Another Icon dead....prematurely!!!

What is this thing with "twisted" and " convoluted" geniuses that they always struggle with the rudimentary demands of everyday life.

Another one bites the dust as the song goes...MJ is dead yes that great musical icon that transformed pop music in such a huge way in the early eighties is dead.Michael Jackson the genius succumbed to a cardiac arrest and doctors failed to revive him.

I really felt sad on hearing his untimely demise.

Some people said he has converted to Islam last year. I conveyed my Fatihah to his soul and may he be with those that Allah SWT love.

I remembered MJ vividly for i did see him performing live!!

That time he has yet to break stardom and part of the Jackson 5 entourage. They were performing at a small insignificant theatre in Halifax UK in 1978.....i remembered this young talented member Jackson 5 and his Afro hair!!

Talking about icons having such a premature life, John Lennon is another. His music always inspired us young men then .

Mind you the Beatles was an even bigger phenomena than MJ. The whole world and the Brits of course mourned his dramatic passing.

I remembered then i was at a rail station in Birmingham in 1980 when news broke of Lennon's demise, i can sense the gloom in the air and his passing (as Princess Diyana was) indeed made the Brits felt remorseful and anguished.

Here was a genius maybe was never fully appreciated for his contributions and views not the least his music.

So MJ we will miss you as well `and may your music lives on!!!

Jambatan Gantung,..wish you were still there

JAMBATAN GANTONG….WISH YOU WERE STILL THERE

“ jambatan gantong, you are the pride of kampong kudei

We all miss you; for you are no longer there

Jambatang gantong is our heritage to savour

But now we shed a tear, for you are gone forever.”

Yes; we all remembered this inimitable landmark of Kuching; spawning the Sarawak river connecting the Satok area and Matang.

History books stated that the jambatan was built by the Japanese as a conduit for water transportation.

This possibly is what we will devour in the history annals but I am sure if ‘jambatan gantong’ can tell its own stories ; it will be stories of ordinary folks endeavours and experiences.

‘Jambatan gantong’ in my youthful days was a place where relationships were cemented, rebuilt or a place to bring out your first date(ahem...).

Your date would normally start with a good helping of 'chicken kak Mary' at the kubah foodstall. That was a prelude to a long eternal walk (that's what you hope) along the bridge as an expected ritual. Wow that long walk, mosquitoes swarming over you was just a minor inconvenience until you were home later of course when you noticed all those bites.

Another enduring story that I am sure the bridge can tell you was when it was being swarmed with delirious people of Sarawak during the halycon days of ngap sayop; yes that indelible day in the history of Sarawak football when that man; Awang Mahyan managed to convince all and sundry to jump off the bridge to celebrate a football game victory.

A victory that was achieved through a true Sarawakian spirit of grit and passion. I can only guessed that ‘jambatan gantong’ was selected by Awang Mahyan for the bridge was a Sarawakian identity and symbol as the Big Ben for London and the Petronas Twin Towers for Kuala Lumpur.

Alas now that identity is gone;ravaged by the passage of time as it finally crumbled that day.

Should we resurrect it back to its former place as a landmark of Kuching so that it can continue as a place for our grandchildren and future generations to seek aspiration and to find love? I believe we can and we should.

The bridge can be built as a replication of its former self;maybe this time stronger and more confident of itself as it strives to be there for us all whenever we wish to seek peace of mind ;as we try to cement relationship and above all it can be a bridge of an undying inspiration for the people of Sarawak as they seek a place for comfort and happiness. Yes; ‘jambatan gantong’ can still be that landmark .

How I wished you were still there…

PS: anyone out there have good and memorable photos of our beloved jambatan gantong?

Bridges apart

On a recent trip to Sydney, a significant landmark really caught my full attention: The Sydney Bridge.

A mammoth icon and landmark for the city of Sydney and locals and tourists alike never stop in their accolades and admiration for this historical pride of that place. Tons of steel and i read earlier, many controversial issues and lengthy delays towards its completion. Does it matter now? Not a single bit as it now stands proudly as a real landmark!!!

What we can learn from this is that "ugliness" has no place in any landmarks and while it may take longer efforts and costs to build a beautiful and elegant bridge but in a historical perspective it will always be worthwhile an effort, trust me i have been involved in some bridges construction before.

Have one seen that smaller version of a steel bridge in Bintangor near Sibu?

