Let's All Work Together

No matter how much stimulus package is made available, it will not amount to anything if the execution is flawed and the benefit does not flow to the every day man on the street.

Not a criticism per se, just a friendly reminder to improve

I had quite a full day yesterday, running all over Shah Alam for banking (personal and company) and some initial market intelligence gathering (when times are like this, we just have to resort to creative ways to push our products, right?). Lunch was definitely something I was looking forward to, and I decided to try the Sate Ria outlet at the Risda building, a block away from Concorde Shah Alam.

I am sure some of you may recall SateRia from the early eighties. My memories of it is that of my parents taking me there after shopping at Jalan TAR and they served this two-stick gigantic satay which taste quite good too. It was suppose to be an effort to commercialize satay (these are the pre-Samuri days, but another great satay place at the time was at Sg Wang Plaza - Satay Anika) but unfortunately, the venture fizzled out and SateRia is no more.

The Sate Ria in Shah Alam is apparently the first outlet for the new Sate Ria franchaise. The last I check I did on the Malaysian Franchaise Association forum indicates that they are awating approval from the Registrar of Frainchaise (didnt know we have such body) and I assume the Shah Alam outlet is their Master Franchaiser's outlet. The logo is still the same and it is with that that I made my way enthusiastically to the outlet. Would they still have the gigantic two-stick satay.

Turns out that they don't. Before I elaborate further, let me run you through this simple timeline.

1300 hrs Enter Sate Ria
13o5 hrs A menu was handed to me and my order taken
1308 hrs A glass of "air suam" was served (a std fare)
1315 hrs My Ice Lemon tea was delivered
1335 hrs My plate of condiments (Nasi Himpit+bawang+timun) delivered. No explaination on
why my satay has not arrived
1352 hrs Manager apologized for the delay
1353 hrs My plate of satay (all ten sticks of it) delivered

It took them 50 minutes to have 10 sticks of satay delivered. Lets analyze the crowd. When I entered, there are two tables occupied. One table was occupied by two gentlemen who were wating for their food (since thay have their air bandung on the table) and the other table, a big group of ten people who were probably celebrating something. When I entered, the server was taking order from them. At that time too, the staff in the premises were as follows: 1 server, 1 cook, 1 kicthen helper and 1 cleaner. I do believe the lunch time rush starts at 12.30pm onwards right?

Besides their main menu of satay, they also serve items such as Laksa and various gravied noodle (I guess in line with their franchaise theme, cooking on site is kept to minimal). It shouldn't take long to serve e.g. laksa right ? I am sure you already have the gravy being heated all the time and all you need to do is to put together the rest of the ingredients in the bowl ? The large group of ten orderd both the satay and some noodles. I am sure even if all ten orders various types of noodle, it can all be delivered, latest by 1320 hrs ? It was not to be as even when my satay was served, bowls of noodles are still being delivered to the group. One reason given for the delay in my satay is the group of ten orders a big number of satay (by now, even the customer who came in after me were a bit annoyed). Assuming each of them ordered 10 sticks, thats only 100 sticks and being a SATAY restaurant, I am sure it can be easily fulfilled. By 1340 hrs, additional staff appeared but why would you have additional staff at the tail-end of your rush hour?

The satay is GOOD and that is something they should be proud of. Pure chicken meat, not "additives" etc (read:lemak and kulit).

I guess, I would really like to see them improve on the service. I would definitely come back for the satay but they really, really need to do something operationally.

Organic Food

Our new organic food division logo

The Bangkok Trip

I left for Bangkok last thursday for a meeting with our partner Kamol and a very lucrative potential business partner who is also flying in from KL to meet up with Kamol. Our first meeting was in KL sometime in December and this time, he would like to meet up with us in Bangkok to assess our operational capabilities before proceeding to the next step.

My flight was the first flight out to Bangkok on Air Asia, AK880 departing at 7.50am. Ayah has his routine IJN check up on that day, so Kak Ngah took the day off and followed him. So, early thursday morning at around 5.50am, all of us drove to LCCT to drop me off while ayah send Mak to her office before proceeding to IJN with K Ngah. Boarding time was at 7.20am and by the time I checked in, it was already 6.45am, so I decided to enter the departure hall and perform my Subuh prayer at the surau inside.

Th flight was 3/4 full, but I still managed to "conquer" three seats to myself, heheh... As usual, I will have the Pak Nasir Nasi Lemak for breakfast (which I never failed to do whenever I am on Air Asia but I do feel that the taste is not the same as before). The flight arrived on time at 8.50am Bangkok time and since there were only a handful of flight that morning, Immigration was a breeze. Caught the public taxi at Gate 10 and headed off to Baiyoke Suite at Pratunam area. I reached there around 10am but managed to check in (its ayah's "official" hotel for his monthly meeting and golf excursions, hence the early check in privilage and good rates) and I was given the room on the 29th floor. I like this hotel because the last time I was here during the fasting month, they actually prepared "sahur" for me.

I then took a taxi to Kamol's office on Suksavithaya Road (off Silom Soi 9). It was my first visit to the office since they shifted and its actually not bad at all. From there, Kamol and I drove to the airport to pick up our guest who flew in on MAS (well, with RM150 million annual sales, travelling full service airline is not a problem:). While waiting for him, Kamol remarked that tourist seemed to be coming back to Bangkok, judging from the number of people we saw arriving. After around 30minutes waiting, we met Mr C and exchanged pleasentaries. Of course, among my first question to him was about latest development on the Perak state government fiasco.

To save time (Mr C has other appointments too), we arrange for lunch at the office where Kamol's assistant bought some Briyani from the Halal restaurant behind the office. The foodwas not bad at all and after everyone has settled down, it was down to business. The meeting went well and we presented some radical ideas which I am pretty sure Mr C did not expect but he seemed to be considering it. Once our meeting was over, we sent Mr C to his hotel and after that that Kamol sent me back to Baiyoke.

We were supposed to have dinner with Mr C but since he already has some prior engagement, Kamol will have dinner with him tomorrow night as I will be flying back to KL on the 3.10pm flight. After resting for a while (and watching the movie "American Gangster" on HBO), I headed for Al-Maidah Restaurant, a Halal place just behind the hotel. Al-Maidah can a bit pricey but the food is good and the portion is quite huge. After having the Naan and roast chicken, I walked to the nearby 7 Eleven (they seemed to have it at every corner) and bought some drinking water and tid bits. Then, its back to the hotel and a good night sleep.

I woke up just in time to perform the Subuh prayers. Breakfast is at the Sky Lounge on the 43rd floor and view from there is simply marvellous. After breakfast, I decided to walk around the many shops around the hotel area though a lot of them are only started to open. I wish I had more time but well, I am here for work, so I checked out early and headed to the office.

To Sum Up The Week

1. The whole family went back to Melaka during the Chinese New Year break (more details at babychikjournal.blogspot.com). As usual, a lot of thoughts were put to making sure the journey will not be spent too much on the road and indeed the journey was really pleasent. Are there less people going back to their home towns or a lot of them are taking advantage of Plus' offer of discount for travelling during off-peak period ?
2. My son reached a very important milestone this week - dah boleh meniarap! He seemed pleased with his newfound abilities and been at it for most of the time!
3. Driving to work on Wednesday-Friday was truly heavenly. Barely any traffic on the road.
4. Met up with an old friend from my primary school days. I haven't met Yong Sean since after the SPM examinations. Even when I was in MCKK, we would meet up during our school break. A lot of catching up took place and since Singapore is just a bus ride away, I could always look him whenever I am next in the Lion City.
5. The online store is on track for launch Feb 1, 2009. Get ready for it :)
6. Also, its time to put something from the past behind.

I am 34 today

I turn 34 today. My wife would be laughing when reading this as I have been telling her that every year my age will be a year less than it actually is :)

Also today is the inaugration of Mr Barack Obama as the 44th President of the United States of America. I remember watching "Are you smarter than a Fifth Grader?" where one of the question is on the inaugration date and it was told that January 20th was the date since 1937.

Physically... me

Its already the second week of 2009, with 50 more weeks to go. 2008 wasn't such a bad year (especially with the birth of the apple of my eyes:) but really hoping for 2009 to be a better one. Good signs are there but with the current economic situation, it will be more challenging than before.

Year in year out, there is always this one thing that will be on top of the list. Lose the pounds, brother. Again, year in and year, not happening as planned :)

I am not in the best of shape, when it comes to fitness. By weight and girth of the tummy, I would be catergorized to have in risk in god-knows how many types of disease, hehe! Not to forget the history of heart problem and hypertension in the family.

Every year I resolved to shed those unwanted (and un-neeeded) pounds and its not because I want to fit into some old Dockers pants (it'll be nice to fit in those, though) but its because I know that the longer I am in this current physical shape, the more risk I am taking with my health. True, ajal maut di tangan Allah but I do want to live long enough to see Amir Haris (and insya Allah, his siblings) grow up and become a Muslim that I would be proud of.

