My twins birthday today

Twins Nur Sabrina and Faizul turns 14 today,gosh how time flies,i can clearly remember the day they were born at Chin specialist clinic in Miri.It was a caesarian birth with Sabrina keep reminding his brother now that she"s the eldest(even by only 2 minutes).I typically missed the actual delivery event because while awaiting for their birth me and my late father decided to have roti canai...anyway it was a real joyous moment for me and their grandparents and elder siblings.When we moved back to Kuching they were just one year old so they had no real memeories of life in Miri.Have i spoilt them? The wife keeps saying yes i am!!!! Both now in their respective schoolbands,a bit lazy on their books but well still ok i sppose ,fully obsessed with their pc and video games(nothing new for kids these days).Sabrina is a reading buff with her collection of Stephanie Myers books.Faizul??Boys are boys that's all i can say.The twins being not identical are indeed unique and i thank God for such a blessing and i can live with their idiosyncracies possibly as long as they dont disturb my saturnight night football on astro,ha!!!! Sabrina shares my obsession wit movies(besides books) and i teased her the other night when i caught her watching my "mama mia" movie ,so ABBA indeed is still cool.Faizul has this funny obsession with the Chinese 3 kingdoms tv series and anything related to that. What gift shall i give them for their birthday? this year we re not celebrating the occassion with a party at our home as usual possibly will bring them out for a dinne tomrow night. Well happy birthday my twins and i love you both with all my heart(that doesnt mean it is an open cheque policy though!!!)

Durians

the weekend was spoiled by my indulgence in durians,i should have known better,being a diabetic it must be a no go for any sweeet cravings particularly the kings of fruits. Down under the weather you immersed yourself in just reading the tabloids,watch silly movies( national lampoon homo erectus and the rocker) and saw a game of 2 halves between Everton and Man Utd.This is the time of the year when aspiring Datins were all hoping that their other half will get that much sought title because the little detail of the title does not matter dato,datuk or datu what matters how the spouses will be deferred to ,still DATIN!! ha just joking am proud my good friend Wee Yiaw Hin the Shell MD got a Dato. Have time though to chit chat with my daughter Diyana in KL she's doing A levels there hoping and aspiring to be a chemical engineer(wonder whose footsteps she's following),now a time of university interviews and offers. She has to go for a Cambridge U interview and as she moaned,"real difficult dad " well what you expect? My only advice is just enjoy that experience whether you are to be successful or not in entering that prestigious university.Back to durians...man i envy those that has no taboos to indulge in this king of fruits , i must learn to live my life as a diabetic,though not serious yet i must control all those cravings!!! i still cant figure it out whether you should treat durians as any other fruits ie as dessert platter or as the main meal itself.

OSFAM anual dinner

the weekend was spent in kl for our association OSFAM offshore structures fabricators Malaysia held our get together dinner at PJ Hilton. It is an "exclusive" club so to speak for members comprise only of gang of 7 MMHE,Sime Darby Engnrng,Ramunia,Oilfab, Kencana , Boustead penang shpyrd and Brooke dockyard eng. Incidentally i was the president so bit nervous need to give a welcoming speech in front of gathering of around 60 tables of attendees..hmm ada jua berpantun raya and ada orang negur saya hmmmyang when i said,..datuk/datuk blah blah saya ingin bertutur dalam bahasa Inggeris.......the word bertutur is not a bahasa malaysia word tapi kelakar sarawak,betul ke? anyway the nite itself was fun the MC was none other than Mahathir Lokman and our guests artistes Nail raja Lawak and the evergreen Ramli Sarip..wow man Ramli Sarip really captivate the crowd i found myself with all others happily singing the chorus with him all the way. Ramli you are the man!!! OSFAM members is quite a significant entity within the scheme of things for we collectively employ around 11,000 employees ,and sarawak based brooke is the only one from the other side of the south china sea, so quite a proud moment for me (hope in a modest way) to be the president .thanks to the organising committee for such a wonderful nite!!! envy ramli sarip though as we all talked about our young student days and he still can keep his long hair while we all have to defer to theprotocol of growing old ie no long hair please!!!

the hartlepool adventure

The plan to send some sarawak players to hartlepool is going to happen!!!!! an agreement has been reached in principle for us to send kallang,shahrol and zamri for a 2 months training stint with their first team on 1.11.2008.Hartlepool will pay for all thei expenses during their stay there, my only concern is the cold weather~!! but the players more worried on whether they can communicate with the locals there, as zamri said when Richie Humphreys was here in Kuching few months back he cant understand a single word!!! what i didnt tell him is that Richie is a yorkshireman and the accent is not as "foreign" as the geordies up north in Hartlepool or to be more precise a county durham accent. but if we can understand Bryan Robson when he talks(he's frm county Durham) then ok lah zamri!! This will be announced by Ministry in collaboration with FAS.

