me.

I sold these and tons of other stuff like my shoes, handbags, bean bags, TV Cabinet, dining table, trampoline, toaster, rice cooker, printer, vacuum cleaner, broom, laundry basket, study desk, wall clock, and matress. Semua licin!

A Tragic Fall

This event is related to the ribcage pain I mentioned earlier.

Have I told you that I am a total klutz? If I haven’t, well, it’s time I come clean. I have this habit of falling down and hurting myself on a regular basis. Hubby and my sister are constantly surprised that I can fall down while doing something so simple like walking. I think it’s in my DNA.

Last year my great fall happened at the college cafe. Remember this post? I lost my footing while walking into the café and landed flat on my butt. Humiliating, yes.  

An incident at the uni 2 weeks ago beats last year’s hands down. On a fine Wednesday morning, while I was working at the office, I got a text message from a guy who saw my Car-For-Sale ad (will talk about why I’m selling in the next section). Overwhlemed by excitement, I got totally disoriented. All I knew was I needed to get home ASAP.

After packing up, I quickly got out from the office and sprinted toward my car. Instead of walking over this chain barrier thingy in front of the parking lot, I jumped over it like a hurdles-Olympic-champion. As always, shit happens to me when I try to be athletic. Instead of jumping over the barrier successfully, I ended up getting my right foot caught in the chains.  And then...

**GEDEBAB**

I fell down hard flat on the ground. FACE-DOWN.

The pain was so severe, I curled up in a ball and whimpered like a sick puppy. My tummy and chest hurt like hell and breathing was painful. To make it worse, a few people and a nenek who was brisk-walking witnessed the entire scene. She came to make sure I was okay and asked “Are you alright?”. I whispered, “I just need to lie down”.

So there I was lying down on the pavement, with the sun on my face and this elderly woman beside me. While I was sunbathing in misery, I cursed myself for attempting the impossible jump. I mean, with the amount of public fall I've had in the past, one would think that I'd be more careful. Instead, I did the unthinkable. I kept asking myself  "WHY? WHY? WHY?" After beating myself up for a few minutes, my voice came back and I was able to tell the nenek I was okay. She helped me up and said reassuringly “You had a fright but you’ll be okay”. I thanked her and slowly limped my way to the car.

When I got home, I sought sympathy from hubby and told him I fell. His response? “LAGI?! Sana juga??” He said “sana juga” ‘cos the week before that, I stumbled over the same, stupid barrier. I ignored the question and showed him my bruises to shut him up. This got me some much needed TLC.

After two weeks, the bruises on my elbows are barely noticeable but my back and right ribcage are still sore. Apart from the physical effects, I am also psychlogically scarred. After the fall, I have developed a slight phobia for chain barriers. Whenever I see one, I'd winced at the memory of my folly.

So. The moral of the story? If you're a klutz, avoid crossing/ jumping/ walking over barriers of any sort.

The SOI barriers

Bye bye Camry

Another big decision I made last month was to sell  my car. I bought it in 2010 with the intention of shipping it to KK. I was keen on doing that because according to Kastam di Raja Malaysia (KDRM), overseas students  who intend to import cars to the country get student AP. Plus, a majority of my seniors have imported their cars without much hassle. This means the cars arrived promptly and the payable tax was reasonable. For instance, my colleague JD, who went back to Malaysia last year was charged RM18K in tax for his 2001 Honda Stream. Reasonable, don't you think?

So. What made me change my mind? Well, when I asked for a quotation from KDRM in Port Klang, I was told that I needed to pay about RM31K for my Camry. Fine. I then called KDRM in Kota Kinabalu to ascertain the figure. Guess what? The KK custom official who did my case had a different quotation. It was RM62K! DOUBLE the amount given by Port Klang custom. Crazy right? Shouldn't the formula for import tax be standard across the country? KK custom looks pretty shady to me now.

To make the story short, I decided to sell my baby and avoid paying a fortune in tax. I was sore about it but didn't have a choice.

So there you have it. My excuses for not being able to blog. I have a few more days to spend in Christchurch and I'm starting to feel a bit emotional about leaving. I guess that's the reason why I'm writing this entry - to remind myself what my life is like right now. In this spirit, I shall write an entry everyday before I leave this garden city.