carpe diem

farewell, blog

2006-03-20T09:20:00.000+08:00

my dear beloved bloggers,

i've been reading blogs for many years but only started writing one in september last year. the initial intention of purely expressing my thoughts in writing, fearing that the writing skills will go away, slowly evolved into something more exciting as i got to know you people - an exciting bunch of people with different backgrounds and views, but we share one common love i.e blogging.

when i decided to go online, i thought hard on how to present myself. to be anonymous would be easy but i believe that i should come clean as i'm accountable to whatever i wanted to say or express in the blog. by using my real name, it's also a self-imposed regulatory to ensure that i do not cross the lines as anyone can always trace me (just google my name).

nevertheless, it's always a risk when one uses one's own real name and identity in this virtual world, thus it's easier to be anonymous. as much as people welcome the honesty, there are also those who couldn't accept it and my life has not been the same, since then. it's not that i wanted to give in to the pressure but it's begining to affect other people who are close to me. This has forced me to make this painful decision of shutting down this blog which has been giving me a lot of pleasure since it came into existence.

i shall be around, visiting your blogs but i will remain just a passerby, for i don't wish what has happened to recur. to bloggers whom i'm lucky enough to have known personally, we will continue to keep in touch in the real world and please don't leave me out from future teh tarik and naan sessions. to those whom i have yet to meet, i wish we will be able to do so in the future and should we bump with each other, please introduce yourself. i'm still contactable via e-mail zuhrie@yahoo.com, while maintaining my fotopages blog at http://zuhrikamarzaman.fotopages.com.

i hereby wish to apologise to you, should i have offended you in my writings or during our fun and sometimes silly interactions with each other, as it has never been intentionally. from the bottom of my heart, i wish to thank you for all the wonderful memories.

salam.

start with the pebble under my feet

2006-03-17T06:31:00.000+08:00

i read with great interest wegra's entry on tuesday. she spoke passionately on little things in our lives that many of us, sometimes overlooked. and we further talked about it that night at mohsin. it's about common courtesy that we often take for granted. .

how often do we thank the bangla workers who clean our office, take the rubbish out of the dustbin and vacum the carpets? did we thank the tea lady who prepared the drinks during the meeting? how about those shabby looking nyonyas who serve our favourite char kueteow at kopitiam? or the traffic policemen who stood under the hot sun or rain managing the faulty traffic lights? or the vendor who sent the newspapers to our house every morning or the garbage men who picked up the household rubbish? or the girl in the toll booth?

it ticked me when some people just remarked that "it's their jobs. they are paid to do it". of course, it's their job. and we also have our own jobs but wouldn't we feel much better when the bosses thank or appreciate our jobs although we very well know that we're paid to do them? that's the whole point of being courtesy to each other, no matter who they are.

it's a general opinion that the modern society has lost the essence of moral values, or common courtesy as in this subject, eroded by the pressures of life, uncontrolled self-liberalisation, kiasu and many other far important things to do or think of than common courtesy even as simple as uttering two short words - thank you. as for me, the general opinion only gives these people to justify their actions and accept that it's a norm, thus there's nothing extraordinary to be ignorant or to the offending extent, to be rude (as in displaying social caste or authority).

in fact, perhaps they also believe that the actions of display of common courtesy - thanking, bersalam, bongkok bila menumpang lalu, eye-contact, wishing good morning etc - have been drastically reduced to perhaps only for people in their interests. i fear in years ahead, our children will know even fewer if the erosion of common courtesy continues.

let's not talk about the difference interpretation or practise of common courtesy by different societies, rather we should be concentrating on the common ones that would be able to bridge the societies. or perhaps we shouldn't even go that far, and just confide ourselves to people who we interact most in our daily lives - 10 at home, 10 on the road, 10 at work and 10 at play. that will be a good start for us to analyse ourselves.

it's a huge task to change the society. it's even tougher when the things we want to change are against the trend or mainstream, though it seemed simple such as common courtesy. it's not easy but it can always start from one person - me. yes, the man in the mirror. i definitely can't move the mountain on my own but i sure can start with the pebble under my feet. thus, my hope for a better society for my children and their children, never fades.

Engkau Laksana Bulan

2006-03-15T11:40:00.000+08:00

Engkau Laksana Bulan - Tan Sri P Ramlee

Engkau laksana bulan
Tinggi di atas kayangan
Hatiku dah kau tawan
Hidupku tak keruan

O..o..o O..o.. Kau tinggalkan diriku

Oh! Tuhanku
Mengapakah kau bezakan hidupku
Oh! Tuhanku
Mengapakah manusia begitu

Mengapa ku disiksa
Mengapa kita bersua
Berjumpa dan bercinta
Tetapi menderita

O..o..o O..o.. Kau tinggalkan diriku (Kau cabutlah nyawaku)

Oh! Tuhanku
Mengapakah jadi miskin hidupku
Oh! Tuhanku
Mengapakah sangat buruk nasibku

Mengapa ku disiksa
Mengapa kita bersua
Berjumpa dan bercinta
Tetapi menderita

note : the pic was taken last night. it was beautiful

introducing, tepek pisang!

2006-03-14T10:35:00.000+08:00

my parents were here over the weekend and have gone back to ipoh this morning. since my mum was here, i asked her to bake my favourite kuih, tepek pisang. i'm not sure whether this kuih is available in other states or maybe it's called with different names but i've yet to see it elsewhere than in ipoh. even in ipoh, i rarely see it being sold in pasar malam or pasar tani.

anyway, i was first introduced to this kuih by my late opah. my mum, being the eldest of course has been diperturunkan with all the cooking skills (she used to cook a lot and a variety but now dah tak larat, lagipun tak ada sapa kat kampung tu nak makan. tunggu kitaorang balik masa raya aje la). unfortunately, my two sisters memang cukup maleh nak masuk dapur and they have very good excuse since they're residing overseas for the last 10 years...hahahaha. anyway, my mum has taught bibik and i should not have any problem if i ever want to have tepek pisang next time.

i've seen my mum baked the kuih and it's basically an extended version of cekodok. the same formula of banana and flour mixture, only this time it's spread over a piece of banana leaf which has been passed over the fire (orang perak cakap - dilenyorkan). then, put parut kelapa in the middle and the leaf is folded into two. after that, just bake it in a frying pan. no oil whatsoever, so it's a pretty healthy kuih. best served when it's hot.

last nite i ate five pieces and this morning belasah lagi five. buurrrppp....excuse me...hehehe

monday blues

2006-03-13T09:44:00.000+08:00

i feel bluesy today. i had to drag myself out of the bed this morning. don't have motivation at all to work. feel like the world is so tight and crumbling down. rasa menyampah looking at the piles of work on my desk. rasa bosan nak jumpa those idiot people. feel like going back to bed...hhmmpfff!!!!

13 things in your room

2006-03-10T01:57:00.000+08:00

this week is really a tag week. i hope i don't have to go through this again, at least not so soon la. superdzu a.k.a russian supermodel tak cukup tinggi a.k.a kakna a.k.a jessica albab a.k.a cupcakes chef has tagged this "13 things in your room" tag. so, after i've asked my bibik to kemas the room, here they are (clock wise, from the top):

1. fixed line phone.
2. part of my pirated dvd collection. used to have more but adi lost some when he main kedai-kedai. kecik-kecik dah pandai jual dvd bajakan *sigh*
3. infinity sub-woofer. i got it at a bargain price at low yat. rm800 only. usually rm1.5k.
4. some of my watches and my handphone
5. fave mags - digital camera, fitness and golf digest (read when in toilet..hehehe)
6. exercise mat
7. remotes - tv, amplifier, astro and dvd
8. ubat nyamuk
9. curtains (blue, as expected....and the wall is also painted blue)
10. stationary bicycle
11. some of my belts (i think i got a dozen of them)
12. part of my cd collections. cd tak ada bajakan, semuanya original.
13. mini home theatre system which i assembled on my own. i won the tv in a golf tourney.

as usual, this tag has to continue and i'm giving the honours to :

1. cekya
2. agus
3. ladybugs
4. mama_emmy
5. nina

sekian, terima kasih. sila post sekali gambar-gambar dan jangan ngelat cam wegra....hehehe

8 things tag

2006-03-07T13:27:00.000+08:00

i've long owed zyrin this tag...here it goes :

8 Different Points of a Perfect Lover

1. exotic look like jessica alba in sleeping dictionary

2. kick ass like jessica alba in dark angel

3. dance like jessica alba in honey

4. intelligent like jessica alba in fantastic four

5. sexy like jessica alba in into the blue

6. athletic and fit like jessica alba in dark angel

7. hot like jessica alba in sin city

8. alluring like jessica alba in sleeping dictionary

...........hahahahaha!

tag 8 people (they are so gonna be mad at me....but i knew they like it, tag people...hehehe)

1. stolencar
2. tina
3. cekya
4. i_mshe
5. ladybugs
6. agus
7. em
8. cik puan

anyway, for a better example of this tag, check this. photo credit.

p.s (cam superdzu)
today i declare as my mengarut day! hehehe........

7 deadly sins tag

2006-03-06T07:17:00.000+08:00

i've been tagged by cik pijah. so, here it goes :

Greed:	High
Gluttony:	Medium
Wrath:	Medium
Sloth:	Low
Envy:	Very High
Lust:	Very High
Pride:	High

Take the Seven Deadly Sins Quiz

The Seven Deadly Sins Quiz on 4degreez.com

Answer these questions:-

1. greed - what luxury item did you last buy?
my nikon d50 with all the accessorries and i'm still buying!

2. gluttony - what is your favorite food?
actually, quite a number. but i think at any time, i'll have naan and tandoori.

3. wrath - what makes you angry?
being in a state of helplessness.

4. sloth - when are you at your laziest?
after a tiring round of golf game. rasa nak tido jer.

5. envy - what brings the green-eyed monster in you?
seing great photos in fotopages, taken with just those simple point to shoot cameras or even phone cameras....arrghhh! (it's the eyes, zuhri, not the cameras)

6. lust - what / who do you lust after?
err....jessica alba??

7. pride - what are you most proud of?
err... my talent of carrying tasks and achieving them in unorthodox ways

and i'm tagging (drumroll, please) :

1. agus

2. ladybugs

3. trueblue

4. nina

5. cekmi

6. anisism

shogun - sushi galore

2006-03-03T09:50:00.000+08:00

welcome to shogun. it's a new discovery fo me who simply love japanese food. shogun is located on the 2nd floor of one-utama's new wing and just newly opened a month ago. it's a buffet japanese restaurant and it has everything like any other japanese restaurants in town, except that you can eat as much as you want without worrying that it's going to cost you legs and arms...yipppeee!

last night, i went there with my boss and a few other colleagues to try out this outlet and i felt like in heaven looking at the food - unagi, california roll, sashimi, udon and all sorts of 'shis' and 'mis'. we were there for nearly 2 hours and i really stuffed myself and definitely ate more than rm100 of value. i still feel very full now and this morning i woke up thinking i'm a shogun...hehehe.

for japanese food lovers, check out this place but like any other buffet outlets, this is certainly not a place for people with small tanks like superdzu or cik pijah....buang duit ajer bawak diaorang makan kat situ...hehehe. make sure you make reservation first because it's always full house during lunch and dinner. hait!

ayam pop, otak lembu and apolkat

2006-03-01T11:24:00.000+08:00

one of the things that i love most whenever i go to indonesia is to be able to enjoy the original nasi padang. not that they don't have it here but they don't taste quite like the original. so, when i went to bandung last week, it's nasi padang everyday. luckily the whole gang in the group shared the same taste, so no problem at all.

whenever i go to a nasi padang restaurant, i'll look for these fave items - ayam pop (tender ayam kampung), krikil (i really don't know how to explain this but it's part of a cow), otak lembu (yeah, it sounds gross but it tastes like heaven), jus alpokat (avocado juice) or jus jeruk (orange juice made of mandarin oranges).

we all know that siti nurhaliza is BIG in indonesia and wherever i go, everybody seemed to be asking about her.

girl : "bapak kenal sama itu siti nurhalija?" (please note the j, and not z)
me : "iya, kenapa?"
girl : "bapak dekat sama rumahnya?"
me : "iya, belakang rumah saya saja rumahnya itu"...hikhikhikhik

golfing was just okay in bandung. i've played in surabaya and jakarta and i still think jakarta's golf courses are still the best. it's rainy season in bandung and almost every sore, it'd rain. one golf course that we played was just like sawah padi but we just bulldozed it, dah datang dari jauh-jauh.

the city was not that impressive, with no high-rise buildings, something like penang 20 years ago with a population nearly 3 million. the buildings and streets were pretty much unplanned with macet (traffic jam) all over. but the beauty of the bandung lies in the outskirts which have beautiful hills, mountains and magnificent landscapes. one of the famous places was tangkuban perahu, a very cold mountain area where you can see a live volcano, for real.

other than that, bandung is proud of its famous factory outlets. the city has many factories that produce various poducts, particularly textiles which they export to other major indonesian cities, kuala lumpur and singapore. so, you can expect many of these branded textile products being sold at dirt prices - superdzu can go nuts at dago, the famous factory outlet district.

poverty was evident in the city with beggars on the streets and people that sell almost anything just to buy a bowl of rice. but if you go to shopping complexes, the rich shopped like there's no tomorrow. i've seen similar scenario in jakarta and surabaya, and this huge social and economy gap between the rich and poor makes the economy and politics of indonesia very much unstable.

one thing for sure, i can't find mi bandung or sirap bandung in bandung. for more pictures, go here.

keep on moving

2006-02-26T22:27:00.000+08:00

life is all about moving. you move from one place to another. you move your thinking from small to big. you fell, you get up and move on. you succeed, enjoy it for a while and move on to find more success. you overcame a challenge, you move on to find more challenges. you climbed a mountain, stick the flag at the top and move on to find higher mountains.

a former menteri besar shared with me a chinese proverb that i always keep it close to my heart. he said, "flowing water never goes bad; our door hubs never gather termites". that's life. if you remain stationery, then you might as well be dead.

so, it's my birthday today and again, it's time for me to move. the age for sure has moved, and it's a catalyst for other things in me to follow suit. i'm still figuring out the things that should move. maybe i don't have to think much as they could and would move on their own. but some of the things, they need some pushing and support from family and friends. they may be heavy, but they'd move eventually.

i also would like to wish ladybugs all the best for today she's made a move in her life, pursuing her dreams in a foreign land. let's pray that she'll come back after three years with her phd. as for the rest - "keep on moving, don't stop like the hands of time" (soul II soul).

picture of aerotrain at klia, taken when arriving from bandung, yesterday

10,9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1 tag

2006-02-21T10:00:00.000+08:00

more tags coming. this one is by ifzan. yeah, that guy with a fake rolex who's one of the russian supermodel's cuckoo friends....hahaha. to make this spontaneous, it must be completed in 5 minutes. here we go :

10 FIRSTS
first best friend: khairul, standard 1
first item you stole: sweets at mamak shop
first pet: cat - kunta kinte
first piercing: none
first school: lourdes kindergarden, ipoh
first house location: first garden, ipoh
first crush: standard 4
first kiss: on the cheek, one of the girls who came to a wedding when i was 10
first car: a red iswara aeroback, ACW3006

9 LASTS
last time you smoked: never
last food you ate: mangos
last movie you watched on dvd at home: stealth
last movie you watched at the cinema: fearless
last text message: to my boss
last music video u saw: semua tentang kita - peter pan
last song you listened to: tiada lagi - amy search
last words you said: get it done quickly! (to my staff)

8 HAVE-YOU-EVERS
dated a best friend: nope
been arrested: nope
been on TV: yes
eaten sushi: yes
cheated on your BF/GF: yes
been on a blind date: yes
been out of the country: yes
been in love: yes

7 THINGS YOU ARE WEARING
1. a watch
2. specs
3. blue shirt
4. red tie
5. dark grey pants
6. dark blue socks
7. black shoes

6 THINGS YOU HAVE DONE TODAY
1. called my dad
2. answered e-mails
3. drank nescafe
4. discussed with my staff
5. texted my boss
6. reply comments on my blog

5 FAVORITE THINGS
1. my camera
2. photoshop (just started to learn)
3. golf
4. movies
5. music

4 PEOPLE YOU TRUST THE MOST
1. myself
2. myself
3. myself
4. myself....hahahaha

3 THINGS YOU WANT TO DO BEFORE YOU DIE
1. perform hajj
2. sky diving
3. bungee jumping

2 CHOICES
vanilla or chocolate: vanilla
rock or rap: rock

1 PERSON YOU WANT TO SEE RIGHT NOW?
my boss - he's yet to approve my leave and i'm supposed to fly tomorrow!!!!

i'm tagging the following people :

1. ladybugs
2. annamox
3. i_mshe
4. zyrin
5. nina
6. anis in melbored

nobody cares

2006-02-20T11:19:00.000+08:00

i was on a photo mission yesterday and saw this just outside central market. it was a sad view indeed. homeless man sleeping on the floor with people just passed by. he was somebody's son, and could have been somebody's husband and father. but now, nobody cares about him as he became invisible in the eyes of the society.

bag tag

2006-02-17T08:49:00.000+08:00

i've been tagged by the russian supermodel who's secretly tall a.k.a superzoo to let people know what's the content of my bag. told her many times that i don't have a handbag but that centrefold tahap lutut model insisted that i do the tag or she'll curse me to be as tall as she is, *sigh*.

anyway, just to prevent her from committing suicide by jumping from a 3 foot chair, i present here a bag that i use whenever i play golf. it has been me with me for the past 3 years and i wonder as much as you are, how it managed to last that long. so, here we go :

1. golf balls (many of them since my game sucks lately, i've been losing many of them while playing)
2. several complimentary golf vouchers from monterez gol club (yeah, free game anyone?)
3. a nature valley granola bar (good energy booster when hungry)
4. a spare glasses (in case i broke the one i'm wearing)
5. two tubes of sunblock (tak putih jugak aku)
6. a marker pen (to mark the golf balls - easy identification)
7. an old scorecard (with terrible scores that i used to show aound so they stop asking me for strokes)
8. some old receipts (yes wegra, we can compare who has the oldest)
9. a black string (for me to catch any mutants stalking at the golf course)
10. a box of tees (that's the wooden/plastic thing which you put the golf ball on, when u tee-off)
11. a bottle of hand sanitizer (in case i meet siti nurhaliza, thus needs to clean my hands)

that's it. so i'm tagging the following people :

1. ladybugs (you know it's coming, kay)
2. lunacy (what does a singaporean bring inside her handbag?)
3. em (yours will be interesting)
4. pinky angel (jangan nak ngelat)
5. betik (support your bro, kay)

must put up pictures to make it a complete tag. happy doing, folks.

actorlympics japan

2006-02-15T10:54:00.000+08:00

okay, just to help this old buddy of mine to publicise the upcoming act. the last actorlympics that i watched was hillarious and fun, and i believe that the the next would be nothing less, if not better. so, if you have missed the previous actorlympics, make sure that you catch this one.

date : 22 - 26 february 2006
time : 8.30pm
venue : actors studio - bangsar shopping complex
tickets : rm47/42 and rm22 (student and senior citizens)

call this no : 03 2094 0400/1400 (the actors studio) to buy the tickets!

hail the sifu

2006-02-13T14:47:00.000+08:00

i grew up with m nasir's songs. they may be sung by other singers, but they were sure composed by the one and only malay (yeah, i know he was born in singapore) living legend, m nasir. although then he has already established his name with the now defunct group kembara, i only took notice of him when he came out with his solo album saudagar mimpi. since then, i've been his hard-core fan for his unconforming attitude towards his own creative works (though he followed the mainstream when he made songs for others - nak cari makan, beb), song-writing genius and uniqueness.

thus, when i knew that he's going to perfom at planet hollywood for its sunday nite live last night, i immediately decided to catch this rare performance since the last time that i watched him in action was his akar consert, many years ago. if akar was a subtle affair (in accordance with the concept), last night was totally opposite as the sifu showed his awesome endurance to deliver a good hard rocking time for his fans who packed planet hollywood.

it was 10.30pm when i reached planet hollywood and there was barely any room, even for standing. nevertheless, i managed to squeeze a space far back, facing the stage but with a view that was partly blocked by a pillar. when m nasir entered the stage and kicked off with the energetic war-themed song rajawali, the audience immediately went wild and sang along with him. the thing about this man, he really displayed his feel for each and every song he performed that the the audience just simply embraced the energy, while wanting more and more.

each and every song was given different touches here and there (that's the great thing about live performance), and almost every one of them was given an extended musical arrangement. if in the album, a song was only for 4 minutes, last night he extended to even as long as 10 minutes for each song, to the delight of the fans.

he had many songs from his albums that it seemed he had a difficult time fulfilling requests by the fans who kept on shouting for him to sing their favourite numbers. among the numbers performed were rajawali, andalusia, ada, mustika, raikan cinta, rimba mistikal, phoenix bangkit lagi, hati emas and mentera semerah padi. hattan who came to watch the show, sportingly delivered a duet with m nasir for kepadamu kekasih and the closing number, gerhana.

known for his outspoken mind, he just couldn't help himself tugging on several topics :
on PGL "aku dengar sekarang kita kena impot hang tuah dari london"
on reality tv "bintang itu dilahirkan, tak guna kita cari"
on AJL "awan terpilu atau gemilang?"
on songs "lagu aku tak ada cintan cintun, semuanya pasal perang. kalau ada yang ingat macam tu, diaorang salah faham lagu aku".

m nasir was all out last night that the small stage seemed to be very big with all his jumpings, silat, head banging and he even sang and danced on a dining table which really brought the house down. he displayed full emotion and facial expressions when performing every number that the audience just simply loved it.

one thing for sure, m nasir might be close to 50 years but he is indeed much younger and anytime can beat easily any of the much younger artists (or clowns) in malaysia. last night, he showed why he is the sifu and a living legend when it comes to the local music industry.

