G-A-V-I-N

Revelation is back once again! This time it’s in Malacca and as far as i know, rooms are fully booked. Despite all the hype though, i shall be skipping this round. awwww.. This is because i have a trip planned somwhere in December and i’m saving up to go for that trip. My feelings are yet again, mixed. I love raves. The atmosphere, the people, the environment, the sounds, the fun. *sigh* All that added up is just fun fun and more fun. Should i go for the rave though, my budget for my year end trip would be a little tighter, which is why i have decided to let this one pass. Raves will come and go anyway right? As some of you know, i shall be leaving on a jetplane to the country down under. Because this is so, the end year trip i’m planning with my friends is sort of a ‘one last fling’ before i fly off hence, i believe spending more quality time with family and friends is essential. I shall miss home dearly. *sobz* So there, R4, i shall be back for R5. Till the next rave then.

It’s a terrible feeling to be a sports enthusiast and to be injured. As my friends play basketball, i merely sit there and watch them shoot hoops and dribble the ball and i get really frustrated with the fact that i can’t join in the fun due to my injury. In case your wondering what injury i’m talking about, it’s an injury to my shoulder. Go back a few posts and you’ll discover the magic of how it happened. I can though, play a little light futsal and that’s just what i did while they shot hoops. I ran around playing with the football as if i was someone who had been deprived of having friends. I felt sorry for myself. Haha, then again, it was yours truly who inflicted the injury on himself. *sigh* I tried to play some basketball today, but ended up hurting it, so i stopped. I can’t wait for this injury to be fully healed. Day by day, i’m getting more and more impatient, but one will have to face the consequences of being impatient. For example, me hurting my arm today for trying to shoot a basketball. I shall now wait for my shoulder to fully heal, for i know i will only prolong this injury to my shoulder should i be impatient. Patience is virtue i guess…

As i pushed open the doors and entered, the pungent smell of chinese herbs i whiffed. As i moved in closer… and closer, many people could be seen with sullen looking faces sitting down… waiting. The walls were white yet stained with black marks. The air cond motor could be heard as the silence was almost deafening. The aura of fear… i sensed. And then…. "click" *door opens* "No. 26!!" A chinese doctor almost twice my size walked out and called the number. He was to be the key to the healing of my shoulder. I heard he was one of the best. As "no. 26" entered, i looked on in fear as the door closed behind patient no.26. I wondered how painful the ordeal was going to be for me. I had heard that going to these chinese doctors to heal a sprain or dislocation or fracture, etc. could be excruciatingly painful. My number was 28. I waited in silence and stared into space. My mind started to run wild as i imagined the doctor to have sharp fangs and an evil face, and he would just grab my shoulder and twist it, hence… putting my hand to sleep. OKOK, that’s dramatic enough. Firstly, i went with my friends, so it wasn’t that scary. *laughs* Secondly, the ordeal was a painful one, but my shoulder feels much better now. Down to the details. I went to this chinese doctor (tiht ta) in seapark, recommended to me by my friend Scott. My first appointment made was on Monday (16/10/06) The doctor was really muscular looking. I think he knew some sort of kung fu, bish bash, swashbuckling hu-ha-hee, i’m gonna twist your arm back to it’s position stuffs. His back was HUGE. He looked like the Hulk. Not to mention his forearms; they were twice the size of mine!! The 1st meeting with this big and huge but friendly looking doctor was rather painful. I went in, sat down, and after he had asked me what the problem was, he started massaging my shoulder. It was soothing. I was like "aHhhH". Suddenly, without any warning whatsoever, "KraaAacKk!!" and then, silence…. followed by heavy breathing. At this point in time, my face was contorted with pain, so unbearable, i could hardly let out a whimper. And then it came.. again… "KraAACckkk~!!!" This time, even my face could not express the pain. I just sat there… numb. The massaging continued for another 3-5 minutes. Thereafter, the doctor, wrapped my shoulder with some chinese herbs, tapped my shoulder and said "Ok, your done!". By then, my shoulder was a lot looser, considering the fact that it was really stiff before. Basically, i felt better. That was the 1st session. The 2nd session was, on Wednesday (18/10/06). This time, it wasn’t so bad. In fact, it only hurt, a little bit. He massaged me, and tried to "kraAackk" my shoulder again, but this time, got no "KraaAAacKk" sound wor? Hahaha Then, he continued to massage me, then wrapped me up again. He asked me to come back on Friday. As it is now, my shoulder is feeling a lot better and i think my final session with the doctor will be on Friday. Thereafter, let’s pray that the pain will be totally gone. The joy of my shoulder being able to move in more than one way again brought a smile to my face as tears of joy streamed down my cheeks. Nah~~ not tears lar! Just kidding… but yah… I’m glad! Thanks for keeping me in your prayers guys! Appreciated it a lot! And thank our Heavenly Father for teaching me a good lesson not to be so crazy in doing football stunts and giving me a speedy recovery! That’s all i have to share for today. Till my next post, cherioz peeps! *hugz*

