The walkaton team arriving at Subang Jaya.

Fellowship night.

Dance lady dance.

75th Rotary international district 3300 Conference.(8-10 Jan 2010)

This is an important annual affair for RID3300 where Rotarian from various states in the district (Negeri Sembilan to Perlis) meet. Rotarian from foreign countries also attended this function as guest. This year conference started with walkaton with theme 'End Polio walk'. Rotarian who took part walked from Kedah to the conference venue, Grand Dorsett Subang Hotel. That was a distance of more than 500 km. I manage to join the walkaton entourage as they entered Subang Jaya which by then had swelled to more than 100 walkers. The first event for the conference was Fellowship night which had theme called One Malaysia. It was funny to see baju Melayu being worn by Chinese or cheongsam being worn by Malay ladies. Rotarian spend relaxing time to renew acquaintance and make new friends. Of course good party time to those who still have energy left after a long day. It was even funnier to see pak lebai (Chinese in pak lebai costume) discoing late into the night. He he he.

2010 - tahun yang mencabar.
Cabaran tahun baru bermula dengan kenaikan harga barang. Nampaknya rakyat jelata memanglah dicabar untuk mengurangkan makan gula, kurangkan merokok dan sebagainya. Adakah dengan menaikan harga gula, rakyat akan mengurangkan makan gula. Adakah teh tarik, abc, ais kerim dan gula gula akan menjadi lebih tawar apabila dikurangkan bahan gula didalamnya. Anda tentu tahu jawapannya. Sisuami akan melenting apabila minumannya tawar dari biasa. Pengguna akan merungut apabila apabila tehtariknya tawar dari biasa. Yang suka memakan abc juga mungkin akan menamakan minuman kegemarannya 'abt', air batu tolak, tolak apa? tolak gulalah.
Kenaikan harga barangan mungkin tidak dapat dibendung 100 peratus. Apabila harga bahan mentah naik, harga barangan akan naik. Apabila harga bahan mentah turun, harga barangan akan terus berada ditahap baru. Kononnya nak menghabiskan stok bahan mentah yang sudah dibeli dengan banyaknya. Mengapa sebab yang sama tidak digunakan bila harga bahan mentah naik. Turun pun susah, naik lagi susahlah. Inilah yang membuatkan kepala menjadi pusing apabila memikirkannya.
Rakyat idamkan harga barangan yang stabil. Turun naik ni membuatkan mereka susah nak mentadbirkan kewangan mereka. Samalah juga seperti kerajaan yang idamkan keadaan negeri yang aman dan stabil supaya senang nak buat kerja.
Jadi menstabilkan harga barangan adalah penting. Oleh kerana ia penting kerajaan sepatutnya menubuhkan satu kementrian khas untuk menananginya. Bukan kah sudah ada 'Kementrian Hal Ehwal Pengguna' untuk tujuan itu. Memang betul tetapi kementrian itu kurang fokus kerana terpaksa menjaga bermacam macam hal. Jabatan yang menjalankan kerja tersebut boleh dinaikan taraf kepada Kementrian dan ditadbirkan oleh seorang yang bertaraf menteri. Apa nak panggil beliau? Bagaimana dengan 'Menteri Barangan Turun Naik'. KPI beliau senang sahaja tetapi tidak kurang pentingnya. Apabila harga gula dinaikan X peratus, pemakanan gula pula, targetnya, mesti kurang Y peratus. Jika tidak mencapai target dan tiada sebab yang munasabah, sama ada turunkan harga gula atau tukar menterilah jawabnya.

Breathtaking view from the hotel window. Penang bridge on the right.
Penang Vacation - Day 3.
All good things must end. Time to check out and leaving our good memory of Penang behind. What about nasi kandar for lunch? Why not, at least can leave Penang with full stomach. I was told nasi kandar originated from the days when hawker actually carry all the food stuff behind their back, peddling their products from house to house. Must be back breaking task to earn a living. Well now days they operate from restaurant.
Driving in Penang city area is quite an experience. The road is narrow and there are too many cars and he he they have no where to go. My friend had given some direction to Kassim Mustaffa restaurant which is located on Lebuh Chulia. Parking, I learned something, as I was about to insert coin in the paking meter, an old man approached me and told me I could park as long as I like for just one ringgit. Looking at my puzzled face he added " saya jaga, jangan susah". Since I did not see any parking attendant I had to trust this old man to take care of my car so that we can have our meal in peace.
The place just started filling up with lunch time crowd as we took our seat. We had a hearty meal before leaving Penang. Sayonara till next trip.

