I’ve had many highs in my life. I’m sure you have too. You know, like your marriage, the birth of a child, your graduation, whatever it is. I’m sure the feeling is indescribable. For me, it was the birth of each of my children, the first one of whom is Nureen Sabrina. I remembered she was 7 days overdue. I wasn’t too concerned as I know these things happen. But what alarmed me then was when the doctor told me (2 hours before labour) that Murni couldn’t have a normal birth and had to go for a caesarian operation. Being a first time father, I was having the worst case of jitters. Although I knew that the procedure was a normal one, I still couldn’t help but feel scared.
When it was finally over, I can still remember holding Nureen in my arms. She was indeed a sight for sore eyes. It turned out the reason Murni couldn’t go for normal birth was because of Nureen’s size. She had a weight of 4.19 kg. My first impression was that she looked like her maternal grandmother (Murni’s mom). Anyhow, that was the happiest moment of my life. I have a child of my own! I have always wanted a daughter for a first child. And now I have one. I’ve watched her grow from then on. Saw her take her first steps, go to kindergarten and primary school. I am so proud of her.
Nureen’s birth was indeed a high for me. However, I constantly think about the highs that others experience. Let’s take an athlete for example. You see them on TV all the time. I’d like to focus on individual sports only, not team ones. You know, MotoGP riders, Formula 1 drivers, golfers and the like. I’ve seen them celebrate wins before. It’s different every time. I can understand their ecstacy and happiness at winning. The effort put in, the hours spent training. And that doesn’t include the times when they failed to make an impression on their respective sports (probably after many tries). The level of happiness is relative isn’t it? In a competitive arena, the delight at winning must be second to none.
Now, let’s think about it for a second. As relative as it is, how do you compare the happiness of winning the MotoGP World Championship (as an example of sporting achievement) to the happiness of say, me holding Nureen for the first time in my arms? How are they different? Could I attain a higher level of happiness? Probably the winner of the MotoGP World Championship would be happier than me at that particular time due to the competitive nature of sport. Am I at a disadvantage because I will never win the MotoGP World Championship (except probably in my dreams)? There may be a science to this. You know, how to measure a person’s level of happiness at a given time. That’s something to think about.
Moving on, I’ve been told of the value of common sense. A person for whom I have utmost respect once told me to be successful, you need to know your stuff. But more importantly, this person told me that the difference between successful and really successful people is the ability to put common sense to good use. There’s a way to do every single thing and there are usually rules governing them. But as much as we want, the rules do not cover every single situation in life (or work for that matter). In situations where rules are not provided for, your common sense takes precedence. This also applies in working life. For example, in our everyday dealings. Do you proceed with the business deal this way or the other (all other factors considered)? Of course your business acumen will help you. But in the end usually common sense prevails and will largely dictate your move.
Mind you, common sense is also employed in heavy doses in every day life as well. Is there a sure fire method to use when talking to your children about issues surrounding them? Or even when talking to your spouse? In the end, you have to learn to rely on your common sense and instinct when faced with every day situations. For me, it’s still work in progress. I have to consciously remind myself to use my common sense when tackling issues at work and in my personal life. It’s never easy. You may think you have taken the right step only to be hit (with great force) in the face by reality or whatever it is that may prove you to be wrong. As such, as I’ve said many times before, never underestimate the value of giving a thought to everything we do. The mind works best in a relaxed state.
Anyway, I’m constantly on a quest to seek a higher degree of happiness. I believe that it is attainable. May be in the physical or spiritual sense. And I hope it comes soon.
Have you ever felt like you’re getting conned or about to get conned? By getting conned I mean of money. You know the drill, you paying for something and not getting what you bargained for.
Today, I went to get my car serviced. I do it every time my car’s mileage hits 10 thousand kilometres. This time I overshot the mileage count a bit (by 1 thousand kilometres) due to my apparent lack of time to get the car serviced. Upon getting to the workshop, I got the feeling that I’ve been there not too long ago to service my car. Indeed, I was there just a week ago fixing the alignment of my car’s tyres, but I not to service the car. So I checked with the lady at the cashier when was the last time I brought my car in for servicing. To my amazement, the last time I serviced my car was on 16th April 2011. That was just 2 months ago. In the grand scheme of things, that meant I covered 11 thousand kilometres in a short span of just 2 months!
I began to trace my steps. I know the bulk of the mileage was for my trips up to KL (and back to JB). But more importantly, my thoughts immediately went to a more pressing concern of how much I paid PLUS in tolls. To be perfectly honest, I dare not do the math on that one. I’m afraid if I do I may just die of extreme shock. And they do raise the toll rates periodically. That only makes it worse. It just means that my exposure would get more and more. The thing is, I can choose not to go back to KL (other than for work of course) but that’ll just be plain daft. Not when my family is still in KL at least.