Now, where is that nice Docker Pants that I could fit if I lose another 5kg ? Heheh...

Gaza... are we just sitting here doing nothing ?

Are we?

The scenes on the TV during news everyday really breaks the heart. For innocent children to go through such deathly and traumatic experience is totally unacceptable. Israel is nothing but a war-crazy county hell-bent at obliterating the people of Gaza from their rightful land.

Multi Lingual

At best I am only bilingual : Bahasa Malaysia and English.

Rightfully, I should be able to command three more languages: Arabic, French & Mandarin.

Back in MCKK, we were asked to choose between Japanese and Arabic as our third language. I am not really sure what made me choose Arabic (I do believe I was trying to be more Islamic at that time, hehe) but I did quite well in my first two years. It helped that I had one year of Arabic at the "sekolah agama petang" so in form one, it made me look good ! However, as I moved up form (with SRP being the priority in form 3), I was neglecting the language and when I did took the SRP Arabic Paper in form 4, I was pratically marking the multiple choice answer sheet without actually reading the questions. Rugi tak belajar dulu...

In PPP/ITM, I took French. Yes, the thought of mastering the language of romance was a good enough reason to learn it. It was two semesters of "berbelit lidah" but I had so much fun learning it. Our teacher even gave us frenc name and mine was Jacque. It sounded cool, until I found out that Jacque in France is as common as Ali in Malaysia (No offence to the Alis, ya?) Lack of practice (yea la, kat mana nak pakai French in Malaysia ni ?) slowly diminish whatever proficiency I have in that language. Rugi tak practice...

I started work in 1998 and took my masters a year later. After completing my masters, perhaps due to lack of active social life (read: NO girlfriend), I decided to take the Mandarin class offered by the Language Academy of UiTM. At that time, I have two salesperson under me who are chinese-educated Malays and I thought with them around, I could at last have somebody to practice with. I took three semesters of Mandarin (which means that I am half-way through the Intermediate stage) and I was having a good time surprising some of my suppliers and clients when I spoke to them in simple Mandarin :)

Alas, due to lack of practice (my two salesperson left for greener pastures)... you know how this ends :)

2009

Its the first week of 2009 and with so many gloomy predictions on the economic climate for 2009, one tends to think that things just look almost impossible. A lot of industries has already felt the brunt of the downturn and even my small business is not spared the repurcussion : cargo movement at the port seemed to be slowing down.

In spite of it all, I truly believe that in times of crisis, there is always opportunity available for those who are willing to look hard for it.

Prefect Leadership Programme : MCKK

I have lost count the number of times I have gone back to Kuala Kangsar at the beginning of new year to play a small part in the leadership programme for the school prefects. I was among the first participant when it started in '92. Although there are some old boys who made fun of our effort but hey, this is one way I am giving back to the school, so buzz off :) Its heartening to see a group of young men with so much potential and not afraid to speak their mind.

This year, managed to sneak two golf games during our free time too :) Played a round at Taiping Golf Resort and another one a the KK Golf Club. Unfortunately the course was a bit soggy due to heavy rain during the week.

Outing at Restoran Puteri

We had an outing with the families at Restoran Puteri, TTDI last sunday.

Politics in everything

Malaysians can really incorporate politics into almost any topics.

I was browsing through a well-known local automobile site and the moment I open the reader's comment, lo and behold...

... all sort of comments relating to BN la, UMNO la, PR la, racism la..

... lets just enjoy reading about cars, boleh tak..

Happy Annivessary Honey Dearest :)

Our annivessary this year falls on Aidiladha, so it was a belated dinner for Honey Dearest and Me.

We had dinner at San Francisco Steak House which is like a two minutes drive from our house. It was the first time for both us to be having dinner here and indeed it wonderful. Both of us had steak but it was the dessert that proved to be the piece de resistance... the apple pie a la mode.. I would definitely be back for more

Honey Dearest, it has been a wonderful two years and I look forward for many years to come.

I love you so, so much.

DEDICATED TO THE FOURSOME BEHIND US AT KGPA ON DEC 4, 2008

Yes, this posting is dedicated to you guys. You old f**ts know who you are.

It was suppose to be a nice game of golf for my friend and I at KGPA. I have never played at KGPA, thus was really looking forward to the challenges of the green. Since there were only two of us (and we are expecting rain later in the afternoon), we played at a reasonable pace.

It must have been at the second hole where we notice these old f**ts playing behind us. We kept quite a reasonable distance with our pace and when we teed off at the fourth hole (which is a Par 3), these old f***ts were hitting shots approaching the green of the 3rd hole. My shot was spot on, landing squarely on the far side of the green while my friend had the unfortunately sliced his shot to the right of the green, quite a distance from the green.

While my friend was laying his shot, I managed to two put my ball for a par and waited for my friend to complete his shot. I was standing outside of the green by the tree while my friend's shot landed in the bunker. My phone suddenly rang (it was a call from the office) and I picked up the phone. Suddenly I heard a voice from far:

"Cakap telefon, woi, tak payah main golf la! Gi balik la"

One of the old f**ts shouted from the tee box and another shouted something incomprehensible (these are old f**ts anyway).

We ignored them while my friend finished off his shot as fast as he could.

Wei, old f**ts... "aku dah amik shot aku, and aku answer the phone kat bawah pokok tepi green, bukan kat atas green tu, b****h!"

"Ingatkan main pandai sangat. Yang pakai seluar panjang dgn setokin tutup seluar tu, OB jugak shot... you Org T** C**** ."

Things you would like to say

How things have changed ever since the last GE..

...............................

On this rainy day

Alhamdulillah, things have started to pick up again on the business front.

A new business opportunity presents itself in the form of an untapped captured market (who could have asked for more) and a great source of distribution channel. Obviously it is easy to get giddy over the possibilities but at this juncture, it is very important to not overstretch the already limited resources. With the economic outlook not expected to look rosy for the next few years, this discovery gives a sense of hope and an avenue to ride the economic uncertainty.

Talk about a moment of inspiration... while buying burger at the stall last night, I thought of something that the burger stalls can do with my beef and poultry products. I called the owner and we are meeting this friday where I will show the product concept to him. If thing works out tell, heck, it will be a new product offering at ALL burger stalls ALL over Malaysia... :)

The rain has subsided.

MCOBA Dinner

Long Overdue Posting..

On November 8th 2008, I attended the MCOBA Annual Dinner at the Hotel Istana, Kuala Lumpur. My attendance was truly at the very last moment due to come unforeseen cancellations by my other batch mates.

Adri took the lead by booking a table under our batch and managed to get ten of us in no time. A few of our batch mates who are now big shots in their "kementerian" and "company" attended the dinner under their own table, so it was qute a merry reunion of sorts for the class of 1992. I came to the dinner with Don (who got lost while on the way to my house, my fault for giving faulty directions) and we were greeted by sea of people in the hard-to-miss college striped tie. Batch members at our table were Vyn, James, Bogak, Aca, Ganj, Adri, Sarly and Badak while KE and Reza were seated at the CIMB table.

I do not wish to elaborate on the dinner itself (lest I offend some old boys who worked hard on the performance that night) but it was the after dinner gathering at the Pavillion which was really memorable. Nope, nothing took place that would worry the missus back home. Suffice to say, you guys rock!

The Last Few Hari Raya Open House

I would have missed it if my staff didn't remind me that today one of our biggest client is having their Aidilfitri Open House. Its the same every year, they would have their towards the very end.

The company may be my biggest client but not too long ago, it has something to do with my father and I. You see, not too long ago, we used to be a significant shareholder of the company. How we were removed is a stuff for novel (which one day, I will write) but I guess the point I am trying to put across is that in business, your friends and your enemy can switch in a blink of an eye.

Anyway, I arrived at their new installation facility located across from their current premises. The place has yet to be used so instead of putting up tents like they normally do around their compound, they have all the table and chairs indoors. The place looks good after being spruced up. It used to be a pet food factory but after it was auctioned, the new owner rented the place to the company for their project.

I met a few of the people who were around when I was there. I even bumped into an ex-staff of mine (another lesson in life.. about friends and enemies, the likes) and we chit chatted about the old days and days to come. He's doing rather well and I am happy for him. Perhaps we can work on some projects together.

The Aqiqah

Alhamdulillah, Amir Haris' aqiqah went well on Sunday, 28/10/2008.

It was a very good turnout of family and friends.

Haris slept throughout the Marhaban and Potong Jambul, heheh...

Market Reach

You can sometime be amazed by people around.

Just now, I had a chat with the cleaner who cleans our office and discovered that she could probably get me more market for some of my products as compared to some of my sales force. We sometime tend to overlook the smaller markets where personal relationship counts for everything and how the "local" factor can sometimes tip the balance to your side.