Hair style demonstration featuring Fatin.

Komtar from the hotel window, the second Penang Bridge under construction can be seen in the backgroun.

With Talib and Mrs.

Penang vacation - Day 2.

Spend most of the time at the Gurney Plaza. A a holidays is not complete with out proper shopping. This quite new shopping mall is located along Persiaran Gurney, sandwiched between condominium and terrace houses. Probably there is no master plan for the development of this particular waterfront. So when somebody decide to have a commercial development there, hey presto you can have it. As a result access to the area is chaotic even during lull period. From the plaza one can see the second bridge construction is well under way.My former school mates Talib happened to be in the vicinity. It was very nice of him and his Mrs. to drop by to say hello.

In the evening friend from Malaysia Airlines drop by at the hotel. Had good chat as he updated me on latest at Penang Airport.

KOMTAR Penang..crossing busy street.
Ride to new Penang Times Square.
Singing fountain - Penang Times Square.

Penang vacation - day 1.

Crossing Penang bridge around 4pm. What a sight, the newly renovated bridge has an extra lane now. I was looking for Sunway Hotel and wish had invested in GPS. I was told it is located somewhere near KOMTAR so I just headed toward that tall building. It was not difficult afterall as my daughter commented one can never get lost in Penang as long as you remain on the island. he he geog lesson not wasted .

After check in, oh got welcome drink some more, not a bad start, time to discover the place. KOMTAR was a walking distance away, so we set for first destination. Wow! busy street, exercise extreme care when crossing the road. KOMTAR remind me of my favourite place in KL, Ampang Park or Pertama Complex.

Second destination was Penang Times Square. Just completed and many tenants had not moved in yet. What a contrast, comparable to Berjaya Times Square in KL since it was developed by the same Company.

What to do at night? We headed to Batu Ferringgi, shopping and dinner. We are at familiar ground here, been staying around this area most of the time when we are in Penang. Have steak at The Ship which is cheap and the service par excellent. Oh! The TARBUSH just open an outlet here, may try next time. Then shopping at nite market. Cheap imitation goods. Where do these products originated from. Don't want to know, of course not from Italy or France.

Already mid nite time to drive back to the hotel and test those DVDs.

Welcome 2010.
I am going to usher new year in Penang this time. Left KL yesterday for my parent home in Taiping. On the way did something different. With the completion of North South Highway PLUS, I seldom ventured out of the expressway. If I did make a stop, it was just at one of the R&R.
I made two stop diversion yesterday. First one to visit my wife niece at Batu Gajah. I exited at Gopeng exit, after the toll plaza turn right at the first traffic light. Passing through Gopeng Town. Oh! the prewar shop house still there and the famous water pipe, two gigantic rusty looking pipes across the main road. After all these years they still remain as landmark of Gopeng. Then the simpang tiga where I turned left toward Batu Gajah. The road go all the way to Lumut passing through Sri Iskandar. Before that very famous landmark on the left called Kellie's Castle. I shall write about the place later.
Actually my destination was the KTM complex which is situated away from the town. It housed few thousand staff by the look of it. After having tea at her apartment I continue my journey to Gunung Rapat, Ipoh, to visit one of my former classmate, Dr. Salleh. My association with him went way back from our primary school days in Kuala Kangsar. He showed me some of the old school report of our primary school days at Sekolah Kebangsaan Sultan Idris II. What a nostalgic revisit. Now that we a retired, it make interesting conversation piece. After another hearty meal I proceeded to my final destination, my parent home in Taiping.

Toll, toil and trouble.
Today headline in one of the newspaper. After 10 death in the 26th. Dec 2009 road accident the paper start to spin stories on the causes. It suggested low salary of the bus driver could be one of them as it could forced them to work overtime in order to make end meet. One guy even blamed the strong divider. In the Kota Baru shopping mall incident somebody put the blame on weaker wall.
Even if you pay these bus diver the like of pilot salary, there is no guarantee that there will not be accident. So please do not speculate but go to the root cause if we want to reduce bus accident. People sleep on the job because they do not have enough sleep in the first place. There could be 1001 reasons what rob them from their precious sleep. We should not be interested in that. The driver must be discipline enough to have enough rest before taking on the road. No regulation or enforcement can ensure this except the driver himself.