I haven’t been writing in my blog for about 4 days now? Or was it 5? Well, it’s been a while. The reason? I can’t use my right hand. Well, it’s not totally uselss. I can use it, but it’d hurt. Reason? I over exerted myself playing sports again. This time though, it was futsal and not basketball, and it was self inflicted and not inflicted upon me by my toe-stepping friend. This time the injury was dealt to my shoulder. How? Under footballing terms, and i’m sure all football players or enthusiasts would know the ‘bicycle kick’. A move that is not easy to perform unless you are a professional, and because yours truly is not a professional, the outcome was inevitable. I jumped, lifted my leg, kicked the ball in mid-air, and landed on my shoulder with a loud "thud". The rest was history. The next thing you see is Gavin lying down on the floor in pain and agony while worried friends rushed over to see what was the matter. The pain was… excruciating to say the least. It was almost unbearable. I lay on the floor for a good 15 minutes and wasn’t able to move. Okay, for those in the blur, a bicycle kick is basically an acrobatic way of kicking the ball in mid-air. So it’s clear now how this unfortunate event occured. Right now at this moment, i’m having difficulty typing in my blog. The injury to my shoulder has totally affected my movements to my right arm. I now bathe, brush my teeth, drive, eat, open doors, comb my hair all with my left hand. You’d be suprised how much your shoulder plays a part in moving your arm. I never knew, but i guess i’ll learn to appreciate my shoulder more from now on. We tend to take many things for granted don’t we? I’ll post that up another day. As for now, that stupid attempted bicycle kick has brought me nothing but a crappy past 3 days. I went to a clinic, but the clinic did not have an x-ray, so i was referred to SJMC to get one. The doctor at the clinic gave me some painkillers. Anyway, i got an x-ray, and thank God, my shoulder was’t broken or dislocated or fractured. It was just VERY badly sprained, hence my lack of ability to use my right hand now. I was told by the doctor in SJMC to continue on with the painkillers given to me by the doctor at the clinic and to apply some deep heat sensation cream thing-a-ma-jig. Those @#$%^& painkillers by the way, gave me a @#$%^ headache which resulted in me vomitting 3 times in 10 hours! It was a terrible ordeal. I felt dizzy and nauseous. It was like having mild food poisoning and the feeling of having food poisoning as we all know, is beyond words. On the brighter side though, the painkillers did kick in and they did do their job. I also applied the cream on top of eating my painkillers so the pain was like.. statiscally speaking, maybe about, 70% gone for that one day. I decided though, that having that headache again was not worth it. I’d rather endure the pain on my shoulder then have to go through that headache again. It’s been a really frustrating past few days for me and perhaps it’ll continue to be frustrating as days go by. I forsee this injury healing in another 2 weeks at least. Till then, i guess i’ll have to make do with my left hand and endure the pain. I’d like to thank my sister though, who took care of me while my parents were away. She rushed back from work to take me to the hospital to get the x-ray done. Even her friend helped out by ‘tar-pauing’ some food for us. We couldn’t eat in the hospital though, but it was the thought. By the way, in case you guys did not know, when i am sickly or injured, i tend to turn on my ‘manja mode’. Just thought i’d let you guys in on that. Hahaha! Anyway, it’s getting late and all this typing has strained my hand enough. Pray for a speedy recovery for me guys. Thanks!

