Blackberry...a best friend

This week i lavished myself with a new blackberry hand phone,the blackberry bold. This is a real treat and as most blackberry users will testify once you use one you cant possibly revert to another brand no matter what the nokias,samsung are to throw at you with their new offerings.I first used a blackberry 2 years ago incidentally more for access to my emails,well it's still the best for such usage in my view.My only complaint that i had with my earlier blackberry is its camera function which cant offer a worthy picture of sufficient clarity.Nowadays can you imagine a life without a hand phone? Remembered my first ever hand phone way back in 1995 was a nokia and like most consumers(and hand phone makers know this) you tend to change these gadgets as a young man will sometimes do when they savour a better proposition(ahem..).My repeated change of hand phones though was sometimes due to unpleasant circumstances,my gadget tends to get stolen !!!that first nokia i can still recall was stolen when i left it just for a few minutes at a coffee stall.Few years back i started to migrate on usage of PDAs and my first PDA an O2 was taken away when my car was smashed at the roadside while i was having my Friday prayers. What kind of jerks do this despicable act at the mosque precinct? Anyway my second PDA was also stolen ,a Dopod when i left again for a few minutes in a buggy after finishing a round of golfing.PDAs tend to be oversell in its functionality, a laptop in my view is still a better companion and convenience of use for your business work. Can you now imagine a life without a hand phone? Incredible and mind boggling just to think what kind of gadget will be on offer 10 years from now? As for now let me just savour my blackberry bold with its much improved camera functionality !!! a photo taken at Buntal yesterday(testing,testing..my blackberry)..

Coffee anyone?

i have earlier confessed to few obsessions ; football,books,movies and yes coffee.i cant recall when this particular obsession(or is it an addiction?) turns into a passion.Maybe it started during my university days as you struggled to keep awake amidst the pressure of meeting assignments deadline so not surprising if one chose to be addicted to coffee (the other option is a smoke!!!!). Then the discerning taste for a good cuppa takes over. Friends tell me i am crazy as i go great lengths in pursuing this passion of mine. I have sipped and tried to taste all kinds of coffee,i have savoured a great cup of Bali coffee at a beautiful restaurant overlooking a valley at Kitamani Bali. I have tasted Turkish coffee at its original best in the Cappadocia region as the belly dancers strutted their stuff.While most people viewed Indonesia as a place for batik and other shopping extravaganza, for me i pursued its coffee. Indonesia is renowned for its high quality coffee .In a movie scene'the bucket list" Jack Nicholson tried to tell all and sundry the meaning of real luxury..A cuppa of coffee Luwak.(read origin Indonesia).Once on a visit to Bandung i tracked down a famous coffee roaster and grinder shop,Coffee Aroma wow heaven man as you sipped a cuppa with the owner and as he relate to you the history of the place Coffee aroma.By now must have guessed how my day start...what else with a good cuppa of coffee from my machine at home.i though have not yet tasted coffee luwak because it is real expensive believe me!!

Significant other..or also known as Minister of Finance

As we aged and nearing that magic number 50, a favorite pastime is to reminisce of things past. An obvious item to reflect of course was how you met your significant other. One will tell you of his enduring love since at the school bench, one will reflect on that first date watching the bangsawan or one is forever grateful that after few failed relationships finally met the right one for his heart. A marriage is a sanctity that bonds one human being to another , it gives meaning to a life that will normally be just a passing through of navigating a roller coaster of ups and downs. It will be the family that will be our bedrock , it will be our children that spurs us to be an exemplary to the society,in all as I sipped my tea celebrating a dear friend's wedding anniversary of possibly 20 odd years, I can understand his remark that our children makes a marriage, simple but true.
The Susan sarandon scene in the movie' Shall we dance" tells it all, to me great dialogue on that particular scene,watch that movie(not just Jeniffer Lopez great dance moves!!)

Singapore...heaven and hell

Was in Spore for a few days,attending an oil and gas regional exhibition. Stayed around Bencoolen street area, love the mee mamak there at one stall that i will always patronise whenever am in town.ravishing and best mee mamak i believed that i ever tasted..saw an interesting scene at bencoolen street, a mosque side by side with a pub!!!! i did go to that mosque once for my Friday prayers during an earlier visit,couldn't understand a single word of the sermon(being conducted in Tamil! i believe) as for the pub wonder what will be an appropriate activity,hmm do one go first for a pint?? then move next door to repent?? interesting place Singapore. Another place that i will always pay a visit whenever in Spore was this second hand books shop at Far East plaza, wonder why such an enterprise not that popular in Malaysia, because for book lovers you can really find good bargains there. You will always be assured of finding some good old edition books to excite you as you browse through the bookshop. This time though did not buy any,end up buying a good read book(i believe) at the Times "theOutliers" by Malcolm Gladwell,interesting thought provoking book on defining success,was a bit hooked to it last night and finished halfway, reminds me of previous great read books that i bought and savoured, The Black swan and Fooled by randomness both books by Nasim Taleb.
Back to the pub story,if this happens in Malaysia,all well meaning politicians, academicians and the man on the street will be screaming with rage..the only missing jaunt in between the pub and the mosque is a yoga centre,ha that will really complete the story!!! Next time i pray there i make sure that during Isya, the pub is still closed,well they all say the devils is everywhere !!!

