TRAFFIC

It’s Friday, a potential traffic congested day, after office hour. Add up some rain and the taste would be perfect. People were always asking this question

“Bila hujan jer jem, aper keta kat Malaysia nie xder bumbung ker?”

I’ll always make sure to leave the office when it’s raining, not after it’s stopped. The road always cleared during that time, which derived the question above, why doesn’t other drivers went out during that time? It could be that they parked outside, but, all of them?

I’ve heard the government wanted to stop motorcycles from entering Kuala Lumpur to prevent congestion. That’s an idea that was OK. I mean, yes, it could help although I don’t think it would help much.

I went through Jln Ampang every morning for 4 years now. One doesn’t have to go there to see what the real problem were. Buses and taxis. That’s the top reason, for me at least, that congested the traffics.

Taxi drivers have special license. Yes its true. I don’t know who issued it to them but they have one. The license gave them authority to stop anywhere they want, without giving any signal, and without giving any thought who’s behind them. No, it’s not from JPJ obviously, more likely its from JTN (Jabatan Teksi Negara). Don’t bother to look for it, it’s top secret, only in Malaysia.

I’m a Muslim, and I believed that among others, you have to work without troubling others to have your income blessed. How many times do we hear Taxi drivers’ complaining that they didn’t have enough? The rates are too low they said, the rents were too high. How can you get enough, how can you get your income blessed if every day when you were doing your job people around you cursed you for what you did?

I understand Taxi drivers’ have to be alert to people standing beside the road, but all the time? Then what are the Taxi Stands for? Of course, some of the passengers have to be blamed too. They should wait at the taxi stand instead in front of their houses, remember, you not only troubled the traffics, but the taxi driver too. Others were cursing the taxi driver, not you!!!

Buses, yes, the bull of Kuala Lumpur, and we are the matador. The traffics were congested one day and about 100 meters from my car was a bus stop, with a bus already there, picking up some passengers. About 3-4 cars behind the first bus were another bus. The buses and I were all in the left lane. The right lane was flowing slowly but smoothly. The first bus has stopped the left lane.

Then the second bus started to charge right, like a bull, with the matadors on the right line dodging the charge. I was patient at that time, seeing the bus acting like that. So right now the right lane has been stopped too. I was thinking, the second bus couldn’t want to stop at the bus station, after what he did. I mean, that’s the reason right? For him to trouble others while going to the right lane.

Well, I was wrong! After the second bus enter the right lane, the first bus started to leave. Now the left lane started to flow. Keep in mind that the second one was only 3-4 cars behind the first. Then it happened, the second bus charged back to the left lane, into the bus station, to drop its passengers. As a result, both lanes stopped!!

What the f*%k is all that? That thing always happened, the thing lack was obviously patient. Bus drivers obviously knew where their stops are, right?

We should have more means of public transportation. More Putra and LRT should be built to accommodate people living in outskirt of Kuala Lumpur like Ampang, Segambut etc. When we have enough, please stop, if not, reduce the amount of buses and taxis entering the city, I for one, have enough of them.

Game On!

I’ve got to tell you that yesterday were the damn great paintball game that I’ve ever played. It’s the first time I’ve played at Kuang, Sungai Buloh and it’s my third time playing paintball, in fact, all my teammates were. Situated about 40 minutes from KL, it’s a long journey, but simply worth it. It’s one of the cheapest paintball games in Malaysia, with RM65 for 200 bullets and a large “battlefield”, you couldn’t find a much better bargain than that. However, rumours that I’ve heard stating that RM70 for 300 bullets in Gombak worth a checking. But that’s for another day.

I’ve first heard about paintball was when I’m still studying in Uniten. It was at Bukit Tinggi. Being a student, I simply can’t afford to go all the way there and paid for the game, who was way too expensive, even to this day. I’ve heard there’s a place somewhere in Sunway that lets you play for RM50 for 4 bullets. That’s simply bullshit! What are you going to do with 4 damn bullets? Or are they magic bullets I wonder?

The rules of the game are simple. I summarize it into two. Don’t ever lift your facemask during the game. Don’t! The momentum of the bullets could firstly, blind your eye, permanently and secondly if it struck your face, you will stayed in your house for two weeks, guaranteed. There are a lot of stray bullets cases that I’ve encountered, and most of them passed above or at the side of your head. Listen to the Marshals carefully, only lift it when you were asked to do so, meaning, at the end of the game.

Secondly, it was fun, yes, to shoot at people, but it would be very advisable not to shoot your opponent at point blank range, hell it hurts! If it’s a tournament, fine, you HAVE to shoot them, but during recball (a term for friendly games), it’s for fun, although the shooting will definitely NOT taking the fun out for the players, it still hurts. Friendly fire cannot be avoided (I had three yesterday from the same person), but it is good to be careful and aware of your surroundings. In short, please identify your friends well.

The best thing to do was (if the opponents’ back was in front of you, if you’re face to face, shoot like there’s no tomorrow, hahaha) go behind him silently and tap him with your hand or weapon. If he doesn’t comply and start shooting at you back, butt him with your weapon, hahaha, just joking.

The basic gears are the facemask and the gun. There’s an optional gears if you ever want one, camouflage suit, neck and knee guard etc. You have to rent them out.

I scored three kills, one capture and two hits yesterday. We played the standard game (if you’re shot, you’re out), capture the flag, capture the flag with the terrorist holed up in two houses and zombie, where you have infinite lives until you’re shot in the head.

The place was big compare to the last place. The last place was very small, about half of a hockey field, with bunkers scattered, and yes, I was afraid to go out. My mind couldn’t moved my body after it has determined that there’s 90% chances that I’m going to get shot if I ever going out of the bunker. There’s not much place to maneuver and you will know immediately where your opponents are and where will they be next.

However, in Kuang, as the place was very big, you could plan your move, there’s a whole lot of hiding places and hell, I even lead some of my teammates out yesterday and it was good to be at the back of enemy line, capturing one and shot one in the process.

I’ve seen guys and girls playing the games together, I even saw all girls battle out each other. I understand most people were afraid to play this game, afraid of being shot and getting hurt. I saw one of my friends yesterday, a newbie, his face was so pale. After the game, he admits that he was afraid at first, but after getting shot for the first time and realize that it doesn’t hurt much, he started to really enjoyed the game, delivering one headshot and received two in return, hahaha. Believed me, yes it hurts, but no one that I know playing this game ever quits when they tried it for the first time, neither guys nor girls. They always asked for more.

My team were going to kick each other butt again somewhere in September, venue either Kuang or Gombak, if it promised a more good time. We still looking for recruits to join us, if any of you out there are interested, either to watch us or to join us, you are more than welcome. Just leave your email or website at the comment column, and I’ll contact you.

Materazzi admits insulting Zidane

MILAN, Italy - Marco Materazzi admits he insulted Zinedine Zidane before the France captain head-butted him in the World Cup final. Materazzi denies calling him a "terrorist."

"I did insult him, it's true," Materazzi said in Tuesday's Gazzetta dello Sport. "But I categorically did not call him a terrorist. I'm not cultured and I don't even know what an Islamic terrorist is."

Zidane and Materazzi exchanged words after Italy broke up a French attack in extra-time of Sunday's final in Berlin. Seconds later, Zidane lowered his head and rammed Materazzi in the chest, knocking him to the ground.

Zidane was sent off, reducing France to 10 men. Italy won the game in a penalty shootout.

"I held his shirt for a few seconds only, then he turned round and spoke to me, sneering," the Italian defender said. "He looked me up and down, arrogantly and said: 'If you really want my shirt, I'll give it to you afterwards.'"

The 32-year-old Inter Milan player did not elaborate exactly on what he said to Zidane.

"It was one of those insults you're told tens of times and that always fly around the pitch," he said.

Media reports, based on interpretations by lip-readers, have suggested that Materazzi called Zidane a terrorist or insulted his mother or sister. Materazzi denies these claims, too.

"For me, the mother is sacred, you know that," Materazzi told the newspaper.

