A non conformist

My ex boss DS.

Bumped into him at the airport last night so we decided to sit next to each other.

Meeting DS always keeps the thinking part of my brian (which is not that substatial, really) poked. I get excited and argue about things.




He is in his 60's. Retiring from all his executive positions by the end of the month. Aik, it's tomorrow! I supposed that is his MERDEKA!



The man reads the Quran, mainly the translation. If you are soft hearted and not quite liberal in analysing (NOT challeging) the meaning of God, His power and His existence, you would say....

"Orang tua ni gila, silap-silap murtad".



To me, he is doing his job, indulging in such questions to satisfy his curiosities. He wants to know for sure God is this and that as what God is supposed to be. An inquisitive mind is always better than a spoon fed one, I reckoned.

Last night throughout the flight he explained to me his theory:

"The theory of evoluion by Darwin is mentioned in the Quran."

And you know what, after his explaination, it was so bloody convincing!



We arrived at 10.15pm. He had his last official function to go to with one of the companies he chairs up till tomorrow. As usual, his kindness prevails. He got his driver to drive me home.



In the car the driver asked me:

"Encik M, bila nak kawin?"




*Ish!*


Yes, the weather in Kuantan was perfect!



*all images were taken when i was wondering around plaza mont' kiara for breakfast.

10 minutes revisit......

I can't possibly meet everybody over a weekend. I really wish I could.

With a birthday party (I saw double before even sipping a drop of alcohol!), RARS warded from I don't know what he ate for 2 weeks in Penang, cycling in Ulu Langat which did not happen as it rained cats and dogs as soon as I reached the water catchment area for Klang Valley (I had 2 massive servings of nasi lemak daun pisang, instead!), my niece gave birth to a healthy baby girl and one of my favorite girls, LL is in town.

We went to a familiar venue, The Attic to meet up. Reached at about 45 minutes after midnight since we had to wait for the birthday cake to be out before we could leave the I-saw-double-party. Had a great time with LL and her crazy siblings.

The L sisters insisted, I drove them home.

Great!

When they were in the car with JD and Red Planet, I blasted the song LADY by MOJO on the stereo. Everybody was dancing and screaming in the car.

It was a fantastic 10 minutes revisit of BARBARRAN era.

We all miss that place, BIG TIME!

Loneliness is.....

when you are shopping for a new car, there is nobody to argue with you whether to get a sedan, a sports, a station wagon, a 4wd and to compromise what color you should get.

when you view apartment show units and there is nobody to debate with you whether it is gong to be a good investment, the right location, too big, too small, balinese, modern minimalist bla bla bla

the worst thing is... you don't even know who will be your permanent "passanger" and "housemate".

i think i woke up too early today....

Do you beleive in Feng Shui?

OK I am NOT Lilian Too

but this is the story...

I have put my apartment in the market (for sales) for months, and no luck in getting good offer.

The real estate agent IH one day called me......

"I think the feng shui of your apartment is not good lah...

I bought a feng shui bamboo and I have put it in the dining table."

Less than a month later, I got a good offer and the apartment now is SOLD.

I am

amazed

sad

and

happy.....

They played their songs, not mine

I have been going to this barber (indian, RM12 per pop) for the past 5 yrs, at least.

Everytime I went there they have their ghetto blaster volume to the max with either Tamil music or drama on TV. It is just LOUD.

Miraculously, I can still sleep while they cut my hair, and the finale would be plucking off a couple of grey hair (yes I have some of those, but not as much as TFR - Richard Gere wanna be.. hahaha).

Today, I went to the barber because my haircut is way overdue and I look like really scruffy. Besides, Red Planet implied last night that I need a haircut. So I went. I slept quite late last nite, and woke up really early this mornig (that's another post, all together). So, I wasn't in the best of my mood. I asked them to switch the loud Tamil music off.

Switched off.

*phew*

Haircut.

Slept.

Voila!

*done*

Don't you realize, they always play what they want to hear, not some nice easy listening numbers like Norah Jones or Marron 5.

Who is the customer (who is always right) here?

-----------------------------

There was another mamak I went to years ago. It was after lunch.
When he started cutting my hair, I could smell the curry on his fingers.

I asked him to stop cutting and get his hands washed first before he resumed with the haircut.

That was the last time he cut my hair.

------------------------------

Yeah, I have to go through all these. Unlike MBA, I don't own a hair salon.

*sigh*

SMS from F

Not sure whether its corny or sweet but this is the sms. I smiled when I got it...

Last night i sent an angel to watch over you while you were sleeping.
He came back early, so I asked him why?
He said that angels don't watch over other angel.

The best....

and the most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched.

They must be felt with the heart.

-Hellen Keller-

this note was given to me by D in BKK

A special friend......

is a blessing that you should treasure will all your heart...

-Author Unknown-

Oh

I am so tired and sleepy......

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Ungu

F was kind enough to offer me special invitation to watch the UNGU (Indonesian Band) concert live in KL a few days ago. Clad in my purple shirt, I accepted the invitation.

I am not sure who knows who, but like when we went to watch Tompi, we have the opportunity to personally meet with the band and get the copies of the cds,, autographed and photo session. I just followed the flow.

Indonesian bands never failed to impress me. Better than our local ones. They perform well, their vocals are superb and interaction with the audience are just first class. Very articulate.

Times like this, I wish I was 10 years younger, squeeze myself to the front row and dance throughout the performance. The girls, F and the A’s sisters had fun dancing on the balcony with leather jacket on.

