*Irregardless, Happy Merdeka To All*

A couple of days back I had to give a “morning talk” about what Merdeka means to me. I wasn't the first speaker but I wanted to avoid the normal chat about public holidays, TV ads and the shopping mall sales that are abound at this time of the year.

You hear about it whenever someone is interviewed about what Merdeka means to them. How it is their birth place, the peace and prosperity, the friendliness are just some of the SOP responses that one gets when the question is asked.

I've been lucky and blessed enough to be given the finances and health to travel around the world. I've been to most of the ASEAN countries and just like any other Malaysian traveling overseas, I do long to come back to Malaysia after being away from the mother land for an extended period of time.

I do however wonder what is it I'm really longing for when I'm away from home. Do I really miss Malaysia or do I miss the people and things that happen to be in Malaysia. So during that particular morning talk, I asked my colleagues the same question that bugs me from time to time. Would you still love and value Malaysia IF the people or the things that we treasure was in another place or country?

What if your parents were not in Malaysia or your good and best friends were in Australia or in the UK? Malaysia is not without its faults but one can also seek a rather “fractured” peace and happiness in many other countries too.

Am I unpatriotic for having such thoughts? Many of my similarly aged Malaysians tend to be labeled as such because we did not went through the struggle for independence which means we supposedly do not understand really what it all means. I and many others beg to differ but that would be a post for another day.

So as we're just mere hours away from Malaysia's 51st birthday, is it wrong for me or you to have such a thought? Would we really still love this wonderful God given land if the things that really matters most to us was not here but somewhere else?

There's a Malay proverb that goes something like “Tepuk dada, tanya selera” which loosely translates to ask no one but yourself what you really, really want.

Irregardless of what that answer maybe, Happy Merdeka to everyone and may you enjoy the great celebrations abound.

Cheers!!! :D

*We All Did It Once Before*

We laugh when we see how kids and the young one’s dress these days. We laugh at how silly and unpractical at times how they dress with choices of clothing ranging from the weird to the absurd at times but then again, who are we to laugh at them? We used to dress just like them too!

Oh come on, don’t deny it people. When you had less gray hair and the only spare tire to speak off was in the trunk of your car, we all have been guilty of some rather obnoxious dressing. So who are we to laugh or shake our heads when we used to be just like them before?

Looking at the younger one’s now, I wonder how come I didn’t complain about comfort back in the old days. I mean, wearing your pants or jeans that low cannot be a good thing for the little brother. It has got to be suffocating don’t you think?

The question is why we did it in the first place? Was it because it was cool then or was it because everyone dressed that way so we assumed that it was the “in thing” to do? It’s amazing the things that we thought was cool then seems so silly to us these days.

Style as everyone knows comes and goes. What was hip in the 60’s soon disappeared before making a come back. Suddenly the platform shoes and bug eyed sun glass became cool again after a 20 or so year hiatus.

I think the question is not really laughing at the kids these days on how silly they look but more on how some of us have changed our outlook and yet still stay the same. Some of course haven’t changed altogether. Some geek inspired dressers still dress the same way today and some rap/rock styled people still do it till this very day.

I’ve gone through my fair share of transformations to be honest although the cap still stays with me most of the time except during office hours. It's a habit that I can't kick though I'm not sure if it is a fad or anything like that.

So yeah, next time you're in a vicinity of the younger one's and your about to break a wry smile or a smirk, pause and think about it. Perhaps you were just like them a few years ago. Maybe than you'll laugh that little bit louder or smile/smirk that little bit wider ;)

Cheers!!! :D

*Stay Back Because...*

Malaysians think they are “champion” drivers on the roads when the truth is that they’re far from it. The following are the reasons WHY you are not allowed to follow me so closely that I can see your zits in my rear view mirror:


Stay back because you are spatially challenged so forget about being able to judge distances between two moving objects.

Stay back because you do not have cat-like responses but more like sloth-like in truth.

Stay back because that thing you call a vehicle is not even maintained thus its brakes may not function properly.

Stay back because that piece of moving metal which is even older than this country may not even have any brakes to start with.

Stay back because from the dents and scratches on your brand new car, I know you’re a terrible driver.

Stay back because you hardly can see in daylight so driving at night with your sun shades on is worse.

