let's touch base

yesterday i got this mail from the company HR which goes...

'let's touch base. i got important news to tell you.'

full stop.

can you believe it? i scanned the bottom of that sentence like 20 times hoping to find some hidden messages or secret codes that could tell me more but none.

as i stared at the blank screen, i even hoped this was like that mail which had a ghost or something suddenly cropped out from the static picture as you were staring to freak you out but nada.

what news????

some people are just plain vain. this HR guy is just like those tv series writers that always like to have someone opening up the door expecting the killer inside the room, saying 'oh it's you!' without showing the killer face and then abruptly ended the scene with 'to be continued'...

except this one, i couldn't download the sequence off the net or read the next episode spoilers from wikipedia.

fortunately, my ex-colleague who was transfered to the branch where i'm applying for few years back spoiled it for me. he sent me mail which goes...

'congratulations! i heard you got the transfer'.

see? plain and simple and nobody died from this short statement. nobody i know anyway, but oh my god oh my god oh my god my god...

I GOT THE TRANSFER???

apparently i am. later that night at about 10.30pm i got a call from the new HR and i had to play surprise. ok this is so confirmed.

wow i was so ecstatic. i felt surreal, like my spirit just jumped out of my body saying banzaiiii and then came back in a second.

this is so classic example of how things turn out when you least expect it. this is like when you thought the causeway would have heavy traffics but ended up with a smooth ride, or the time when you thought nothing worth checking out the cheap sale but ended up buying lots of ripped-off discounts.

i mean, when i got a mail saying this another branch was laying off people, i kinda put my hope off. after all, when everything went mute after you asked about the result, in normal world that was never a good sign.

but i guess, good things do come for boys who wait.

at least i hope it would be good. mind you it was not easy making this decision. this is not like deciding what movie to watch for a night out, or whether my car would be white or black. this is like jumping off the ship and hope there is no shark in the water.

and i have not even told my parents yet. i told my friend this just now and she said, what a fillial son you are. i know she meant to be sarcastic, but if this sudden move could cause heart-attack, then maybe i am being fillial.

i'm just afraid how things could turn out, like people would get sad and stuff. i just like the way things are, at least for the next 2 months or so before i make my move. i felt just like becky bloomwood when she was having secrets about her 2 weddings from her parents, and look at how did that turn out.

ok maybe i should give my father a call. or maybe an e-mail saying...

'let's touch base. i got important news to tell you.'




...ed

life lockdown

i was behind the wheel waiting for the light to turn green when i saw a car almost hit a motorbike on the opposite road, causing the poor biker to slid and fall down.

ouch.

while i was glad i was not the person in the car or that injured biker, i couldn't help feeling how things could change in instant seconds.

i mean, one minute the only thing in that biker's mind could be what he should have for dinner, but out of a sudden situation changed and i believe all he wants to do now is strangle that driver alive. well at least i wanted to.

you bet i drove a bit more carefully after i witness that all the way home, feeling grateful of all the road near-misses i've had.

i guess this kind of things occur in front of our eyes are meant as a remembrance. i don't know about other people, but i'm sure guilty of taking things for granted sometimes.

be it being reckless on the road taking my safety and lawsuit-free life for granted, or playing catch and run ignoring people that matters taking their affection for granted, or even being too stagnant and easy-going at work taking the job security for granted.

after all, we never know when things could turn to the worse. just like the recent economy meltdown. few months ago my worry was which destinations to select for a year-end trip but voila, all i care now is to secure my position in the office.

especially now that it is almost confirmed that i'll be staying put in this island. to some extent, it does feel a bit relieved that i don't have to trade my current life, even though for something that could be better, but hey, i've learned to believe divine intervention by now.

you see, the company extention branch-out in the north that i almost joined last year if not for a sudden blank-out during interviews when the interviewer asked why i wanted to work there, ended up laying off 95% of its people.

ok i could be among the 5% (positive thinking) but if i were not, i'd like to believe that it was work of a higher being.

so now i look at my home and life in general from a whole new more-appreciative eyes. but as time goes by, i would tend to forget and go back to point zero and start taking everything for granted again.

until i see another near-miss incident.



...ed

last night was a flyer

Singapore Flyer

as what the stone says...

yes. i went to the singapore flyers. ok i know this Singapore Flyer has been opened to public since.. like forever (**i checked this, it was opened on 14-feb-2008. yes, on valentines day which is so 'cliche) but i guess, just like everything else that are close to us, we tend to ignore them because they are near anyway so we thought we should be able to visit them anytime we want. i mean, i'm sure there are many parisians who haven't even go to eiffel tower yet, or egyptians who never been to the pyramids, or malaysians who haven't been into the ISA cells.

anyway, the real story is, i was driving through raffles boulevard heading to marina square when i discovered the singapore flyer entrance. this might sound stupid but even though i know the flyer is somewhere close to AYE that i always drive through, i never really properly figured out where the entrance is.

until accidentally today.

singapore flyers in many colours

ok maybe this flyer isn't the first-thing-in-the-world invention at all, but as it is one of the prominent landmark in the heart of singapore city, i did feel a bit surreal to finally see the base structure. it's like when you visited a friend's house for the first time, and felt like you know him more thereafter.

we didn't ride the flyer though. i know the flyer looks impressive and everything but there is no way i'm gonna spend 30 bucks for that merry-go-round ride, watching singapore skyscrappers view that i've seen like a million times it's practically already etched inside my corneas.

maybe in the future though, when i play host to some outside oh-my-god-i-visited-singapore-so-i-must-ride-the-flyer visitors.

where people pay to get locked up for 30 minutes of their lives

this was from the spot where i realized that the flyer was actually moving. ok i know it should be moving but the movement is so slow that it is not obvious at all from afar. as captivating as it looks, one cells exchanged people one after another before rising up high in the sky, i'm pretty captivated to the view underneath the boarding deck as well. they planted this whole mini-forest down there, complete with fountains and banana trees. i expect if i look hard enough, i would find tarzan there too, not sleeping on the park bench because then he would be fined 200 dollars, according to the new singapore law released last week (can you believe that? we cannot sleep in the park bench in singapore anymore. so if you have 200 dollars to spend, get a hotel room instead. you have been warned.)

mini-jungle underneath the boarding deck

there were shops inside the building but not many people in them. it's a joy really, to be visiting a place in the city on friday night that is not packed with people in singapore. it's like you have just found a secret underground celebrity-only spot. hip, grand but not crowded.

except this particular place...

when i first saw this bunch of legs from outside the display window, at a glance i thought the mannequins were taking a rest. until i realized that the legs were actually moving and there were zillions of small fishes nibbling on them. like they could feel anything. i say, since you pay 30 dollars for the this 30 minutes fish-nibbling session, why not put something more prominent and more value-for-money inside the water? like alligators.