Worth exploring...

More Work Updates

1. I spoke to Kamol (our partner in Bangkok) today and he has some very promising news on the french buyer who will most likely purchase frozen ready-to-eat meal for the French market from our company. Way to go brother!

2. Without compromising who the "impossible client" is, I really wish she would stop insulting my products and not be so high-handed. I could easily refer her to her company's tender committee or even upper management but I do not wish to create trouble for her (though Allah knows how much she has spoilt my days and weekends too). Can't wait for the meeting this week where I will prove her wrong in front of her management (she called for the meeting, not me).

3. Whenever I provide my service to my client, I try to put myself in their shoes and I try to make sure they don't spend more than neccassary. However, it amazed me how some of them would waste money on storage fees; something they could easily avoid if they just provide us with the documentations on time.

Office Updates

1. My clerk went AWOL since after the Eid break. The last I heard from her was a day before Eid where she sent me an SMS (contents shall not be revealed), which among others, stated that her father no longer "allow" her to work at my company. Its her first job and its always difficult when parents interfere (macam kat sekolah pulak). I have been nothing but nice to her but if this is the way she is acting, then, good luck to the new employer.

2. After a week of evaluating, I've decided to get the office new copier from the company who happens to be across the street from our office. To think that I had companies from all over KL coming to submit quotations.

Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri

This year I am celebrating Aidilfitri in my my mum's kampung in Masjid Tanah, Melaka. Lucky for me, Honey Dearest hails from Hutan Percha, which is just 25 minutes away. So, it is quite easy to have celebration on both sides.

This is the first time Honey Dearest and I are celebrating the Eid with our baby Haris. He is exactly three weeks old on 1 Syawal; too bad they don't make Baju Melayu for infant :)

A True Alternative?

I am pretty sure someone will now say it to my face, "Well, you did lament about not having a credible alternative to BN... so, how about now?"

We'll see...

By the way, what's the rush ? Why not the next GE ?

Pics of the Amir Haris

This is the among the first picture of baby Amir Haris just after the Honey Dearest gave birth to him on September 10, 2008 at 8.23am. All 4.32kg of him :)

babychikjournal.blogspot.com

Alhamdulillah... My Little Bundle of Joy @ 8.23am

At exactly 8.23am at SJMC today, my little bundle of joy came into this world, all 4.32kg of him :)

Alhamdulillah.

I will definitely write more.. at the moment, a bit exhausted with all the excitement :)

Smoking

During the last budget presented by our Prime Minister, the tax for cigeratte was increase quite substantially.

Guess what someone said when he was interviewed in one of the dailies regarding the higher cigeratte cost ? He said he will adjust by cutting back on other things!

Like what ? Food ? Shouldn't it be the other way round ?

Down Memory Lane: Ramadan circa 82-87

When I was in Standard One, I only managed ONE full of fasting. It was on a sunday and I remember I was practically on the couch the whole day. The rest of the fasting months were the "buka puasa tutup puasa" regime, where I would fast until noon and self declared that the fast continues after I have taken my lunch, hehehe.

It was only in standard two when I managed to extend it to 26 days of full day fast. The remainder 4 days I did not fast was because I was down with fever. In standard three, it improved to 28 days with two days of fever and finally when I was in standard four, I finally managed to complete one full month of fasting.

These were the days before the bazaar ramadan, so breaking of fast were practically like having early dinner, with some kuihs brought from street vendors who continue to sell at their lot even in Ramadan.

However, what was memorable during this time (especially in my std 5-std 6 years) were the Tarawih prayers. During that time, there was only one mosque for the whole of Subang Jaya (USJ was just a plantation back then) and it is the SS15 mosque. We would perform the Isyak prayer, a few rakaats for the Tarawih and all of us would head to 7 Eleven near the old pasar for Slurpee. Sometimes we would play with fireworks and firecrackers but it was evetually banned when on one fine sunday evening, someone decided to play during the day time and a stray firework landed on a pile of paper at mosque's entrance and caused a small fire.

Our Last Visit

Our visit to Dr Delaila is normally on a saturday but since she was on leave last saturday (being that long Hari Kebangsaan weekend), we decided to schedule our visit for today. As usual, we arrived earlier (or though we did) and by the time we took our number, it was already 8027. Luckily, about 23 of those above us have appointment for other doctors so we were fourth on Dr Delaila's schedule for that day.

After the normal check up and examination, Dr Delaila told us that due to the circumstances prevailing, Honey Dearest has to go through Caeserian Section. We were therefore asked to choose a date by the good doctor and we decided on Sept 10, 2008. 10.09.08... and it will read in his IC as 080910-10-XXXX.

Hehehe...

How come the anxiety has started to set in?

Ramadan Al Mubarak

I would like to wish all Muslims Selamat Menyambut Ramadan Al Mubarak.

Ramadan certainly brings back many memories to me. From my primary school days, the glorious MCKK years, the PPP/ITM times, ramadan in US, Ramadan when I first started working...

It'll be nice to reminisce all the ramadan, all over again.

The 51st National Day: Road to Nationhood

It is exactly 9.55pm on August 30th, 2008 when I wrote this entry.

I am back at my hometown in Melaka and was a bit disappointed with my wireless broadband service (heck, its only about an 10kpbs faster than my dial up connection). Then again, that would be a story for another day.

At the brink of Malaysia celebrating her National Day, there are a lot of things which I have been pondering, especially so since the last March 8 General Election. To put it in a nutshell, as a nation, are we really there yet? Was the last general election result really a sign of a maturing society dispensing its right to choose responsibly or was it an act of frustration of our society trying to teach "someone" a lesson but at the same time, maybe jeopardizing the very fabric of our social existance?

There are certainly a lot of pent-up frustration with the present governing coalition (with the main target being the backbone of it :UMNO) if the articles and comments on the blogsphere are to be taken. The people are becoming more vocal in their demands and when there are demands from certain quarters, there are bound to be uneasiness and sometime downright hostility to these demands. We are all for just society where everyone is treated as equals and given equal opportunity to succeed but given the very basis of the founding of our country, we should thread this issue with care. Nobody is promoting discrimination and no one is promoting the slave-master relationship (as being portrayed by the "ketuanan" issue) but unfortunately a lot of us seemed to forget our historical background and how independence came about.

Yes, we need to be progressive and look ahead, but not at the expense of discarding our history.

On this note, Happy Birthday, Malaysia.....

Something on the horizon ?

There was no question that Dato' Seri Anwar Ibrahim would win the Permatang Pauh by-election. The only question whether he would win with a margin more than his wife or less.

The question was answered resoundingly when DSAI beat Dato' Arif Shah Omar Shah with a 15,579 majority, which was more than the 13,388 majority garnered by Dato' Seri Wan Azizah during the March 8 General Election.

So, after an absence of 10 years, DSAI is back at the Dewan Rakyat and sits directly across from the Prime Minister as the new Opposition Leader. I am sure there must be a sense of deja vu when DSAI entered the parliament again to to be sworn in and while sitting at his place, it must have striked him that not too long ago he was only one seat away from the coveted position of the Prime Minister of Malaysia.

What will be on everyone's mind is that come September 16th, 2008, would he finally be able to take oath as the 6th Prime Minister of Malaysia, as he has been telling to all of us ?

UiTM di Hatiku Part One

Wujudmu di sini di tanah anak merdeka
Bagai obor ilmu memayungi putera-puterinya
Pelopor hidup budaya bangsa
Agama Negara

OK, that's as much as I can remember on the UiTM song but I had the opportunity to sing in on two occassions : my ADP certificate presentation ceremony during my PPP/ITM days and during the convocation for my MBA (during the commencement for my degree at UW-Madison, I sang The Star Spangled Banner, heheh... hey, please don't question my loyalty to my Malaysia). My attachment to UiTM is also due to my parents whom are both UiTM graduates. Reminicsing back on stories told by parents, it was ITM that gave them the chance to improve themselves and makes them what they are today. If it wasn't for ITM, none of them would graduate with Bachelors and Masters degree from the United States and I would probably be writing this blog in Bahasa Malaysia.

So,when someone suggested opening 10% of UiTM intakes to the non-bumis, you can bet it touches a lot of nerve.

... more will be discussed.

MAHA 08

This is my first year participating in MAHA 08.

Our principal, a manufacturer from Kedah took up the booth offer from the Kedah state government to participate but with this year's event being 12 days in total, they have asked us to man the booth and conduct the sales on their behalf. After all, we are their Selangor/KL state distributor and we believe the exposure at MAHA would help in our marketing effort.

Looking around the hall C, most of the participants are "old hands" at participating in exhibitions as their deco, goods presentation and posters are all glossy and professionally done. Looking at what the manufacturers provided us (four buntings-2 for each flavour, samples and a pot), it will be quite a challange to make the booth decent.