Stay back because you’re a driver and not a circus act. Just concentrate rather than driving, sms’ing, eating or putting on make-up while driving.

Stay back because you’re a road hazard even when you’re not moving so a moving car with you in it is classified as a WMD.

Stay back because driving without being able to see pass your dashboard requires extra space and time for you to stop or divert your car.

Stay back because your Malaysian made car doesn’t stop itself in case of emergencies unlike other European makes.

Stay back because trying to fondle your significant other in the car with one hand on the steering is still not good enough because your mind is elsewhere.

Stay back because you’re busy watching movies on that small LCD screen rather than concentrating on the road.


The above of course would no longer be applicable because if I was driving one of BIL’s German marques on the highways, you wouldn’t even get close to me! Hahahahahahah :)

Cheers!!! :D

*Overseas Holiday in Malaysia!?*

In the current difficult times in our Malaysian lives, aspirations to treat yourself or your family to an overseas holiday trip are almost non-existent. Rising cost of living for many folks deter most to splurge on a rewarding overseas holiday trip.

Fret not ladies and gentlemen, you can have the same “experience” of walking in a foreign land right here in Malaysia! No need to worry about flight tickets or hotel bookings or passports and visas, not only you can experience it but you can be ripped off by taxi’s and public cabs within our own country too!

Malaysia is now not only multi racial, ethnic and religion but also multi national too. Thanks to our great enforcement all along our borders, Malaysia is no longer Truly Asia but truly worldly too.

So, if you want to “experience” walking amongst foreigners where you do not understand a single word they say, head on over to these places for a sample of the overseas holiday or experience that you’re clamoring for:

Suria KLCC: Go there during public holidays and if you turn a blind eye to the Petronas Twin Towers, you could certainly see with your own eyes that you’re in a foreign land.

Kotaraya & Surrounding Areas: Don’t need to wait for public holidays for this one. Weekdays or weekends are the time to hit the area if you want to feel like backpacking in a foreign country. I promise you that you won’t hear any Bahasa Malaysia or English being spoken throughout your entire journey.

Al-Husna Mosque, Sunway: Bored of praying among your countrymen? Come over to sample praying to Him amongst His diverse believers. Located strategically near the myriad of private of colleges, you will definitely expose all your senses indeed.

Sports Stadiums: Experience cheering with your fellow travelers in our various sports stadiums. This is especially true when the participants or competitors represent our neighboring countries.

Bandar Puteri Puchong: Observe, visit or even stay here to share the living lifestyle and compare it with your home country (Malaysia).

So there you go ladies and gentlemen, an international holiday “experience” right here in our beloved Malaysia. Of course this is just a sample of our entire holiday packages from which you and your family can choose from.

For reservations, please contact Baine’s World Travel Agency at 1-300-BAINETRAVEL


Cheers!!! :D

PS>> Book now to enjoy a 99% discount during the school holidays. Terms and Condition Apply.

*Wished I Shared Your Enthusiasm*

“Oi come on lar and support a bit” was the quote uttered to me when I said I was quite disinterested in lending my support for our gold medal hopeful earlier tonight at the Beijing Olympics. This is the criticism I always seem to get despite growing up playing sports for a good 12 years during my student phase of life.

It's not that I'm not patriotic, I'm just practical. Malaysian athletes have a wicked sense of humor really. It's like they huddled around the field and came up with a plan to crush their fellow countrymen. I bet during that huddle they'd go “let's hype things up, win a few things leading up to it. Win in the beginning and just when everyone is behind us, lose”.

It's nice to see my younger nephew's getting into the whole Olympic spirit. They pour their entire heart and soul into supporting our representative's in the Beijing Olympics and to be honest I'm actually quite jealous of them. I wish I shared their burning ambition and dreams about it all but I'm afraid I can't. I just can't bring myself to do it.

Athletes from other countries need not have a million shringgit carrot dangling in front of them to push them to victory or eternal greatness. They just have the burning desire to be known as the greatest of all time. They give it their all to achieve that one goal, to be called a winner. I don't remember reading the US government promising Phelps a million dollars for every gold medal he brought back, do you?