Marina Bay

from the singapore flyers, we then walked down to marina bay. you know, the marina bay is just around my backyard (everywhere is around our backyards in this tiny island), but believe it or not, i think this was only my only second time being there this year, after the new year countdown.

gosh. have i been this unhip and boring?

the most recognized singapore skyscrappers view

i had camera on my hand and this night view of singapore most famous skyscrappers in front of me. so what should i do? snap them, although i've snapped this view many times before.

but wait. what's that construction underneath the highway bridge? are they building new road or something?

it looks like it. what i realized about singapore is, they are very fast in putting new stuff out. one moment it's not there, then u look away one second, and it's there. most clear example is the ERP. i mean, how many times was i shocked to find a new ERP gantry suddenly popping out like mushrooms after the rain while i drive through my normal route? just last week i found one ERP popping out near the eunos exit on the PIE (my line when i saw that was - damn you blood-sucking LTA).

i snapped these from roadside contruction board notice

ok according to the notice board above, they are building a pedestrian bridge across the marina bay.

you know what? i think that is such a good idea. many times when i drove through the AYE across marina bay, i wish i was walking instead so i could stop and enjoy the view for a moment, and embrace the metropolitan life that i'm living. it's a feeling i guess new yorkers feel everytime they walk through the time square or the rockerfeller center, feeling every bit as though they were casts of friends on the way to the central perk, and that they really belong there...

am i making much sense? anyway, it looks like a nice modern bridge. full stop.

looking at the other side, the night was still young from the sounds and lights of (which i believe is) the marina bay casino construction site. who won the bid to build a casino here last time? was it the sands or something? anyway, the construction is going full gear to get this casino up. i'm so excited. not for the casino as in i want to gamble, but to check-out the whole new singapore outlook. i mean, how many of us could say we spend the day hanging around casinos? exactly.

under the spotlight

just beside the esplanade (or as the locals fondly call 'the durian'), we heard some balinese kind of mystic music being played. i was like wow, since when the ministry of sound dj changed trend to playing this kind of traditonal music? i mean, how are the disco-goers gonna strutt their stuff to this anyway?

wait. can we really hear the music that clearly if it is really from the ministry of sound disco bar?

oh some guys are playing the instruments in the performance arena just beside the esplanade near the ministry of sound. ok this makes more sense. apparently there were some traditional music and dance festival going on and it was the balinese music session.

me? not really in the mood the check this out, so after snapping some photos, off i went, faster than you could say 'babi guling'.

submerging in balinese feel with the fullerton in background

ok basically, those were what i really did last night, nothing out-of-this-world but like the flyer, we don't always have to be on full speed to be high up.



...ed

say hello to the big R

if you guys for once switched out of malaysian tv1 and tv3 channel, which kept on boasting about how US was immitating malaysia on ways to tackle the economic downturn, you'd realized how bad a shape the world economy is now.

when i said 'world' here, i meant the US and singapore.

the first thing i saw after i came back to civilization from hari raya holiday, was this great big headline in yahoo main page, 'it's official: singapore is now in recession'. and today it got more interesting. the line goes, 'jobs cut likely to start in december'.

aren't those make your heart skip a beat? i guess santa clause would be busy distributing job vacancy pamplets instead on the eve night this year.

my company has not been doing great for quite some time, just like a long lingering cancerous growth, all blamed on the world market price. last year i bought an 8G thumb drive for 80 dollars. early this year it was sold for 45 dollars during Comex 2008. recently my friend purchased one for only 30 dollars plus. by christmas this year i expect we have to actually pay people to buy our products. market price is free falling. how are we going to make profit? it's a matter of time before it drops six feet under and we have to start chanting lament.

to cool down some hot asses, the management clarified yesterday that there won't be any lay-offs for us. which is great, but before we went out of the room popping party balloons, they added that they do consider implementing pay-cut measures though.

excuse me, but pay cut? that's like end of the world too, right? how on earth am i going to pay for my house, my car, oversea trips, country clubs, butlers, designer clothes, jewellery, personal jets etc etc?

plus, now that US is into this bad recession, i guess i can say goodbye to my plan of making it big to the dreamland. now suddenly everything went quiet, as though a disconnected phone call when you go through a tunnel. it's understandable, because when the water level is already up to your nose, you won't think of anything else but your own survival.

one thing for sure. i must resort to being frugal from now on. if i have to, i must take drastic measures ala becky bloomwood in the shopaholic series. for example, my car is really dirty now in the parking lot below, but the new me won't send it to drive-through car wash. i must wash it myself instead. or if i'm too lazy, just leave it dirty. people say you shouldn't judge a book by its cover, so people should not judge me by seeing my dirty car exterior.

in the meantime, let's just hope for the best. what else can we do? it's not like we can influence the way the world economy is run anyway. i mean, i can stay late working my ass off but the company is still going to lose money anyway.

i wonder whose fault that the world economy is going haywire like this? sometimes i think, now that all company make losses and everybody is like losing billions of dollars, where does the lost money go to? stock investors? surely someone somewhere is doing the joker laugh now while having money shower.

*bastard.




...adie

reaching for the light

so it was friday night. it was time to put the work mess on hold and moved away from the hari raya trails. who says the party is over now that all the lemangs and ketupats are all history?

this month, the hindus will be celebrating their diwali which is also known as the festival of light. so when we pondered where to go for the night, i thought let's give little india a visit.


