Kunang Kunang

My maiden Firefly voyage.

I was impressed the moment I arrived at Terminal 3 after a traumatic experience passing Terminal 1 and it was there anymore. Sad to see an ugly industrious building with striking green color that looks horrible from a far.

How I hate to think about what they did to Terminal 1.

Back to Terminal 3. Yeah, it was nice, not too big (and NOT small either), pleasant décor, logical flow, variety of restaurant and the menu is NOT expensive at all.

People are warmer.

KLIA, in many ways, is rather COLD.

The Beach

Kuantan has been a weekly event lately. I guess it will be like that for a while due to work commitment.

I don’t have a social life in Kuantan. Just pure work.

Typically, after dinner (normally mixed with business discussion) I will have no mood to do anything else but to hit the sack.

There are some nights I do talk a walk along the beach to breath in fresh air and enjoy the view of the full moon.

You should hear the waves.

Its beautiful.

loVE @ 1st Sight - 40

Breakfast with Brondong

Just had breakfast with TFF who updated me about her active (as always) social life and activities, and movies and upcoming holidays.

At the corner of my eye, the brondong still captured my eye and I took my handphone and shot this.

Turkey ham at the new Decanter sucked. I complained, of course. I hope they will change the breakfast menu soon.

I even told them that their breakfast menu has been there for ages and its boring - my exact word.

Before I left i assured TFF to get my free photography services for her non profit activities she's doing with her good friend.

Happy friday!

David's Pride and Joy

BMW E21 is the body designation for the first BMW 3 Series compact executive car, produced by the German automakerBMW from 1975 to 1983. This series was the immediate successor to the BMW 2002 and was superseded by the BMW E30 platform.

What David is restoring is the BMW 323i E21 Bauer.

Always excited to show new parts he managed to get from I seriously don't know where. He goes to Penang, Ipoh, JB, even order from the UK.

He has done up the engine and is in good running condition. In fact there was nothing wrong with the engine when he acquired it. Not much to be done, really.

Everything is original. Especially important are the seat. Leather, original. I like the color too.

The Baur is actually a convertible independent rear soft top. Nice!

David has all the new sets of lights.

Original alloy sports rims. Very light, apparently.

The kidney grill is being restored and David bought brand new kidney for the grill.

Baur

Independent rear soft top

Original rims with original tool.

The car currently in Puchong for reupholstered. I can't wait to see teh finished product. Hopefully I can borrow from him for a weekend... or two.

Good luck David!

Bella Italiana - 17

David visited the workshop the other day.

He was quite happy with the progress.

He spent quite a bit of time talking to Ah Seng. At some point they have different opinions about certain issues in this restoration job.

Like in many occasions, I have to be the mediator to calm them down.

They both have their own strength and both worked well to me.

Ah Seng is good at doing up the bodywork while David is very resourceful in hunting for parts and David, being trained in Turino, Italy, knows every detail of the Fiat engines.

I just have to make sure they treat each ot

her well and get the job done. I need both of them.

Ah Seng complains all the time saying that there are too many holes and damaged parts of the car needed to be fixed.

I did bluntly say to his face:

Ini kereta sudah 42 tahun wor. Mesti banyak karat punya! Haiyya!

Kota Bharu re Visited

I was recently in Kota Bharu to attend an opening of a mosques built by a friend’s family.

It is a beautiful mosque built in Kampung Pasir Ho, not that far from Kota Bharu city center. The mother, as long as I know her, has always been passionate about building including houses and apartments. She got involved in many aspects of the construction including sourcing for materials.

It took them 18 months to complete the mosque and she supervised it almost everyday for the past 18 months, or perhaps more. She even went to Japara (Indonesia) to get all the beautiful intricate carving and knowing her, everything is detail to the smallest measurement. She knows her stuff very well.

The result is outstanding and it is so distinctly her.

I also took some time to explore Kota Bharu. I have visited Kota Bharu a few times but never had the chance to really explore the town before, not even this trip. I tried my best to squeeze some shoot within the 24-hour trip and I only managed to capture area around Pasar Khadijah and Kubang Pasu (the old original Kota Bharu).