It may not have the kind of publicity and renown as the Sydney bridge but to me it is one elegant and beautiful landmark for the serene town of Bintangor. Pity that no one seems to care for its beauty as i passed by that bridge recently it was a bit rundown with no maintenance being carried out.

The Sydney and Bintangor landmarks may be bridges apart(pardon the pun) but nonetheless both i believe inspire the architectural beauty and elegance of steel bridges!!!

A new landmark of Kuching

All Kuchingites will wait in anticipation on the opening of the new Council Negri building. A real iconic building for Kuching.

A real "terindak in the sky" to complement another new landmark, the convention centre," a giant butterfly in the woods".

Just hope that those responsible will maintain the building properly or else it will be just one ugly stain of the "terindak" in the sky.

PS: whatever we do, please do not demolish the original icon, Fort Margherita.

Remembering father

I was at the shopping mall ,The Spring earlier with the twins, Sabrina and Faizul after picking them up from their routine Saturday afternoon tuition.

I noticed there was a kind of father's day goodies booths trying to woo shoppers to buy gifts for their respective fathers..hmm there was even high end digital SLR cameras , lucky father whoever get that from their children.

I remembered my late father, in our childhood days there was no such special event as a Father's Day, we remembered our father more so presumably during the Hari Raya celebration.

My father passed away 11 years ago from lung cancer. Time may have healed the pain of his passing but the lingering memory of his suffering in pain from the ravages of lung cancer is still fresh in my mind.

When he was diagnosed with lung cancer , i myself was in a denial syndrome refusing to admit that such a serious disease can happen to someone that you realised that you loved and cherished.

My father i believe is a true man of dignity, he was seldom angry with anyone and always have a smile for even strangers.

In my growing up years i resented him sometimes for his simplicity and humility and befitting for such an ignorant bigot like me then i cant see through his unconditional love for all of us.

WE cant see through his sacrifices , we cant see through his total pride when we achieved something and we cant see through his pains when he saw that we erred in our judgements or decisions.

When he was initially diagnosed with lung cancer , he never complained about a need for us to take care of him fully, silently even at most times riding his motorcycle to the hospital to do his routine chemo.

I realised too late the futility of those who suffered from this dreadful disease, in his last months of his life i have tried in vain to make up by spending more time with him at his hospital bed, scourging the Internet for any semblance of a miracle cure for cancer and reciting as much prayers as we can.

I can still remembered his cry of pain as the cancer spread through his body and to the brain. He once said to me that the pain he suffered from the ravages of the cancer that inflicted the brain was just like your head on the road being hit by an incoming lorry.

Only then did i also realised what his favourite things were, his penchant every morning to have a kopi O at a favourite stall in Satok, his yearning for a particular kind of roti(bread) and one wonders what kind of son who cant find time even to realise what a Father's favourite food were.

We all can understand why, he never demands from us what he wants, his concern is his children eg our liking for durians.

An enduring memory of him was seeing him at time coming over to our house on his motorcycle to bring along "keropok" and other goodies for his beloved grandchildren.

On his passing, he did not leave any great wealth or debts except for a perennial memory of a man at peace with the world through his own religious beliefs, respect for the individuals and of course his undying love for his family.

Even in great pain then on his hospital bed knowing the end is near he can afford always a smile at the silly antics of his grandchildren.

To my late father...your silent dignity and patience knew no bounds and we all know we are just half a man we can be and we hope that one day you will still smile at us knowing that your loving children has not despaired you and i know you will not measure us by the wealth we garnered or the position that we attained but by the dignity,honesty and sincerity that we lead our life.

Al-Fatihah,

Why i loved United

The season has ended and the dreaded thing didn't happen(the scousers winning the league) .

Manchester United won the league for a third time in a row and order restored.

The summer break hardly started when it was announced that Ronaldo has agreed to join Real Madrid. Was i upset as a fan? A resounding NO.

He may be the best player in the world now and has given many a memorable match winning performance in the United shirt but he is not the reason when man in the late forties like me support United.

I revisited that real spirit of United when i watched the DVD ,The Busby era last night. I bought this DVD while on holidays in Sydney and indeed such poignant memories of that era.

An era of remembering the tragic Munich air disaster and even to now United fans still wonder what would have been ...before the times of George Best and Dennis Law ,here was a team on the verge of greatness.