Anyway, back to the “kena con” bit. I’m by no means a grease monkey (they say it’s a derogatory expression, but who cares). I would usually just start the car and drive. And for that particular reason, I ensure I bring it for regular servicing. Wouldn’t want a breakdown in the middle of nowhere on the North-South Highway, would you? So, today I got the guys at the workshop to do some major work on my car. Besides the regular servicing work (change of engine oil and the oil filter), I got them to change the spark plugs and clean the fuel injectors and valves (I sound like I know a lot about engines, but don’t be fooled by the jargon. I don’t know anything about engines). They told me that with the works, they’ll throw in an engine tune-up as well. I don’t really know what “engine tune-up” means, so I asked.
Apparently they have this fancy-looking electronic gadget which they’ll plug into your car and the said gadget will tell you what’s wrong (or not) with you car. I’d really like to see that. So after the hard work’s done, the guy proceeds to take out the gadget, plugs it into a slot in my car and pressed a few buttons on it. The gadget displayed a message asking us to wait while it “establishes a connection with the system” and that the process will take 30 seconds. I’m already impressed. After 30 seconds, nothing happens. He tried again (while all the time looking rather intelligent with all the button-pushing). After 3 unsuccessful tries, he pressed what appears to me to be a different set of buttons on the gadget. And I saw the gadget displaying another failure message (immediately this time, not after 30 seconds).
To my surprise, he then said’ “OK, you punya kereta OK. No problem.” I began to think then that the problem was with his fancy-looking gadget and not in any event was the problem with my car. I told him I don’t think his gadget is working right. And then he gave me the “it’s my equipment so I know best” line. Which really irked me. That was the moment when I felt I was conned by this guy. I got in, paid the bill (which didn’t impress me) and left. While driving away, a variety of thoughts went through my head. Should I go back to the workshop? What if the guy was really sure of what he said and my car was indeed tuned? Didn’t really notice it while I was driving anyway. By the way, how should a tuned car feel when you’re driving it?
So, not wanting a confrontation, I continued with my journey. I hope everything works out well. I don’t think I’m much of a “consumer rights” guy. When I get mistreated at business outlets, I prefer to walk away rather than take the risk of confronting the person(s) who aggrieved me. Well, maybe I haven’t been hit really bad. Who knows, I might just react next time. Oh, and I did tell the guy at the workshop, after all the work done, if my car doesn’t feel like a sports car when I drive back to JB this weekend, he’ll be getting a piece of my mind.
I am an emotional person. I don’t think there’s any shame in admitting that. Yousee, I genuinely believe all of us are emotional creatures. Some keep their emotions in check or are really good at masking it. And the thing is I’m not really good at that. If I’m happy, I’ll be singing along and pretty much have a perpetual smile on my face. If I’m upset, it’ll inevitably show. And if I’m sad, I could even cry. Even at this age. I think there’s no shame in crying, if it relieves you of your troubles, basically letting it out of your system. Sometimes you feel strongly about something and your emotions take over.
People let out their emotions in a variety of ways. Some just keep stoned quiet. Some meet friends and generally have a good time. Some, like me, take their bikes out and ride very fast. Whatever floats your boat, as they say. As long as you feel better. At times, in life, you meet people who convince you that their hearts are made of stone. I’ve met a few. Nothing rattles them. You can even hit them with sob stories, mothers separated from their children, father-daughter relationships, people who live in a shack (usually stuff from Bersamamu, the one shown on TV3) and they wouldn’t flinch. Sometimes you wonder what would make them show some emotion. For people like this, amongst the emotional response shown would usually be anger. They don’t seem to be contented or satisfied with anything. And they’ve got to lighten up.
As for me, I just cannot stand watching movies of father-daughter relationships. This may sound corny, but one of the movies which could really move me was “Kuch Kuch Hota Hai” (the Hindi movie with Shah Rukh Khan in the lead role called Rahul). In this particular fare Rahul’s daughter tries to fix him up with his old college mate after his wife passed away. All this was done after reading her deceased mother’s letters which were read to her on every birthday. If I’m not mistaken, there was this scene where Rahul and his daughter was grieving after the wife passed away. That one really got to me. You see, I have 2 daughters (and a baby boy). So it is pretty much understandable that I’m easily touched by stories of father-daughter relationships.
The thing with daughters is they always know how to tug at your heartstrings in all the nice and unbelievably right ways. Tonight I spoke to my eldest daughter, Nureen Sabrina. She is rather fed up with having to lug her heavy schoolbag day after day. So she asked me to buy her a new bag (the one with the wheels). As usual, every night, my daughters will call me in JB to have a chat and say goodnight. So tonight I told Nureen I’ll get her the bag this weekend when I return home. She then said,”Kalau abah (that’s me) takde duit dulu takpelah ya. Tunggu abah dapat gaji dulu baru beli beg untuk Nureen OK”. And she’s just 11 years old. They say girls mature early, but what she said was just the sweetest thing isn’t it? The fact that she’s sensitive about these things really melted me. And that alone is enough motivation for me to continue to work really hard for her.
