Betrayal

A friend of mine seeks my ‘pandangan’ about the following. She feels she is being used and betrayed.



Situation:

I have invested time, efforts and emotions to help out a friend to realize his dreams. We worked hard and went through hell sometimes. Now, he has achieved his dreams. And what about me? I’ve been sidelined and being made to feel worthless.

My ‘pandangan’ (trying to be as objective as possible):



There could be other things that he has not been telling you. May be he has lots of shit to deal with or he is just in deep shit. Men don’t talk about these things and they would normally end up having heart attacks and die on the sidewalk (while wearing Zegna suit) because they bottled up everything. So, you might want to find out the degree of shit he is in and there are 2 options:

1. Make sure he tells the truth and start mapping out possible ways to get out of the mess using lateral thinking skills, that is if he wants to become good againlah… But some people are just like dung beetle. They like to make huge castles made of shit and live in it and eat the walls made of shit too. But no matter what, he has to come in with ‘clean hands’. Don’t ever sever ties…



2. Leave him to deal with the shit after you hit his head with a hammer. Because in the first place he should have explained the shitty truth and ask your opinion whether you want to play shit with him. If you knew, you would not, right? But tuhan tak suruh kita pukul kepala kawan dengan tukul besi atau gergaji badan kawan-kawan.

Your pandangan?

Please…

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And today on the front page of The Star, are quotes by people who were supposed to lead us. They make huge houses secara tak sah. And boy do they have lots of money…



Talking about money, stories about how small time business people having to pay amount like RM100,000 to get small contracts/projects and all, is nothing new.

Not only that, sometimes the small time businessmen had to buy new sofa sets for Hari Raya, and also pay the mobile phone bills for these assholes, just to ensure long term projects will continue to come.

My word for these people -- SIAL

“An honest dictatorship is always better than a corrupt democracy”

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Pix from www.fotosearch.com

Mata Raya Jam Raya…

Today Mar came to the opis pakai jam raya and contact lens raya – aqua blue beb.. jangan marah… At our opis, buatlah apa nak buat… nak pakai kain pelikat ker, nak terpeleot ker… janji kerja jalan dan clients dapat the best from us.

Sebab ‘ulat dan cacing creative’ dari dalam badan perlu channel untuk keluar. Baru creative outputnyer.

So Mar Izwan… pheeeweeet.



Cekem tak nak tukar contact lens hazel ke purple ker?

Friends

Sometimes, certain songs are just pure ‘magic’.

This particular one (you can 'click on' shortly) is just so ‘brilliant’. It’s an old song made popular by Carole King and also James Taylor. When I heard it this morning hati rasa macam zooop – naik-turun roller-coaster because I can relate to it as I have a small circle of friends that I can really count on.

I googled the lyrics and recorded my voice, edit it and tambah effects macam dalam gua (thank you Ian) so ada sedap sikitlah telinga dengar. And for those yang nak feeling atau terasa, layanlah… Kalau perlu ear-plug, beli sendiri.

Kurus sikit .. janji ada progress..

I can now wear my old jeans… Maksudnya, I lost weight sikit lah kan?

But when I looked in the mirror macam tak der perubahan pun. But I guess my peha and bontot ada sikit mengecil kot.

One of the hikmah of puasa… Alhamdulillah.





Anyway, yesterday, I had a very good meeting with my two good friends, and ex-TV3 like me, Tengku Rozidar and Sharifah Shawati.

We are working on an exciting new business venture catering to the needs of the mind, the body and the soul.

Also on the team is my junior kat MCKK dulu Mansor Tun Aziz and Bon Zainal. Bon’s manager, who is also Hans Isaac’s sister Lynette also attended the meeting at Dome, BSC.


Rozidar & Shawati

Tengku Rozidar, former TV3 & RTM journalist/anchor is now the famours 1901 franchise rights holder -- Franchisor.

Shawati, who was once a very hardworking lifestyle journalist and anchor for TV3 after leaving MAS, is today an image consultant who owns ADAMAYA, a salon ++ in Tanan Melawati.

We TV people have all moved on to better things… Syukur.. But we worked hard and smart gak...

Bon Zainal used to make nice jackets for me when I was a TV presenter. He is an image consultant.

And Mansor Tun Aziz is just multi-talented and susah nak categorize or silo him as he is just so good in whatever he does. Lately he is well known for contributing great stories for PRESTIGE magazine.

A "tribute" to Papa Khalid.

When I was struggling to find a job, right after my Masters degree, Papa Khalid already made a name for himself as a recording artiste in Malaysia.

Together with Jamal Manap they formed ASIARASA, and made quite an impact as Malaysia's hot singing duo.





