CYBERJAYA

Guess what this time? It's a one week break from the dusty and smelly college and into a new place thats totally weird.. Cyberjaya.. the kitchen away from home..

Right now i am in brenda's apartment. Brenda is one of the 6 angels of best friends i have and she is 20 this year. She studies Industrial Designing in Lim Kok Wing Cyberjaya and this is her final year. She has been staying here in an apartment which she rents out to her other girlfriends and i am here to spend my holidays with her. I have been here since sunday and will be going home on thursday with Adrian because he is currenly studying in mmu which happens to be on the same street but on the opposite end thats all. Well, its not too far i guess,.. since we have cars.

Adrian is also here. He is Studying Creative Multimedia - Animation, and staying in MMU hostel, as i mentioned earlier not too long ago. So i am here for two reasons actually, one is LEARN to cook and clean the house and another is assist Adrian redo his assignments.. they have the wrong measurements. So what happened the second day i was here was like this...

Adrian came over for dinner. After dinner, i helped to wash the dishes while Brenda decided to wash the floor at the laundry area. SUDDENLY, Brenda starts screeching, "There's a bat here!!..." Both Adrian and myself stares to where she is pointing. True enough there is something small and black... is was not as big as the palm of our hand until it stretched forth its wings, then it would be just a little bit bigger. She said it was there since a week ago and she dared not stay, but went home. She said she returned the next day with her dad who helped her look for it all around the house, behind the curtains and all,.. but to no avail. So they concluded that it was finally gone. Now to her dissapointment, it is still lingering around.

At first, when she saw it, it was not moving, then Adrian with his itchy fingers and nature as a guy was delibrately disturbing it while i was halfway rinsing the fork and spoons. I kept saying, you know, " WAIT TILL I FINISH... WAIT.. WAAAAAIIIIITTTT" and then he impatiently caused it to move, and it did. I screamed and threw the half rinsed fork and spoons back into the sink with all the completely dirty dishes, and ran for dear life after Brenda to the hall. That was an immediate reaction.. What was i supposed to do? The kitchen had no light and it was moving at my direction, okay? I'm human, you know? And a female one at that!Adrian admitted later,.. he was scared too, guy or gal we are still the same. As little as it was..

So the bat moved like spider man crawing on the wall, to the other end of the kitchen, to the empty bottom shelf where fungus grew. And it stayed there. So Brend and Adrian with their miraculous ideas came out with the solution of opening the drain hole on the floor and hoped that the bat would crawl in since it was darker there.. (although the kitchen light was spoiled),.. and myself who is always the blurrr one and dont know whats going on all the time, discoved their motive soon enough and supported their idea. Brenda even discovered the most appropriate weapon in disguise for Adrian to use in order to lure it towards the trap- a broom. He was trying hard with Brenda in command, but he reasoned out that it was not working because the bat was alive, and no matter how much he swept it, it would only move further from the trap. We had to come out with a better solution.

While we were "sqeeezing our brain juices" (as Adrian would call it), the bat decided to make the run for it (or should i say the 'crawl'). And it was heading towards the hole! Yes,.. the end of our story... ? Not so fast- it missed the hole and is now heading towards the shelf and crawing upwards!!! oh no.. Brenda's half-a-packet full of idiot proof Black Pepper sauce we just used for dinner is now in custody of the bat! "I'll throw the whole thing away!" Brenda treatened the bat. Soon the bat falls down, losing its hostage and onto the ground. But it didnt give up here. It still had a chance to escape. It crawled towards the wall where we first met it... Back to Square One.

As we watched the whole thing from outside the kitchen door, Brenda came out with a second plan. She held another weapon in her hand- SHELTOX! As soon as Adrian and Brenda drafted out a vague blueprint with their heads and 'brain juices', Adrian grabs the Sheltox from her freezing hands and begins to activate their plan. Mission Impossible 2 begins... First, Adrian puts the dustpan 5 inches behind the bat. Then, they move to the second part of the plan. In attempt to invade the laundry area, Adrian checkes the coast, and double checks. Suddenly, he points into the laundry area, " i see another bat!" "What???" we both exclaim, and check it out. We moved closer to have a look, but it was all a joke. There was nothing there, except another proof of Adrian's undeniable male character.