*************************

i got my nikon d50 last week, along with its standard nikkor 18-55mm and bought an additional lens nikkor 70-200mm. it's simply superb. i took photos of m nasir last night, initially from the back with flash but later from the floor, right in front of the stage without the flash (bersila aku depan stage, beb). i took nearly 125 pics but after much filtering, i selected some which i posted here.

since i was on the floor, i used mostly the wide angle lens to capture the actions. and the lighting was dim too, so it's best that you enlarge the pics and view them as slides. dr nurul, look and weep.....hehehe

the four things

2006-02-11T06:41:00.000+08:00

i woke up and couldn't sleep. so, i might as well update the blog. and *sigh* it's another meme and this time it's annamox who tagged me. here we go :

4 Jobs I Had In My Life
1. KFC cashier (after spm and during uni days)
2. salesman (man, it's tough. i lasted only a month)
3. journalist (one of the best jobs i had)
4. spin doctor (yeah, wag the dog)

Four Movies I Could Watch Over and Over
1. braveheart (very inspirational)
2. notting hill (to me, it's the best romantic movie so far)
3. hero (those fight scenes are awesome)
4. dead poets society (captain..o my captain...carpe diem!)

Four TV Shows I love To Watch
1. CSI las vegas (nerds are the heroes here)
2. the shield (every coin has two faces)
3. las vegas (the city of sins)
4. lost (when la they're going to show the next season?)

Four Places I've Lived (In no particular order as well)
1. ipoh (my hometown)
2. alor star (cost of living is dirt cheap, here)
3. seremban (stayed in alson klana for 2 months on a special project)
4. kl (sesat di kuala lumpur, dosa dan pahala bercampur, tapi kita perlu hidup, kita perlu terus hidup...)

Four Places I've Been On Vacation To
1. backpacked and toured 8 european countries for a month (one of the best times of my life)
2. pattaya (no money, no honey)
3. phnom penh (time travelled, like malaysia 20 years ag0)
4. jakarta (the traffic jam can drive you nuts)

Four Places I'd Rather Be In
1. backpack and travel the silk road in china (i've always wondered about the adventures of marco polo)
2. norway (my boss said the scandinavian chics find asia men "irresistable"...hehehe)
3. japan (i've always been awed by its rich culture and heritage)
4. spain (beautiful buildings and rich in history)

Four of My Favorite Foods
1. any type of ikan bakar cicah dengan kuah asam (yummy!)
2. naan and chicken tandoori (i've eaten three in one go, kenyang sampai dua hari)
3. california roll (i can eat four in one go)
4. bubur jagung

Four Websites I Visit Daily
1. my blog
2. yahoo mail
3. yahoo sports - golf
4. the star online

Four Victims To Do this Tag
1. ladybugs
2. cik puan
3. superdzu
4. wegra

what are you all waiting for? go and do the assignment!

the three things

2006-02-08T16:31:00.000+08:00

i'm doing this for pinky, fearing of her curse...hahaha.

1. Three names you go by
a) zuhri
b) e (my nick in the family)
c) ri (only my boss call me this)

2. Three screen names you've had
a) zuhri
b) adiputra (ni masa musim af)
c) azurri (ni masa musim world cup)

3. Three things you like about yourself
a) my analytical habit (though some people find it scary...hehe)
b) my sense of humor
c) my creative (read as weird and unorthodox) approaches of solving problems (which my bosses love)

4. Three things you don't like about yourself
a) my temper (pity my staff)
b) my procrastination habit (that explains the last minute works...but i love the pressure)
c) my feminine fingers (though some ladies love them, beats me why)

5. Three parts of your heritage
a) temper (my father is a bugis)
b) being analytical (that's my mum)
c) belief in hardwork (both of them)

6. Three things that scare you (or mostly creeps you out)
a) my boss, finding this blog out (knowing his staff is actually a nut)
b) my staff, finding this blog out (knowing their boss is actually a cuckoo)
c) i've to retire from playing golf (that will surely drive me insane)

7. Three of your everyday essential
a) handphone (i have two of them, with one as spare)
b) internet (i'll go to cyber cafe if i have to)
c) watch (i got 8 watches, used to have 15 at but gave away some)

8. Three things you're wearing right now
a) dark blue tie
b) light blue shirt
c) dark blue pants (guess now you know what's my fave colour)

9. Three of your favorite bands (or artist at the moment)
a) dewa
b) peterpan
c) james blunt

10. Three of your favorite songs
a) separuh nafas - dewa
b) pangeran cinta - dewa
c) goodbye my lover - james blunt

11. Three new things you'd like to try in the next 12 months
a) take up mandarin class (i've been wanting to do this since last year)
b) back to doing my photography hobby (still waiting for my new camera to arrive from japan)
c) learn photoshop (so that i can make cik puan slimmer and superdzu fatter in pics...hahaha)

12. Three things you want in a relationship (love included in the package)
a) a good friend (listens and understands me)
b) intelligence (i'm a sucker for smart chics)
c) love music and movies (those are my passion)

13. Two truths and a lie
a) i can run a kilometer under 3 minutes
b) i learned golf from butch harmon who also taught tiger
c) i can drink a gallon of coffee, and still easily fall asleep after that

14. Three people who have to take this quiz now or die painfully.
a) ladybugs
b) pinat
c) cekya

weekend stories

2006-02-06T16:30:00.000+08:00

the weekend was very tiring and fun. all my plans went tupsy turvy but they ended not bad at all.

story 1
i was supposed to play golf on saturday morning and you see, it wasn't easy to arrange the players and what not, but wegra's "uncle of the day" suddenly got a revelation and decided on friday night to close the mrr2. so, my beloved boss texted me in the middle of the night, instructed me to attend with him, a meeting with some jkr folks and traffic police to discuss on the closure. so, there went my golf plan.

story 2
while i was attending the discussion by the roadside of mrr2 under the hot morning sun, i also had a paralel "discussion" with wegra whether to attend or not the get-together at the curve in the evening. somehow, she convinced me to attend it despite of my tight schedule and i must say that the meet was really fun. we had wegra, cik puan, cik pijah and superdzu with her merry band (jiji, hanis and ifzan), while i brought along my other half and son, adiputra.

i think we lepak nearly 2 hours there and had a great time getting to know each other. i think the best part was when cik puan was summoned by her bruce - terus jadi perempuan melayu anggun yang terakhir...hahahaha. and i think adi really jatuh chenta with wegra and took many photos of hers with the handphone. for pictures of the meet, check out here.

story 3
sunday morning, i played golf and the game has slightly improved and managed to cover some losses in the previous week. since i failed to suck up enough that tv3 production manager to get free tickets for ajl at pwtc, i decided to watch buli balik in the afternoon. booked via phone, i happily went to bukit raja shopping complex only to be just 5 minutes late, and the tickets were sold away...hmmpfff. frustrated, i went home and watched tiger woods did his usual trademark of late charge to win the dubai classic in style. at least that menyedapkan hati yang kecewa pasal tak dapat tengok buli balik or you'd be reading the movie review instead of this merapu punya posting, today.

story 4
as i was switching between channel 80 (tiger woods) and 3 (ajl), while at the same time melayan text merapu wegra (ada ke dia nak hantar kat azlan abu hassan, dia hantar kat i...nasib baik bukan text yang mushy-mushy or 18sx...hehehe), i suddenly received a text from my ceo's secretary reminding me of my departmental meeting with the boss this morning at 10am. ackk...i almost choked when i read th text because i was not ready at all for the meeting.

so after ajl, i sat in front of my pc and thought of blogging first but to my frustration, streamyx was down which forced me to work on my slide presentation for the meeting. but as usual, my brain very slow one and it only started to work at 3.30am. knowing that i couldn't complete it at home, i was already at the office by 6.30am and continued working on the slides which were completed by 9am. thank god, the meeting and presentation went well (they said, pressure turned coal into diamond...hehehe). i've just finished another meeting in the afternoon and i sure am very mengantuk now...now, where's that blardy pillow?

stuck on me

2006-02-01T13:02:00.000+08:00

driving back and fro port dickson, i listened to peter pan's alexandria for god-knows how many times and this particular song kinda stuck and keeps on playing in my mind (like james blunt's you're beautiful in wegra's), even as i type this. ugghh...so i decided to post the lyric and hoping that the song demon will go away and infect you people, instead....hahahaha.

p.s. now i know that lunacy is really a hard-core fan of peter pan. the title of this song is the header of the comment in her blog!

*******************************

Kukatakan dengan indah - Peter Pan

Ku katakan dengan indah dengan terbuka hatiku hampa
Sepertinya luka menghampirinya
Kau beri rasa yang berbeda mungkin ku salah...
Mengartikannya yang ku rasa cinta

Tetapi hatiku selalu meninggikanmu
Terlalu meninggikanmu, selalu meninggikanmu

Kau hancurkan hatiku, hancurkan lagi
Kau hancurkan hatiku tuk melihatmu
Kau terangi jiwaku, kau redupkan lagi
Kau hancurkan hatiku tuk melihatmu

Tetapi hatiku selalu meninggikanmu
Terlalu meninggikanmu, selalu meninggikanmu

Membuatku terjatuh dan terjatuh lagi
Membuatku merasakan yang t'lah terjadi
Semua yang terbaik dan yang terlewati
Semua yang terhenti tanpa ku akhiri

Kau membuatku terjatuh dan terjatuh lagi
Membuatku merasakan yang t'lah terjadi
Semua yang terbaik dan yang terlewati
Semua yang terhenti tanpa ku akhiri

Tetapi hatiku selalu meninggikanmu
Terlalu meninggikanmu, selalu meninggikanmu

Kau hancurkan hatiku tak tertahan lagi
Kau hancurkan hatiku tuk melihatmu
Kau terangi jiwaku kau redupkan lagi
Kau hancurkan hatiku tuk melihatmu

Kau hancurkan hatiku, hancurkan lagi
Kau hancurkan hatiku tuk melihatmu
Kau terangi jiwaku, kau redupkan lagi
Kau hancurkan hatiku tuk melihatmu

Kau hancurkan hatiku, hancurkan lagi
Kau hancurkan hatiku tuk melihatmu
Kau hancurkan hatiku, hancurkan lagi
Kau hancurkan hatiku, hancurkan lagi
Kau hancurkan hatiku, hancurkan lagi
Kau hancurkan hatiku tuk melihatmu
Oooo...ooo...ooo...ooo...melihatmu

added on friday, 3 february 2005, 11.45am

i've uploaded the song. so, apa lagi, nyanyi la sama-sama sampai lagu tu betul-betul haunt you....hehehehe

be fearless

2006-01-29T09:32:00.000+08:00

i've been a long fan of jet li. it all started after being forced to watch once upon a time in china by my karate buddy, back in uni. i wasn't interested initially because after bruce lee, i didin't see anyone could replace him as the king of martial art. jackie chan was just too funny and slapstick for me to appreciate the pure art of kung fu fights.

but the movie changed my mind and since then, i've watched all jet li's movies and he rarely failed my expectation whenever i just wanted to watch very good fights (let's put the quality of acting aside, kay). since i've watched all his movies, i'm quite familiar with his moves and i think he knew his fans observed this, so he often challenged himself to come up with different moves and choreographs in each and every movie that made him loved more and more by the fans.

so, it's quite sad for me when i got to know that his latest movie, fearless, would be his last of this genre, due to health reasons. understandable, at the age of 42 and with all the strenous works and moves, it would eventually affect the health and limit his fighting performance. and fearing that this would disappoint his fans, it would be best for him to leave the scene while he was at the top, which would make him a legend.

in fearless, jet li was huo yuonjia (1869~1910) who was the founder and spiritual guru of the jin wu sports federation. i guess jet live loved to play the roles of chinese legendary heroes such as wong fei hung and fong sai yuk as the audience would immediately relate the heroes with him whenever they read about the heroes in the chinese history text books - smart move, indeed. yuonjia is a legend in china for his huge efforts promoting kung fu - both the physical and philosophy behind the art.

however, unlike other roles that he has played before, this time he gave the audience the opportunity to loathe and love him at the same time, as yuonjia had his own strengths and weaknesses. but his story of reaching the top, fell into the pits due to his own weaknesses and later gained strength to go back to the top, made him a legend.

what i was disappointed (reported that jet li's too) that the movie was trimmed down about 42 minutes from its original length, for international screening. among the scenes which were snipped were how yuonjia as a child, secretly learned kung fu from his father who refused to teach him, the reason he was afraid of heights and also how he got back his fighting sprit. without these scenes, the storyline was a bit jumpy. even michelle yeoh's small scene in the moviw was also reported left out.

nevertheless, the movie was never short of good fights and they were fast, hard and sometimes brutal. it was reported that jet li was so fast when doing his moves that the director had to ask him to slow down those kicks and punches in order for the moves to be captured on film. the camera movement was good and provided views from almost all angles with bits of works that reminded me of csi and gladiator.

this is a must movie for all martial art fans out there.

fallen angel

2006-01-26T14:25:00.000+08:00

i was very upset yesterday - angry, disappointed, sad, mad, geram - all rolled into one. it's story of a friend but i wasn't angry with her but my inability to assist her out of the current shithole she's in at the moment.

we've known each other for quite some time. not a close friend, just every two or three months, she'd give me a call and we'd exchange news. a graduate and beautiful, she works in the hospitality industry.

whenever we talked, she'd tell me the exciting lifestyle she had and the rich and famous people she met. although i doubted her salary could afford her such a comfortable lifestyle, nights of clubbing and destination of holidays, i just kept that opinion to myself. once in a while, i'd just remind her to be careful with the numbers of men (read as rich, married and gatal) who according to her, always showered her with gifts and what not. but she'd laughed it off.

i knew she had a boyfriend (who's just an average guy) and both of them were deeply in love with each other, but i didn't think the boyfriend knew what she did to have what she had. i doubted he knew the men she had to gedik-gedik in order for her to enjoy the lifestyle. i guessed, the exciting lifestyle was too much of a temptation for her to let go.

she continued to be disillusioned by the neon lights and materialistic life, that eventually when the reality of life (read as life commitments - car installment, condo rental etc) started to breathe behind her neck. this resulted her to borrow money from her many fans, or perhaps this particular man (who's twice her age and kononnya nak menolong) who took special interest in her, to the level of obsession (which she described to me later).

the initial borrowing led to more borrowings, and the hole is now very deep that she said it's almost impossible for her to climb out of it. and as i've guessed and reminded her before, the man has taken the opportunity to start controlling her life. he demanded her to break off with her boyfriend and friends, called her office telling that she's sick so that he could spend the whole day with her at the condo, checking her phone all the time, kept her car keys and followed her wherever she went, among other things.

if she didn't do as told, he'd hit her and blackmailed to malukan her by informing her family and spread the words in her company about her lifestyle. feared, she just followed whatever he instructed though she despised the man very much.

she cried when describing all those things to me and i felt so jijik with the monster who's playing a slave master. i told her to ask the man to just marry her, but she said, the man refused to do so. i told her to run away - quit job, go far and start a new life - but she said, she has nowhere to go. i told her to get help from family, she said they have their own problems and would just blame her for looking for the trouble herself, and all her friends had abandoned her.

i asked her what she's going to do about it as she just couldn't continue to live with the sickening situation. she said, she's going to just bear as much as possible until perhaps the man's bored with her. but i told her "then, what next? if he demands back his money and you can't repay it, he can just pass you around to his friends!". she cried and put down the phone. i tried to call her but the number went dead.

this story is not something new to me. i've read it many times in the newspapers, watched it on tv and what not. but when it happened to someone within my circle of friends, it really hit me straight to the face. it's her fault initially, no doubt, but still, i'm very sad as another angel has fallen and she became just another statistic.

******************

added on friday 27 february 2005 , 8.05am

announcement 1
- wegra has managed to pau me rm100. yeah, she won the bet. you'll get it after cny, kay

announcement 2
- my office e-mail has been out of order since monday and i doubt it's going to be okay soon. so, just e-mail to my yahoo mail account

announcement 3
- maria sharapova lost at the semi-final australian open yesterday. kesian awek guwe

on a secret mission

2006-01-23T13:49:00.000+08:00

i'm on a secret mission today. it's so secret that if i were to tell you, i'd have to kill you by sending a deadly virus via the internet to infect you. it's been quite some time since my last mission but demmit, this time it's tougher because i have only 24 hours to accomplish it.

you see, besides my job of doing nothing but blogging (ah yes, and golfing too) during office hours, i sometimes was given tasks which the bosses think wouldn't suit for other departments (or even my own department) to do. usually, they relied on my contacts (with half of them i only bragged to the bosses) and my weird methods of executing the missions. basically, i have to do the dirty jobs that they couldn't be seen doing. yes, something like from mission impossible - "should you accept this mission and caught by the enemies, we will deny knowing you or having any knowledge of the mission".

so, my director called me yesterday and after his usual greetings (which by now i've recognised as his way to ask me to do him favours), he gave his instructions. oh my, this time the mission given is pretty complicated and i need to really strech my arms and my contacts' arms in order to acomplish it. but i knew he expected me to do it, so i just said yes. and the best part was when he said "cost is not a factor" - oh well, at least that makes the task slightly easier.

so, since last night i have been sending sms and calling all my possible contacts, urging them to do the same to their contacts. this morning i had a breakfast appointment and sent more sms and made calls, but still it's a waiting game - waiting for the information, waiting for confirmation, waiting for responses from various people and parties - before i can make any move or decisions. then dem! my director texted me and said he wanted it to be done by today. i told him that i'd do my best but there are so many blocks that i need to move before i can even achieve anything - and it takes time (which i suspect my director didn't care).

oh, okay. i think my plane to rome is ready now and the strike team is on stand by. q, where are my gadgets? let's see - x-ray shades, pen cum bomb launcher, self-destruct underwear, twin-turbo kapchai, ample supply of naan and, nope...i don't need the osim massager, you can pass that to pinky. wish me luck, guys. i must make this one or there goes all my perks.

you sent me a message?

2006-01-20T17:29:00.000+08:00

i was at the 16th hole and the game was tied with everyone giving their best, when i received a text message. it was from a familiar number, but the content certainly wasn't for me, it was for someone who she missed so much.

i sent a message to her with question marks. and she answered "what?". told her to check the sent message folder of her handphone. and she's all quiet, since then.

puzzled, my game immediately went downhill and i lost a hundred bucks.

p.s. you know i'm not going to tell who she is, so please don't ask

yang mana satu, pilihan kalbu?