Materazzi is no stranger to controversy. He was suspended for two months for punching Siena defender Bruno Cirillo after a Serie A game in February 2004, and earned condemnation following a brutal tackle on Sweden and Juventus striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic in October 2005.

Materazzi was also sent off three times while playing for Everton in the 1998-99 season.

One Italian senator even suggested that Materazzi — also sent off three times while playing for Everton in the 1998-99 season — didn't merit selection for the Italian team because of his physical style.

Zidane also is known for having a temper. He was sent off for stomping on a Saudi Arabian opponent at the 1998 World Cup, while at Germany 2006 he was banned for France's group match against Togo.

Five years ago with Juventus, Zidane head-butted an opponent in a Champions League match against Hamburger SV after being tackled from behind.

Meanwhile, Rome Mayor Walter Veltroni accused FIFA of double standards, noting that soccer's governing body named Zidane as the tournament's best player after his head-butt, while Italy forward Francesco Totti was kicked out of the 2004 European Championship for spitting in an opponent's face.

"I notice a difference in the way in which Totti was treated after the spit and the way in which Zinedine Zidane has been lauded as a champion of soccer, even though he is held responsible for such a violent blow that it could even have had devastating effects," Veltroni said.

FIFA announced Tuesday it will open a disciplinary investigation into Zidane's conduct.

FIFA also said that the ballot box for the tournament's top player — voted by journalists — was open until after the final had ended, making it impossible to know how many ballots were cast before the match and during it.
___
Associated Press writer Marta Falconi contributed to this story from Rome.

By ANDREW ROBERTS, Associated Press Writer

Viva Italia!!!

Was it worth it to sleep at 10 P.M., woke up at 2 A.M., watched the game till 5.30, couldn’t sleep till at least 6, woke up with a headache, all this trouble just to watch the Italians beat the French? The hell it did!!! Against all the criticisms back home with the announcement waiting for them after the match, they did it, after 24 years of waiting. On top of it, every single penalty counts! The cursed of Roberto Baggio has ended, I think J.

They never failed to make it to the finals every 12 years, I kept my fingers crossed though during the penalty shootout. I’ve been expecting Euro 2000 playback, although it went a little differently. Here, the French scored first, the Italians catch up again with a header from Materazzi. Materrazi is a very important man in the finals yesterday, don’t you agree? It was he who gives the penalty to the French, it was he who scored for the Italians side, and it was he who make Zidane been sent off, and that’s an Inter player for you, hahaha.

Regarding the head-butt, I think Materazzi was making a joke. It was typical of him to make a joke almost about anything, although he has always been the one who’s been send off, but he was a great friend nonetheless. He kept in touch with Figo during the finals, and always texting Cordoba whose country failed to show up in this final. It seems Zidane doesn’t took it very well, and yeah, it shocked everyone for what he did, no one expected it, the ball was never near them at all for a start.

Anyway, it was a great first half, the second half sees both sides playing conservetaly, the only action that really worth gasping was during the time Luca Toni scored (offside) and the header from Zidane. During the shoot-out, I hold my breath during Del Piero’s and Grosso’s kick. Del Piero, after all this year, managed to not fail the fans again. He was a great player, although he doesn’t show much of his worth during world’s finals, but he somehow, an inspiration to all the fans. Viva Italia!!!!

Hope

Will they won the cup again this year for the 4th time? I don’t know, I mean, I do hope so, but hope mean nothing when you’re a fan of the Italians. They have entered the finals at 1994 and Euro 2000 and what do they get? Nothing.

The only thing that I could do right was cheering them all the way, though I would be lying if I say that I don’t expect anything from them. I do HOPE they win, but most of the feelings were kept inside, I don’t want to be brokenhearted again, as I have with Inter for the past four years.

I was smiling all the way to the office today, hah, that’s the benefit of an Italian fans, if the team loose, no one cares, but if they won, hahaha, I think you know what I mean.

The team this year didn’t consist of great players in my point of view. Of course, even filled with great players like in 1994 doesn’t give them anything back. I was glad when Lippi taken over the helm. I was curious to see what he would do to the team. Would he bring back the glory as what he did with Juventus?

In Trapattoni era, the players tell it all, defensive style of playing. I hate his style of playing. It was too typical, too classic. Italians have enough defensive players, why added the strikers to it? I was hoping for Zaccaronni at first, but Zac was too offensive, if he was on the helm, you would see the Italians played with 3 defenders, which is a very rare sight, believed me.

With Lippi, he managed till now to blend just the right element for both defence and offence. I was glad that he chose offend for the last night match. In fact, I was shocked; I thought that he would choose a defensive style of play, against Germany’s home ground advantage but no, he choose offensive instead. How often do you see the Italians, going into extra time, choose to sub all of his players with attackers on a single game? I can’t recall any, Iaquinta, Gilardino and Del Piero were put in while maintaining Totti, Pirlo and Gattuso.

It was a good game compared when they fought against the Australian. For the game tonight between France and Portugal, my best bet was with the Portuguese, when Scolari behind them, anything could happened.

Maskahwin yang Hilang

I’ve heard about this website and the book that they promoted. Maskahwin yang Hilang was the title. The books claimed that they could show a way for any couple on how to get RM 10,000 for the big day. It wasn’t through the pyramid schemes or MLM or so they claimed. I didn’t quite bother at it at first.

However, curiosity took the best of me, and I went to their website last Wednesday, bought the book online for RM 18 (7 days arrival guaranteed) and it arrived yesterday. Not bad for a Malaysian to produce such a book I must say. Although not as enrich as Rich Dad, Poor Dad it was not bad either. The book is more practical and reflects our culture.

It gives the readers ways to cut their cost of living and gives some suggestion to earn extra income. It didn’t encourage or discourage people to join MLM but gives an insight on who should join and who shouldn’t. Anyone can read this book from clerk to executive. Of course, the book was made for the bachelors out there. Rich Dad, Poor Dad was more American, not everything is practical here, but this book could.

However, most of the ways suggested in the book were familiar to me, some of them I’ve already implemented in my life. But to those out there that want to further their readings, this book could be good. The words were in simple BM. I give the book 3 out of 5 if you asked me. It wasn’t the best, but wasn’t bad either. Gives the link a try :-).

Kuala Berang Vs Taiping

My team lost last Saturday in the match league between Ansara Kuala Berang and Ansara Taiping. My boys were high in spirits, stating that the Taiping’s were bookworms, and there were no way that they could beat us. The stats showed otherwise, with 22 goals last season and a draw with Asputra last week, this team could deliver a punch to my team.

My team was just formed about two weeks ago. This was a third team that I handled. With the first team went well while the second didn’t. This third team was actually a fraction from the second team. My point of view with this new one? They were good, but not good enough. I mean, the players here possessed good individual skills, one of the best even. They consists of my juniors went I was in MRSM. My youngest player was born in 1987. However, they lack teamwork, which was expected for a team that has just been formed two weeks ago.

The first team consisted of my housemate and several Uniten’s ex-students, which were my course mate by the way. It was during the third year of our studies when Uniten’s football club restricted the entry for the Uniten League. Only those team who were top two in every group were allowed to participate in that year’s tournament. It created disgruntled among the team members who didn’t made it. They claimed that the team last year will remain last year, this year the team will obviously contained new members, and there were no contracts to bind any players anyway.

I was joking at first when I said that I would create a team consist of the “rejected” players to play friendly against the team that joined the league. Boy was complaining to others during our smoking break, and when he heard my line, he immediately phone the players he knew to join. I was dumbfounded, it was supposed to be a joke, but seeing the seriousness of Boy’s face, I dare not to sat otherwise, well, he was big, what could I say?

It was a disaster at first. I imported two players at first to assist in midfield and defend, they were good individually but still, we couldn’t win. Most of my players during that time were still average in skills, could play but still couldn’t produce much.

Then the two players left after we graduated. It was a year after the forming of the team at that time. Then, it was different. The team was growing at that team, we won and we won for every match we encounter at that time. We even joined a cup as underdog and we managed to get through to final. It was a glorious two years for us at that time. The players skill were getting better and better, and communication between team members were the best.

