Lift Wan's Basket

Random | Too many thoughts?

2011-09-23T00:33:00.001+08:00

Random | Too many thoughts?, originally uploaded by kamalazlan.

Mid-Life

2011-09-23T00:04:00.000+08:00

Salam to all...it's been awhile. As usual for me, this thing starts-stops-starts again, and stops again. Oh well, I said I wanted to blog about things I find interesting. Turns out I didn't find the time nor the discipline to sit down and write it out.

On 22nd September this year I turn 35.For some people, that's somewhere about mid-life age. For me, InsyaAllah...I may live a long and prosperous life.

Looking back 10 years ago...this is the year I should've accomplished a lot of things. I've failed most of them, but I know I gave it my best. I learned the hard way that my best is still not enough. I hope I am forgiven for my many failures, and I pray that I am given a second chance to prove my worth.

Not gonna write too much...I can be a bore when I talk about myself. Till the next time...hopefully some time this year lah! :D

Eye-Q Hunt 2010: CoC Jay Menon

2010-12-20T00:41:00.003+08:00

Peeps, after a loooonggg "hibernation", here's my latest post. I thought it might as well be something about treasure hunt. Q&A for the Eye-Q Hunt 2010, CoC is the ever so funny Jay Menon.

Route Questions – 5 points each

Review a defacto border by a course setter.

Ans: Coca Cola

Full hearing that takes a short time sounds capital to me!

Ans: Fuji Film

Debarred from returning it to store

Ans: QD Shop

Exile one who used to love his country reportedly.

Ans: expatriate

Rebellious chieftains ultimately loyal otherwise.

Ans: Sri Melaka

Gas providers with no limits, No articles with finishing, amidst!

Ans: Masella Mobili

Man and woman accepting of poor Negro play-school.

Ans: Helen O'Grady Drama School

Gesture that might greet you on an Air-India flight?

Ans: Namaste

Picture it shuffling with clubs.

Ans: Puteri

Sounds like it appears by magic and fast, too!

Ans: Pressto Kedai Dobi

Touching bottom rather than falling for it distinguishes this from its abridged answer.

Ans: Titanic

Such a branch offering indicates possible cessation of hostilities to merger.

Ans: The Olive Fusion

Double agent first falls in love.

Ans: Perodua

Politically correct to pinch backside?

Ans: Parsec

“Lightning McQueen” featured in one such.

Ans: Autofilm

Right person as well, about river. Besides, both belong to the same country!

Ans: Porto Romano

One beyond their means produced confusion about India a decade ago.

Ans: Foong Yik

Snaps from within.

Ans: Butik psf

Posh, can you be articulate without notes?

Ans: eukanuba

Wing Chun master.

Ans: Ip Man Bar

On screen, these tap way down under!

Ans: Happy feet

Rugby legend keeping busy? I hear it's the other way around!

Ans: Blomuz

Back or front, it's the fox of romance languanges.

Ans: Rozel

Go up, go! West Indians drink in small measure.

Ans: Kedai Perabot Kian Classic

Besides natives, headhunters are welcome.

Ans: Thoo & Sons

Bribes to get a degree.

Ans: Siblings

First animal in Oxford, say, has this for starters.

Ans: Double AA

Be not so unfair with the remaining characters from Greece.

Ans: Betarecs

Make gains, losing principal with all that come before it.

Ans: Sinbad Cafe

Opening kiss is initially deleted in premiere of “From Here To Eternity”

Ans: futurekids

Treasure Maze – 30 points

Our standard shades separately are the first part

Of each of the treasures that are to be bought

After each of them is another word only and together

They must be prominently featured, as it were

Identifying the products, available on the way,

Not expensive at all, bring any three to Jay!

If only two you can get, then paint-mix the other two,

For the third one – with the rest of the criteria too!

I-Spy – 5 points

I-SPY something beginning with the letter D

Location clue: It is situated near an overhead bridge

Features clue: Historically it was the largest among the others present

Cryptic clue: Short of a degree, qualification you get in medical staff

Note: There's another section called the Puzzler (worth 10 points). First, let me figure out how to copy and paste the matrix here. D'uh...

All the other teams are either master-hunters or soon to be master-hunters or should have been a master hunter, and there was our team - blank, blur faces and all. It was a tough hunt in our team's humble opinion, but at least we finished at a respectable 10th place. :)

See you next hunt!

NPC-Astro-Maxis Treasure Hunt 8-9th May 2010 Q&A

2010-05-11T10:49:00.004+08:00

For my friends who are wondering what was the questions were like during the hunt. If my regular team has time, this Q&A will be updated in our team's blog as well. Anyway, here it is:

NPC-ASTRO-MAXIS TREASURE HUNT 2010
KUALA LUMPUR-KUANTAN
[DISCOVER PAHANG]
8&9 MAY 2010

FIRST STAGE

1. AT THIS DEPOSITORY, A SORT OF PLAY COMES WITH AN UNIDENTIFIABLE FOREIGN LANGUANGE
A: Setor Punitha

2. A CHESS PIECE KINDLED WITH AN UNCLEAR EXPRESSION TO ATTRACT ATTRACTION
A: BSP Electrical

3. BUSINESS COMES AFTER THE RETURN TO TAIPING
A: GPT Trading

4. AT FIRST SIGHTING,WHERE HAS LIGHT GONE BY HAZILY IN A TOOT?
A: HOTLINK @ MCT MOBILE COM

5. CONTRARY TO THE LOCAL ROUTINE WORKING MEANS.
A: POS MALAYSIA

6. A CONFUSED ONE DOES STAGGER TO VENTURE LEFT.
A: LEERASTU ENTERPRISE

7. YOU CAN RECALL A GAIN IN BUSINESS WHERE A CONFUSED PRINCIPAL IS HEARD
A: SYKT PERNIAGAAN AMUTHA

8. STOP!CAN YOU RECOLLECT THE PARK WHERE YOU STARTED?
A: GERAI MPT

9. LESS 50 KILOGRAMS,AND YOU CAN GET BACK TO A PART NEAR THE ANKLE
A: KG. LELEH

10. THE PRONOUN IS DISCERNIBLE AFTER THE MESSY MELTING OF THE BEVERAGE.
A: Kedai kopi Tai Wah

11. A DISORDERLY SEGMENT OF A WORLD WAR II RESISTANCE GROUP
A: Restoran 163

12. THE EXCHANGE OF TEN, FIFTY AND ONE THOUSAND
A: XLM TRADING

13. HEARD OF FEELING FAINT WITH MEALS, SATURATE AND MORE.
A: DZ Restaurant

14. I CAN MAKE YOU FAIL TO NOTICE THIS GIRL’S VENTURE
A: MSS Letchumy Enterprise

15. A VAGUE DEPOSIT USUALLY FOUND IN VEINS
A: Restoran LEDO

16. RETURN THE LOCAL SHELF HERE TO GO BACK TO THE PEOPLE.
A: TAY Agency

17. THE SHORT TANGENT IS IN A ROW.
A: Lintane Trading Sdn Bhd

18. AKIN TO A TRIMMED RICARDO IZECSON DOS SANTOS LEITE
A: Kedai Gunting Rambut Ka Ka

19. QUALITY GETS REFINED WITHOUT THE HARDNESS GRADE OF THE PENCIL.
A: Pasar Mini Muthu

20. OAK NUTS THEY ARE AFTER A RESHUFFLE
A: NARSCO

21. PART OF IT IS AN HONORIFIC FOR SOME POLITICIANS.
A: YBK Auto & Services Sdn. Bhd.

22. A CORRIDOR CAN MAKE IT A PARTY TO A LOVE AFFAIR.
A: Salun Kecantikan ROMA

23. THE PAST PARTICIPLE OF BE “PROMOTES” IT TO THE MIDDLE SPOT.
A: TWE Marketing

24. SHY ON THE OUTSIDE,AND BENT OUT OF SHAPE WITHIN.
A: Super COWBOY

25. A SHORT AD PROMOTES IRREGULAR CUFFS IN GOLD.
A: airgau.com

26. WHERE IS THE COMBINED OLD BOYS RUGBY ASSOCIATION ATTACHED TO?
A: Cobra Connex @ Lian Soon Cushion & Auto Accessories

27. “ANNE” IS RUDELY SURROUNDED BY THE PEOPLE OF DENMARK AT WHICH PLACE?
A: SANDEN

28. WHERE DOE A SPACEMAN APPEAR,WITH THE BOSS’S RETURN?
A: ASTRO

29. HERB OF THE MINT FAMILY,CRUSHED IN SADLY.
A: SALSABILA

30. GET THE INTERNET-AND MULTIMEDIA-ENABLED SMARTPHONE WITHOUT THE PACT
A: IDEAL PHONE COMMUNICATION

SECOND STAGE

31. NO WAY IT CANNOT BE ASSOCIATED WITH BUYING AND SELLING
A: Restoran Nasi Dagang

32. WHEN ONE DOES BUILD HERE,ONE ONLY DESTROYS
A: Pasar Borong Sakan

33. ASTONISHMENT COMES BEFORE I DO
A: HAIRANI Enterprise

34. WELLBEING OF ONE OF THESE:U.S.A.
A: Initial Hygiene

35. SOUNDS LIKE A PLACE WHERE ARTEFACTS ARE DISPLAYED
A: Salon Musume

36. DISCARD FIFTY AND, VAGUELY,THERE’S NOTHING LEFT.
A: ROZEL

37. IF YOU RECALL,IT’S ONE HOUR BEFORE THE HUNT’S OFFICIAL FLAG-OFF TIME.
A: maxis

38. THE GUY WAS RETURNING WHEN HE WAS ENSNARED IN THE PAHANG LAKE
A: BERNAMA

39. WHERE CAN A “BEE” CHANGE A GANG OF WOODCUTTERS INTO A TEAM OF NEW MEDIA EDITORS?
A: East Coast Loggers Association

40. I CAN MAKE LOVE WITH DRIVE
A: LKE Motor

TREASURES QUESTIONS

1.It is the staple food of Asians,
Including, of course, us Malaysians
Five kg in a plastic pack;
A brand bearing half of the name Jack.
If you don’t get it, it’s a pity,
Because the second half comes from Siti

2.A brief high-pitched sound. An unpleasant smell. (Have) a very enjoyable time. One point for one.

3.An iced beverage in a can,
With real honey and the taste of lemon.
There’s definitely no milk added, we can say;
But confused, initially, is President of the U.S.A.

If you guys have any questions, just email me or post a comment...below:

Shutih...The Final Goodbye...

2010-04-29T23:10:00.009+08:00

Here's a brief history of this lil kitten. Shutih is one of Aragorn's three babies; the others being my adopted kitten - Shaggy, and Shepet, which was adopted by my lil sis. Shutih has always been wild, we've never had the pleasure of playing with her for long periods of time. She was the most active of the 3 babies, and seemed the strongest. And hence, we thought that out of the 3 babies, she would be the one to survive whatever ordeal in her preferred surrounding - outside the comforts of our home.

Shutih was named as such...er...because we ran out of ideas what to name her. Since she's white (putih) and her other siblings are named SHaggy and SHepet...we err..thought it's convenient just to name her SHutih. Heh...

There were only a few times that I saw Shutih around the back of our house. I think she only came over to share some food with her uncle Gimli and mama Aragorn on two, maybe three occasions only. All the other times, I saw only fleeting glimpse of her, running around the neighbours' house.

So, it was a surprise for me to find her sitting quietly on the plastic chair when I went to do laundry this morning. As her uncle Gimli and mama Aragorn rushed to eat some cat biscuits I put out for them, I called out to Shutih to come over and join them. I didn't realize it at first, but then I saw her limping, and her left leg appearing weak. What surprised me more than that was her stomach, which looks empty, like a cat who hasn't eaten in a long time. She looks weak and listless, and uncomfortable for all the time I was watching her. A contrasting picture of her, being an all out active cat before this.

Worried that she got sick, I rushed her to the vet for a quick checkup. The early prognosis wasn't good. The vet, Dr. Intan said that she suspects that Shutih's diaphragm had ruptured and most of her organs had moved up to her chest and are crushing her lungs, making it difficult for her to breathe. What could cause this, could be blunt force trauma, like a motorcycle knocking her, someone accidentally kicked her, or deliberately hit her abdomen. She needs an xray to be sure on how extensive the injuries are. Dr. Intan also added that there is no chance of survival in 80% of these type of cases. If it is confirmed that the rupture is too big for surgery, euthanasia may be the best option to stop Shutih's suffering.

Since I had some errands to ran at that point of time, and it will take time for the xray, I decided to leave her with Dr. Intan and come back a few hours later. It was a long, long wait. When I called the vet at around 3pm, she sounded calm, so I was hoping for the best. But when I arrived at the vet, and she showed me Shutih's xrays, my worst fears are confirmed. The rupture was big enough that the only organs left in the lower part of the body is the large intestine, which is attached to her anus and had been pulled, appearing to be just a long straight line, with most of the mass pushed up to the upper part of her body. All the other organs had been pushed up into her rib cage and are crushing her heart and lungs. Added to that, her left leg had been dislocated, which caused the limping I saw earlier. The best option is for Shutih to be put down.

I was left speechless. It was my first time facing that decision. Although we are not the owners, and neither are we her guardians, but seeing her suffer and faced with that decision just broke my heart. I just stood there in the treatment room, looking at Shutih, and just could not find the words to express how I feel. When I turned to the vet, I realized Dr. Intan had tears in her eyes as well.I called my wife and she cried when I told her what happened. Being cat lovers, this is not an easy decision to make but it was for the best.

I asked for some time alone with Shutih to say my goodbyes. She looked as if she knows what I was talking about. She has never been close for me to stroke her soft fur before, and we had our moment to be friendly to each other for the first...and last time.

The procedure was to take place during the night, and I decided to trust Dr. Intan to do what's best for Shutih. I went back home, feeling drained. Shaggy must have felt what I felt and she jumped on me and just makes her self comfortable on my chest. Must be her way of giving me a hug.

At around 2200hours tonite, my phone beeped a received message:

"Salam, I would like to inform you that Shutih is no longer with us. She refused to take up any food i offered to her. During the procedure she did not struggle at all and finally sleeps very calmly. My condolence goes to you and family but believe me this wud be the best and the last we cud give to her.Tq. Rgrds;Dr Intan"

Shutih is gone. Goodbye lil princess, it was fun knowing you in your short life.

Yellow Pages Hunt...and the winner is...

2010-04-14T01:23:00.006+08:00

It was the largest cash prize on offer so far, in terms of the hunts I've joined in. RM8,888 (!) for the 1st prize winner...waliauwei. The entry fee also cost a wee bit high for an outstation hunt, RM888 per team (which works out to RM222 per person for a 4person team...d'uh).

I had been dreaming about how it would feel to win the prize ever since I saw an FB update on Michael Pang's status. I think it was a couple months ago, I'm not so sure. Unfortunately, my regular treasure hunt team could not join as 1 half of the team is going to Bandung on the same date...huhuhu.

But fate would intervene, as 1 team did not manage to form a complete 4-person team. Apparently, 'someone' had suggested my name to the team members, and about a week before the hunt was held I had received an invitation to join this team.

