Thursday, July 26, 2007

Congratulations to Sdr Miga

I would like to congratulate Sdr Miga (Mohd Shah '92) on his posting at the Matrade office in Taipei.

Also, congratulations on his Pingat Jasa Kebaktian (PJK) which was conferred during the recent Hari Keputeraan TYT Pulau Pinang. The state government of Penang has surely appreciated Miga's contribution to the state during his posting as the Pengarah Matrade, Penang.

Tahlil.. Class of '92

We had a tahlil last nght at the MCOBA penthouse for our recently departed batchmate, Allayarham Sdr Ismadi Ismail (a.k.a BG) and also for other 2 batch mates, both by the name of Syukri who passed away about 5 years ago. Considering that it was in the middle of the week and with KL experiencing a very heavy downpour during the rush hour, 23 members of class of '92 came for the tahlil. There were of course the many "usual suspects" (read: faces who turned up at batch activities, namely annual buka puasa ) but the presence of those like Shahrul Azmin (Ella), Rizal Hafiz (Bunt) makes the event a mini reunion of sort. We actually had four doctors at HUKM during the tahlil (Bai, Wak Keppel, Webb and Ella) and a lot of questions were asked with regards about "health", heheh.

As usual, although in the email the tahlil was suppose to start after the maghrib prayers, it started more towards Isyak. Bunt, being the most "pious" among the lot (though Peejoun look more the part that night:) led the Yaasin recital and the tahlil. Dinner was served immediately after that and all of us took the time to catch up on each other's life.

Monday, July 16, 2007

Innalillah.... The Passing of Ismadi Ismail.. Ahmad House '92

Late on saturday, I received an SMS from one of my batchmate which read :

"Askm Brothers, to inform that our friend Ismadi a.k.a BG passed away peacefully on wed night due to cancer (confirm by MPOB friend). Alfatihah for arwah"

It was indeed a shocking news as none of us knew that he had cancer.

Alfatihah.

Thursday, July 12, 2007

Amin Shah Booted From Bolton's BOD

Taken from The Malaysian Reserve (Thu, July 12 07)

"The majority of shareholders of property developer Bolton Bhd have voted against Tan Sri Amin Shah Omar Shah remaining a board member of the company. Chairman Datuk Mohamed Azman Yahya said 68% of the shareholders, reprsenting more than 140 million owners of the company sharesm decided to vote against the re-eletion of Amin Shah"

Among the bone of contentention mentioned in the news is the dissatisfaction over the lack of commitment of Amin Shah, by virtue of his poor attendance to the board meeting. With an almost 22% stake in the company, he is the single largest individual shareholder of the company.

Without any more representation on the board, one wonders whether he will still retain the stake.

At the Movies : Harry Potter

The latest installment from the Harry Potter movie is actually the fifth one. To be honest, I have only watched the first Harry Potter at the movies but since Honey Dearest is a great fan, we went to watch it at GCS One Utama during the first day of screening last night.

Having only watched the first one, its amazing to see how the three main characters of the movie has grown up. The first Harry Potter, with its first day of school atmosphere and the different sport houses really reminded me of the prep school years in MCKK. Therefore, if I were to equate the fifth movie, it would seemed like the senior years in school, with lots of angst and displeasure with the authority.

Of course, no magic involved :)

Tuesday, July 10, 2007

Bye Bye Malaysia

No, I am not leaving Malaysia to migrate to some place down under or any part of the world for that matter. I love the country too much to even consider such thoughts. I have spent 5 years living abroad and at the end of the day, there is no place like home.

To quote NST today (July 10, 2007)

106,000 Malaysians emigrated between 1996 and 2007

Home Affairs Ministry statistics showed that from 1996 to April this year, 106,000 Malaysians have given up their citizenship. Of these, 79,199 were Malays; 25,107 Chinese, 1,347 Indians and 350 of other races.Deputy Home Affairs Minister Datuk Tan Chai Ho said that more women than men were emigrating, with marriage being cited as the most common reason by these women.

The number is indeed staggering. Of course, there are many reasons for people to emigrate; economical and personal to be among the common reason. During the economic downturn before the 1997 crisis (circa 1985) a few of my primary school friends migrated to Australia with their family. Of course, when you are in std four, your can't really fathom the significance of such act.

I sometime gets a bit worked up when people complain about how bad the country is and how it going down the drain, etc. Granted, Malaysia has its fault and downside but to those people, I ask them about what they do make it better.

Wednesday, July 04, 2007

TJ... again ?

My Volvo S70 2.5 SE (it actually belongs to the bank, heheh) has a name.

TJ.

That stands for Tok Janggut. We had this thread in the VOCM forum about whether do we have a name for our ride, so for me, TJ it is. Tok Janggut, the Kelantan warrior, not TJ Hooker, the TV series.

Anyway, last month, TJ went to a very major repair job and left me with a RM2.5k dent in my wallet.

Today, TJ is at the aircon workshop and was told that either I change the whole compressor for RM1.6k or just the clutch for RM600.

With the kind of weather we have lately, I really need the aircon...

...aaarrghhhh...

what expenses can I cut ?

Tuesday, July 03, 2007

Weekend in Kota Bharu

Once again, courtesy of Mr Fernandez's low cost carrier, Honey Dearest and I got ourself onto the spanking new Air Asia A330 en route to Kota Bharu, for the princely sum of RM1.99 One way (excluding tax etc).

Eversince Star Shuttle started its service from Subang Parade to LCC-T, vice versa, it has been relatively easier to get on the Air Asia. We took the 11.30am bus and arrived around 12.20pm at the terminal. The plane took off on time and it was quite full. As usual, Honey Dearest and I would get the Nasi Lemak Pak Nasir sold by Air Asia and although RM7 can get us several plates of Nasi Lemak on the ground, this particular Nasi Lemak is quite good!

Nadzmy picked us up at the airport. Its amazing how time flies by.. I still remember him after his PMR result, eager to get into a boarding school (specifically, MCKK) and he ended up in SHAH, Pekan for about a week. He was so homesick that the water tower next to the school even reminded him of home! Anyway, he did quite well in Ahmad Maher, KB and is about to graduate from Universiti Tun Hussin Onn.

After the customary "bertukar khabar" with my grandparents and aunties, Honey Dearest and I took a leisurely drive to Pantai Cahaya Bulan. Since it was a friday, traffic was quite heavy (in the KB sense la:). What we like about PCB is the various types of battered deep fried seafood on skewer. Fish ball, prawn, squid... all battered and eaten with a chilli dip.

The following day, right after breakfast, we drove to town. OK, despite being one half Kelantanese, I hardly venture into KB town unless its really neccesary. This is because most of the time, we would be back in KB during the Hari Raya and this is possibly the worst of time to drive into KB. Anyway, we parked our car near the Pasar Siti Khadijah and wow, has things really changed! Honey Dearest bought a very nice batik material from one of the vendors and would have love to venture more except that our flight back is at 5.00 pm on the same day.

Don't worry baby... nanti kita balik for buka puasa during the fasting month.. :)

Monday, July 02, 2007