2006-01-18T12:40:00.000+08:00

i'm torn between these two hot babes. i'm so dying to re-start my photography hobby, the days when i can lepak for hours at dataran merdeka, only with my trusty nikon fm2 and tripod just to find the right shape of clouds above that giant malaysian flag. the days when i dashed across the busy federal highway at night to be on the median, just to snap photos of the gerbang kota darul ehsan. the days when a group of uitm mass comm students (all females, of course..hehe) approached me when i was photographing sultan abdul samad building and asked for my help to complete their assignment, which later led to regular photo outings with them.

i love photography. my dad taught me to take photos since i was as young as 6 years old. of course, we had only a smple compact camera then but he taught me how to compose pictures and look for the right and interesting angles. but my interest bloomed when i was given a rusty olympus om-10 manual camera by my lecturer when i was in matriculation. it was a standard slr camera with carl zeiss 50mm lens but after much cleaning and servicing, it looked as good as new and performed excellently. that was my introduction to the wonderful world of photography.

at first, i didn't really know what to do with the camera and that led me to hang up at camera shops at pertama complex and campbell complex. those folks at selangor photo knew me very well and they were really a nice bunch of people because besides i spent loads of my scholarship money there, they always shared their photography knowledge with me. i bought many photography books and magazines, and befriended photographers - amateurs, professionals, teachers and press.

and then, that beautiful olympus was stolen. i was heartbroken but adamant, so i bought a nikon fm2 - another fully manual camera - despite the arrival of af (autofocus, not akademi fantasia)cameras into the market. slowly, from a standard nikon and 35-70mm nikkor lens, i added a nikon motor drive (for sports), a 28mm vivitar wide angle lens, a 125mm nikkor tele lens, a beautiful second hand 50mm 2.4f nikkor lens, a sigma 80-200mm lens and a nikon sb-25 flash. you can say that i'm a nikon fan.

obviously, this hobby was very expensive for a student like me, then. fortunately, a few of my photos which i sent to several newspapers caught the editors' attention and were published, hence money started to trickle into the coffer. not bad, i thought. i sent more photos and one fateful day, the education editor of harian metro (they just started the newspaper) called me up and asked me to contribute some campus news. wonderful, i said and that kicked off my career as a part-time photojournalist.

from campus news, i slowly moved to local news - simple stories like gotong royong, site visits, uncollected rubbish, clogged drains etc - which meant more money. as i got more interested with journalism, i hung out nstp office at night, lepak with the photographers and reporters who worked in night shift. i followed them on their crime rounds and joined operasi with the police, immigration, dbkl and even jais. i also learned to take photos of models...hmm...bab ni tak payah nak cerita la...hehehe.

meanwhile, uni students and staff hired me to take photos of events and weddings which i gladly did it as i further added more photography gadgets - all sorts of filters, slave flash, unipod etc. it was common for me to bring ke mana-mana sahaja my 8kg camera bag which then, i considered, as my life and love. the bag had been to the backstage of vanessa mae's concert, gunung tahan, rivers of sabah, floating mosque of brunei, murder scenes, rioting of vietnamese illegal immigrants, smuggling of rice at malaysia-thai border and many other actions. in my final year in uni, i think i spent more hours working than in classes (luckily, i managed to graduate).

with the money made from this part-time job, i purchased a nikon af 801 which later also got stolen and i replaced it with a nikon af F70. alas, work and life commitments, and also a few other compact cameras (including a leica) have made me lazy and slowly the cameras have been collecting dust (except for f70 which i lent it to my dept to use, but now it played the second fiddle since the arrival of the fuji digital camera).

now, the interest has triggered again after looking at cekya's pictures which i think were superb, taken using a simple lumix fz5 (it has a leica lens, that's the secret). but the person behind the camera is more important than the camera itself, and she has wonderful eyes and very sensitive to her surrounding. that's talent. i knew the feeling which has long gone and i wanted it back. the feeling of walking around with the eyes and mind looking at people and objects, figuring various photo angles and wondering whether they could be a good photo subject.

although i have a canon s45 digital compact camera, i know that it's not enough. thus, i'm seriously thinking to puchase either one of these two hot babes - lumix fz30 or nikon d50. nikon is more expensive and i have to add another lens which would totaled up everything to rm4k in order to have the same features being offered by lumix at rm2.4k. it's expensive, but i'm a die hard fan of nikon. but lumix has leica lens. pening...pening...

i see pink

2006-01-17T10:45:00.000+08:00

last week i was in pyramid when i saw this pink kitty parked outside and couldn't help smiling. the owner was surely obsessed with pink and hello kitty. i wondered how old was she? i wondered what she's gonna do with the car when she got over with the obsession? repaint it, i supposed.

i waited in the coffee bean for an hour, wanting to see the chic that owned the car, but she never came and i had to go back to the office. i would love to take her picture with the car (and me, if she's gorjess...hehehe). i guessed it's the way she expressed herself.

how did i know that the car belonged to a chic? oh well, i'm sure that the car belonged to a chic because if it's not, the guy must have some personal issues, then...hahaha.

anyway, the car sure reminded my of lady_bugs' baby jazz, pinky angel and also the psycho cat ah beng. maybe the car belonged to all three of them...hahahaha. oh wow, a threesome.....kinky :)

haircut or porn....anyone?

2006-01-12T16:21:00.000+08:00

lai, lai, lai, lai, lai....anybody wants to have haircut, rebonding, digital perm, colouring or nose job? come to porn saloon, the only saloon in town to offer all sorts of beautification jobs at a very cheap, cheap price.

our chief hairstylist, ms porn porn ensures that you will only get the best and latest fashion services. she and her brother mr porn dan have so much experience in shoemaking that hairstyling comes naturally for both of them. their dad mr porn o is very good in video making and will take video of you while you are being stripped...err...i mean treated at the shop. the mother, mrs porn dianak was the apprentice to the late rose chan and wouldn't mind to share with you some of her legendary moves.

location very near only - in puchong. the services are all money back guarantee but if you try to mess up with them, they denda you with ketuk ketampi at puchong police station behind the shop. oh, did i mention that they show porn movies while they mess up with your hair? nothing fancy, just a guy parading his six tits....hahahaha

in love with geisha

2006-01-09T22:59:00.000+08:00

i’ve finished it! yes, i’ve completed reading memoirs of geisha after started reading it three weeks ago. i was quite surprised that i could finish the book because all my previous books were all by archers, ludlum or sheldon, and that this is my first time reading a book of this genre. actually, i thought i’d take me ages to finish the book because i’ve long abandoned this reading habit like 6 or 7 years ago. i know it’s bad but due to work commitment, golf and a lot of other activities yang tidak mendatangkan sebarang faedah, my reading has been limited to newspapers and golf magazines.

but this memoirs of geisha’s extensive publicity, further fueled by cekya and em who also read the book, i decided to read it before watching the movie which is scheduled to be released here on 19 january. besides, wouldn’t it be cool for a bloke to be seen reading a best-seller at coffee beans or starbucks or devi’s? i’ve read somewhere at a chic’s blog that she found that image to be very sexy…ye ke? hahahaha.

anyway, like sayuri’s (the main character of the book) journey of life from a child to become one of the top geishas in japan, my interest i the book has also evolved from curious into appreciating and feeling awed by the captivating world of geisha. totally opposite of my perception of geishas, the book describes geishas as more than just comfort women (from as young as 14 year old to the 50’s) to the aristocrats and wealthy japanese men. in fact it was portrayed as a dream profession for many little japanese girls, who had to rely on luck, strict discipline and unique beauty just to be selected and trained as geishas – “the point wasn’t to become a geisha, but to be one”. not surprising since the story’s backdrop was 1930's and 1940’s which was the depression period for japan and where only the small group of high class society who could still have a good life, and geishas, were enjoying the spillover of wealth from these people.

basically, the book told the painful story of sayuri who, at the age of 9, was “sold” by her poor parents to be taken to gion (a famous geisha district in kyoto) and hopefully would be selected to be trained as a geisha. her life in gion was close to hell as she was constantly tortured by a senior geisha at her okiya, hatsumomo, who saw her as a threat. sayuri tried to run away, but failed and eventually realised that her only way to change her miserable life is to be a geisha, a top geisha. she also fell in love with iwamura, the chairman of iwamura electric, and realised that by being a top geisha, that position could bring a peasant girl like her to be near the man she loved.

mameha, a well-established geisha and a bitter-rival to hatsumomo, saw sayuri’s potential and took her under her wings. under mameha's care and guidance, sayuri later fulfilled her dream to become the top geisha in gion despite of numerous obstacles that she had to face, particularly from hatsumomo. as for her quest for the love from iwamura, i must say that you just have to read the book to find out – don’t want to spoil the climax la but i must say that it’s not as you would expect.

golden wrote each and every event, every item or situation in such a detail that sometimes he could wrote one whole page just to describe for example, the beauty of a kimono and how it was worn (definitely would be a problem during the “first night” for those with flimsy fingers…hehehe). he also used a lot of figurative words to describe someone or something to portray the simplicity of sayuri’s innocent mind such chairman for iwamura, mr lizard for nobu (iwamura’s partner), teacher mouse for her shamisen teacher, dr crab for a doctor who was one of her clients and many more.

golden also gave very fine details of the japanese culture and social values then, which gave me the opportunity to peek and understand the life of geishas. they not only needed to be beautiful but must be able to dance, play musical instruments or even hold a smart conversation with men, among many other skills, which were provided in a special school for geishas. oh yes, i also got to know that a geisha's virginity is for the highest bidder and sayuri's was the most expensive during that time. and the ultimate aim for a geisha is to have a danna, or a man who is wealthy enough to take her as his mistress.

as a non-japanese, i cannot verify the authenticity of the details written by golden in this book. although he has many credits to vouch that he made a very thorough research in writing the book, i’ve seen too many cases like this where a mat salleh tends to claim he’s an expert of a certain subject just after a few years reading and studying it. nevertheless, i was truly impressed and enjoyed his style of writing, and with such details, there was little for me to imagine but just let my mind transformed his words into pictures. the story was so good that i just couldn’t believe reading the author’s notes after finishing the book.

anyway, i hope the movie will deliver the story as good as the book has done or it will do the book and its readers, injustice. and as wegra has suggested, i’ve bought harmony silk factory by tash aw and look forward to read this award winning book.

oh yes, selamat hari raya aidiladha, maaf zahir batin.

headhunted

2006-01-05T14:47:00.000+08:00

the first time i heard the term “head hunter”, my mind would quickly race to the tribes in sarawak, many ages ago, who practiced that culture as a sign of coming of an age for men (please correct me if i’m wrong because this has been my understanding - doc nurul?). of course, my friend quickly corrected that silly perception and explained that the corporate head hunters were people who specialised in recruiting specific people for their clients to fill up positions, usually at the senior levels. then, i wondered when would i be approached by a head hunter because it’d be a sure sign that i’ve “arrived” in my profession.

i guess i have “arrived” since i’ve been approached by many head hunters for the last 3 years. usually, duing the "interview" sessions, we chatted, we talked, we laughed and i even had to take tests just to satisfy the head hunters. but often, they always came to the same conclusion – i was too young. sometimes, it pissed me off that i’ve often been overlooked just because of my age. but, to think again, i should be flattered because my reputation in the industry must’ve been good that the head hunters have approached me, only to be surprised by my age.

anyway, last night i was coaxed by a head hunter to go his office in kl, for a chat. in return, he'd treat me with a good dinner at planet hollywood. so, despite the downpour, i braved the traffic and drove to kl to meet this head hunter. not that i really wanted to switch my job which i’m enjoying very much at the moment, but just to let the market knows that i’m available if the terms are right. and i also wanted to know what is my market value.

so, i met him and chatted for a while and he asked me to take a management and aptitude test. i said okay. he gave me a booklet and i saw there were about 70 objective questions related to various situations that required my response. “nak ambik test apa banyak sangat soalan ni”, i asked him jokingly. he explained that there were no correct answers, only i needed to choose the best situation. and he said i should be able to finish it in 30 minutes because he just wanted my first response.

typical me, i tried to analyse every question but after 30 minutes, i only reached no 20. malas to stay there the whole night, i just picked whatever answers that came first into my mind. you see, some of those questions were very much related to each other and sometimes the answers were inter-related too that it could be very confusing. i noticed some of my answers contradicted each other but what the heck, they were not decisions on an operating table.

30 minutes later, i gave him the booklet and we went for dinner at planet hollywood. we talked on many issues (with me consciously knew that he’s interviewing me) and i think i must’ve charmed him well that he agreed with many things i said. he seemed to be convinced with some ideas that i plucked out of the thin air and bullshitted….hahahaha. towards the end of the dinner, i asked him who’s his client that has interest in me. initially he was reluctant to reveal but after much persuasion, he gave me a few hints that i could easily identified as my former company many years ago.

i heard the head of the department was recently axed and now the company is looking for a replacement. why axed? the very same reason why i left the company but i managed to do it, honourably. so, now they wanted me? anyway, as i thanked the head hunter for the dinner, i knew i wouldn’t be so keen to hear from him.

rocking the night with peterpan

2006-01-02T17:06:00.000+08:00

this has been really one heck of a new year celebration for me. after actorlympics (see review below) and a quick dinner in bangsar, i rushed to stadium merdeka in the heavy downpour. reached petaling street nearly 8.15pm, parked my car and walked to the stadium. with my free rm45 ticket (cheapskate, i know) in my hand i quickly jumped into the back of the line of the rm45 entrance which then already like almost 200m long. it took so long for the line to move due to the tight security check (with all those long hair mat indons that i saw, i wouldn't be surprised). finally i got irritated with the long wait and made a call to a friend (who gave me the ticket) :

me : oit john (bukan nama sebenar..hehe), vip seat ada kosong lagi tak? aku jenuh tunggu kat luar ni. panjang betul la line nak masuk entrance rm45 ni.
john : engko datang depan ni, aku tunggu.

so, i happily went to the vip entrance where john was waiting and ushered me to sit at the best seat of the night at the grand stand and that kicked off my good time at the best rock concert i've ever been in malaysia.

the concert started with great performances by pretty ugly and gerhana ska cinta. the about 30,000 people in the stadium (with easily 20,000 were in the field in front of the stage) were then all warmed up and exactly 9.20pm, everybody went hysterical when peterpan entered the stage and went even crazier when ariel was brought up via a hydraulic floor and kicked off the show with the highly energetic song 2 DSD.

with that number, it was a non-stop electricfying show by peterpan proving why they are currently the number one band in indonesia. besides ariel as the vocalist, peterpan is made up of loekman (guitar), uki (guitar), indra (bass), reza (drum) and andika (keyboard), and they really sizzled up the night with loud and rocking music. the drizzle that companied the entire show did little to stop the audience from enjoying every number belted by the band. they danced, they jumped, they waved their hands and they sang along with ariel at every song. the occasional and well-timed fireworks on the stage sent the audience up high in delirious.

ariel was a superb performer and had a lot of stamina running from one end to the other end of the stage, jumping and rocking all over, while singing and playing that guitar, that made the audience went wild. the audience clearly loved and worshipped this guy and at one time he asked the audience to clap their hands to a beat and never before i saw in my very own eyes in malaysia, 30,000 pairs of hands high up in the air, clapped (even those at the grand stand) in such a unison to a beat - simply awesome!

the band performed a total of 18 songs from their three albums - taman langit, bintang di syurga and alexandria - original soundtrack. the audience went nuts when ariel sang the band's hit songs ada apa denganmu, mungkin nanti, di atas normal, bintang di syurga, topeng and sahabat. almost after every number, ariel would ask the audience "anda masih kuat? anda sudah capek?" which would be greeted by the audience with loud cheers, ensuring him that they could still keep up with his vigorous pace. any malaysian artist in his shoes that night would have thought he's the king of concerts but not ariel, when he duly gave respect to dewa, the highly established band in indonesia "wah, bergaung (with cheers) stadium ini ya? seperti dewa...hahaha...(satu) angan-angan".

as much as he could make the audience cheered to the deafening level, ariel proved that he could also make everyone silent by asking the audience to bertafakur for 5 seconds (although he confusedly said 5 minutes) and pray that 2006 would be a better year for all the tsunami victims. i truly admire this because as far as i knew, none of malaysian artists who performed during the new year celebration did this. kudos to ariel.

as a sign of respect to the local artists, peterpan shared the stage with joe fizzlow (of too phat) and gerhana ska cinta who rapped during the bridge of kukatakan dengan indah. after 1.5 power-packed show, they finally brought the curtain down with their new hit tak bisakah and before they left the stage, the band members threw their sweat-drenched t-shirts and towels to the audience who delightfully fought for the items.

although i wished i were in front of the stage in the sea of 20,000 people, i think i made a wise decision to be at the grand stand. that's because i believe nearly two-third of the audience was indonesians. seriously, i've never seen so many indonesians in one place, in malaysia. i even heard that hard-core peterpan fans even chartered a flight from jakarta to kl just to watch the concert. i think the immigration department could have netted a lot of illegal immigrants that night but maybe it was a wise decision they did not because some of them could really go wild.

just before peterpan entered the stage, the waist-high steel barrier that separated the rm80 ticket holders and rm45 ticket holders in the field were brought down by the rm45 ticket holders who made up the majority of the audience. the rela members could only look helplessly the human stampede that rushed through the barrier. and there were also a few small groups among the audience in the field who seemed to be dancing macam orang lalok with some of them had their friends dancing on their shoulders, waving t-shirts (peterpan's i supposed) and even indonesian flag. exciting, but scary at the same time because we rarely saw that in malaysia.

anyway, it was one heck of a show and kudos must be given to tiga events for bringing peterpan and held the concert in such a huge place (local artists could only confidently hold their gigs in clubs with max 1,000 people and called it successful). i hope they would continue to bring in other top bands such as radja and even dewa back to malaysia and have huge concerts like last night.

i really enjoyed the night. it reminded me some time in febuary last year when i was at a club in bogor, indonesia and listened to the resident band performed mungkin nanti. i was impressed when everybody in the club sang along with the song, indicating its huge popularity. then, i only knew dewa, padi and sheila on 7 (as peterpan had yet to reach our shores) but my indonesian friend told me that the band from bandung was (and still is) the number one band indonesia, then just toppled sheila on 7 for that spot. after a few weeks i returned here, only then i heard the song being played extensively on the airwaves. the rest is history.

photo credit : www.thestar.com.my

going olympics in bangsar

2006-01-02T15:37:00.000+08:00

what a better way to start a new year than having a good laugh? and a good laugh i had when i went to watch afdlin, edwin sum, naa murad, gavin yap, nell ng, ida nerina, harith iskandar, rashid salleh and jit murad doing the malaysian's version of whose line is it anyway? in actorlympics on sunday.

this gang was so funny and i gelak sampai sakit perut from the beginning to the end of the show. for those who are unfamiliar with whose line is it anyway? (helmed by drew carrey on channel 70 astro), the whole concept of the show was purely determined by the audience which would throw in ideas on things that needed to be done by the players. it's totally unscripted and players relied very much on their talents and experience to perform the tasks while making the audience laugh (that's not easy, i respect that).

the show kicked off with a dance opening of fame by the players and it set the mood of the show because it was hillarious (especially when they changed wardrobe from being glamourous into something weirdly sporty). there were many segments and games, and i couldn't recall all because everything went very fast.

one of my favourite games was the "freeze game" where two players would play a scene on stage and the rest of players could go in by shouting "freeze!"' and replace any of the two and start a totally new scene. at one time nell was having rashid (or was it jit?) between her legs (they could really go physical, trust me) and immediately afdlin, naa and harith were fighting each other calling out "freeze!" so they could also be between nell's legs...hahahaha (then, i also felt like shouting "freeze"...hehe).

i also love when harith was made to guess a place which was "a morgue in the middle of a jungle" and 5 likely things to be there - king kong, tarzan, body bag, rubber glove and elvis's dead body - and 3 unlikely things to be there - proton savvy, piano and god knows the other thing that i couldn't remember. the place and items were all given by the audience. the rest of players would need to help harith guessed them and they did it hillariously, and harith got them all correct.

then there's the game of three players required to play profession characters - butler, chinese geisha and driver (again, the professions were given by the audience), played by ida, naa and edwin respectively (naa as geisha memang kelakar habis!). they needed to play their characters to all these scenes (chosen by the audience) - soap opera, chinese opera, malay drama, european art movie and bollywood. their actings really brought the house down with laughter.

overall, the show was great and the jokes were plenty, non-stop and sometimes they could be 18SX. although i consider myself as an open minded person, the idea of gavin and edwin smooching each other (twice!) when they did britney and madonna at MTV awards scene arguing on who had better "cones", was a bit too much for me to stomach.

nevertheless, it's too small of a scene to mar the whole show which i considered as very successful. that was my first time watching actorlympics and i hope there'll be many more to come.

p.s : met afdlin after the show. glad that he could still remember my name after more than 10 years since i last met him, considering i'm nobody in his business except that i'm just one of the fans.

promise me

2005-12-31T10:51:00.000+08:00

since i was a kid, i've always loved kung-fu movies and grew up with these movies and their fantasies. although many were illogical, i'm more than willing to absorb the 20 storey high jumps and faster than bullets of flying acts.

in 1998, i was especially excited when kung fu movie producers began to use CGI extensively to further enhanced the realism of fantasy that they created in their movies, especially in storm riders which was an adaptation of a famous comic series. the success of storm riders led to a man called hero in the following year. now, these movies were purely fantasy and not semi-fantasy such as crouching tiger, hidden dragon or hero.

so, i gues that was what the producers of the promise thought they were doing - trying to emulate the elements of all these four popular and well-acclaimed movies. unfortunately, they failed miserably. director chen kaige seemed trying too hard to impress the audience, that the audience actually laughed when the scenes were supposed to be very emotional. i tried very hard not to be that cruel by opening up my mind with the ridiculous story and special effects, but couldn't help smiling instead of feeling awed.

i think it'd be a waste of my energy to review such a sloppy movie. to be fair, the only good thing about this movie, like most of recent chinese epic movies, was the cinematography which was simply beautiful and stunning.

enough said, i better get back to work. oh yeah, promise me not to watch this movie.

how many times 2nd chance?

2005-12-30T10:08:00.000+08:00

something grave happened yesterday and i'm flooded with questions.

how many times should one be given an opportunity to make up one's mistake? once, twice, thrice.......endless times? what degree of mistake, you may ask. how about betrayal of trust and love? how about breaking the promise that one just made on the very same day? what degree of love, you may ask. a lot.

is love too blind that mistakes can be forgiven and forget just like that, with just a kiss and make up? should this episode be forgotten when one begs for another chance with teary eyes and hugs that could melt a granite? should ego and pride be pushed aside to allow love conquers all, that mistakes can be accepted as part of a relationship?

anger and disappointment could easily subside but a lost trust, is so hard to regain. how could one continues a relationship if there's little or no trust? that can be a crazy situation because there shall be no peace of mind as it is trapped in the cage of negativity and suspicious. but can there be love but no trust? impossible, isn't it? how to nurture trust when mistakes happened one too often? should this whole thing be forgotten, and just walk away to take a different direction and continue the journey on this lonely path of life?