Aina with TDM and TSH

Mansoor,Azmi,CheDin,Najid,Rashid,Termizi,Yogarajan,Shah,Yaacob,Akhir,Shuib,Mokhtar,Wan Zaid.

Yogarajan,Rashid,Yaacob,Shah,Mokhtar,Wan zaid,Najid,Akhir,Shuib.



Fivers 71 at table 8.

With former Head Master (Pengetua) Tuan Syed.

Najid Ramli and Mrs.

SDARA Dinner 2009.

This is an annual affair for the alumni of Sekolah Dato' Abdul Razak. The event was held at Dewan Puspanitapuri, Precint 10, Putrajaya. The guest of honour was Tun Dr. Mahathir and Tun Siti Hasmah. What was more special to me was the presence of my former teacher Mr. Wee Mr. Nathan and Tuan Syed Jaafar (former Pengetua).
Mr.Wee was my former PE teacher and Mr. Nathan was the science teacher. Mr. Nathan was as black as ever and was even dressed with black shirt and pant. During one of his science class he asked one student for the definition of carbon. The guy simply answer 'anything black' which Mr.Nathan was not amused.

My batch fivers71 occupied table no.8 and 9. The function was very well organised this time. My family stayed until the last performance. That speak a lot. Normally they would be looking at their watch but do not have the heart to tell me that they are bored since daddy was having good time.

Those days in 1971

Class of 1966.

Many of us has retired. Of course those business man friends never retired, kerja sampai mati lah. So we meet again after more than four decades. Some came as far as Kedah and Trengganu
just to gloat over old times. Oh yes one guy came from Boston, USA. he happened to be here on holidays.It was fun once we met and start reminiscing those days in Tanjung Malim. The spirit never want to grow old.

Thank again to IT age with out those SMS we may never be able to communicate just to let old friends know about the meeting.

VANDALISM.
I was at the Curve Damansara the other day. I saw a keyboard which was part of the directory system to assist visitor to find their way around the complex. It was really in a sorry state. I was wondering, are we going to be a develop nation come the year 2020 if we are not civic minded enough to take care of public property like above. You know the answer.

Are we at war?

Thundering noises, you know they are coming. Suddenly they appear at lightening speed. From left, right and every where. He he I am exaggerating a little bit. Why are they here at this time of the year? Don't tell me we have so much money left after buying submarine that we are looking for new fighters.

Later as I was browsing SDARA egroups found out that these are American Falcon aerobatic teams doing their rehearsal for air display the next day. Such magnificent killing machines.

Mee udang banjir Mak Teh of Kuala Sepetang (Port Weld)

One two three.. start.

MEE UDANG of PORT WELD.
Port Weld was renamed Kuala Sepetang recently, someone effort to erase its colonial past which I do not think necessary. Similarly Maxwell Hill was renamed as Bukit Larut. There is nationalistic feeling for doing it but I rather let colonial name stay as it would served as reminder to the future generation that we were once colonised. They would value our independence more and probably encouraged them to learn our history.

My journey to Port Weld was to find what is left of the oldest railway station in Malaysia. The first railway track was built to connect Taiping to this town, mainly to export tin in those days.

I could not find the station neither was there any sign post to indicate the place. I was hoping somebody would do that in future as I am sure there are many history buff (like me) who will be interested.

My trip was not wasted as I discovered Port Weld new attraction.. mee udang banjir Mak Teh.

Costing rm10 a bowl it was delicious, certainly worth the trip to this sleepy town.

Not the same with out 'ang pow' this Chinese new year tradition has become part of celebration.

Plenty of cookies for the guest

Chatting with the host.

The young visitors.
Aidil Fitri 1430.

Once again we are celebrating the much awaited Aidilfitri after a month long fasting. Despite the recession the festive mood of hari raya is still there especially among the children. Well the school was closed for a week to start with. What is noticeable is that we are no longer flooded by wishing cards instead the mobile phone is jammed with SMS. I like this short one sent by SDARA Rosman, Lemak ikan duri, asam ikan patin, salam aidilfitri, maaf zahir batin. He he very cute and straight to the point. Among SMSs received, surprisingly many from non Muslim. I must make a point to sent them greeting come deepavali, chinese new year and christmas.