Luckily, my staff Shida and her friends are quite creative and it was fun to watch them doing up the empty booth. Lo and behold, we finally looked like we are here!

Pak Lah spent almost half a day at the exhibition site, which at a total cost of RM240 million, is definitely one huge exposition center. Lets hope that it won't be used only once a year for MAHA.

I met a few fellow participants from programme organized by MARA and Matrade. Some of them have been doing quite well in the export market and it is something I aspire to do.

Since I will be here for another ten days at least, I will keep posting on the happenings.

Let The Games Begin!

It was indeed a spectacular start to one of the greatest sporting event in the world. The Beijing Olympic Games began on 08.08.08 at 8.08pm with probably one of the most elaborate and breathtaking opening ceremony ever. The highlight has to be the lighting of the Olympic torch, where former Chinese gymnast, Li Nang was suspended mid air and depicts the action of a runner while behind him unfurls all the venue of the Olympic Torch Run.

Malaysia is on the hunt for the elusive gold medal.

Who will be our first Olympic Gold Medallist/Millionaire ?

Month End July '08

I am back at my office again on a monday.

Honey Dearest, though her sprained ankle is improving, is practically immobile and is still on Medical Leave. We did went and see and orthopedic specialist last week but due to the pregnancy, x-ray can't be performed, thus its basically a guessing game on her condition. As the good doctor said, it is not likely to be a fracture but at this rate, it will take much longer than usual to be up and about.

I felt so pressured coming to work today, knowing that August would be a challenging month (cash-flow wise at least) and to some extent, I may have exhausted almost all my avenues.

We'll see...

Malaysia for all Malaysians (Penang Island macam mana?)

I read a very interesting comment someone sent via SMS to The Star today. I can't remember it verbatim but roughly it goes something along this line:

"Very easy explaination why road signs in Penang should also be in Chinese. Majority of population here Chinese and tourist from China are here all year around, not like the seasonal Middle East tourist, hence no need Arabic signage"

I can understand the argument (though not agreeing at all about it) on having the signage for Chinese tourist but too have it because of majority chinese living in Penang Island ? Excuse me, what is our national language again ? Whats this cry about "Oh, everyone is Malaysian.. should not be divided along racial/religious/sexual preferences/bank account lines.." while its ok to have signages in ones language because of majority of a certain race inhibits and island? I don't recall seeing any chinese signage in Singapore, for that matter.

If we must have another language, have it in English.

Dah tinggal 50 tahun pun takkan tak boleh faham bahasa kebangsaan kita ?

Honey Dearest Day In

Honey Dearest has been confined to the room for the last three days due to her sprained ankle. It wasn't so bad when it happened on thursday nite. In fact, she was able to go to work on Friday, albeit walking a bit slowly. However, by saturday morning she was not able to even stand up was at time in tears. Luckily my cousin Abg Razak was able to "urut" the affected leg and Alhamdulillah, she is now able to move around a little bit.

On another note, CONGRATULATIONS to Bogak on the arrival of his fourth son! Another one and he will have his own Cagers basketball team :)

Fatherhood beckons

If the calculations from the doctors were to be right, I will be a father in exactly two months from now.

That would be on September 16th, 2008.

I wonder who will be the Prime Minister of Malaysia on that day?

Arresting A Politician

Dato' Seri Anwar Ibrahim, with his problematic back and age, is unlikely to flee or brandish a semi-automatic when faced by the police who came to arrest him.

Why then, the Unit Tindakan Khas with the ski-mask and all when they took him just a few meters before his house ? Flight risk ? Surrounded by armed supporter ? Hell, No.

The poor guy was given until 2.00 pm to present himself at the IPPK. Yeah, had it been 2.01pm, sure.. arrest him.

The Debate

Who would have thought Dato' Seri Anwar Ibrahim with lock horns with Dato' Shabery Chik in a live debate telecast by Astro Awani, Bernama TV and TV9? It did happened and the debate, which took place at Dewan Bahasa & Pustaka was moderated by Datuk Johan Jaafar. The format followed the US presidential debate but the same can't be said about the content.

Anwar was his brilliant self, playing to the gallery and camera. The topic "Hari Ini Bentuk Kerajaan Besok Turun Minyak" was about the current oil issue but Dato' Shabery Chik was more content on delivering personal attacks which has nothing to do with the topic.

... hmmm..

Monday Morning Traffic

I was on my way back from sending Honey Dearest when I saw the roadblock just before the Kota Darul Ehsan arch on Federal Highway. Lucky for me I was heading towards PJ/Shah Alam or else I would be stuck in a very very long gridlock. The jam lasted all the way until after the the Plaza Toll Batu 3 Shah Alam, a good 15-20km of it.

Business Networking

MARA invited me for a business matching cum seminar session at Golden Straits Villa Beach Resort, Port Dickson. The timing is a bit off as it coincides with the Malaysian International Food and Beverage Fair but luckily MARA moved it one day later and I was able to attend the opening day of MIFB.

I drove from Subang Jaya on friday, leaving my house at around 7.15am. It was indeed a pleasent drive, safe for the half hours spent just getting out of Subang Jaya ! After registration, we were given our accomodation which is an apartment unit with three rooms. The people I shared my units with are some of the nicest and we had a good time discussing and throwing ideas on how best to improve our business.

I wouldnt want to go deeper on the programme (of course, talks and seminars etc) but all in all, it was a fruitful session and I am looking forward to work more with my fellow MARA entreprenuers.

Ten Years Ago

Watching the TV the other day, it was as if it was ten years ago...

... with the sodomy charges and all.

You just have to admire the timing.

Accountability at GLCs

Taken from the headline of the Business Section, The Star today:

"SIME DARBY SACKS CFO

Sime Darby Berhad on Monday sacked its chief financial officer (CFO) and another senior executive following an in-depth inquiry into RM120mil losses from Crude Palm Oil (CPO) futures trading."

It's not often you read about senior officers of big businesses in Malaysia being dismissed. Normally, they would issue a statement where the officer has opt to "leave the company" due to all sorts of reason (among the famous ones are health or wanting to spend more time with the family) although in the real reasons tend to run abuzz in the grapevine. Therefore it is refreshing to see MNC/GLC such as Sime Darby taking step in upholding transperancy and corporate governance.

Mini Vacation

Courtesy of my mum-in-law, Honey Dearest and I spent the weekend at Holiday Subang (despite the hotel being a 5 minute drive from home, heheh). My mum-in-law has some vouchers expiring at the end of the month and since there is one for a free one night stay with breakfast, we decided to utilize it and treat it as a mini vacation for us.

We checked in promptly at 2.00 pm and were given the room 1507. Correction, it was SUITE 1507 and it was simply marvellous! It was at the corner of the hotel, with two views of us to enjoy. One is the view of the Tasik Subang Jaya and the Kelab Golf Negara Subang (with the federal highway sandwich in between) and the other is the view of Subang Jaya township itself (with the yet-to-be completed elevated road leading into/out of SJ being a prominent landscape now). I guess we didn't do much accept laze around and watch TV.

Then again, sometimes the best of vacations is just that... doing nothing :)

It's RM2.70 per litre, people...

Well, the inevitable just happened. The government just announced that fuel price would be increased by 40% to RM2.7o per litre while diesel is increased by RM1.00 to RM2.58 per litre.

It was just a matter of time before the fuel price has to be increased. The amount of subsidy that the government has to fork out has resulted in the balloning of the deficit.

Yes, everyone is affected by this. I was among the many who queued up at one of the stations near my house and managed to fill up Honey Dearest's and my car (I avoided the obvious popular stations such as Petronas and Shell).

Certainly a lot of things to say about this...

Wow... what a f*%k*d up place we live in

If we were to believe everything we read in the blog lately, then surely this country is the worst country for anyone to live in. You are sometimes put in a quandry; reading the mainstream media will give you the impression that all is right with the BN government and if were to read the blogs (esp the well-known ones, you know who they are), the Pakatan Rakyat is the true saviour of the "people" and everything BN/UMNO/Bumiputera/Malay/Islam is deemed to be "bad". No, don't give me that look. Lets face it, its what's out there now.

It is always good to have two sides of the matter to consider. In terms of governing, its good to have Check and Balances. If you are an ardent follower of certain blogger, you should also not totally boycott the mainstream media, vice versa. After all, it is you who can decide what you wish to believe in.

Some of the articles posted on the blogs are actually well-thought out and provoking piece which makes us ponder on the state of our nation. The arguments presented are not neccesarily emotional in nature but unfortunately, it is the comments from the readers which can sometimes be difficult to fathom. Many times you will come across people who take the opportunity to go into Malay/Islam bashing under the guise of "justice/fairness" for all and make racial/religious comments which frankly is unacceptable. Yes, you can sense that pent up frustration of years of being "discriminated" by the UMNOputras/Bumiputras/Malays, so is this so called "political tsunami" really a change for a better of Malaysia or its just a way to get back at the above ?