Diwali (Deepavali) in Little India

true enough, when we arrived in little india, the street was already submerged in the glowing light of many blinding colours. i felt like alice just found wonderland. ok maybe not really, but still it was nice to look.





even the smaller streets were decorated. wow someone do have lots of money to sponsor this. this is many times better than the hari raya light-up, which is pretty sad actually. but again, nothing should ever be compared to this mother of all light-ups. after all, the lights for hindus signifies victory of good over the evil within every human being.

and from the look of it, it was a one sided victory, hands down.

actually, it's quite a good place to buy things around little india, because you know you're not gonna be slashed off your throat. price wise i mean. having said that, i didn't buy anything. i was just got curious by that tangles of flowers beside this fruit stall. there were many tangles of flowers like this sold at every corners. my friend said they use those during prayers, and i thought, really? like how??

while strolling along the main street admiring the beauty (most of the time through my canon G7's LCD screen), we found this small roof-covered street that was packed with goodies. i never noticed this street before. looks like a lot of activities inside there so we ventured in, feeling every bit like harry potter just discovered diagon alley.





you know, if harry potter was mesmerized by the magical stuff on display in diagon alley, i was mesmerized by all these diwali decoration stuff. i thought wow, are there people actually buying all these things? everywhere i set your eyes on, there would be things on sale. everywhere. if my eyes could choke, it would by grasping for air in no time.




we bought a couple of these sweets. it costs 70 cents a piece. i don't know what they are called, but what i do know is that they were freakingly sweet. very very sweet. it's like stuffing sugar in my mouth, only in different texture. as i chewed those stuff, my mind went, 'diabetes.. weight.. diabetes.. weight'.



and i guess these bad boys do not need any introductions. what's interesting is that they were on air. bottles and bottles of muruku hanging for their lives. someone please save them and buy one quick!




all in all, it was quite a good night stroll. well, good in the sense of something different anyway. at least, we were together celebrating the victory of good over evil within ourselves.


and hey, maybe the spirit will carry over to next week when i hope the light is strong enough still to help me fight the evil in the office.




...ed

ode to the cow dung

i've completed my mission.

hari raya was fun. well, as fun as it could be now that i am celebrating it as an adult. which means it was just like any normal day but with nicer clothes and yummier foods on the table.

oh and significantly less money too. but again, i go through that in many parts of the year as well.

i could not believe how much meat i consumed. gosh, i think i ate more meat in that few days than what i ate the whole year. no wonder at my grandpa's village in rembau, negeri sembilan, i could only see dungs on the road but no cow.

mind you, that was so a sight to behold right now because, get this, i heard they are going to demolish the whole village by next year. yes demolish. which means by this time next year, there will be no more village and no more cow dungs on the road.

evil? i think so too.

you see, my grandpa's village in negeri sembilan is located just by the railway track. it's so strategic that we could enjoy the peaceful environment of the countryside one minute, and get a taste of urban development by the sound of the rushing train in another.






apparently someone has just decided to add in another railway track beside the existing one. which by the way, is so puzzling for me because who on earth takes the cross country train in malaysia these days? like 3 people in the whole year.

anyway, so they are going to add in new track. now, how wide is the train track? less than a meter wide. and how wide area beside the existing track that they are going to take for that so-called railway track building project? almost 50 meters. do the math.

hmm i'm not in a position to comment because i'm not as intelligent to understand the logic behind this. for all i know, i'm dumb-founded, as were my grandpa. these people, they can travel through time. or else, how could they enter the villagers property and did some area measurements stuff before even discussing anything about the plans, the compensation etc etc with the locals?

deal or no deal, we just have no say. it's the government anyway, it's not like they can ever do anything wrong. so it's a safe bet to say by next year, all the cow dungs on the village road would have become history.

i guess, that's the price we have to pay for development. we would want our country to prosper. we want to build the tallest building in the world and live in flat houses like the singaporeans, even if it means letting go of our own wide land for some stuffy houses with zero compound.

so where will we celebrate the next hari raya? in the city and the supermarkets just like what the singaporeans do. it will be ok. we will still have our nice clothes and yummier foods then.

even if it's made of frozen meat that did not litter any countryside roads.








...ed

10 thoughts on hari raya

1) hari raya is such a family day
we prepare for the big day together (clean and decorate the house, prepare the foods etc), then we spend the big day together (have the same sumptuous meals, go to the mosque in the same car, visits relatives) and then spend the after raya effect together (getting sick of the same food, feeling bumped out about having to return to our lives) too. in short, for that few days, we always see the same face, and we liked it.

2) duit raya giving should be abolished
i mean, that money in green packets all working people is expected to hand out to non-working people during hari raya, as if we didn't already spend a lot preparing for the day. well at least, make it to be given only by married people. it's not fair for non-married people you know, who's already miserable answering question about marriage plan by relatives, and then have to part with our only money soulmates. ok it's not like i'm miserable, but still... hey, teach our youngs the pain of earning money, shall we?

3) forgiveness is such a sad gesture
really. everytime me and my siblings asked for forgiveness from our parents on the morning of hari raya day, we cried. almost, for me anyway. my sister is the worst, she could barely speak and her mascara and eye liner all went down the drain.

4) it's a drive-cow-towards-extinction day
because that's all that we eat for that few days. beef. eat lemang (that glutinuous rice wrapped with banana leaves cooked inside bamboo pieces) with beef rendang, eat ketupat (that compressed rice cooked inside coconut leaves) with peanut sauce added with beef serunding. these dishes were in almost every house we visited too. no escape. our bodies are screwed.

5) i have 1001 living relatives
i may not meet them for any other part of the year. for most, i don't even know their names or remember their faces or know how we are related, but man, do i have lots of blood relatives. when i was in my grandpa's village, people kept coming in visiting and i was like, who the hell are these people? it's almost a wonder why siti nurhaliza wasn't one of them.

6) teenagers do the craziest(stupidest) things
like sleeping on the train track. i heard that during the last fasting month, 5 teenage students from nearby hostel escaped from nightime hostel curfew, then somehow ended up sleeping on nearby railway track. in the middle of the night, the train came and 2 of them didn't manage to wake up on time. stupid? well, my auntie said they were sniffing glue that night, which would make more sense...