Thank you, Linda Shamsuddin. Ehem.

This is no ordinary team, it had all the veteran/masters hunters in it before I came along (haha); Hagi Shuhaimi, Ahmad Zahrol and Khairol Nazib. Talk about a dream team, huh?

It didn't start that well. It rained heavily in the early hours of the morning, which made everyone just that little bit late reaching the flag-off point in Bukit Jalil. In retrospect, this is what we call hujan rahmat in B.M. And when we did flag-off, we actually got stuck on the very 1st question. Sounds like what the Macam2 Adaaaa team would do, or is it because of the W.Kamal vibe, I wonder? Hehe...

Anyways, all along the route I felt very2 dizzy. I was one of the passengers sitting at the back with Hagi. Zahrol navigated and Khairol drove his wife's brand new Alza. Quite a comfortable car for treasure hunt. I later discovered on the way back from Penang that if I sit at the left side of the passenger seat, I didn't feel as dizzy as I did by sitting on the right-side during the hunt. Which is weird. I've never felt like that ever before. All in my mind kot.

The questions, in retrospect that is, aren't that hard to crack. It has enough difficulties in it to have us scratch our heads, but not that hard that it would deter any newbies that came in to hunt, IMHO. Apart from the route questions, we also had the usual treasure questions and the JKJR questions; as well as the Yellow Pages puzzle and the E-yellow pages questions. What these 2 Yellow Pages sections requires us to do is to use the Yellow Pages book to solve the puzzle and the softcopy of the YP to solve the E-YP questions. For the puzzle, I had Hagi to thank for helping me out on that. Have you seen how thick the YP books are? It took a lot of patience to go through the book, but you have to know which section to look first before you can find the answer.

Oh, one other thing that this hunt has was the field challenge. It was simple enough, kick a mini soccer ball and knock down as many water bottles you can, and throw as many ping pong balls into the basket.

Okay, here's the complaint: some of the sectors are a wee bit too long as compared to other hunts. For example, one of the sectors has a length of 6km plus. If you didn't see the answers the 1st time, u have to double back and drive again through the sectors. Do that a couple of times and u suddenly have a very high mileage meter displayed on the screen, and much less time to do the hunt. And yes, that happened to us. I think it happened to the other teams as well, because in the end there wasn't enough time to complete all the sectors. After much discussion, we decided to drop the last sector of the hunt and head to the finish point.

At the end point we saw some of the regular teams arriving about the same time as us. I think only Claire's team arrived within the time frame, and all the other teams received penalty points.

We all felt that we didn't have that much hope of finishing among the top teams, much less win anything. I was more preoccupied with how hungry and tired I was as opposed to what the results were. Dinner was served late, which did not help my mood; never disturb a hungry lion as they would always say. Most teams (closed category) had arrived late, as they went thru the tulips/directions and completed the course. Hence the late arrivals and dinner. What helped though was this bunch of happy, jovial people from Yellow Pages that joined our table. They were so friendly that I felt we've known each other for years. :)

Halfway thru the dinner, the answer presentation came on, which spoiled my appetite. I was very2 nervous about how we answered in the hunt, as I was the one who wrote down the answers in the submission sheets. After tabulating the scores, it didn't help our confidence at all seeing the marks on my notebook. It was a whirlwind finish to our hunt and for some reason I couldn't remember what I wrote for the answers, especially for the treasure questions.

As the night went on as the lucky draw closed on the final prize, which none of us won,the YP guys on our table had this to say: "takpe bang, tak menang lucky draw, mesti boleh menang grand prize treasure hunt! team nombor apa?...19? ok, kitaorg jerit nombor tu karang..." To which I smiled my most polite smile.

As the top 6 teams were announced, Hagi was at one corner of the hall, Khairol went to the bathroom and I got up to take pictures of the top 3 teams in the hunt. After Razif's and Claire's team had gone up to take their prizes for 3rd and 2nd placing respectively, it was time to announce the winner. When the MC asked "Who is the winner for the RM8,888 cash prize, champion for the 1Malaysia 1Yellow Pages hunt?", the YP guys at our table shouted in unison our team's number: "19!!!" To which the CoC stopped, look up to see who shouted and took a deep breath.

There I was in front of the stage with my camera waiting to hear who won, and the guy took a looooonnnngggg time to announce it. Or is it just me? hehe. He continued with "Let me announce the name of the driver..." *dup-dup dup-dup* goes my heart beat. "Team Driver Khairol Nazib...." to a chorus of cheers from a group of ladies *ahaks*. My 1st reaction was "hey, I know that name"...with the CoC announcing everyone's name which I couldn't hear and ending it with "...team no. 19!" to cheers from the YP guys at the table. I think it was the loudest cheer any team has gotten in the hall...:)

RM8,888 was ours. :)

I would like to congratulate the team for a job well done: Hagi, Zahrol and Khairol. And thank you so much for inviting me. I had fun with the team, which is so important to me in any hunt. And we received a bonus: we won! Thanx and congrats guys!

Full results are here and here.

It has been that long...?

2010-04-14T01:21:00.001+08:00

OMG...I've just realized that I haven't update this blog for quite some time (yet again)...must do better management this time...hopefully.

A new post, coming up soon!

Welcome Shaggy Jr. :)

2010-02-11T23:57:00.003+08:00

It was about a year ago that I updated about our kitten, Shaggy, that went out and never came back. Well, that lil dude in the picture up there is it's descendant; don't you think he looks cute? :)

Where did it come from? Before Shaggy went missing, his mum (Horny) gave birth to 3 kittens which we named Legolas (which was killed by an adult cat), Gimli and Aragorn. Yes, we took the names of them LOTR characters; we loved the story so very much. Anyway, a few months ago Aragorn went missing, and when she came back we saw that her tummy is a lil bit bigger than usual. We suspected either she had worms or she was pregnant. It turned out to be the latter.

She hid her kitten(s) from us, so we didn't know how many came out from her tiny body. After repeatedly telling her to bring her babies back for us to have a look, she brought home one of them a few days back. The others I dare not think what happened. The problem is she left soon after bringing back the lil dude, and ignored him the rest of the time when she dropped by for a meal.

Anyway, we took pity of the lil dude, and decided to take him in. So, welcome Shaggy Junior...we love you already, lil dude. :)

2010 | so many plans | humbled as a man

2010-02-01T22:56:00.001+08:00

Ironic that it took me a month to write my 1st post in 2010.Even more so when it came from a hospital bed.

Yes people,I've been warded.Reason? Back pain so severe that I couldn't get up from bed.

I had so many plans in 2010,even more so that I've taken a sabbatical leave from work to go and 'capture' my dreams.

Ironic that the 1st day of that leave is being spent in a hospital bed.

"Man plans;God decides"...I am a man with grand plans,but I, as a servant to God,am as ever humbled...

1Malaysia Conti-Sime Hunt 2009 | Penang Route

2009-12-23T11:19:00.003+08:00

Wow...just got the questions and answers for the Penang route of the hunt. Would like to thank bro Salleh for his assistance in providing me the info. At the first glance it does seem tougher than the PJ route. Let me know what you guys think:

1.COOL VAN. DAH LARI BERSELERAK
Ans: VOLCANO

2.A JAY SAW DIFFERENTLY
Ans; AWS Jaya Sdn Bhd

3.HATI-HATI, AYAM MELINTAS DARI KANAN ANDA
Ans: Maya Manufacturing

4.ATAS BAWAH MEMANG TAK BOLEH. HANYA KIRI KANAN YANG BOLEH DISAMAKAN
Ans: STETS Sdn Bhd

5.NO HEAL WHEN MIXED
Ans: LEANHO Electrical Sdn Bhd

6.RE-ALIGN ALIGN. APA KE MENDE NI?
Ans: LIGAN Motor

7.WHY HAS TO BE TEE? COZ HE WANTS TO BE IN THE PRINCE OF DENMARK TRAGEDY, WRITTEN BY SHAKESPEARE
Ans: HAMLEY Music Centre

8.DUA-DUANYA RATUS
Ans: ABAD CENTURY

9.48 TO 2
Ans: 112 Auto (ONE ONE TWO Auto Sdn Bhd)

10.CAFÉ, HARDWARE & MINIMARKET. WE HAVE SOMETHING IN COMMON
Ans: Big A ( Café Big A, Hardware Big A, Pasar Mini Big A)

11.AS OATH IN CRAZY TERM
Ans: ASOTHA Trading

12.ALIAS STALLONE
Ans: RAMBO Motor Service Sdn Bhd

13.TUN AJE LA GANTI LELAKI UNTUK JADI TUNANGAN SUDIN
Ans: ZAIMAN Communications

14.A CAP THAT KIWI PUT TOPSY-TURVY
Ans: WATIKAH CIPTA

15.ATAS DI BELAKANG UNTUK JADI KUMPULAN IDAMAN
Ans: ZZ Idaman

16.BERTARUH DALAM MATA
Ans: MABETTA Sdn Bhd

17.HUJUNG AWAL SAYA DAN AKU
Ans: ZAINI Workshop

18.DI MANA GEE? DI HATI LA, MANA LAGI?
Ans: MAGNA

19.BIG µ
Ans: MU Car Wash

20.ALOUD HEAD OF MUSTAMA KAMAL’S AGELESS
Ans: EMKAY Klasik Restoran

21.LEGEND WITHOUT HORATIO CAINE
Ans:MYT

22.D10. DURIAN LA TU!!
Ans: DEE TEN

23.HOT PEA MADNESS
Ans: TEA POH

24.FROM DUBLIN, BONO, THE EDGE, ADAM & LARRY
Ans: U2 Teleshop

25.MASA ENGKAU RABA, BIAR OM KEGELIAN. TAPI BUAT MASA MULA AJE!!
Ans: Beras MERBOK

26.SOUNDS LIKE WE FEEL THE SAME
Ans: VEERASA Enterprise

27.DENGARNYA XY TIDAK MAKAN DI SINI
Ans: Warung MAN

28.LAUT SELATAN
Ans: HAINAN

29.AN ICEBERG DISORDERLY
Ans: RACING BEE

30.GUA AGAK NENAS LU ADA DIJUAL DISINI LA
Ans: LEAN SUN Trading

31.RUMIT PATET DARI JEPUN
Ans: TETAP TIMUR Automobil

32.BUNYI MACAM LUCAH AJE
Ans: KOK LONG Kedai Runcit

33.ONE WAY TICKET, ONE WAY TICKET…… BONEY M
Ans: CHOO CHOO Train Bday Care

34.ANNE SENTIASA MERAH BILA BUKAN MALAM
Ans: SIANG Trading

35.GREEK DEMIGOD, SON OF JUPITER
Ans: HERCULES

36.COSY ME, I’M DIZZY
Ans: YES COM

37.HIS KARMA LIVE CHAOTICALLY
Ans: TAMAN MIRKASAH

38.ADOLESCENT TRAPPED IN THE HEART OF AMERICAN AIRLINES
Ans: Restoran ATEENA

39.RICARDO ZECSON DOS SANTOS LEITE PUN ADA BISNES DISINI LA
Ans: KAKA Ba Kut Teg

40.ASAL JANDA ENGKAU FIKIR ITU
Ans: JEFI

41.SEBELAS DALAM PENERBANGAN KITA
Ans: maxis

42.100
Ans: After NINE NINE CAFÉ

43.DISINILAH ITIK BERSIUL SIUL KECIL BERMASTAUTIN
Ans: Taman Belibis

44.GEMBAKU DOME. WHERE?
Ans: HIROSHIMA Auto

45.KUTUB UTARA RUPANYA ADA DI DALAM SHAH ALAM
Ans: SARTIKA

46.MAK WHO?
Ans: MOHAWK

47.WITH STARR FOR BEATLES
Ans: Kedai Kek RINGO

48.MALAYSIAN HOSPITALITY, CALM
Ans: MH Cool

49.RIGOBERT ADALAH KE-3 SELEPAS SATU DUA
Ans: ONE TWO SONG Music Centre

50.DON’T TELL ME THAT YOU MAIL YOUR FLOWER POT
Ans: MAIL PASU BUNGA

51.HABIT AS BEING HELTER-SKELTER
Ans: BATISHA

52.HARLEY BIKERS IN REVERSE
Ans: GOH Enterprise

53.MS GEE LEBIH SESUAI DARI MR PEE UNTUK JADI PERISIK
Ans: KPB Enterprise

54.BEFORE QING AFTER YUAN
Ans: MING Motor

55.AILING AH BUN IS ALWAYS CHAOTIC
Ans: BUAH LI NIANG

56.ASS OFF FOR A SENIOR NURSE
Ans: MASTRON

57.BE A RAJA WITHOUT 2ND VOWEL
Ans: KEING Kar Center

Wow! Tough questions, huh? And a lot more than the PJ route...!

On to the next hunt!

1Malaysia Conti-Sime Hunt 2009 | Anagrams Galore!

2009-12-20T20:19:00.004+08:00

I wasn't with my regular team, Macam-Macam Adaaaa; went into the hunt with one of 2 of my company's teams: Westports Malaysia. Out the 8 of us, I was the only regular/experienced hunter.

Here are the questions and answers to the treasure hunt. Let me know if there are any errors. There are tons of anagram questions in there, so it was a good practice for me to break all the 49 questions, as my team mates are mostly novices. But despite that we did well in the end, finishing 7th out of about 55 teams.

1.AN EXPLODING STAR IN THE HEART OF INGENIEUR
ans: INOVAR Floor

2.PERHAPS IT IS A DRY ONE
ans: Ryoden (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd

3.HOSTED BY PAT SAJAK & VANNA WHITE. IT'S FORTUNE
ans: WHEELS Car Alarm System

4.BB
ans: TWINBEE Autoparts (KL) Sdn Bhd

5.DENONATED (sic; DETONATED) CRIB FOR TOE
ans: ORBIT FORCE

6.GEE & I WILL MAKE IT BEGINNING
ans: Peralatan Bilik Mandi ORIN

7.PC KHAI NI ROSAK. CUBA BAIKI
ans: KINPACHI Japanese Restaurant

8.EE, SEPARUH AJE !!
ans: HAFELE

9.SEMUA INGAT SAYA MAU ANGKAT ANGIN UNTUK TAMPAR ORANG. ITUPUN KALAU DIMULAKAN
ans: SISMA AUTO

10.AN ALGEBRAIC PROGRAMMING LANGUAGE
ans: ALGO®

11.ANNI-FRID, BJORN, BENNY & AGNETHA
ans: ABBA @ Pemborong Alat Tulis

12.@ ALCATRAZ
ans: The Rock

13.MASA ENGKAU RABA, BIAR OM KEGELIAN, TAPI BUAT MASA MULA AJE !!
ans: Beras MERBOK @ Kedai Runcit TT Mart

14.MAU KAH JUAL BELI?
Ans: KAM HUA Trading

15.SUKU, SUKU, SUKU, SUKU. JADI GANTANG.
Ans: CUPAK Kafe Restoran

16.ALIAS ASHARI MUHAMAD, AL-AQRAM
ans: Pasar Mini Ehsan Tijarah ABUYA

17.IRON MIKE KEHILANGAN ANAK LELAKI
ans: TY Used Car

18.SHORT OF 40 TO BE A GROUP
ans: U.B. Rubber Sdn Bhd

19.PLACE YOUR BET AT THE END FOR A-Z
ans: ALPHA Tiles @ Yee Lee Tiles Trading Co.