.....and my deteriorating health at the moment is not helping me at all to cope with all these mindblogging questions.

lu cilok gua, gua cilok lu

2005-12-27T12:28:00.000+08:00

it's been a while since i last enjoyed a malay comedy movie. senario had its moments, but after a few attempts, they can be tiring and the slapstick moments seemed to be making a fool out of me. frankly, the only funny guy in their movies was saiful apek. tengok muka dia aje, i already feel like laughing. his digi tv ad i think, is the most hillarious local tv ad that i've ever seen.

anyway, i didn't watch afdlin's buli but i heard some good reviews on the movie and by the time i wanted to watch it, it's no longer in the cinemas. i tried to catch it during the last hari raya but only managed to watch the first 10 minutes before i was summoned by my dad to entertain some guests yang datang beraya ke rumah.

so, when i watched baik punya cilok (BPC), i was with no prejudgement on how afdlin's movie was going to be like (although i'm quite familiar with his stage works). as i left the packed cineplex, i must say that afdlin has delivered a very entertaining malaysian comedy that has loads of fresh ideas and presentations.

the story was very simple. four good friends (afdlin@aben, awie@bob, ac mizal@wak and hans@jerry) with different personalities and backgrounds planned to rob a pawn shop after wak was cheated by its owner, the blind tauke wong (patrick teoh in a hillarious mafia portrayal). the robbery went awry when somebody had cilok their master plan and robbed the pawn shop a few minutes earlier before they burst into the shop with fake guns made of ubi kayu (with the policemen still conducting investigation at the pawn shop..hahaha). they got busted and tried very hard to prove their innocence while planning to get even with tauke wong and the guy who cilok them.

most of the jokes were subtle and all over, and it's totally up to the audience to catch these jokes as they were not shown in slapstick manner like most malay comedy movies. maybe few caught them because during those quick funny moments, very few laughed when most in the audience were in silence.

i love the flashback technique - black and white and using multiple still photos with a tok dalang as the narrator to explain on things that led them to certain situations. that's a fresh idea and the way the tok dalang becerita, it was very funny.

the casting was great with the main actors (except afdlin) were given totally different roles than they used to have in their previous creative works. imagine watching the macho awie portrayed as mat jiwang because he loved to read romance books (siap leleh-leleh lagi air mata) and often unexpectedly came up with some queer proverbs or pantun (imagining awie in that role already tickles me).

after watching ac mizal in too many gerak khas tv series, i least expected to see him as a funny man with good comical facial and body experession, like jim carrey. in the movie, he made a promise to his grandma to never lie and if he tried to do so, he'd act very weird. he tried and the results almost made me fell from the seat. and hans as the gambling addict jerry moved away from his typical jambu role which is something new that will further expand his acting versatility.

the supporting actors were good and at times stole the scenes such as jerry's boss when he wanted to fire him or naa murad as the bookie who speaks english with thick kelantanese accent (reminds me of my roommate in uni). harith iskandar and ida nerina as police officers were like the comic version of starsky and hutch, especially harith who had trouble finishing his sentences. there were no leading characters in the movie as all four had almost equal screentime, and there were no heroines too as the focus was totally on those four stooges trying to get out of the mess they created themselves.

all said and done, i was quite disappointed with the ending which i think pretty long and boring. there wasn't much room of character development in this movie too, so the audience just have to accept whatever characteristics given without having the opportunity to understand them. and the editing was also pretty sloppy - afdlin should not hire that guy for his next project.

nevertheless, this is a comedy where audience just want to be entertained and not to make to them tired of thinking seriously on the movie (watch the thin red line if you want a thinking movie). as for the ending, afdlin can be given the poetic license since in a comedy, the climax isn't that important. this is unlike a thriller movie where climax is everything to create a catharsis. it's the quality of comedy is important, and the jokes were well delivered from the beginning until the end in BPC.

go watch BPC, and have a good laugh. i look forward to watch afdlin and gang in actorlympics in bangsar this week. anybody wants to come along?

in memory

2005-12-26T05:31:00.000+08:00

it's been a year since the tsunami tragedy happened that took away hundreds of thousands of lives and changed forever the lives of a greater number of those who survived and witnessed the tragedy. it was a painful period for all of us and let us pray that it will not happen again. al-fatihah for all those who passed away.

this song, produced by KRU and performed by a group of local artists to raise fund for the tsunami victims, truly reflects my feelings.

Suluhkan Sinar

Bayangkan hanya berbumbung langit
Berdinding sekadar angin
Kerana syurga mereka telah dimamah bencana
Satu harta yang tinggal hanya nyawa

Bayangkan semua insan tercinta
Dirampas sekelip mata hilang entah ke mana
Nisan pun tiada tempatnya
Warisan keluarga hanya pada nama

Oh Tuhan...beri ketabahan hati mereka
Menempuhi dugaan yang melanda
Kita sesama manusia turut mendoakan
Agar Kau suluhkan sinar dan harapan

Ketika kita bersyukur dilindung
Ada mereka diselubung pilu
Mengharungi hidup bergantung pada simpati
'Masa depan' hanya sejauh esok hari

Oh Tuhan...beri ketabahan hati mereka
Menempuhi dugaan yang melanda
Kita sesama manusia turut mendoakan
Agar Kau suluhkan sinar dan harapan

my house

2005-12-23T02:23:00.000+08:00

i've been tagged by pinat to draw a house. so, here it is...wallaa! my masterpiece yang sememangnya hancus. god, i'm never good in art and if i were to be architect, the houses would've collapsed.

anyway, this is the so called analysis :

Based on your drawing and the 10 answers you gave this is a summary of your personality:

You are sensitive and indecisive at times. You are a freedom lover and a strong person. You are shy and reserved. If you've drawn a cross on each of windows, you always want to live alone. Once you have a problem, you need a friend with you.

Your life is always full of changes. You will avoid being alone and seek the company of others whenever possible. You love excitement and create it wherever you go. You see the world as it is, not as you believe it should be. You are not a romantic person by nature. It also safe to say that others don't see you as a flirt. You don't think much about yourself.

aisay...i don' think that the analysis is accurate, 50% tersasar from truth. maybe because i really sucks in drawing or maybe i don't really give a damn about the answers since i did this drawing and questions thingy...(let me see my watch), ah yes, it's now 2am. you know la, at 2am your brain rarely functions.

talking about drawing, i still remember when i was in school, i really sucked big time in art. masuk ajer kelas seni lukis, mesti aku dah boring (my fave subject was history because it's like reading story books which i enjoyed very much). whenever i was given a drawing assignment, kelam kabut la cari kengkawan yang bagus bab drawing to assist me. usually, they started by assisting me but eventually, often they'd end up doing 90% of the drawing for me.....hahaha...talking about manipulation. usually, it will cost me lunch or dinner or a few packets of maggi mee.

what? sungguh keji? come on, i'm sure you guys also have done a similar thing. when in uni, it's note taking since i'm not such a regular in classes (especially if it's 8am classes...hehe). so, again it's lunch or dinner for the girls (the guys semuanya hampeh cam i jugak) to allow me photocopy their notes. by 2nd year, i already knew whose notes were the bestest to photocopy (one of them is in uk, doing her phd with her doctor husband) and i've lost count how many dinners and lunches i bought for them.

anyway, back to the house. if you wish the computer to analyse your personality by drawing your house (using the mouse - so difficult la) and answer the questionaire, go to this site.

so, mr idris jala, do you wish to purchase the masterpiece?

my 501s

2005-12-21T12:15:00.000+08:00

last night i was mengemas my wardrobe, trying to look for some old clothes to give away to some orang susah in a kampung, not that far from my house. it's a ritual thing that i do every 6 months or so. i've been giving away quite a number of clothes, especially my golf t-shirts yang memang banyak sangat, because most of them i got from entering tournaments (either as part of the goodie bags or prizes).

anyway, as i was picking up some old clothes, i found 3 pairs of my 501s which i bought in 2004. you see, i got quite a number of jeans but i find that i only feel good in 501s (i don't know, maybe the cutting is just right for me) . in fact, i've got smitten by 501 since uni days but it's so expensive that i just could not afford the jeans, so tengok ajer la in the mall or some lucky friends who wore them. that's why when i got my first pay, the first thing that i bought for myself was a pair of blue 501 - punya la seronok.

back to my 501s. i haven't been wearing them for more than a year because of ehm..ehemm.. my waist did not allow me. so, i've been wearing cotton pants ever since but a few months back, i got this urge of wearing jeans. damn, i love 501 but i malas to fork out rm275 for a pair, when i knew i have 3 pairs in the wardrobe. so, i settled for the much cheaper lee and wrangler (hey, you can buy three of these for a price of a 501), but as i said, i could never feel comfortable in that jeans as good as a 501.

thus, i've made a resolution before ramadhan that i'm going to start to lose weight and reduce the size of my waist or i'd have to spend more money to buy new clothes and pants (then, out of like 20 pants i have, i could only wear 4 comfortably) and also those 501s. what worried me, it's quite difficult to diet during ramadhan and syawal due to my work that required me to entertain (read as eat with) a lot of people. but i just told myself, either that or the wallet and the 501s.

so, for the past 2 months, i ate and exercised a lot (jogged, cycled and pumped irons in the gym). two weeks into syawal, i started to reduce my food intake. my daily food intake would be either heavy breakfast or heavy lunch and very little dinner or it'd be just fruits or low-fat milk for dinner, and a lot of plain water.

the effects were slow, but once they came, they came in fast. now, i've been able to increase the number of "wearable" pants, my golf t-shirts start to feel baggy and my belts are running out of holes.

so, last night was a moment of truth as i put on the 501 and yes..yes..yes..i made it! hahaha... the hard work of diet and exercise really paid off and i can wear the 501s. what a feeling!

actually, my weight has reduced only 1kg - from 75 to 74 -, but my waist has gone smaller by 1.5 inches. i guess muscles are heavier than fats as i read it in the magazine (betul ke doc nurul?). my heaviest weight was 82kg which was 8 years ago and after 2 years of extensive diet and exercise, i managed to reduce it to 68kg. but when i started to play golf (and less time in the gym), my weight has been between 73 to 75kg. nevertheless, with my 1.72m height, my ideal weight would be somewhere 71kg and i'll try to achieve that in the next few months.

so people, let's exercise - it's good for your health and your clothes too :-)

hail king jackson

2005-12-19T13:18:00.000+08:00

okay everyone, please make a line here. now, let me introduce you to mr peter jackson, a genius of movie-making. be nice and bow to him 3 times, as he truly deserves it. good, now you can go and watch king kong - i could say the best movie of the year. yup, after a disappointing narnia, king kong comes with a vengence and i love every minute of it - the whole three hours and 8 minutes of the movie and all thanks to king jackson.

when i was a kid, i could still remember my sis and i wore identical t-shirts with a picture of king kong climbing then the new york world trade centre towers. okay, who had that t-shirt please put up your hands? come on, don't be shy. then, it was a trend to have printed t-shirts of hit movies or tv series - king kong, E.T, towering inferno, airport '79, six million dollar man and charlie's angels.

that was my first experience with king kong and later it actually became part of our language culture. for example whenever we saw somebody who is huge and hairy, he'd be called mr king kong and even the gorillas in the zoo were often referred as king kong. okay...okay, i know, you guys who were born after 1976 are forgiven for not understanding this lingo.

anyway, back to mr jackson who after successfully made us believe that the jambu legolas could never run out of arrows and always looks good without even a speck of dirt on his porcelain face inspite of fighting in a very messy war (*smile at pinat*), now made us believe that king kong, dinasours and giant cockroaches can be found at one of the islands at south sumatra.

those who have watched the 1976 version of king kong may have their own perception of the movie but jackson's king kong, though have a similar storyline, told the story in a much more exciting ways by taking you in a roller coster ride with the king of the beasts.

i really admire the eye-popping details of the movie. you see, i have this habit of looking at things around the pojected image of a movie scene. for example when king kong was fighting the t-rex, i'd look at those small things around the two main characters - eg the rooted trees, the leaves, the scattered stones, the wind movement and other things - that a director easily overlooked which could give away the authenticity of the whole scene. in this movie, i could not find anything here as every scene seemed to be very much well-planned, and had hundreds of people to take care of every single thing in that scene - the leaves, the dirt, the stones, the running animals, the fur movement and what not.

among the unforgettable scenes were the sacrifice ritual, dinosaurs stampede, king kong vs t-rex(es), king kong fell in love with watts, king kong chased brody in the middle of new york and the last fight on empire state tower building. the details in every scene were amazing.

this reflected jackson's passion and love of the movie, and i feel touched and fully appreciate the pain and effort given to make the movie as real as it could be. not to forget this was supported with tonnes of money that turned his dream and wild imagination into a reality.

the cast members were excellent. jack black as the sly movie director carl denham (you can really hate this guy), naomi watts as damsel in distress ann darrow (this girl sure can cream) and adrian brody as the reluctant hero jack driscoll. first edition's kyle chandler also acted as hollywood superstar bruce baxter. but credit must given to andy serkis, the guy who made all the body movements and facial expression of king kong before they were converted into CGI that came up with the final images.

the fight scenes were jaw-dropping. the pace was fast and i feel as if i was at the scene myself. i love the sacrifice-the-heroine ceremony as it's very intense and full of suspense (again, the details were superb). the fight between king kong and three t-rexes reminded me of good wrestling fights on tv (you know - when you'd unconsciously make shadow punches and copy the rock's people elbow jump while shouting "nah, ambik engkau!").

the final scene could cause some to pull out their kleenex but for me, it's fight to the end. (as pointed by one journalist in the movie) i just could not understand why on earth did he climb up the empire state tower building and became a sitting duck when he could hide at much safer places (like new york's central park). but like jack black said at the end of the movie "its not the airplanes killed the beast, but beauty did".

there were very brief love scenes in the movie - between watts and brody, and also watts and king kong (on a frozen lake). but you'd amused to know how king kong developed its "love" for watts. you'd also witness how an angry animal (or man?) reacted when it couldn't get what it wanted. mr jackson, are you trying tell us something here?

if, there are question marks that i have for this movie it would be how on earth did watts manage to run around the wild forest barefooted, without showing any grimace on her face? and despite king kong was badly bitten by the t-rexes, and later shot by the army, i couldn't see any blood (is it because to safeguard the children in the audience? but the fight scenes were already violent).

anyway, go and watch the movie. most of the cinemas are packed, i know. when i wanted to watch it over the weekend, i couldn't make the booking through the internet, or phone or sms. so, i endured the long queue and bought the ticket on thursday to watch the movie on saturday. i tell you, it's worth it.

james, john and dayang

2005-12-16T14:45:00.000+08:00

i went to fantasy at pyramid a few days back and see what i got here:

although a few friends had mentioned to me about james blunt and his beautiful songs, but i never actually listened to his songs until erra wrote in one of her postings how she got irritated after being forced to listen to mr blunt again and again in her pooled car. intrigued to find what could irritate her (hehehe), i bought the cd, back to bedlam.

when listening to the album for the first time, i felt so excited - the last time i felt that way was when i bought joss stone's soul session a couple of years ago. i love his songs and feel intimate because they are love stories of the ordinary people, with a lot of twists. the hit song you're beautiful sure described my very own experience some time ago (and yes erra, after some time the song can irritatingly stuck in your mind).

his songs also remind me of another my fave artist, tracy chapman and her "people" stories. i wish more malaysian artists can write and sing more songs of the people, rather that their own dreams and imagination.

my fave songs of this album is high, you're beautiful, wise men, goodbye my lover and tears and rain. a highly recommended album.

like james blunt, i also never heard of john legend (pardon my ignorance but john legend was actually nominated and has won numerous prestigous awards, including american music awards 2005 for best male r&b artist) until i saw his name popped up a few times in afdlin's blogspot and leen's too. but still, never bothered about him until erra spoke highly of this singer that i decided i just have to check this guy out.

actually, i'm never into this r&b and soul stuff, and my knowledge of this stuff is very limited to alicia keys, norah jones, babyface and craig david, mainly because i can't really comprehend what they're singing, which limits my understanding, and feel of the song. you know - the lingo of r&b and soul, the black american, i find it difficult to understand.

nevertheless, i have to say that john legend's get lifted is an exception as i really enjoy his smooth and soulful voice with catchy tunes that can reaally get into you. there's some influence of hip hop in the songs which makes the album not so heavily r&b, that enables it to reach a much bigger audience, like me.

my fave songs are let's get lifted, alright, i can change, ordinary people and stay with you. worth buying, i must say.

dayang nurfaizah (this chick blogs...okay lah, her asistant blogs for her) came into the local music scene slightly later than siti nurhaliza. although more than often, she's always been overshadowed by siti, she has her own loyal fans (including yours truly) who stuck with her despite of all the legal tussle and rough time she had, that limited the promotion of her songs. thank god that it's over and now she could focus on her career in full gear.

but really, i love her sexy husky voice and most of her songs have this slight touch of r&b which make her different than other local female singers. she may not be as pretty as siti, but she sure can make men turn their heads twice or thrice with what i would say exotic and alluring looks. this sarawakian lass can make me fall on knees with her eyes, anytime.

her latest album kasih is actually a compilation of classic songs but repackaged with dayang's own style of singing and music. as usual, she didn't disappoint me with this album but some hardcore classic song lovers may disagree with the modern touch given to the songs.

my fave tracks would be kasih, sri bulan, malam bulan di pagar bintang, penawar rindu and tiga malam. in this album, she also sang a spanish version of malam bulan di pagar bintang (el atardecer de la luna) and children's song suriram (never thought this lullaby could be sung so lovely). a must buy album.

narnia and the rm2 toilet

2005-12-13T13:13:00.000+08:00

what a long weekend. thanks to uncle deris, those who live and breathe the air in selangor, had the extra day off, yesterday. kl folks, you better have a sultan like him to enjoy life like this...hehehe.

uncle deris is one kind of a fella. you see, it's the federal government's policy that all sultans' official bithdays should fall on saturday but uncle deris said why should his rakyat celebrate his birthday when it was not on the actual day. so, since his birthday was on sunday, we're told to take the day off on monday to celebrate. long live the sultan!

1. narnia was a letdown.

don't be fooled with all the hype and publicity. the only good thing about the movie was its first 10 minutes, then it's all down the hill. after watching LOTR and HP series, narnia looks like another movie made for the hallmark channel. god, i wouldn't blame if anyone thought the movie was made 10 years ago instead of recent.

they should use the money spent for the mega publicity on better casting, post production and special effects, because the movie was very disappointing and didn't live up to its expectation. they should know that LOTR has set a standard for a fantasy movie, and if you couldn't follow the standard, at least have a better storyline and casting.

i think the talking animals acted better than their human colleagues, the special effects were very amateurish and the storyline was constrained and i believe it's because the director has been faithful to the book (the same curse that happened to HP & the sorcerer's stone). they should know that when you read a book, the imagination can grow tenfold but in a movie, the director is the one who has to paint the canvas of imagination. they should learn how peter jackson bent and flexed the stortyline of LOTR to make it more interesting and interpret it according to his own imagination. the following HP movies clearly has learnt from mr jackson.

oh well, there are seven stories under the narnia chronicles and i hope if the producers want to keep on adapting the stories onto the silver screen, they must learn from the mistakes. enough said, i let you be the judge of it but don't say that i didn't warn you. if you insist to watch it, bring a few six year old kids - at least they'll enjoy the movie.

and zed, weren't you in the movie too? :)

2. have you heard about the most expensive public toilet in malaysia?

after listening so many people talked about this most expensive public toilet in malaysia, i thought i should give it a try since i was in klcc. yup, it's rm2 per entry for this premier toilet. i didn't waste time looking for the toilet, instead i went straight to the information counter and asked

me : "toilet dua ringgit kat mana?"
man in counter : "tu kat atas, sebelah hardy armies" (he said smilingly)

when i reached the entrance, there was a notice board informing the public that it's a premier toilet and charging rm2 per entry, and should they think it's expensive "other free-to-use toilets are available at other floors". i found it funny that they were many people stood for quite some time reading the notice (kenapa, tak percaya ke?). maybe they couldn't believe that klcc is charging rm2 per entry for this toilet when other public toilets are charging paling mahal pun 50 cent.

with that rate, i expected the toilet to be empty but it was actually full (wow, who said malaysian are cheapskate?). a security guard (instead of mat bangla or bibik) manning the counter and i could hear him explaining many times to still disbeliefed customers that it's rm2 per entry :

public : "encik, bayar dua ringgit boleh masuk banyak kali ke?"
security guard : "tak, kalau masuk 10 kali, bayar 20 ringgit ler"
public : "oooohh..."

the toilet was pretty small but very clean. the cubicles were made of plywood with some designs and the toilet seats were clean and dry. there was a strong smell of air freshner and 2 uniformed staff are on stand by to wipe the sink and floor every time they saw a drop of water. whenever someone left the cubicle, one of them would quickly go in, flush the toilet (again, i supposed), wipe the toilet seat with a lubricated tissue and mop the floor. the toiletries (lotion, talc, cologne and cleanser) were from bodyshop (of a man). each patron was also given a wet tissue to freshen ourselves.

since i've paid rm2, i really took my time inside the toilet (since it was very clean and smelled fresh, why not?) and used all the facilities provided. the toilet actually reminded me of a public toilet at munich train station (when i was train-hopping europe in 1996) which had similar services and charging like rm3.50 (i can't remember the deutchemark, i terus convert to malaysian ringgit and thought - mahal siot!)

overall, i think rm1 would be a more appropriate charge for the pemier toilet as i've seen better toilets and services in some 5-star hotels in kl which didn't charge the patron at all. the question is would i be willing to spend rm2 for the use of the toilet again? it depends - if it's during public holidays when they are a lot of people and the toilets register their highest usage, i'd be more than willing to pay the rm2 purely because of hygienic reasons. on normal days, free toilets will do.

eau de toilette, anyone?

ack! i've been tagged - 5 weird / random things about me

2005-12-10T13:11:00.000+08:00

i've read this tagging thingy and have seen it from the brilliant one to the silly one such as ah beng's meme but never thought that i'm gonna do it. however, since my spoiled (read as manja) little sis has tagged me, i got no choice but to oblige her request or she'll cast a spell turning me into a toad. then, i'll have to wait for the gorgeous angelina jolie to come and rescue me from that evil witch....hahaha

anyway, after much thinking last night, read 27 magic books and consulted the 27 knights of the round table, i managed to come up with the 5 weird / random things about me. here we go :

1. i wear my socks and shoes one foot at a time.

usually, people wear socks on both feet first, followed by the shoes. not me, i'll wear the sock first, usually it's on my left foot, followed by the left shoe, and tie the lace neatly. lepas tu, barulah i'll do the whole process again on my right foot.

