Spontaneity -- Hanyir & Bacin tapi sedap.

All of the sudden we were already boarding the 8pm, the last ferry to Pangkor.

Instead of spending the night in Ipoh like what we would normally do, this time, after completing some work at UTP, we decided to be spontaneous and we headed for Lumut for buka puasa and from Lumut we crossed over to Pangkor.

Bro Burn and Long went first while Razin and I decided to go and buy some ‘hanyir and bacin smelling but delicious’ stuff like ikan bilis, sotong kering and others at the Lumut Waterfront.


Lumut Waterfront.


Lumut Waterfront.


Lumut Waterfront.

We had very simple makanan for buka puasa at a Mamak restaurant in Lumut. Razin had meehun goreng and I had nasi goreng and telur mata kerbau.


Razin checking waktu berbuka.


Kedai Nasi Kandar tempat kita berbuka puasa di Lumut.


Before that, on the way to Lumut, Razin (the more adventurous one) told me, and I thought he was joking, about a Disneyland in Air Tawar, a small town near Lumut. I said, whadda... And he said “tak percaya, come I show you...”

So we passed by a housing area and there it was... Yes... a Disneyland in Air Tawar – right in front of a playground and football field.







After that we went to Teluk Batik to kill time before buka puasa.


Teluk Batik.


Razin avoiding papparazzi at Teluk Batik. Kalah artis gitu...


Kucing comel at Teluk Batik Beach.


Sunset at Teluk Batik.. Sayu...


Anyway, for our friend Lim (mamat yang dok kira duit kat opis Razin tu), we took this picture to tell the world “wah, rupa-rupanya Lim ni tycoon besar. Banyak kamsia lah...”


Lim Sim Lee punya ker?

Razin, Long and Bro Burn memang kaki memancing. According to Razin, dengan mengambil kira the moon and sea condition, now is a good time to go fishing -- I just looked at him and pretended to be interested. Pada halnya, ouekkk, tak minat langsung. I am only interested in consuming fish. Makan ikan tiga rasa, sotong, kupang dan kerang. Tapi kat Pangkor apa pun tak dapat makan...

When they started talking about fishing, I felt totally ignored and I pun malas nak join jantan-jantan macho ni – so I decided to do some reading while watching Astana Idaman on ASTRO, cerita hanj but a fun watching material sebab tak yah fikir langsung, at our beachfront Pangkor Village Chalet.


Our Chalet... #2 Pangkor Village.



And the 3 macho guys pergi joined the local fishermen and tangkap ikan sampai waktu sahur while I slept – that’s what I thought – but instead they all main ginrami. Siol – tak panggil gua!! If only they knew I spent 3 days and 2 nights non-stop main ginrami kat Portland, Oregon pada zaman dedolu.

They came back to drag me out of bed for sahur but I decided to continue dreaming – sedap tidur.

Last but not least... I taklah benci sangat lipas... Dia pun nak hidup gak.


View of the beach from our Chalet.


View lagi...


Sampan nelayan.


Rumah-rumah tumpangan kat Pangkor.

Hari ni slow...

Kepala ada sikit susah mau fikir – fening-fening lalat.

Was browsing my favourite online newspapers -- Rockybru, AKJ and Jeff Ooi, and dengar cerita from Jeff lepas raya toll nak naik...Toll Shah Alam Expressway, Guthrie Corridor Expressway, Karak Highway, Cheras-Kajang Expressway and Lebuhraya Damansara-Puchong.

Tak cukup plak tu, parking kat opis gua ni pun nak naik from monthly RM80, jadi RM105 next month. Banyaklah petrol pakai nyalakan lampu parking ni...



Semalam I buat spek baru... Yerlah dah tua ni kalau baca buku kena angkat spek lah plak... Masa buat spek bifocal/multifocal semalam ada Datin ni datang beli contact lens solution. Komplen beb...Contact lens solution punya harga pun naik banyak beb... yerlah semua pakai petrol... Petang ni masak, tumis bawang pun pakai minyak petrol...baru terbakar... I benci lipas..i benci lipas...