Some people might think Pasar Khadijah has been photographed to death and a bit cliché. I agree, but I still want to capture it my way through my lens.

I always have the impression Kota Bharu is always busy with business everywhere I go. There are a lot of enterprising people all over the place. I could feel the trading and commerce energy all over the little city.

With my camera and a heavy camera bag and a tripod, I was frequently asked whether I worked for TV3 of the Press.

My answer was simple (with a smile, of course) –

Hobby je.

These are some shots I’d like to share with you and….

Enjoy!

It’s like a bar.

Almost ONE MAN SHOW.

You sit on this end facing him across the bar.

I spent almost an hour. It was interesting.

He is like a bartender with jokes that keeps everybody cheerful. He gossips and bloody hell he knows a lot of secrets.

Like a bar also, refreshments are served across the bar. Instead or beer and pretzels, he serves the tarik, telur separuh masak, nasi berlauk, roti paung and butter cake,

I think.

One morning, while having breakfast at Pasar Siti khadijah, Kota Bharu.

I met Rahmat Haron at The Annex Central Market recently – during Freedom Film Festival. Initially I did not intend to say hi to him but I needed to light up my cigarette.

After exchanging greetings I found him very friendly and we ended up having a drink together with a bunch of friends and talk about the cause they are fighting for.

Shot this picture with my Nikon F601-M using Black and White film ISO 400 and 50mm Nikkor fixed lens.

Rahmat Haron - Pengarah filem Al-Fatehah Memali,

A few days later I shot him an email.

Subject: Satu puisi untuk saya?

To: "pukipuisi@yahoo.com "

Cc: "kahwaisin75@gmail.com "

Date: Sunday, October 11, 2009, 6:46 AM

Dear rahmat. I have a blog: choratchoret.blogspot.com. I want to paste your photo I took in it. Could u pls write me a poem of whatever, for me to accompany your photo in my blog

Salam

M

This is what I got from Rahmat:

apa yg kau mahu

dariku, sipenipu yg tidak tahu apa2

pengembara yg tidak berganjak

menerawang hanya otak

memburu angan2

menelanjangkan mimpi siang

dan kembali bersendiri

berasmara dengan sepi.

This is an extract from Rahmat Haron’s blog sampahseni.blogspot.com:

Dalam ekologi kehidupan ini, kita akan melihat kitaran makanan dan bahan buangan.

Begitu juga dalam kehidupan berkesenian.

Akan ada pengguna/pemakan.

Akan ada makanan.

Dan akan ada bahan buangan - yang disebut sampah, taik ataupun kotoran.

Jadi, Sampah Seni adalah rahmat haron.

Malah, rahmat haron juga disamping menjadi sampah/kotoran/bahan buangan dalam masa yang sama adalah pelahap pemakan sampah/kotoran/bahan buangan atau dalam bahasa Inggerisnya disebut, "scarvenger." (ha,ha,ha, tak reti eja)

Tak kisah, ini hakikat seburuk apapun perlu diakui. dah memang buruk takkan nak jadi cantik pula.

Yang cantik molek adalah para pemakan yang melahirkan bahan buangan/sampah/kotoran seperti aku.

sampahseni@gmail.com

Bella Italiana - 16

I just realized I have not updated the progress of the Fiat 850 Coupe for a while now.

There has been progress but rather slow.

These pics were taken way back in August, 09.

I have learned from the previous restoration project not to push the workshop too hard if you want a good result.

This bodywork is not a standard bodywork thing. It requires a good craftsman to put it back into it glorious past.

Ah Seng is the only ONE guy who is doing the detail bodywork if the car and I trust he will do it well.

From what I observe, it's like a patchwork thing that he is doing. Chop off the old rotted / rusted / corroded parts, cut another piece of fresh metal into the same shape, paste it by welding.