2. for someone who have organised many events successfully, i'm personally a disorganised person.

my car is like second home with my golf set, golf shoes, sandal, toiletries bag, 3 bags of cds, mp3 player, hands free, polo sport perfume, last week's shopping bag, 3 bottles of mineral water and a travel bag with a few t-shirts, jeans and some office attire, all ready to go. let's see what's on my 5' x 2' desk - okay, it's almost fully covered with stacks of papers (that can be traced from back in 2003), files, documents, yesterday's coffee stains, nail clipper, water bottle, a bottle of minyak gamat, some old and new letters and i don't think you guys want to know what's under the table..hehehe.

but one thing for sure, no matter how disorganised my things are, i can always find things that i'm looking for. cubalah kemas, jenuh aku mencari...hikhikhik. i found out that my other creative colleagues share the same habit la...ye ke?

3. i love cats, but at the same time i'm allergic to them

back in kampung, we used to have like 10 cats because the whole family simply loves cats. now we only left with 4 cats which are the great great grandhildren of those cats. nope, we don't have persians or those exotic breed like ah beng, but normal kucing kampung. although i love them, i can't be near them for long or i'll start sneezing like nobody business... cirrus or clarinase is always on stand by every time i balik kampung.

4. i had a silly crush with siti nurhaliza

hey, i'm not the only one, right? since her winning bintang rtm, i used to send her a lot of letters, gifts, bought all her cds, voted for her in all the competition she entered and tried to attend all her shows in the klang valley. but eventually, i grew out of it after realising that i'm just semut merah....it's her loss anyway...hahaha. what? datuk k? hmmm....

5. on personal mode (i.e when not working), i'm actually a quiet person

yup, i would rather observe and listen, than talking. i rarely hang out in big groups, but rather with only one or two close friends, or mostly just by myself. i enjoy watching people at the malls (a habit that i started during uni days) and tried to derive some silly philosophical conclusions from the way people dress, talk, behave etc. understanding human behaviour and social norms can be challenging and interesting, which remind me of the subject of social change i took in uni that discussed on the evolution of social cultures and norms.

one thing i developed from this habit is that by observing and listening, it helps me to sharpen my sensitivity to the human behaviour, how it changes, how to adapt and deal with it. this helps me with my job which deals with a lot of people with all sorts of behaviour.

okay, so that's my 5 weird / random things about me. now, it's my turn to tag you guys. what? you think i'm the only one have to divulge this intimate things? where got free meal nowadays. oh no no no, no way. yup, you are being tagged now and to make this exercise more efficient, i'm going to name the 5 lucky people.

and the honours go to :

1. sweet em - ha, don't you dare to say no or you can forget the christmas present and that santarina costume...hehehehe
2. doc nurul - besides your nosy habit of listening to your neighbours quarrel laki bini over their maid, i'm sure that there are more than that :)
3. pinat - more coffee?
4. cekya - you're such a wonderful creative person and like any other creative people like moi, i'm sure you have weird habits too.
5. lady bugs - tell me what's bugging you

so, tagged people. i expect the posting in your respective blogs in the next few days or i'll have to text lord voldermot to cast spell on you to write instead of 5 weird / random things about you, you'll write 5 sexy things about you...hahahaha.

dedicated for little irwan

2005-12-08T09:12:00.000+08:00

some time in october last year, i received a chain e-mail below about little irwan who needed help. his father, yusof, is a man with pride that he didn't want to beg for donation, instead seek support from the public by buying his home made fruit cakes to raise the money needed :

----- Original Message -----
From: Savinder Kaur Gill
Sent: Tuesday, October 05, 2004 7:05 PM
Dear friends,

Please help to pass this e-mail around. I can vouch for its legitimacy. Thanks for reading and hopefully there will be some of you out there who will respond.

Kind regards,
Savinder Kaur Gill

******************

Dear All,

Firstly, thank you for your kind attention. There is an ongoing fund raising project for the following brain disorder child - Mohd Irwan Yusof - 30 months (bilateral schizencephaly)

In a layman's term, Schizencephaly means a cleft brain, i.e. part of the brain is missing or undeveloped during pregnancy leaving the cavity to be filled with the cerebral spinal fluid. At this age, Irwan has slow development and yet to fully gain his gross motor skills. His trunk control is average and therefore, could only roll over on his stomach. He could not crawl nor sit up on his own yet. Speech wise, he starts to babble.

Irwan is on daily medication i.e. Sodium valproate, to control the seizures. The fund will be used for his Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy (HBOT) treatments. The HBOT consists of 40 sessions in one (1) package. Each session will be 1 hour. The sessions are done daily (with weekend break) until completion of the first package. Irwan will then be evaluated for progress that is made after the treatment. After taking a break of 12 weeks from the first package, Irwan is expected to resume the treatment.

Recommended treatment for Irwan will be another 5 packages to be able to appreciate more physical improvements. Each hour will cost RM 125.00, thus bringing the cost of 5 packages to be RM 25, 000.00. The need of additional treatments will depend further on his improvement. As these treatments are costly & needed for a long period of time, the parent of the above child would appreciate greatly for your help & kind support in meeting their needs.

At the moment, there are two types of home baked fruit cakes that are made for fund raising.

1) Delicate rich fruit cake (Walnut & 20 other ingredients) - sold at RM 38 per kg & RM 20 for ½ kg
2) Cream cheese fruit cake - sold at RM 36 per kg & RM 19 for ½ kg

The cakes can last up to 3 months if stored in the refrigerator. Delivery will be on the first week of November 2004. For orders, please fill in the attached order form or contact the
parents at:

019-2815963 (Carol/Meilina) / 012-9163485(Yusof Aziz).

Thanking you in advance.

***********************

quite a number of our company staff supported this noble effort and yesterday, i received this forwarded e-mail :

-----Original Message-----
From: A. Aziz Yusof [mailto:tryadventure@yahoo.com]
Sent: Monday, December 05, 2005 12:54 PM
To: Chiew Teng Juan
Subject: RE: FW: Selling of Cakes in Aid of Little Irwan

Dear friends,
We would like to inform that our special boy, Mohamad Irwan Yusof (3 years 8mths) has gone home peacefully to be with his Maker, on the 29th November 2005 at Hospital Selayang. We would like to thank all of you for your kind deeds and prayers when he is still with us. From the bottom of our hearts, we thank all of you for helping us to raise the fund for his Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy by purchasing the home made fruit cakes. Our sincere thanks and gratitude for all the help rendered.
May God bless all of your good deeds. Thank you once again.
Best regards,

Yusof Aziz, Carol Chuah and baby Ivana (4 mths)

******************

my heart broke when i read the mail and although yusof do not know me, i sent him an e-mail to express my condolences and wish him and his family well, and to remain strong. and for little irwan, i did not get the opportunity to know you but for that short period of time you're in this world, i'm sure that you've brought a lot of joy and happiness to your mum and dad, and to those who loved you. al-fatihah.

farewell rm1 coin

2005-12-06T17:15:00.000+08:00

today is the last day rm1 coin will be used as a legal tender. by midnight, the coins will become obsolete, worth no more than a marker that i used to mark my golf ball on the green.

what? you still have them? collection item? hmmm...good idea too. 50 years from now, the rm1 coin could be worth thousands of ringgit. for all you know, the central bank has sacks of the coins and keeping them somewhere deep in the 7 storey underground vault, to be opened in 2055.

i don't know how on earth they came up with the idea of producing the rm1 coin in the first place because frankly i never liked it as it is heavy. i could still remember when i used to work as a cashier in KFC during uni days (hey, nak hidup kena la usaha), there was a day when the outlet was so packed, and we're running out of notes. so, this one customer gave me a rm20 note (yup, that note also has gone RIP now) for a purchase of rm2 something. since i had ran out of notes other than rm20 and bigger, i had no choice but to give him rm1 coins for change - ambik engkau, satu beg plastik rm1 coin aku bagi...hehehe.

anyway, since malaysians are genius lot and found out how to counterfeit the rm1 coins (once reported that they found a factory lot in puchong produced the counterfeit coins like a factory product), the authority decided to cease using it as legal tender.

that pose a few problems for us :

1. how la to take trolleys at carrefour? sapa-sapa selalu shopping kat carrefour, please enlighten me.

2. paying your parking tickets using the machine will result your pockets or handbags become heavier with 50 cent, 20 cent and 10 cent coins. yeah, yesterday i was at mont kiara and the parking machine returned the change of rm6.50 - all 50 cent coins. senget aku jalan pasal poket berat

3. with coins full in our pockets, we'll be walking like those classic indian dancers with bangles wrapped around their wrists and ankles. berbunyi-bunyi with every step taken.

4. wallets will be fuller (but that doesn't mean the owners are any richer) with rm1 notes, resulting men look like having uneven butt size.

5. sampul duit raya will become lighter and we will have no choice but to increase the quantity inside (paling busuk pun rm2) so that the sampul will look fuller and we will not look so bad or perceived as tangkai jering.

6. those punks at central market will have to use other coins to make coin tattoo (they burn the coin and press hard the hot coin anywhere on the body, usually at the chin and neck - tak pernah ler buat tapi ada terbaca)

whatever it is, i hope they don't reverse this decision in the future or they'll be a laughing stock for being fickle minded. this is strictly in view that i have seguni rm1 coins that i plan to auction off in 50 years time - kalau reverse, rosak ler my plan :-) . meanwhile, i'll just keep one as a ball marker for luck.

what's up?

2005-12-04T23:44:00.000+08:00

what's up? hhmmm...let's see what happened to me today.

1. i couldn't sleep, tossed myself over and over again on the bed but could only sleep for about 3 hours, although it was raining and cold - the best condition for a good sleep. should have tahajud, eh? i think i'm going to be an insomniac....

2. i trashed my golf buddies in the rain and collected rm100....hehe. not enough sleep seems to have good effect on my game.

3. i tried to remember the backstroke technique when swimming in the pool but everything seemed wrong and i almost drowned. nasib baik ler kolam tu 4 kaki dalam ajer.

4. i tried to read and understand the photo webpage signed up by em but drinking too much pool water must have flooded my brain that i have a difficulty to understand the whole thing. sorry em, i'll let the brain dry first before i read the webpage again.

5. i watched zathura. if you like jumanji, then you'll enjoy zathura and the special effects reminded me the hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy. zathura was funny, adventurous and ejoyable considering besides tim robbins, the other actors were relatively unknown (at least to me). i look forward to narnia - watching the trailer, it seems that the movie is going to be a great hit.

6. i had a rocking good time watching xpdc performed live at the club. it's been quite a while since i last watched a live band. the only thing is that i couldn't quite comprehend what the singer was saying or actually tried to sing. kot dia maki hamun the audience pun we all tak tahu.

7. i got to know that someone who i care and have been treating very kindly and went all out to help many a times , has been saying not so nice things about me behind my back. hey, i'm not maksum but if someone has been extremely kind and nice to you, the least you can do is just shut up as i tak kacau sapa-sapa. the old proverb buat baik berpada-pada.... is true indeed. very sedey and disappointed.

peace, everyone

2005-12-01T12:16:00.000+08:00

sorry for the outburst on monday. it's very unlike me. usually i'm a peace loving creature. make love, not war but don't tell that to ah beng who'll spoil the whole meaning of that phrase.

by the way, i have to thank him coz reading his latest entry made me laugh guling-guling atas lantai...lu memang gila la ah beng. at least you made me forget the blues for a while. for those who didn't know this crazy cat, you'd be surprised that such creature exist on the net and he's soooo chickas magnet. eh, ni dah cam promote pulak si kucing gila.

many thanks also to you who have been supporting me during those crazy moments. come to think of it, i know you only through the blogging world and already feel like kengkawan lama yang rapat.

anyway, i've already made peace with myself, my boss, God and also murphy (whoever he is) who invented or coined the term. in fact, it has it's own website to elaborate more on the laws, its origins bla bla bla.

anyway, everything planned went alright although i've yet to adjust the biological iterruption of my sleeping cycle. the whole show went okay and the bosses were happy. that's the only thing that matters for them, rite? yeah, the results achieved no matter how you did it. ooopss, am i being cranky again? tak apa lah...saja boring.

i'm already back in the office after 2 days of absence from office work. as expected, there are tonnes of works piling on the table. so, better start slogging now.

#%^#@!& monday blues part 2

2005-11-28T14:39:00.000+08:00

WARNING : THIS POST AND THE POST BELOW HAVE BEEN CATEGORISED AS 18SG.

i'm sure that most of us are familiar with murphy's law. yeah, one bad thing happened after another and for my case it didn't seem to stop and it's only 2pm.

yeah, i thought the car grant thingy was messy, but wait, actually there were more to come just to make my life miserable today.

i actually slept for about 2 hours before i came to office today. why? to understand this, i have to rewind my day. yesterday, my club had a friendly tournament against staffield club at mantin, negeri sembilan. in order to be there by 7am, i had to leave house by 6am, which means i woke up at 5.30am.

fine, i had a good game as we trashed the opponents. came back here, went to a friend's wedding at 5pm, lepak until 6pm, sent my car to car wash (which they did a lousy job) and went home. i was about to take shower at 7.15pm when my beloved boss called me and said that he needed me to prepare a powerpoint presentation for an important meeting at 9.30am today (monday).

sure, no problem. i'm a f*****g superman. so, worked my ass in front of the pc but i knew it wouldn't be good as most of the information was in the office. so at 10pm, i left for office and continued to work on the prsentation until 2.30am. reached home almost 3.30am (hey, it was dangerous you know coz' i was very sleepy and i had to drive slowly with my stereo blasting my eardrums to help me keep awake).

of course, the work was not completed as i needed to print the presentation materials (dah tak tahan nak tunggu malam tadi). in order to do that, i knew i had to come office early, so i set the alarm clock at 5.30am. woke up and again i left home at 6am and by 6.30am i dah terpacak depan pc, doing some touch-ups and printing the materials.

you think all this pissed me off? no lah, this is nothing as i've done this before many times. but what pissed me off was at 9am, i received an e-mail saying the F******G MEETING HAS BEEN POSTPONED!!!!! can you just imagine that.....what the f***k!!!!

fine, meeting postponed. it's okay. calm down, zuhri, calm down. here, have a cup of nescafe and read the morning papers. then, my staff walked in and said "boss, what happened to you? you're so not colour coordinated today" (thank you very much for noticing it and telling me).

oh well, the lack of sleep must have led my hands picking up the wrong colour of shirts to be paired with the wrong colour of pants and completed it with a mismatched colour of tie. i also picked up a wrong colour of watch. hey, wanna check the colour of my underwear?

fine, i'll just sit in the office but no, my boss just had to call and asked me to go to a government office's open house in kl, on his behalf. in this all-wrong-colour-coordinated attire? you must be nuts! of course i didn't say that to him but just obliged to the instruction.

i went there alone because none of my staff wanted to go along. maybe they didn't want to be seen with this colourful clown with a foul mood. at the open house, perut pulak buat hal. entered the cubicle and you know what, there were no hooks inside. so where the h**l to put my pants? luckily, i watched afdlin's why u still fat? (see my earlier posting the night afdlin brought the house down)and that solved the problem.

i had a quick bite at the open house and rushed back to sunway, hoping that i could catch 40 winks. but of course not, the 20 minute journey had to become AN HOUR when i made a wrong turn on npe and instead of going to sunway, i ended up in sg besi!!

i thought the worst must have been over but hey, that's too short for the principals of murphy's law to fully take place. something else was waiting for me in the office. i finally got to know the answer to a question which i have been asking myself for the past few weeks.

yes, i got the answer, puas hati? what do i feel of the answer? relieved + frustrated + disappointed + stupid + kick myself = being trampled by the army of mawi's fanatic fans rushing to the stage to bersalam with him. well, life just have to go on. it's time to pick up the broken pieces and walk on with pride high.

yeah, and it's only 2pm. come on, is that all you got? bring more to me. i can still take it. i'm still f*****g standing here (although actually i'm seriously wobbling that by a mere sneeze of a cat, i would fall).

mental note : never post a blog when you only had 2 hours of sleep. at this very moment, that bottle of cynide looks very tempting *head fell on the table*.

@#$#%@ monday blues

2005-11-28T07:30:00.000+08:00

i must have waken up on the wrong side of the bed this morning, feeling like this. actually no, there's nothing wrong with my bed but i'm soooo f*****g mad with the car dealer (who is a friend of mine - tu ler yang susahnya bila deal dengan kengkawan) who lost the grant of my old car.

i'd been keeping that grant for like what, 10 years, and he couldn't hold it safely in his flimsy hands for 10 weeks. when i bought my new car, i traded in my old faithful with the car dealer and along with the car keys, i gave him the grant and insurance cover note.

however, my dad decided he wanted that car so i called up the car dealer and asked him to give me back the car and i paid him whatever i owed him. he returned the car but without the grant and the insurance cover note. since i know him pretty well, there's no big deal about it as he promised to give me as soon as possible.

since last week, i've been pestering him to give me the grant and insurance cover note because i wanted to renew the road tax of the car which expired yesterday but he gave me segala macam alasan mak nenek - sibuk la, outstation la, geran tu kat ofis la, cover note tu kat rumah la and other b******t.

finally, last night he admitted to me that he has lost the documents. he claimed that there has been some confusion between him and his staff, and along the way the documents got lost. "What???? Are you out of your mind???" i shouted at him as i felt my blood running upstairs. he apologised profusely and since i knew that scolding him would be a waste of my precious energy, i just told him to solve problem fast.

when he explained how to get the replacement for the grant, again, my blood went upstairs.

1. i have to make a police report (okay, i can do that, no big deal)

2. with the police report, i have to take that car to puspakom for inspection. "what the f**k, that car is in muar now, you mean i have to take leave, go to muar, take the car to puspakom and wait for god-knows-hours for it to be inspected?". luckily, he volunteered himself to go there or my blood would have gone up not only upstairs, but straight up to the ceiling.

3. once puspakom has given the approval, i have to go to jpj office in ipoh since the car was registered there. "what the f**k, you mean i have to take leave, go to ipoh, and wait for god-knows-hours in order to get the copy of the grant?". he quickly offered a round of golf in clearwater golf club in ipoh which doused a bit the anger.

i know that he didn't mean to lose that important documents, but i'm really unhappy to have to go through all the hassle just because of his carelessness - bengang betul. and since the road tax has expired, the car is now temporarily becomes a deco at my dad's house. and i cukup malas nak ambik cuti because i got tonnes of work in the office. but i know i cannot delay this or kesian my dad.

today i'll settle the police report and hopefully he can settle the puspakom inspection this week, and i'll just have to take leave and go to ipoh next week. sabar ajer laaaa......

open house kari kepala ikan

2005-11-23T23:24:00.000+08:00

yesterday was a very tiring day.... letihnya terasa sampai hari ni. it was my company's open house and i was the chairman of the organising committee. ffuuhhhh.....ramainya manusia who came to the open house and the food that we budgeted for 1,500 people was totally finished by 3.30pm.

guests came as early as 11am, and the peak was between 1pm to 1.30pm when all the 600 seats inside and outside my office building were taken up and guests had to wait for their turn to be seated.

every year, my company would organise open house for clients, authorities, suppliers, media and specially invited guests. but the response for the open house has increased since 2003 when we introduced kari kepala ikan as the main dish. this made our open house unique since other open houses serve lemang and rendang, we serve the fish head curry.

we also combined it with our own durian party and last year, we ordered 2 lorries or nearly 1.5 tonnes of durians from raub which made our guests always look forward our open house. unfortunately, this time the open house was held during off durian season, so we couldn't have that king of fruits.

nevertheless, the pull of the fish head curry was strong enough for the guests to come and my team tak menang tangan melayan orang yang datang. i pity my ceo who was being pulled almost everywhere by the managers to meet their respective guests - polis, bomba, government officials, politicians, bankers, press, anak yatim and the list was very long.

we ordered 200 fish head curry from this restoran kari kepala ikan kg attap in kl. the whole gang of the restaurant workers came to our office as early as 6.30am to prepare the dish. according to the restaurant owner, he closed the restaurant that day because he brought all the cooks and dapur, periuk belanga to the office.

besides fish head curry, we also had the popular rojak karim (dengan van-vannya sekali diangkut ke ofis) from Klang, sate samuri kajang, and the usual lemang, rendang and other raya cookies.

our special guests were 55 orphans from Persatuan Penyayang Nur Iman who we brought by bus from Setapak. we prepared goodie bags and duit raya for the kids. i always tell myself that though i'm not wealthy enough to do charity as much as i want to, the least i can do is to use my position to do charity as much as possible via my company.

for entertainment, we had a group of ghazal who played all sorts of songs from hindi to sixties to mawi (including beautiful maria!). the group's singer was very good as he really entertained the crowd.

by the end of the open house, all staff pengsan keletihan with cramped legs because of standing and walking for too long. My office compound was pretty big and with guests inside and outside the building, memang penat pakcik....songkok dan sampin senget pun tak perasan lagi dah (mental note : to get osim or ogawa to do promotion during next year's open house... letih kaki ajer, boleh terus urut, baru ler best).

although it was tiring, it was fun as guests really enjoyed themselves with kari kepala ikan. and with a new ordering and delivery system this year, we managed to deter guests who went into the kitchen to get the kari kepala ikan themselves, last year! itulah penangannya kari kepala ikan, sampai boleh bergaduh-gaduh ...isk..isk. alhamdulillah, everything was under control this year and with the increased budget, everyone could enjoy the fish head curry. i pun makan sampai dah tak sanggup lagi nak tengok kari kepala ikan and the curry smell on my hands took some time to go away.

as for my blogger friends, sori la tak sempat nak hantar invitation. insya allah next year and hopefully the open house will be during the durian season.