Brenda went into the laundry area through the window, while we watched the bat from outside the kitchen. She sprayed the sheltox underneath the door, but to no avail. The bat only moved further away from the dustpan. Adrian came to the rescue.. Brenda climbed back into the dining area safely. Adrian who replaced her opens the door bravely and sprays the Sheltox even nearer to the bat, this time, there is nothing to protect him from the bat except for the half opened foor between them. Nevertheless, the stubborn bat refused to budge. Closing the door, Adrian retreated. Mission Impossible 2 was indeed impossible.

"I have to do my assignment already,.. you guys go ahead," was all tired Adrian had left to say. "It's getting late" And he was right. This bat business had to end. His assignment was due tomorrow. "Ok, that's it. Lets get rid of the bat." We tried really hard this time, and i opted for the garbage bag, but Brenda refrained me. She and Adrian came out with the last and most desperate plan of all. Before i knew what was it, Adrian skillfully swept the bat with the same broom that failed us in Mission Impossible One. The helpful bat willingly hung on to it as Adrian knocked it into the hole. Thus was the last we saw of our dear old friend, the bat.

After finishing Adrian's Assignment, he went home to mmu and i threw myself onto the bed and fell into a deep, long sleep. Brenda was still playing the racing computer game 'Need for Speed Underground' when i awoke and had my bath. As soon as i came out, I realised that it was 2.30 in the morning and i was so shocked. I didn't expect it to be so late! Suddenly, my handphone rings.. Adrian is inviting us out for 'Yam Char' which meants a drink when translated. I agreed but Brenda was held back by the game. Nevertheless, he was on his way. When we left, it was already 3am. Brenda playing the role of an elder sister and host made me promise to be home by 4am. We sped off with Adrian's best friend, Ngai Choong who was the same age as us and studying with Adrian in MMU.

When we arrived at an indian restaurant some 15 minutes away, I had a plate of roti chanai and they had a bowl of maggie mee each for supper. When we were halfway done the shop was already closing. At 4.10am, we reached the building that held Brenda's apartment on the 4th floor ... Adrian took me upstairs while his friend waited in the car.. On the second floor, i was already one foot behind Adrian when i saw something rubbery and colourful yet had an unmistakable pattern on its side... Entangled onto the railing and moving upwards only a foot away from our legs was a,.. "Snaaaake!" I jumped back and shouted. "Yeah right.." was the immediate reply. I know Adrian was naughty but i wasnt. I was serious! Seeing my facial expression, he finally asked "Where?!" And i pointed it out to him, "THERE!!!" it was still so close to him. He too jumped down the stairs and Ngai Choong seeing the final episode from the car ran upstairs in disbelief but a wide smile on his cubby face. This was no bat. Adrian said almost like an adult, "We'd better tell Brenda." Soon he was on the line with her,.. i could only hear him say "..Really, wan! Here on the 2nd floor..." and " ..I am not joking! Got snake!". Lastly, ".. If you don't believe me, you can ask Anna!" He passed the phone to me. "Brend,.." i said slowly but the tone of my voice was getting higher, "there is snake. Really!" She replied, "No snake, la! First the bat, now a snake? I don't believe! Tomorrow i will see a tiger! This is not a zoo.." after battling with her like with the wall, she hangs up on me in disbelief.

We stood there staring at the snake. It was climbing higher and higher up the stairs. It even tried to strangle one of the fatter railings thinking it might be food. Finally, we hear footsteps rushing down the stairs.. but it was too fast, too furious! Ngai Choong calls out, "CAREFUL!". He was just in time. She stoped right there in front of the snake. She saw it. It was real after all. When i asked her why she finally came down, she answered " I could hear you guys downstairs when i was on the phone with you and I came down because you guys took so long to come up."