One player epitomise the spirit of United and that era , Duncan Edwards.

To a true United fan ,Edwards is the real United player and embodies the spirit of the club.

The present era players who continued on with this spirit include Ryan Giggs, Paul Scholes and Neville.

No doubt the departure of Ronaldo and possibly Tevez as well will leave "big holes" in this present winning team but we will have faith in the belief that the true United spirit will still be there,remaining intact .

Bring in Macheda!!

Tracy Flick for President

Watched the movie,"Election" recently together with my daughter Diyana and i still enjoyed it very much even i had watched it already many years ago on its VCD version.

Yup..never underestimate an overachiever, Renee Witherspoon portrayal as Tracy Flick who runs for the school students council President has made the character such an enduring image of what it means to us all when facing such an annoying overachiever as Tracy Flick!!!

The character Tracy Flick has made such an impact that even Hilary Clinton 's somewhat "arrogant " behaviour has compared her as a grown up Tracy Flick ,hmm scary, mind you this grown up Tracy Flick is now the USA secretary of State.
There was even a short hilarious video showing mashing up Tracy Flick and Clinton in their similarities and Hilary's tone towards Obama. One wonders maybe that's why Obama won, who in the right mind wants such an annoying overachiever to be the USA President..please.
Tracy Flick for President anyone ?

Blackberry snapshots down under

Hey, the Aussies also have sugar cane plantations..with Mount Warning in the background











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A real all in one shop in rural Queensland ..besides being a sundry shop it's also a post office n a cafe
















What"s that? definitely not a Burberry,thank goodness, it's just Azri's laundry bag











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hmm... a cool dude at the sydney paddy marke





Amirul getting excited seeing a formula one car on the Sydney road, no my dear that's a Lamborghini,

The DOTA king

I knew myself always had a bit of withdrawal syndrome comes Summer when there is no more Premier league games to watch on Telly. You felt loss at times as Saturday night always be a time to look forward to.

But this cant beat a withdrawal syndrome of epic proportions that i observed recently...tagging along with us to Sydney was Faizul, the "boy half" of our loving paternal twins. While his sister twin ,Sabrina is maniacally obsessed with everything Japanese or Korean(read her blog!!) ,Faizul (boys being boys nowadays) is fully obsessed with the Internet interactive game, DOTA or as i was told by him meaning Defence of the Ancients(?????????). As he tagged along with his sidekick, Amirul the youngest boy, with a laptop in his bag always on the look out for any free Wi-Fi outlets in Sydney.
Unfortunately for them none can be found,you still need to subscribe to the local network..so what will you get? A zombie and his sidekick oblivious to the wonders of the Sydney opera house or the Sydney famous bridge.

Nasi Lemak in Sydney

In Sydney last week ,looking up on Azri our eldest son who's doing his second year in Economics at University of Sydney. First time to Sydney for his Mum and like any "doting" parents tried to have a measure of what Azri was up to in Sydney.

For a start he promised a meal of Nasi Lemak, indeed we were all looking forward to that meal of Nasi Lemak at his abode( a studio room shared by 3 of them!!).

We were just back from a 2 day interim trip to Brisbane and Gold Coast and when alighting from the Jet star plane at Sydney airport feeling hungry, i told myself, "hold on to it man, a ravishing nasi lemak awaits us"

Presto , arriving at his studio room, the nasi lemak dish was ready. What does one do eating a first meal ever cooked by your children?

Amirul, the youngest summed the meal well..."Mum, can i have Maggi mee please"..of course for us we gamely ate a bit of the nasi lemak even though too sweet for comfort and still half cooked, the Mum has to "reboil" the Nasi lemak sambal or gravy!!!

Nice try though Azri, in student's speak, 100% for efforts and a pass for results!!

Well that's the best story of our trip to Sydney, not the tourist trotting ventures visiting the opera house, the Sydney Bridge but best remembered for us as a trip "savouring" Azri's nasi lemak dish!!!

Wow,you have your own office!

I was at the Gold Coast last week, just taking a short week leave(hmmm ya sojourn) visiting Sydney,Brisbane but just a few hours at the Gold Coast.

After an hour canal ride (as they called it,more of a river ride) and disembarking at one of the few Marinas, an "object" caught my attention.

Hey,is that an office? Yup, an office on a boat, complete with all the amenities, fax machine chair, table you name it. It must be great working in that "boat hole"(pardon the pun!) , you can always take a break fishing without getting away from the office so to speak.