We lost the final though, and after that, things were back to normal. Most of my players left, furthering their studies or worked overseas. However, most of them were back this season, and a few more games we will be ready to go back again.

From what I’ve learned, the important thing in the football team is the team itself. Even Ronaldo couldn’t play in an unorganized team, believed me. For my third team, it could take time, yes, however, I calculated that it could be fast as the new players were talented. Well, only time will tell.

Dinner

My company held a dinner last Friday at Mandarin Oriental Hotel, situated right behind KLCC. The theme this year was “Nostalgia” where we were advise to wore anything from the 60’s to the 90’s. I, as usual, wore khakis and quite formal clothes, representing the 90’s, hah!

Since I started work about 5 years ago, this was my fourth dinner, and the first since I’ve joined this company. It was different. The last dinner in my old company the top artist was Misha Omar. She mentioned that some of her artist friends warned her about my company. They said that the staffs there were very sporting and will be very glad to accompany any artists who were on the stage. They were right. Anyone that Misha invited to be on the stage, they gladly accept and they sang and dance with her till the end.

She was not the only artist that received that kind of treatment. Zahid AF2, Siti Norhaliza, Ezlynn and others received the same too. It was weird, I thought, as the artists who have performed thank all of us graciously, saying that that was one of the best dinners that they have ever performed. I mean, I thought all of the company dinner would treat their performing artist the same as my old company treat them.

Well, last Friday all the things I thought was wrong! Two artists came, hosted by MHI host (I can’t remember the guy’s name, but he was good), Salimah Mahmood and Anuar Zain. Seriously, I wouldn’t want to be in their shoes that night. The receptions were very cold. Although people were cheering when Anuar Zain came in, it didn’t have the same feeling as the previous dinner I’ve been. Well, it could be a World Cup night and by the way, Anuar came late, during kick-off.

It was a bad day for both of them, I can tell. I went back with Sham and Doot, after watching Ayala’s goal on the big screen in the hall (they showed live telecast of the game after Anuar’s performance, it was the start of second half at that time) and rushed back home as fast as we can (they were no television at the hotel’s lobby, can you believed that? And it was a 5-star hotel).
We were quite shocked to see that the streets were empty. Dead empty. We could see almost no cars on the road, only taxis were roaming, searching for customers. It was as if Hari Raya was already here. Argentina versus Germany did indeed have a big impact on the Malaysians. Anyway, I watched as Italy beat Ukraine in the ass that night and it was a very good beating :-) .

Bored

Bored. I’ve completed three games in a week and watched world cup at the same time. Heroes? Done. Rise of Legends? Done. Hitman? Done. Oblivion? I’ve started new yesterday (after completed the previous) and currently my character is on level 3. My fiancée is in Penang, the Ansara League matches for my team has been postponed twice (our first game would be this Saturday), my two papers would only be presented on the middle of the month and there’s no update from U69 since the 31st of May. How much bored could I get?

Been thinking about buying original games (for the first time). Budget constraint me enough to not to. There’s a rumour that developers would reduce their prices soon, but my guess was it would only be known after E3, which was…ermmmm…two months shy. If that is the case, we could see a price drop of games very soon. My concern was there could be no significant changes here in Malaysia and once again, the blamed would fall on piracy. I mean come on, the prices was too damn high.

I’ve never bought pirated cassette or musical CD. I supported the artists whether they were from the inside or outside of Malaysia. But that was more than 10 years ago. I didn’t bought any nowadays, original or pirated, seeing the disappearance of Smashing Pumpkins, Pearl Jam, Stone Temple etc. Not to mention Sheila Majid, Ella, music brought by the bands prior to 1989 (Search, Wings, BPR). I’m not saying that music nowadays were no good. It’s good on their own. They have their own fan. I could be getting old, refusing to move on to the new era which I never tried.

About piracy, I still remembered some local producers blaming piracy as the reason their albums’ sales didn’t went to well. If the piracy is gone, their albums’ sales would go up, or so they say. That was their answer, their only answer when asked why their artist albums’ sales went down. About that time too, I think we all here remembered our local Nasyid band, Raihan who received double platinum (I think) for achieving one of the highest sales in music’s history.

I’m impressed, really, because Raihan’s manager was the only manager in Malaysia who could fought piracy all by himself. It’s true? Right? Because the producers claimed that if the piracy were gone, their sales would go up. I can’t imagine how Raihan’s manager did that. Meeting the triads, giving them ultimatum, don’t pirate my artist, or else! , hahaha.

The truth is Raihan was good. That album itself was very good, the best even. Each song in there touch the very soul of the listeners, at least I did. So, what was the problem?

Old Timer

It’s been a while since I update this site. It began on the night of the engagement, my beloved grandfather fell sick. It was on the night before we went to Penang. It was hard for me to go, but trusted that he will be in good hand.

His condition was up and down after that. My mind was at it fullest, thinking about the wedding, about him, about my future with my company. On the 31st of March when I was in the lift with Zul on our way to Surau (it was 4.30 at that time), my dad called me, expecting the worst, I rushed back home, after I’ve obtained permission from Nicole.

When I arrived at my grandpa’s house, his eyes told me everything. During 11th February till date, there were at least 2 calls asking us to come as his condition were worst, but Alhamdulillah, it turned out to be okay. But this time, it was different, and everyone knew that. His eyes were staring up to the sky, without blinking, you could put your face right in front of him for him to see, but he wouldn’t, he couldn’t. They said it was at this time that the Angel would put up a kind of slideshow for the people in this kind of condition, showing all of his deeds, whether good or bad.

We slept at his house that night, the last people to leave the house was at 2 A.M. Saturday one of us called his private doctor for the insertion of tube. It was the easiest process, the doctor later told me, and should be no problem at all. We still received a lot of people during the morning; even my grandma from Johor arrived.

At 3 o’clock, I picked-up the doctor at his clinic. He was scheduled to come at 10, but he didn’t. It was weird at first. When I arrived, the doctor has just finished his afternoon prayer, and we talked a lot during our journey back to my grandpa’s house.

Weird, was the first word the doctor said to me. The number of patients today was outstanding, he said, it’s a rare case especially at his clinic. Moreover, he continued, none of his staff, including him, brought a car to the clinic today. He explained that he was planning to come in the morning, but his son need the car urgently, and his staffs (about 4 of them), about 2 of them who usually brought their own car, have problems on their own, he said.

Then he told me about the process that he was going to perform on my grandpa. It’s simple, he said, and to make it simpler, one of my aunts were a nurse herself. They will search my grandpa’s veins, insert the tube and voila! Done!

He even told me some stories about his previous on call patient. There were two that he had told me, one was a cancer patient. On the day of his death, the doctor has brought the same set of bags that contained all of his equipment for the tube processed (he has performed a lot to this cancer patient before, without any problem) when suddenly the tube itself were not in the bag! It doesn’t make sense, he said, he always double-check his equipment.

Sensing something was wrong, he went back to his clinic, and yes, the inevitable happened, the patient passed away. The other case was with a leukemia patient (if I’m not mistaken), and this time, the water in the container just wouldn’t drop, it was another sign, he said, and asked all of the patients’ family to gather. The patient passed away that same night.

We arrived almost 3.30 at the house. The place has been prepared; my grandpa has been lifted to the bed. His eyes were still the same. We even prepared a rope to hold the container in place. Then it happened.

The needles could not penetrate my grandpa’s skin! Even if it did, his vein seems to avoid the needle everytime it managed to go through. Please remember we have a doctor and a nurse with more than 20 years experience doing the same thing and this was not the first time my grandpa been inserted tube. The doctor even try to insert by his legs, but it still failed.

We knew the time has come. The doctor give-up after an hour trying, he advise us the obvious, to call all the family members together (they were still around KL). I send the doctor back to the clinic, and both of us knew it was time. When I arrived back, the house were full, about ten minutes later, directly after Asar azan, he passed away.

PRICE

I've received an email from a friend about the things being said below. I don't know who wrote it, but it was good, credit to the one that wrote it.