Makes you wonder..

Taking Credit

In The Star newspaper, there was a piece of news from Penang where the former political secretary of Tan Sri Koh Tsu Koon has chided the Penang Chief Minister Mr Lim Guan Eng for claiming credit for two high profile FDI into Penang.

The new state government took control about 2.5 months ago suddenly they are able to bring in RM1.315 billion in FDI. Hmm.. and the two companies can decide in two months to invest such a huge amount of money, just like that.

Mr Lim, give credit where credit is due.. and this case, to your predecessor who did all the hard work to get the companies to Penang.

Congratulations to the MC Cagers '08

The Malay College Cagers basketball team managed to win the Piala Hamdan Tahir for the fifth time in a row during the recent Hari Kecemerlangan SPB in Jitra, Kedah.

The Wan Zaleha Radzi Encounter !

I was in still in MCKK when I had my major crush on Wan Zaleha Radzi. When everyone else was going ga-ga over singers and actresses (it was the Debbie Gibson-Tiffany-Raja Ema days, mind you), I was smitten by this petite yet stunning lady who read the news on TV3. I mean, its not often that you get an unbelievably stunning lady, who is educated and once represented the country in athletics (I came across the back issue of Dunia Sukan magazine which has a picture of Wan Zaleha during an athletic meet. I was estatic!). Wan Zaleha is truly "beauty and brains" personified and whenever she was on air (whether for Buletin Utama or Majalah Tiga), I would pay extra attention to the TV. Yet, despite all that, never once did I meet Wan Zaleha in the flesh. Sigh.

So, here I was with a friend at Ikea for lunch when I caught a glimpse of a petite lady wearing white jumper and her shoulder length hair tied back. Could it be after all these years? Lo and behold, it was Wan Zaleha having lunch there too.

I would love to rant more but I do remember that my wife reads this blog too, heheh:)

Indiana Jones...

Last friday, Honey Dearest and I made our way to the GSC at One Utama to catch the latest Indiana Jones movie. Honey is a big Harrison Ford fan (heheh, really BIG fan!) and since it's been 20 years from the last Indiana Jones movie, we decided to catch it early.

I remember back then, about 21 years back I was interviewed by Berita Harian (something about my scholastic achievement, which honestly, was not really something to shout about) and when they asked me what was my ambition, I replied "Archeologist" (which they wrote "Ahli Kajipurba"). The article actually appeared on bottom of the front page and made me a "mini-celebrity" at my primary school and "sekolah agama". But why the ahli kajipurba ? Hehehe, coz i wanted to be like Indiana Jones :)

Happy Birthday Sayang :)

Today, the 26th of May, 2008 is Honey Dearest's 30th birthday!

Baby, you dont look a day over 25 years 3 mnths, so here's for more wonderful birthday to come!

I love you so muuuccchhh!

JPA Scholarship : Part Deux

I would like to express the following in mixture of English and Bahasa Malaysia

Hari ni ada sorang lagi dok hantar surat kat The Star pasal tak puas hati tak dapat biasiswa dari JPA. Hish, sorang lagi yang nak main the "racial cards". Really spoil my morning bila aku baca the letter pagi-pagi buta masa aku nak breakfast dengan Honey Dearest.

Aku tak paham betul la bila sesetengah orang tu ingat, bila tak dapat something they want, it all boils down to discrimination (read: racial bias). Tolong la sikit. Hebat sangat ke engkau dengan 10A1 and A2 engkau. Kononnya "getting 10A1 and A2 for my EST has become more of a burden to me. I have become too good to enter matriculation but not good enough for PSD (JPA). Maybe I shouldn't have studied so hard and played more."

Apa yang engkau cakap ni ? According to him, dia rasa cheated sebab he thought "all students with 10A1 would automatically be given scholarship by JPA". Memang JPA akan bagi scholarship, tapi yang JPA gurantee is the scholarship for studying at local institution. Yang engkau minta tu overseas scholarship. Aku ada dua issue yang aku nak raise kat sini. First sekali, yang engkau mintak tu overseas scholarship. Engkau ni ada baca suratkhabar tak ? Engkau takkan tak tahu yang overseas scholarship under JPA ada 2000 tempat aje and engkau tahu tak ada berapa orang dapat straight As ? According to JPA, ada 6,262. Yes, read that again.. SIX THOUSAND TWO HUNDRED SIXTY TWO. Out of that entah berapa ribu yang dapat more than 10A1s, so sah-sah you know where you stand kan ? In fact, yang mintak for the scholarhip ada 15,000 orang and 7,500 made the cut. Congratulations, since you were among the 7,500 but paham le sikit, benda ni gila competitive. Besides, ada ke JPA bagitau engkau your marks for the interview, co-curricular activities etc. ? Mana engkau tahu you did well in the interview? Entah2 apa yang engkau jawab is not what they are looking for. Why do you people (well, some of you at least) assume that just because you get 10A1 and god-knows berapa A1 lagi, you guys are simply the very best? Hey, kalau engkau dapat full mark pun dlm the academic portion (by virtue of your 10As), setakat aktif dalam co-curricular activities, mana cukup ? Mungkin engkau presiden Interact Club but the other guy may have represented the country for some other activities. Sah2 le engkau lose out.

Lagi satu, apasal tak mention pasal applying for local universities ? Tak cukup BAGUS untuk yourself ke ?

"We are still the best. Let us hold our heads up and move on. I believe wherever we are placed, we will still shine because we have overcome the worst rejection and biasness"

HEY, apa yang engkau imply ni ? Granted, you did well by scoring that 10A1 and A2 but siapa yang reject engkau because of biasness ??? Dah tak dapat tu, as you said, move on la. Engkau tak mintak ke scholarship lain ? Engkau tak sudi ke nak belajar kat local U ?

Mr Lee of Kuala Lumpur... please la. Grow Up!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Good Neigbourliness

I just want to find out.

When we buy a house, what constitute as our property is up to the front gate right? The road is considered as public property and the small patch of land between the drain out of our fence/gate and the road does not constitute as our property right ?

You see.. I had this rather irritating experience of neighbours (not immediate ones but about 5 houses away) who put potted plants or rubbish bins in front of their house so that no one can park in front of theirs. It so happened that there was this one particular night where I was back late and it was the ONLY parking spot available. So, I parked my car there (and its not I intend to leave it there for days or weeks) and whadda you see... a note in the morning "Please dont park your car infront of our house".

... and you park BOTH your cars inside your house!

So, to the SS18/** resident living at that particular house... %*&$&#@## u!

PSD Scholarships

Without fail, we will face this issue every year. 10As, 11As, god-knows how may As will write in the newspaper and complain that they will are being discriminated by some "upper hands" who tends to award overseas scholarship to undeserving "son of the soil". Standard arguments raised would be things like "...he/she only scores 4As, 5As"... " politically-connected family"... "high income parents".

I guess sometimes it just gets to me when these things are being brought up every single year. No, this time I am not going to join the PSD bashing but I think the people who are complaining and the political parties who are riding on the issues should really stop acting like victims.

Come on, its not like there are a handful of these 10As.... I think it comes to about a few thousands! The PSD DG explained it in an interview in one of the sunday papers that while academic score may consist 70% of the total mark for selection, the remainder 30% should not be totally ignored.

Obviously a few thousand will score 70% for the academic marks but with competition so stiff, it will take more than "being active in school activities" to tip the balance. You need to be really outstanding. Period.

Please dont forget about the interview session too. Sometimes you may do well in both the academic and the extra curricular activities but if you cant carry yourself well, then, sorry... other people who are better than you deserve it.

Please, stop making it a racial thing. It has come to an extend where if bumiputras were to obtain scholarship, there are "whispers" that "yea, must be some crony/well connected politician etc...".

Meritocracy is alive and well. Just because a bumiputera managed to secure a PSD scholarship, its automatically "a racial thing" again. Are you saying we are that DUMB ?

May Updates

I guess I am at it again... late in my updates. It has been a month since I last posted, but well.. like what Datin Seri Wan Azizah said in the media (albeit on a totally, totally different issue altogether), its better late than never.

May 6 2008
------------

Honey Dearest and I went for another checkup at Dr Ani's clinic. We found out that Dr Ani is also pregnant and will be delivering at about the same time as Honey Dearest :) It will be her fifth, if I am not mistaken.