The Doc ,is he over the Hill?

Tonite another derby game come a coming.Manchester derby,of course all knows which team i am rooting for. To tell you the truth ever since the overcommercialisation of the game i cant find a great emotional chord with the mancunian Reds as i did when i was first really falling in love with them in the late 70"s.Actually it is not cool at that time for someone to support United,the team is in doldrums,relegated to the second division(after that back heeled goal by Dennis "the king" Law got United relegated,who was playing for the manchester blues then). But to me the team that Docherty the Doc build and fashioned was the epitome of the Manchester United spirit.A team of great attacking flair and my great hero then was the wing genius Gordon Hill. Wow to see him searing down the left flank and popping up crosses for Stuart pearson was a great sight. The team also has Stevie Coppell,the captain Martin Buchan as i remembered in the side. That's the real United,still having great support and the fans causing great "havoc" as they visited the small club ground ,you can see the smirk of a Liverpudlian fan then.How we hated Liverpool. The Doc? What a character,this is the guy that announced a summer after being promoted and finally winning the FA cup against Liverpool(ha ha) that he was in love with the physiotherapist wife. Hence then he got the sack and was over the Hill since then in his football management journey and so was my hero then Gordon(who wouldn't tackle) Hill!!!

Phuket...or is it myamar/Bangla?

Am now in Miri,trying to catch a 2 pm flight back kuching but flight apparently full and overbooked,so have 4 hours to "burn" before my 6 pm flight.At the business lounge at least can hook up to the internet. Has indeed been a hectic week for me,flew to Kl last Wednesday,spent few days (as usual) meeting up with people.Then me and the family took an air asia flight to Phuket for a short 3 nites holidays. First time in Phuket, a real wonderful place to relax and do a bit of 'worthless' shopping. We came in on a Sunday, then loitered around the various shopping markets at Patong beach area and what struck me was that all the shops were manned by either Bangladeshis,Myanmarese or Nepalese. Where were the Thais? Honestly i dont understand this curious phenomena ,Thailand as i perceived is quite an overpopulated country and surely there must be ample hands willing to ply their trade at souvenir shops or markets.The usual junk ended as my shopping haulage ,T-shirts(which i know i will not wear later!!!), cheap DVDs(bought a Benny Hill collection) and the usual little trinkets. Monday though was more exciting as we went on a cruise to Phi Phi island, it was a full day programme ,did a bit of amateur snorkeling,had a good lunch at the island and again a bunch of T-shirts landed as unnecessary possession.Phuket is indeed a wonderful place as i imagined ,clean and has nice beaches to savour.Tuesday we planned to take a Tut tut ride to a tourist gems centre and henceforth to witness the sunset at Cape Promthep.Thankfully no urge by the significant other to buy these overpriced "trinkets" but the awful thing though was our Tut tut driver abandoned us at that place and didnt even bother to collect his dues and left me reminiscing what was the sunset would have been like at Cape Promthep.The gems centre true to Thai hospitality kindly offered us a free ride back to the hotel.At Phuket airport on Wednesday i cant help noticing long queues of foreign tourists at the domestic counters. Lo!! Bangkok airport was closed that day as was informed being invaded by demonstrators, ha this was the answer to my earlier curiosity .My friend when i text him on the influx of Nepalese in Phuket,as he said the Thais possibly too busy demonstrating against the government.Of course it"s not true but then i cant help pondering on the ironic ring to that explanation.
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James Bond and Anwar

Came back from KL yesterday after attending some business meetings and staying back for the MOGSC (Malaysian Oil & Gas Services Companies association) dinner. My oh my they had James Bond as their dinner theme ,it started off well but fritter a bit with guest artistes not as captivating as Ramli Sarip(just an old man being biased!!)>Talking about James Bond few days earlier has chance to bring my son Faizul to watch the latest edition,Quantum Of Solace.Not too bad the plane chase scene was a bit hilarious though but then give me a Daniel Craig movie anytime. From Kl yesterday took an earlier flight than my scheduled one at 12 noon and as i rushed (as the last passenger on board) and settled down with my books, cuppa of tea a man sitting across fidgeting annoyingly with his hand phone and i thought to myself this must a senior civil servant dari Malaya. Only when we were to disembark and he put on his specs that the man was none other than Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim. Honestly this is an unbelievable confession i have never met him in flesh before(pardon the pun),i greeted him immediately,he looks like a decent father. Other prominent politicians i have met..even Pak Lah i actually ate nasi ayam on same table with him when he came visiting UK students way back in 1980. I will not divulge in politics but Anwar must be one of the most recognisable face in Malaysia and i didn't recognise him!!! Shame on you Zuraimi. Well i said to myself he"s no James Bond so cant help not recognising him. When i alighted from the plane i met a MAS staff whom i knew and i told him that i was not aware am sitting an aisle across Datuk Anwar and he quipped(by his exact words).."Boss, mun(kalau) Alex Ferguson baru kita kenal" Sigh that has been my destiny always related to football.