Flew to Tawau, Sabah yesterday morning. I was asleep before the plane even closed the cabin doors and taxied out to the runway. I was up late playing Ragnarok again. I knew I wouldn't really have internet access for the next 10 days so I was getting in as much playing time as I could. Ah... who needs sleep?

Lynna's (this year's spelling, last year it was Liena) mum isn't well. So, since I don't have any shooting until june, we decided to fly out here. Not like it was last minute or anything, we had been planning this for almost 2 months. And so... here I am! Everything didn't go as planned though, for one thing, I'm not coming out here with as much money as I would've liked; there was a family emergency last week. So we were unable to unable to buy a camcorder and a digital camera for the trip like we wanted. In fact, we almost had to cancel this trip if my funds hadn't come through the day before. Now that was a whole other adventure in itself.

One of the things I was planning for this trip is to get myself physically back in order. Get good sleep, as there's no computer or PS2 to keep me up, slim down and start jogging. Two days ago I went shopping for a good pair of jogging shoes. I was bombarded with a few nice choices. One of them being a RM500 pair which were really nice but a bit beyond my budget. I was tempted to buy it though... :-) The guy selling me the shoes is a really nice guy who was studying something along the lines of nuclear physics or something like that. Which made me do a double take. Later that night I visited Lanz who's been dong my hair for about a year now. Lynna insisted that I cut and straighten my hair. Now, I did want a hair cut but STRAIGHTENED?!? Why would I want to straighten my hair? I know my hair is a bit wavy but I never in my life thought of straightening my hair! I didn't know guys do that. Well, maybe those Hong Kong stars do, but me? I have had my hair styled for shoots, but this was for everyday me. Still, I thought, what the heck. Let's try anything. Lanz thought I would look good. After 2 hours of smelling like rotten eggs. I had to admit it did look alright, my hair. In the middle of it all Rashid Sibir, the director called Lanz up and having found out I was there, asked Lanz to remind me that I had to slim down for his shoot next month. *sigh* Been trying to do that for the last month but instead I think I put on weight. Food just looks to good not to eat! Those slimming teas seem to work if I could just discipline myself to take it regularly. In fact, if you don't it really messes you up.

Anyway, half hour before landing I woke up... only to find Lynna had painted my thumb nails with glittery nail polish and stuck little silver hearts on it. Thank god it's only 2 nails this time and didn't look too horrible. And I could pretty much hide it from everybody. Upon disembarking the plane I actually had to go through immigration and have my passport stamped. The immigration officer was kind enough to explain that it was due to an agreement Sabah and Sarawak had with the government. I was like Ohhh... We were greeted at the airport by Lynna's aunty and cousin. Lynna's mum was also there, but she waited in the car as she couldn't be standing around waiting for us. On the way to Lynna's home, we stopped by a gerai to eat "Soto Ayam" (there goes my diet). They wanted me to try it cause it was very good. And it was. *sigh* Sambal here is very, very pedas though.

Tawau's a lot bigger than I expected. Lynna always made it seem like it was a small place, but it's not. It's still a bandaraya after all. Her aunty seemed embarrased saying there's no tall buildings here, so I told her LA hardly had any tall buildings either. I just didn't want her to put down this place. There's no need for that. We got to Lynna's parent's place, which is like a small little kampung in the city. It's like "Kampung Baru" in KL, only smaller. The neighbours houses are all very close to each other. We were greeted by Lynna's dad and there were quite a few other people there too. I didn't know was family and who wasn't. Everybody sat and talked. I listened as I didn't know what they were talking about and sometimes they spoke in buggis, so I was completely clueless then. And as I was listening I was starting to get very drowsy. Oh-oh... Later on in the day, Lynna and I and her brother's family traveled to their cousin's house to borrow a car so that Lynna and I would have a car during our stay there. I almost didn't know how to say thank you as it was very unexpected. On our way back, Lynna stopped to get some kuih called "Terang bulan" which looks and tastes like "ampam balik" but she insisted that it was different. I was just like "ok". And then dinner was this huge feast of "ikan bakars" and shrimp and... some more dishes, which I don't know what it was called but it had fish in it. I meant there was a lot of food. I was wondering who else was coming to join us for dinner? Did all the neighbours come here to eat too? But it was because Lynna's dad was excited for us to be here and didn't want us to feel hungry. *sigh* *sigh*. Every one here sleeps early generally, rougly around ten most people are asleep. They went and put up a "kelambu" for me cause they didn't want me to be disturbed by mosquitoes. Made me feel a little embarrassed, but I tried to accept their hospitality graciosly. I went to sleep early; around 8:30, but here they also wake up early. Like around 5:30 in the morning. I woke up at around 7:30 am, which was considered late. For breakfast was a huge platter of mee goreng. *sigh* *sigh* *sigh*

LAST FIVE ENTRIES

Over - Sunday, Aug. 21, 2005
A short ramble - Monday, Jul. 18, 2005
Results - Saturday, Jul. 09, 2005
A book understanding - Monday, Mar. 28, 2005
Soreness - Tuesday, Mar. 15, 2005