Winners have a quality that except for a select few, most Malaysian athletes do not have. That quality is not the amount of zero's in the bank account (although it certainly helps) but to be the most successful in their own arena on a global stage. They want their names to be synonymous every time the sport that they compete in is mentioned.

To achieve that they would give it their all, mind, body and soul. The single burning ambition to be known as the greatest drives them to compete even when they have riches to last 3 generations of their children. They work hard and when they do it, they celebrate it to make sure that everyone in the world knows about it. Most of the time they walk the walk and not just talk.

Yes I surprised myself and sat myself down in front of the TV to catch some of the action of our last shining hope of gold at the games. Again the same statement that I had mentioned earlier was repeated to me and my response was just the same.

I didn't catch the whole match to be honest although from the sms messages that I got soon after, I wasn't surprised. The recurring theme? “Just as I thought, it always ends like this” to “Waste of my time” to “Hopeless lar” and even the more harsh “Useless bugger”. It seems he went down in a faint whimper.

I bet you were just like them, admit it. Deep down inside you willed him on just like when you were watching Forest Gump go through it all. Your cheers and screams quickly changed to groans of despair and frustration didn't it? So does that make you unpatriotic like what I've been labeled?

I think not. Come and join the practical group instead ;)

Cheers!!! :D

*The Power Of Misinformation*

Yesterday was the first time that a fire really occurred instead of the normal fire drill that we’ve grown accustomed to. Kind of scary to be honest because most people (me included) hardly paid any care what so ever until the PA system blared that this was not a fire drill.

This post is not however about the ensuing chaos that followed but more of the power of misinformation that affects all of us. I’m sure we’ve all played that game before, where you start by saying a particular message and it gets passed on from one person to another. By the time it reaches the last person in the queue, the message tends to be the total opposite of its original message.

Same thing happened to us yesterday too. The fire broke out at the basement car park but information from the human newswire ranged from different floors of the basement to different blocks in the myriad of office blocks where our office is. It’s certainly a dangerous thing to play with as panic people always do things that make Dumb and Dumber look like Nobel Prize winners.

Kind of the same thing that’s going around us lately don’t you think? Those who have information prey on those who don’t while those who don’t have the whole picture prey on those who have none or are diligent believers of the earlier. There are also those who fabricate information out of air to get their way. This creates a vicious cycle with collateral damage strewn all over our potholed roads and pavements.

So what do us, the silent majority (the actual rakyat) do when bombarded with such misinformation on a daily basis? I suggest practicing selective hearing and gold fish vision. Basically just don’t believe each and everything that your senses perceive without verifying it againts your own belief system, if you have one of course.

Why should we do this? Why not? When we were kids our parents used to tell us white-lies to stop us from screaming our lungs out at the shopping mall or scare us with tales of how going out late in the evening is not good. These are our parents, the very people who have nothing but our best interest at heart so what makes you think someone else who scantly knows you share the same interest in you?

You want to see how potentially damaging misinformation can be? People were snapping pictures of office workers standing outside the building while waiting for the all-clear to get back to work. Imagine taking that photo, putting a header that goes along the line of

“Illegal assembly/gathering held to protest the hike in price of breathable air”.

That ladies and gentlemen is the power of misinformation.

Cheers!!! :D

*Not So Hot At American Chili's 1 Utama*

Have you even wondered if the feedback forms or cards that you see at restaurants when filled up ever got to the right people? I mean most of the time I’m pretty sure it just gets tucked away in some drawer somewhere or worse still, straight into the dust bin.

I filled up one of those cards on Saturday having been royally pissed off at the poor service my and wifey were given. I’ve never done it ever in my life no matter how bad things got but after this happened, it was just the motivation to push me over the edge.

We went to 1 Utama’s American Chili's restaurant for dinner on Saturday night just to get away from the norm. We knew that arriving there around 8.30’ish would mean that we would have to queue to get our table. Fine, that’s not an issue because our mindset was already set for the waiting game.

What pissed me off was the fact that the front desk/receptionist attitude when she made a mistake. You see, she seems to be arithmetically challenged in that she couldn’t differentiate and process the order of numbers in her head. So yeah, people who queued after us got their table before we did.