Nureen Sabrina Albakri
Nureen Sabrina Albakri
And then there’s Farah Batrisyia, my second daughter. She’s 3 this year. She’s a bit of a motormouth actually. Really expresses herself well. And like most kids nowadays, she’ll surprise you with the things she says. I guess having many grownups around her develops her vocabulary and self belief. Which I think is a splendid thing. The other day, she asked me,”Abah sayang dik?” (we call her “Adik” despite having Harith Haiqal, our baby boy). And follows it up with,”Dik sayang abah”. Damn, that made my eyes well with tears and made me feel all gooey inside. Well, its all mushy stuff. But when you only get to see your kids on weekends, you’ve just got to understand why I feel the way I do.
Farah Batrisyia Albakri
Farah Batrisyia Albakri
Farah Batrisyia Albakri
Last but not least, my baby boy, Harith Haiqal Albakri. A boy at last! Somebody I could pass my biking legacy to. When you’re a father and you have a son, the possibilities are endless. You see yourself doing guy things with him. Teach him how to ride, drive go-karts and generally go crazy. I do hope he grows up to be a lot better than me. I’d like to think I’m not doing too bad myself, but if he manages to top that, it’ll be a big bonus. And Manchester United will get a brand new fan!
Harith Haiqal Albakri
All in all, I am thankful for my kids. One entry is nowhere enough to write about them. They brighten up your day in ways that you never thought possible. With them, all my emotions are laid bare. I’ve shed many, many tears for them (mostly happy tears). I hope as parents, Murni and myself would be able to raise them in the best way possible. I always say that if I manage to raise my children half as good as how Abah and Mak raised me, I would consider myself a success. Let’s hope I do.
Since I started dabbling in the internet socially, there is one sure thing I learnt. By dabbling socially I mean joining Facebook and now, blogging. I learnt that online, you present a persona of yourself probably not seen by others in your “real” life. By your online appearance, you may present yourself (sometimes inadvertently) as somebody you’re not. Of course some people do this on purpose. They may not like what they are in real life. As such their being online gives them the chance of creating a persona of their own liking and thus masking their true self. You know, looking like a cool, hip kind of person. When probably in real life they’re as drab as a door knob. They may not get as much attention as a “real” person and as such, derive great pleasure from masquerading around as people they are not online.
I am rather curious to find out the persona I’ve created for myself. Obviously I am not, and will never be a good judge of myself. Others do that. But in any case and in any given time I try to stay as true to myself as possible. Wouldn’t and couldn’t have it any other way. I try my best to behave as I would have in the real world. This would be reflected from my writing, my Facebook comments and extends as far as the photographs I post on Facebook and this blog. I’d like to think myself of somebody who is quite laid back and understanding of other people’s feelings.
The thing is, without any conscious realisation, I may have unleashed a side of me that I never knew existed before (well maybe I do to a certain extent). In real life, I don’t really like to find fault in people. I always try to see and find the best in people. If it’s good, I’ll concentrate on it. That’s my real life persona. However, through my writing, I may have found a darker side to myself. You see, with me, once I start to write, the thoughts just flow and whatever I write actually mirrors my thinking at a given time. Sure, I record my thoughts and then translate them into written form but it is during the writing phase that the earlier thoughts are expanded into what you read here. My observations inevitably focus on the bad things first and the good later. I have been tempted before to write about the shortcomings of many things. Which may not be a good thing at most times.
Having said that, I also believe in freedom of expression. That I could write about anything that comes to mind. Although it might take some internal filtering to find the best content possible. There should be a system to filter the thoughts that course through the mind in order to yield a more productive outcome.
OK, enough of that. Have you ever been so pissed off you feel that you could just chop someone’s head off? Without giving too much away, I have been in that situation before. Many times. Even very recently. Sometimes self control is a good thing after all, isn’t it? It actually prevents you from acting in a way that could later prove to be detrimental to yourself. And who knows who you’ll hurt in the process. That is why it is always good to sit back and take a few deep breaths, contemplate the situation and then decide on your next course of action. And there’s also the foolproof way of just walking away (which at times takes a whole lot of mental fortitude when you just have the almost uncontrollable urge to fight it out).
Well, you can’t please everybody all the time, can you? Heck you can’t even please even yourself all the time. So at times for me, you’d have to do what feels right for yourself. A bit of selfishness doesn’t hurt. At times you think about other people too much that you get hurt yourself. That applies to everybody, really. I’ve met many people who always put others before themselves. Which is generally a good thing. But always remember, never do it to your own detriment. The only exception to this is when you place your family and your loved ones before yourself. For other situations, there must always be room for your own selfish needs.
Anyway, 14 June 2011 marks the 10th year of Abah’s passing. Abah, all of us love you so very much. No one could ever replace you and the love you’ve given us. Of course at times you were strict (especially to me) but I know now that it was for my own good. May Allah bless you always. There’ll never be anyone else like you in our hearts. I love you. Al-Fatihah.