Gambar kat bawah ni tak der kena mengena ngan harga barang naik, cuma posing-posing untuk kad raya yang sedang didesign oleh Rizal... Rizal, make sure I nampak kurus ok... stretch atas bawah ker, shading ker.... susah-susah buat water colour...





Apa nak marah-marah... bukan boleh buat apa pun...
hmmm but then again....boleh beb... jangan bagi naik darah...

------
Some of the pix above are from www.fotopages.com

Tenggek and kemut

Papa Khalid and I went for our ‘jalan-jalan beli buku’ outing yesterday, at Ikano, a few hours before buka puasa.

We love kedai buku. I feel very much at home in bookstores -- berjam-jam. So if you want to take me out on a date, please stay away from bookstores because you will be forever ignored.

And what did I get myself this time? 3 good reading materials.

1. H+ A New Religion by Edward De Bono.
2. Why do men fall asleep after sex by Mark Leyner and Billy Goldberg.
3. Majalah GQ yang ada cerita pasal how the Gay Governor in US led a double life.



As a ‘lateral thinker’ (I’m very sure I am...) anything by Edward De Bono is a must for me. De Bono is a leading authority in the field of creative thinking and the direct teaching of thinking as a skill. He has written 62 books with translations into 37 languages.

De Bono coined the term ‘lateral thinking’ which treats creativity as the behaviour of information in a self-organising information system - such as the neural networks in the brain.

Anyway, this H+ book is a bit different as it proposes how we should live life positively through happiness, humour, help, hope and health.
Interesting betul and I dah baca 50% dah.

I love to read different books at the same time. Macam 30 minutes baca buka A, lepas tu dah boring baca buku B pulak.

Another book that I bought = a fun reading one -- “Why do men fall asleep after sex?”.


You must read it. Among others it talks about:

1. Why do women pee more than men?
2. Why don’t men listen?
3. Why do men need to wear jock strap?
4. Can bald men get lice?

And lots more...

Ok..Ok... before anyone can say anything, yes Razin, you are on the circulation list. Nanti habis baca I kasi you ‘tenggek’ buku-buku ni. Razin somehow loves my book collection kecuali the B2B orange one – memang buku tu boring macam sial.

Oh, BTW, ’tenggek’ is a Malay College term for:

1. Pinjam tapi lepas tu kemut bertahun-tahun.
2. Ambik tapi tak bagi tahu tuan empunya.
3. Bawak lari barang tanpa pengetahuan tuannya tapi perangai buruk ni dimaafkan.
4. Curi yang dihalalkan.
5. All of the above.

When we were in MCKK, selipar jepon yang pakai untuk mandi selalu kena tenggek. Ubat gigi pun selalu kena tenggek.

And what’s for buka puasa today?

Entahlah. Belum fikir lagi.. Yang sesimple sudahlah.

But yesterday, me and Papa Khalid had Italian. (Jangan salah anggap ok.. bukan orang Italy ok... hmmm... tapi makanannya ajer).

We had pappardelle, spaghetti marinara, and walnut + vanilla icecream. Best... rasa macam kat Rome plak... pirah...













Selamat beramal.

I benci lipas...I benci lipas

Respect & Sahur with A-Yun and Richard

Today is the second day of Ramadan. I arrived at the office at about 11 am.

I slept very late last night. At 2:30 am Richard called and said, “Hoi, bangun, jom pergi sahur – dapat pahala sikit”.

And in 10 minutes, I arrived in Bangsar and joined A-Yun and Richard. Sahur with Richard? Yes... Richard, a Baba Melaka. He’s not a Muslim, but he reminded me to have my sahur. And many of my Chinese friends are also fasting. It’s not the first time. They have been doing it for many years.

When I asked them why, they said:

1. Out of respect for the month of Ramadan and their Muslim friends.
2. To give the digestive system a break – a great detox.
3. They just puasa – no need for reasons. Apa... Tak boleh ker?

Now, isn’t that great? This is what the “wannabe politicians’ should see. Stop using racial issues to drum up support for themselves because at the grassroots level the rakyat are doing just fine ‘integrating’ in a much more honest way – tanpa dipaksa-paksa or tanpa fake tempelan on TV where kalau ada concert kena ada quota penyanyi Cina and Tamil. Among us, in many communities, we have reached a new level of understanding based on mutual respect.