Birmingham uh

it was so like yesterday i remembered myself as a long haired student in 1980 at Birmingham University. so my recent trip yo England i took an opportunity to drop by at the place,.Taking a train from Euston and arriving at New street Birmingham my memories flood back but i was not prepared for the massive and impressive changes to Bullring area.Wow man it was high class shopping zone with the iconic selfridges building imposing itself well.I did manage to take a bus to selly oak and met up with my son"s friend Farhan who incidentally was also taking chemical engineering.The chem eng faculty has seen some changes(obviously) but the red brick buillding where i spent 3 years of trying to grasp the fundamentals of thermodynamics,fuild fow,catalytic reaction blah blah was still as elegant as before. it seemed so eerie as joined the muslim students for the university islamic society welcoming function for new students. I sat there (dont feel old though) listening to a one and a half hour lecture on islam by a well meaning and knowledgeable PH d student and helped myself after prayers to a breaking of fast dinner....well reminiscent ofthose days as u sat squatting on the floor eating the "biryani" and chicken in liberal doses!!!thank you Farhan for allowing uncle(that"s me) to enjoy back my days as a student before.

THe alternative road for sarawak football

when i came back from my overseas trip i was a bit disappointed that FAS elects to still be wholly responsible for the senior team and the ministry/MSN looking after development.It is in my view against the grain of reviving properly sarawak football because thebigger,more demanding task which at times require short term measures are the running of the senior team. I still view thatFAS can do a good job reviving and revitalising the grassroots football and allow the heavier task of running the senior team to the government in collaboration ofcourse with FAS. By taking the "lighter" task of development and grassroots football it will allow FAS time to heal and revamp itself and who knows after 3 years ready to take back the responsibility for the senior team.
if Sarawak FC is to materialise this would have been the alternative route for sarawak football which i have drawn up a master plan:
- Seek cabinet approval for the merger of senior team and stadium management.This allows an integrative management structure in place and give the team a real sense of belonging.
-recruit an experienced CEO or General Manager to run the club structure whose responsibility will encompass marketing,operations management and ground maintenance among others.He or she will have own organisation structure relevant to a proper running of a club.
-Twinning and a 5 year collaborative arrangement with Hartlepool with club management of Hartlepool to be used as a guidance for Sarawak.Also in fact Hartlepool has agreed inrinciple for some Sarawak players to be assigned there for short training stint at Hartlepool expenses, loan of players as imports(later) and even coach assignment.
i believe this will revitalise sarawak football as a professional set up is established modelled in reality and with concrete support from a medium sized english football club. The fact FAS still decide to exist in a time warp and continue the old ways will not break the vicious cycle that engulf sarawak football.It is in fact already showing with FAS management now earnestly talking of trying to solicit funds,look for a proven coach but with an amateur structure and no strong of support(read ..govt) this will be just another season of roller coaster ride that i have myself experienced this year.I spoke not from a distant viewpoint but from someone who has gone through the challenges of running the senior team.My club based structure proposal is not to kill FAS(it's a dead horse being flogged for its life by well meaning people anyway!!) but a sincere attempt to ease FAS of its heavy burden and thus give them time to rebrand and revitalise itself.Is my idea ahead of its time? i dont think so all around the wporld teams compete based on club models only in Malaysia that you see associations still running professional teams,maybe a point to ponder, is that why Malaysian football is in doldrums? i raise my case tq.

UK/paris trip

just came back from London on raya eve,hv to be in Paris to receive an international quality commitment award for my company, real proud of my people for achieving such an award.As usual pack in some time to visit England.Took an eurostar train from Paris to London...spent 2 nites in London manage to watch a musical,Grease not bad . Then off to visit Birmingham for a night,went over to Birmingham University,viisted my old chemical engineering faculty,some changes the university though still as elegant as ever with its own train station..joined the islamic society for buka puasa.Then off to Leicester to meet up with my friend Clint to watch Leicester aginst Hartlepool game. Tip top man as Clint said,the game was great,the organisation of the match day at the walkers stadium fantastic watched the game at the directors box,pool lost 1-0 though.really have a great time with the Hartlepool boys,i ve nvr been to Leicester before not bad a place all taxi drivers are ofAsian origins!!!what did i buy back in UK?not much the wife was not with me!! except some dvds frm HMV,manage to get a copy of mr brittas emire a great comedy. bought some as usual england t shirts at my favourite London haunt,Petticoat Lane near Liverpool street there u can get exact London T shirts for half the price u get at Oxford street. The best gift i get is definitely from Hartlepool football club atheir original football jersey wth my name ZURAIMI primted at the back wow that"s a real great gift from Russ.To my friends clint,Keith,Nikki and Mikey thanks for the lovely time in leicester will not forget our saturday night dinner as we watched from the restaurant window a stream of foul mouth big and cladded with dresses possibly bought from car boot sales Leicester girls, a real scene man!!!