A few entries ago I wrote about how the younger set of Malaysians are getting obsessed with foreign fictional figures. The main medium for this obsession or preoccupation is mainly from America-produced movies. Today I have some good news to share. As of last Sunday I was truly convinced without doubt that Americans did copy Malaysian movies. How was this “eureka” moment experienced? I watched a Mat Sentul movie.
You see, last Sunday I watched “Mat Karung Guni”. This was a story of Mat Karung Guni who was a vagabond, wandering around. Mat lived in a country ruled by a King (played by the great Ahmad Nisfu). As it happens, the King had a prince who curiously looked just like Mat. As fate would have it, one day the King died leaving his prince as the only heir to the throne. As with most movies, there were officers of the court who are envious of the prince and plotted a coup d’etat. They kidnapped the prince and by a stroke of luck, they found Mat, who was then installed as a puppet King. To make a long story short, the prince was then saved and went on to claim the throne.
Now, how was it that the Americans copied Mat Sentul? If you are a fan of slapstick American comedy, you would be familiar with the Naked Gun trilogy (which started from the Police Squad series), the Airplane movies and not forgetting the 2 instalments of the Hot Shots! series. In these movies the comedy ranges from spoken to rubbery physical comedy. You really have to be a connoisseur to appreciate this type of comedy. They’ll turn an ordinary facet of everyday life into something totally hilarious. Just look it up on YouTube and you’ll know what I mean.
I noticed that curiously their humour is not unlike Mat Sentul’s brand of a-laugh-a-minute comedy. In Mat Karung Guni, the King would be carried on a “tandu” (that contraption where his servants would carry him on) along a garden. He would do all sorts of things. He would meet a guy who sells peanuts, call him, buys some peanuts and eats them. But the thing is, the King is a very lazy person. He has this tool called “mesin kunyah” (chewing machine). You would be forgiven to get the impression that the machine may be some elaborate piece of kit. But no, it was a “lesung batu”. His servant would hand the lesung batu over to him and he’ll start to pound the peanuts and proceed to eat them. Well, I really suck at telling jokes and I’m sure my narration isn’t too good either. You’ve just got to see it. It was side-splittingly funny material I tell you. And of course the best part is that the King is played by the late Ahmad Nisfu who must simply be one of the best actors of his time.
In my limited knowledge, America had The Three Stooges about the same time Mat Sentul produced (and directed) his movies. But The Three Stooges employed a totally different brand of comedy altogether. Curly, Larry & Moe plied their trade by exchanging derogatory remarks and hitting each other. And with a high level of ferocity I might add. So Mat Sentul and The Three Stooges, although in the same genre of comedy, simply belong to a different branch and would attract a niche audience.
Comedy identical to Mat Sentul only surfaced in America during the 1980s. The first movie of its kind is “Airplane!” produced by David Zucker, Jim Abrahams and Jerry Zucker. It spoofed disaster movies. Zucker, Abrahams and Zucker later produced “Police Squad”, a TV series spoofing police procedures starring Leslie Nielsen (I just love the guy!). It employed sight gags, word play and non-sequiturs (thanks to Wikipedia for the information). Although Mat Sentul did not use word play or non-sequitur as the humour model, the sight gags used by Police Squad is curiously identical to what Mat Sentul employed to great effect in his movies. You never know, the Mat Sallehs could’ve just stumbled upon one of Mat Sentul’s old videos, thought it was hilarious and decided to make a comedy of their own.
There you go. Mat Sentul, one of the nations treasures. Although not generally lauded by the entertainment community and reduced to making junk food commercials (remember Ding Dang, anyone?) I genuinely think he was the undoubted inspiration to big-time American comedies like Police Squad, Naked Gun and Hot Shots.
I’m back in JB. Left KL at about 6 pm earlier today. I was naturally expecting the worst traffic-wise due to the end of the 2-week long school holidays today. I was pleasantly surprised that traffic was fine considering my earlier expectations, which was good. What’s not so good was that I missed the MotoGP race from Silverstone. Since moving to JB, I’ve only been able to watch the races on Monday, when Star Sports have a repeat on. Only being able to watch the race after knowing the results is never a good thing. Takes away all the sense of anticipation from it all. Anyway, the news of today’s race would definitely be Colin Edwards getting 3rd place while racing with a broken collarbone. I tell you these guys have b***s of steel. They’re all superheroes without the shadow of a doubt. If I were to break my collarbone (I hope I never do) I probably wouldn’t come close to doing any sort of physical activity for a minimum of two weeks. Mr. Edwards sustained the injury 8 days ago and rode in a race today. Kudos and congratulations are in order to Colin Edwards! You have my undying respect Sir.
Moving swiftly on. We all have responsibilities. Some big, some small. In any case, we are all responsible for something. In my view, as soon as we know how to think and are aware of ourselves, we are at the very least responsible for taking care of ourselves. Obviously, as we grow, the level of responsibility adds on (or rather piles up). A student would be responsible to ensure his/her grades are good. And also to ensure he/she lives the lifestyle needed to be in the best possible condition in order to perform well in his/her studies. That kind of thing.