7) ghosts do exist. or do they?
ok i risked tagging this site with RA-21 with this. i heard story about this black furry without-head figure that likes to pin people down on the bed from a neighbour's house at my grandpa's village. that house has an old grave underneath the stairs. plus, the old abandoned houses in the village has many 'mysterious beings. apparently, last time the villagers like to rare these, well, paranormal beings to help them in their everyday's work. when these villagers die, these 'things were left unattended in the emptied house. have you ever wonder why some abandoned house become bad so fast, but when people stay there without doing any house fix it won't become bad at all? call mulder and scully!

8) the government is evil
they want to add in a new railway track in addition to the existing one that runs across my grandpa's village but i heard they are going to take the villagers' land that could make 20 railway tracks. the notice is up but the villagers were not told of any compensation deal yet. this looks like a losing battle. if this is true, i'm left without a village by next year.

9) everybody looks for chicken after hari raya
call it post hari raya effect. after we returned to the city, we decided that we were sick of hari raya food. so we went out to buy some kfc. the take-out line was long. looked like everybody was sick of hari raya food too. alternative? chickens. everybody was buying in buckets until they ran out of fried chickens. so we drove to mc donalds instead but there we were told to wait 30 minutes for them to prepare another batch of sold-out fried chickens. it was a night of fried chicken hunting and we failed. we ate pizza hut instead. not without queing.

10) ermmm.. i thought of writing this haha...
ok no more thoughts. i'm sleepy. it has been a busy day so i want to sleep now.


..till the next year hari raya!




...ed

mission (im)possible

ok don't panic, don't panic.

24hrs to go before the mission to kuala lumpur.

time for last minute check-outs. everything must be covered. all stones should not be left unturned. zero miss tolerated.



checklist for today

1100hrs
go to the bank in smart black suits, complete with latest design wide black non-see-through rayban and hair gelled neatly. limousine drop-off preferred, right in front of bank main entrance. don't forget the briefcase.

1130hrs
make the withdrawal. few millions dollars should cover the green packets money.

1140hrs
still counting money and arrange them neatly inside the briefcase.

1200hrs
ok the briefcase overflows. stack the remnant notes inside double-layered NTUC plastic bags which i happen to be carrying my carton of soya bean milk for healthy morning snack.

1215hrs
leave the scene. speed through the highways towards the east. make sure not being followed. if there is any helicopter trailing, make use of the new underground KPE tunnel.

1300hrs
expected to be at tampines courts. ok we need to find the item fast and efficient before the clock with big red numbers countdown ticks off. should swarm in with bullet proof SWAT jacket together with other team members. some should drop in from the ceiling using ropes. lights dimmed. let the search begins.

1321hrs
ok cannot find what we seek for. time to just ask the customer service or the electronic section salesman where to find creative 2G mp3 player. my brother in kuala lumpur requested this device and i am not leaving till i get one.

1340hrs
make the exchange deal. this should happened in the big unloading bay with both parties team members watching closely from afar. i give money, they give me the requested gadget. beware of any miscue.

1400hrs
limousine pick-up in front of the building. heads to simei eastpoint for an important appointment.

1430hrs
discussion in the hair salon on the 5th floor. the agent is an undercover hairdresser. i should pretend to do my hair while he surrepticiously whisper further instructions for my mission. do not take any drinks or foods offered as they may be contaminated.

1700hrs
make over complete for the upcoming undercover mission in kuala lumpur and rembau negeri sembilan. this look should go with all new clothes prepared for this event. nothing unmatched that could raise suspicion.

1730hrs
speed through the pan island expressway heading to orphanage house for the alms-giving and more. this act should be left unnoticed. make sure to wipe all the fingerprints clean and most importantly, no paparazzi shot should take place. capture and erase etheir memory if needed.

1830hrs
head back to the home base. final review of kuala lumpur mission plan. make sure all bring-along devices and gadgets are intact in the luggage. get the passport ready.

2100hrs
confirm departure time. communicate with kuala lumpur base about arrival time. this conversation should be brief and quick in case anybody is tapping this conversation and track our locations. remember to use the secret code identification.

end the conversation with,
"SEE YOU SOON FOR HARI RAYA, MUM"


that should cover it.

may the force be with us.



... ed signing off.

the eggs fanclub

the other day i watched malaysian opposition's MP teresa kok's interview on tv after she had just been released from that draconian internal security act (ISA) body that has power to detain people without trials (read: without no apparent reason).

she said she was given a rice, 2 boiled eggs and a cucumber to eat while in prison, which she then added, just (a little bit better than) like a dog's food.

in a normal world, that's a normal no-harm neutral statement. because let's face it, prison food sucks. i won't expect people to eat buffet there. so when people ask if you liked it, then you say no, the food sucks.

full stop.

but apparently teresa kok is about to get sued because she spoke ill of the eggs. normal boiled eggs, not even some cute humpty dumpty or anything.

because those retarded people said eggs are poor people's food. so when she said boiled eggs menu in prison sucks, she must have meant poor people's food is not fit for human consumption.

meaning, she's insulting the poor people.

i mean, just how ridiculous is that?

ok so i don't like that smelly tofu dish. i say, i think the smell is like garbage, make me wanna puke. will you get angry with me because then i'm being disrespectful to the chinese people who eats it? will you sue me in court and demand millions of dollars in compensation?

i can understand if those people that complained are from some global egg organization that spend their entire life taking care of egg's human rights, no, egg's food right, but that is so unlikely.

or maybe because people are just angry she mentioned eggs are dog's food. apparently you are a dog's class if you eat the same food as the dog. my grandfather feeds his chicken rice in the village, so i expect i'm a chicken class now.

i'm just relieved nobody has find out yet if our prophet ate eggs so they can start accuse her of insulting the religion.

seriously, this kind of news made it to the pro-government's mainstream media. what does it tell you about the mentality of the people in that business? or even in this country that made it like it's such a big deal?

i rest my case.