Not that I am trying to brag, but I could be considered a rich kid in my primary school days in the late 1950s and early 1960s. I received pocket money of 20 cents a day whereas most of the other kids would get only 10 cents or less. I would cycle from my home in Bukit Kuda (near Bukit Raja in Kelang -- so named because, before WWII, our family used to own the land around there; whereas Bukit Kuda got its name because of the horses on the hill of course) to Meru, so the 20 cents was necessary as a cold drink cost 5 cents and I needed another 5 cents for my mee goreng. That gave me a balance of 10 cents to splurge on pineapples, which Meru was famous for. A whole pineapple cost 5 cents. The surplus 5 cents I would use to play tikam-tikam, a sort of gambling game where you pulled a piece of paper off a board and you won various prizes depending on what was written on the paper -- sometimes it would be a toy gun, plastic car, and such rubbish.

I first `hit the road' in 1966, exactly 40 years ago. I was then 16, so I could legally own a motorcycle licence. I could not obtain a car licence until I was 18 though. By then my pocket money had increased to 10 dollars a week (maybe worth 100 ringgit today), but it would never last the week as I was on the road most of my waking hours. (You must be joking if you think I spent my free time studying for my exams).

My first bike was a 90cc Yahama, which I later upgraded to a 100cc Twin when the 90cc got too battered up because of the many crashes I endured. In those days, this would set you back about 1,000 dollars, 10% of what you would have to pay today. Also, in those days, Malaysia had not gone metric yet, so we still calculated everything in gallons, miles, miles per gallon, and miles per hour. Petrol was 1 dollar a gallon or roughly 23 cents a litre. With 10 dollars, I could ride my bike all the way to Penang on Saturday morning and be back in Kuala Lumpur by Sunday evening in time for school the next day. I of course could not afford to pay for hotel rooms so our motorcycle gang would sleep on the stone benches along Gurney Drive, which was then `Millionaires Row'.

Penang was famous for its `grass' or ganja, which was sold openly along Penang Street and, in the 1960s, not yet considered a `drug' -- and therefore not a serious crime. Even policemen traded in ganja at one dollar a role that could last a whole day and could be shared by half a dozen guys and gals (it was safer buying ganja from policemen, if you know what I mean, as they did not arrest their customers). In fact, ganja was not any stronger than a Camel or Lucky Strike cigarette so the mind boggles as to why ganja is now banned while Camel and Lucky Strike are still legal. But bringing ganja across to the mainland was a crime though (we did not have the required APs), so we had to be contented with enjoying it on the Island rather than risk getting caught by Customs. Well, Penang was a free port then and it was certainly `free' in many aspects.

My first job in 1970 was an apprenticeship with Volkswagen. My salary was 105 dollars a month, a lot of money in those days for a 20-year old. We must remember that the purchasing power of money then was ten times what it is today, so 105 dollars is equivalent to RM1,000 or so today. Suddenly I was flush with money. The fact I lived with my parents in Jalan Riong, Bangsar, helped as I did not have to put any money aside for rental or food, though I still had to pay for my lunch in the workshop canteen. The second year, my salary increased to 120 dollars. It would have been 140 for the third year and 160 for the final year, after which I would receive more than 300 dollars if I passed my apprenticeship exam. But I left in the second year because I refused to wash the cars that had been submerged in the flood. My supervisor had given me a toothbrush with which to clean the cars. I retaliated by hosing down the cars instead and got water in the engine while the inside of the car became a swimming pool (Volkswagens can float on water, in case you did not know). My supervisor flipped and sacked me on the spot. I walked out waving and smiling to the cheers of the entire workshop that hated the Indian supervisor they dubbed `Black Hitler' (very racial, I must admit, but it was a German company).

I was in fact `overqualified' as an apprentice. Apprenticeships are for form three failures, those who did not qualify to go to form four, whereas I had an MCE qualification (then called GCE O-level). I could have gone to England do my A-level but my father thought sending me to England would be disastrous considering my `wild' lifestyle. He preferred me closer to home where he could keep a watch on me, not that he was very successful at doing so.

In those days, with an MCE qualification, you could get employment as a trainee officer with a bank or as a probationary inspector in the police force at more than 300 dollars salary a month (what would be RM3,000 plus today). After three years, when you passed your internal exam, you could become a confirmed bank officer or police inspector at maybe twice the salary. But none of this interested me. I was only interested in motorcycling around Malaysia and sleeping under the open sky beside the sea.That was life in Malaysia 40 years ago. All you needed was 300 or 400 dollars a month to get by. I got married earning that much money and even owned a car at the same time, which was cheaper than owning a wife. A 100cc motorcycle cost 1,000 dollars. Since I was `rich', I of course had a big bike, a 650cc Yamaha, which cost an `exorbitant' 3,000 dollars, a `ridiculous' price to pay for a mere motorcycle (you could buy a Volkswagen for twice that). Just before I got married I sold the Yamaha to buy my first car, a used (second-hand) Holden Torona. I traded that in for a Mitsubishi 1600 after I crashed my Holden on the Federal Highway and landed on the other side of the road (luckily it was a Holden and not a Proton, if not I would not be around today to write this article). The brand new Mitsubishi cost less than 10,000 dollars, amongst the most expensive car in its class.

When my business saw success, I bought my first Mercedes Benz. It was a used or second-hand 240D (diesel) which cost me 30,000 dollars. I needed a diesel because I was travelling a lot and was clocking about 100,000 miles a year. I would drive to Johor in the afternoon, have a dinner meeting in Mersing, leave for KL around midnight, attend a meeting the next morning, leave KL that same afternoon, and be back in Kuala Terengganu in time for dinner. I was then in my 20s so I did not need much sleep.

When Malaysia experienced a diesel shortage to crisis proportions in the late 1970s, I sold the 240D for the same price that I paid for it, 30,000 dollars, and bought a new Mercedes Benz 200 petrol for 37,000 dollars. Later, I traded that in for a BMW 728i, which cost me 85,000 dollars. I used that for awhile after which I traded it in for a Mercedes Benz 380 SE at the insistence of Cycle and Carriage, my partner in our new business venture (their German engineer had refused to step into my BMW when I fetched him at the airport). This cost me 125,000 dollars, the price of a Japanese car today. But that was over 20 years ago.

And why, you may ask, am I telling you all this? Well, this is just to demonstrate the purchasing power of money then compared to today. What most of you are earning today is ten times what I earned then. But what I earned then went a long way. Today, even with your higher education and ten times higher income, you can hardly make ends meet, let alone enjoy the perks I did then. And don't forget, today, you need to spend RM400,000 to get an overseas university education to earn what we earned then with a mere form five qualification. With a university education, we could earn a starting salary of RM8,000 to RM10,000 in today's money value. But there was no motivation to go to university when we could save two years in form six and three years university, a total of five years, and in five years our salary would be equivalent to a university graduate just starting out (but passing some internal exams would be required first).

Has the 30 sen increase in fuel prices upset you? Well, don't get too upset. Even if they did not increase the price of petrol, or decided to reduce it again, you would still not be any richer. Today, if you earn less than RM3,000 a month, you are still poor even if the price of petrol did not increase. You can't buy a motorcycle for less than RM1,000 or a good quality and fast car for less than RM10,000. You cannot own a Mercedes Benz for RM40,000 or a top end BMW 7 series for RM100,000. You cannot fill up your tank and drive to Penang or Johor and back for RM40. You cannot buy a single-storey house in Subang or Bangsar for RM20,000 or a two-storey home for RM45,000. If you send your kids to England, you need RM400,000 over three years and RM1 million if they decide to do medicine. Coke no longer cost 20 cents, nor does a cup of tea or coffee. A trip to the supermarket to fill up your cart would set you back RM400, more than a month's salary in the old days.

Okay, forget about comparing Malaysia then to Malaysia today. Let us compare Malaysia today to UK today.