20.NOTICE CHAOTICALY
ans: ETONIC Garment Manufacturing Sdn Bhd

21.3 ZEROES & AN ACE. ORANGE, GREEN, WHITE & YELLOW. OTHERS, I DON'T CARE
ans: COLOUR CREATIONS @ Sin Lian Hap & Sanitarywares Sdn Bhd

22.BETUL KA ROSA HALAU TREN?
Ans: RESTORAN ALUHA

23.MAY BE COS IN HELTER-SKELTER
ans: SYEBACOM Enterprise

24.MOI MERAH, SEMUT HITAM
ans: MANTOI Car Wash

25.NASIK TAIPAN BERSELERAKAN
ans: KANSAI PAINT @ Wan Joo Heng Co

26.INITIALLY THIS CURRENT ACCOUNT IS IN PEACE
ans: DA MA CAI

27.KEDENGARAN SEPERTI SEBUAH JAMBATAN KECIL
ans: Pasaraya TT

28.SEBELAS DALAM PENERBANGAN KITA
ans: maxis @ Rakan Niaga Eksklusif Maxis

29.LET'S JUMBLE A NAKED PLAT
ans: TEKAD LAPAN Sdn Bhd

30.HAD NI AZIS SAJA YANG BOLEH UNDUR
ans: SIZA INDAH

31.DAH KECOH DIA DILAMAR OLEH HAJI BAKHIL BIN LEBAI KEDEKUT. DENGAR-DENGAR AJE.
Ans: Kedai Makanan dan Minuman MORNI

32.SHY GUNMEN? MUNGKIN DAH KENE BANYAK TODI
ans: SUN MY HENG

33.TIAP-TIAP HARI DATANG
ans: Restoran Makanan Laut TIEN TIEN LAI

34.MADAME JAY NU IS ALAWAYS GET CONFUSED
ans: DAYAMEN MAJU

35.I IN MILLION
ans: Restoran JUITA

36.PADA MULANYA AMERIKASYARIKAT BERADA DI DALAM INDIA. INI SEJARAH BARU !!
ans: INDASIA Security Services Sdn Bhd

37.1000 FOR THE FAMOUS MARUTHUR GOPALAN RAMACHANDRAN
ans: G.R. Auto Part Trading

38.GANG AN ENDS, REALLY?
Ans: DA SENG NGAN Temple

39.WITH 12TH FOR THE FAMOUS TWIN
ans: KCC @ Perniagaan Barangan Yen Leong

40.WHO NIK?? LET'S FIGURE IT OUT
ans: KIN WOH Machinery Sdn Bhd

41.WHITE PEAK
ans: SNOW MOUNTAIN Refrigeration Sales & Services

42.RAN AMOK INTO SI
ans: SINARIS

43.GAIN AN INCH KALAU DIKOCOK
ans: Pasar Mini Chinnagani

44.LOOK UP FOR HAI NAM HAR
ans: Restoran RAHMANIAH

45.A WILD PARTY MOM
ans: Restoran PR TOMYAM

46.KELUAR BERTABURAN, MANA HILANGNYA RODA DI DEPAN?
Ans: KAULE Aluminium

47.DI HATI JIT² XIN
ans: Midea Kedai Letrik A.S. Tan Enterprise

48.SAYA JAJA KEBINGUNGAN
ans: JAAS JAYA Enterprise

49.THEY SHARE, THEY SEE, THEY CHEW. APA YANG MEREKA KONGSI?
Ans: SIN @ SIN Kongsi, SIN Vision, SIN Ah Chew

From my count we dropped 5 questions in total and got 1 out of 6 of the treasure wrong. So not that bad, huh? :)

On to the next hunt!

Batik Hunt 2009 | Lake Garden

2009-12-16T17:15:00.005+08:00

Finally, finally...some updates on treasure hunting...the most recent one is the Batik Hunt held at the Lake Garden. It's a walk hunt...around the Lake Garden...and yes, it was tiring...but yes, it was fun...!

Questions weren't that difficult, most of it are spotting / observational questions. The only thing though, you have to know what you're looking for. Half of the questions were on batik-related things. Although it was tiring towards the end, we did manage to have a goofy good time.

I'm not gonna write more, coz I've got errands to do, here's some pictures of us during the hunt...and yes, I wore batik throughout the hunt, thankyouverymuch...*winks*

Oh, and we ended up in 4th place. Sam Rahman and team won the hunt; excellent performance from them! Congrats...!

On to the next hunt...!

Wakaf Che Yeh, Kota Bharu

2009-11-25T13:55:00.008+08:00

Went back to KB last weekend. Dad needed to do some repairs on the house, which is a lot since we didn't have time to look after it for quite some time with a lot of things going on. It's the monsoon season, so I didn't get to see the sun at all during the whole week. We did went around tasting the Kelantan delicacies around town, so that was really2 fun.

For shopping, the only place we manage to go to within our limited time there (and due to weather condition) was Wakaf Che Yeh. This place is popular with the local residents as well as local and foreign tourists as a hawkers' market, operating all day long. In the mornings we would usually see the pasar tani and during nights we would see small stalls mushrooming around the area selling "imported" goods, fruits, vegetables and people can even enjoy some of Kelantan famous (and yummy!) food here.

Here are some pictures I took, which IMHO (hehe...) is not that bad. For more pictures, head on down to my flickr here.

For more pictures on my travels, click here.

In The Land of Cik Siti Wan Kembang

2009-11-21T13:37:00.002+08:00

Spending the weekend in Kota Bharu, Kelantan. It's the monsoon season, so I expect less of the sun (which I haven't seen since I got here) and a lot of rain. On our way here, I saw some places under a few feet of water, but I do hope that it doesn't get worse than it is despite advance warnings of floods from the authorities.

We left PJ at 9pm exactly, with my dad driving first. He wanted to give driving a go while he was fresh and see how far it took him. We switched in Raub, so he went quite a distance before he couldn't continue. Not that he slept a wink when I drove after that, I think he felt obligated to keep me awake all the way thru KB. There wasn't that many cars as I would have expected, since 1. we drove at night and 2. it's the monsoon season, so I doubt people would want to come over here despite the holiday season. There was however, quite a number of lorries on the road, and that was what kept me awake: trying to overtake them lorries one at a time. It was fun though, since there's not that many cars on the road, so the road was quite clear. The lorry drivers were helpful in assisting safe overtaking, when they see the road ahead is clear and safe to overtake, they turn on the left hand signal to indicate that it's safe to overtake them.

We reached KB safely by 3.45am, although I think it would have been earlier if I hadn't taken off my foot of the gas and slowed down considerably towards the end of the journey. We weren't in a rush anyway.

Anyway, the house needed some repairs, and that's why my dad wants to come back here regularly. He's been coming back here every month or so to keep an eye on the house and do the repairs. Hopefully this would become a regular thing for us, this house brings back a lot of memories for us as a family. I missed living here, and I hope I can come back and settle down here in the future.

Okay, let's hope the rain doesn't get any heavier than it is, because I do have some plans to go around town and take pictures.

Till next time...!

At the movies - 2012

2009-11-18T15:14:00.002+08:00

What was supposed to be a time away from work related headaches turned out to be a big group gathering. And it all turned out like that because of the simple reason being that neither of us could get a ticket for the movie. And hence the search was expanded, and in the end we ended up watching the movie 2012 at the Alamanda Putrajaya.

As I received/heard mixed reviews on this movie, I went in without any expectations whatsoever. My main focus was to enjoy the night out with the gang and especially just immerse myself in the fun activity that we call "movie watching experience". Popcorns, ice lemon tea, a cold and dark theatre, and you almost have everything in hand.

Unfortunately, the naysayers won the day that night. The movie was way below what was expected or a disaster movie, much less a Hollywood movie with a big budget. And this is coming from me, who has no expectations whatsoever of the movie (!) There was plenty of plot holes that I could list down, but since this is a big budgeted Hollywood movie, that is expected.

But I was more disappointed with John Cusack's performance in the movie, he seems almost lazy throughout and did not come out as believable as the reluctant hero-cum-doting father-cum-ex husband still in love with ex wife guy. In short his performance in the movie was below par as what is usually expected of him.

The other actors fare worse, although Woody Harrelson almost (almost...) saved the movie with his antics. He looked like he was having fun in an otherwise drab movie and I just wished he was on screen longer. At least that might have stifle more yawns out of me.

The action sequences were interrupted with scenes about family bonding, more so about the father and son relationship. One or two characters is okay, but all the main characters have that type of scenes, playing over and over again throughout the movie, interrupting what should have been a good action sequences put together. Well, when you think about it, the trailer is wayyyy better than the movie. The action sequences never stopped in the trailer. The guy that did the trailer must be applauded.

Then there's this whole end of the world thing. Gosh, I think we just got duped. I really thought that it's gonna be the movie that give us something to think about for our future, but it looks as if the movie makers just wimped out towards the end of the movie and decided not to destroy the world. After building up all that "world is going to end" crap and "we told you it's coming" sh*t in the previews, marketing and adverts, the movie just fell flat on the face. And at the end of the movie I really wish they would have done a better finale.

But, the graphics are good. I really applaud the Hollywood film makers for this. the graphics just blew me away...That's about all that's good in the movie.

The box office performance is quite good, so I doubt the film makers will care what the film critics or anyone who came out of the movie not liking the movie will say. I heard that they're developing a tv series based on the survivors' stories. And they would recoup back the millions that was invested in the movie. I just wish I could get back my RM10 from the cinema for a very poor movie...

Now, let's go back to YouTube to check out the trailer again...it's even more fun...:)

My flickr's most popular upload

2009-11-15T14:54:00.001+08:00

Che Yu | Photo Outing, originally uploaded by W.K.Azlan.

At the moment this picture has generated 40 views...the highest number so far among my uploads...very popular apparently among the flickr browsers... :)

It's true what Din Arshad said during the fotoInspirasi seminar I went to earlier this year: "pretty girls sell pictures"... ;)

Thanx Che Yu...:)

Islamic Monument | Replica

2009-11-14T00:12:00.002+08:00

Islamic Monument | Replica, originally uploaded by W.K.Azlan.

How do you travel around the world in 3 hours?

Try visiting the Taman Tamaddun Islam in Terengganu to see 21 Islamic Monuments around the world.:)

Since I haven't gotten around to my dream of travelling around the world just yet, this is as close as it can be for now. The replicas of the monuments really took my breath away (literally that is, the park is quite huge and it was a hot day when I went there). Some of the monument replicas houses theaters which showcases some historical artifacts and videos showing history of the buildings.

I've uploaded pictures that I took of some of the monuments, so come on down to my flickr and savour the beautiful captures that I took (IMHO that is...haha)

Sun Hunt 2009

2009-11-09T12:17:00.003+08:00

Just a little jot on the biggest hunt event of the year as I take a break from doing my appraisals today.

Just would like to say congratulations to our Macam2 Adaaaa team for a good job this year. We finished at 22nd place, winning ourselves a Samsung MP4 player worth RM299 each....Ok la, berbaloi gak...although we did miss out on our target: the flat screen tv...the mp4 also has a flat screen to watch videos, albeit on a much much smaller scale...hahahaha...

Overall, we had fun in the hunt...and that's what we aimed for in every hunt. No use going to lots of treasure hunts but did not enjoy ourselves, right? And this is the biggest event of the year...rugi kalau x enjoy.

A lil bit on the hunt itself: I think TOS made a marked improvement this year in terms of dispersing the teams throughout the hunt sectors. There were 270 plus teams (?) in the open category, so it was quite a challenge to handle all of us. But they did good, where they break us off into 2 sectors in leg 1 at the beginning of the hunt itself. We improved a little bit on time management, but still lost out some time due to a couple of wrong turns and the traffic. Oh, and don't forget the famous M2A4 moment at the beginning of each hunt: D'uh...? What was question 1 again? hehehe...took awhile for us to start our brains in the hunt...

Hope we will do better next year, and the hunts to come. There's a lot of encouragements from the regular hunters and some of the masters out there, we would like to express our thanks for them for believing in us. We are steadily (but slowly) improving ourselves in each hunt.

In 2007, we finished 88th; in 2008, we finished 42nd and this year we finished 22nd place...what does 2010 holds for us, I wonder? *winks*

For the full results of the hunt, check Michael Pang's blog here. Congratulations to all the winners!

Oh, and if the F1 1Malaysia team is still looking for a driver for their team, drop me an email and I'll give you the contact details for Aini Fazlin (this woman can drive fast!)...the car seat still has marks of Farid's fingers from him gripping the seats so hard(!)...hahahaha...

On to the next hunt!

Before I go to sleep...

2009-11-07T23:28:00.003+08:00

Let me just do a little update before I 'try' to go to sleep...am having problems sleeping lately,and it's still continuing...

Anyways, we went for the Family Hunt today, organized by Take a Break events... Not a fan of missions and challenges during hunts, but that's what's TaB is famous for. And given 4hours in total didn't help much with our time keeping, not that we are good time keepers to begin with...ahaha!

We did well in the 1st leg, scoring perfect points, although we did have that M2A4 moment,i.e. we started with a blur and we can't answer the 1st few questions in any hunt. We took a deep breath, and went around again to have a look, and lo and behold the answers are right in front of us. Although we thought that we have enough time for the hunt, we somehow found out that we did not have that much time for the 2nd leg. One of the missions took us out from the route of the hunt and at around 11am - 12pm on a Saturday, traffic is a killer. Which I hate actually, because treasure hunts always manages to bring us to places with high traffic and congested places...sigh...

In the end, we managed to finish 7th with a time penalty of 6 points, dropping 3 questions in the 2nd leg and er, some points in the missions...

Tomorrow's the big hunt, and everyone is speculating on who will be the top 3 in this year's open hunt. I do have my predictions, but I won't name the teams...let's just say that people should see how a team has performed for the year for a more accurate prediction; and a quick check of the team members' names will reveal some eligible masters are hunting in the open category and that will give you the top 3...*winks*

Yeah, yeah...the M2A4 team is in the favourites list also...outsiders je la...but we'll go for the win for sure...hey, aim for the stars,right? U might get the moon at least...or maybe the International Space Station...haha...

On to the next hunt!

Top Gear Treasure Hunt

2009-11-05T12:34:00.002+08:00

It was the first time that we are going for our “new configuration”, as DQ and I switch roles with her being the driver and me being the lookout together with Farid. My wifey remains as the navigator, as let's face it - she's the best multitasker among us. The starting point was at APD, Subang Jaya and it was a long hunt, 9.5 hours for us to reach Awana Kijal.