As an adult, the sphere of duties and responsibilities takes a totally new dimension. What more if we are married. As a man, I am entrusted with the general well-being, welfare and to a certain extent, the lives of my family members. At work, I am responsible to protect my employer from any legal risks and to ensure, all transactions move smoothly, at least from the legal point of view (which at times may not be easy). And I also have to do everything within my power to watch over the welfare of the staff who report to me. Finally, I have to keep myself healthy for me to be able to perform all the said duties. My point is, I honestly believe that I have a lot on my plate. I think I’m at the point of being overloaded with responsibilities and I feel it’s a huge weight on my rather puny shoulders.
You know, that got me thinking. Everyday we hear stories of extraordinary people. People who thumbed their nose at adversity and difficulty and made it through. And also people who dare to be different. Took risks and stood in front of others who doubted them. Or people who came back from huge disadvantage and succeeded, becoming individuals they never thought they could be. These are the truly great ones and we aspire to be like them. Not exactly like them, but in our own way of course.
An example of an individual who belongs in the above select group is our very own Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad. From a medical student who wrote articles in the Singapore Straits Times, he overcame adversity to become the Prime Minister of Malaysia. This is a guy who was expelled from the Malay-majority party, the party from which Prime Ministers came from. He came back, stronger than ever and ended up showing Malaysia the way. Now that’s a comeback story for you. I honestly believe we will never be where we are now without his genius. A truly great person whose ideas have revolutionised the way a country is run, the way Malays think and do things and a host of other things. I for one, hope this great statesman lives forever. Which is impossible. Well, maybe in our hearts and minds.
The other day, I watched a movie on Cinemax. It was about General (Five Star) Dwight D. Eisenhower (affectionately known as “Ike”). He was the allied Supreme Commander during World War 2. He orchestrated the landing of Allied forces on the coast of Normandy on 6 June 1944, which is commonly known now as D-Day. The landing was a pre-cursor to the liberation of France from Nazi rule and the eventual overthrow of the Reich. The thing that caught my attention was at the planning stage of the operation, Ike was informed that due to violent weather conditions, the casualty rate of the paratroopers of the 6th Airborne Division who would be dropped on the east of River Orne would be close to 75%. I cannot imagine the level of trepidation in his heart and mind at the thought of sacrificing that many men, young men at that.
After doing lots of research and keeping up to date with hourly weather forecasts, Ike decided to go for it, while at the same time getting a lot of stick from one of his fellow Allied colleague, Air Chief Marshall Sir Trafford Leigh-Mallory from the United Kingdom. Ike stuck to his guns and the rest as they say, is history. During the operation, Ike received a message from Leigh Mallory, apologising for doubting him (which spoke volumes about Leigh-Mallory’s character). Later, Ike entered politics and became the US’ 34th President from 1953 to 1961.
Now, as a matter of comparison, how would I be able to rank the above 2 individuals’ compared to what I am “burdened” with at this time? I would just be nowhere. Tun Dr. Mahathir made judgment calls on policies affecting the future of a country (a country where my family and I are citizens). A mistake would be catastrophic. As I said, the quality of the man is reflected on the relative quality of life we are all experiencing at the moment (well some experience more quality than others of course). As for Ike, it’s literally about considering, “how many guys do I send to their deaths today?”. That’s as crazy as a responsibility can get. Yet he did it and interestingly, on the day, the casualty rate was only 20% as opposed to 75% as was earlier expected.
Ike and Tun Dr. Mahathir respectively define the terms guts and responsibility. These are the type of guys we should all aspire to be like. Certain facets of them at least. As for me, I guess it’s about doing the best of my ability at what I am entrusted with now. And if I chip hard enough at the blocks, I may just get to be probably 5% to 10% of the above guys and I’d be happy.
I’ve been alive for 36 plus years now. Which is good. I am looking for more years ahead, God willing. In all those years, there have been happy, very happy and supremely happy times. At the same time, there were bad, very bad and supremely bad times. I’m not going to write about the good times. Just the bad ones. No, I’m not in a brooding mood. Just felt like talking about that ever-present element of our lives, the problem.
As do I, everybody faces problems on a daily basis. Some problems worse than others. I’ve had my share of bad problems, even one life-threatening one. I’ve faced issues that made me unable to eat and sleep. But I gotten through them all with varying degrees of success. Some at a cost. Big, big cost. Looking back, life has treated me quite well so far. For that I am thankful. In my experience (which I admit, is not that much) the first impression we get when we face a problem would be something like, “habislah aku macam ni….macam mana nak face ni…”. And that’s totally understandable. It’s just because you cannot see the end of the problem when you first encounter it. You are filled with anxiety, your heartbeat goes over the roof, you imagine the worst. Been there done that.