My sons live in Manchester -- been there more than four years now. They earn UK £5 an hour. If they work 8 hours, that would be £40 per day -- they work more hours than that though, sometimes 10 or 12 hours, so they make more than £40 per day. With this salary, they pay their cost through college and since they share a two-room apartment at £320 a month (which they pay weekly at £80) their living cost is quite manageable. In a month, each of my sons takes home more than £1,000, sometimes even up to £1,200.Forget about converting all this to ringgit. Let us just calculate everything based on £1 equals RM1. This is because that same job that earns you £1,200 in Manchester will earn you RM1,200 in Malaysia. So we have to look at it on the basis of one-to-one. If you earn RM1,200 per month in Malaysia, can you rent a two-room apartment in the city for RM320? Will you be able to spend RM20 (£20) for a cart-full of groceries like in Manchester, or will it be RM400 (£400) like in Malaysia? Can you buy a used car for RM200-RM400 (£200-£400) in Malaysia like you can in Manchester?

Yes, our problem extends to more than just the price of petrol going up 30 sen. The ringgit that you earn does not go very far in Malaysia, even if the petrol price did not increase. The cost of living in Malaysia is very high even though the quality of life is low. That is the crux of the issue. I would rather earn £2,000 in UK than RM2,000 in Malaysia. £2,000 in UK goes very, very far. In Malaysia, RM2,000 can hardly carry you through half the month.

Still want to protest and demonstrate against the 30 sen increase in petrol prices? Don't waste your time. You should instead protest the low wages. The so-called `poverty level' that the government has come out with is utter bullshit. The government is misleading us as to what really represents poverty. If they redraw the poverty line, then most Malaysians can be considered poor. In reality, 'poverty level' is more like RM1,200. Short of that, you just can't manage, especially if you have a wife and kids.Do you want to know something the government has not told us? Bank Negara has come out with its calculation that if you retired at age 55 or 56, you will need a savings of RM2 million-RM3 million to enjoy your retirement comfortably. If not, you will still need to work. This is of course assuming you will live for another 15-20 years before you die and that you will live a modest live, not one of luxury. Yes, that's right, RM2 million-RM3 million or RM120,000 a year if you live to age 73 or so, the average lifespan of a male Malaysian. That comes to about RM10,000 per month. But you can only play with your grandchildren and tend to your garden. If you jet-set or take sea cruises, then you will be broke within three or four years.

Now, how much do we get when we retire? RM300,000? In two or three years you will be broke and will need to go find a job. This is more frightening than the 30 sen increase in petrol prices. And I bet what you are earning today hardly lasts the month -- so for sure you are not saving anything for retirement day. Well, let's hope you get a heart attack and die before age 56. This would save you the agony of facing your old age with no money in your pocket.

Eerie

There's a story told by my ex-boss when we were down eating mee bandung somewhere deep in the heart of Muar. It was Ramadhan 2003, and since the demons were tied-up somewhere in hell, it was the best time of the year to tell each other ghost stories. The Malays believed that if you keep repeating or saying names of the ghost, it will materialized right in front of you. Of course, I'm a Muslim, Iblis can transform to any form that it wanted, and that's the thing that I believed in.

Anyway, as I've said before, it was Ramadhan, there were 8 of us, sitting down for a nice plate of mee bandung for iftar after a whole hard-day work. Doot and Min will be going back to KL that night to assist Aie, who fall sick. As both of them arrived in Muar under the roof of my car, they have to take the express bus, which will departure that night.

"Speaking of bus,"

My ex-boss says, who happened to be Doot's uncle.

"you've heard about your cousin's story?"

Doot shook his head, the only thing that he heard of was that his cousin falls sick for the whole week during his semester break (his cousin is in UTM Skudai).

"This is what happen...." his uncle started the story.

Doot's cousin, I can't remember his name, has booked a ticket for the trip back to KL. He was alone at that time, most of his friends has either going for a semester break trip or stayed at the hostel, it was just a week break. He went there according to the schedule and board the bus.

Unlike Northern and Eastern trip, Southern buses usually have only one driver, as the trips were usually short. As the buses were frequent, to have a full bus was rather hard, and in his cousin's case, there were only 4 passengers, including the cousin himself.

The trip was normal at first, because there were only 4 of them, the seats were all theirs. It was almost 12 at that time. The bus went smoothly until they arrived near the R/R of Pedas/Linggi exit.

Suddenly the bus driver shouted at them.

"Semua orang duduk depan."

They were, obviously, doesn't pay much attention to the "command", "why?" must have come across their mind. However, the decision to pay heed with the driver's shouting was enforced by a smell so foul that even a dead skunk could rise from it's grave. The bus has beginning to pick up speed.

The four of them, still confused, sit cuddled together on the two-seater (no, I don't know how many girls/boys, the boss won't tell me). Anyway, the 4 of them still searching with their eyes the cause of the smell when suddenly

"bammmm....."

They heard something falls at the back of the bus, something big as the noise was so loud. Naturally, as all other people will do, the first thing that you do when you heard a noise behind you was to turn your head behind, right? That was what they did, and for the cousin, that was the most worst decision that he has ever made at that time.

What they saw was a sight that they will never forget. A woman, if that thing could be called a woman, was standing at the back, her black hair was so long that it reached the floor, her nails were uncut and her fangs were horrifying. The 4 of them, sat back and were hugging each other now.

"Baca la apa apa yang patut."

The bus driver said and he pick up speed, looking straight ahead all the time. The Pontianak was laughing hysterically, her voice was shrill and sending shivers to each of their spine. Suddenly, the ghost were out and started to fly alongside the bus, getting head to head with the driver.

Then, it changes it's position as if a swimmer performing backstroke, without the stroke of course, shrieking all along, and left them still clutching each other.

It was quiet soon after. The driver said that those thing happened when there's not so many passengers in a bus. He doesn't know from where the thing came from, so were the other driver.

Until as of today, the cousin never took a night bus ever again.

I heard this story again when I've started working here. I've got an email from a Singaporean, who was on his way back to Singapore with his family after a visit to Malaysia. The place was the same, the pontianak was back, clinging on top of his car (it's a car this time), it was weird at first, he said, he thought there's a speedtrap in front as opposing cars giving him a high beam whenever his car passed by. He then concluded that whenever anyone using the PLUS road, at night and opposing cars started to high beam you, it could mean two things, either there's cop in front or something on top of the car.

That night, Doot and Min packed and I've send them to the station. Guess what? Including them, there's exactly 4 passengers on that bus. Coincidence? But then again, it's Ramadhan.

The Watcher, The Performer and The Enforcer

The parade was held once a week it seems nowadays. People will flock out after the Friday player, with copter buzzing on top of us during khutbah and prayer, I repeat, khutbah and prayer (yeah, drop a bomb while you are at it, please). I mean, I can’t even hear what the Imam’s said. Dahla tak pergi sembahyang, at least, show some respect la, ko tu Muslim gak.

On the way back to my office, the men in uniform have already form a shield line in front of the shopping complex, and yup, it reminds me of Rome very much. Am I excited? Oooo, hell yeah!!! My heart wanted to cry out a battle cry, my feet feels like charging and my arms feel like flying through, but of course, in reality, I just walked by as a passerby trying to light his cigarette, inhaling it with my heart beating, slowly accelerating itself as I’m going nearer to the door of my office.

The crowds were already building up. Malays, Chinese, Indians, Sikh, you name it, all of them were there, not as one, but divided into two, the watcher and the performer, and of course, the enforcer as well.

Let me tell you through the eyes of the watcher. Why do we watch? Why were we there in the first place? Okay, how many of you out there have seen the enforcer brought out about 10 trucks, 6 full with men armed to the teeth, two small bringing special forces, one truck with water hose and one commanding vehicle? Oh yeah, have I mentioned the helicopter too? One watcher exclaimed (screaming)

“ I HAVE NEVER SEEN A HELICOPTER THIS CLOSE BEFORE!!!”

It was close. When I went to my office on the 20th floor, it was below me, hahaha, I’m flying!!!! The trees were swaying back and forth, left and right with some of the branches falling out of the trees. And the noise!! It was hard to hear even when the person was beside you.

That’s the first reason. The second one was we are not in Korea, or Japan, or US, most of us haven’t even been out of Malaysia before, so how many have seen a riot, okay la, not a riot, at least the enforcers sprayed the hose to the performer? Not all of us right? Frankly, it didn’t even broadcast in the local tv, that’s why people watched the scene as close as 10 meters away, they didn’t perform, just stand and watch, hoping and hoping that something would happen.