A wry smile i did have that day remembering the various offices or rather at times work space that i crammed myself for a good 10 hours of the day.

I started my career at a Multinational company and i remembered well my first office.

You see this company had this so called 'longhouse portacabin" for the technical department. No guess in saying that the main office with all its bricks and mortars building housed the Finance and Administration(or Human resource they loved to be called now).

I shared that crummy space with another engineer and the department's technical library!

I had no particular qualms about the spartan outlook of my office except that whenever it rained both me and my colleague had to put a bucket on top of our table for the water to drip from the leaks!!

I spent a good first 4 years of my career in that chicken coop but am i complaining? No!

For the job is interesting and demanding, working with great colleagues and indeed besides the need to pour out the water from the bucket once in a while that office hole indeed gave me a lot of fond memories

.Remember then nobody has a PC on their table (being in the early 80s) but i do have a BUCKET on my table,beat that!!!!

So lo my great expectations when i was transferred to a construction site in Pasir Gudang after that stint watching over the pail or rather bucket...i heard from my colleagues then who had a stint at these construction yards, being given big company cars, nice,plush office.

What kind of office did i get?

Ya you guess..another portacabin office and this one was more unique, it did not have any windows at all,really felt like in a detention place, the only great thing then was you finally had a secretary!

Spent good 3 years in that "detention office" but am i complaining? Again NO!! I really enjoyed my stint at this work site ,learning the practical aspects of the business and raising a young family.My daughter Diyana was born in Johor Bahru .

When i did get back to the company headquarters in Miri, being promoted, finally given a "big" office and a measure of your status was you were also given a big table in front of your own office table ,well mind you as a "boss" you need that table for your own internal meeting with your subordinates,really???

Hmmm...maybe one day i can have my own "boat office" , catch me if you can ,am off fishing!

Run fat Boy Run..Simon Pegg anyone?

I was really recently taken in by Simon Pegg's movies.

 Honestly this talented British Comedian actor was not on my radar screen of favourite comedians until i watched that real hilarious movie, "How to lose friends and alienate people"... a real laugh of a movie. "Hot Fuzz" though is not that great but still good comedy acting from Mr Pegg, the movie too surreal for my comfort.

Then lo flicking through all run down sale of DVDs at a shop near to my work place, a movie starring Simon Pegg caught my eye, "Run Fat Boy Run"..... how could i have missed watching this movie before.

As expected i was not disappointed, Simon Pegg played a stirring,funny and love able role in this movie revolving around the London Marathon. 

He is good in this kind of role, bumbling, "low achiever" but honestly kind and true to his soul, that's the Simon Pegg at his best. 

The Indian(or is it Paki?)  landlord of his reminded me of my former Landlord, always "lording" over the rent but still kind hearted to the boot.

My present favourite comedy series though is still "Little Britain" .... am anxiously waiting for the DVD release of the latest series, "Little Britain in the USA". 

Back to Simon Pegg... the movie Run fat Boy Run is insanely funny and heartwarming and the movie started with him running away from his wedding!!!  

Talking about a real loser and shirker ,somehow  that epitomise him well, this is no fairy tale story and you would not expect him to win the London Marathon and beat all those Kenyans. 

It is a story that Mr perfect is not always seem as what is portrayed ..the kindness and sincerity of intentions will be finally be seen through by people that you really care most..others are maybe merely side show. 

Wonder is there any more Simon Pegg movies out there? 

A watery tale of mee jawa..

Last week i have a bad experience when frequenting a food stall outlet which used to be a supermarket previously and now turned into quite a thriving food outlet. I have heard of this place and brought the family out for some simple dinner.

To start with the place looked promising with its fair share of customers a sign of a good eatery.

Ordered a plate of "Mee Jawa" and to my horror , the Mee Jawa was just a watery mash of tasteless plate of trodden Mee...what a shame, why cant they be more wary of a customer's needs?

Will i go there again for my Mee Jawa? Never!!!!

I should have  trusted my normal frequented place for a plate of "Mee Jawa" and some generous helping of Hepia(fried prawn fritters dipped in chili sauce)...yes the Rex Cucur Outlet at Rubber Road. 

There there i finally enjoyed my Mee jawa helping, great taste and real value for money.

Will i go there again for my Mee Jawa? Yes I will!!!