The Band and the football theme(team)

Today was spent mostly chaperoning Faizul during his last day of a 3 days band camp at his school.

Apparently the St Joseph School Band was undergoing some restructuring and re branding of some sort after their disappointing show last year.

Faizul is now in his 3rd year in the band and we still prefer him spending time with the band rather than googling on the screen all day long playing DOTA and Counterstrike Internet computer games.

So there we were in the evening watching the output of their 3 days work under band instructors from USA and Singapore.

They have elected to try something new and in the words of the instructor a more difficult musical piece ..the Football theme,hmm anything on football difficult?

I cant help noticing the irony of a football game apparently an inter school game being played on the next field to the Band show ..hey i cant help it my mind was half concentrating watching the Band as i also find myself observing those smart moves and good dribbling by the boys on the other field.

The Band display was not too bad, they were only show casing the first two pieces of the full band routine and indeed while i cant really relate the connection between football and the music being played...i cant help appreciating the spirit and cohesion of the football theme( team)....

My first computer

Who remembered the first computer they ever owned? I do....it was a Sinclair ZX81 model and i bought it at a WH Smith store Birmingham when i was still studying at Birmingham University.

Honestly i couldn't remember now what's so great about that piece of hardware. I knew i tried to formulate some iterative model calculations running on basic , remember those programme writing that one does...it always have this line...go sub (meaning go subroutine) IE as you try to do figure crunching until you reach a desired answer!!!

I knew for sure it always crash. i looked up on this ancient machine that i bought way back in 1982:

ype	Home computer
Release date	1981
Discontinued	1984
Operating system	Sinclair BASIC
CPU	Z80 at 3.25 MHz (most machines used the NEC µPD780C-1 equivalent)
Memory	1 KB (64 KB max. 56 KB useable)

Imagine now if we are given a 1KB only computer for our use, we will scream at our IT department for sure!!!!

Hey even my Hand phone, the Blackberry Bold has a higher capacity (1 Giga Byte not 1KB!!! )than my first Sinclair.

One wonders what kind of machine(i wouldnt even dare to call it a computer) our grandchildren will have as its first purchase!!! Surely not a 1KB machine that keeps on running out of battery life after just an hour!!

Sorry Mr Sinclair the computer revolution has certainly overtakes you and your products but thanks anyway for that great product that you unleashed in the market then .
We really feel cool with a Sinclair then as kids nowadays feel cool with an Apple.

Billu..the new Om Puri?

Om Puri still remains my favourite Hindustani actor. This despite the kind of hero worship that other more established actors often get in the Bollywood world..Sharukh Khan, Amitabh Bachan, Ajay devgan just to name a few.

I first noticed his splendid acting in the Patrick Swayze movie, "The City of Joy", a kind of soul searching life redemption kind of movie.

However Om Puri took my eye for his splendid acting in that movie as a honest man trying to earn a living and raising his family in the gutters of Calcutta.

His other memorable role was as George, a British Pakistani in the movie. "East is East".
A real hilarious and enduring tale of a family raised in Salford Manchester in the 70s(remember Enoch Powell? )
He was Mr George who married a British lady and trying to raise his 7 siblings as proper Muslims. I loved his van ride to Bradford..reminiscent of my time too spent in Halifax and bus ride to Bradford normally meant visiting Britain's own India or Pakistan.

On my recent trip to Jakarta as usual i bought my fair bit of cheap DVDs and you can see the look of the DVD girl when i also bought one Hindustani movie, " Billu Barber"!!

Well the reason being that i have recently noticed fine acting displays by one particular actor, Irfan Khan.
He was outstanding in the movie adaptation of Jhumpa Lahiri's book, "The Namesake".
He also played the role of the interrogating Inspector in the recent big hit, "Slum dog Millionaire"

Well, the movie, "Billu Barber" was a great treat, with Sharukh khan as well playing a key role.
Irfan as Billu though was the central character and he played the role so well, you can feel him in all his humble endeavours and final recognition.
An extra treat to the movie? Om Puri was also featured, now older and nonetheless still giving a gripping performance.

Well, as i watched the movie i cant help realising that here is an actor worthy of taking over the mantle from Om Puri..yes Irfan Khan, Billu the barber!!!