Anyway, this is the fifth month checkup and with a scan to be done, I will find out whether Junior will be a going to koleq or to the school at bandar Enstek :) The scan wasn't very clear as Junior seemed to be good at playing hide and seek, but from what we saw, it will most likely be another Idris House member walking down the hallowed halls, heheh :)

May 7 -12 2008
----------------

It's the MIHAS week, the Malaysian International Halal Showcase. For people in my industry, its THE trade show for the year. I have been attending the show for the past two years, and this year the venue is the Matrade HQ at Jalan Duta. I have requested for Kamol (my Thai partner at our Thai operation) to be in KL for the show and he has arrange for his flight to be on the 8th and returning to Bangkok on the 9th.

The first day of the show usually begins with the Incoming Buying Mission (IBM) meeting where local companies are matched with foreign companies interested to procure goods from Malaysia. This year, I have chosen companies from non-tradionational market such as Eastern Europe and Asean countries as the products I am selling normally will have a hard time to penetrate the stringent EU regulations or the complexity of the US markets (maybe later, when all things are in place). Matrade, sensing that they can make a killing in parking fees, charged RM5 per entry and by 10am, the parking lot was already full! It didnt help that the main exhibition halls are erected at one of the bigger parking lots, thus deprieving visitors more parking space.

The meeting for the two days of IBM went well and I made some good contacts and potential business. Kamol arrived at KL Sentral on thursday and I took him direct to the exhibition. Of course, the majority of the exhibitors are SMEs producing the traditional products such as sauces, spices, seafood etc... but we managed to identify a few products that got Kamol excited about its prospect in Thailand.

As always, Kamol puts up at Holiday Villa Subang and with the voucher from my mother-in-law, the price isnt so exhorbitant. For the night, Honey Dearest and I decided to spare Kamol the usual mall fare and we took him for dinner at SS13, where they have a nice "gerai" that serves tasty food. The problem with our "gerai" is that most of them employ cook from Thailand and serves a lot of Thai dishes, so we were careful to order food which has no resemblance to Thai food :)

On friday, after submitting a tender at Royal Selangor Club, Kamol and I went to MIHAS for one last look. I went for friday prayers at the Masjid Wilayah and after prayers, I sent Kamol to KL Sentral for him to take the shuttle to LCCT, en route to Bangkok.

The weekend
-------------

Arrghh.. I was down with fever and flu.

The Halfway Mark

Honey Dearest is at the halfway mark of her pregnancy. Yes, its her 4 1/2 weeks today and Alhamdulillah, everything is going on fine. We have been going for the doctors visit together and Dr Ani (of Klinik Keluarga, USJ) has been really great!

The next visit which is sometime during the first week of May will be one where we will know (hopefully) the sex of the baby. I told Honey Dearest I'd rather be surprised but I don't think that's at all possible, especially when we start getting things for the baby!

Fatherhood... hmmm.. great!

Feeling Under The Weather

I was down with a mild fever last week. I consider it mild as it was practically curable with a pop of the ever trustwortyh panadol. I thought that was the end of my "under the weather" spell, until I woke yesterday with a sore throat.

Help!

The 9 Months Odyssey: A beginning

The next 9 months would probably be the most amazing journey that Honey Dearest and I will ever go through. After a few false starts and heartbreaks, this is finally it.

Hello 2008

My last posting was on September 5, 2007. A lot of things has happened since then:

1. My bro-in-law, Azlan got married to the lovely Ilyani on the December 8, 2007.

2. I celebrated my FIRST annivessary with Honey Dearest, well.. on Lan's wedding day.. so next year it will be a double annivessary

3. Went for the family trip in PD with the gang. It was so much fun.. if only they know how difficult it was for me to scrape the fees...

4. Went back to Kuala Kangsar for another round of "amal-jariah" with the future student leaders of the school. Year in year out.. I do hope my small contribution makes a difference in their life one day

5. End of financial year for both companies... aarrghh, those headaches and heartaches...

Merdeka

We did some plumbing work at the Desa Moccis house, where almost all the water pipes for the upper level of the house were replaced with new ones. Something to do with rusty pipes and low water pressure for the showers. As a result, not only do we have better water pressure for the shower but ayah also erected two "flag poles" for the Jalur Gemilang :) Instead of some flimsy wooden pole, our house nows resembles the Malaysian Embassy (according to ayah:)

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.

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.

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 :)

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.

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 ?

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.. :)

Oh CTOS...... :)

CTOS? Oh, where do I even begin :)

More Than Meets The Eyes

"I am Optimus Prime"

The audience in cinema 10 @ GSC One Utama applauded. Really, they did.

The movie was awesome. Really took me back to the old childhood days.

Hmmm, I wonder how much would my Optimus Prime model fecth on E-Bay ? :)

TV Ads

I sincerely wish for this particular advertisment on TV to be removed.

It's just so... corny!

The company is a successful MLM company. I am sure they can afford to produce a much better ad than the one on air now.

The actresses in the ad... oh, so fake!

Congratulations to the MCKK Wind Orchestra

The Inter SBP Wind Orchestra Competition was held last Sunday at the Putrajaya International Convention Centre (PICC). Despite coming up third place behind Sekolah Alam Shah and Sekolah Datuk Abdul Razak, it was a commendable position considering that the wind orchestra was only recently introduced in MCKK.

Good job boys!

Champion next year ? :)

Which Cinema?

Honey Dearest and I are movie buffs. Really.

It helps that Honey Dearest is rather efficient at booking tickets online, thus ensuring that we would watch the latest release either on its first day or the first weekend.

Even during my bachelor days, I am a regular cineme-goer. Prior to the mega cineplex days, my favourite cinema would be the Cathay Cineplex behind Central Market or the cineplex at Subang Parade (both no longer around now). Occasionally, the Rex cinema at Petaling Street or State PJ would be an alternative to the above.

Nowadays, we would normally watch movies at the Cathay Cineleisure @ Mutiara Damansara. Honey Dearest and I dubbed this as the most "Muslim-friendly" cinema because the Surau is just next to the cinema. This enable us to perform our maghrib prayer and catch the 7.30-7.45pm show!

Down The Memory Lane

Kudos to TV9 for showing some of the tv series from the late 80s/early 90s.

TV9 was showing the drama "Naik Tangga Turun Tangga" while I was writing this. It's fun to see all the cast looking so retro.. (Azwan Ali, a few kilos ago, looking suave in a blazer with t-shirt ala Miami Vice). Hussin Abu Hassan, Aunty Ruby, Arwah Hani Mohsein, Rosnah Mat Aris (sans the blond hair, of course) reminds me of what it was like back then.

Raja Ema is also one of the cast. I can see Honey Dearest giving me that look and laughing at me whenever Raja Ema appears on TV.

Why... heheheh... for me to know and for all of you NEVER to find out...:))

Lessons in Life

The best lessons in life are learnt through personal experience. No amount of theory or case studies can prepare your for the things that you will go through in the course of your life.

I have learned many such lessons, albeit some rather expensively.

Lesson well-learnt.

Club AGM

Ayah wasn't feeling very well that day, in fact he was down with a very high fever since he came back from KB on friday night. However, he has promised to attend the AGM and vote as proxies for of the members who can't attend the meeting. So there we were, driving to the club for the Annual General Meeting.

I started attending the club AGM since the last four years or so. Club AGMs are totally different from the company AGMs. Where company can AGMs normally last not more than 10-20 minutes, our club AGM seldom ends before one p.m. Most shareholders attend company AGM for the food spread. I know this for a fact because I handled a few AGMs for my previous company and its a wonder if any meeting last for more than ten minutes. So much about shareholder activism:)

However, our golf club AGM is totally in the elements of its own. Members are vocal and very passionate about the issues raised at the AGM. I guess unlike being a shareholder of a company, club members are directly affected by the issues pertaining to the club (the more so because many of them can be seen almost daily, whether on the golf course or at the terrace). Over the years, there were many issues brought up and it is actually fun seeing the members putting across their points, sometime to the exesperation of the club president who chairs the meeting. Normally its the same people who speaks at all the meeting; so much so that sometimes these people are voted in as management committees of the club. Walk the talk la..:) Then again, perhaps they were trying to make themselves known, in order to be voted in as member of the MC ? Hmmm...

The First Six

It's been six months since I sat before Honey Dearest's father and professed the "akad nikah"

Six months of living together.

Six months of fun and laughter, of sadness and tears.

Six months of man and wife.

Six months of waking up in the morning and sitting by the bed, waiting for her to open her beautiful eyes.

Six months of looking at her when she gets ready in the morning and grateful to Allah for being blessed with her.

Here's to the many more six months to come.

... and I am enjoying every second of it.

Love you so much, Honey Dearest.

YM

The best thing about the net is the ability to keep in touch with so many of your friends from all over the world.

Just had a very enlightening conversation via the YM (Yahoo! Messenger) with a very close buddy of mine who is now based in Miri. I remember the time during my university years where letter writing was still the main form of communication (handphones at that time - the gigantic Nokia that looks like a brick, on a 010 line) where we would write letters to each other. How time have change!