The most time consuming sector was the Bentong stretch where there were too many cars and lorries to count; I had a few close encounters with some lorries as I was looking for answers. No fault on their side or mine, I did stand out of the way from traffic, but the lorries just needed to “eat” into that space to avoid other vehicles strewn all along the road. And in that sector, we just lost track of time – big mistake. And to add injury to insult, we managed to overlook the answers to the questions…Billy the goat came to mind and being bad means literally bad…

Overall, though I would say that it was a good hunt, I managed to crack one of the “masters” questions virtually on my own, although this is after much prodding from my team mates: why? why? why? is always the correct question to ask when you’re cracking a question in a treasure hunt, and having a very inquisitive person as a team member (and wife) helps as well. I was a bit disappointed not to have cracked another similar question that requires the same technique, so it was a mixed feeling overall in retrospect. Must brush up more on that.

In the end, we ended up in 12th placing, the same position we did last year, albeit this year with no masters team around. Yes, there are a few master hunters in this hunt just “hiding” within the regulars, but still I thought we can do better.

Now on to the next hunt!

p/s: hope to post some pictures of our hunt later on...

In The Land of The Turtles...

2009-11-02T20:35:00.003+08:00

Yeps...still here...took extra leave to get my mind of work. Right after the grueling 9.5 hours Top Gear Treasure Hunt. I hope to post some pictures here soon just to share my experiences in the treasure hunt. How well did we do? Well, we ended up at the same position as last year's hunt, and this year there are no masters team...so, it has it's positive and negative sides of it. I wouldn't want to say much as I would like to concentrate on to the next hunt. (Just a nice way of hoping that no curse words will come out of my mouth! hahaha...)

Overall, we did have fun in the hunt, and we are continuing the fun in Terengganu...the land of the turtles!...which reminds me, haven't seen them turtles yet...

Pulau Ketam 2009 | Snapshots

2009-10-24T02:01:00.003+08:00

Pulau Ketam 2009 | Snapshots, originally uploaded by W.K.Azlan.

Finally, I've managed to upload shots that I took during the photo outing to Pulau Ketam in July (!). Yeah, it took awhile...but I thought better late than never...do come visit my flickr to see pretty awesome pictures (well, in my humble opinion...ahaks!) that I took...

The return to Treasure Hunts - Lexis Nexis

2009-10-24T01:13:00.004+08:00

It's been few and far between for my treasure hunt activities this year. As a team, we have been unable to be regularly involved in the hunting season this year, and I personally am going through a very hard time this year.

But as human, life goes on and we soldier on, and to get back on track (in treasure hunting sense), the Macam2 Adaaaa team will be joining the Lexis Nexis Treasure Hunt this Sunday. Yeay to us! Err...actually, the team did join an earlier hunt (KL Walk Hunt) but due to time limitation, I wasn't able to join in the fun (sorry, Mike!).

Anyways, today we went for the briefing for the Lexis Nexis hunt. And we did make the right choice to choose the LRT as the mode of transportation as it rained this evening. And when it rains, you know what happens to KL. Some of the teams got stuck in the traffic jam, and I saw Mike on our way out and according to him, he was stuck for an hour just to get to the place.

But for us we were happy we chose the LRT and add to that, we found out that Wisma Kraftangan was right beside the Masjid Jamek station, nuff said.

Here's what the t-shirt looks like:

Disclaimer: that's a XXL U.S. sized t-shirt, and yes...my wife is a bit on the small size side... ahaks, *winks*

As usual, tons of goodies were given with the briefing notes and hunting gear for each team, that's why I love TOS and the Lexis Nexis hunt...so many freebies...

The only thing left to do is to actually wake up for the hunt on Sunday, and hopefully we can answer the questions given.

Fingers crossed!

Being busy makes things easy...really?

2009-09-16T21:52:00.003+08:00

Yea yea yea...I haven't updated my blog for a long time. I haven't been a regular blogger for quite some time. I haven't been "regular" in a lot of things lately. My treasure hunting activities is almost non existent. Haven't practiced my photography and editing for quite some time too. Haven't been to the gym for so long, I've put on weight...a lot of weight actually. Not a regular at most things lately.

Basically, it's my new job that's taking up my time. Not at a new place, the same work place but different tasks. Previously I was working shifts, now I'm on "normal" hours. I got my weekends back (yeay to me!). Unfortunately though it comes with lot of heavy workload. Basically what we do (me and the team) is servicing the customers. What was supposed to be "you guys just handle operations" now turns to a whole different ball game. Not only do we have to handle operations issues, we now handle commercial issues, finance, waivals, claims and whatever comes into our view. Jack of all trades, master of none...

I don't mind the challenge actually, I welcome challenges in my working life because it keeps me going. And I actually learn a lot of things as I go along doing my new tasks. What I have issues with is the fact that everyone seems to dump everything on us and washed their hands off it. That really rubs me the wrong way. In one instance, I even got a guy who giggled viciously as he dumped a job that was supposed to be his duty, with the passing remark of : "eh, u kan account champion for this customer kannnn...." eh eh, mat...sukanye hati kau...

I don't complain a lot at work, I would rather have my actions speak on behalf of me. I just put my head down, and do the job at hand. Whatever needs to be done, I will do, no matter how difficult it is. It's not about me, it's about the team, the company as a whole. I wouldn't want to be the weak link in the chain.

And hey, if you can work shift for years and years, you can do anything... :)

Back to reality...

2009-08-01T13:10:00.000+08:00

Well, we're back in Malaysia after 4 days of holiday in Bali. Hopefully in several future posts, I'll update on where we went to around the island. It was a wonderful experience for me to just have some time off from a difficult and challenging year so far. And to do that with a person I'm in love with meant so much more. I wish we could spend more time together like this, and hopefully in the future we will.

Anyways, on the way back home, we met the doctor that gave us the flu jab before we went to Bali. He was on the same flight and was surprised that we remembered him. He had brought his young family for holiday and I think he felt the same way we did at the end of the holiday. He summed up things pretty accurately :"well, now it's back to reality..."

We're in Bali...!

2009-07-26T20:21:00.000+08:00

Alhamdullilah...we made it to Bali,safe and sound... We're staying at Legian Village Hotel, one of the cheap hotels we found on the internet. Looks okay from the outside, and the live band is playing some decent music at the moment.

If you must know, we're still waiting to get to our rooms...25 minutes after we checked in...oh dear, another delay? Oh gosh, hurry up please...we're hungry and in need of food!

Leaving for Bali...

2009-07-26T15:36:00.000+08:00

We're leaving for Bali for a lil bit of vacation. After almost a year of planning and waiting,we're finally going! Haha... As the flight is delayed, as expected (u can't expect much from AirAsia), I thought I might jot down a few things while waiting.
LCCT has improved a lot, I think Malaysia Airports has done a good job at sprucing up this low cost terminal. Despite the many people around, I don't feel cramped or crowded by them. There's a lot of duty free shops, so there's always something that will catch my wife's eyes...hahaha...
The only thing AirAsia needs to improve on their side, for now at least, are their flights' punctuality. The otherwise good service from seemingly endless friendly people on their team is being ruined by flight delays. I don't have experience in managing flights, but I do know enough that something should be done to reduce the delays, and customers do not appreciate time wasted waiting in the boarding lounge.
Otherwise, they might want to change their tagline to "every flight is delayed"...

A tribute to my Iron Lady

2009-07-20T11:17:00.003+08:00

My mum was born and raised in a poor family. She used to sell vegetables at the roadside to help the family with some money. She lost her parents at an early age. Throughout her life, she has faced challenges upon challenges, but doesn’t seem to faze her at all. She struggled to bring us up as a family. Among us all, I believe she’s the strongest.

Throughout her life she made a lot of sacrifices; more so for her own family, and her children. And raising one of the naughtiest boy as her son, (that’s me by the way), really tested her resolve. There’s nothing mischievous left undone after I’m through with it, but Mak was always so patient with me.

In her career, she made sacrifices to follow my father’s footsteps around Malaysia, as he was posted to various jobs in the government. The last posting was in Sarawak, where Mak decided it best to follow my dad and look after my younger sister, resulting in her relinquishing a plush post in the ministry.

When she was diagnosed with cancer 7 years ago, she virtually took it in her stride, looking for treatments wherever possible, whenever available, and whatever the options. Modern medicine, herbal medication, you name it, she tried it. There was no stone left unturned.

In all of this, her mind is always focused on the family and not herself. Her determination to battle the cancer was not because she wants it for herself. She wants it so that she is well enough to take care of the family and my dad. She even took “time off” from her treatment a few years back, so that my dad could go ahead with his heart surgery. She pulled me aside this one day, and told me: “don’t tell Ayah, I want him to go for the surgery so that he can be healthy again…my cancer…well, it’s still there…”

Every single day, she would tell us to take care of each other, take care of the family, and take care of my dad. We are a close knit family, and she’s the glue that kept us together.

Her courage in the face of diversity is an inspiration to me in my own life. Despite all her health problems, she would always find the strength to give a piece of advice and encouragement daily to her naughtiest child. Her love, tenderness and warm spirit touched not only me, but others around her as well.

My mum…Mak…Datin Hajjah Kamariah Jalil passed away on 25th June 2009. After a long, brave battle against cancer, she is finally at peace, God bless her soul.

She is my Iron Lady…and I miss her…so very much…

It has been that long...hasn't it...?

2009-07-20T10:36:00.003+08:00

I've finally logged into my blog...It has been quite some time since the last I updated anything on this pages...I would probably write more...soon, I just need to get my head and heart right first. I'll have something to update soon...if not later...

What a day Monday...

2009-04-22T03:29:00.012+08:00

Well, there I was...stuck in KESAS, KM21.7E. The car overheated, and I had to stop to let the engine cool and call for help. Actually it's half of the story, for others it didn't seem that serious when I talked about it. I'll just let you know some of the things that happened:

I was coming off from midnight shift, which ended at 0800hrs, it was a tiring night actually. I attended a meeting at 0830hrs, which lasted till 1000hrs, and it was tough enough keeping myself awake in the meeting and focused on the matters discussed. As I reached the parking lot at 1030hrs, I called my wife to say that I'm going back. She asked me to have some breakfast first, to which I replied a resounding "no", thinking that it might be better to eat after I reach home. My reasoning is that on a full stomach, I might been even more sleepier than I was at the moment and it'll be even more dangerous to drive.

Off I went at about 1040hrs, hoping to find some grub before I hit the bed. During the 1st few minutes of the drive I noticed that the aircond wasn't cool, it got hotter by the minute, to which I thought to myself: "must send to the workshop again since they did ask me to check if the aircond is working properly or not"...

By the time I realize that it wasn't the aircond, the temperature gauge was showing the needle had reached the red-mark - cue squeezing in between 2 lorries to get to the road shoulders (!). Thank God the driver of the lorry behind me was driving slow and gave me enough room to squeeze in front of him.

Phew! Made it, switched off the engine just in time, and a quick check before I popped the hood ensured that there was no smoke coming out from the engine. In between calls to my wife and checking the engine, I noticed that the coolant had dried, there's a lot of coolant outside the bottle and on the engine, and worse shock of all was the hose that connects the radiator to the engine had came off - cue horror gasp (!)

I poured whatever water that I have in the car into the radiator and drove off, with the hope that I can reach the next gas station to top up the coolant. I barely made it before the temperature started rising again. By this time it was so hot I can feel my skin burning and I wished that I had something to eat before I drove. Anyways, upon reaching the car back I realized that I didn't remember to grab something off the shelf at the gas station to eat. Arrrgghh, to cross back to the station would be suicidal I thought, as the number of lorries and cars are rising by the minute. I decided to top up the coolant and water, re-check the hose again and drove off.

It wasn't that far when the temperature rose again, when I checked some of the coolant is leaking out of the hose, the hose is either defective or is not properly tighten. I think there was a couple more stop-start to my journey before I finally reached the KESAS SOS phone. After calling them, I decided to take a rest while waiting for the peronda to arrive. It didn't take long for them to arrive, about 15 minutes but the advise they gave was the same thing I did before: top up your water, stop if the temperature goes up and get to the nearest workshop. They helped with the hose, they tried to tighten the screws, but none of the tools in the car fit, and I wonder why they don't have tools of their own.

By this time I think the combination of the heat, the tiredness and the dehydration really got to me, I don't think I have the energy to ask for anymore advise or ask stupid annoying questions. Off I drove for a few more stop-start drives until I reached my house and just collapsed in exhaustion.

It'll take another week for the car to be repaired; after this I think I must do some mandi bunga for the car lah...aiyo, so many problems (and I do believe it's because of that stupid monkey!)

Ah...The 1st shift...

2009-04-18T04:50:00.003+08:00

It's 4.30am Saturday.

Yes, you read that right. I'm at the port, on duty for the most hated shift of all : the 1st shift as it's known officially, the midnight shift as it's called by most people or the graveyard shift as it's known overseas. I call it the zombie shift sometimes, as that's how I feel during the shift - I'm not operating at my fullest capacity and I'm half asleep most of the time. Heh...

I don't have the luxury of sleeping in my own bed for the next 5 nights. Added to that, it's the weekends, so I don't get the chance to go out or spend much time with my wife or family since I would be unconscious when I get back home, knocked out from the energy-sapping shift.

During these next 5 working days, I'll be awake at night, and sleep during the day... Eh, sounds more like a vampire la...

fotoINSPIRASI: Summary

2009-04-12T09:00:00.005+08:00

Well, I had a great time listening to the speakers. It's just an inspiring moment just listening to them sharing their experiences, and some tips and tricks of the trade. Here's some summary of what I got from the speakers.

Din Arshad (Advertising) - Communication and Direction
You want your shot? Talk to your subject. Even the most experienced models would not know what you think unless you tell them. Knowing what you want for your shot is one of the most important thing for a photographer. Heh... (note to self: talk more weih...)

Shamsarin Shamsudin (Photojournalism) - 5W and 1H
What, When, Where, Who, Why and How...know what is the story behind the pictures you're taking. And be prepared with all the necessary gears, even if it doesn't seem remotely important - e.g. between getting yourself or the camera wet, what would be your decision? Heh... (note to self: love thy camera, dude...)

Bustmamam Mokhtar (Fashion) : Lights!
Get your lights right, you want to show the beauty of your shots, you have to light up your subjects. Although some art directors like a shadow here and there, but lighting is the most important thing to get right before you click to take the picture. (note to self: read more on lights!)

Ikram Ismail (Wedding) : Get that moment
You have got to capture that moment. People spend thousands on the wedding, and it's a precious moment. Your job is to capture it and immortalize it forever. Do that right, and your clients will not be only be grateful to you, they don't mind paying you thousands as well! (kehkehkeh...) And when all else fails...go B&W! (note to self: practice, practice, practice)

fotoINSPIRASI: The End...

2009-04-11T17:27:00.002+08:00

It's the end...the highest number of questions came in the session with Ikram Ismail,one of the top wedding photographers. I think it's the most anticipated session among the photographers,as some have done wedding photographies before. Getting tips from one of the best is priceless.

fotoINSPIRASI : Lights please...

2009-04-11T15:41:00.002+08:00

Get your lights right...Bustamam Mokhtar went all out to show us what it takes to make it in fashion photography. Not only did he set up a mini studio up there on stage, we get to see him in action shooting a model...3 times. Just watching him set up everything and direct the shots was amazing...I was just blown away...and that's just a simple set up!

fotoINSPIRASI: Lunch...

