Today is the last day of Ramadhan and tomorrow is Aidilfilti. We’ve just had our last sahur for the year and now the sun is slowly rising in the cool morning air of Irfan’s Tok Bah’s house here in the outskirts of Pasir Mas. We arrived here at noon yesterday, commandeering Irfan’s Atok’s car which he left with us before flying off to Ohio earlier this week. As you can see they’re having lots of fun (and awesome food) in the previous post. We planned on beating the massive holiday traffic by leaving long before the terminator crosses our location, at 0300, or 0330 at the latest early Sunday morning. Unfortunately we woke up at after 0400 because of the amount of work done the previous day taxed us physically. (Damaged car tyre was switched with the spare and we assembled a new bookcase, which I hope will be left […]
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On To The Far Side Of The Planet
Tok and Opah Irfan boarded the flight that would take them to Singapore, then hopskip to Tokyo, Chicago and finally Cincinnati where Ayah Cik and Cik Dik would be waiting to bring them to their house in Middletown, OH for a month at the United States. This would be their second time in the US. To prevent being late for the flight because of breaking of fast, we left after 6 PM from the Tenth Floor, headed for Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) which is strangely enough a million light years away from KL, but maybe that’s a subject for another entry. We broke sawm driving through Putrajaya and ate dinner after Mahgrib prayers at the Dengkil R&R on the PLUS Highway. And no, I didn’t need to pick my teeth en route. Anyway… pictures, as they say, are worth a thousand words: [[image:kliasendoff01.jpg:Irfan recharging for his high energy expenditure […]
Continue readingHair!
OK, so I didn’t actually go see the musical Hair while I was in New York City on Saturday, but here’s some news on hair: I cut mine!! Here’s a picture of me from this past May, where you can see how long my hair is. [[image:eur146.jpg:John and Jane Catchpole, and me and my hair:center:0]] In the past five months it has grown even more weed-like and out of control. So I took action (aiya, after all Raya is coming up and my parents will be here for Raya, must spruce myself up a bit, right?). Here’s how much I cut off (for scale I put a normal sized ballpoint pen next to the hair): [[image:hair1.jpg:Braid of the hair that was cut off:center:0]] And here’s the after picture: [[image:hair2.jpg:Sila minus the weed-like hair:center:0]] I really don’t care too much how long my hair is to be honest. I’ve tried every […]
Continue readingThe Sixth Year
It’s been six years since Ain & I were married. More than 10 years since we first met. Overall it’s been a great six years. It wasn’t a perfect six years. It’s been one hell of a rollercoaster for this and that reasons. But I’m still in love with her as much as the days before we were married, and I feel some measure of pride over the life we’ve built. For that I am very grateful to the Almighty for His joys, including the one known as Irfan Shafiq. There is probably many more years of riding this rollercoaster, but I hope we’ve learnt much and matured enough to allow us to determine what’s important in life, endure the ride and make the right decisions. [[image:anniv2006.jpg:Happy Sixth Anniversary To Us:center:0]]
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Into the Second Week of Ramadhan
It’s now the second week of Ramadhan. If anyone asks (and you’d know the answer to this if you’ve asked me) it’s been more tiring than it’s been hungry. The myth that you’re wiped out and floored by the hunger was totally dispelled when I was fourteen and playing hockey in the mornings during fasting month. And again, when I was seventeen and whacking tennis balls against the wall after school at 3 PM in the hot sun – though I was wiped out after that. However, this year I find out I can barely stay awake after 10 PM. I wonder if it’s because of the job I’m working now. I’ve already missed 2 nights of Tarawih & Witir prayers. I remember less than 10 years ago completing a full month of them at the mosque, even. And this year, for Aidilfitri, Tok & Opah Irfan will be in […]
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In Front of Pandan Capital
So the other day I walked from the house all the way across Pandan Indah to the MPAJ (Ampang Jaya Municipal Council) building to pay property tax over the counter. One weird thing about this house is that the mailing address has it in Kuala Lumpur with a KL postcode. The phone line is part of the Cheras – Pandan Jaya local prefix, which also puts it in Kuala Lumpur’s network. But we have to pay property tax to Ampang Jaya, which is part of the state of Selangor. Meanwhile, behind us is Cempaka, which is Ampang, and in front of us is Pandan Indah central, which is also Ampang. It seems like we’re trapped in a thin peninsular of Kuala Lumpur, trapped between alien territories. Anyway here are some photos I took of the street in front of the MPAJ building. Here’s the view up the street toward the […]
Continue readingClear View From The Tenth Floor
It has been pretty hazy and smoggy this past week, except when we headed back to Kelantan in the weekend. It might have contributed to me coughing up a storm to the point of even laughing pains me. Earlier today, it seemed like it was going to be the same old evil, soul-sucking grayness blanketing everything as far as the eye can see. I took the day off today to rest because of the coughs and perhaps I wasn’t getting enough sleep this past few days. Yesterday was the worst. It felt like I was barely conscious the entire day and would collapse at any time. This afternoon, I woke up from a nap (between reading Paradise X issues) and discovered that the haze (not too mention my lethargy and need to cough uncontrollably) was completely gone. [[image:viewfrom10.jpg:All clear view from the tenth floor:center:0]] And it made my day.