Result

I got my blood test results from the doctor today.

Coming from a family with a history of the "big three" (diabetes, hypertension and heart problem), the risk for me to get one of the three is quite high. Prior to the blood test, I went to see the doctor for a different reason and I asked her to check by blood pressure. It was quite high and she requested me to do another reading within a week. My second reading was also quite high (only a minimal, insignificant drop) and she asked me to do a blood test.

The numbers, though not as bad as thought it'd be, doesn't really put me in the pink of health and there are certainly many areas that I need to work on.

A lot of things certainly need to change...

Well Done Cagers!

Congratulations to the MCKK Cagers basketball for winning the Piala Hamdan Tahir for the fourth time in a row. The Piala Hamdan Tahir is the ultimate trophy for the inter residential school basketball tournament and the Cagers has really stamped their mark by lifting it for the record of 12 times since its inception.

Even way back when I was in MCKK, it always amazed me on how dedicated these basketballers are. For most of us playing for college, the training session starts about two or three months before the tournament (be it at district or state level) and the team would be disbanded once it is over. However, these group of dedicated athletes would begin their training the day the school starts and last day of training would be the last day of school. Despite having the state and district level tournament to play for, these cagers only have one goal in mind : to lift the Piala Hamdan Tahir.

In 1992, the Piala Hamdan Tahir was held in Sekolah Tun Fatimah, JB (together with the Piala Perdana Menteri - English and Bahasa Malaysia debate championship). Despite my promise to my parents to stay in KL and attend tution for my add maths (a lost cause I would say) while they perform the Hajj, I managed to coaxed the tution teacher to postpone my last two sessions to another date and managed to convince my aunt and cousin that it is important for me to be in JB for the PPM/PHT. There were some ulterior motive to be there as well but since I am now happily married to a TKCian, I'd rather not elaborate on that! I took the night train and arrived in JB just in time for the semi final game against SEMSAS. Our English debating team had earlier lost in the quarter finals but our BM team will be competing in the semi finals later that day. The cagers won the semi final, and will face RMC in the finals on the last day of the tournament.

The PHT Finals... MCKK vs RMC. Gosh, this was almost 15 years ago so I can't really go into details but suffice to say, the atmosphere was magical. We were shouting ourself hoarse and was on the edge of our seat for the better part of it. However, when the final whistle blew, all of us stormed into the court. After a very long wait, PHT is coming home to Kuala Kangsar.

1992 turned out to be a good year. We made it to the finals of the PPM BM debate and in August '92, at the Dewan Muktamar Pusat Islam, we lifted the PPM, again after the absence of so many years.

My Langkawi Escapade Prt 2

We boarded the Air Asia flight which was only half-full. The weather was great during the flight and we landed in Langkawi as scheduled. Upon disembarking and collecting our luggage, we made our way to the the car rental counter where a friend of Hafiz waited for us to hand us the car key. I initially reserved a Proton Wira, for a very good price, but we were told that only the Nissan Sentra was available and since we are friends of Hafiz, we got it for the price of the Wira. No complains here !

We drove the car to the Kg Tok Senik Resort, using the map handed out by the Tourism Authority at the airport as our guide. Not a great map to begin with, but this being Langkawi, I am quite sure we'll not get lost. After missing a few turns and having to stop at a petrol pump for directions, we finally reached the resort.

The resort was quite lovely, with its authentic malay village settings. It was really a wise decision to rent a car as the rooms (or villas) are scattered all over hilly terrain, overlooking the paddy fields. We got to our room, which is quite spacious and fashioned after the traditional malay houses. The place was incredibly calm and peaceful and pretty soon after unpacking, we felt asleep.

My Langkawi Escapade Prt One

It all started when Mr Tony's airline advertised in the papers for free tickets in conjuction of his airline's fifth annivessary. Honey Dearest and decided to pick Langkawi as our destination and she went ahead and purchased it online. We managed to get free fares for both ways and lnl had to fork out the tax and surcharge etc. May 16th - May 18th was the date we chose, for the sole reason that it's before the school break.

May 16th, 2007...

We made our way to the airport on the Star Shuttle bus from Subang Parade at around 1.00pm for our 4.10 pm flight. There were only 5 of us on the bus (with a capacity for 40+ passengers) and it makes me wonder how this fella can sustain such operation. However, after chit chatting with the lively driver (while Honey Dearest took a nap), I found out that the bus line actually belongs to a very big transportation company. Ok, now things make more sense.

Updates

My honey dearest gave me a journal for me to pen down my thoughts about two months ago. At that time, I was bitten by the creative writing bug and was in the midst of coming up with a plot for my ever elusive "great Malaysian novel". Anyway, just like my previous attempts, the novel got stuck at the "character naming" part.

I used to enjoy creative writing (I have been known to use my creative license rather "creatively", heheh) and I have volumes of short stories from my school and university days. When I first got my laptop, I thought that I could finally complete my own novel. I guess not... yet.

I have been quite tardy in terms of updating my blog, to the extend that friends and families have been calling me up to ask whether I am still blogging. I guess that certainly puts me in the not-so-disciplined blogger. That's why I have resorted to penning some of my thoughts in the journal that Honey Dearest gave me and later I can post it online.

Its actually a beautiful saturday morning (I wrote this in 5/5/07) today and under any normal circumstances, I would drag my Honey Dearest to the lake for a morning walk. Apparently my twice weekly gym routine only last me for a month and whatever motivation I got from talking to Aizal and seeing his 30kg weight loss in two years simply... poof... into thin air.l

I am spending his weekend (and the following four) attending the Kursus Asas Agen Kastam (KAAK) at the Wisma SFFLA in Port Klang. All forwarding companies are required to have at least two members of the staff with the certification and in fact, we used to have three. However, two of our certified senior staff left rather abruptly and with only one left, I decided to take the course myself.

The KAAK is not exactly cheap; RM1,200 for SFFLA members and RM1,500 for non-members. It comprised of lectures, quizzes and finally, a comprehensive exam to be held in July. This is certainly a good business forSFFLA (Selangor Freight Forwarders & Logistics Association). Based on my rough calculation, it stands to collect almost RM100,000 per session for 90+ students. Deducting the RM40k-50K plus for lecturers, food, course material etc, the association can easily net around RM50k!

Sunday Morning Coffee

Sunday mornings usually means having breakfast at home with the whole family, reading the sunday papers and turning on the Astro to watch whatever is on.

However, today is a bit different as at the time of writing, I am having coffee with Honey Dearest at Starbuck@The Curve, while waiting for the 11.30am screening at the Ciniplex. Its acually nice to have a routine switch once in a while, no matter how simple it may be. In my twenty minutes or so of being here, I spotted a few celebrities leisurely strolling (Daphne Iking, do look GOOD in the flesh:) and saw a few friends too.

I wish we have more shopping malls like The Curve where one do not feel so confined as we may feel in our typical urban mall.

Okay, times up. Gotto go to the movies :)

Another Election

The whole country now turns its attention to the constituency of Ijok, where another by-election will be held due to the passing of its representative.

Whadda ya know.. almost overnight, roads are being re-surfaced.

Hmmm..

Election Fever - N.08 DUN Machap, Melaka

It so happened that Honey Dearest's hometown, Hutan Percha, is part of the DUN Machap, where a by-election will be held on April 14th. The passing of the late YB Dato' Poh Ah Tiam has left the seat vacant within days, the whole area was transformed almost instantenously. Suddenly, road resurfacing work become a norm around the constituency and lamp post appeared out of nowhere to lit the road. With a few Felda settlements within the constituency, most of the road borders the vast rubber and palm oil plantations and without street lights, the night drive can be nerve-wrecking, hehe!

Down The Memory Lane

Last Saturday, on the way back to my wife’s hometown of Hutan Percha, we decided to take the inner federal road by exiting the NS highway at the Seremban toll due to the congestion. Upon entering Seremban town en route to the road leading to Tampin, I said to Honey Dearest, “Why don’t we pass by your old school?”

I vaguely remember the way but I told her that let me try to see if I can still trust my memory. I turned left, passing the A&W drive-in restaurant on my right and headed up to Wisma Negeri, where at the roundabout we took a turn, passing the Istana. The road is quite different from when I was there last (instead of the old quaint two lane road, it is now four-lane) until we reaced the traffic light at the army camp and a signage to the left that said “Jalan Tunku Kurshiah”.

“Honey, what ever happened to Jalan Dato’ Siamang Gagap?”

Anyway, our intention was to just passed by the school but once we were at the gates, we looked at each other and said almost instantaneously, “Jom, let’s go in!”