2009-04-11T13:34:00.002+08:00

Burp...good lunch, good company too. Shamshahrin Shamsudin presented his side of photography before lunch, one of the most intriguing for me, i.e. photojournalism. His experiences excites me even more and I think this is one branch of photography I would like to explore.

fotoINSPIRASI - Break!

2009-04-11T11:05:00.002+08:00

Break time...queuing up for tea break. Din Arshad started things off. His pix are excellent...meleleh. He even had time to do a quickie photoshoot to show us how things are done...excellent! And the model is nice looking too...hehehe.

fotoINSPIRASI

2009-04-11T08:36:00.002+08:00

I made it...! After weeks of waiting with anxious anticipation, i'm finally here at this event. My 2nd event with fototeacher and the biggest so far. I was supposed to have my "partner in crime" with me, but alas today i'm flying solo. First impressions? Lots of young kids...everyone calling me 'abang'..1 even mistook me for a facilitator...

eheh,i feel my age catching up...

Friday Prayers

2009-04-10T14:09:00.003+08:00

One of the good things about working here is that there's a surau located at the tower block for us. With the surau certified by JAIS to hold Friday prayers, it's a blessing for the Muslim staff here. We used to drive to the pulau for Friday prayers, which is about 10mins away (the journey to and from takes up 20 minutes of your time...). Not an issue for the normal hours people, but for operations staff is another matter where time is of the essence. Now, it only takes a minute or 2 to reach the surau for Friday prayers. Not that much reason to ponteng anymore... Hehehe.

New uniforms

2009-04-10T11:15:00.002+08:00

Finally...new uniforms. Fortunately, the new uniforms is the same design with the ones I have now. So in total I have 6 shirts which would be easier for me to change and wash it throughout the week. We even got 3 pants this time, as compared to 2 pants previously. The quality looks good too.

My only complaint? My full name emblazoned on the chest. Panjangnye nama...Heh...

The wait at the service centre

2009-04-09T14:59:00.002+08:00

Finally managed to find time to send my brother's car for servicing. Actually calling the Santa Fe a car doesn't do it justice. The more correct term is SUV, sports utility vehicle. Drove it to port for this week, and had lots of fun with it. It's quite fast for a big vehicle; and other cars, even lorries move out of the way to stay clear from it. Hee...sekali sekala got respect from the lorries quite fun also. Heh.

I don't think I could afford one myself,though. Especially not at the current economic climate. The advise I got from most people is to live within my means. Watch what is being spent on, buy what I need, and less on what I want. So since I don't need an SUV...yet, I'm not buying one. But I do want to add to my collection of camera gears...hmm, must check my duit tabung then. Hehehe.

Back home in BP

2009-04-09T01:08:00.002+08:00

Here's the street where my house is. Most of my neighbours are asleep at this time.Only a few of us keeps an odd hours working life, so it does get lonely when you don't get to see the neighbours around. I've to park a bit far away from the house this week; as you can see the road is fully occupied on both sides. Plus, I'm driving my brother's Santa Fe, while he tours Europe for 2 weeks, so there's no place left to park beside my house. The Santa Fe is the biggest car I've driven so far by the way, so it's quite a challenge judging the area around the parking spaces, heh...

Looking at the cars lining up the road, I don't think it can be squeezed inside there anymore, do you? Hehe...

The babies Chronicles:Aragorn & Gimly

2009-04-08T22:34:00.004+08:00

A while back, I promised to post some pix of the new babies of Horny. There was a delay because:
1. I was still recovering from Shaggy's MIA that looking at another kitten's pix was torture.
2. One of the babies died, probably because one of the adult cats killed him.
3. Horny ran away with the 2 remaining babies,only to pop up behind the house.

After much thought, I decided to let them roam free at the back and give them food when they're hungry. The babies really like that small carpet...it's where they fall asleep when they're full (or as we always say:kenyang kebuntat!).

More to come...

Mobile blogging...

2009-04-08T22:17:00.004+08:00

This is sent from my Sony Ericsson hp...I'm just giving this mobile blogging a try to see if this work.Didn't work at first with my other phone,though...ishk.Thinx would work better with a qwerty keypad handphone (yes,Linda...Ur phone has qwerty keypad).Since I don't have one, I'll make use of what i have lah.Hehe.Fingers crossed...

Weight Watch

2009-04-06T21:37:00.004+08:00

I've been struggling with my weight for the last...hmmm, let me see now - I'm 33 this year, so it would be 13 years...yeps, been having weight issues for the past 13 years. Actually it's not my weight I'm worried about, it's just the flabs all over my body that's a wee bit disturbing to me. I just feel uncomfortable with the "spare tire" I'm carrying around my waist. Heh.

I've been generally a wee bit on the skinny side throughout my childhood, putting on a little bit of weight when I finished school but eventually losing it when I entered college. I'm skinny with not much muscle definition though, so people usually consider me a lightweight. When I went to UK for studies, the 1st year there I lost even more weight which alarmed my mother when she saw me during a visit. It's nothing serious, I just don't know how to cook actually. Heh. A diet of instant noodles would do that for you. Hah!

In the 2nd year, after some collection of recipes from my mum and a crash course in basic cooking from my brother, I managed to honed my cooking skills. Which basically involves throwing everything into the pan and fry it to perfection! Hehe. If I have people over, I would either cook spaghetti or roasted chicken (or chicken bake as my soon to be wife would call it). And as you guessed it, there's a lot of cheese involved in those spaghetti meals and a lot of meaty portions in them chicken bake. I ballooned to double my size in year 1, that when I landed back in Malaysia, my mum couldn't recognize me! Hehe.

Over the years, I've tried to lose weight, made a lot of resolutions; tried a lot of methods: jogging, lifting weights, kickboxing. My weight would yo-yo between these periods, sometimes I would lose weight only to put it on a few months later. I did however, manage to lose enough weight so that I could look good during my wedding. :-) Marriage has been blessed in a sense that my meals are taken care of by my wife (thanx ayang!) and for me, everything she cooked is delicious! So my weight again ballooned up to uncontrollable proportions. Shirts and pants kept on being too small for me, so I kept on buying bigger clothes. The last straw was the fact that I tore my favorite jeans because it couldn't handle my size and the punishment I meted out to the fabric.

I'm lucky in a sense that a gym was opened at the workplace by this time, and hence started my journey to lose weight and basically try to maintain a healthy looking body. It was a tough challenge. The most successful period so far was between August 2007 to March 2008. In March 2007, I weighed my heaviest (officially), which is 98kg (216pounds). I do believe that I've weighed significantly more than this, but this is the official weight recorded by the gym trainer. Throughout the time, I made a pact with myself that I would try to maintain my attendance to the gym, control what I eat and basically just live a healthy lifestyle. It wasn't easy though, nothing happened for the first few months. So, the trainer suggested lowering my rice intake, to lower my carbs intake. Within 2 months of doing that, while maintaining my gym attendance, I managed to lose 20kg (44pounds). My lowest recorded weight so far is 78kg (171pounds), which is still a few steps away from my ideal weight.

But I lost the rhythm, I'm not so sure why, but my schedule just went haywire mid 2008. What was supposed to be the next step to build a better body, became a "war" to just keep myself motivated to come to the gym. I've put on weight, lose it again, and put it back on throughout this time, up until now. I now weighed 85kg (187pounds) and have been maintaining that for the last few months. I must have hit a plateau, as the trainer predicted, and I have to find a way to keep myself motivated to come to the gym. I don't think my greatest challenge is coming to the gym, since it's located at my workplace and since I spent most of the time here, I'm sure I can drop by the gym anytime during weekdays. The greatest challenge so far has been to keep eating healthy food! And it's so hard to find those here (yeah, yeah...excuses, excuses) but I'm determined to find a way to eat healthy!

People wonder why I go to the gym regularly...it's not because I want to become a body builder, I just want a healthier lean body. And to feel comfortable with it, and not to be out of breath when climbing up the stairs (!). I feel uncomfortable with the flabbiness, and I need to burn it off. My target is not for everyone; as long as you feel comfortable with your body, there's nothing other people can say otherwise. I don't feel comfortable with my body, so I need to do something about it.

Let's hope for the best, and keep your fingers crossed!

Pekerjaan anda yang sepatutnya quiz

2009-04-05T16:41:00.004+08:00

I took a funny quiz on facebook the other day...funny in a sense that within 8 questions, the quiz was supposed to give the answer to our dreams. "Pekerjaan anda yang sepatutnya" quiz gave me an even funnier answer: Pelakon (actor). I laughed out hard when it came out. But the description of why the result came out gave me room for thought:

Pelakon: Anda memang suka berlakon.Kawan kawan memang tak tahu watak sebenar anda kerana anda kerap berubah mengikut situasi.kadang kadang anda boleh ketawa tapi dalam masa yang sama menangis.

Roughly translated, it said "Actor: You like to act. Your friends do not know your actual/real character as you change with situations. Sometimes you laugh but at the same time you cry."

When I told my wife about the result, her reply was : "doesn't that sums you up perfectly, ayang?" I scratched my head at that reply...wasn't so sure I wanted to believe a simple quiz and vague answer. But looking back at the answer...yes, it does sum me up a bit. Not the actor part (!), just the parts where it said I change my character with the situations. And the part where it said I laugh but cry at the same time.

I've got a broad range of friends, from all sorts of different backgrounds, which sometimes astound people. I have friends which are polar opposites of each other, could never mix with each other but friends with me. There are times I'm the messenger or middle man between these polar opposites (!). It's hard to explain it, but I guess I'm used to adapt myself to different sorts of people and I am a very, very tolerant person. :-)

Yes, I do hide my feelings. What I am thinking, what's in my mind, my thoughts I put it out most of the time. But my feelings, I hide it underneath. There's no specific reasons, I've never thought about it so much, but my best guess is because of my upbringing. For me, I feel that even when I have problems, no matter how big or small, my problems are insignificant or trivial as compared to others. No matter how I feel, I believe that my feelings are not as important as the feelings of others, which I try very much not to hurt. I know I hurt people's feelings sometimes (I'm not perfect), but I give it a try...always.

And hence, the "mask"...the acting part. I believe people enjoy my company because I make them feel good, and that makes them happy. No matter how down or unhappy I am, I would give it my best to keep others happy. In a sense, I guess, there's that hope in me that when other people are happy, those happiness will rub on me and I could feel the happiness and lessen those negative feelings that I would have. Hey, it's like what they say about karma - what goes around, comes around. Or as they say about the Golden Rule: "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you."

Cheerios!

Dugaan...

2009-04-02T00:51:00.006+08:00

It hasn't been the best of times these past few weeks. Bad news keep cropping up every now and then. Let me just list some of it, so that I can at least lessen the burden in my head and heart by writing it down.

No.1 - My mum & cancer
FYI, my mum has been battling cancer for the past 6 years plus, going in and out of the hospital for as long as that time. Surgeries, biopsies, radiotherapy, chemotherapy etc...I've lost count of how many of these treatments she's gone through for all those years, there were so many (!). And don't start with the amount of medication that she's taking - every time she comes back from the hospital it seems as if she had just gone grocery shopping with the amount of plastic bags she brought back.

The 1st week of March, I brought her to the eye hospital after she complained that she can't see certain things at certain angle. The doctor said there's nothing wrong with the eye, and must have been something wrong with the nerves in her brain. I fear for the worse. She was scheduled to see the oncologist 2 weeks after that and she brought the eye doctor's report with her. They did a brain scan on her, and found some cancer cells at the base of her brain. Cue emergency radiotherapy on the brain.

After 5 rounds of the emergency treatment, she's now back home, to return for another scan in about 3 weeks time. She came back with bags of medication, of which there was some confusion as to what was to be taken when, because there were too many. On top of all that, for the past few months she lost most of her weight since she has little to no appetite. She weighs about 35kg now. That's less than half of my weight (!)

No.2 My wife & chicken pox
Yeps...you read that right. My wife contracted chicken pox a few days before my mum was admitted to hospital. She never had it before when she was a child, so it was only a matter of time that she's gonna get it. It just happened to be on the week my mum was hospitalized. My in laws who happened to be in Putrajaya that weekend decided to bring my wife back for treatment and recovery, which I am thankful. If she had stayed with me in Shah Alam, no one would be able to take care of her if I go to work. It's been almost 2 weeks that she's away from me.

I miss her. A whole lot.

No. 3 The Neo & the suicidal monkey
Okay...here's where it gets very frustrating...on my way to a photography assignment (my very first one)...I hit a monkey. With my wife's Neo. Adehs.

Here's the summary: I was on my way back from Melaka, after visiting my wife (there, up there...I told you kan she got chicken pox) and heading towards Cyberjaya. I took the Elite highway since it's the safest route I know. Safest meaning that's the junction I know I won't get lost. Heh. Anyways, after the Cyberjaya toll gate, as I was celebrating the fact that I'm still keeping a good time schedule that day, I saw a monkey jumping on the divider. As soon as I thought "hey, monkey!"...he jumped in front of the car. In a split second I swerved, narrowly missing the divider (I was driving on the right lane) and heard a loud thump in front of the car. As I looked in the rear view mirror, I saw the lifeless body of the monkey rolling along the road.

When I came down to check the car, the bumper was badly damaged (yes, Proton engineers take note: them bumpers ain't that strong - buck up your ideas). I can hear something leaking, but as I checked it was not the radiator and I suspected that it was the A/C. Figuring that I couldn't do anything about it until later in the day, I continued on my journey to my assignment, shaken but still managed to get a few shots.

And for those wondering how much the repair costs...let's just say I won't be adding to my camera gears' collection anytime soon.

Summary
Despite all that, I've managed to keep myself busy. Work is a pain in the ass, though. But photography is what's keeping me sane these days. At least I've got the chance to go to one of my first photography workshop. Short but fun. I hope I can go to more of these, it's not just the facilitator that's good, the other participants are not that bad too.

I've been shuttling myself between going to work and the workshop; visiting my mum in hospital and my wife in Melaka; house in Shah Alam and parents' house in PJ for the last week or so. It has been a busy week but a lonely one at that since I'm used to having my wife around with me. And I need her with me, now than ever.

My mum has always been strong. She's the strongest person I know, the strongest amongst us. The doctors are still amazed at how she is able to stave off the cancer for this long despite it's mutations and spread throughout her body. It has been a long and courageous battle, and only God knows how painful it is for her. It may have weaken her body, but not her spirit. At least, until now... As I was having dinner with her on Tuesday night, she turned to me, looked me in the eyes and said " I don't think I have 3 weeks..."

My heart sank.

Photoshoot: Putrajaya - Taman Botani

2009-03-24T14:55:00.007+08:00

My very first photo shoot with a model! Well, not really a professional model, since this is her first time and have never modeled before. This is also the first time I went out with my friends for a model photo shoot, and the first time I have someone other than my wife to be the model. It was nerve wrecking since I have no idea what to do actually. Thank God we have someone to guide us, and he was very patient in showing us what to do.

One of the major things I learned was that the photographer has to know what he/she wants. i.e. settings, props, backgrounds, composition, and most importantly what type of poses. Well, you can't just have the model stand there like the Buckingham Palace guards, can you? It'll look like you're shooting a mannequin.