...ed

boys just wanna have fun

people say time flies when you're having fun.

you know what, i don't really think so. like today, i frantically tried to finish this report at work, shunning everybody else behind my back like the monitor screen was my only world.

i was not having fun.

but before i knew it, it was already late afternoon. i swear, it was as if the clock striked in twos. in the end, i could only managed to complete one tiny report in my whole day at work.

productive?

well it depends. on whether people actually read that report. chances are, it would just get ignored. later out of nowhere people would come and ask me about it when i already like moved on to the next life, and i would be like, dude, check your deleted mailbox.

ok maybe that's a bit exaggerated.

still, the fact is, people would only pay attention when something screws up. maybe if the ball dropped, then people would frantically trace back their steps to see things they had overlooked. like in this case, my whole-heartedly-completed report.

it's the same like that milk scandal in china. nobody cares about the milk they consume until suddenly some melanine, no, melamine tainted the chinese produced milk causing tens of thousands sick. i bet before this the word melamine was not even a word yet.

now the word melamine is as common as britney spears.

it's not fair you know. people would think consuming milk would get them strong, healthy and osteoporosis free like what michelle yeoh is all concerned for, on top of her ferrari man, but apparently not for those 6 who died of organ failures.

i mean, what do you have to do to be really healthy in today's world?

in the end, it's what others do that affects you. you could be all saints, eating rabbit foods, not smoking, drinking or whatever, even use overhead bridge to cross the road, but ultimately some bugger would pull the trigger, or release some poisonous gas, or just randomly detain you under ISA and you're doomed before your prime.

so what should we do to survive?

nothing. unless you're willing to sit still in a bullet-no-make-that-earthquake-proof safety box your entire life, you're gonna have to take risks.

as long as it takes for the risk to become a real threat to your own survival, you should just enjoy your life. even if it means to spend the entire night watching the new season of heroes.

if you ask me, my life is pretty enjoyable. that is, until i have to make another round of work reports..

..but at least the time will still fly then...



...ed

second step phone call

when was the last time you made a bad phone call that could potentially affect your life?

i kinda just did.

oh god, i should have never opened my mouth.

i spent like few hours peeking through technical notes for this inter-continental conversation but what were the questions asked?

basic personality questions.

duh.. as if i work in a bank.

so i was completely caught wrong-footed. but i had to keep my composure and go through with it.

here goes..

how do you see yourself in 5 years?

err wait, let me consult my crystal ball. hmmm i think i see a haze. a blur. which should mean i'm so blur to answer this question...

seriously what is the correct answer for this?

i guess i could paint a prefect scenario where i am a high-flyer technically-adapt project lead that leads his engineers as natural as the sky is blue.

ok move on..

what do you think is your strong personal traits?

ok i have this on top of my head. i'm a goal-oriented person, very eager to learn.

actually i thought that's a pretty good answer until i was asked to give an example.

bummer.

so i had to go on and on about how i made effort learning some perl stuff to be able to write test scripts that would assist me in my analysis work.

what is your weakness and how do you improve it?

gosh how to answer this question? should i venture into 'that' area? ok ok this is strictly work related, so what's my weakness?

i said something in the line of being too careful in doing my work, until it takes longer than necessary.

i don't even know how to improve that. ok maybe if i be more confident, which comes from experience, i wouldn't be that sceptical in my work in the first place.

see.. those were the sample questions. i might have written them answers in perfect english but god knows i had difficulty string 2 relevant words together.

don't get me wrong, i think i'm highly qualified, it's just that these subjective answer is very hard to make. this is not like some technical transistor law that you have equations to work on.

plus, i was very nervous. it's like you're walking on plane of wood. which should be easy right? now let's say someone put a gun on your loved ones and say he will kill your loved one if you ever step a toe out of the plane. now try and walk as calm as before.

the point is, i just hope that they would look beyond those jittery answers and my blabbering to see the man inside, i mean, talent inside.

keeping my fingers crossed.



...ed

a date with a hairdresser

i was sitting on the high chair feeling all happy and pampered, and beginning to understand the true meaning of heaven on earth, when the hairdresser put a plate of nicely cut mooncake on the desk in front, amongst the various magazines.

errr.. gosh.

god knows i like surprises.

and i like moon cake! it's the 15th day of the chinese lunar calender 8th month, but...

'i cannot eat this', i said.

'you don't eat moon cake? i'm afraid you're hungry'.

said the young hairdresser. i told him i haven't had lunch just a moment ago when he asked. i thought it was just a casual conversation.

oh if my heart can melt, it will.

what should i do?

'no no.. i eat, but i cannot eat now', i said.

he took a glimpse to the steam dome covering my head. he's not thinking i cannot eat because i'm being steamed at the moment, is he?

gosh, this is difficult.

'so you're not gonna eat?', he said.

'err no thanks'.

so he slowly took the plate away and i felt like curling my whole body inside the steamer.

i felt horrible. is this how i treat someone's sweet gesture?

but i have no choice. it's fasting month now, and i simply cannot eat in the middle of a hair salon in the middle of the day.

i could have explained, but then he'd feel embarrased of his ignorance. i mean, he's not local, so it's not his fault actually.

ok maybe a little, but still.. it'd be like telling off mother theresa.

well, looking at the way he did my hair in the end after the treatments (i asked to be cut short at side, spike on top, and long in front. yeah spell that - FUNKY), at least he didn't resort to mawning my head off.

i really hope not.

because he's my favourite hairdresser. i just need to remember NOT to be visiting during this particular month.

i'll take note.



...ed

the annual geylang serai 'pilgrimage'

after the tanjong katong parking lot incident (previous entree), we proceed to the geylang serai ramadhan bazaar. it was my virgin trip there this year.

so.. how's geylang serai this year?

hmmm light-up decoration not as bad as last year, which looked kinda cheap. this year it was pretty ok, simple, pleasant but nothing special. i've seen this every single year, so there was hardly a surprise there.

what made me more excited? THE FOOD... haaa just now i broke fast at circuit road, eating vegetarian nasi lemak. the plan was to eat something light before going to geylang serai food sweep.

unique huh? i'm sure nobody else ever broke fast with a vegetarian nasi lemak before. it was nice, the sambal was just.. divine.

so makan part 2 would be in geylang serai. the reason why i didn't break fast in geylang in the first place, was because you need to make prior reservation, or else you'd end up eating beside the drain. and that was just too sad to bear.

as usual, there lots and lots of food in geylang serai on ramadhan nights. i expect we could feed the whole somalia with those food spread.

only that i was not very enticed. i didn't feel like eating those sliced bbq meat, fried mee, fried kuey teow, kebab, roti john etc etc. what i wanted? fried cempedak. i don't know why i had a crave for fried cempedak. so i bought 2 dollar (that abang gave me an extra piece, so i got 5 pieces!), and ate standing by the roadside.