I like the songs in the album which was produced by Manan Ngah of Ciku Records and distributed by BMG.

After that Papa Khalid joined TV3, that’s where we met and until today we are really good friends.

I suggested to him to do a ‘remake’ and ‘remix’ and make a comeback. With creative perception management to fulfill the needs of today’s listeners, who knows it could be a major success.


Papa Khalid dengan imej ala-ala ganas gitu

Today, Papa Khalid is his own boss and collaborates with us on organizing events etc.

He is also my makan-makan buddy and always preoccupied drawing up Programme Running Order with details yang amat sangat.

Baiklah... Kelab Malam Silver Tortoise kini mempersembahkan Papa Khalid & Asiarasa..

Click dan nikmatilah

I’m still in the holiday mood!!!

Me, Rizal and Papa Khalid started work yesterday. Work? Dah gila? We just lepak and did a lot of net browsing, and a bit of planning for the upcoming projects. It’s like 90% play 10% work.

And today, like yesterday, I’ll mandi at the office. Just so lazy to shower at home. So as usual, I grabbed my T-shirt, and pakai shorts and off to the office.

And oh ya, Mokciknab, for your info, so that I smell nice, I ‘tenggek’ (MCKK’s term for curi pakai barang orang lain, tapi perbuatan itu dimaafkan) your Marks & Spencer's Rose Body Spray. So now I smell like bunga rose and sirap bandung. Talk about delicious man… Pheeweet.





I'll wait till like after lunch, then will showerlah (kalau rajinlah).





Anyway, after leaving them for about 3 days, I guess the fish in the aquarium marah campur merajuk kot. So they rosakkan the water pump and I had to buy a new one yesterday.





Other than the above I’ve been a relatively good boy, compared to certain people. I stayed home, read books and magazines, waiting for friends to return from their kampungs. After that barulah jumpa and beraya.

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Gambar-gambar adalah hiasan semata-mata. Tidak ada kena mengena dengan yang hidup atau pun mati. Source: Google Images.

I’m home for Raya.

Home is where the heart is…

I just love my Sungai Ramal Dalam House in Kajang. It is surrounded by pokok-pokok buah-buahan yang merimbun. Once in a while you'll hear the teriak of the monkeys, bunyi angsa and the birds. The sights and sounds always help me to relax.


The steps to the house from the dusun.


About to reach the house from the dusun.


The house..


The house with sentuhan creative by my nephew, Syazani.

And our house is not ‘pretentious’. You know how some people transformed their houses to look like ‘museums’ and showpieces’... Our house is just a tempat lepak where we can just be ourselves. We have moved on from the previous stage of perlunya membeli kerusi berkerawang-kerawang, Noritake, Queen Anne and such (sungguh tak larat). Now, we just love to makan kat dapur macam pergi camping. It’s just so real.


Dad and his cucu-cucu kat dapur.


Mom and Dad and Jida.


Syaza ‘the perfect host’ tengah tuang air.


Dakbang and the doctor in the house, Kak Ani.


“Apalah Ami ni ambik gambar mak belum make-up?” “Tak yah make-uplah mak, dah cantik dah, natural beauty mak”

So where will you find the whole Sulaiman family on Raya Day? Kat dapur ‘mengulang’ makanan (Mengulang is mom’s term for sambung balik makan) with the TV on and the cats enjoying their meal outside.

The cats love to merayau-rayau. Here are yang malas nak jalan dan lepak kat serambi.





I’m thankful to Allah that I still get to beraya with my parents who are in relatively good health (after various visits to IJN – dad, and Ampang Puteri – mom).

And I get to learn lots of new IT stuff from my IT savvy nephew, Syazani, an MMU undergraduate majoring in Creative Multimedia.


Syaza tengah gerudi my laptop.


Posing kat pokok-pokok.

Bahasa Jiwa Bangsa

I was at a mamak stall and saw the pricelist.

Teh Tarik RM 1.00
Teh Ais 1.10
Teh Pongkus 1:20

And what in the world is pongkus? I asked the tukang bancuh minuman and he said “itu teh, taruh dalam plastic kasi”. Oh BUNGKUS (as in take-away, to go).



Next,

I went to a wet market and suddenly saw huge frogs in a cage right in front of me. When it comes to frogs, I geli nak mampos and I terus latah .. “Oi..Babi..” And the frog seller, not knowing the latah phenomenon said “Aiya boss, itu mukan babi, itu katak”.

Oklah.


Then on one of my journeys I saw the following signboard kat kedai:

“Tukang Jahit Perempuan”



So, have you been cutting your women lately?

Ouchhh…

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Pix from www.fotosearch.com

Fitrah

Earlier this evening, after Maghrib, I paid my Zakat Fitrah.