For props, I borrowed one of my boys' guitar...gitar kapok...as they called it, and which they reluctantly lend it to me. "Tak nak gitar elektrik ke, bang Wan? Gitar ni dah lama..." Yes, there were spider cobwebs on it (which is partly my fault since I forgot to clean it up a bit) and 2 very cute lil stickers on one end...hehe. The other prop, was (proud to say this) my red Kurnia Insurans umbrella. Well, they did only say: "bring a red umbrella!"...and that's the only red one I have...heh.

The model is Linda's (thanx Linda!) sister in law: Che Yu. She got into the groove of things pretty quickly despite the fact that she's never modeled before and basically is not familiar with the other photographers including myself (with the exception of Linda, obviously). It helps that she's patient with us struggling around (well, we did roll around on the ground to get some of the shots, which made her laugh). After a while, I too had Che Yu doing some poses that was in my head, which must have worked at some point...we did get the shots, yes? Jay Manuel - eat your heart out... :p

I love every minute of it, and I want to do more shoots. Practice, practice, practice.

These are some of my favorite pictures from the photo shoot:

Check out more in my flickr...

3rd Shift - 4th Day...

2009-03-18T22:25:00.003+08:00

The slowest, felt the longest, but less stressful of the shift among the other shifts. The 3rd shift starts from 1600 hours (4pm) and ends at 0001 hours (midnight). I believe that I feel this is the longest shift because of the fact that I started the shift during daylight (when the sun is still up), and ends it in darkness (when night falls). It's just the mind playing tricks actually since it's still 8 hours shift that we're working in.

However, in truth we do spend longer hours than the stipulated 8 hour shift. There's still the take-over of duties that needs to be done. And we need to be ready for the work ahead of the start of the shift, so all the vital information needs to be handed over to the incoming shift. For most of the operation staff, we are here an hour before shift starts at the very least. Reason why is that after parking our vehicles outside the terminal, we have to take the shuttle bus into the terminal. As buses schedule go, no matter what the rectification to the timing they did, there's always a waiting time for the bus to come. It's a 5-10 minutes ride from the bus stop to the marshaling center, where all the operations staff get down. But the waiting time adds to this.

For the guys that work in the control tower, like me (!), we have to take another shuttle to go to the other end of the terminal. And hence, more waiting time. Due to the lesser amount of people travelling to the control tower, they've provided us with either a Toyota Hiace van or a lorry (lori ikan as i call it...heh). Going back is the same thing, in reverse. So there's a lot of waiting time for the travelling to and from the bus stops. And yeah, it's a big company but nothing we do here is that glamorous...hahaha...but the company is a vital part in the country's economy, so at least I know I'm doing my part to serve the country and it's economy, albeit with a private company.

One thing good about this shift (yes, there's always a positive thing here) is that within an hour plus of the start of the shift, most of the normal hours people which include the HOS, HOD and senior managers would be going back home. So less meetings, phone calls and emails from them for me to answer. Although for some of them that have Blackberry in hand, they still send emails about work from home. Talk about working hard, eh!

The thing I hate most about this shift is that I don't get to "see" my wife during the week. It's either she's asleep after I get back, or I'm too groggy to send her off to work when she wakes up at 6am. And she misses me a lot, because we love spending time together talking about random stuff, reading newspaper and just channel surfing on the t.v. when we're at home.

Arrrggghh...must change profession lah!

1st Shift : End of the week

2009-03-13T07:25:00.004+08:00

As I write this, I'm preparing to go back home from office. As other "normal" people out there is only starting their day, my day is ending. For today at least, it's the end of a very long week - as this has been the 5 days of working midnight shift. Or as we call it here the 1st shift, but better known for other people as the graveyard shift.

This shift is one of the things I hate about working shifts (yes, there are some benefits - but let's talk about the negative first, I need to let out some pent-up aggression/frustration for a bit). During what is supposed to be the time when human beings sleep, I work and during the time when people work, I sleep. And despite telling my friends that trying to get some rest and sleep during the day is not the same as sleeping at night, majority of them do not understand.

During the 1st shift, personally I think we operate at about 50% of our normal capacity. At least I do. I just can't think straight most of the time. Most of what I do during this shift are automatic, meaning I operate at a subconscious (did I spell that right?) level, semi-conscious would be more exact...hahaha. Most of the things that we do are repeated, albeit on different days, times, different vessels, situations. All of this automatic things that I do comes from years of experience and training, and mostly because it's already ingrained in the back of my mind, hence the sub/semi conscious level of operating.

The usual challenge that all shift workers have to face during this is sleepiness. I'm glad actually that I work basically in the office - with a little bit of out-field work throw in here and there; because the most challenging job a person face during this time is operating an equipment. And yes, I'm working right smack in the middle of it, which is quite dangerous. And no, I don't tell either my parents or my wife about the dangers of working in a port. As far as my mum is concerned, I work safely in an office faraway from all those big equipments. I'll post some pictures later to give you an idea of where I work, if I can find where I put those pix...hahaha.

And no, we can't sleep during the shift. If we do, we would be given show-cause letter as it amounts to sleeping on duty. Those times you guys take a nap during lunch time? We don't have that, we have to stay awake no matter what. It's an even bigger challenge for the managers like myself, as I can't be caught sleeping - how am I going to manage the guys and show a good example, if I can't maintain my own discipline?

However, there are times when some guys do fall asleep, they just can't keep their eyes open. We have people falling asleep standing or sitting, even while doing work or talking to each other. So there are several poses that I found quite funny while managing my guys. One of it is dozing off in front of the computer while doing your work - one hand is on the keyboard, the other is on the mouse. From the back it looks like you're working, but in reality you're out! And you don't even realize you've dozed off until someone pokes you...hahaha...

I'm just rambling on at the end there, might as well stop here. Okay, until next time...Adios!

Hey, I'm back...!

2009-03-11T03:51:00.006+08:00

It's been over a month since my last post, eh? Might as well put a few words in...otherwise all these inner thoughts will really make my head explode. A lot of things have been happening over the past 4 weeks:

1. Shaggy didn't turn up, so we said our goodbyes to the lil dude in our own way;

2. My wife went for treatment, and this has knock her off her feet for a few weeks...what treatment? Fertility - for those who don't know, we have been trying to have a baby of our own for the last 7 years. For those who still don't know yet - fertility treatment is biased, usually it's the women who has to go through all those poking, medication and injection. Usually the men have to sit down, wait and scratch our heads thinking of what we should do next. As for me, after seeking advice from the doctors; I have taken and am still taking some herbal, and some modern medication to help with the treatment - I just hate sitting around and doing nothing.

3. Treasure hunting activities on hold - unofficially, until at least my wife gets back on her feet. With her down, our treasure hunting team is 50% "injured" - I'm not sure what to do until I know what's what in the next week or so;

4. Shaggy's mum is prodcutive - we may have lost him, but gained 3 new lil kittens. I'll post some pix soon - I just have to figure out what to do with them, I've banned my wife from handling them so she watches them from far - but they are just too small to be left alone without supervision. For those who don't know, the mother is a "hot-babe" cat - always with a boyfriend around so she tends to leave the lil kittens alone. Adoi.

I'll be back. Hopefully soon.

Chronicles of Shaggy...M.I.A.

2009-02-09T09:08:00.007+08:00

I wish I had some good news...and I've actually waited a few days just to be sure. But alas, no good news and I am sure. Shaggy's gone. The lil dude went out some time during Tuesday night, and never came back.

For my wife, it was heartbreaking. She loved the lil dude so much, she cried for days praying that he comes back, at the very least be safe and have food to eat out there. I could still feel the tears dropping on my arms as she wept for the lil dude. For me, I wished I hadn't made the decision to give him a chance to venture outside. He had so much fun running around that our house is too small for him. So, I decided to let him out once in awhile. On that fateful night he went out, and didn't come back.

My colleagues and staff had several theories when I told them this, the worse I won't mentioned but the most hopeful (but heartbreaking) is that someone found Shaggy so cute that they just could not resist to cat-nap him. If that is the case, my hope is that they will take care and love him as much as we do.

I've looked everywhere around the park and around the area at our neighbourhood, but there's no sign of him. My wife searched high and low for him as well, but the only thing we agreed on was that all the other known neighbourhood cats are around, but there's no Shaggy.

I like to write more on this, but I feel tears coming out from my eyes. He touched everyone's hearts with his antics, more so my wife who he likes to play around with. As for me, well...he'll always be that lil wet kitten who yelled at me when I was saving him from the brink of death...

Shaggy, we miss you...

At the movies - REC

2009-01-20T11:40:00.008+08:00

My wife and I love the movies, ever since we knew each other - that's the main thing for us to do whenever we go out. "What's new at the movies?" would always be the question whenever we go out. Usually it'll be a Hollywood movie, with the action oriented movies the choice and only once or twice did we go and see a romantic/chick flick movie. My wife and I would always try to make a choice that we agree on, and most of the time since we have the same taste in movies, we would pick a movie we both agree on.

A few days back, however we went against the odds and went to catch the movie REC. Now, REC is a Spanish movie. Neither one of us (including DQ & Farid) knew Spanish, but I've read the reviews on the movie, which was generally positive and was curious about why the movie was a success that it is. For your information, REC was remade into a Hollywood movie titled Quarantine. Since we missed Quarantine, added to it the sense of curiosity and adventure (we've never seen a Spanish language movie), we went ahead and chose the movie.

Let me just clarify here, that I'm a fan of horror movies, but I'm scared to watch it alone. I would usually hide behind my wife whenever we see one (okay, not so manly...but I always assume that my wife is braver than me, hehe...), but could never get enough of being spooked by one. REC could become one of the best horror movies I've seen in my lifetime (some of the other good ones that still gives me the chills are Exorcist, Poltergeist and Ju-On, to name a few).

REC started very "innocently", the calm before the storm so to speak. The 1st 10-12 minutes of the movie is only the introduction of the characters: the reporter (Angela), the cameraman (Pablo), the firefighters, and the rest of the cast. The movie is shot "television" style, to portray the television show aspect that the reporter is presenting. With the shaky camera style in place, we also have a touch of realism in the movie.

When the sh*t hit the roof, at first it looks as if it's the usual normal zombie movie, people get infected - infected people bite people - people bitten become infected. All very "normal" of a horror movie, lots of screaming, lots of blood, lots of people shouting to each other - people get trapped & the survival instinct kicks in. All "normal" stuff. But there's a turning point which scared the pants off me. I'm not gonna reveal which part, because it still gives me the chills. You guys can check the movie itself, and I bet there's plenty of reviews out there already. But the way the creators of the movie kept the suspense at the highest level possible makes you want even more. Okay, I have to admit that I hid part of my face underneath my wife's pashmina (as i said: not so manly attribute of me...hahaha), but I just wanted more of it. In the end, we came out quite impressed that a Spanish movie is that good and we enjoyed it. Thank God for the properly presented subtitles, otherwise we wouldn't know how to interpret all those lines in Spanish. (Holla...Vamos...Rapido!...is still etched in my mind..heee).

Now I wish locally made movies can aspire to produce this type of movie (not just of horror genre, but others as well). At least reduce the number of slapstick comedies or sappy romance flick on show...can we have more quality, please?

Kembara Ansara 2009

2009-01-18T19:54:00.006+08:00

What was supposed to be the last hunt for 2008, became our very 1st hunt for 2009! Although it took awhile to finally have the hunt, it was postponed from last month, it was a challenging outing for all of us - we were basically "off-form" for this hunt. But we had fun nonetheless...

To start off the hunt, the 1st challenge was finding 5 words of ASMARA (the ANSARA co-op) in a puzzle. Sounds easy, not so for our team...heh, we have our usual slow start to the day. In the end, I think we were either the last or 2nd last team to finish off the puzzle. The next challenge was not part of the hunt, I think even En.Zahrol didn't count on this as well. The 1st question was along the stretch of road beside the MAS training centre. And there was a group of ladies dressed in kebayas going into the building. I think they had an interview session or something that day. And as you know, we have 2 red-blooded male in our team and it was totally distracting! Hahahahaha...oh yeah, that was fun... :-)

We struggled on the 1st part of the hunt, as usual, unfortunately. After finishing off the 1st part (actually, almost giving up on the 1st part), we went thru the rest of the hunt with only minor bumps. There's also the time we miscalculated the distance and mistook a junction, which needed us to re-trace our steps back. My mistake on that part since I didn't counter-check the distance on the tulips against our own trip meter earlier. That took a lot out of the time that should have been allocated to find the treasure items. But we managed to find all the treasures, although we believed that we might have lost some points on the SHORTEA biscuits (ergh...)

At the end of the hunt, as the results were about to be announced, we've collectively resigned ourselves to the fact that we did not do well in this hunt as we should have been. So it took awhile for us to actually realize that En.Zahrol was calling our team's name to collect the 15th placed prize. Le...dapat placing gak...Hahaha...Alhamdullilah... :-)

All in, we've always enjoyed his treasure hunts, although I do believe that En.Zahrol must find a better setting, at the very least a better loud hailer or microphone & speakers for his hunts. Tak dengar laa...

On to the next hunt!

Who is Macam-Macam Adaaaa?

2009-01-18T17:57:00.020+08:00

I've always wanted to do this - a simple profile of our treasure hunt team. It was supposed to be updated a week ago, but alas with all the system migration going on as well as tons of other things to do, my blog was not to be updated. Haha... Anyways, here goes...

Name: Farid
Designation: Team Leader / Mascot / King of the Poses (check out my facebook to see his many poses)
Strength: Friendly with everybody... strong route question and treasure question solver; the team's voice of reason and the "glue" that holds the team together.
Weakness: Needs to be "pure" of heart, eyes, spiritually and mentally - so no hanky panky stuff at least 48 hours before any treasure hunt!

Name: Deq Nie / DQ / Aini
Designation: Team Member / One-time driver
Strength: Bubbly personality...like the hubby - strong treasure question solver and have the weirdest reasoning for the route question answers (which weirdly enough, I always agree!), when both hubby and wife are on form, they can answer questions with relative ease...
Weakness: Refer Farid's...husband and wife sama laa...

Name: Azz / Anna
Designation: Team Member / Former Navigator, now Driver
Strength: Good sense of direction, strong route question solver, usually the odd one out...the other 3 of us may agree on an answer but she has another way of answering it...Not always right, but when she does get it right...adoi laaa...She's also the team's organizer for all the hunts, handling our finances and schedules...
Weakness: Could never agree with me...hahaha...

Name: Kamal (it's me...!)
Designation: Team Member / Former Driver, now Navigator
Strength: Jack of all trades, master of none...I can answer here a bit, there a bit...There was this one time when I almost managed to answer all the treasure questions on my own, well...almost la...Haha...
Weakness: I start all the treasure hunts questions with "D'huh???"...I'm always the slowest guy off the block...

As a team, we have not been able to be serious during hunts. There's always something that would make us laugh. Be it some crazy idea of what would be an answer to a question we couldn't solve or the non-ending "arguments" that we always have that no one can win. Hahaha...we can answer some difficult questions with ease, but would get the wrong answers for the easy ones. Sometimes we tend to over-think about a question, when the answers are so easy even a newbie can answer it!