there were lots of stalls selling raya shirts, raya curtains, raya cookies, raya cars, raya money.. i mean, raya money envelop.. what a large crown turned-out, it was as if we were walking towards a rock concert show entrance. shoulders rubbed all the time, i felt like we were in a mass orgy or someting.

i wanted to buy the monica lapis legit cake that i always buy every year. the layered cake is nice and cheap but last night, it was sold at 11 dollars, 1 dollar more than the usual price. what a blood sucker. so i didn't buy.

we made rounds after rounds of the many stalls. actually i was hoping to get me a new raya baju melayu, the traditional malay wear that we always wear on the first day of hari raya festival.

but then, the baju melayu dan baju kurung/kebaya (for females) sold in this lion city were.. well.. too glamorous. too modern! for the female's, there were glittering patterns here and there, with body-hugging cutting that gives zero tolerance to coughs or sneezes. very sexy, you could walk in grammy's red carpet in that but to my grandpa's malay village in rembau, malaysia? you'd get stoned for sure (ok this was an expression, haha.. of course we no longer stone people).

even for the men's, mostly the fashions were too daring. the last thing i wanted to do was being looked at as a lost-caused singapore guy in my grandpa's village. really.


so in the end i chose this simple but yet modern, golden-coloured ensemble (SGD52). i matched it with a golden-thread sampin, which is to be worn like a kilt (ok this sounded weird when i wrote it like this, i guess you have to see it actually worn to appreciate) (SGD40).

so one thing done for my hari raya 2008 checklist.


ok 2 things done. because by this, i have done my annual geylang serai ramadhan bazaar 'pilgrimage' too...




...ed

incidents in a dark parking lot

i just managed to grab a parking lot just beside the tanjong katong complex nearby paya lebar station. there were so many cars, all queuing for parking spots to visit the annual geylang serai ramadhan bazaar, i felt like i stroke toto to be able to park within 5 minutes after entry.

the moment i set foot outside the car, i heard...

'peace be upon you...'

ohh i was surprised ok. it was all dark in the parking lot, it was like the voice came out of nowhere to my ears.

oh i just noticed there was this guy wearing a kopiah and a worn-out malay shirt behind my front door. hmm at first glance, this guy was surely not local. must be from bangladesh, pakistan sides...

suddenly he tried handing me a book. in that dim light, it looked like the holy book.

'take this.. i'm from pakistan... donation blah blah blah..'

i wrote blah blah blah because at that particular time, my ears had shut off from listening. i've met this kind of people a lot ok. let's say if he was really from pakistan, what the hell was he doing there collecting money? there should be a proper place for us to donate, so they don't have to ambush me in that dark parking lot.

quick walk away from there!

i barely made 10 steps when suddenly ...

there was a van stopped nearby me. then a chinese, late 20-ish, wearing a cap opened the van door and walked briskly towards me...

ok if he kidnaps me i'm so gonna scream.

'hey brotha... u want home theater system?'

what?? like a reflex i shook my head. when i'm faced with unexpected and suspicious incidents like this, automatically i'd pull out and say no. there's no time to analize the situation and decide the intention whether it's good or bad.

'brotha, i'm not selling, i have one extra. u want?'

the chinese guy asked again, while at the corner of my eyes, i noticed the white van with dark mirrors slowly moved closer to us. gosh, isn't this getting suspiciously dangerous?

why the hell is he insisting me to take his home theater system? looking at that old van, i'm sure he's not a millionare, tycoon or something that can donate without any reason.

i don't understand. maybe there's drugs or something he stuffed inside the home theater system and i'm supposed to carry that around. oh gosh..

quick! run away!

'it's ok, it's ok, i have already'...

i answered while turning 180 degrees and quickly walked towards some malay youngsters crowd at the other side of the carpark. what he did behind me, i didn't know.

oh gosh, i have no idea this parking lot beide tanjong katong complex is so 'eventful'...



...ed

a malaysian in distress

i'm a malaysian. it's still in my blood eventhough i do not live in the country. after all, i'm just a causeway bridge away.

there are lots of things malaysian that i'm proud of. like...

wait..

ok there must be something.

.. well anyway, i'm sure there is, i just don't have to give example now.

but all i want to say is, the POLITICS is the one i'm very not proud of.

what's up with all recent yahoos in top managements?

i'm sorry but i don't like what i read about the governments. even with my durr-brain, i could see so many blunders.

apparently the government have resorted to arresting frenzy over opposition party's figures. that, i believe after all other means has failed in getting the mass crowds to support them.

the goverment uses the ISA, the internal security act, to detain without trial. the reason? non-official line says these loud opposition figures create all sorts of problem to the governments.

yes, it's not because whatever they did caused havoc to the country, but to the current 11-hrs governments.

for them perhaps, government equals country (citizens), but i say, not at all. how could anybody said that when the government did't even get clear majority of the popular votes during recent general election?

if we follow the commonly accepted logic, that ruling party member who claimed the chinese are mere squatters in malaysia, and by that comment, stirred the racial discomfort, should head towards the detention gutter first.

but call it the malaysian-way, the government sent the opposition party leader who made the police report about that racist remark under ISA. she was apparently alleged to have complained about the noise of morning prayers at a mosque in her electorate by the media, which she has said the accusation is preposterous and threatened legal action.

ok what about that reporter for the chinese-language daily that was also arrested because she reported about that squarter-calling incident?

the fact is that people in the government who make mistakes walk freely while the reporters, politicians and bloggers who said the facts are detained.

that is why that racist ruling party member though, is still free to roam the country doing his planned road shows to utter more offensive stuff.

i'm sorry but my intelect just failed to understand this.

is the government going all the way to provoke the opposition party members and supporters to create unrest so they will take matters to the street and thus, give the reason for them leaders to be arrested?

this could be among the attempts to dismember opposition-takes-over-the-parliment move planned for mid-september. this is despite the effort of sending a bunch of ruling MP backbenchers to oversea to avoid them from jumping to the opposition.

for me, do whatever they can. it doesn't matter 16-september, or 20-september when the opposition will try to topple the ruling coalition. sooner or later the citizen will have to cast their votes again, and my durr-brain is pretty sure which box they are gonna cross.