As i was sleeping on my bed on a rainy wednesday afternoon at 3.15pm, my phone startled me as it rang with such conviction. Well, a phone can’t ring with conviction, but when you’re blur and sleeping, with a quiet environment in your room, and nothing can be heard except the sound of your air-cond, a phone ringing can really give you a good wake up call. Well, mine at least. Anyway, my girlfriend had called, and she told me "Dear! Dear! Faster go and check your e-mail! I got my offer of acceptance to Australia already!" So i crawled out of my cozy bed, in the cold weather and with every ounce of strength i had, turned on my computer, and signed in to my e-mail account. My eyes were still half open all this while mind you. =_= *laughs* Anyways, i got my letter of acceptance too, and I leave sometime around February next year. =( Gosh, I have mixed feelings getting this letter. Half of me doesn’t want to go. I want to stay in Malaysia where I am familiar with everything and everything and everyone i love is here in Malaysia. The other half of me though, wants to take up the opportunity to experience life outside the comfort zone, and of course, everybody will say "Get your degree. Don’t get stuck with a diploma only." It’s true that a degree is important. So there. I’m going to Australia next year. Just thought i’d share this happy….. or sad? news with you guys. Hahaha, nah… I ain’t sad… Cheers Mate!

If you guys had read my previous post on me "toe-ing the line", you’d know that i had hurt my little toe while playing basketball and was unable to walk properly for a week. Just last week, i found out how and why my toe had hurt so much. I have this friend who has, well… how would you put it.. legs of steel? And if that’s not bad enough, we play our basketball barefooted, and he STEPS on your toe people! And i’m not talking about your big toe or 2nd toe, not even your 3rd toe, but he always… ALWAYS somehow or rather manages to step on your little pinky toe. I know this, because I have 2 other friends who have been terribly victimised by this ghastly exruciatingly painful attack, and believe it or not, he stepped on their pinky toes as well. Coincidence? I doubt it. Hahaha, but, of course, he doesn’t mean to. He probably just gets too excited when he’s playing and charges at you full speed in an attempt to dispossess you of the ball. The result; a shout of pain from the victim, and a sheepish laugh from the guilty party. But it’s all good. We still love him. Our little walrus. By the way, we’ve nicknamed him "walrus" for reasons that are obvious. Hahaha, (inside joke)

As we live our lives daily, what would our lives be without the joy of having companionship? The joy of having people to mingle with, and play with, or to share your feelings and "dark" secrets? What would life be without friends? Friends are ever so important to an individual i’d say. Wouldn’t you agree? Sadly, we don’t have many true friends. Perhaps it’d be a little impulsive on my part to say that "we" do not have many true friends. But i feel that not every friend is as true as they say they are. A friend once told me that friendship is just a relationship for the benefits of mutual advantge. The key words, "Mutual Advantage". More often than not, we tend to have "close" friends because they make us laugh, or are very nice people, or are just a fun to be around with. If they feel the same way about you, then this is what i mean by mutual advantage. Both are getting something out of the relationship. This may be a good thing, but people always talk about being very true as a friend and that they’d stick their necks out for you, but when crunch time comes, what happens? That’s when your "true" friends’ colours really show.

We always have a group of friends don’t we? Maybe a group of 10? or 15-20? A big group, and each and everyone claims that they’re as tight as can be. But the sad truth is, only a few mean what they say. I’ve had my fair share of experience when it comes to being let down by my "brothers". It’s painful to say the least, that you’d do so much, and not expect anything in return, except the same amount of help and loyalty that you’ve shown. What becomes more of a dilemma is that, I strongly believe that everybody knows this; that not all friends are as true as they seem, but we don’t face it, for if we were to face this problem head on, we’d get no where. We’re not about to start a topic on the table and say "You know what guys? Do you think we’re as true to each other as we say we are" The probable answer? "Yes". But in our hearts, we know… don’t we? So sad, but true. I guess… the truth hurts…

Ok.. gather around all you people who are in the advertising industry. As you can see, from the title of my post, we are yet again, here to talk about these 2 departments in an agency. Why, should there always be a spark of conflict between these 2 departments? The answers? Take a look;

AE: Hi, could you please revise this. We got a fussy one this time. He wants…. *AE briefs*

GD: AgAiN??!! How many times do you need it to be revised?