Captions (from top)

a. my ceo bergaya menghidangkan kari kepala ikan

b. national shuttler hafiz hashim pun ada, tapi awek sebelah tu bukan awak dia ye, itu secretary my ceo, anak dah tiga, jangan gosip lak...hehehe

c. my directors gave away goodie bags and duit raya to the orphans

d. the ghazal group was good and credit to hani, my creative designer who prepared the stage with kampung feel

e. some of the usherette team (sebelum majlis memang ceria...lepas majlis...hehehe)

p.s can somebody teach me how to directly put caption to the pictures, instead of what i'm doing now?

the night afdlin brought the house down

2005-11-21T17:19:00.000+08:00

the picture above is the centrespread of the booklet for the audience who watched afdlin's stand-up comedy why u still fat? at the actors' studio in bangsar. i almost missed the show if not because of a little help from the chief kodok himself that i managed to catch the last one, last night.

the show was hillarious and he made fun of almost everything - himself, his wife, johor malays, mawi, fart, passing motion, civil servants, fanatic fans, immigration dept, telenovelas, drugs and many more.

the theatre was packed and people even sat on the staircase. the show started nearly 9pm, and afdlin came on stage with a big bang, accompanied by his long time friend, pacai who played the guitar in the background. dressed up in baju melayu johor, he started with his own definition of melayu johor and why male johoreans wear the baju melayu with the sampin inside.

"most malays wear sampin outside so we can easily put the keris and ready to fight, but since johoreans wear the sampin inside and nowhere to put the keris, i believe melayu johor are not warriors but lovers. in fact, we don't need the keris to be tough coz' melayu johor have "aura" - when you don't have to be talented to be popular (obvious reference to mawi who is also a johorean.....hehehe)". and the audience just loved it.

he said fat people should be proud to be fat and acknowledge that they are special.

"god is fair, if i'm slim and not fat, rosham nor and hans isaac sure tak boleh cari makan".

"when i'm fat, i don't have to compete with other thin malaysian heroes. producers will give me scripts specially written for a fat hero like me...although i yet to receive any, and i have to write my own scripts to act"

"with csi, now i can understand why tamil movie heroes who are always fat, difficult to die even with 25 bullets in his body. that's because the layers of fat stopped the bullets before they reach the heart or any other vital organs"

"now also i understand when these tamil movie heroes were punched, the punching sounded dush..dush instead of dup...dup. that's because the layers of fat slowed the impact, even the puching in csi sounds the same"...and he continued to demonstrate the punch in slow motion...kelakar habis

"people always have low expectation in fat people and that is good because high expectation means stress means heart attack means death"

"people also always underestimate fat people and it's good because when fat people achieve success, people will appreciate more like peter jackson (of LOTR) - people would say how could that fat guy make such good movies and win lots of academy awards"

he also shared his problem with the malaysian public toilets that didn't have hooks in the cubicle resulting he had to put his pants around the neck and underwear on his head when he passed motion. when he asked the audience whether they had similar experience, a few put up their hands including a woman...ahaks. and how he conversed with a friend on his voice-activated handphone that fell inside the toilet hole....try to imagine that...hahahaha!

i was in stitches when he described how men tried to control their farts in the first few dates, or how a group of fat people could fart like kompang. he didn't hold back when he poked fun by claiming that immigration officers all over the world have a standard international code of face expression and also how they recruited new immigration officers.....lawak giler.

and according to him, malaysian civil servants who work at front counters have this cit...isshhhh style whenever dealing with people who did mistakes when filling up the forms. when he demonstrated the style, i almost fell from my chair because it was so true! i mean, i noticed it too but never really thought of it.....kahkahkah.

and yes, he said, one of the reasons malaysian guys watch telenovelas is because of the venuzuelan watermelons.....hihihi...how true.

he belted three hillarious songs :

1. a celeberity addiction to drugs in the tune of fantasia bulan madu
2. malaysians addiction to telenovelas in the tune of vida!
3. an ad-hoc song with the title given by audience - malaysian drivers and civil servants...this one was really havoc! (the tune of the song is familiar but i just couldn't point it out)

nevertheless, as i obeserved last night, not everyone could stomach his poke-in-the butt and into-the-face kind of jokes but if you can't laugh at yourself and things that happen to you everyday, then the world ain't beautiful.

well bro, i really enjoyed your show and look foward your other creative works. you have come a long way from the days when we're in school and produced silly plays. yes, afdlin and i were schoolmates in ipoh and we were in this mad society (that's acronym for music and drama society although i must admit that many of the members were kinda nuts, including afdlin and i).

we produced and acted in two plays and since we're in an all boys school, we had to write plays that have no women! but of course the talented one kept on expanding his talents and acted in many more plays including the adaptation of lat...the town boy where he played the leading character, lat. it was so good and such a hit in ipoh that it was later staged in kl.

after spm, i was busy with studies but afdlin was busy with roslan aziz production and befriended the likes of zainal abidin, sheila majid and zubir ali, backing vocals in their concerts and did gigs in clubs. however, he managed to get a degree and got a job as an architect but i guess the artistic calling was too strong that he resigned and became a full time artist. i'm happy and proud of you, bro.

towards the end of his show last night, afdlin cheekily said, "the difference between a celeb and an artist is a celeb appears on the cover of URTV".

santana, sarah and mawi

2005-11-18T01:40:00.000+08:00

yesterday, i went to fantasy at pyramid and bought 3 cds - santana, sarah brightman and mawi. yeah, call me a sucker. i know that nowadays people download songs for free but i have yet to join the trend as i feel it's different when i buy and own the cd - i guess i'd appreciate more the artist's creative works.

to be honest, i was never really a santana fan until i heard his duet with rob thomas of smooth. first time i heard the song, the body started shaking ...yeah, baby. then i started to dig his old albums and began to learn and appreciate his unique style of music.

i bought his latest album all that i am, and this time he duets with a few big stars such as steven tyler (i'm still baffled how could he fathered the beautiful and bomb liz tyler) of aerosmith, mary j blige, michelle branch, joss stone (uugh, i luv this lass), bo spice, will.i.am of black eyed peas and many more.

the opening track hermes is a fast track and started with assalamualaikum and waalaikumsalam (boy, was i caught by surprise) followed by gibberish that i could barely make up or understand. i pray that the song did not mencemarkan the opening salams.

my fave tracks are just feel better (it's difficult to be wrong with the wide mouth tyler), cry baby cry (joss stone just melts me...ahaks), twisted, con santana, da tu amor, el fuego and my man. a must have album.

sarah brightman is one singer that can really suck me into her songs. it's like whenever i hear her singing, i feel like i'm drawn into the song, moving, dancing and playing with the words, emotions and notes of the lyrics and music...yeah, something like that which resulted me acting weirdly in my car or in front of my stereo.

other singers that make me feel that way are bruce springsteen, rod stewart, sting, sarah mclachlan, among others. oh well, kekadang tu depends on particular songs. basically, i can feel their hearts and souls when they sing.

so, i bought this sarah brightman's time to say goodbye which is actually a 1997 production where she performed with the london symphony orchestra. i had this album a few years back but lost it (my self-organisation is as good as zero...urgh...mental note, make this as next year's new resolution..... come to think it again, it's actually a repeat new year resolution for as long as i can remember *sigh*).

like santana, i only started paying attention to her when i heard her duet with andrea bocelli of bocelli's original song con te partiro @ time to say goodbye (which also sparked my interest in bocelli's works but later i found that his works are too heavy for me to digest). in this album, besides her duet with bocelli, she also sings freddy mercury's who wants to live forever (soundtrack of the cult movie highlander - it was such a cult that once i thought i was immortal too *sigh*). man, this song is really berhantu.

my other fave tracks are just show me how to love you, there for me, tu quieres volver and natureleza muerta. when i'm stucked in a jam, i'll listen to sarah brightman - verrrry the soothing.

lastly, how could i not buy this very much hyped album - mawi's yang tercinta. initially, i didn't plan to buy it but curiosity got the better side of me when i saw a chinese family bought the album (talking about aura...oooohhh) as i was about to pay for santana's and sarah brightman's cds.

the quality of songs of this album are good and like any m nasir's albums, you cannot hear once to appreciate them - you have to listen a few times. nevertheless, i have listened to the best of mawi live and i feel the quality of his voice is very much better in that album. i could hear the strain and tiredness in his voice, in the new album - tu la, paksa mamat tu perform tak henti-henti, lepas tu suruh rakam album in such a short period, camner la nak nyanyi bagus-bagus. when he duets with m nasir in lagu jiwa lagu cinta (which is a very nice catchy song), anybody can notice the big difference between the sifu and mawi - cam langit dengan bumi. m nasir clearly outclassed him.

strained voice aside, my fave tracks are lagu jiwa lagu cinta, kian, di pintumu and yang tercinta. the album's version of aduh saliha is not as good as the one in mawi's live album which i consider as his best performance of that song.

too bad that launch of the album was overshadowed by the issue of the resignation of some of mawi fc protem committee members which i personally think is crap - heck, nobody owns anybody. but read leen's comment on the issue and you'll laugh your heart out guling-guling atas lantai...hehehehe.

of trees and budget

2005-11-16T13:23:00.000+08:00

that miserable time of the year is here. yup, for the next 2 or 3 months will be a period of headaches, migraines, cough, sinus, body aches and whatever that i can think of because it's the time for me to come up with my dept's structure tree, key result areas, targets, objectives, proposals bla bla bla...that will end with the 2006/2007 budget proposal.

you think managers live a blissful life???? heck, they may be good in ordering the sub-ordinates but when they're being ordered by the high and mighty of the organisation to prepare those paper works, that's when you see managers in their foulest mood, in another word baru tahu langit tinggi rendah...ahaks.

yesterday i presented my first draft of my dept's structure tree to the bosses and i think from what i presented, now left with only 20%. the rest was shot down buta-buta ajer.

************

me : so, i think the target can be increased from 80% to 85% positive reports

boss : that's so kacang putih for you to achieve! you should be thinking the other way round, 0% of negative reports!

me : *&%%(#$%^@ (dumbfounded)

************

me : i believe we need to allocate this sum of money to rebrand the image of the company

boss : why bother rebranding? rebrand or not rebrand, if we increase the rate people still use our product what?

me : @#$$#@%^& (...then why the heck do you want me to crack my brain doing this paper work?????)

************

the only consolation that i get is my colleagues share the same fate too. according to the boss's secretary, it semed that all managers who came out of the discussion room had the same cloudy muka seposen faces....isk..isk.

that was the first round and there are many more rounds to go. and i haven't even started on the budget yet. in the back of my mind, i've already thought on things that i know the bosses will shoot down but if i don't put them in, then what the heck am i doing here?

nevertheless, i guess those are the challenges that have always been thrown to us managers here (kalau tak, usah jadi manager) that we often made jokes out of them.....if you can't beat them, you joined them (dush..dush).

open house, balle balle and golf

2005-11-14T06:22:00.000+08:00

if i get a ringgit every time i heard the word "open house" for the past week, i'd be able to buy that sleek nikon d70 which i've always wanted. i've heard too many of that word and being a social animal, i have to oblige to the demand of social norms and attended quite a number that i've lost count as i stuffed myself with food at every open house. it didn't matter if i was full, the hosts kept on putting plates after plates of food in front of me and it's very difficult to decline or i'd offend the kind hospitality :).

one of the interesting open houses that i went over the weekend belonged to this one dato' in shah alam, who's a personal acquintance. it's interesting not because of the beautiful set-up and huge tents constructed on an empty land beside his equally huge house, and also not because of the variety of food served or those pretty girls in tight colourful kebayas who welcomed the guests.

i liked this particular open house because it had this ethnic musical band balle balle from kuala selangor to entertain the guests. balle balle is a group of musicians and singers made up by around 10 middle-aged men and women. they dressed up in uniformed colourful batik shirts and sarongs, and wear straw hats (tudung saji) and clogs (terompah). their instruments, among others were guitars, bass, tamborine, shakers, congas, bongos and balle balle.

balle balle is actually a self-made musical instrument that looks like a bent long stick with a string connecting both ends. attached to the strings were something like those old aluminium bottle covers and they were arranged staggeredly. when the musician hit the stick onto the ground, it would produce a unique sound like a mixture of tamborine, shakers and cymbals - i think a r tompel played this instrument in the do re mi movie. they didn't have the best of voice (like siti nurhaliza or jamal) but their unique image and kind of music made them very popular with tourists as they often got invited to perform on luxury cruises, tourist related events and corporate functions. when i checked last year, they cost rm5,000 for an hour of performance.

the first time i heard (or actually saw) balle balle was when they appeared in malaysia hari ini, last year. later i saw them performed live at last year's open house of a giant property company and this time at this dato's house. they sang all sort of songs - malay, chinese, hindi, english, but mostly oldies and modified to their type of music. i enjoyed their performance so much that i stayed nearly 2 hours at the house.

and of course i played golf on both mornings of the weekend, and i'm very pleased that the old swing is back. i think my golf buddies couldn't curse me enough as i collected their money in both games....ahaks.

swinging the blues

2005-11-11T11:20:00.000+08:00

uuurrrgghhhh!!!!!! tried swinging after a month and a half break, yesterday and yucks.... it's horrible. balls flew everywhere except on the fairways. putted all over the greens except into the holes.

managed to scramble a few pars but also ballooned the scores of a few holes. got to go to the driving range or i'll be slaughtered this sunday when i play with the other buayas.

tiger, can i borrow your hands?

let's celebrate life

2005-11-09T18:05:00.000+08:00

helloooo......i'm back in the office after such a long raya break that i got bored and raring to be in the office...really? hahaha...just kidding. yes, i'm back in the office but actually who wants to be in the office when you can wake up late and watch tv the whole day while munching the leftover raya cookies? in fact, i think leftover raya cookies taste much better than the fresh ones, as you scrap the bottom of the jars...yum..yum..

anyway, i'm sure that my raya stories would not be much different than yours. we had takbir raya from house to house like cekya's, visits, open house, eat, more visits, more open houses, more eating sessions, laughed, cried and enjoyed. i think i really overate during raya - can't let people tell you "apasal tak makan ni, diet ke?" when you visit their open houses, can you? the whole idea of open house is to make your guests fat that it's a sin to just chat and not serve any of those delicious, mouth watering, fattening oily food and it's a sin also for the guests not to eat or your host will be very much offended... hihihi. so, i think my waist has expanded a few more inches last week and it could be worse with the countless of open houses that i got invited for the next few weeks.

but i would like to share here about an old friend, gaff whom i met during hari raya. gaff has been married for if i'm not mistaken, 7 years and the couple was childless until last year. i knew they tried very hard to have a child but never really understood how hard it was until i met them during hari raya. for nearly an hour and a half, they shared their story of sweat, blood and tears, not to mention the amount of money spent, just to have a child of their own. of course i've read similar stories in the newspapers or magazines, but it never really hit me like when i heard it from a friend who went through the process.

i didn't ask whose "fault" it was but i was astonished to know how they dealed with the challenges and i'm very sure that it has made their love stronger than ever with the birth of the child. but like any other couples, only god knew what went through between them before that, and i'm very happy that they managed to stay strong together.

in total, according to gaff, they spent nearly rm150,000 on medical expenses including fertility treatment, pre natal, labour, various types of medication and post treatment. fortunately, he works for petronas which paid all the expenses for the baby except their own initial fertility treatment that cost them around rm25,000. i'm not very well versed with this fertility treatment but according gaff, "benih aku dan bini aku disenyawakan di luar sebelum diletak dalam rahim bini aku" (i really don't know how to put this in english but i believe this is a test tube baby - in vitro fertilisation or IVF).

the doctors fertilised three embryos (they want higher probability) but only one survived in the womb. during that period, gaff was posted in sudan while his wife was in kl. due to her sensitive condition, heavy works and stress were a no-no, so she stayed at home. she also could not do heavy household chores (not even mopping the floor) and really had to look after her body very cautiously. during her earlier pregnancy, there was a complication and the doctors had almost given up, and told gaff and his wife to pray very hard for the baby to be strong. alhamdulillah, the prayers were answered and the baby survived.

even with such a strict discipline (they'd do anything for the baby), the baby was born prematured (8 months) and had to stay in the hospital for observation for a month. the mother wasn't in a good condition as she was very weak and also hospitalised for a month. man, i can imagine if i were in gaff's shoes - must be very stressful.

anyway, a year and a half later, ahmad aiman, proved that he was strong and indeed a very active boy that could never sit still as i chatted with his parents. when i looked at aiman, i really hoped that when he grows up, he will know his history and appreciates the troubles, efforts and sacrifices that his parents had to go through and made just to have him. i prayed that he would be a good man, kind to his parents and people around him.

and as i drove off, leaving gaff and his family, i couldn't help feeling the irony of life knowing that there were couples willing to pay with their hands and legs to have a baby, while on the other end, there were couples who didn't think twice dumping their babies in the drains and bushes, leaving them to the mercy of strangers or animals, or angel of death.

so, this syawal, i wish to celebrate life - a good life. i wish the best for aiman, the test tube baby and also for my sister's second child, aisha nuria, who was born on 25th ramadhan (another eurasian baby in my family). may god bless both of them and other babies around the world.

selamat hari raya aidilfitri

2005-10-31T15:30:00.000+08:00

to all fellow muslim bloggers, bloghoppers, readers, silent readers, friends and families, i wish you selamat hari raya aidilfitri, maaf zahir dan batin. enjoy and cherish the beautiful moments of aidilfitri with your loved ones. take this opportunity to make peace with ourselves and those who we probably have forgotten.

should you drive during this festive season, please drive crefully and may god bless you.

*photo credit - http://photos.alyanabilah.com/harirayacard/kadrayasunset

di ambang syawal - memories

2005-10-29T13:25:00.000+08:00

today is my last day at work before raya break until the 7th november. in fact, the whole gang has left the office, but i choose to stay back to write in this blog since my computer at home is broken since thursday.

everytime comes aidilfitri, i'll have flashes of my chidlhood memories - particularly with my late grandma or opah. i was very close to her because when i was small, my elder sister and i stayed with my grandparents for a few years when both my parents futhered their studies in the university. in my family, sons have always been given the privilleges and being the first grandson, i was very much pampered by my grandparents, uncles and aunties.

one of my sweet memories with opah was baking cookies with her which usually started two weeks before aidilfitri. she had this black old oven (i doubt anyone still use this kind of oven) and i'd be sitting beside her, watching or helping her putting in the cookies inside the oven. this sometimes would continue until late at night, and i sometimes slept on the kitchen floor, accompanying her waiting for the cookies to be ready.

she made the best kuih bangkit and i loved her wajik. these two are my favourite raya dishes and she knew it that even until i've grown up, she'd prepare these two dishes every aidilfitri just for me ("engkorang jangan nak habiskan kuih tu, simpan untuk e" - i could still remember her words to my uncles who were gobbling up the dishes). in her last few years when she'd no longer in a good health to do household chores or even cook, she'd buy the two dishes just for me. although they may not be as good as her own cooking, the thought always brought me to tears.

she had always been protective over me and this sometimes drove my parents nuts which was one of the reasons i was close to her. she was never short of advice and would give me a few whenever i visited her. i sometimes wished that she'd listen to other people's advices too because she could be very stubborn. she was a diabetic but she rarely took care of her diet that always made her children, and me included, worry. from our point of view, we wished for her long age but from her point, she wanted to enjoy her old days with good life.

but i believed she had fulfilled her simple life. she had performed haj, had her own house and land, and from her 10 children she had produced a doctor son and a teacher daughter (my mother). she'd seen and survived the best and worst weathers in the family and had many good friends.

i was based in alor star when i received a call from my mum at 6.30am informing me that "opah dah tak ada". although i knew that with her deteriorating health the day would come, it never really hit me until i heard those words. i cried as i drove all the way to ipoh, just in time to kiss her on the forehead before she was buried after zohor. actually, that was the first death in the family and it came hard on all of us.

my only regret was that she did not get the chance to see me settle down which was one of her wishes. "bila engko nak kahwin e? opah nak sangat tengok engko naik pelamin. cepat la, jangan tunggu lama sangat, opah bukannya lama lagi" she always told me whenever i visited her.

it's been eight years now and i couldn't felt so "sebak" every time i saw kuih bangkit or wajik served during aidilfitri. they reminded me of those beautiful moments i had with opah, the carefree days when i knew that i could do no wrong in her eyes, her love and care when i was small (my mum often told me when i was too small to even remember, i had an accident and was hospitalised for a week, and opah would slept on a "tikar mengkuang" beside my bed every night). oh my, tears flow like streams on my cheeks as i wrote this.

at least once a year, she would come into my dream. often the same image - she in white "telekung" looking very calm and radiant, walked to me and asked me how i was doing, my family, told me to take a good care of myself and then i would wake up crying - maybe because i felt guilty that in my hectic life, i should have spared some time to read al-quran for her as a gift.

anyway, this aidilfitri i'll be back in ipoh and i'll visit her grave and read her al-quran. she'd be happy to know that she just got herself another great grandchild from my elder sister who just gave birth to a daughter this morning. i'll remember her forever in my heart and may she rest in peace with the "orang-orang yang beriman" - al fatihah.

urrghh.....