And there’s no kidding too, it shows. I am a person who can hardly disguise a problem. When I am miserable, it shows on my face. And I think that’s the case with many people too. I always think the best approach when you face issues or problems is to take some time to think about it. I’d like to call it individual brainstorming. You just sit back and take a few deep breaths and consider your options. And if you are comfortable about talking to other people, by all means do it. Sometimes you just get such a mental block you can’t think straight. And the thing is, I’ve managed to find unique solutions to problems I’ve faced by accepting other people’s ideas. At times you just have to let others do the thinking for you. If you are a well balanced person emotionally, you should be able to isolate the issues you’re facing and go into deep thought mode. Generally I can do that. But other times I just discuss with other people. You’ll be surprised what they can come up with.
Now, is there such a thing as a problem without solution? Unless you have a terminal disease I don’t think there’s a problem in this world without a solution. Although sometimes the solution is really not what you wanted it to be. The solution may not be to your liking. You may have to sacrifice something. Then the consideration bit comes. At times you just learn to accept the lesser of two evils. Which I’ve done many, many times. After making your choice, you just have to learn to live with your decision. After all, you can’t get everything you want, can you? Sad, but true.
On the other hand, I’ve also been told that no matter how big your problems are, there are people who have bigger problems. Are you familiar with the “I used to complaint about not having shoes until I saw a man with no feet” adage? To be perfectly honest, I don’t really care. Not in a bad way, but I honestly believe everybody has to deal with their own problems. Although the above saying does bring about a measure of realism and empathy, it doesn’t really give me any comfort. When you face a problem, at times you get upset when people tell you there are other people who are worse off. My response would always be, “yeah, obviously they are worse off, but I’ve got my own issues to deal with”. And I just get on with it. I suggest you do too. No choice really.
After some heavy dose of reality above, I have a mini-rant. This is sort of a continuation of yesterday’s entry about Facebook. What’s the deal with people who like their own posts? It’s like you update your status with something and then clicking the “like” button. My question is, if you didn’t like it, would you have posted it in the first place? I’ve this guy on my friend list who does this every single time (as far as I can remember). I think it’s fair to like other people’s posts or links or whatever. I’ve done that countless times. To me liking your own posts is the ultimate sign of vanity, isn’t it? Posting something you like and for good measure (and unintentionally irritating other people) liking it. And you know what’s the worst thing? When after some time, you find that nobody else likes your posting but yourself. If it happens to me, I’ll just delete the posting altogether. But wait, I don’t double-like my own posts, ever!
For those who are perturbed by my entries on Facebook observations, I am sorry. You may probably have issues/problems with said entries. After doing some individual brainstorming of my own, I think I may have the solution for you. You’re just going to have to deal with it!
P.S. I have the K-Pop programme currently showing on hitz.tv. I think all these K-Pop artistes have gone for plastic surgery in one form or another. They just look too good!
I have been on Facebook since early 2009, I think. And it has proven to be a most useful tool for communication and getting in touch with long lost friends. That’s obvious. I think everybody uses Facebook to get in touch bla bla bla. But that is not what this entry is about. It’s essentially about what I notice on Facebook. Generally just people’s conduct. As such, if you’re about to read on, tread with caution. What I am about to write may just be about you or something you may have noticed on Facebook. So I’d like to apologise in advance. The following are just my observations.
Firstly, I think Facebook is for the vain (including me). Everyday you see people uploading photographs of themselves doing stuff. Whatever it may be. People going on trips, lounging at home, being with loved ones and the list goes on. Generally opening up to the world. There are also people who upload photographs of their lunch, dinner, their cats, dogs, bikes (like me) any a host of other things. I must admit that I like to share certain aspects of my life too. I upload photos of my family (not really photos of myself), the trips we go to etc. And the thing is, as a normal human being, I like some attention. So when I get tagged, I’ll be filled with anticipation. Probably I get tagged in some old photograph from my school/university days or some family photograph. Don’t you think it’s the ultimate killjoy when you anticipate something nice and it turns out into something completely the opposite? You know, for example when you get tagged in some MLM scam like “login facebook dapat RM sejuta” or something along those lines. I’ve seen friends who expressly request that nobody tags them in those kind of nonsense. I don’t really get that often, so I’m OK for now and will not resort to such measures.
There are also people who will publish every single aspect of their life. “Had lunch at Restoran Ahmad Maju, with kari ikan, ayam goreng, pappadom and teh ais. The bill was RM7.” And there are people who get really “jiwang”, writing something like “he/she is the love of my life” or “life will not be complete without you”, well you get the drift. The term “status update” doesn’t really matter to these people. I think that’s why the people at Facebook now ask you “what’s on your mind?” rather than just asking you for “status” updates. To be perfectly honest, I am also guilty of these things (Although I don’t write about what I had/am having for breakfast, lunch or dinner or really jiwang stuff). Generally my updates are usually about what I’m doing at a particular time, about what’s on my mind (to keep up with the theme), some comments on issues that I feel rather strongly about and how I’m feeling at a particular time.