The result of this conversation is a sour plum face from the designer with the AE apologizing profusely, but probably murmuring under his/her breath on the way back, probably cursing the already frustrated and flustered designer.

You see guys, it’s very normal to have misunderstandings between these 2 departments. Creative people find the marketing side, irritating to a certain extent. It’s like *door opens* "Oh man.. here comes the irritating AE again More revisions i guess." But at the end of the day, it isn’t really anybody’s fault is it? The client wants things to be done, and to get things done, these 2 departments actually need to work together to get the job done. Now, instead of making things more difficult, why don’t we just learn to live and let live and get the job done without any squabbles? The occasional disagreement when it comes to the conceptualizing, is acceptable. In fact, that is just constructive criticism if you like,  and maybe even a learning experience. You’re never too old to learn, remember that. So don’t always be stuck in a world of your own and think that no matter what, you’re right in some way. Listen, and look at the bigger picture. But, i guess a lot of people will be saying that when it comes to work, there’s no way these 2 departments can be at peace. I’d be living in a world of dreams and fantasies probably. The disagreements, arguements, cursing, bad-mouthing and all those negative elements between these 2 departments will never be resolved. By the way, for those of you who are new to this so called "rivalry" i know it sounds as if these 2 departments hate each other’s guts, but it’s not that serious. It’s only when it comes to work, that these 2 departments often clash. You can ask anyone in the industry and you’ll find that this is very true. Having lunch or hanging out isn’t a problem. Outside the workplace, everyone’s ok… well.. generally lar.. I’m sure office politics will play a part, and this goes for a lot of offices and industries. For us advertising people though, the arguement between these 2 departments will probably continue to go on.. say.. shall we get started on the infamous debate of "Defining ATL and BTL"? Hahahaha, nah… we’ll save that for another day…

At long last, I have sat for my exam, and I’ve come away from it feeling… well.. let’s just say i’m not that worried. It’s bold of me to feel this way, let alone post it up on my blog, considering the fact that I do not have any confidence in the particular subject. I just hope in the weeks to come, you guys won’t find me posting something like "I was over confident." God help me! I think i’ve done enough to secure myself a passing grade, which will finally give me that darned piece of paper, which is, oh so important in the world these days. I answered all the questions. But i definitely know i got a few of them wrong… there were 10 questions, i think i answered about half of them correctly. The scary thought though is that I may have answered them correctly, but how correct was I? You know what i mean? But yet, i don’t feel that disturbed or, "afraid" if i may. I think this is due to me passing up all my assignments on time, and attending every single class! (Wow! Great feat for me!) hahaha So, this subject is basically a 50/50 subject in terms of the way they grade you. That’s 40% on assignments and 10% on attendance and participation. The other 50%, naturally, is the exam. So I hope I’ll make it. Do pray for me guys! I’d appreciate it! I mean, i know it’s over and done with, but our God can do wonders, and perhaps He can tell the lecturer to mark me with an ‘A’! Anyways, it’s over, so my next course in life will be my trip down under. Yupz, Australia; the place where most of us go to further our studies. I’ll be pursuing my degree there, that is IF i pass this subject.(the one that i just sat for) Before that though, it’s gonna be a boring few months for me. It was bad enough to have one class a week, and now i don’t have any classes at all. So, as lazy as i am, i think it is about time for me to look for a job. I fear though, that this is just another one of Gavin’s "say only, later see how" kinda things. Oh well, I do feel the need to be productive though. I’ll take another week off, and then I’ll see how things go. As for now, as in this very moment, at 7.15pm on a Tuesday evening, i feel relieved! I’ve completed every subject there is to complete! So i guess i’m off to watch tv now or, just laze around and be a bum… not for long though… (let’shope) *fingers crossed*