...a malaysian in distress

ode to the ice-cream pints

you know, there's nothing going on in my life.

seriously. i don't know how people can blog every single day about their lives and make it sounds like a movie climax every single time.

because for me, every day is the same day. if i don't know any better, i'd say i'm the truman in the truman show movie.

if you ask me what did i do today, well i woke up, went to work, blew some fire inside my boss' office, worked some more, then went back home.

i'm pretty sure i could do all that in my sleep by now.

gosh am i leading such a boring life?

i guess, after so many years leading this working life, everything is already dangerously set to routines.

ok so maybe i'd be late for work one day. big deal. i've been late many times before too.

maybe if i were to wake up late to a completely another day, then maybe it could become something out-of-this-world but that's so not gonna happen.

so considering nothing on top of my head that is worth blogging for, let me just blog about ice-cream.

the other day i had a craving for a magnum ice-cream.

you know, the one with eva longoria on the advertisement. the sole reason that she was inside it made me wanna try.

because it's unusual. i mean, people endorse beauty products, watches, even shaving tools all the time but ice cream?

it's like madonna suddenly endorse a cup cake.

plus, it's eva we're talking about here, that classy ex-model in wisteria lane, who is by the way, as slim as a dance pole. she's the last object that ppl could associate with ice cream surely.

so i went to the store and try to find one. to tell you the truth, i'm not even so much of an ice cream eater. except maybe occasional cone ice creams in super hot weather, but normally in my book, it's a no-go.

to my surprise, it costs $3.90 for one. that's expensive, no? just for some sweetened iced thingy on a stick? you could almost buy a whopper with that money. or maybe half a seat in the cinema.

nevertheless, i bought it. that was after a few days of buy-no-buy because mysteriously the rain started pouring down like nobody's business causing the weather all chilly everytime i wanted to buy one.


my verdict? hmm ok it wasn't bad. i think it's kind of good, but nothing that made me lose sleep about. ok maybe fretting about the calories i consumed could made me, but the ice cream was fine.





i told this to my female colleagues the next day, hoping they could help explain the logic behind their spesies' ice cream demeanours but instead, they recommended me ben & jerry ice cream.

and i was like, 'did you mean, 'tom' & jerry?'

apparently it was not. in fact they said this is the closest you could get to heaven. in a female's world that is. you'd think they're having an orgasm hearing them describing the joy in consuming this ben & jerry stuff.

ok maybe i should give this a try too.

so just now while i was shopping in the grocery store, i detoured to the ice cream section.

ok there were so many boxes. which one? maybe the one with a cat and a mouse's picture on it?

oh ok i found it. there were so many rows of boxes, or pints as they called it, arranged somewhat neatly in the open freezer. some addicts must have scrambled through all this boxes.

and i glanced upwards to see the tag...

what? ..$13.50? ..and that was after the sale price.

wow what does the ice made of? some remote eternal youth spring water from barbados or something?

man, no wonder female is such a high maintanence walking machine.

i for one, definitely don't need a $13.50 ice cream to fly me to heaven. maybe a good movie show will. or a nice KFC outings. even just a hot cup of marble mocha macchiato.

only those aren't in my boring everyday routine unfortunately...



...ed

Ramadhan night food hunting

last saturday night, a bunch of us went out to have our break fast together. it was the first time i broke fast NOT being accompanied by my 4-walls. ok actually it was the second time, because one of the night i broke fast behind the wheels..

so just the mere fact that we were going to do this together got me all pumped up and high. we went to eat at serangoon garden food court, near chomp2, off the north-eastern part of the island.

i like this place because it is easy to find a spot to park my car, and there are plenty of tables to sit on, you don't have to go table-hunting like most food courts. but most important, it has my favourite mee rebus stall.

i never actually liked mee rebus (how do i translate this, boiled mee?) until i ate at this place.

go try and spot the mee lol.. ok the mee was being covered by that thick, sweet gravy that is simply out-of-this-world. who needs drug when you can have this?

and this is the selling stall...





having that big-A-deal mee rebus like that, i don't understand why the stall signboard made satay as the main speciality. because the satay was so non-entity cum forgetable. in fact, i have never tasted satay in this Lion city that is as good as KAJANG satay in malaysian southern-KL small KAJANG city where satay is like what belgium is for waffles. simply divine.

at this pak jaapar stall however, satay is just a mere chunks of meat on sticks.

next destination? to changi village later during the night for supper.

this changi village is famous for its nasi lemak (malay dish coconut milk rice). you'd surely see long line forming in front of the stall at the corner of the food court, as if buying madonna's concert tickets. it's that long.

but if you ask me, i don't think there's anything special about the nasi lemak. i mean, there are lot more better place than this one surely. in KL where i grew up, this nasi lemak would have been very mediocre.

the good thing about changi village is that it is easy to find a spot to park my car, and there are plenty of tables to sit on, you don't have to go table-hunting like most food courts.(by the way, if you noticed, my idea of a good place are : 1) easy to find parking-spot 2) plenty of tables to sit at. none of these,equals to a crappy place).

my favourite stall at changi village is actually selling nasi ayam penyet. ok how should i translate this. squashed chicken rice? sounds gross huh. but assure you, it doesn't taste gross at all.

ok you almost won't be able to find this dish in KL. apparently this nasi ayam penyet diah is originated from surabaya, or so my indonesian friend told me. for me, squashed chicken just sounds like dead chicken being steamrolled on the road by cars.

eeeek.

it's just a rice cooked with chicken soup, eaten with crispy fried (and of course, later squashed) chicken, sweet and spicy chilli gravy, as well as friend tofu and tempe (fermented beans). for me, whether the dish is nice or not depends on the chilly gravy. score on this one, you score all the way home.

in this whole singapore island, i like this stall selling nasi ayam penyet the most. ok i don't remember the stall name, but it's at the same row with that famous nasi lemak stall.

however, when we went there that night, it was close. what a BIG bummer. especially we already craved into our minds we were gonna have nasi ayam penyet that very night. i mean, did we drool for nothing?

luckily we spotted this another stall that boasted, 'famous nasi ayam penyet : the first and the original'.

hmm.. actually it's hard to believe signboards like this. like you can find easily 10 stalls that claim their's are the original one, so which one you wanna believe? it's not like it's trademarked or anything. you can practically put anything up there.

because we have no other choice, we just sit down and ordered. turned out to be a very good nasi ayam penyet! the chilly gravy was almost as divine, although the fried tofu and fermented beans seemed like had missed the last bus. not in sight.

for me, this nasi ayam penyet was better than the famous nasi ayam penyet ria restaurant in orchard lucky plaza. what makes nasi ayam penyet ria special is that it has this crispy fried bits together with the crisply chicken. however, the chilly gravy there not on-par with my favourite. plus, it's expensive at 6 dollars per dish, hard to get parking, and have to pay ERP bla bla bla...

we went back at almost midnight, ending a night long of jalan jalan cari makan on this particular ramadhan night.

the end.