As we would describe ourselves: "Macam-Macam Adaaaa...!!!"

Good riddance 2008? Hello 2009...?

2009-01-01T10:07:00.007+08:00

It's the new year. 1430 Hijrah, and 2009...For me, 2008 has been a challenging year, both personally, and professionally. I wish I could just erase 2008 in terms of professional field, but I would have to erase several good things that happened during the year for me.

Yeah, disappointingly I'm still in shift work, which do not bring me joy. I just wonder what is it with people in this company that sees me in shift work. I despise it even more after this year, not because of the many sacrifices that I have to make to work in this field, the time it took me away from being with my family or the destruction of my social life. No...I hate shift work because of the boredom that it brings.

Yeps, it is so so boring to work in shift, and I wonder how long I can stand working this way. It holds no challenges for me anymore and I need challenges every single day that I come to work. And how do you find challenges in something that bores you? That is a conundrum that I still do not have the answer.

I found solace in photography and in Treasure Hunts, and for that I really appreciate the support that my wifey - Azz, my close friend Linda, and the 2 of the most lovable people I've known - DQ and Farid have given me. I might have gone crazy have I not found something that I can re-focus my negative energy on. We hope to do better in Treasure Hunting in the future, and I hope I can improve my skills in photography further, which is currently at level 0. Heh.

For my family, I hope to build my own small family soon. God has other plans for me, so those tini tiny patter of lil foot hasn't arrived in our home yet. But we haven't given up hope yet. When delayed, good things come even greater, insyaAllah. Credit and salute to my wife for being strong for the both of us, and not giving up hope yet. I know then as I know now that I've found my soul mate in her. I can never say enough of how much I love her.

My mother is still battling on against cancer. The latest news haven't been great, but that didn't break her spirit. I'm disappointed that I couldn't do more for my mother, and couldn't spend more time with her in her time of need. Credit to my mum, even when she's this sick the only thing that seem to disappoint her is that she couldn't take good care of my father. Talk about being unselfish, that's my mum - THE iron lady.

For my dad, I pray that he stays healthy, and at least pay attention to his health. He's so preoccupied with taking care of my mum that he forgets sometimes that he's not in his best health. And I hope he gets better at his golf as well. :-)

For my brother, I hope he finds a wife to take care of him. I know he's worried about our parents that he rarely takes care of himself; he either buries himself in work or in food. I can see it in his eyes how worried he is, he rarely spoke of how he feels as he tends to hide it inside him...I pray in my heart that he finds someone that can see how good of a person he really is.

For my elder sis and her lil family, I love u guys to bits. I wish I can spend more time with you, as everytime I see Amir and Asyraf; they seem to grow up so fast (!). I pray for your success in life, and salute your patience and strength. Oh yeah, in case u don't know...Kakwan, you're the unofficial coordinator for all of us for any family gathering. So keep up the good work. Hehe.

For my lil sis...find a good man to take care of you, please? She grew up so fast in the last few years, it's only a few months back that I realize that she's working already and driving her own car(!). Damn, I'm getting old. Haha. For her strength and courage in taking care of mum, I salute her. She does it almost automatically, I don't think she knows it, but when my mum needs her, she's always there! As I did for my brother, I pray for her to find her true love as well...and I know that she'll be successful in anything she does and makes us all proud.

Onwards to 2009 / 1430Hijrah...!

A Quick Tour of Europe - Part 1

2008-12-25T18:35:00.013+08:00

I would like to make a record of things that happened throughout the year, and this is one of it.

One of the highlights of this year was when I received word that I was to be sent to London to attend a seminar on automated terminal, with my colleague. I was skeptical at first, but then the ball started rolling. The first arrangement was to have us flown there for the 2 day seminar, arriving the day before the seminar, and fly back the day after. It's a testament of our HR's "efficiency" in doing this arrangment. I'm not going to say much, but I just wonder if they realized that the seminar is overseas and it takes 12 hours flight just to reach London? You do the math...

Anyways, after much "discussion", pleading in some areas, we managed to "extend" our stay over there. And after much persuasion, we even managed to get ourselves an arrangement to visit one of the automated port in Europe, i.e. Rotterdam. On top of that, our esteemed CEO gave the go word for us to bring our spouses (yeay!)...and since we're going in July, it became a sort of "celebration" of our wedding anniversary for Azz and me.

It wasn't a long trip, we didn't manage to extend it any further. We were scheduled to leave on the 30th June, and come back on 8th of July. The seminar is on the 1st of July, HR wanted us to arrive there the day before, so it left us without any time for a rest before the seminar.

In London, while both Sase and I were stucked in the seminar, Azz brought Sase's wife, Deepa around the city. I guessed they had more fun than we ever did. Hahaha... One thing good about summer, though, the day is longer. So even after we finished the seminar at 5pm, we managed to take a walk around the city until late at night. There was enough light until about 9pm, so we felt safe to walk around for a little bit of sightseeing in the city.

One of the exciting moments for me was being able to go on board the London Eye, which was completed after I left the U.K. (I completed my studies in 1998, and the Eye was officially opened to public in year 2000) It was fun to see the City of London all the way up high, it's 135 metres (443ft), which is high enough to almost see as far as your eyes can. It's much better than our own Eye on Malaysia actually, much better. Anyways, it brought back memories for Azz and I, and that memories came rushing back on why we loved the city so much. Even though it has been 10 years since I last been to the city, I felt that it hasn't changed much, and trying to find our way around the city wasn't that tough.

I hope and pray that I can have more trips like this in the near future. Anyways, I'll post more on our short trip to Europe later.

Mensa Hunt 2008

2008-12-21T02:47:00.009+08:00

It's been awhile since I've updated the blog...been busy, so here we go:

It was the Mensa Hunt. C'mon people: MENSA ok? The organization for those smart people and we saw the previous hunt questions. Read the chosen word: SAW. We didn't even try to solve it because we got stuck with the first few questions and just gasped: Oh sh*t...Hahaha...We were apprehensive about joining this hunt because of that. But since it was by Lawrence Hie, and because I got hooked on his type of questions since the BB Hunt, we just had to give it a try. The theme of the hunt was Planet Green, and it's all about the environment. Even the route wasn't that far away, just around the Kota Damansara area. Less travel, less fuel consumption and pollution - good for environment as they say.

As usual, as usual...we had the Macam2 Adaaa moment - we had bumpy starts on other treasure hunts, and this was no different. We're just blank on the first few questions, and just drove off without writing down the answers. I think the first question we were confident of answering was Q4. And that got the ball rolling and it was a breeze from that on, except for a few questions. It was a breeze for us, and that was surprising. We had thought that it was going to be harder than other hunts, but the difficulty was on par as the rest of the hunts. Except for the occasional red herrings. Lawrence is famous for these red herrings, but we were prepared for it. We either figured out the red herrings, or missed out on it completely and got the right answer! Hahahaha....

We had a lot of time to solve the treasure questions because of this. Okay, the solving part was the easy task. Seriously, we had the answers ready by the time we got to the shop to buy the items. But finding that 1 final item was tough. Yes, you guessed it: Phillips Genie 14W Warm Light bulb. OMG...I have no idea how many stops we did before we actually found the bulb. Everywhere we looked and asked the answer was the same: "sold out". We thought to ourselves: there isn't that many team in this hunt, about 40 cars/teams. It's not possible that it sold out on that very day, could it? We had a very patient Farid running around in Ikano (where we were sure he's gonna find it), but it was not to be. So off we went to the smaller shops around Kota Damansara, and after dropping off Farid at one of the shops, we stopped by a small shop displaying a sign proclaiming it to be a wholesaler of everything about bulb. As I got out from the car, we all thought the same thing: If this shop does not have the bulb, all hell will break loose! hahahaha....

As I entered the door I saw the guy sitting peacefully at his desk. A good sign I suppose, and I ask him if he sells Phillips bulb. "Yes sir, we do...here they are..." and with a sweep of his hand he showed me a rack full of Phillips bulb just waiting for me to buy them. And I went blank. OMG, what was the answer again? Hahahahahaha....

All in, it was a relaxing hunt, we finished 14th out of 40plus car. Which is not bad, considering we got 5 wrong question and only tembak the puzzle question. My mistake, I didn't give the rest enough time to crack the puzzle. We're happy that we managed to answer all the treasure questions correctly. I made sure that I wrote every little detail down on the answer sheet, just to be sure. It paid off.

On to the next hunt!

Chronicles of Shaggy...Part II

2008-12-02T02:56:00.006+08:00

Just an update on si kenit…went to see the vet on Sunday and found out that he has worms festing in his big belly. So the vet gave him antibiotics (?) I think, and vaccine. He has to go and have his shots again in a month’s time, and a regular visit every 3 months. Other than that he’s in perfect health.

I’m also happy to say that I’ve been right to call Shaggy a “he”, as the vet confirmed his gender. Hehe…I asked the vet whether he can ascertain Shaggy’s gender, and he asked “what do you think?” So I said I thought lil dude must be a “he”. The pet shop guy said that it’s gonna be a bit difficult to tell because Shaggy’s still small. The vet checked Shaggy’s err...private parts, and said “Yes, a he…no wait, a she…..” As I was about to say: alamak, I was wrong….he said “hang on, yes…definitely: a HE….”

Yeay, for lil dude!

Westports: Sun Rise

2008-12-01T02:59:00.003+08:00

Westports: Sun Rise, originally uploaded by W.K.Azlan.

This is one of my very first shots of a sun rise. I didn't actually know what sort of settings to use, and just relied on the shutter and aperture settings which will give me the exposure I wanted. This is the classic example of being at the right time and right place. The weather was "kind" to me: it had rained for the last 8 hours and the black clouds were just starting to clear up. The sun had just made it's entrance and I just had discovered that I can actually go up to the roof of my office to practice my shots.

It was a wonderful shot, and the only adjustment I did was to add a little bit of fill light (I have no idea how to edit, by the way) and left it at that. Hopefully, I can get more beautiful shots like these, as I get better at photography and since I have limited places that I can go to practice, expect more of these views in the future... :-)

Chronicles of Shaggy...

2008-11-17T21:31:00.014+08:00

The lil dude, or as I like to call it nowadays: si kenit is growing up...One thing we notice is that his appetite is increasing and he seem to like his mother's food more than his own. On top of that he still drinks his mother's milk. No wonder his belly is growing at a faster rate than the rest of his body. Hahaha...

We've let him roam around inside the house most of the time, seldom putting him in the cage, as he already knows where to do his...er..."business"...The mother comes by to lepak with him everyday now. So at least he has company when we're not around. If we are, we usually let him out...since he can run quite fast nowadays and darts for the front door if ever we open it. And one of the most cutest thing we notice nowadays is that he's starting to be a lot more playful, which fascinates my wife all the time.

Enjoy the pix...

Top Gear Malaysia Treasure Hunt 2008

2008-11-11T01:48:00.016+08:00

The start

It was the first time for Top Gear Malaysia magazine organizing a treasure hunt. In total there were 49 teams that participated in the hunt. I heard that they actually had to cut some of the teams off due to limited place. Our competition number was 34, so I think we got in at just the right time... :-) The start-off point was at the Regalia Business Park, USJ...and we didn't have to get up that early to reach the place. The briefing was...er...brief, because we all went into action from the get go.

The first challenge was to get us through to the sectors, remember - this is a long distance treasure hunt, time is of the essence. That took us through the North-South highway, and we used the time to scan through the questions as well as figure out the treasure answers. It was funny inside the car because we all came out with all sort of answers without knowing whether we could actually find the correct answers or not. The Ipoh section wasn't that bad actually, although we did have the usual Macam-Macam Adaaaa moment, we usually stumbled at the start of the questions. Once we did a turnaround and started again, that's when we finally saw the answers to the first 3 questions, and off we went to the other sections. It was a nervy start for us as usual...

The missing girls

Okay, here's where we debated on why we performed the way we did after the hunt ended. In this section of questions, we knew what to target for the answers...one of the the questions was "Sounds like the Hips don't lie girl"...easy, right? we should be looking for Shakira, or Sakira or Shadira at the very least...No such luck. We went up and down the street...got out of the car...went up and down again, but there were no answers. We took a look again at the question, and it should be a straight forward question. But we didn't find the signboard anywhere. After we wasted time looking for it again and again, upset as we were, we decided to move on to the next section. Everything went well until another answer we couldn't find. Easy question: "Hamilton's race on a following" and something about feet. Find something with and F & I or F & 1 in the signboard, plus look for maybe a shoe shop. Easy right? Nope. Didn't see it from the car. There was only a few shops there and the only one with F & I was Nafisa; which was a ridiculous answer if we were to take it. Beside Nafisa was a shop displaying a banner "Kedai Kasut, Jualan Penutupan" or something...We suspected that this might be the shop they meant, with the banner covering the actual signboard. So off we went to cross the road and have a closer look. And inside the shop, there was a small sign displaying "Fiona...Shoe Accessories" or something...Ala...senang je, but if you can't see it, you can't answer it lor...

Anyways, we got that one right...I think the other teams also saw it when they went closer, so there were no complaints. But the "Shakira" answer they gave free points, because the signboard came down before the hunt started. Should've at least told us that, would've saved us precious time. Which is the debate in our team, which was time management...if we knew that the signboard didn't exist we would've went straight on to the other questions and saved us some time.

The time, the time...!

Time management...that's important in hunting. Especially in this type of long distance hunting. Because you have to take into account the travelling time in between sectors. By the time we got to the final sectors, I think we were pressed for time, and just went through all the questions without even stopping to discuss it. It helps actually when the questions were a bit easier towards the end. It didn't help that we rushed to write down the answers and left out a few details in the answers which caused us points. Oh dear...

When we got to the finish station, there were several teams already there, and I believe we were penalized 1 point for being 7-8 minutes late? But that's not the end of the hunt, because there was a final task to be done - which was Challenge 2, and it all had to do with the November issue of the Top Gear Malaysia magazine - which was one of the treasure items the teams are supposed to submit. I think we did okay to answer 5 questions (?) in 4 minutes although we did have our usual nervy moment - "it says here page 12, turn to page 12...!why aren't you turning to page 12??!...err, it is page 12..." haha...

In the end, we finished 12th overall, winning the four of us a "fragrance" each from Ferrari (this year dapat bau kereta, next year menang kereta pulak lah...haha)...in retrospect, I think we could've done much much better. If not for some errors in writing down the answers, we would've scored more points. On why we had errors in writing down the answers is simple: time management. That's important, and if we improve on that I think we can start winning some serious stuff...hahaha, how I wish...

The place where we slept...

Paradise Sandy Beach Resort...sounds grand eh? A lot of potential, but could've done much much better. The minus point on Farid & DQ's part was that their room wasn't ready by the time we checked in. And the fact is the check-in time was 3pm, and we arrived at the hotel around 6pm. That's 3 hours for them to prepare the rooms, and they must have known the teams are coming in that day to check in. And the lifts? It took forever to arrive! And there were 3 working lifts! Okay, okay...Enough with the negative points, the positives are...The room was actually fine for a one night stay. The food was okay, the beach was nice although we didn't have time to appreciate it fully. The pool was small but nice enough for us to enjoy about an hour of swimming.