Entering the gates of Tunku Kurshiah College evokes many memories, not just for Honey Dearest but also for myself. You see, way back when I was in primary school, one of my cousin was a student at the venerable institution and almost everytime on our way back from our kampung in Masjid Tanah, we would drop by to see Kak Long and passed her the lauk that my aunt prepared for her. At the rate of going back to Masjid Tanah every one and half/two months or so, I am guranteed to passed by the gates and drive up the corner hill at least 6 times a year. By then, I could remember all the names of the houses (Selindang Delima, Mahsuri, Siti Zawiyah, Tun Fatimah and Mahsuri – how about that eh ?:) and could essentially make my way to the canteen blindfolded. We would park our car next to the field and would have our small picnic with Kak Long.

It was only years later when I was in MCKK did I visited TKC under the pretext of “exchanging information on the prefectorial system of single-sex fully residential school” and things were almost exactly like how I remembered before. Little that I know that, 14 years on, I would marry a Selindang Delima girl from TKC.

We drove past the Headmistress’ house and on seeing all the hostel building, Honey Dearest’s eyes lit up as she showed me her hostel etc. Since it was a Saturday, there were many parents visitng their young ones. We drove past the Great Hall (supposedly haunted) and of course, the canteen. She showed me her classroom and the library. It was nice to see how delighted she was as I am sure she had many many wonderful memories here as I had in MCKK.

The Club

There is just something about belonging to a club that gives a person a certain sense of belonging. When you have something in common, its always nice to be able to group together and share experiences with one another. Sometimes a club is formed "unofficially", where it so happened that people who share something in common happens to congregate at the same place until one such day that everyone seemed to know each other. My father happened to belong to such a club. Its something he does every three month or so, and usually when he is there, he will come across people he has met or even some friends from his golf club. You can see a certain camaraderie among them, as they have gone through life threatening episodes in their life and they now resolve never to be in the same situation again.

Despite that, I do not wish to belong to such club.

Place of meeting : IJN, Kuala Lumpur
Common interest: Angioplasty procedures or by-pass surgery

I'll make sure I won't join your club, dad :)

Reminiscence: Madison, WI Prt 3

I made the decision to attend University of Wisconsin, Madison when I was asked by the JPA officer to decide between UW and University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. When the placement office at PPP/ITM applied for my university, University of Michigan wasn't in the list. The other two universities that offered me a place were Purdue University and University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. In fact I was later told that initially the placement office wanted to place me at NYU but JPA was not keen on sending anybody to New York city. I have always wanted to attend Uof M and when I went to see the Head of Program, she told me that I should go for it and they will assist me in my application. The only thing is that I need to pay for the placement fee on my own (USD65).

In fact, University of Michigan was the first university to send me a Letter of Acceptance but something in the literature that they sent me prevented me from jumping with joy. It read "...students applying into the School of Business must complete their Freshmen and Sophomore year at University of Michigan..."

Wait a minute.

So, when the JPA officer told me to take both I-20 forms from both UW and UM to a small room and think it over, I basically have less than five minutes to decide something that will shape the rest of my life.

Oppps... again :)

For the past few days, the media was highlighting KLIA's (Kuala Lumpur Internatinal Airport) win in the 15-20 million passenger catergory for the best airport in the world.

However, barely two days after the victory, the airport was hit by massive blackout, apparently caused by a thunderstorm that strike one of power plant supplying electricity to the airport. According to the report, the incident happened during non-peak hours where passenger arrival and departure were minimal.

Anyway, I was reminded of an incident that happened when I was in Madison, WI. The city chief of police proudly announced in the media that Madison went for a whole year without any murder crime. Guess what happened the next day ?

Someone was found murdered.

Reminiscence: Madison, WI Prt 2

The next day we had our orientation with the MSD officers. I can't really recall what was actually being said, except for the spattering of "you have to study hard" and "taxpayer's money". Halfway through, one of the MSD officer called me out (no, not just any officer but the head of MSD LA and waiting for me at the lobby was Pak Long Mail and Mak Long Yasmin. Pak Long was the Counsel General in LA (and an old boy of MCKK) and since I gave them a call last night, they decided to drop by. They were asking the MSD officer whether they could take me out to their place for lunch but to my dismay, the officer told Pak Long that the orientation will provide me with "much needed" information and alas, I was back in the hall after saying good bye to Pak Long and ever stunning Mak Long.

After one full day of orientation, the next day was the moment we were waiting for; our flights to our respective universities...

-to be continued

Oopps...

Apparently, the girl who supposedly scored 19 1As actually managed 18 As (14 1As, 4 As and 1 B). To think that for the last week or so, the media (well, one of them anyway) was trumpeting her achievement. To be fair to her, what she achieved was already quite good but I am so sorry for those folks at her hometown who were putting up buntings and banners on her "19 1As" achievement..

...oopss.

Cost of Living (and retiring)

I drove my father to his blood test at the IJN (Institut Jantung Negara, or National Heart Institute) this morning. Ever since he did his angioplasty last June, he has been diligently going for regular check ups at IJN. I was not around when he suffered his first attack. It was in '97 and I was still in Madison at the time. I only found out about a month later when my mum finally told me.

He has been on a steady regiment of pills for the last ten years and boy, they do cost a lot. To add to the matter, about two years ago, he was diagnosed with diabetes more medication comes along.

Anyway, as I was waiting for my father, I saw the headline about how someone who is 35 years old today would need to have at least RM1.4 million by the time he/she is 55 in order to retire comfortably. Excuse me.. RM1.4 million?

Reminiscence: Madison, WI Prt 1

Somehow, I am more in a very nostalgic mode after watching, of all things, Desperate Housewives :) I am not going to divulge what particular scene it was but suffice to say, it brought back many happy memories of my universities days. I did not keep a journal of my days in Madison so in a way, it's going to be a form of journal for me. Just to make it easier to distinguished from present day posting, I will used italic when I am in my "nostalgic" mode, so here goes.

Come to think of it, it all took place ten years ago.

I departed for the United States on 20th January 1996, which happens to be my 21st birthday. How often do you get to celebrate your birthday twice ... I departed in the morning of the 20th and arrived in LA, also in the morning. I couldn't really recall the flight (it was a 21 hour flight, with a stopover in Tokyo, thank God) but I can remember vividly the moment the MAS flight landed at LAX. There was excitment in everyone's face and we were like "Finally, we are in the US of A"

In fact, we almost did not make it to the states. We were scheduled to fly off in batches in January of '96 but towards the end of November '95, the US was experiencing a government shutdown (fiscal crisis, Newt Gingrich, the works...) and among the casualties were embassies all over the world. We were not able to get our Visas and in fact, our sponsor (JPA) were contemplating of sending us for the Fall session. Luckily the crisis was able to be resolved and we were duly issued our visas. Talk about close shave.

If I recalled correctly, there were forty of us in the flight; I was among the 12 to be shipped off to Madison, WI while the rest were sent to places like Wyoming and Montana. We were to have our orientation for two nights before we depart on the domestic flight to our respective universities. I can't remember the name of hotel we stayed but what I remember is that, upon checking in, a group of us actually went to the nearest news store and purchase various adult magazines! That night, we went to Ralph's, a supermarket located nearby and I purchased a phone card to call home.

-to be continued

19 1As ? What's Next?

It was recently published in the Malay dailies that for the last SPM examination, a girl from Johore achieved another record-breaking 19 1A, beating the previous record of 17 1As (or was it 18?), set also by another lass from Johore.

First of all, I never knew that much subject existed in the SPM exams. Even way back in koleq, the nine subjects we took (ten, if you include English 1119) were wee bit too much for me. Even with the nine we took, the aim was to score an aggregate of less than ten. Not many of us were thinking about straight A's, except for the few who actually believed they could and they did. Yes, even with that, I managed to overshoot by one point.

So, were we less smarter back then or the exams are much easier?

Also, what is it that they put in the water in Johore ?

Signs of Aging.. Part I

I was down with fever since last friday and it was then that I realized how much I have aged.

You see, way way back (yes, way way back) if I have a fever, I would take two dose of Panadol and voila, the next day I would be A ok...

... but off late, I am still feverish on the third and fourth day, only to recover fully on the fifth. Statistically speaking, my recovery rate is down by 400% (did I get that right ?) and that's not good.

Innalillah.. The Passing of Mak Lang Barirah

Barely three months into the new year, I have lost two very close relatives.

Mak Lang Barirah passed away on saturday morning, March 3, 2007 after a long bout with cancer.

Mak Lang is the mother to my cousin, Intan who is also a regular blogger. Check out her blog at http://melopong.blogspot.com/

I visited arwah Mak Lang at Hospital UKM a few months back when she was warded at the Makna cancer ward. Despite all the adversity, arwah Mak Lang displayed some admirable fighting spirits.

Semoga Allah mencucuri rahmat ke atas rohnya dan semoga ditempat bersama para-para solehen dan syuhada. Amin.