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As We Turned the Corner…
It was a fine sunny day as we sped southbound the Gua Musang road from Pasir Mas to Kuala Lumpur. There were still thirty kilometres or so from where we were to Gua Musang. Sparse but sometimes breathtaking limestone hills flank us, each hill seemed ankle deep in the greenery of oil palm trees. The radio was on full blare with Raihan’s Puji-pujian and the road was following along a curve. Suddenly, a shocking sight was revealed to us. We avoided colliding with the car, passed it and parked beyond. It must have had happened very recently since we were the first car that stopped to give aid. There was no other vehicle apparently involved, therefore it must have been barrelling down the road with some speed. It must also have rolled over at least once since its roof was pressed down into the car. There were three occupants in […]
Continue readingLesson For The Semester
Yesterday was my semester finals. There are a few good lessons I learnt this semester. 1. I procrastinate til the last moment before I really study, thus activating my panic button right around 6 hours before the exams begin. 2. I should start to study a month before exams. 3. I realize these are all lessons I’ve learnt before in previous semesters, and things always go apeshit at finals. 4. I accept it as status quo and go back to sleep until about a day before my next semester finals. Wheee! It’s just past 0500 hours. Right now, we’re all heading for Kelantan for the weekend (and the couple of days before it); and Sila and Vin are headed for Puerto Rico soon. Vaya con dios, alls y’all.
Continue readingMusic Of My Choice In The Car Again
The cassette player in my car hasn’t been functioning for quite a long time, and I don’t have a CD player aboard. So I have been at the mercy of whatever the radio stations been churning out should I want to listen to music in the car. But from yesterday, all that have changed. I am now able to listen to stuff I want to whenever I want to. Yesterday, tunes like Gilbert O’Sullivan’s upbeat “Alone Again, Naturally” and Zager & Evan’s optimistic “In The Year 2525” were blaring from my speakers and I felt so much alive driving alone than I’ve ever been in quite awhile. And it’s all thanks to a little tube I plugged into the lighter socket. The tube transmits the music over a selection of radio frequencies. The car radio receives the signal on the set frequency and plays the music. And the tunes are […]
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Job Done – Heading Home
I forgot to mention in the previous post that Sam and I spent the night at Ambhara hotel. It was quite a comfortable place to stay, with a shopping mall (whose name escapes me for now) right across the street from it. For some reason we were too lethargic when we arrived all we could do after ordering room service – I ordered the nasi goreng pelangi – is fall asleep until sundown. That night our contact met up with us at the cafe downstairs for the next day’s big meeting preparation, then Sam and I went to the mall across the street where he had bakso and I had nasi goreng omelette. I had no idea it was nasi goreng dumped on a humongous omelette – which was delicious, so I ain’t complaining. After the big presentation the following day, we had to head back to the hotel to […]
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Meanwhile In Indonesia
Greetings from Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia. Arrived this morning, I’ll be here until tomorrow for a presentation concerning work and work-related work stuff. The good news is I got some pictures. The bad news is that the pictures were only taken when we reached our hotel room. Here’s the view outside the window. Unfortunately it’s behind the hotel into the alley, you can pretty much see nothing. Here’s the bathroom. You can’t go wrong with picture of the hotel bathroom. Meanwhile behind the cupboard that holds the 21 inch TV, there appears to be signs of life. It’s Sam, Earth’s Supreme Avionics Commander, checking his email and planning for the future of the industry on the planet. Of course, he has to write down his plans first. And finally because Sam is around, I get my picture taken when I’m on one of these trips unlike Germany and Singapore. […]
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Today The Light Switch…
… Tomorrow the world!!! Earlier today Irfan realised that he has a new super power: the ability to reach any high switch on the wall with his hands (albeit on tippy toes). So all morning he’s been all over the house flipping switches. Lights. Fan. Forcefields. Directed-energy weapons. Life support systems. But the best thing all week has been his newfound skill of asking to use the toilet when required. Many thanks to Irfan’s Tok & Opah for teaching their grandson while Ain & I were at work last week. The other thing Irfan did with his grandparents was watch Pixar’s Cars together. The first time they watched a movie together, but the third time Irfan’s watched Cars in the theatre. Cars appears to have become Irfan’s favourite movie. He asks to see it again almost every day. He can remember names and tell who’s who on sight. He points […]
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Blog Upgraded
This is the first entry using the new version of the content management system Pivot 1.30 RC2, as opposed to the pre-upgraded 1.24 version of old. So I might as well say something meaningful. I can’t think of anything at almost 1 am. So I think I’ll put up an image for your viewing pleasure.
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HaXX0rzed!!!
This is the first entry after the site was hacked and evil and vile javascript and php codes were written into the blog’s templates and database files. Many thanks to Fairiz Jafar of EasyNet Interactive, our webhoster, for noticing and monitoring the trouble almost a full day before I contacted him for help. His help on a Sunday was very much appreciated, getting the site back up. Two of the most recent entries were lost, but it’s no big deal. The Hishgraphics web journal is back online. Click here to read a description of what happened in the Pivot Support Forums. It was a long weekend, needless to say. But I said it anyway. *sigh*
Continue readingAfternoon Storms
For the last month or so, the late afternoons, before the onset of dusk, is usually time for heavy rainstorms. They’re so heavy that sometimes, the hills in front of the apartment on the other side of Pandan Indah are totally obscured. Lightning tear across the sky. Thunder shakes the windows. Each time it hits, there would come a time during the storm when the lightning and thunder would coincide, which indicated that they were extremely close. This could be very disconcerting up here on the tenth floor. But today something new occurred. Not only there was an extremely bright flash of lighting coinciding with a loud thunderclap. The event also producted a strong electromagnetic field which caused my computer CRT monitor’s colour to go all purple. Fortunately, a quick usage of the monitor’s degauss function immediatedly rectified the problem. Thankfully the computer wasn’t damaged in any way.
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