After the show we went to Concorde for supper at Melting Pot. The last time I was here was during the good old Hard Rock days. I toll a peek at HRC…. And I thought it was too noisy.

TFF was already there in her beautiful jubah after her kelas mengaji (hence she missed the concert) and AKA sipped teh tarik with a straw. Weird!

Oh, I have another invitation to the launch of a foundation next week. I was informed Marcell will be performing…..

I am not going to miss that for the world!

Thai Xs

Interesting.

Just like what zainhafsham (as he commented on my D&E post), many of my Malaysian friends have either ex boyfriends or ex girlfriends.

Is it because we are part of the Association of South East Asian Nations or because it is quite economically viable nowadays to have a (dirty?) weekend in Bangkok via the Now Everybody Can Fly airlines?

Love affairs (or just affiars) are pretty much...... borderless nowadays!

Kanichi Ohmae once wrote in his book during pre MSC days about the borderless nature of communication technology where any phone calls in the "future" from wherever to wherever would be flat rate. It didn't make sense to me until I discovered Skype.

Someone should write about borderless love affairs in this borderless world.......

*sigh* my body is aching. I miss Thai massage ;-)

BU

In memories of a great man.

A wonderful husband to my late mom.

A responsible and loving father to my siblings and me.

A great friend to countless of his contemporaries.

As far as I can remember, he worked very hard to make sure all his children well educated. When I was young, every month I sat down with him to help him organize the little we had to be sent to my elder siblings for their schooling in residential schools. When I was in primary school, I was already given the responsibility to go to the post office and send my brothers and sister their monthly money orders through registered letters, to make sure they arrived safely.

Years back we went through his files and where he kept everything. From what ever receipts of money orders to all our report cards. He spent a lot on us, he ignore the luxuries he could have afforded.

He always advised us to be early to the bus station or to the airport.

He always reminded us to keep all important documents properly. This saved me from a lot of trouble once when I went to Europe. In Amsterdam my other friends lost their passports. I didn’t. I followed his advice. I was safe.

He taught me how to wash our family car, how to change oil, how to keep the tire pressure and how to deal with a flat tire.

He taught me how to use those switches in the car when I was small. How to use the handbrake. How the signal indicators work. What is an automatic transmission car compared to manuals.

He pointed to me the cars and their names while driving on the road. I remember he had always been fascinated with cars, especially Jaguars. I memorized the names of cars when I was in Darjah 1. That’s why I like cars until today.

He taught me how to operate a manual camera when I was in primary school. How to shoot, how to manipulate the shutter speed and how to decide the aperture. After that I used to go around the neighborhood take pictures of my friends, make prints and sold them.

He sent me fruit basket when I was in college. That was a pleasant surprise.

He only scolded us when we were naughty only with his words. He never laid a finger on us. Never!

We miss our Bu or Abu - father in Arabic.

D&E

I went out for dinner with D&E the other night, at the Emporium, Sukhumvit, pretty near Soi 39.

I met D in KL. We have RS, our common friends. I thought it would be good to catch up since in am in town. I was quite touched, besides his busy schedule, the fact that he just arrived from abroad and braving Bangkok jam, he insisted to buy me dinner and even offer me to go for a massage. I politely decline the massage invitation as I already had my daily massage.

After dinner, D&E invited me for coffee.

Yeah, but where?

STARBUCKS!

What???

I insisted them to take me to the local Thai coffee place. It’s like our Kopitiam but with wi-fi and all. Nice place! And the coffee was good and strong (I had problem going to bed later)

I am always curious about people, especially those who come from different background, values and culture.. Even sexuality.

Over a cup (or glass rather, served with another glass of hot tea to wash the throat after) we had a long chat, changing ideas and experience.

D is a Thai. Early 30s, born and raised in Bangkok. He and the family own a business in fashion industry, hence the regional traveling he has to do. Used to work in the airlines, graduated from an Australian university. Being in the airlines upon graduation, he has pretty much traveled the world before working for the family.

2 things, to my opinion, are outstanding about him and to me they are big deals.

ONE:
He, believe it or not, believes in long distant relationship. His other half is in Hong Kong and they only meet about once in 2 months. I still cannot understand that.

TWO:
He volunteers. He goes to the orphanage every 2 weeks, just to play around with the children. He has been doing that for years and he enjoys it. To him, it is just one of his contributions to give back to the society. That is very noble, I thought…

E is quite an interesting individual too. They are good friends, since Australian days. Also worked in the airlines before. He is now working for a car auction company. At the same time, he is also a radio DJ and he also owns a travel company that organizes holidays within Thailand to the locals. It has been successful and the website will be up soon.

There I was, a 40 years old bloke listening to these younger Thai gentlemen about their experience and aspiration. I like their positive outlook in life, their business aspiration and their contribution to their own society. Not only they are enterprising, they are also sensitive and caring.

Is it a Thai thing? I don’t know…

But they are, from what I gathered, quite gentle and forgiving people. It’s their own version of “tidak apa” attitude, meaning very tolerant. That’s why a lot of “farang” (mat sallehs) abuse them.

Enterprising? Yes, they are. At every corner in Bangkok, even in Chiangmai and other parts of Thailand, you can see there will be men, women or children sell all sort of things. In actual fact I think, it is quite difficult to find unemployment.

It has been a while

Since I came back from BKK, I have been through a lot of things.

Family, personal and work.

I am back in one piece now and ready start kicking.

More updates coming up!

Cheers all!

M

p/s thanks for the friendship and support during the difficult times. You know who you are....