2005-10-27T23:57:00.000+08:00

i'm feeling pretty down tonight. bought a new handphone trying to cheer myself up, but still have that feel of a thousand needles pricking my heart. below is one of my favourite songs, "menanti sebuah jawaban" by padi which is also the hit soundtrack from the movie ungu violet.

Menanti Sebuah Jawaban - PADI

Aku tak bisa luluhkan hatimu
Dan aku tak bisa menyentuh cintamu
Seiring jejak kakiku bergetar
Aku tak terpagut oleh cintamu
Menelusup hariku dengan harapan
Namun kau masih terdiam membisu

Sepenuhnya aku ingin memelukmu
Mendakap penuh harapan ‘tuk mencintaimu
Setulusnya aku akan terus menunggu
Menanti sebuah jawaban ‘tuk memilikimu

Betapa pilunya rindu menusuk jiwaku
Semoga kau tahu isi hatiku
Dan seiring waktu yang terus berputar
Aku masih terhanyut dalam mimpiku

restless nights

2005-10-26T11:13:00.000+08:00

this has been happening to me for a few months, but it's getting worse for the past few weeks. it seems that i can never have a peaceful sleep nowadays.

every time, it will come with dreams and sometimes two or three dreams in one go, even during a short nap during lunch time. and each dream often was not a relaxing o pleasant ones, instead they're adventurous, action packed, with suspenseful and worrying situations that require thinking..... and it's tiring.

in the dreams, i felt like i was using every muscle in my body and when i woke up, the whole body felt very tired although i was in bed the whole night. often too, i woke up with unfinished dreams (you know, i was in the middle of bashing the bad guy when i woke up), and it made me feel very unsatisfied.

i dislike this situation because it made feel very tired and lethargic during the day. is this normal? how can i get a peaceful sleep? should i meet a doctor? please, i don't wish to take sleeping pills.

confession of a dangerous mind

2005-10-23T12:43:00.000+08:00

i have to confess something. this guilt is eating me up for the past few days and i need to let it out. i rarely behaved like this, but it was a sudden burst of emotion that i couldn't hold which i totally regreted because i knew it could have led to something that i'd be very sorry for the rest of my life.

i detest road bullies but last wednesday, i was at the brink of becoming one. i was in the car with my staff linda and her cousin nita, and we were on our way from eastin hotel (after sending the indian delegation - check my previous posting) to quality hotel in kl to break fast with the kl traffic police team. it was 5.45pm, drizzling and as usual the road in front eastin was very congested.

exiting the hotel, i needed to pick up fauziah at my pj office and i had to cross a road to the u-turn to kl in order to get into the road to pj. i tried to squeeze myself into the very congested pj-bound road (but the kl-bound road was very free) and stuck in the middle, between the two roads as cars were not moving.

i was navigating myself when i heard very annoying honks behind me. initially i didn't take heed but the driver kept on honking that it really became unbearable. as i inched my way, the honks kept on blaring and i started to curse the driver in my heart "c'mon, can't you see the jam in front? if i can move, i would have moved".

the honking continued and the initial irritation turned into a sudden burst of anger. i pulled up the handbrake, opened up the door (nita anxiously said "sabar, zuhri") and walked towards the car behind me who didn't stop honking as i walked towards him. imagine me, wearing a black suit, in the drizzle, looking very angry, in a congested road with eyes of other drivers fixed on me as i walked towards the car.

the driver was a chinese old man (maybe around 55 or something) and his window was down and he seemed to be angry at me too. i stopped about 5 feet from him and shouted at him

zuhri : "what's your problem? can't you see the cars are not moving?"
and he shouted at me back : "it's double line, you cannot cross over the lanes!".
zuhri : "so what? it's congested for god's sake!"

then came these feelings of rationality and sensibility that i realised if i let this negative situation to overcome me, things could get ugly. so i stopped there and walked back to my car although the old man kept on shouting some unaudible words to me. "wow, that was close," i whispered to myself as the honking behind me kept on blaring.

after a moment, i managed to squeeze myself (maybe other drivers thought they should let this mad guy in suit to pass through) in the pj-bound road and as the old man drove beside my car, he kept on shouting at me but i just looked at him.

it only dawned on me later at night that i had let my negative emotions to take the better side of me and i regretted it very much. although i had encountered other similar annoying drivers but i had never acted like that. by walking out of the car and confronted the driver, seemed that unconsciously, i was ready for a brawl.

imagine if hadn't be able to control myself then. perhaps because the driver was an old man, it struck upon me that i shouldn't be fighting with an old man - he's not my fight. but what if the driver was a young guy with a bad temper? would the episode turn up differently? what would i become then?

these questions keep on popping into my mind for the past few days.

deeparaya feel

2005-10-22T15:25:00.000+08:00

shamsul always have this "casa impian" thingy in mind that he thinks he can rival eric leong anytime. being a nice boss, i try to give my staff as much room as possible for their creativity to work and that's what happened when shamsul started to decorate the department for the deeparaya. the rest of the gang knew that whenever he had that "ilham", being sporting too, they had always allowed his creativity to roam but of course eventually they had to help him to redo it - talking about team spirit.

he found some decor stuff we used for the company's open house two years ago in the store and recycled the drapes. asri said they looked like mosquito nets, while i said the concept is more like "office dalam kelambu". they might work at the big office lobby when we used them then, but not in our small department.

anyway, i've asked hani (like camelia assisted eric leong) to retouch the decor or with all the drapes, we could get "lost" in the department.

the night shamsul really feted himself, and reunion....kinda

2005-10-21T15:54:00.000+08:00

first thing first - my deepest condolences to pak lah for the passing away of kak endon. may god bless her and hope that pak lah will stay strong for the sake of the nation.

because of kak endon's passing away yesterday, those folks at legend hotel called shikin a couple of times to confirm our reservation last night. it seemed that many people had canceled their reservations for break fast that nite. but when we went there, there were actually tonnes of people.

i didn't really eat that much. but the rest sure enjoyed themselves. we had irmy that night, so it's kinda of a reunion though she's only left us for a month. but you know, with the amount of hugs and kisses she got, seemed that she's left us for ages - or maybe the fact was that the gang really loved and missed her.

and we also had emily, charmine's 7-year old (or is it 8?) daughter. emily, seemed to know that she did not really belonged there that night and wanting to earn that right, behaved very nice by serving teh tarik and ice-cream to a few spoilt uncles and aunties. oh, don't worry emily, you're too cute to be left out.

among the group, shamsul seemed to enjoy very much the buffet. i lost count how many helpings he had but if i had to take anyone for buffet, i'd take him anytime because he sure ate a lot and nothing went to waste. at least, he ate more than the rm85 buffet tag per person.

what did i have? 2 pieces of mini murtabaks, a few kurmas, mini fried pau (at least that's what they looked and tasted like), salmon, some chinese raw food thingy and cups of coffee. not that the food was bad but the place was so crowded with people having heaps of food on their plates at the buffet counter which really turned me off. i mean, for god's sake, this is buffet - you can always come for more helpings after that, and take just enough for yourself to avoid wastage. and true enough, i saw a lot of wastage on tables and it made me cringe as i thought the hungry earthquake victims in pakistan.

oh yes, we celebrated hani's birthday too. i gave her radja cd (the indonesian band) as she listens to indonesian bands. i dig that band too. the first time i listened to their songs when introduced by an indonesian friend in surabaya a few months ago. he said, radja was (and still is) no 1 band in indonesia, beating peter pan. when i got back in kl, it took me almost a month before i could find their cd. now, you can find it at every music store. they're good and worth listening.

anyway, enough of eating or i should have told that to shamsul because even when everyone was flat "kekenyangan" and i have signed the bill, he's still eating. poor guy, i let him finished his fruit punch before we made our move or the hotel would charge me double for shamsul :)

Captions (from top)

1. break fast with the gang. that plate of satays at the forefront belonged to shamsul. and the cute little girl at the end of the table is emily.
2. happy birthday hani.... or who irmy called "mama vogue"
3. "perut kenyang, suka hati"

feeling like vip

2005-10-20T03:49:00.000+08:00

yesterday it took me 45 minutes from llm office in kajang, drove through ldp, up to penchala link from bandar utama, turned back on kerinchi link and finished at eastin hotel in damansara, at 4.30pm, in the middle heavy rain. hahaha, even alonso wouldn't be able to do that! you could and believe me, it was fun to drive in a very congested road - when you have police riders in front of you.

yesterday we hosted a delegation from india who's given a malaysian govt's status - meaning they're given the vip treatment, including police escort. so after briefing them at llm, we had to take them for a site visit on ldp and sprint and we knew that without the police escort, it would be impossible to drive through the highways during the evening peak hour.

thanks to the police riders, the bus which ferried the delegation and seven acompanying cars with hazard lights switched on (my car was the last) breezed through the heavy traffic. it really felt good (for other annoyed drivers, thank you for giving way...ahaks). now i know how it feels to be a vip.

dr football

2005-10-18T10:10:00.000+08:00

yesterday i called up the hr department to ask which company's appointed clinic has x-ray facility and they told me the nearest to the office would be klinik sri permai. oh, that clinic - as i remembered it's also irmy's favourite clinic. anyway, off i went to the clinic.

there's no patient when i reached there and 5 minutes after the nurse had x-rayed my ankle, i was called in to see the doctor. he's a doctor alright, but this 6' 2" good looking indian doctor is more like a buddy and full of enthusiasm. you know, the type of person who talks about a subject with excitement that you couldn't help but felt excited too.

we talked about my ankle for about 5 minutes and the next 20 minutes we talked about sports injury, football, futsal, my uncle, glasses, contact lenses and my tonsils, but mostly football. clearly he's a die hard football fan and has a good knowledge about EPL, spanish league, italian league, footbal clubs, england, brazil, their players and even predicted who will be in the final of next year's world cup. he also had a ronaldo screen saver on his pc!

although i'm not really a die hard football fan, but i read enough to share his passion with football. thanked god, or i'd look like the only dude in the world who doesn't know anything about football. for guys, not knowing football is like girls not knowing how to cook rice with a rice cooker. not being sexist, but i think you get what i mean.

we would have chatted longer if not because of the nurse who came into the room telling him another patient is waiting outside. so, i excused myself and left the clinic, and understood why irmy liked to go to that clinic :). Too bad girl, the clinic is just too far from your office now (of course that's not an issue, i know).

oh, anyway my ankle is fine. i just need to massage it a few more times and have it bandaged at night after applying the ointment that the doctor gave.

did i hear a crack?

2005-10-17T16:34:00.000+08:00

it's been 8 days since i fell into the drain. although the cuts and wounds have healed, the sprained ankle has not. i went to a reflexology centre in sunway last friday to have it massaged. man, it was painful that many times i almost stood up from my chair when the masseur touched (more like squeezed) the painful spots.

i thought the pain would have gone away, but unfortunately it hasn't. it's still painful like hell especially if i press my leg hard on the ground (like going down the staircase).

zaki told me to have it properly massaged by malay traditional masseur. but i'm just too lazy to go to "ceruk kampung" looking for such a person and often have to wait for their free time (since most of them are part timers) for treatment. it would be much easier if they operate at shoplots like those reflexology centres. shikin suggested to me to go the hot spring in selayang and dip my ankle there. she said she had a similar experience and after 2 days in a row of dipping her ankle at the hot spring, it went alright.

aftar and irmy suggested to me to have my ankle x-rayed, in case i actually cracked the ankle which could result a much prolong and serious injury. if it's fractured, no kind of massage could help me.

i think they're right. i should have the ankle x-rayed. at least i would know whether it's fractured or not. if not - jolly good, i'll find a good masseur. if yes, i'll just have to let the doctor does his job. oh well, nothing to lose, besides my company is paying for it.

facing the firing squad

2005-10-16T11:28:00.000+08:00

i faced a firing squad yesterday, with bullets zapping at me all over that i had to do those matrix moves to dodge them - with a smile. now, before anyone accuses me of having too much coffee last night, i was actually describing how i felt as i stood in front of nearly 50 angry and highly emotional residents of ttdi in a dialogue on a highway expansion project, yesterday.

it was 3pm and i reached the women's institute before francisco and partiban did. already the atmosphere of the meeting room was hot with one dr norlida who claimed to be an engineer kept on attacking me while i patiently told her to hold on to her huge laser guns while waiting for francisco to come and conduct the briefing. fortunately dato' sri ram who organised and chaired the dialogue was very calm and understanding, or i would have just left the room.

the firing came right after francisco finished his briefing and one by one (at times, two) the residents came in front and started to fire at us with mortars, grenades, nukes, laser beams, light sabers and stones while we're making that matrix moves as our force field becoming weaker and weaker. when they stopped the firing, i stood up to answer the queries but i had just finished with the first question when they started to shoot at me (talk about fair game) and i had to make those matrix moves again, with a smile.

oh well, not everyone was cruel. some were sensible like one dude shahnaz, one chinese lady laywer and of course the ever helpful dato sri ram. eventually, the situation calmed as we reached to conclusions and a compromise (after much negotiation and bargainings), with loads of their empty shells of ammunition for me to bring for my boss (lucky him).

when the meeting ended, i shook hands with the residents and i was happy to see that all the initial emotional charges had disappeared (except dr norlida who was very reluctant to accept my handshake), and replaced with smiles and pity look (they must be thinking - poor guy, he's just following orders) for me and said "don't take it to the heart" (sure, you want to see the bullet holes on my body?) and i answered "we're professionals, this comes with the job".

i reported to my boss over the phone and received instructions on what to do next, then went straight home. i was really mentally exhausted with the 1.5 hour meeting that after i broke fast, i just fell asleep and woke up at 12.30am. recalling the event, it's been quite a while since i last had to face a firing squad from residents (yeah, since the puchong project 2 years ago). it was no fun, but made my adrenaline ran high and added colour and excitement into my job experience.

the night jamal jamaludin announced his wedding date

2005-10-13T17:04:00.000+08:00

what a good turn out for the break fast with press last night at singgahsana. we ordered five tables, but there were so many of them that i told my staff to open up another table.

i was happy because my boss was impressed with the turn up, considering when izhar of karangkraf told me that our venue for the break fast was "paling cekai" because there were at least four other break fast events for the press held at other glamourous five star hotels and entertainment outlets. he came just because of our good frienship. i really appreciate him and the other press members who came and guess my good relationship with them paid off.

among who came were jamal jamaludin and his fiance, faridah. david low and family, priscilla of hitz fm and its traffic team also came too. jamal jamaludin told us that they're getting married on 1 january 2006 and it is to be held at alamanda putrajaya. when asked whether alamanda sponsored their wedding, he just smiled.

faridah is a 25 year old beautiful girl, while jamal is 42 and we continuously teased them about the age gap but they just laughed, guessed they're used with those teasings. they were very open about their marriage and even shared with us their experience of attending pre-marriage class at bangsar. with him getting hitched, now left halim othman as the only most eligible bachelor in amp radio. they looked like a lovely couple and my best wishes for both of them. before they left, quite a number of people took photo with them, including my boss who's in the picture.

the food at singgahsana was okay, though i always look for something different during this fasting month in the hotels. and i did find something different at singgahsana - bakso - and it tasted not bad at all. rabbani who performed during the dinner was excellent as usual and they never failed to impress me. they organised a few simple karaoke contests for the audience and the brave contestants were made to sing raya songs. they were certainly not af material but the audience loved them.

maybe that's why singgahsana is always full during ramadhan.

brain brain

2005-10-11T16:48:00.000+08:00

hahaha...that's a direct translation of otak-otak. for those who don't know that's a delicacy in johor. physically, it looks like small red minced meat, folded nicely inside a coconut leaf and grilled to perfection. it tastes like heaven and you can eat as a snack or with rice. my record was 20 of otak-otak while watching the first concert of af2 at bangsar last year.

frankly, i don't even know what's the actual ingredient. someone told me that it's made of fish and some vege, but it doesn't really matter. i had loads of them when i broke fast in jb last night. maybe because it's johor, they tasted much better than i've tried in kl.

look where you go

2005-10-09T23:42:00.000+08:00

i should never forget that aged advice. a very simple advice but with a serious repercussion if not heeded. i learned the lesson the hard way when i fell into a four foot drain near the surau tonight. it was dark and i was looking for adi. when i saw him, i just walked straight to him and the next thing i knew i was in the drain and my legs were very painful.

i sprained my right ankle and had a deep cut on my left leg, apart from other minor cuts. a few neighbours saw and picked me up, and though they offered me a lift home, i declined politely and prefered to walk home. once i reached home, i cleaned the cuts and put 5 plasters. i'm supposed to go to jb tomorrow for a meeting but i don't think that i'm fit for a long drive. so i messaged to partiban to accompany me for the trip.

oh well, it's been quite a long time since the last time i had such an accident and it's a good reminder for me to be more careful next time, even for a simple thing like taking a step forward. now, i feel like dr house....where's the cane?

ikan bakar, anyone?