Unlike the previous years, this time I cried when I paid the Zakat Fitrah.

I cried out of kesyukuran because I have a relatively good life.



A good life? Yes, because over the past one week, I have been getting calls from friends (many, mind you) who are in need of help – mostly financial help.

Maklumlah pre-raya expenses and all. But why? Hari Raya is not a time to impress others with our material wealth!!! It is about kesyukuran. Some of them go through ridiculous rituals yang tak masuk akal just because they think people will love them more because they live their lives based on expectations of others.



Thank God, I don’t have that need. I feel good driving a Perodua Kembara (many said, apa ni Cek Mie, you kena pakai at least Perdana, baru style).

I feel ok wearing baju less then RM15 from FOS or Reject Shop. And I feel good pakai selipar and makan kat gerai. My t-shirts are ‘buy 2 get one free”.

After paying the fitrah’ it rained cats and dogs.



I wrapped my phone and wallet in a plastic bag from Guardian Pharmacy and walked in the rain without the umbrella as the umbrella was in the car. I normally would not walk in the rain ‘without protection’ as it would ruin my nicely-styled hair (how shallow can we be…). But this time, I walked calmly, unaffected and enjoyed the rain falling on my face lalu ku lafazkan:

Ya Allah ampunkanlah dosa hamba mu ini yang selalu lupa bersyukur.
Aku bersyukur dilahirkan dalam keluarga bahagia.
Aku bersyukur dibesarkan oleh pasangan Sulaiman Atan dan Fatimah Saadom, daddy dan mama, dua insan yang sungguh mulia.
Aku bersyukur kerana Kau memberiku rezeki yang tidak pernah putus.
Aku bersyukur dikelilingi oleh rakan-rakan niaga yang bijak dan sentiasa melindungiku dari kekejaman dunia -- I love you Kamarul Bahrin Haron (Cekem), Tengku Elida Bustaman (Mokciknab), Papa Khalid and my staff -- Rizal, Ian, Mar and Ashwad who would always ‘remind’ me in their own ways to berdiri dalam alam nyata.
Aku bersyukur tidak terjerumus dan khayal serta rakus mengumpul ‘material’ duniawi.
Aku bersyukur atas kesihatan yang Kau kurniakan.
Aku bersyukur Kau sentiasa memberiku peluang untuk memperbaiki diri dan terus memberi masa untukku beramal.

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And when Husni called and we met for coffee at about 10pm, we shared our thoughts on ‘kesyukuran’ and we thanked Allah for making us OK people and not trapped in the hurry to amass material wealth and get into lots of trouble. We have our problems and all, fine... Itu dugaan untuk menjadi manusia lebih hebat. But we are not and never in deep shit.

But I also cried because I tak berdaya membantu my friends who are trapped in the quest for material wealth when they really need me to help save them. I’m so sad. I don’t have the resources.

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Pics courtesy www.fotosearch.com.

Pre-Raya

I woke up late today after a deep night sleep – finally… after so many weeks of only 2-3 hours of sleep per night. Mungkin the whole day of traveling yesterday to Tronoh to do the presentation to our client and back to KL on the same day yang buat melepek tu. Tak cukup tidur buat muka nampak dehydrated, but thanks to Nivea Oil Control Gel and Miyami # 3 nampak fresh sikit.



I decided not to go to the office today due to “plain malas” nak mandi, tak ada mood nak blow dry rambut and liat nak gosok baju.



Furthermore I only have one T-shirt left and one underwear and bermuda yang sekali pakai tapi dah spray dengan Febreze, so kira freshlah. Baju nak basuh bertimbun-timbun setinggi busut sarang anai-anai. Help!!! I need a slave not a maid.



So I decided to work from home today and should the guys at the office need my help they can just call. But by now surely Ashwad dah balik Kedah, Mokciknab already in Jakarta, Cekem on the way to Perlis, Ian to Penang, Mar balik Perak/Sarawak ker kat KL jer? Rizal will probably in Bangi kot?



Kalau ada pun, Papa Khalid (yang baru cabut wisdom tooth yang tiba-tiba tumbuh, yes at mid 40s..) who, macam I, our kampung is just 10 minutes away from Bangsar.

Papa Khalid’s kaum kerabat are based in Keramat, and my Mom & Dad kat Sungai Ramal, Kajang – yes we ‘uprooted’ ourselves from Ramuan China Kecil, Lubok China Melaka and merantau . Dah ado dalam darah orang kito memang suko merantau.

