Performance

Just as I thought I could sit down in my room to study, there came a telephone call from one of the staff of UTP asking me to perform in Clearwater Sanctuary Golf Resort (unknowingly to them, I am a member there). Perform what, you might ask? The piano, of course! They asked me to play for them during the appreciation dinner for a certain big-shot of PETRONAS.

This person is retiring from PETRONAS (apparently a Datuk), and therefore to appreciate his contributions to PETRONAS and UTP, the management of UTP has decided to give him a dinner. A number of students, including me, were asked to do a performance in Clearwater. Even a number of staff were asked to sing and one actually wrote a sajak for this Datuk. There was a band performance, my performance, four songs delivered by a UTP staff and a lecturer (the lecturer actually sang two French songs!) and a poem recital. Even as one of the performers, I got the privilege to actually join them for dinner. Nevertheless, I had my own dinner before they started theirs. It's been a long time since I had eaten in Clearwater Lakeside Terrace, so I decided to have a try at the Hawaiian Chicken Chop. Hmmm... it's either that they have changed the chef or that chef had actually gone for cooking lessons. It tasted good! (It's also possible that I think it's good because it's been a long time since I ate "good" food.)

In the dinner itself, I'd got the opportunity to get to know certain UTP staff better. I hope this will give me some advantage in my later years in UTP.

Anyway, enough of that already. It's almost the end of the semester, and my break is about to begin (so shall I cheer?), but before that, examinations are coming near, too (so, all the cheering mood is gone now)! It has been quite an eventful semester for me, and it's hard to believe that I'm about to finish my first semester already. The orientation week seemed like yesterday to me. Truly, I never expected that it's almost June. I think it won't be long before I'm going to graduate as a Civil Engineer! The memories of my orientation week in UTP is still fresh.

Therefore, I think it's time that I affirm my lecturers and tutors who have taught me for this semester; they won't be lecturing me anymore after this semester:

1. Pn. Subarna Sivapalan - my English lecturer who has been very understanding while I faced certain serious problems; she actually helped relieved my burden on two of my projects because of certain foreseen cases.
2. Mrs. Ena Bhattharcharyya - my Thinking Skills lecturer who has been a very nice, understanding and funny lecturer. Nobody ever got bored with her lectures because she always injects humour during lectures, in a beneficial manner. Her laughter always makes a laugh.
3. Mr. Pandian M. Vasant - my Engineering Mathematics lecturer (though sometimes was a very effective sedative himself) who has tried his very best to help us understand his subject. He never hesitated to give us a helping hand on assignments or on any problems.
4. Ms. Normawati - my Chemistry lecturer (and tutor) who taught us ten chapters of Chemistry before she had to release my class to Dr. Chandra (a new lecturer). Her way of teaching is very reminiscent of secondary school style of teaching. Nevertheless, her content is easily understood.
5. Mr. Yusni Mohamad - my Moral Studies lecturer who, like Mrs. Ena, never failed to inject humour during lectures.
6. Dr. Saeed ul-Hasan - my Physics lecturer who has drilled us a lot with exercises and problems. He has been a lecturer who can explain everything at the tip of his fingers.
7. Dr. Chandra - my new Chemistry lecturer who had returned from Liverpool recently after completing his PhD there. He was in charge of teaching us the last three chapters of Chemistry.
8. Pn. Nor Fadzlinda - my English tutor who has amused us very much with her experiences and stories during tutorials. At least the class wouldn't be so boring with just exercises from the textbooks.
9. Ms. How Meng Git - my Engineering Mathematics tutor who always asks for volunteers to do questions. She would volunteer to do the questions herself if nobody is willing to take them (normally because they are too difficult for us to solve).
10. Ms. Silvia - my Physics tutor who has been lenient in the due dates for submission of assignments and tutorial answer sheets.

That sums up for the affirmations. I'm tired now, so I guess I'll just log off already.