Was an explanation or even a simple apology given? Hell no! She knew she made a biggie but was just too proud to admit it. It was ok, I saw the family had an elderly couple and I wouldn’t have mind if the explanation was to give precedence to the said family. But why brushing off a paying customer just like that?

Is it because we were “comfortably” dressed as compared to the rest of the smartly dressed diners? I mean come on; you’re just Chili’s ok? Mind you, we were pretty sure that this comfortably dressed couple comfortably paid the bill in cash! It’s just mind boggling the way we were brushed aside.

We finally got our table, made our orders and I started filling up the feedback form. We got our food (by now of course we’ve lost interest already) and starting digging in when one of the floor managers came to have a chat with us.

I told her our story, got the name of the earlier girl (so that I could write it down) and tried to ask for an explanation on what just happened. Not surprisingly I got nothing but excuses and more excuses. I told her that I hoped that the form/card reaches the right people and she assured me so though I doubt it will.

I filled up my email and contact details to see if someone really cared but I’m not dying if I don’t hear anything actually. I indicated that I’ll never come to that place again on the card, something that I still believe till the point of writing.

So yeah, American Chili’s at 1 Utama has got to be the worse of all of the Chili restaurants that we’ve been to but having said that, the KLCC branch is just as bad if memory serves me right.

Cheers!!! :D

*Instant Retribution*

In life instant retribution is often impossible to achieve. I mean, life has a rather wicked way of paying you back for what you have done or hoped for but most of the time not instantly. Lucky for me I guess, this time around it came in an instant.

Everybody knows the challenge of getting a parking spot in one of the many major shopping centers in the Klang Valley during weekends. One can go on driving around like a headless chicken for hours without even finding a parking spot.

Now don't you go and believe the whole hype that Malaysian's are friendly, helpful and courteous. Those are only applicable in tourism videos only. Most of the time, most Malaysian's are stingy, ignorant, self-centered and purposely blind.

Life's retribution for me and wife came instantly yesterday. We made our way around the parking lot, found a suitable empty lot and waited for the outgoing car to maneuver out from it. Sadly, while waiting, came this young lady and her lady friend turning a blind eye as we waited to park our car in the now vacant lot.

Driving her Kancil she purposely and conveniently forgot to look around to see if people had been waiting to get into the empty lot. Now the reason why I took so long is because unlike most people, I did not stop in the middle of the road to wait for the car to move out of the parking bay and create a traffic jam.

Now women do have some issues when it comes to spatial abilities. It's not a chauvinistic view, it's just human science that's all. So being unable to park a Kancil in an empty slot, she decided to reverse her car, without looking AND SMS'ing at the same time. Loh and behold! She reversed into a guy driving a brand new Honda Civic!

That was the ONLY reason she did finally remove her Kancil out of the parking lot to resolve the matter with the poor guy driving the Civic. It was a new car too but I have no sympathy what so ever for the young lady and her fellow spatially challenged lady friend.

That ladies and gentlemen, was instant retribution for me. It rarely ever happens but you can call it karma if you want. Thanks to your blatant ignorance, you now have to pay for a new Honda Civic bumper which is no cheap thing I tell you.

So we finally parked out car in the spot we had been waiting for, gave a quick look as the guy negotiated with the still clueless ladies as we made our way to a restaurant. Sadly for us, things didn't get too much better after that.

That is a story you do not want to miss and it will definitely be my next blog post.

Cheers!!! :D

*Counting On The Number 5*

Between the number 4 and 6 is 5;
Conjectured to be the only odd untouchable number, 5;
The 5th Fibonacci number is 5;
The number of platonic solids is also 5.

The number of times one should pray to Him in a day is 5;
And the number of pillars in the Islamic faith is 5;
The number of oceans in the world is 5;
The number of fingers on each hand is 5;
And the number of toes in each leg is 5.