When we respect ourselves and others, we will get respect back. When we treat children with respect, they will grow up and become great humans. Respect = love.

Even animals too... I treat my 25 cats and 2 dogs at home with respect and they show their love by protecting the family.

And the lesson is – Cinta itu datang dari hati yang luhur. Beri cinta dapatlah cinta.

Dan di bawah ini wajah-wajah adix-beradix on the first day of puasa at the office.



Ashwad


Mar


Papa Khalid


Rizal


Me



-----
some of the pix are from www.fotosearch.com

Laskopek before Ramadan

Yes, laskopek...

Yesterday, the last day before Ramadan, I went to have my last makan-makan siang before puasa at my favourite place Devi’s Corner at Taman Tun. Makan hati ayam and pedal masak berempah pekat and fishcake masak bercili – see, I’m just so easy to please... Low maintenance...

I scheduled a meeting there with Shamsher Gill, the GM of Entiti Media to discuss the marcomm aspects of his “Business Intelligence” project which will be made available at www.thepassport.com.my.

Papa Khalid came later and after the meeting we went menyoping for toiletries.


Sham Gill


Me


Papa Khalid

Earlier, it sure was a pleasure to ‘terserempak’ with old time buddy masa sekolah kat Malay College dulu -- Amirul Shukry Kadri and wife at The Curve. Amirul was always the top student in class when we were in MCKK.

He is now a Transformation Coach, NLP Practitioner and well known for “The Millionaire In You Program”. It’s just so nice to meet old friends who are successful today and HAPPY (read: successful tu sometimes tak semestinya happy... dalam maksudnya tu).

Today, so far I have wasted half the day melepak kat rumah on the first day of puasa ni. I have no plans for bukak puasa (hint...hint... ajaklah..ajaklah bukak puasa kat mana-mana ker, tak reti-reti..).

I guess I’ll just minum air sejuk for buka puasa and something sweet and go out later for real food.

Selamat beramal.

Another beautiful Journey

No, I didn’t have to drive alone to Melaka as Razin and Don decided to wait for me instead of going to Melaka early. So nice of them...
We went in Razin’s car.

We left at about 4:15 pm after I finished my talk on “The Changing Landscape of the Media in Malaysia” at Malaysia Institute of Integrative Media.

As usual we cracked jokes and laughed non-stop throughout the journey.


Don making us laugh


Don again

But the traffic near the Seremban toll was just so bad. Dari dulu sampai sekarang.
When is this going to change? Entahlah...


Dari 4 lorong jadi satu lorong, kemudian 2 lorong.

We stopped for a while at a rest area after Seremban untuk sembahyang.


Razin ambil air sembahyang


Don tengah sembahyang

We arrived at Smartshop Melaka at Mahkota Parade to deliver the barang-barang at about 8 pm. Razin was such a great leader – the Managing Director of Smartshop, he himself helped to deliver the goods, bertanya khabar... baru orang respect.

After unloading, we went straight to the Serkam/Umbai Medan Ikan Bakar and had dinner at about 8:30 pm.

And I finally got my kupang. We however were quite disappointed because the kupang tak fresh dan kecut. However the fish was fresh and the crab was yummy.


Ikan Tiga Rasa


Kupang

After dinner, around 10:30pm, we arrived at Kolej Yayasan Saad to pick up Abang (Razin’s son, Rashad) right after the students habis Sembahyang Hajat for the coming examinations.

Abang was already waiting outside the dorm when we arrived, with his huge bag to spend the weekend with the family in KL. Abang has grown into a fine young man. A form 2 student, he’s well behaved, polite and very intelligent and likes to ask really good questions. He asked ‘Daddy’ about the UTP project and upcoming projects.

However, I didn’t get to talk much with Abang as right after he finished eating the medium Cadbury Chocolate Bar with Hazel Nuts that I bought for him, he fell asleep. And he slept all the way till KL. He must have had a tiring day at school. He looked serene in his sleep. He would have smiled in his sleep if he knows how Razin talks about him to me all the time and how Razin is so proud of him.

We reached KL at about 1 am. Abang was still ‘blurrr’ when I said “Goodnite Abang, see you...” Tidurlah...