Then ketuk ketuk ketuk and apply anti-rust enamel - done! And then he has to look at other vulnerable spots and the same process go on and on and on. There must be hundreds of those spot.

Each time I visit the car, I told him to take his time. Good workmanship is more important!

Reinforcement of the section where the bumper is located.

Reinforcement of the section where the hinge of the bonnet.

The (bottom half) newly "paste" door panel.

Ah Seng cut out the whole sidestep panel, reinforced the structure and fix a new panel on top. He goes all the way deeper than the skin.

Reinforcement of the doorframe

The front wind-shield frame

New reconstructed bottom half of the door.

Ah Seng at work

He always makes a point to explain to me what he is doing and take pride of his work. It is not easy to get people like this. And most importantly he can communicate quite well although it took me quite a while to understand his English words in thick Chinese accent.

He is proudly showing another part which re recently constructed.

Water channel from the roof to the back. Heavily corroded and will be given back its original state and look.

Part of door panel which was chopped off and newly constructed one behind. Damn! it's a lot of work!

Bujang Tet is inspecting the progress comparing to the Fiat 850 write-up which I downloaded from the Internet, in Italian.

Ah Seng is convincing us that he follows the Italian brochure closely and understand well that I want it to be O.R.I.G.I.N.A.L.!

Ah Seng is explaining to BT who is always curios about mechanical stuff.

A sturdy steel rod to support the body (structure) of the car - could be weaken when certain parts of the cars are temporarily missing.

The newly crafted door panel by Ah Seng, my man!

Hari

*M*E*R*D*E*K*A*

ATAU

Hari

Kebangsaan?

That’s the question!

Baru baru ini ada seorang tetamu choratchoret memaparkan persoalan, menanyakan perdapat saya yang mana satu yang saya fikir lebih ideal untuk kita namakan hari ulangtahun yang penting dalam sejarah Malaysia – 31 Ogos.

Saya bukanlah pakar dalam bidang ini. Malah saya tak empunya “authority” untuk membahaskan soal sebegini.

Namun jika diberi pilihan, saya suka sekiranya 31hb Ogos dinamakan Hari MERDEKA, bukan Hari KEBANGSAAN.

“Hari Kebangsaan” pada pendapat saya tidak membawa erti yang mendalam. Mungkin saya ini seorang yang kurang membaca, tapi tak pernah pun saya jumpa apakah makna Hari Kebangsaan. Jika ada sesiapa di antara kita yang terbaca, sila lah kongsikan bersama.

Bagi saya perkataan MERDEKA itu dalam maknanya. Tak perlu diungkai secara terperinci pun kita mampu faham akan maksud perkataan tersebut.

>C*O*N*T*O*H*N*Y*A<

Hamba yang bebas – maksud nya MERDEKA.

Waktu di bangku persekolahan, selepas kertas ujian terakhir, kita MERDEKA.

Setiap kali perkataan MERDEKA disebut, terbayang-bayang sedutan filem Bapa Kemerdekaan dengan penuh semangat melaungkan MERDEKA, MERDEKA, MERDEKA.

Ada rasa semangat. Ada rasa semangat kebebasan dari belenggu penjajahan.

Namun, nama apa yang kita pilih sekali pun, memang penting. Tapi bagi saya lebih penting kita faham ertikata kemerdekaan yang sebenarnya.

Kita sudah MERDEKA lebih dari 50 tahun. Kita MERDEKA dari belenggu penjajahan BRITISH.

Adakah ini bermakna kita benar benar MERDEKA dari segala aspek kehidupan kita?

Kalau kita nak berbincang soal (contohnya) seksualiti (bukan mempromosi seksualiti tertentu, tapi hanya berbincang untuk mencari kebenaran) - pun susah, MERDEKA ape ke jadah nya namanya tu?

Mungkin kita masih lagi dibelenggu oleh penjajahan minda yang wujud dalam berbagai bentuk yang datang daripada berbagai sudut, dari dalam dan luar negara – dari dalam dan luar diri sendiri?

MUNGKIN?