Something did happen. A minute before the performer arrived, an Indonesian worker were happily doing his job to beautify the small garden in front of my office. Then, the stampede came, half of the new plants were dead, the wet cement has to be cemented back. It was a disaster for him. When I was about to go home that evening, he and his supervisor were sulking, watering the plant back to life, it was to late anyway.

One of my colleagues gave his opinion to me that evening. What if the enforcer weren’t there? Would the watcher be there? Would the performer be that many? If the enforcer were not there, could there be someone that would say

“Boringla, takder orang nak dengar, jom balik.”

It could you know.

JEMMMM..........

Decided to accompany Bob yesterday to Canon service center situated in Subang. He picked me up at KLCC around 6. At first, the road was normal. Normal means the traffics were crawling (what can you expect from Jln Ampang anyway). It's getting worse as we moved towards Jln Tun Razak. Thankfully I've bought a gaming magazine before I went out of my office, but the magazine content soon wore out, and we were still at Ampang Park. Bob's voices seem to fade away as I slowly dozing off.

I woke-up at about 7.30, we were at NKVE toll plaza and God! look at all those cars. Bob was cursing, the service centre closed at 8 and, based on the situation that we were in, could we make it? I dozed-off again, it's hard for me to open my eyes at that time. We arrived there at exactly 8 o'clock and guess what, the service centre was still open! Why? Because an Indian manager suddenly decided to go upstair for a while to catch a whiff of the traffic jam. We let go a sigh of relief as Bob finished off his deal (we is such a big word right? With me sleeping and all).

Yesterday's traffic was ridiculous. When we make our way back (I didn't fall asleep this time) using the old airport road, many cars decided to have a pitt stop at BP's and Petronas. Both of the stations were packed with people and cars who decided that it pays to wait rather than joining the traffic. I can imagine the grin of both the owner of the pump stations, praying in their heart that this goes on everyday, haha.

On the way, we decided to take a "short-cut" beside the road. The sign said Ara Damansara. According to Bob, he heard one of his friend's said that there's a road that could take you up to Tropicana from the old road. We decided to follow a group of cars that were making their way there.

It was a bumpy ride at first before we came to the new housing area. First, we decided to follow a brand new Nissan right in front of us. It didn't work, he took us to a dead end. When we turn back, a Kancil swoop past us. Hmmmm....very confident indeed. We decided to follow him.

"Jangan die parking sudah", says Bob.

We follow the Kancil for queit a time when we reach an area full of apartment.

"Aku kenal tempat nie, Menara Luxor!, caya la Kancil" exclaimed Bob excitedly.

With renewed strength, we followed the Kancil vigorously. He took us directly to his parking spot.

We turn back again, the Menara was right in front of us, but there's no road that could access there. We took an opposite road from the Kancil's. Again, the road looks very familiar. We didn't follow anymore cars this time, after seeing one or two met up with the same circumstances. It seems more and more people decided to escape from the traffic.

After about 15 minutes of searching for an exit, we encountered many familiar view when I shouted

"Exit sign!!"

The sign showed an exit to the right. We took the right road and there, about 300 metres right in front of us, the exit seems to beckoning us to come near. We did, with curses and swearing, as the exit that we were about to take were the same road when we came in. Happy driving guys, take care :-)

Gunung Tebu Part II

If my memory served me correctly, there were 6 of us in the team, which happened to be the last team in the whole group. We will be in the back of the whole long line during our ascend to the top. 4 of them were from MRSM PC themselves. Mawi, Najib, Munir and God, I couldn’t remember the last person’s name. I’ll called him Man until I recalled. The other member of our team was the only representatives of Balik Pulau, Joe. Actually, his name wasn’t really Joe. Remember 4U2C lead singer, Joe? The real Joe is his big brother, no wonder his face looks familiar. He was a comic lover, my first impression was he was a loner, and there’s something weird about him that I couldn’t lay my finger on. His body was quiet tough, and everything that he brought (from head to toe) was from the army, even his raincoat was from the army, minus the hat and the shirt. But we became close after, and I was glad that he was by my side (although not always) during our descend from the top.

Mawi was our team leader. Of course, being somewhat an outcast (there were 4 of them), Joe and I doesn’t say a word about it, there’s nothing to against anyway. He was a natural leader, one could mistaken him as a lover boy, with his chinese look and rather slender body, but he was a tough guy to beat, and he got this leadership aura that when he makes a decision, we knew that it was for the sake of all of us.

Najib……was really weird. He and Mawi were close, they were both from Kelantan. He was the deputy. He was okay at first, assisting Mawi in everything that he could. However, on the third day (the start of the ascend), I don’t know whether it’s a fault of mine or the mountain itself, but Najib has fallen ill and he was not quiet himself anymore.

Munir and Man were LDP (MRSM’s prefect). Both of them were from Perlis. They were somehow seems out of league with the first two I’ve mentioned earlier (both Mawi & Najib were smokers), but the 4 of them seems to get along quiet fine (they always make jokes among themselves, which I understood little). They both were very fit, and both of them were among the heroes to the event that unfolds later (no one, which I know of and seen by my own eyes, did what they have done).

The fever has took the better of me in the night of the first day. I just got there and there I was, feeling sick out of sudden. I was excused right before Operasi Burung Hantu started. If I remembered correctly, there should be 97 students, but when the counting started, it goes to 100! The counting was made again, and now, the number was correct. That’s when our medics introduce their two brothers to all of us, and it seems that they have included themselves during the first counting. The teacher (lets called him Cikgu Pit) let go a sigh of relief and stated that the mystery has been solved. Deep in my mind, I knew that the numbers didn’t add-up. 97 plus 2 equals to 99, so who’s number 100?

I was excused from the operation due to my fever. I couldn’t sleep well that night. The brothers (the little ones) took a good care of me. They fetch waters from the stream to cool off my fever, though I still woke-up feeling dizzy during the night, but it felt much better. I slept at the gazebo with the rest of the facilitators, saved from the wet tents. I felt bad for the rest of the team, but, hey, who’s the sick man here?

In the morning of the third day, the first sight I saw was my teammates has been given penalty for failing to wake-up during Subuh prayers, and my teammates only! I did’nt quiet actually remembered what the penalty was but it has something to do with standing in the middle of the stream. Did I mentioned that it was raining and the water was very cool? Not only that, but during the night, they have to stay up and be the sentry for the whole camp. Little did I know that they have used my dolphin torch, and they have used all the batteries that I have spared, which will lead to another would be accident during the ascend, Alhamdulillah Allah has forbid for that accident to happen (more will be told later).

I was brought to the Besut hospital during the morning. After taking in the orders from the students (torchlight, batteries), I set of with 2 teachers accompany me. They left me at the hospital and proceed to buy things for the ascend on the fourth day.

I met a woman doctor during the check-up. After she examined me, she asked from where I came from and what the hell am I doing there (after she realised that I’m from outside of Kelantan). I told her about the ascend and from the look on her face, I know she was really worried about the whole thing. Why ascend the mountain during the monsoon season? No one ever done that, with 97 students anyway, was the big main question that she had asked me. I told her that it was a school holiday program and although my answer didn’t satisfied her, she let me go, there’s nothing that she could have done anyway.

As I wait for the teachers to come back, I was approached by a man in his late 60’s. After several minutes of conversation, he asked the same sets of questions that the doctor has asked and expressed his concern about the whole thing. After a pause, he started to advice me about things connected to the mountains. Some of the advice that I remembered were:

1.Gunung Tebu was very “strong” (keras). Please behave, either physically and verbally.
2.Don’t direct your torch upwards during the night.
3.Do not, ever, bring something back from the mountain.
4.Don’t simply destroy or pick any flowers from the mountain to bring home.

I printed all of the advice inside my mind. The teachers were back, and I make my excused. Next:- The start of the ascend. The batteries were dead. Lights!