2005-10-09T19:43:00.000+08:00

the last time i barbequed was like 20 years ago when my parents always prepared something special over the weekend whenever my sister and i returned to hometown from our boarding schools. usually my dad would bring out the old "dapur tungku" (you know, the clay pot with a small hole below). it's especially designed to be used with charcoal. anyway, i don't think you can find that sold anymore.

so, suddenly today i had the urge to grill fish for break fast. no grill? no problem, i drove to the pertonas station nearby and bought a bottle of lubricant oil and walla, now i have a grill. next stop was the sundry shop to get some charcoal and i bought 2kg for rm2. the fishes were already in the fridge and marinated this morning.

the first task was to assemble the grill. it took me about 5 minutes to understand the pictorial instructions and after nearly 25 minutes, the grill was ready. i took it to the backyard and started to burn the charcoal. i knew that to start the fire had always been the challenging part because charcoal was not that easy to burn. then, i used to hate when my dad told me to start the fire because it could be so frustrating (then my sister would laugh at me - "cakap awak tu scout" - yeah, scouts are supposed to know to light up fire but hey, we don't use charcoal la, but mini gas kitchen).

i used newspapers, a few douses of gasoline, and a lot fanning before it started burning. that's after nearly 20 minutes. after much effort and more fanning (adi helped me too), the charcoal burnt nicely. so i put two fishes (terubok and kembung) on the grill and just made sure that the fire was neither too small or too big. since they were folded with aluminium foil, it took some time for the fishes to be ready, i think nearly half an hour.

the fishes came out nice, though the skin kind of stuck to the aluminium foil (i have to learn how to prevent that). it might not taste like ikan bakar at tang lin, but i must say that it wasn't that far too. so, ikan bakar, anyone?

roti, serunding & sup ekor

2005-10-08T07:47:00.000+08:00

4 slices of bread, a handful of serunding and a bowl of sup ekor. that's what i had to break fast last night. didn't really know what to eat after two nights in a row of roti nan and tandoori chicken. shikin gave me the sample of serunding given by a supplier, so decided i should give it a try.

stopped by at a sundry shop to buy the bread before i went to gazebo at subang jaya. it was 6.15pm but there weren't many people there. perfect, coz' i don't really like crowded place to eat (although people said it's a good sign of good food). ordered a bowl of sup ekor and teh tarik, and read the malay mail while waiting for the azan.

although there was a variety of food at the gazebo, i managed to resist the temptation and hold on to my resolution (refer to malaysian food fest posting). initially thought the bread, serunding and soup weren't enough (and my mind started to think of the char kue teow sold at a stall nearby), but actually they were. so far, i managed to control my craving and consider it as a personal achievement. hmm....if this continues, maybe i would be able to wear my old 501.

as for the serunding, it passed....

the fly guy is back

2005-10-06T11:29:00.000+08:00

my favourite radio deejay sufian mokhtar a.k.a fly guy is back in the air with fly fm (95.8 in klang valley/fly fm). i've been listening to him and enjoyed his antics since his days in thr. then, thr was the 'in' radio station that changed the whole concept of modern radio stations in the country.

later he moved to hitz fm and with little kev, they rocked the station every morning and i never missed listening to them. alas, they split from the station some time back and went into hiatus. since they're gone, i've also stopped listening to hitz

hence, i'm glad to know that he's back with fly fm, a radio station owned by media prima (which also owns tv3, 8tv and nstp group). i'm not so sure whether the station was named after him but in terms of marketing, his name surely sells, and that's needed in this fierce competition among radio stations to get their listeners. anyway, it was up since 3 october and i've been listening to this station ever since.

for unknown reasons (for a non-technical dude like me), i find that the reception of fly fm is much clearer compared to other radio stations. maybe it has something to do with the transmission technology. anyway, welcome back fly guy.

malaysian food fest

2005-10-06T01:37:00.000+08:00

although ramadhan is actually a fasting month, unfortunately it's also associated with food and lots of food in malaysia (this month in fact should be declared as the official malaysian food fest). the day long of fasting seems to justify many of us to gobble up as much food as possible when it's time to break fast.

not helping shaping up this misconception are the hotels, and pasar ramadhans which offer a variety of food and often, during this month, we'd be able to buy food that they don't normally sell in the weekly pasar malams. simple reason is that half of traders at pasar ramadhans are part timers wanting to make extra money, and they sell food that are normally served for their own families. since they are amateurs who don't really apply the concept of maximisation of profit, their food is always more delicious compared to the regular traders because they'll prepare the food like they normally do for their own with all the ingredients and extras that the regular traders will do without (i've experienced too many times buying kue teow kerang but had to go through heaps of taugeh and burnt kuew teow before i could even find a kerang - you know what i mean).

i thought the pasar ramadhan wouldn't have started on the first day of ramadhan but boy, i was wrong. i went to ttdi to break fast and saw traffic jam in front of the ibm tower and saw throngs of people crossing the street carrying plastic bags full of packed food and i knew that a pasar ramadhan was near by. so i parked my car and followed the crowd to behind a row of shophouses and true enough, besides the ttdi wet market, there were nearly 50 stalls selling all sort of food for break fast.

the air was thick with smoke from ayam percik, satay, murtabak, roti john, samosa and lots of others. the place was packed and i believe half of the visitors there were non-fasting folks (including a few mat sallehs) who took the opportunity to sample the variety of food there. i could see queues as long as between 15 to 20 people at a few stalls selling murtabak and ayam percik (they must be good to be able to command such queues).

pasar ramadhan is also a good place to run into old friends and celebraties. i met din tv3 there and i also saw ajai the singer/composer buying murtabak with his few friends (his wife nurul was nowhere to be seen). they said, if you want to see more celebraties, check out pasar ramadhan at bangsar. maybe i'll do just that.

i made 2 rounds and bought a box of kurma - my favourite is kurma bam from iran. i didn't buy anything else although the ayam percik and roti john looked so delicious. that's because i've made a resolution this year not to gobble up when break fast and eat just enough to fill up the empty stomach. no more than that.

i know it's going to be tough considering that i already have seven break fast events with clients lined up as of yesterday. there will be more coming and since most will be held in hotels, the temptation to eat more than you need will be great. you see, these hotels charge between rm40 to rm70 for the buffet and being cost conscious, i often have the opinion that i should eat worth the money. as a result, i would be eating a lot (thinking "have i reached rm50?" while having my fourth helping or "maybe i should eat worth rm100, that's a good consumer" and continue with my sixth helping). well, this time i'm determined to avoid that trap.

after checking out the pasar ramadhan, i went to the lotus restaurant across the street and ordered one roti nan and one tandoori chicken, and 2 glasses of teh tarik. that's despite of a huge spread of briyani with my favourite honey chicken and mutton curry at the entrance of the restaurant. anyway, that's all i had and i think that's not a bad start to kick off my resolution.

so, here to another 29 more days.

swimming with the sharks

2005-10-05T10:18:00.000+08:00

of late, i feel very bored with my life. lack of excitement, very mundane and work is very routine that i felt i could do all the work with my eyes closed. then i received this e-mail today from an old friend (you know, those forwarded e-mails) and it really struck me. so, i wish to place it here so that whenever i feel low, hopefully by reading this mail it will rujuvenate me.

******************************

Something to share with you guys. It's called Fresh fish and Staying
Fresh!!!

The Japanese have always loved fresh fish. But the waters close to Japan have not held many fish for decades. So to feed the Japanese population, fishing boats got bigger and went further than ever. The further the fishermen went, the longer it took to bring in the fish.

If the return trip took more than a few days, the fish would not be fresh. The Japanese did not like the taste. To solve this problem, fishing companies installed freezers on their boats. They would catch the fish and freeze them at sea. Freezers allowed the boats to go farther and stay
longer.

However, the Japanese could taste the difference between fresh and frozen and they did not like frozen fish. The frozen fish brought a lower price. So fishing companies installed fish tanks. They would catch the fish and stuff them in the tanks. After a little thrashing around, the fish stopped moving. They were tired and dull, but alive.

Unfortunately, the Japanese could still taste the difference. Because the fish did not move for days, they lost their fresh-fish taste. The Japanese preferred the lively taste of fresh fish, not sluggish fish.

So how did Japanese fishing companies solve this problem? How do they get fresh-tasting fish to Japan? If you were consulting the fish industry, what would you recommend?

As soon as you reach your goals, such as finding a wonderful mate, starting a successful company, paying off your debts or whatever, you might lose your passion. You don't need to work so hard so you relax.You experience the same problem as lottery winners who waste their money, wealthy heirs who never grow up and bored homemakers who get addicted to prescription drugs.

Like the Japanese fish problem, the best solution is simple. It was observed by L. Ron Hubbard in the early 1950's. "Man thrives, oddly enough, only in the presence of a challenging environment."- L. Ron Hubbard, The Benefits of a Challenge: The more intelligent, persistent and competent you are, the more you enjoy a good problem. If your challenges are of the correct size, and if you are steadily conquering those challenges, you are happy. You think of your challenges and get energized. You are excited to try new solutions. You have fun. You are alive!

How Japanese Fish Stay Fresh:

To keep the fish tasting fresh, the Japanese fishing companies still put the fish in the tanks. But now they add a small shark to each tank.The shark eats a few fish, but most of the fish arrive in a very lively state. The fish are challenged.

Recommendations:

Instead of avoiding challenges, jump into them. Beat the heck out of them. Enjoy the game. If your challenges are too large or too numerous, do not give up. Failing makes you tired. Instead, reorganize. Find more determination, more knowledge, more help.

If you have met your goals, set some bigger goals. Once you meet your personal or family needs, move onto goals for your group, the society, even mankind. Don't create success and lie in it. You have resources, skills and abilities to make a difference."

So, put a shark in your tank and see how far you can really go!

what goes around, comes around

2005-10-05T02:59:00.000+08:00

last night i had dinner with two old good buddies from my previous company - albert and razali. razali was my fomer boss, while albert was my colleague. the last time we met actually during ramadhan last year, and every time we met i'm happy to note life has been treating us better and better.

that was a far cry when we were working together. actually it wasn't that bad as we formed a very strong team but things took a twist when razali was viewed as a threat by certain quarters in the company that when the opportunity came, the team was torn apart to bring him down. albert had the worst - humiliated, dignity shredded into pieces and asked to leave immediately. i was threatened and razali had his arm twisted that he could only helplessly watch his team destroyed. i left a few months after that as i could not see myself working there anymore with confidence. razali suffered much longer there and left after securing another job.

but we stood by our principles and gave support to each other all the while. albert fought his case and after nearly five years, the company backed down and acknowledged their wrongdoings and paid him compensation. although the money may not be as much, but the moral win is far more important for three of us. it shows that we're victimised and has been right all this while.

as albert pointed out last night, there was a silver lining behind the bitter episode. he was out of work for two months, but eventually had his own business and doing very well at the moment. razali became a ceo of a company and his usual trademark of hard work and diligent has gained huge trust from his boss that now he's been assigned to manage another company (how i wish he has a better love life). i did quite alright too, something i don't think i could achieve if i had stayed with the previous company.

and let's see what happened to them. the conspirors were all kicked out a year after the incident. the company got their money cheated by a few people who came in after we left and business has been slow. a few who deserted us during the bad times, i heard, are still working there miserably. they were moved from one department to another, and some were even degraded.

oh well, life is full of challenges and i really wanted to put it behind as one of the bitter lessons that i learn in life. eventually, everything turned out good and i'm very happy, especially for my two good buddies - albert and razali. my toast for them.

welcome board

2005-10-03T12:04:00.000+08:00

welcome board, shikin (or nora though i prefer shikin coz nora has always been nora hr). shikin was from the group hq, replacing irmy and started work today. she was seconded to me for six months from last december, that when irmy tendered her resignation, i didn't think twice to request jo, her boss, to have her transfered here.

i think it's a good decision since i'm just too lazy to go through all the hassle of recruiting new staff which could have taken a few months and i have like tons of programmes in between. it's better to have her since she was attached here for six months, and more or less knows quite well the operations of the company. so, she wouldn't need much training. and i think she likes to be here as i got the impresion that she's not that happy in the previous position.

i was pretty lenient during her secondment here. so, she could expect some real work from me, now. but i think she's going to fit her well though i'm not so sure that she could fill in irmy's shoes. maybe she has different strengths.

anyway, let's hope the best to make the department better.

taming the cobra

2005-09-30T12:45:00.000+08:00

i always have this high respect for the palm course (or better known as the cobra) of saujana subang golf club. it's the course for malaysian open and known to be one of thoughest golf courses in the country, with green speed between 11 and 13 that could just break your heart into pieces. i've played there about 5 times and my best score was just 91.

thus, when entered the final of apag tournament yesterday and given the handicap of 11 with strokeplay as the mode of game, i told jason (from apag) "sai la" (i'm dead). a few buddies who i knew playing to 10 and 12 handicap, were given 15 and 20 handicap and told them that they'll surely emerged top 10.

but the surprise was on me when i was really in the zone and collected 2 birdies and strings of pars with a few bogeys and double bogeys, returned with an impressive 79. it must be because of my buggy partner, allan, who played very good (he's a member of the club) that i just had to follow him. the caddy, rizal, was good too with precise reading of yardage and the lines on the green. unbelievable! the best part was that i, allan and another regular apag golfer barry had to go for a play-off to determine the gross champion when the three of us tied the score. unfortunately, i lost and allan emerged champion.

oh well, it doesn't really matter coz i didn't expect to be in that position. the most important is i managed to tame the cobra and earn respects from other players. i won 4th place and won an ashworth golf bag and purefit driver. din from tv3 grabbed the bag for rm200 and i'm still thinking on how to dispose the driver.

i continued to play another 18 holes in the evening at monterez (failed to repeat my wonderful performance, returned with 91 and lost rm70 to hazran - maybe just too tired or all the good shots were used up in the tournament) and just after 9pm, received so many messages from friends saying that i came out on buletin utama receiving the prize. even when i came to office this morning, several staff who saw buletin utama last night also congratulated me. haiyah, this must be pekan's doing (he played too but under guest category) and there goes my chance to cari makan on the golf course. now the whole world knows, everybody will be asking for strokes from me now....ouch!

as i fell asleep last night, i wondered if i could repeat the feat again at the cobra, what a day. funny thing is that i dreamt of playing the cobra again last night. too much golf, i think....

iced water and mawi

2005-09-26T22:46:00.000+08:00

once in a while, i'll just unmasked myself and let myself loose. that's what i did when i went to the company's staff outing at the fraser hill over the weekend. it was fun and i believed all the staff really enjoyed themselves.

with the brand new kia, i drove up to fraser hill alone. reached there around 3pm and played golf 9 holes with a pensioner and his wife. it was a walking course and pretty short.

done, i drove up to silverpark, nearly 5.30pm and i was told by the committee members that everybody was at the tennis court for telematch games. went there with other managers and from far i could hear nearly 300 shouts and cheerings in the midst of the telematch games.

the managers were put together in group nana and being sporting, we just played along with the staff. i entered this "masuk air dalam botol" game, only this time, you had to put the bottle on your head. so, you couldn't escape from getting yourself wet (oh well, that's the whole idea of fun).

but what they didn't tell you was that the water used was very cold since they put chunks of ice cubes in the pail. i didn't realise that until azman start squeezing the sponge and iced water dripped all over my head and wet my t-shirt, and even my pants. iced water plus cold wind, i started to shiver. of course, half way through it was my turn to squeezed the water with the sponge into the bottle. at that time, zaki took a few ice cubes and put them into azman's t-shirt. it was hillarious as everybody was cheering for their teams.

of course we had our revenge by splashing water to whoever we felt deserved to be wet (i got fauziah, polly, aris and zaki). the committee members did not escape from getting themselves wet too. the whole telematch became havoc when water balloons started to fly around and everybody were trying to get everybody else wet. it only stopped when we ran out of balloons and everybody was too tired to chase each other. the managers were really nuts.

we had barbeque dinner that night and the live band was great. the "friends" did not disappoint us with a good sellection of songs and believed it or not, i was made to sing aduh saleha with fuad and shamsul. i've heard that song many times but could never really figured out the lyrics. luckily the band prepared the lyrics and we just sang along. sorry mawi, i think i really screwed up your song :). the show ended nearly 12.30am and a group of us adjourned to the karaoke room. listened to a few songs, i went back to my apartment to sleep.

next morning we had treasure hunt. man, it was really tough. we were made to walk the whole silverpark, up and down to every nooks and corners, and we really had to knock our heads to figure out the clues and answers. by the time we finished the hunt, i was so physically and mentally exhausted that i slept on the table while waiting for my team to submit the questionaires and the treasure to the treasure hunt committee members. but it wasn't that bad. out of 27 teams, our team emerged 4th and i went home with a sling bag.

i left fraser hill at 4pm and reached home at 7pm. changed my clothes and i was knocked down by 9pm. what a weekend.

the national joke

2005-09-26T21:02:00.000+08:00

as predicted, daniel won the malaysian idol and at the same time created a national joke! distasteful i may be, but i did not vote and i believe many thousands of others who believed that nita was the deserving winner, did not vote too. so, the "oh-he's-so-cute" daniel took home the title.

if that's what the malaysians want, who am i to argue. let's just see how he fares in the industry. if i were him, i'll stick with the pop-canto market.

Goodbye, old friend

2005-09-22T22:38:00.000+08:00

today i bid farewell to my loyal friend of nearly 10 years. that's my red iswara aeroback. yup, the old faithful has served me well but current needs require me to make the change and we have to move on.

and that before i gave him a fitting farewell with a fresh coat of paint and some repairs and part replacements so whoever his next owner, would be happy to have him and take a good care of him.

it's my first car, about a year after i started my career. acw 3006, that's the number. it has travelled far, all over the country except kelantan, terengganu, sabah and sarawak. occassionally, he had his own shares of coughs and flus, but he stood by me good or bad. when my friends keep on changing their cars, i remained faithful to him as i could not find any valid reasons to leave him.

alas, now we have to part our ways. so, here's a toast for him. adios, my friend. may you continue to serve for many more years.

and welcome to the new kia spectra. i hope our relationship will be as good and lasting as the iswara.

got squirrelled

2005-09-20T13:41:00.000+08:00

when i registered for the squirrell hill international tournament yesterday and found out that they gave me 13 handicap, i said there goes my chance to quaify for the finals. 16 is just nice but 13 is tough. my flight members were azman (9), iqbal (14) and yusof (12). iqbal's strength was incredible. he used 8 iron for distance that i used with 6 iron. his driving is consistently 50 meters ahead of me. but unfortunately, playing in monterez requires good golf management, more than just sheer strengh. that's how azman capitalised and qualfiied for the final after returning with 3 under.

as for yours truly, i could have qualified too if not because of some silly mistakes at par 3s and hole no 10 where i double bogeyed after the first ball went ob. i returned with even par and personally it's not bad. nevertheless, i look forward for the finals of rgt apag at saujana subang on 29th.

you don't know what you got til it's gone

2005-09-19T22:39:00.000+08:00

the title of the song (wish i could remember the name of the 80's rock band that sang the song) is a reflection of my feelings when i entered the office this morning and saw the empty cubicle where irmy used to seat. she's always the first person i see whenever i entered the office coz' her cubicle is in full view from the entrance and it's also just outside my room.

i knew her decision to leave weeks ago and thought i was mentally prepared but nope, the reality only sunk in today. used to call out her name almost every hour whenever i needed her even for a friction of information such as a staff's extension number (shows how lazy i am) but now no more.

well, life has to move on.

malaysian idol

2005-09-19T05:30:00.000+08:00

i don't know why did i torture myself to watch this crap last night. maybe the curiosity took the better side of me and that i forced myself to watch whether the malaysian idol fans were really as idiot as some of my friends claimed to be. true enough, they were really idiots when they booted farah and the no-can-sing daniel made it to the finals.

what else can i say? the voters have spoken and they have chosen to mock the malaysian idol. i really hope that daniel wins the finals and the whole episode of malaysian idol 2005 will be a national joke. anyway, i won't be bothered to watch the finals and i really couldn't help chuckling whenever i listened the finals promo on the radio.

anugerah era '05

2005-09-18T23:20:00.000+08:00

didn't plan to watch ae05 that night. in fact, i wanted to skip it coz' i'm so sick of watching those era deejays perasan and often went overboard in the previous ae. so, i was on my way home from giant when i listened to the live telecast via radio and it sounded very interesting. so, i sped home but missed sharifah zarina's superb performance that i heard over the radio.

overall ae05 was good simply because the awards presenters keep the their conversations short, no babling about their upcoming movies or albums but strict to the business. and the deejays took the backseat role by doing all the introduction or promotion from a makeshift radio conty and also with a very tight script. the emcees - aznil and linda - were superb as they were able to hold the audience with their antics. saiful apek's digi promotions were hilarious and whoever behind those ideas were really creative and i salute them.

but of course, they should sack the sound people for the audio problems that spoiled some of the performances that night. pity nash who really put up a very brave effort despite the malfuntioned microphones. siti was excellent as always that i almost yawned but i take my hats off for ahli fiqir for that really colourful and cool performance.

as for the results, nothing really surprised me as they were made by voters so i let's just not get into details. did i forget to mention mawi? :)

carpe diem, irmy

2005-09-17T23:12:00.000+08:00

yesterday was irmy's (who i fondly call amy) last day at work. kekadang macam tak percaya that it was her last day. i mean when i took her in three and a half years ago, she was like zero on the stuff that we're doing here. terfikir jugak, does this girl know what she's getting into? anyway, i took her in and i'm glad after those years, she's very much improved and i'm so proud of her.

she cried a lot towards the end of the day as she bid farewell to everybody in the office. she even cried in front of me, and i pun dah kira syahdu jugak. i shouldn't as i was the one who recommended her to my friend who was looking for an executive. i know that with the pay she's earning here, it would be years before she could equal the one offered by the new company. although i personally quite disappointed that the pay offered was not as high as i expected (you should have bargained, girl) but it's definitely better. besides higher pay, she's going to swim in a bigger pond and have her career developed further. and it's a five day a week job. good for her.

anyway, after all the farewell and crying, we went to red box pyramid for the party. besides the team, i told her to invite anyone she likes from the office and quite a number came. although only fuad and afendi who really could sing (the rest were hopeless, including yours truly), we still had a good time and at least half of us qualified for perosak lagu award and could stand side by side with daniel of malaysian idol. like irmy said, it took three guys to sing seroja (with off-key) when mawi could handle it alone easily.

i gave her a blue kain batik that i bought in surabaya recently. hopefully she could make a baju kurung or kebaya with it and stop wearing her sister's. the team gave her a handbag and purse. hani got creative with star war's poster with the team's pictures on it.

the only thing that i felt terkilan is i didn't get the chance to know her personally. as a boss, i always try to limit my relationship with my staff - just for business. not that i don't want to know them well personally, but i find it hard to cross from one zone to another while maintaining the ethics. maybe i should learn more on this. i'm surprised that on her last day, she told me that she actually is afraid of me. yes, i'm strict when it comes to work but as long as you deliver and always keep me informed on he progress be it good or bad, i'm nothing to be afraid of. but really, i never thought of that, in fact i think i'm overly protective over her. maybe that led to that impression.

so irmy, all the best to you. i have a lot of fond memories of you but one of the best is when i and a few other guys threw you into the pool in pd last year....hahaha. that was really funny and i really couldn't believe myself that i could do that - you know me, mr cool-in front-of-staff. i shall cherish all the memories close to my heart.

i know you can do it at the new place. it's gonna be a challenge i know, but life will be dull without challenges. i always believe in you, and don't stop chasing your dreams (and finish that masters) and i'm gonna miss you a lot. should you need me, you know where to find me and i'll be there. carpe diem, girl.

Welcome To My Space

2005-09-15T14:17:00.000+08:00

Welcome to my space! I wish to mark this day as the birth of my own blog space. More to come!