...ed

break fast countdown

faster than a ray of light, it's already the 9th day of Ramadhan, the fasting month.

does it bare any significance to me? yes. well, today is the 2nd time i broke fast inside my car with one hand on the steering.

why? because some buggers decided it was a perfect time to do stunts on the road and caused accidents.

or else, how could any car meet with an accident in singapore highways? the road is 4-lanes big, very clear road dividers, super bright lightings, no construction holes whatsoever, and there are speed limit reminder every 10 steps, not to mention speed camera at every 10 breaths.

because of the road jam, i only drank a vitagen and munched some bread pudding that was so mediocre i forgot why i munched it in the first place behind the wheel at 7.08pm sharp.

the reason why i went back late just now was because i attended the weekly yoga class after work in the office.

yes, you heard that right. i did yoga. weird?

one thing i hate is that people tend to think that you are all weak when you're fasting. they expect you to look like old vegetable all day.

so i'm fasting. big deal. i still do my weekly badminton and you know what? i survived it. for all i know, i even felt lighter with zero foreign substance in my system.

the other day, i went to work all red-eyed, sleepy and miserable, and my colleague was like, 'oh you look tired. must be the fasting..'

which was so not. i played tennis the night before until late, and then some break fast late night rendezvous so i practically went asleep at 3am, woke up 4.30am for morning iftar, and slept again till 7am.

for all i know, the first week of Ramadhan had me all busy with activities, which god forbids my father from finding this out, has nothing to do with this holy month.

which should be ok, right? as long as i observe my utmost dedication to the rituals in daytime. not enough, i even extended my good deeds beyond daytime.

like just now. i never curse those accident buggers that held me up.

ok maybe i gloated a lil' bit.



...ed

disturbia

i blasted my stereo the other day and rihanna was on. i've already had a miserable week, ok relatively more miserable than any other weeks, so when she goes..

Bum bum be-dum bum bum be-dum bum
What's wrong with me?

and i was like, yeah, what's wrong with me?

Bum bum be-dum bum bum be-dum bum
Why do I feel like this?
Bum bum be-dum bum bum be-dum bum
I'm going crazy now

oh yes, i'm so going crazy now. why? because there were still no words, no nothing. nil. nada. every morning i woke up with a glint of hope but by the time i glanced through my mail before dashing off for breakfast, all hope gone leaving me with this big heavy load in my chest.

No more gas in the rig
Can't even get it started
Nothing heard, nothing said
Can't even speak about it
All my life on my head
Don't want to think about it
Feels like I'm hurting my brain..

i swear, i felt as if i was in her video clip or something. this song could easily be my life anthem. did i write this in my sleep? because god knows my brain is hurting right now.

or else, tell me why on sunday afternoon when it was all rainy outside creating a perfect hybernation nest at home, i grabbed my car key and drove all the way to my company to check my e-mail? it's like badawi suddenly wakes up and decide to debate in parliment.

i felt like i was living in limbo. neither here nor there, and it's tiring. it's like, gosh, show me the way already! you see, even the annual chinese ghost earth-roaming time is almost up and they have to go back to their realm very soon.

i on the other hand, have to remain in standby-mode.

only that it's getting worse. i think i've become weird with this anticipation. for instance, everything i do now that has anything to do with this subject, i think i could jinx my chance.

like this entry, i wanted to put 'my heart will go on' as the title, but i was afraid it will sink my hope just like the titanic.

ridiculous huh. am i losing it?...

Your mind's in disturbia
It's like the darkness is the light
Disturbia
Am I scaring you tonight? Disturbia..

indeed. to tell you the truth, i'm scared myself.

but i guess, like i've always reminded myself, things happened for a reason. i just have to be patient and content.

so in the meantime i'd just go..

Bum bum be-dum bum bum be-dum bum (ba da da de din da)
Bum bum be-dum bum bum be-dum bum (ba da da da din daa)
Bum bum be-dum bum bum be-dum bum (disturbia ahh ohh)
Bum bum be-dum bum bum be-dum bum

...ed

a nation in distress

so anwar ibrahim won the malaysia's permatang pauh by-election.

with a bigger majority too! you see, having found it impossible to topple anwar in this home turf, the ruling national front party resorted to this conception, where they would consider victory if they were able to only reduce the majority.

haha so eat that s*ckers!

now, do i think the EC is 100% reliable and clean from any misdeed? nope. there were far too many complaints, about the waxed voting papers, missing or duplicated registration names, phantom voters, to just to name a few. but at least, nobody think these so-accused-riggings have anything to do with anwar's victory.

this landslide win is all attributed to the power of the people, who have spoken loud and clear that they wanted anwar back in the parliment. personally, i hope he will quickly topple the current government because excuse me, i don't have much confidence in the government that only interested in investigating other people's anus and swearing on the holy book that they don't know a certain mongolian model.

seriously. i mean, what kind of government that increase and reduce petrol price to the function of election dates? where's the integrity of the government that sneaked in dna identification bill in parliment whilst the bulk of the opposition was campaigning in Permatang Pauh?

as long as there is almost 50-50 representative from the ruling national front coalition and the opposition in the parliment, they will continue condemning each others down. which means, we can safely assume that there will be zero development until at least the next 4 years, when it will be time again for the general election.

that's why i believe anwar wining is the first step towards creating an alternative govenment which hopefully can turn malaysia to a better future. until then, i would continue to hang my flag upside down.



...ed