Rings

Went in search of betrothal ring (couldn’t find the right words) and engagement ring yesterday at KLCC. I asked Anne to accompany me at first, realizing my inability to differentiate between beauty and beast. Ayu decided to join in without knowing that I’ve already broke-up with my ex. Of course when she knows about it, she decided to team-up with Anne, complaining to me about getting married without introducing my future wife to them. Well, I couldn’t say much to that, she’s in a land far far way from here, of course, with the closing and all, even I doesn’t have the time to meet her frequently.

We ended up at Habib, they do most of the talking and again complaining to me about my indecisiveness to choose between white and gold. I tried to call my girlfriend but my phone suddenly decided to play prank on me. The line just wouldn’t connect. I SMS her and the decision was made. I ended up with two gold rings after considering their opinion on each ring that I chose.

Adi will be back from Hanoi this weekend, deciding to celebrate Chinese New Year here after his invitation for us to go there went in vain. Well, we’ve got at least two more years for us to go there to visit him. I’m interested to go there, there’s a lot of historical places and artifact from what I heard. Hmmm… maybe I will be going there next year, maybe.

Last 2 weeks I went to Kelantan to attend Shy’s wedding. It’s a long trip to Kelantan, took us about 7 hours to get there. We traveled using Bob’s car (5 of us), make a couple of stop to relieve our legs. We were dead tired when we arrived at Shy’s house and went straight to bed. It’s hard for me to sleep, as Shy’s cousin, in the same room, still awake playing Black Hawk Down with his PS2. It’s not about the noise that bothers me, my gaming instinct refused to sleep, nagging me to join in. I keep on reminding myself that I have a long day ahead, and finally my nausea took the lead, dragging me to sleep.

We woke-up early, have a quick shower and breakfast. I ate rice for breakfast as the custom of the East Coast people. We accompany Shy along with his family (3 cars) to the masjid for the vows ceremony. Shy’s face was decorated with the feeling of nervous (he still maintained his poyo smile though) and it took a while for him to answer all the Kadi’s question. However the important thing was, the vows was recited once, and relieved soon took over Shy’s face.

Shy’s family went back home after having breakfast at the girl’s house (rice, again). Pejol and me helped Bob arranging the gifts for photo shoot. We’ve been offered by one of Shy’s uncle (he worked at the local religion body) to have a free wedding.

“Mu bawok gewe mu, pastu mu call saya, saya buat tangkapan, berehhhhh. Xpo, ayah die bising saya handle”

Yeah,it was tempting.

Shy was late 2 hours for the evening ceremony. It was frustrating, combined with the ulcer in my mouth, but it end-up nice. Au joined us later after his family check-in at the local hotel. The plan was Au would joined us together during the road-trip, but after he told his dad about the plan, his dad decided to tag along, with his mom and aunt, they haven’t been to Kelantan for awhile, it’s their kampong by the way. We decided to join his family at the hotel for that night, since there will be a match involving Liverpool that night. We took a room and Au invited us to join his family for a night-out.

We went to somewhere in KB, I couldn’t remember the exact location. The town has changed since the last time I’ve been there. It’s been almost 8 years. We satisfied ourselves with Nasi Kerabu ( RM 2 per rice, where in KL can we find that price?) Ayam percik, some chicken’s stomach and some sala (fish mixed with coconut). I’ve forgotten the taste of the real Nasi Kerabu and that night it did reminded me of the good old days. It’s a pity I couldn’t taste it lavishly thanks to the ulcer but it was good nonetheless.

We went back to KL reluctantly on Sunday morning. Instead of Gua Musang, we took the the Grik route. We managed to reduce the traveling hour by 1, making it 5 ½ hours to KL. We stop by Tasik Banding for a bite to eat (you could see some of the beautiful scenery at Banding using the link to Bobimages). Yeah, it was fast, I would recommend that road if you want a fast one. However, it is a very dangerous road, on Saturday, a rider lost his life on the same route that we’ve taken. Therefore, be extra careful when driving through the mountain. We exited at Kuala Kangsar before taking the highway straight to KL.

I would like to take this opportunity to wish you all a happy long holiday for those who works in Kuala Lumpur and a happy new year.

Gunung Tebu Part 1

This story happened during year-end school break 1995. It happened in Besut, Kelantan on a mountain called Gunung Tebu. There were many versions of these stories, the most famous was told by TV3, 3 nights in a row, of how 97 students were lost during their descend from the mountain. The story was a bunch of crap andthe interviewed has been doctored by the interviewer. Of course, we were kids then. I never believed in the news since. Let me tell you the real story, after exactly ten years after the story begins, exclusively brought to you by one of the participants…me.

It was almost school break. I was one of the students of MRSM Kuala Berang. Every year during school break MARA will organize at least 5 events to be held to fulfill any interested students who wanted to participate. The events included biking in Langkawi and two mountain climbing (Ledang & Tebu). I chose Tebu as my destination, attracted to the words “survivor camp”. With me, there were 8 others, 4 guys and 4 girls. When the day comes, just before my dad send me to MARA, a feeling of creepiness started to crawl down my spine. I cannot describe the feeling, it was like something held you back, doesn’t want to let go. I remembered calling my ex at that day, telling her about how I felt at that time. She said that it doesn’t mean anything, maybe I was already homesick! Little did we knew that the feeling I felt at that time was actually a sign that something big was about to happened.

We took our bus (MRSM Pengkalan Chepa bus, the organizer) from the MARA headquarters situated at Jalan TAR in front of Pertama Complex. Several other students from PC itself joined us. I couldn’t remember the girls, but the boys (we became very close after) were great. There were 4 of them, Ah Seng, Ayeh, Giant and the “Scotland guy”, Irman (I miss this guy, where are you hah?). The journey took us about almost to 10 hours of bumpy bus riding. However, it was a great journey, of course, we were boys then. There were about 20 people on board at that time. We stopped at a place or two to stretch our legs and for Jeff, Manjoe (both were from my school), Irman and me, we managed to catch a smoke or two, secretly, of course.

We arrived at the base of Gunung Tebu around 8 PM. It was already raining at the time of our arrival. The rest of the participants were already there. We set up our tent, quickly and chaotically (we just did anything, each tent could filled about 30 people, with the ground as our bed, we sleep closely with each other, I don’t even knew who was beside me at that time). I couldn’t sleep well that night. Before my departure, my whole family was having fever, except for me. Now, the illness has creeping in, with the long journey and the tent set-up under heavy rain (it’s November, and it’s in Kelantan), at first I thought that’s the reason for the feeling that I felt before, I was wrong.

We were “asked” to wake up around 4 AM. The rain has already stopped. We make our way to the river which just beside our tent, and we took a bath there. Have anyone tried swimming in a river directly descend from the mountain at 4 AM? Please……don’t try. It didn’t take any effort for my hand to brush my teeth. My hand’s shivering was so severe that it took care of the brushing for me.

It started to rain again after Subuh’s prayer. We were instructed to jog by the Sergeant. The sergeant was our guide to the top. With him, a teacher from PC (a teacher? Weird right? To compare with almost a hundred students), some facilitators who consists of ex PC students that just took their SPM test, the school guard and two medics, each of them brought a brother aged 11. The boys arrived unannounced. The teacher (I couldn’t remember his name, but he was one of the heroes to the event that later unfold) doesn’t even knew that there will be two 11 years old kids that will be joining us ascending the mountain. Their brothers assured him, saying that they were locals, and I don’t know much what have been said among the three of them, but the teacher agreed. There were other teachers as well, but they just come and go, and didn’t join us ascending.

We jog under the heavy rain, the coldness of the morning breeze seeps into our bones. I couldn’t remember the distance, but it was a long one, we managed to keep ourselves together (the KL team). When we return, we were told to run full speed upon a hill and speed back down. We were grateful that we only did it once. Our clothes and shoes were wet as we did the activities. We were not allowed to change our socks, not that it makes any difference anyway. We were asked to form a group of 8. I was separated from the others and was put under a new team.

I think it’s better to put the stories into parts. It was still a long way to go, too much to tell. Next :- My new team. A new problem arises. Advice from an old man and a doctor.