Our house in Sungai Ramal is just next to ABIM’s HQ – Yer, rumah yang ada 3 kolam ikan besar yang melambak-lamabak ikan tilapia tu… with 20 something kucing and 2 anjing yang mild and baik – The dogs hanya garang untuk halau monyet yang dok curi buah-buahan from our dusun yang mengelilingi kolam ikan.



I will go back home to Kajang on Raya day and lepas tu mati kutu. So looks like me and Papa Khalid will go jalan-jalan cari teh tarik while geng-geng lain cuti kat kampung during the long holidays.

To all, Selamat Hari Raya, Maaf Zahir & Batin.

And to my Indian friends, Happy Deepavali – Kalau tak simpan muruku kat gua, kau siap…

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Pics courtesy www.fotosearch.com

Brainstorming bulan puasa & berangan dalam kereta…

While I was stuck in a jam from Kelana Jaya to TTDI, on the way to buka puasa just now, I berangan. That was not the first time… In fact I berangan all the time. Sometimes the berangans were just so real sampai boleh menangis… Betul…



And today my berangan (oh yes, for the uninitiated, berangan is something like a fantasy, or a make believe situation or just simply dreaming) was about -- what if all of the sudden I have a fan out there who just adores me for who I am (gemok, berbulu, hitam, loud, repulsive, ada sinus sikit tapi best giler dan akai boleh pakai wai…) and decided to transfer 1 billion ringgit into my account.

And I smiled all the way to Taman Tun and tried hard to wipe off the smile when I met Papa Khalid. Oh well… Papa Khalid (who is so used to my kepala tak betul) wouldn’t even ask me why I senyum ledor-lebor.



Anyway what would I do with the money:

1. Continue to live in a small studio apartment with rental like RM1,200 per month -- I can’t manage big space.

2. Renovate the place so that it would be 75% kitchen and 25% sleeping and work area. Why kitchen? Coz I just miss cooking so much.




3. Continue driving my Perodua Kembara tapi tukar CD player kepada yang lebih canggih supaya kengkawan tak komplen apasal tiba-tiba volume jadi max lepas tu senyap.

4. Open a small café yang jual sambal – Only sambal (of course lah ada nasi and ulam). On the menu will be sambal udang, sambal sardine, sambal sotong, sambal kerang, sambal ketam, sambal ayam and sambal ikan bilis. Mee goreng semua tak der. The place will be known as Sambal Suhaimi (SS… oklah syok sendiri – like masturbation).

5. Invest the rest of the money in some financial instruments with good returns and travel like 3 times a year and write about my travels and buat buku travel.



6. Buat my own TV channel on the internet or on this blogspot. Semalam I tried to upload my video tapi sound pulak tak der. Trying to figure out apasal…

7. Sedut lemak kat dagu, chest and waist and be forever comel walau pun hilang sensation kat tempat-tempat tu (but what for? I don’t need to impress no one).

8. Pergi operation buang stretch marks kat punggung. Razin said, lelaki, mana ada stretch marks beb.. Abis yang aku ada stretch marks menimbun ni apa hal? And last time I checked gua lelaki beb, apasal ada stretch marks? (but what for? Siapa nak pergi inspect punggung I… hmmm).




9. Buat hair transplant kat tempat receding aristocratic hairline. Sakit tak? (but what for? Jugek botak nampak ok jer…In fact ada kata sexy wor..)

10. I guess that’s all kot… I am low maintenance..

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Before that, we had a brainstorming session at the office. Brainstorming bulan puasa ni ada manyak susah worr.. Yang tak hisap rokok takleh concentrate.. Yang tak cukup gula dalam system lagi fening-fening.



So in the end we ended up smiling and keluarlah kata-kata:

“Su, your proposal ok lah tu..”
“Looks Ok. Your call”
“We can always count on you for a terrific proposal”.

And I said, “sebelum aku telanjang (which is supposed to mean sebelum aku mengamok) baik kau point out mana yang tak best dalam proposal ni?”



Moral of the story.. bulan puasa quota berfikir cuma from morning to 2 pm. But morning means different things to different people. To some people at my opis, morning means, bila depa sampai opis… ada 9 am, ada 11am ada noon… suka hati jer..
After reading this they might just use the following script:

Line Mereka: Cek mi sindir kita ker?
Line Gua: Eh tak marahlah, nanti kena jual.
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Anyway, yesterday’s buka puasa was great. 4 generations of budak kolek (MCKK old boys) got together and cerita benda-benda mengarut over Tom Yam, Ikan Tilapia with Special Thai Sauce and Kung Pao Chicken and lots more:

1. Me (class of 79).
2. Razin (class of 81).
3. Kichi (class of 96).
4. Rizal (class of 2000).
5. Yes…we miss you Morkymoqq (class of 96).

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Pics from www.fotosearch.com