There are times when I get really irritated by people who update nonsensical stuff. There’s this person who cannot keep to good English (which you know is a major irritant to me). And this particular person is qualified to teach English for heaven’s sake (I hope the person’s not reading this or there’s going to be major aggro). I guess I’ll just have to accept the fact that there are people like that. And I do know that there is the “hide” option in Facebook. It’s basically a tool you can use to hide a person’s updates. But the thing is I just like the feeling of being supremely irritated whenever I read this person’s updates. I guess it’s just the sadist in me. I hope you understand my rather generous usage of “this person/this particular person”. You never know who’s reading.
You know in internet writing lingo if you write in capital letters you are actually shouting, right? There’s another way of shouting in cyberspace. Just update your Facebook status with something and add many exclamation marks after it. Let’s use the having lunch update above for example. It’ll simply go like this: “Had lunch at Restoran Ahmad Maju, with kari ikan, ayam goreng, pappadom and the ais!!! The bill was RM7!!!”, something like that. For the life of me I cannot imagine why people have to do that. As if the having lunch at Restoran Ahmad Maju update was not irritating enough.
One good thing about Facebook is it gives a chance for people to do business. By business here I mean real business (usually retail) and not those MLM schemes where you get tagged like crazy. I’ve come across many good products on sale via Facebook like children’s clothing, cakes and pastries, perfumery (murah sangat, probably pirated kot) and the like. As for children’s clothing, I’ve actually taken the trouble to survey the prices of the exact items in the market. I was rather surprised to find out that the prices in Facebook is up to 30 per cent cheaper. So doing your shopping on Facebook is definitely not a bad idea. Provided of course the trader you’re dealing with is not unscrupulous type. As for me, I’ve never done any shopping through Facebook, so I don’t really have an opinion on this point just yet. But the prices are definitely good.
I actually have a few more observations I’d like to share but I think I should just stop before I really infuriate people. But then again we are all for freedom of speech, right? I’ll probably share more in my coming entries. For now, I’m going to watch Bruno Mars on hitz.tv singing with a group of monkeys.
I have never been adventurous where food is concerned. If I am OK with a certain type of food, I’ll stick to it. I’ve lost quite a bit of weight since I moved to JB because I’ve come to a point where I do not know what to eat anymore. I’ll go to the same outlet day after day ordering the same thing. And I’ve gotten fed up with the choices that I have (or rather the ones I don’t). You know you’re stuck in a rut when the guy at your local tomyam joint asks you, “Yang biasa ke malam ni bang?” before you even start to think of what to order. I’ve reached that point. I’ve got no supplies at home, so I have to go out to get something to eat. It doesn’t even remotely help that I can’t cook either.
That’s precisely why I have a great deal of respect for my friends who’d been overseas for their studies. These guys can usually cook. Heck, I’ve got a friend who can even prepare a stonking baryani! That’s just not for me man. I may just die eating my own cooking. So that’s out of the question.
Anyway, recently I found this place which sells halal dim sum. I’ve been trying to find a place to get decent dim sum in KL for quite some time now. Didn’t manage to find one. So to find a place in JB is a real blessing. And it’s cheap too. At least I have the opportunity to escape from my daily tomyam monotony. To be honest I’ve been to this dim sum place (it sells other types of food too) 2 or 3 times over the past two weeks or so. Although the dim sum is of the frozen variety, it’s enough for me to be contented. After all beggars can’t be choosers right?
So today, I went to the place to get my dim sum fix. Ordered 3 types and waited. Dim sum is eaten with 2 types of sauce. The sauces are identical to the one you get when you buy yong tow foo (is it spelt like that?). You get the dark brown coloured sauce and the slightly hot one. Tastes great when you mix them together, but the dark brown sauce is pretty much the standalone one. You can have it without the hot sauce. After about 10 minutes of waiting, my dim sum came. I checked the package I got. To my dismay, only the hot sauce was included. The other one was nowhere to be seen. So I very politely asked the Bangladeshi guy to get me some to which he replied in quite an inaudible manner, “dah habis”.
To say that I was disappointed would be an understatement. As I said, the dark brown sauce is the standalone one. Without it, the hot sauce would be pretty much useless. Seeing that there’s no point in dealing with the Bangladeshi guy, I called this Malay girl who to her credit was rather apologetic. However, being apologetic will not aid me in my cause for the sauce.
Shahrin: Macamana saya nak makan kalau takde sos yang tu (the dark brown one)?
Malay Girl: Mintak maaflah Encik, nak buat macam mana, sos tu dah habis (complete with muka kesian)
Shahrin: Tapi sekarang baru pukul 8.15. Kalau awak cakap awal-awal tadi mesti saya tak order dim sum ni.
Malay Girl: Tulah dia. Patutnya tadi saya bagitau yang sos tu dah habis.
The thought that I had in mind was, “boleh tak jangan cakap benda yang aku dah tau?” as in when she said “patutnya tadi saya bagitau yang sos tu dah habis”. So I asked her if she could just prepare some for me. Which she did. Out of what I don’t know. One thing I know is the fact that they ran out of the sauce was entirely their fault and nobody else’s. I repeat, nobody else’s fault. Certainly not mine, anyway.