The number of points awarded for a rugby try is 5;
The only number on the numeric keypad with a dot on it is 5;
In radio talk, perfect signal and clarity is coined as 5 by 5;
The number of grades in judo is also 5;

Musical notations contain vertical lines of 5;
The upcoming Olympics’ logo has rings of 5;
To conjure up Captain Planet, you need the powers from 5;
The number of vowels in the English alphabet is also 5;

In 2008, the month of August, the day is 5;
Placing our hopes in the unit number 5;
In a year’s quarter it’ll be ready in 5;
By then who knows we’re no longer 3 but 5;

It struck a note in the human senses, all 5;
And thus our hopes rest with the number 5…

Cheers!!! :D

*Try Handling A Shopping Trolley First*

Do you want to know why Malaysian's or the more popular term recently “rakyat” will never EVER be good and proper drivers on the roads? Well it's pretty simple really. It's because they're just as bad with shopping trolleys so what on earth makes us think we could handle the mechanical wonder that it is the motor-vehicle.

Seriously, I'm sure you've been to our super or hypermarkets and have bumped into our champion rakyat. It's bad enough that the rakyat doesn't understand the concept of queuing or courtesy but the blatant ignorance when handling a simple shopping trolley is just mind numbing.

Is it really so hard to not take up the entire aisle when you're pausing to get something and why is it that you MUST park your shopping cart at the corner or intersection thus forcing people to have to maneuver around the stone statue that you are.

Amazingly the driving behavior of stopping for no reason happens outside of the car too. It's bad enough that your behind does not come supplied with indicators so yeah, pardon me if I don't see you and hit you straight on. I'm sure the insurance agent would have a field day laughing at you.

A shopping cart or trolley is really not that difficult to work. I mean it goes where you push it and unlike a car that tends to have a mind of its own when you lose control, a shopping trolley is unlikely to under or over steer sending it hurtling towards the nicely stacked pyramid of diapers.

A few days ago a colleague of mine shared the news that Lamborgini's would soon be available in Malaysia. My only worry is simple, how can the rakyat handle such a beast when it's already struggling to handle a human powered shopping trolley?

Cheers!!! :D

*What Rakyat Financial Burden?*

I was having a chat with a colleague of mine as we waited for the elevator to get home. He asked me where I stayed and I said it's not too far from one of the more popular shopping centers. We agreed that getting to it during the weekends is just a complete waste of time.

Which then brought us to the interesting notion that we both agreed, what financial strain that all the people are harping on about? You watch it in the news, read it in the blogs or papers and hear it over the air waves how people are supposedly suffering.

I'm pretty sure that I'm going to get a lot of flack for this but hey, this is what I observe and I make my own conclusions and beliefs. At least I have one unlike most people who tend to just believe everything that their senses perceive without question.

Here is why I say that despite all the fuss, the rakyat is NOT suffering financially:

The shopping malls are still packed to the brim irregardless of a sale. Window shopping or not, it still costs money for petrol and parking.

People still spend hundreds of shringgit a month on SMS chat on TV or voting on their favorite radio station and what not.

Cars are being sold just as they were with KL number plates running through faster than you can even blink.

Kids still have enough money from their parents to wonder around the Berjaya Shopping Center aimlessly over the weekend.

The clubbing arena is still as packed as always despite the price hike in ciggies and booze.

People still keep the lights on or the TV running or the air-conditioning on even when they're not really there.

Laundry and car wash centers still do brisk business despite increasing prices.

People still refuse to take food from home and pay over the top prices for food during the week.

People still eat out at the mamaks and stuff despite knowing the expensive price of F&B there.

Ikea is like a sardine can with people having no clue how to transport their purchases.

While waiting for your pickup to arrive at the LRT station, people continue to let their car idle with the engine running for long periods of time.

The PC or desktop is still left on the whole night (some the entire day) so that one could finish downloading the latest movies or mp3's.

People still smoke while riding a bike despite knowing the wind would finish off most of the cigarette.

People still drive to the nearby convenience store which is actually only a stone throw's away.

People still waste hundreds of shringgit on health/fitness center fees which they hardly ever go to.

I don't think I need to go on as I believe you get the point. We're not suffering a financial crisis, Malaysians are just full of whiners. Some are genuinely feeling the financial burden of things but until all of the above is no longer evident, than no, most the Rakyat is NOT suffering.

So stop whining and take a good hard long look at yourself. Are you really a rakyat that's suffering or are you just digging you own grave. The only people who are really facing financial constraints are normally on TV3's Bersama Mu. For if you think you're having it bad, hundreds are having it worse.

So yeah, unless you're featured on that show than you are not a rakyat that's really suffering financially ok?

Cheers!!! :D