Thank God our brain juices were still active. Brenda tells Adrian to call the guard, so he drives to the guard house. Honestly, i didn't think that the guard would follow because it was the wee hours of the morning and they wouldn't trust someone who is not a resident and especially one who says there is a snake! What if the guard who follows him in his car gets killed or kidnapped, no one would know. Added to it, they won't have enough man power to send two. But lo and behold, Adrian comes back with one, not in another vehicle, but in his own car! The guard then sees the snake and commands that sticks be brought. After Adrian and the guard finds two sticks, the guard throws one at the snake, it was the fatter one that he threw, but the snake didnt move and inch. It had curled itself up at the end of the stair. We think it was either asleep or waiting for the right moment when it can attack the guard offguard. As the guard moved nearer and nearer to the snake, we got a little worried for him. It was hard for us to communicate with the guard because we speak in english and his english was not that good. We think he was a chinese, so we didn't speak to him in Malay. But Adrian managed to convince him that it was dangerous trying to hit the snake with a broom stick because the snake could easily move up the stick and attack him. So at his permission, Adrian called another guard to assist him.

I didn't think the guards could be so naive to send their people out one by one to get killed. They probably would have came back with a police car instead to check for dead bodies and Adrian in handcuffs as my imagination would have put it, but fortunately enough, Adrian came back with an empty car this time, and not with a whole troop of policemen waiting to investigate the case. Adrian said the guard refused to come because he was the only one in the guard house. We didn't know what to do this time. Time is running out and i would like to just bypass the snake, back to the apartment where i can sleep. After all, Adrian and Ngai Choong has college the next day. But they wanted the residents of the apartment to be safe. And i guess that is more important. I actually asked Adrian and Ngai Choong to go back first but they insisted in staying on to watch the show. It was a rare chance they didn't want to miss. And i agreed. Finally, the guard agreed to follow him to the club house for recruits.

True enough, they came back with a whole troop of indian and malay workers who had been sleeping in the club house so "syok-ly" at that time of the night. They had woke them up to kill a snake and afew of them came along. One said reassuringly, "Ini ular sawa" meaning, "This is the Ular Sawa snake". He says it doesn't have poison, but it still can strangle a person to death. Nevertheless, he says that it is a little one. I was thinking to myself, 'Little? What is he calling little? It is like 5 foot long, harlo?? And like more than a mug size fat??' Nevermind, i think i should exclude my criticism here. But all of us thought fairly well that it was huge enough to strangle a person's neck to his death.

After approximately 5 minutes, they had developed a strategy. At first they asked for a guni sack (a bag sack to keep rice or durian last time, but now they use plastic). Brenda obviously didn't have one. After checking, she came down with a garbage bag as asked for. As application to their newly developed strategy, only one man stayed upstairs. The rest went down and prepared for the attack or you can say, the kill. The one upstairs just pushed the snake down. It was hard like rock. I was curious why it didn't attack him at all. Adrian says that the snake is as scared of us as we are scared of it. Indeed, when the snake was pushed once, it didn't move, then it was pushed all the way down to the ground floor where it fell on the grass and tried to slither away. Thank God there were little trees and plants so that they could spot and hit the snake easily. Immediately after the snake fell down, the one who pushed it rushed downstairs and joined the rest in the kill. Brenda, Ngai Choong and i watched from upstairs and Adrian from downstairs as they beat the snake to death with a hoe and a shovel. Some of the workers were very brave, although one was so scared that he threw the hoe at the snake and totally missed. The brave one is the one who aims at the head and kills it, hitting and hitting, even when the snake is already dead. It was a pytiful sight, though. Those of us who were watching agreed to that. We saw the whole thing. But i thank God the snake is now dead.

* tRUST & OBey the LORD *