Infant

I've promised to post about my encounter with "something" in my next issue, but the thing is, the material is still underway. I've spent my time lately with a book of battles with the titles "Battles" (hmmm....) and I've reached the rise of the Ottoman empire two days ago which heighten my battle lust, end-up with me buying Call of Duty 2 and Star Wars Battlefront 2, which I played for the whole two days (minus office hours of course). Which, in turn, ends-up with me, right now, currently, in the office, with a running nose, my sweater wrap-up around my body and body screaming all over asking me to find a hotter spot, not to mention my head. I have to come, being replacement for my colleague who was 1/2 day MC yesterday and given birth today.

Yesterday, I've got two SMSes from two totally different people bearing the same news. During lunch yesterday, after rescuing Shy from his own house (he left his house-key in his car), James SMS me, his wife has given birth to a daughter. That was his second, and now he got a pair, two years apart. Night-time, while I was driving my Crusader searching for Panzers in Tunisia, Joe SMS me, Mimi has given birth to a daughter too, Qistinia Safiyyah. Beautiful name right?. This morning, my colleague called us and she's given birth too, to a son, her second and a pair too.

Wow, I've never experience something like this before. I mean, usually, there's a gap of a day or too for my friends, but right now, three babies in two days? I know, we couldn't choose on which day to have our baby right, if those thing happen, happened, right? It was a happy moment for them all, and yeah, I'm happy too.

I don't know when will I continue my reading on "battles" again. It's a good book actually, starting from the first war ever recorded in history of mankind till now. However, it lacks the tactical information of each battle. I NEED tactical info, what strategy do they used, what trick did they employed. Could someone out there refered me to that kind of book. However, this book does shows the pictures of weapons and armours of those days. Yeah, it satisfied me too, but it would be better to have them both, don't you think?

Hempap

Went to Penang a day before New Year eve. It was a sort of road trip. After escorting Zul and Sheikh rightly after work to meet Abg Mus, I went straight to Sect 2, after receiving several calls from Acid and Pejol, asking when to start the trip. The weird thing was, it was my idea, and they were the one that were totally excited to go, hmmm….I wonder why?

After making a quick pit stop at their house, we started the journey. It was approximately 2 AM. I was behind the wheel at that time. We talked a lot during the trip, with Pejol occasionally woke up from his sleep, joining me and Acid for awhile before went back to sleep. Instead of highway, we opt for the beach road, going through Sabak Bernam – Teluk Intan. The traffic was way cool, of course, we almost had the road to ourselves. When we arrived at Teluk Intan, it was around 4 at that time, we opt to take the highway. The plan was to follow the old beach road till Taiping, but my eyes betrayed me. We were at Ipoh at that time, Acid noticed that the car went slow suddenly although the road was clear. The conversation between him and me goes sort of like this

“ Apsal Sent?”

“Ntah, macam ada tiang jer blok jalan”

and that’s that. He asked me to pull over, and he himself took over. I immediately went to a deep slumber as soon as my head hits the seat. That’s me I guess, I’m not good at long trip without stopping. Around 6 AM, we pulled up at Sg Perak R&R for prayers and a bit of snack. We talked (we do talked a lot, don’t we?) and one of the topics that interest me was “kena hempap”.

I never knew this word. I mean, I heard about it a lot, but I don’t know exactly what’s it like. In Malay culture, “kena hempap” is a term used when someone was asleep, and when he woke up, although he was aware of his surrounding, he cannot move and speak, though in some cases he can still hear clearly. It was the working of the spirits or so they said. I’m not saying that I don’t believe in this sort of things. Oh yeah I do believe in them, before and after my encounter (I will tell you all about it in my next story). Now, when I heard about this description, it was sort of a deja-vu kind of thing, I thought about it a lot but still question remains, have I experienced it before but didn’t realized it?

I’ve been through a lot during my 26 years of living, or sleeping if you preferred. I’ve always referred it as an out of body experienced. Up until last Saturday, I thought I was the only one that experienced it, but now, I know most of you out there did. Have you been, when you want to get up from bed, which you did, or thought you did, then suddenly you see yourself on the bed again? The process goes on and on until you really woke up and you sure for certain that those thing couldn’t be a dream, which in fact, it’s not. That’s one of the symptom of “kena hempap”, which I just found out during our conversation on the trip to Penang. The other symptoms include hard to breath like someone was on top of you. Sometimes you feel like someone pinching you so hard that when you woke up you can still feel the pain. I’ve experienced it, and I’m sure you guys did too.

There are several reasons that I did not believe that those things come from the spirit world. Firstly and the far most importantly, it did happened during Ramadhan. Now, all the devils in the world, inside or outside were chained during Ramadhan, and we knew there’s absolutely no chance for any of them to break out of their chain during that month. Secondly, I’ve seen the pattern of the phenomenon, to me of course, don’t have time to study the others. It will happen to me if either I was so damn tired or if I went to sleep above 3 AM. I believed that all of this could be explained in scientific term, and yeah, I’m correct.

Actually, what I found out is that our eyes and brain sometimes doesn’t work together, especially when we are so tired that it would take a lot of effort just to raise our limbs. The symptoms will happen when our eyes were already awaken, but our brain was still asleep. That’s why we are aware of what happened around us, but our body couldn’t react to it. We want to lift our head, but we can’t. We feel that hours have passed when experiencing the symptoms but if you were to check your watch, you will see that only minutes has passed. Interesting part is that you will only experience it when you’re about to sleep, right?

The only thing that we could do is chill out, and let those thing pass, because you will eventually wake up right? I used to jump around every time I experienced it, but it resulted in another one of those symptoms, grew tired of it eventually.

After Sg Perak, Acid continued until Penang. We went to sleep, in my car, at Juru R&R till we’re awaken by a group of Mat Rempit, it was 8.30 AM. We went to have our shower in one of the masjid in Penang, have breakfast in Butterworth and went straight ahead to meet my……..(you figure it yourself laa :-)) house. We have Mee Udang for our lunch, specially cooked for us and for dinner, curry and some sprouts, also specially cooked for us, and we went back to KL around 9 PM on the same day. It’s Pejol turn to drive, during the first 20 km, Acid already lay down on the back seat, and I only manage to accompany Pejol until Ulu Bernam, after I started to forgot what I’ve said though I haven’t finished the sentences yet. Yup, it’s tiring, but I’m the most happy person on earth that day nonetheless :-)

Closing

They said today should be the end. The ending of the pain that we’ve endured for the past three weeks. I hope they are right, I really hope, though the possibility of it was very thin. This was the third year-end closing that I’ve been through with this company. It’s getting worse every year. With the diminishing of workforces employed and the increased in workload, it certainly doesn’t help with the “timely” arrival of my new boss. With him, it’s getting worse every day, haha. Till now, I’m still wondering who’s the bloody idiot that hired him? Yeah, I just found out he doesn’t know how to recon either. Hmmm…. So what does he knows exactly? (In accounting point of view, I mean).

Tomorrow, unknown to my staffs, as what I’ve faced every single month, I’ll be facing the firing squad. Though Alhamdulillah the frequent of the meeting is getting less, but the feeling of having to wonder whether I'm going to get shot or not is killing me, seriously. I still have the feeling that I’ve left out something, though how much I checked, how many times I revised, how many times I viewed, it’s still there. What I know right now was that I’ve entered everything that supposed to be entered, prayed and….tawakal, hahaha. Don’t care la, kena pun kena laa, xtahan oooo.

For the first time, I saw all my staffs stayed back. Other departments walked in awed as if seeing something that should have extinct exactly 5.30 everyday suddenly still here, working as if there’s no tomorrow, which is true, by hook or by crook we have to finish it by today. Of course, if the firing squad ask me to the line tomorrow…….It’s good to have the feeling as if I’m still at the old department, 2 years ago. We were very happy at that time, although we went back late but our spirits were high. Since the new COO entered, most of our friends from various departments left. Last two months, the topic that been spoken at the beginning of every meeting was, “who’s left?”. It was a very dark period for us here, though the numbers were slower this time around, but people are still leaving…. for good.