Today is the fourth day, still along way to go for this a month long celebration. What away to regain those lost kgs. ;-)

The host, who is an architect seen here wearing black T shirt.

The house interior.

The external wall.

The main block which is the owner house.

BAMBOO HOUSE INDONESIAN DESIGN.

Last Monday I visited this unique house located at Ulu Langat District. It is situated on a hill slope, deep inside a Malay village. What make this design unique is the use of bamboo as the main construction materials. Not an ordinary bamboo but an imported one from Indonesia. The owner went to Indonesia to do a research on bamboo house design. He managed to convince few craftsmen to come to Malaysia just to do this project for him.

Will the bamboo last? Well according to him he had seen some of these bamboo houses still stand in Bogor, Indonesia after a century. Long enough to last the lease period in Malaysia.

The project is not fully completed yet. Few months from now it is going to be the only kind in this country.

Aedi dan Nadia selamat bertunang.

Aku menjadi jurucakap bagi pehak keluarga adek lelaki ku.

PERTUNANGAN.

Selang dua minggu seorang lagi anak saudaraku bertunang. Majlis pertunangan kali ini merupakan satu pengalaman baru buat diriku kerana aku telah diminta untuk menjadi juru cakap bagi pehak lelaki. Selalunya tugas ini diberikan kepada orang tua yang berpengalaman. Mengapa pula aku, hati kecilku bertanya. Aku mengaku memanglah aku tidak menganggap diriku didalam golongan muda, memanglah dah tua kerana sudah bersara. Tertapi dari segi pengalaman, memang lah kurang. Sebelum ini aku pernah menjadi juru cakap tetapi bagi pehak perempuan. Mudah sahaja kerana pehak perempuan hanya menunggu.

Apa akan jadi jika aku tersalah cakap. Mungkinkah peminangan tidak diterima atau hantaran yang diminta terkeluar dari budget. Rupanya sangkaanku meleset sekali. Semuanya berjalan dengan lancar dan peminangan telah diterima, Alhamdulillah.

Sireh junjong ni saya tulong buat chasisnya.

Majlis pertunangan Dr. Mardiah.

Saya telah menyaksikan majlis peminangan anak saudara perempuan pada 26 Jul 2008 yang berlangsung di Klang . Satu majlis yang sederhana tetapi tetap meriah. Bakal suami berkerja sebagai pendidik berasal dari negeri Perak. Semoga selamat diijabkabulkan tidak lama lagi.

Modified plastic drain cover.
The metal one too expensive since ready made not available, so I came up with improvised version. He he 'necessity is mother of invention' as the proverb says. So far it does the function efficiently and it cost me less than RM8. I hope it will stay.

Missing drain cover.
Oh! not again, this must be for the third time in the last 28 years. That remind me I have been staying in the same house for that long. The address and phone number had changed several time during the period. Got to think of something to deter such petty theft. The police would laugh in my face if I report this to them.

Five stiches for the deep cut

We heard of snatch theft case almost everyday but it really hit you hard if it happened to somebody close to you. Last week my daughter became one of the latest victim. Two thugs attacked her just outside her office, Taman Seri Jati, off Jalan Puchong. They not only took her valuables but slashed her throat in the process. Seemed like this is their latest tactic to deter people from chasing them as the focus would now be on the victim to get medical attention. I thanked God, the injury could have been fatal if the cut was 2cm deeper. The weapon used was some kind of ramboo knife. I shared this experience hoping whoever read would alert their children and loved one. Just be alert when people on motorbike approached you and be wary if they keep their bike engine running.

Cannibal? What at this age!
Well don't be surprised. I was reading the STAR today, this guy, by the name Sumanto, was released from prison where he served for five years, upon conviction of all thing of being a cannibal. He actually stole a body from a graveyard and made himself a meal out of it. He was actually convicted for stealing corpse rather than performing the despicable act. When asked what was the taste like, he simply said, it was delicious. I can't imagine what the feeling like in his village once they know that he is again on the loose.
Note:
The term cannibalisation is also used to describe when you take a component from an aircraft to service another aircraft.