After waiting for another 10 minutes, the girl came out with a container of the newly made sauce. She proceeded to tell me, “yang ni tak macam sos yang selalu ya. Yang selalu tu kita ambik kat orang lain. Dia datang hantar sini hari-hari”. I applaud the girl’s ingenuity. She knows that inevitably the sauce will taste like crap. So she set out to tune my mind to not expect too much from the sauce she just made. But I’ve known better than to fall for some amateurish attempt like that. Feeling quite fed up, I decided to leave, dim sum in hand. I had no expectations when I finally reached home. I know the sauce will taste like crap (didn’t I just say that before?). And true to form, it did. So I ended up eating dim sum without any sauce. Just when you thought you wanted to give yourself a bit of a treat, you end give getting the short end of the stick. Well, shit happens right?
I didn’t get the chance to check out the correct spelling of koay teow today. So that’ll have to be postponed for one more day. My apologies. I promise I’ll revert as soon as I can.
The family and I (together with Mak) went to Desa Waterpark yesterday (it was my wife’s birthday). In my view, Desa Waterpark is definitely the poor cousin of Sunway Lagoon, Bukit Merah Laketown Resort and the others where water parks are concerned. Not really well maintained and I guess the crowd is mostly seasonal i.e. during school holidays. It appears it has 11 rides/attractions, of which I saw only 1, the Thunderbolt (sounds really fancy doesn’t it? More on this later). We made our way there relatively early, knowing earlier on it opened at 10 am. We arrived at about 9.45 am, me with the complete confidence that we should be able to get our tickets and would be having a good time (for the kids) within 15 minutes or so.
To my aghast, on our arrival the parking lot was full. Full as in there were no parking bays left. Couldn’t believe it. I thought we were early (well, relatively early). To add to my dismay, the queue for tickets were really long. They had two counters, and both had queues which were like 70-80 metres long. I wouldn’t want to get into this rant about what they should do, you know stuff like open more counters or separate the lines with people who are paying cash or credit or anything like that. I don’t want this entry to turn into some complaint letter to Desa Waterpark. Anyway, as many of you would know, yesterday was an especially hot day in KL. Having to queue in the hot sun was not a good idea. To make matters worse, I was wearing a black Kappa t-shirt with a black track bottom. Didn’t know I had to stand in the hot sun for 45 minutes.
After I got my tickets (and sweating like nobody’s business), we made our way in. We got a good place to settle down. There were a lot of people. And I mean a lot. Which brings one thought to mind. If, as I said, Desa Waterpark is the poor cousin of the other parks, then KL folks are really short of interesting places to go (which applies to me as well). The thing is, I also think Desa Waterpark is quite an affordable place to go to. Tickets are priced at RM20 for adults and RM14 for children. And if you are less than 2.5 feet tall, you enter for free. Unlike Sunway Lagoon where you pay a lot more and it is dependent on the parks you frequent i.e. wet or dry. I guess the cost of living has really gone up.
Despite the amount of people, like I said, we got a good place. You know how kids love the water. Nureen Sabrina and Farah Batrisyia are no different. They wasted no time in getting in the water, looking rather cute in their bathing suits. Murni and I kept a close watch. I guess when you’re a parent, the joy is never apparent anymore as your focus is more to keeping your children safe. Sometimes kids get a little carried away when they’re having fun. So it’s up to us parents to keep tabs on them.
The thing I noticed was a kid (couldn’t be more than 13 or 14 years old) preparing air batu campur for customers frequenting one of the food stalls. I have great respect for people like that. It’s never easy to be working at such a tender age when other kids are having a good time during the school holidays. Having to prepare air batu campur like that, probably non stop for many hours. Hebat budak ni. This is the type of person who knows how it is to live the hard life and I honestly hope he becomes a good person for it. That said, I believe in giving my children a proper childhood and providing the best I can for them in all respects. Besides, that’s what a dad is for, kan? But I wouldn’t hesitate for a moment to make it difficult for them if it’s for their own good.
Anyway, about Thunderbolt. Apparently that is “the” ride if you go to Desa Waterpark. It’s made up of a rather intricate series of twist and turns and you ride it on a buoy. People will start queuing probably half an hour before the ride starts (it’s open for fifteen minutes only, they say. Which is never the case as it’s usually much longer). It’s a spectacle all right. People seem to be having a great time. As for me, I’m never one for all these thrill rides. Never one to take any unnecessary risks. And I never ride the roller coasters whenever I go to theme parks as well. Whatever floats your boat, as people say.
We left at about 3 pm. The children were knackered but all in all they had a good time. And there was still a steady stream of people arriving. Desa Waterpark must’ve made a killing yesterday. Oh, and I hope they would then have the funds for more ticket counters.
On a side note, I tried to google for the correct spelling of “koay teow” (at least that’s how I think it should be spelled). Dewan Bahasa’s website didn’t help either. Try going to any stall or restaurant for that matter and look out for the spelling. Out of 10 stalls/restaurants, the spelling would be different in maybe 7 of them. Will find out and let you know.
daily rants (well...almost) 