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!!!

has not updated my blog for a long while...gago(as org sarawak says) just celebrate my 48th birthday recently on 17.8 200 millions indonesians join the celebration(he he got my drift?) found some old photos which they used to do a video for my birthday reminiscences got one showing the shell engineering football team wow 2 decades ago man i remember playing as a right winger as usual team more noises than ability always get thrashed by the security department.
fasting month everything somehow feel so slow as usual i miss my coffee (shame on u man), a good piece of news berbatov finally sign for man united but am more excited wth anthr piece of news manucho finally gets his work permit (remeber that big muscular guy plyng for Angola?) a fitter version ofSAha possibly.

Letter to a daughter

Dear daughter(my princess),

I congratulated you for able to gain a place of study at one of the top most A level preparatory schools in the country. I can sense a feeling of excitement as you enrolled yourself on the first day of school.I was heartened to hear the principal's speech, a reflection that he has a deep sense of what the school hopes to achieve with the students that they are embracing in their tutelage. He does not emphasise on the academic goals only but pin the importance of the journey towards achieving that goal, a journey that hopefully will refine your character, a journey hopefully will give you the emotional fortitude in facing life's future challenges. .Embracing the right journey is of a more important objective than just achieving the academic goals.

In the college you will learn the meaning of tolerance, empathy and team play.In the college you will surely feel the intensity of the workload ;but this must not deter you in your pursuit of success ,a pursuit that will be more meaningful if it is achieved via your own hard grit and preseverance than being not true to yourself.

As someone who has already detoured the passage of life for some decades, I can only state that your success is not really measured by the wealth attained but by a sense of achievements in all your honest endeavours. Never ever feel that the world owe you a living for it does not.However the world will always offer you opportunities, challenges and an individual has a right to aspire for their own nirvana.Don’t be too obsessed with issues that you can't influence but be obsessed with an awareness that your actions and behavior each day will mould you to be the individual adult you will be ;an adult that knows that the world is there to be served,an adult that knows that tolerance and understanding of others is not a sign of weakness but a sign of maturiy.

This is what you must feel as you commence your journey of preparation at the college towards adulthood.

Adios. Your loving dad.

The essence of being you

The essence of being you

The story goes that the truism in life is just to be yourself.Authenticity is often viewed as the essence for any human being to achieve mental healt. Religion is also often viewed as a journey of transcendence of submission to a higher form and through such a submission we can also attain mental health.In order for us to savour what the world can give us, we need witnesses to our life and the best witnesses to our own journey in life is our family.The unconditional love that we get from our parents and similar grace we give our children is a testimony of the essence of lif. We must savour this as long as we live and foresaking your parents is the worst tragedy that can befall any individual .Another essence of an enlightened being is passion. Passion for your job,passion for the betterment of your life and those that you love will be a bedrock for facing all the challenge. Passion feeds the soul. passion nurtures the ambers of ambition. passion creates positive energy and above all passion will provide the impetus for us to create possibilities in our life. A third crucial essence of life is charity .all great philosophers extoll this virtue.Charity has its origin in the higher being and nothing gives a good dose to an individual's mental health than to practise charitable acts.It is once said that only through charity can we define rightly the true calling of the human race.

Thus to conclude will the virtues stated makes a better human being? Definitely not and that's where the wonders of living is really experienced. We will have our own faults,weaknesses and will make our own errors of judgement and that 's where the ultimate essence of being is fundamental to our mental well being.humility .Humility defines our own recognition of our weaknesses,able us to avoid the hubris of success.Humility will be our beacon and guiding light to accept the limitations of our endeavours and able us to see the world as it should be; a place for all to live and strive to seek betterment for all not only through achievements but also through explicit recognitions of our own limitations.

I raise my case and humbly seek forgiveness for any msconceptions.