Amirul's day

Today Amirul, the youngest celebrated his 8th birthday. Actually it was on the 4th March but for convenient sake we decided to celebrate it on a Saturday.

He was excited and happy to see his friends,relatives and neighbours coming over.

To Amirul, you being the youngest will obviously be the most spoilt of the lot but as always keep your joviality and your enduring smile will always make a Daddy's day after a hard day at the office.
Happy Birthday Amirul

Starting off in Miri, an oilman 's town

I made a conscious decision that i would not talk about work in my blog unless there are funny anecdotes or ordinary stories that i can relate.

Hmm..when one looked back at a working career that spawned now nearly 26 years ,undoubtedly there were many stories to be told. Stories of jubilation, joy and its fair share of despair and disappointment.

How would i have fathom as a young man ,23 years old then coming back home after 5 years studying abroad that i would be now working in my home town Kuching for the past 12 years and counting.

I started my engineering career in Miri,Malaysia's first oil town. What did i remember then of my times spent there?
Well aplenty and still have a fondness for the place and friends and relations that i have built up there.

Maybe i am lucky, the first 10 years of my career was spent on the "coal face" of the business or in other words directly involved with the engineering related works. I started my career as a design facilities engineer ,learning the rudimentary facets of offshore oil facilities design, troubleshooting any engineering problems.

I can still vividly remember those helicopter rides offshore, those days the choppers were real workhorses , noisy and always in vibrating mode!!!!

I can still play football then and we had our Engineering department team and playing in the company's football league. I always dreaded when we had to face the Security department team,they must have taken a page off Wimbledon FC by the way they played their football.

ya i do have fond memories of Miri and when i was there last week cant help feeling a bit of pride to see how much the town has developed and prosper since those early 80s days when i was there as a young man starting my career.

Kopi Luwak... shit or most expensive drink?

I finally did it!!!! yes i drank my first cup of real,original Kopi Luwak. Kopi Luwak supposedly is the most expensive coffee in the world.I did it at one exclusive restaurant cafe in Jakarta, Kembang Gulae, it also have a long sausage that i have ever seen being served!!!
Here's some interesting facts regarding this unique coffee:

Kopi Luwak (pronounced [ˈkopi ˈluwak]) or Civet coffee is coffee made from coffee berries which have been eaten by and passed through the digestive tract of the Asian Palm Civet (Paradoxurus hermaphroditus). The civets eat the berries, but the beans inside pass through their system undigested.

Kopi Luwak is the most expensive coffee in the world, selling for between $120 and $600 USD per pound, and is sold mainly in Japan and the United States. It is increasingly becoming available elsewhere, though supplies are limited; only 1,000 pounds (450 kg) at most make it into the world market each year.^[1] One small cafe, the Heritage Tea Rooms, in the hills outside Townsville in Queensland, Australia, has Kopi Luwak coffee on the menu at A$50.00 (=US$33.00) per cup, selling approximately four cups a week.

Well, the exquisite cup that i drank cost just around 100,00 Rupiahs(around RM35), expensive but still cheap compared to those being served in Europe or America.

So,how does it taste? A bit pungent and left a strong after taste ,just don't think of it as a shit drink and you will be fine , Morgan Freeman may not agree though. Remember that movie, "Bucket List?"

Lettoing (loitering) at the Man U Cafe

The whole week has been spent travelling, mixing work with a bit of a break.

The weekend i found myself in Bandung, Indonesia a shopping haven for the ladies but for men just one busy place .
Bandung though was not bad, i love its remnants of old Dutch buildings and of course savouring Indonesian food and coffee.
Saturday night though was the Carling Cup Final and i was real desperate to watch the game!!!!
A friend then remarked ,"hey let's go to the Man U cafe, there's one here in Bandung!!!"

I have a confession to make, i have never been to a Man U Cafe ,i just don't understand the hype. Football should be left on the field, period!!

I was real disappointed though that even Man U Cafe did not show the game, apparently not televised live in Indonesia, you lucky Malaysian fans!~

However i did enjoy myself at the Cafe, they had this motley crew of a band lurched (literally) on top of the Bar , serenading all kinds of songs.
There we were listening to Letto latest songs and hey i didn't even bother then to know the outcome of the game.

PS: To the ignorant, Man U won thanks again to their goalkeeper and his Ipod!!!@