Overall, I think the hunt went well for all of us. Of course the organizers (Time-Out Solutions) are old hands at this, so it is expected that it went quite smooth. Out of all the treasure hunts' C.O.C, I enjoyed their hunts the most. Challenging questions, even more challenging treasure questions and the way they handled the answers and results sessions were always enjoyable, and funny too.

Looking forward to the next treasure hunts!

That Hunting Weekend - Part 2

2008-11-05T12:30:00.025+08:00

The Sun Hunt 2008

This is the biggest event of the year for the treasure hunters. Simply because the prizes are bigger, and the competition is tougher. And I do mean big, they have 255 teams competiting in the open category, and I think this time around there's an even bigger number of Masters team competiting in their category - 20 teams overall. The prizes for the open category goes up to 145th placing, so there's hope for all of us. And for those who didn't win any prizes in the competition, there's the lucky draw event to pin of more hopes of winning prizes.

The beginning...

I'm used to waking up early for work, but for treasure hunts...Sun Hunt has usually the earliest start of all hunts. I did tell my wife that the problem with us in the Sun Hunt is our brain is not awake yet by the time the hunt starts and that is why we have problems answering questions at the beginning....hahahaha...This time around it was the Sime Darby Convention Centre which was chosen as the venue for the start and finish; i.e. pre-hunt briefing, final briefing, starting line, finishing line, and dinner/result event. I think it was the best choice of all the other Sun Hunt that we went to, the place is huge, ample parking for all, and the halls even better.

As usual, we struggled at the beginning of the hunt. They wanted to "disperse" all the teams, since there was a large number of us and so they directed us to Kota Damansara (oh dear...). There's 6 sectors out of a possible of 8, and to find the sector you have to "crack"/find the logo from the picture given. Man, the area was jam-packed within the first hour that we were there. It was compaunded by the fact that people were coming into the area to have their usually Sunday morning breakfast. I pity the people there who stumbled upon us that morning. Anyways, we struggled with the questions up until to the point where my wife asked for a switch of tasks, with her driving and me navigating and finding the answers. Apparently we improved a lot after that. We thought later that we might want to keep this configuration for later hunts.

Breakfast & lunch was provided by McD, and for lunch we went to the one beside the Sunway toll on LDP. We had to submit our 1st leg answer sheet there, pick up the 2nd leg questions and buy 2 calendars which was the 2nd treasure hunt item. The calendars were part of the charity drive for the Bethany Home in Teluk Intan, Perak. Bethany Home is an E.L.C.M. training centre for the epileptic and intellectually disabled children and adults. The charity drive was a nice touch to the event, although I wish I had more time to ask questions to the guy in charge there about the home. I had by this time felt that my kidney was going to burst since I had been holding it since the start. Hahaha...

Next was the Puchong area, where by this time there's a lot of cars in the shops' area. A lot of honking were heard during this time. There was a polite short honk, a double/triple honk, and an angry long honk for the hunters to move aside. My wife had managed to remain calm all the way through this sector, and this is the part where the driver plays an important part in the team. DON'T BLOCK THE WAY WHEN YOU'RE HUNTING. That's the rule I try to keep to, and I told my wife to pay attention to all around us. She has to be able to position the car so that we can find answers as well as keep the road clear for the other users. I wouldn't want to comment on what the other teams did, as I would only want to concentrate on what we're doing during the hunts.

By the time we got to TTDI, we had 2 things against us: one was time, the other was rain...oh dear.Fortunately for us, that final sector was the easiest sector of all. Straight forward questions, and we didn't even have to stop to find the answers. We knew that we had to find time to rush back to the finish line, and before that find the treasure items! For this I have to thank DQ & Farid. We weren't sure what the items are, and DQ had said that she will only know for sure once she sees the items with her own eyes. We couldn't find any 7-11 on the way back (there was a lot earlier, but we didn't manage to figure out the answers at that time) so we stopped at the first petrol station that we could find, Caltex. Got 1 item there, and we're still missing 1 last item. And I remembered that there's a Petronas station just before the Mont Kiara junction, which is actually the last place you can buy stuff before reaching the finish line at SDCC. Lo and behold, when we got there the item that we were looking for was in abundance! In the end we managed to reach the finish line on time.

I think by the time we submitted the first leg answers, we knew we wouldn't win the hunt, hehe...So, the 2nd leg was a bit easier for us as we didn't have that "pressure" to win the hunt and were only aiming to finish the hunt and improve on our standings as compared to last year. The dinner was excellent, the food was okay for a big event and the hall was very comfortable as compared to previous years. When the results were tabulated we scored 101 which won us 42nd place out of 145 teams, which was a jump from our previous year's position which was 88th. The Masters category was won by Farid's "good friend" (hehe..), Michael Pang and his team. The results can also be found here.

We enjoyed it, even though we didn't win big. It's all for fun and we just love the challenge. On to the next hunt...!

That Hunting Weekend - Part 1

2008-11-04T11:33:00.023+08:00

We had a very busy schedule last weekend. There were 2 treasure hunts competition that we went to. First on the 1/11, was the 3K Triple One Hunt (Kembara Karun KSAS) organized by the Trailblazers team. Most of the teams treated this as a warm up to the big event, The Sun Hunt 2008 which was on the next day!

3K Triple One Hunt

We were missing 1 team member, DQ had to work on that Saturday. We were a bit skeptical that we could do well in the hunt, but since we really wanted to have this "warm up", we decided to go ahead nonetheless. We've also decided to use a smaller car, since there is only the 3 of us, with the starting configuration of me driving, my wife navigating from the back seat and Farid at the front passenger seat for easy access and exit. It would soon change, though.

The hunt was organized with 2 categories, the open category and the classic car category, i.e. cars that are registered before 1983. I think there was supposed to be 4 teams, but one of the car broke down and couldn't make it...I also heard that Dato' Ramesh & Kok Seng's team's car also broke down but they managed to find another classic car, which I heard was a Porsche (?). Anyways, I saw only 3 classic cars in the hunt, and they are also eligible for the open category prize as well. No guesses as to who won the classic car category. The hunt itself was tough. I think a lot of the teams "suffered", particularly because we had only 3 hours plus for answering 30 route questions plus 4 treasure questions. We knew that time is going to be a big factor in this and the difficult questions wasn't helping at all. That's the first challenge. The 2nd challenge was making a good start, which we always "kantoi" in most hunts, the 3rd was the treasure questions, which we found out later that we may not have enough time to go out and buy the items. We neither start well, nor did we do well in the rest of the route questions.

All in, we managed to finished the hunts, via some "tembak" answers on my part and Farid. Mid-way thru the hunt we switched drivers, because my wife was feeling dizzy sitting at the back, and we found out that I was better at finding the answers when I'm not driving. D'huh... Due to the time constraint however, I had to rush writing the answers, and I was convinced that I'll do some mistakes in writing it out since I didn't have time to check on what I had written before submitting the answers.

Anyways, when it was the answers session we found out that a few of the "tembak" questions were right! Hahaha...It was really fun throughout the session, and we thought that we had a good chance of winning something. Our count for the total points were 70 plus, and when the Trailblazers team announced the no.10 spot with a score of 50 plus, we knew we were in for something. As the teams were called up to the stage to collect the prizes: 9, 8, 7, 6, 5...4, 3, 2, 1...? Our team name wasn't called up. My wife was confused, as were Farid and myself. When we asked one of the captains for our team's score, he said it was only 40 plus....which confused us even further. So we asked to see our answers sheet, and had to wait till Capt. Jack Swallow finishes the formalities with the audience. By this time, I was convince that it was my fault that we lost 30plus points...I had convinced myself that I must had written the answers wrongly or left out a few answers details even more than I thought I would have.

As the other teams left the hall, and the winners carried their winnings...we waited for our answer sheet. At first glance, I thought everything was as what we marked in our copy, which added to the mystery of how we lost 30 points. That was until I saw the calculation for the answers...The total answers we got right was 21, each correct answers is worth 3 points, and written in the table was the figure 36. As I pointed to Captain Jack and clarified with him that the total should read 63...He let out a gasp and a "Oh my God..." and rushed back to the hall to meet up with the other captains. All 3 of them apologized to us profusely for the mistake, and Captain Jack gave us a cash prize of RM150 - equivalent to the 8th placed prize.

The knowledge that we actually won something in that hunt just gave us a little bit of confidence to do well, or at least improve our results in the big hunt: The Sun Hunt, the next day. We actually met with Captain Jack, and he said that he have already sent out the corrected results to Michael Pang, which can be found here. We appreciated what they've done for us, and hoped that we can join in their next hunt, with a view of winning it and getting on stage that time...!

We're on Michael Pang's Blog...!

2008-10-30T16:36:00.007+08:00

Hey...what a pleasant surprise today....our treasure hunt team was featured on Michael Pang's blog. He is not only a regular treasure hunter, where we often see him joining hunts (and winning it!), but have organized treasure hunts as well.

Check out what he said about us here.

Lil Shaggy

2008-10-28T21:33:00.025+08:00

Continuing on from the 3 lil kittens' story, there's only 1 surviving kitten. I guess God had plans for the lil dude, and it was my wife who found it alive and well amongst her pots of flowers and plants. That I think, soothes her pain and shock of finding the dead kitten a few days before. She wondered what to do about the surviving kitten, and I told her that we might as well keep the kitten inside the house, to make sure that at least the lil dude will get a fighting chance to grow up stronger.

When I got back in the morning, as soon as I saw the kitten at the pots, I took the lil dude inside. Since we didn't have any cage or proper place for safekeeping, I barricaded the lil dude inside the bathroom. I know it's a bit uncomfortable, and he didn't like it, but it's for his own safety.

The mother, unfortunately, has a lot of...er...admirers...haha...Yeah, the male cats seem to be waiting in line to get a piece of her. She's a pretty cat...haha...like a cat version of Erra Fazira, as I described her to my friends. We're worried and suspected that it was one of the male cats that killed the 2 other kittens.

We finally bought a cage for the lil kitten, just so that he has a place to sleep in, and to keep him from roaming around the house and leaving his...er..presents... :-) And we keep him in the house, so that no other cats can bother him except for the mother. We let him out whenever me or my wife is at the house. And the mother does come by to visit, whenever she's not with one of the "boyfriends"...haha...She nurses the lil dude, although I'm not sure if there's still milk left in her...How do I check that eh...??

Anyways, the lil dude is kinda thin, which worries my wife. So she bought some kitten food, and more food for the mother as well. At least if the mother is around, she can keep the lil dude company while he eats. Which she does, regularly...I think she's beginning to understand why we keep her kitten in the house, so she waits for her "visiting time", and when it comes, she uses it fully.

The kitten, we nicknamed Shaggy...after the character in Scooby Doo...When the others were around, he was the most scared of them all. Always hiding behind something either a pot, wall or even behind my shoes. So that's why we named him "Shaggy". But now, we noticed that he carries the traits of the other 2 kittens as well. Explorer like the kitten we nicknamed "Indy", always going around the house, trying to climb up the stairs to follow my wife, but can't since he's small. And he also carries the "space out" look like the other kitten, which we nicknamed "Putom"...It's kinda funny looking at him running around the house, and since he's so small, we keep reminding ourselves to look at our feet as we walk, as he tends to follow us around the house.

Hope he survives...Here's to Shaggy...the lil dude...

Pintasan Travel Raya Hunt

2008-10-26T20:27:00.021+08:00

It was our first treasure hunt after Raya 2008. I was a little bit rustier than the rest as the others had been able to join one of the walk hunts in One Utama. So at least their minds were a bit fresh on answering the lateral thinking, anagrams, and general knowledge etc questions. I’m on the other hand, had one of my formal replies to a question ready: “D’huh?” :-)

The day started well, we were very relaxed. I took my time to drive us over to the Padang Utara P.J.; I even had time to stop for fuel and checked my tire pressure (I was lazy to do it the night before…). We were among the first to arrive there, and the C.O.C. was already busy preparing for the start of the hunt.

A total of 22 cars/teams were involved in the hunt, where there are a lot of regular hunters around. Of course, those with the status of “Masters” are there too. Because of this, we did not expect to win, and just hoped that this will serve as a refresher and a warm-up hunt before the big hunt, i.e. Sun Hunt (!), to be held on the 2nd November this year.

The hunt went well; surprisingly we answered the first few questions with ease. We usually have problems at the start, stuttering in the beginning of the hunt. Not so this time, and we thought we might have an easy hunt. Zahrol (the C.O.C.) did warn us that there would be some easy questions, and a few hard ones, i.e. “kaw-kaw” punye. So we were waiting for the hard questions. Didn’t find it in the route questions. It hit us in the treasure questions.

Man, we were just stumped by the questions, and I must say that part of the treasure hunts were always tough on us, we usually struggled a lot on treasure questions. It cost more points, so it was a bit more pressure on us all. However, most of the time we would have some idea on what to target, but this time around, there would be no such luck. It was upsetting, and we didn’t manage to submit the treasure at Location 1@Tulip no.32 to get the extra 2 points. We decided to wait till the end, and solve the route questions first.

The treasure hunt route took us through P.J, Damansara and ended in Kota Damansara. I disliked the Kota Damansara area, because the area is almost always are jammed packed with cars, and it’s only wasting our time there, waiting for the cars to move. One of the pleasant surprises was when we were in PJ Section 14, where we bumped into my auntie and uncle going for their routine breakfast outing. I was focusing on looking for the answers through the window of the car when I realized someone was looking directly at me on the other side. Lo and behold, my auntie was pointing at me! She was as surprised to see us there looking around the shops for answers.

It was fun overall, lunch was good as well, or is it because we were hungry? :-) With the exception of the treasure questions, it would have been a good hunt for us. It was another learning experience nonetheless; "think outside the box" as they would always say. In the end, on hindsight, the answers were right there in front of us, we just didn’t realize it. Except for treasure question 5, we are still debating on that. :-)

On to the next hunt...!

Horny's 3 lil kittens

2008-10-24T01:07:00.017+08:00

About 2 months (?) back, we found that the stray cat which we nicknamed "Horny" (I'll get to the nickname as soon as I can...) has given birth to 3 lil kittens. This is the 3rd time she gave birth to kittens, the earlier 2 times the kittens didn't survive for reasons unknown to us.

This time around, we were determined to make sure that the kittens survive, at least until they can fend for themselves. So, at first we put them in my shoe box (since it was the biggest shoe box that we could find), but then thought it's so uncomfortable for the 4 of them, and we moved them to our tv set box (!). Wah, it's like living in a big house for them. We didn't want Horny to leave the kittens for long, so we started feeding her with cat food. Which actually works, because she started to spend her time nursing her babies rather than go out finding food for herself.

So, the kittens grew stronger each day. When we left for the Raya holidays, we were worried that they might not survive, but lo and behold, when we got back and look inside the box...the 3 lil kittens are alive...! We were so excited, and hopeful that they would survive until they are strong enough to go on their own...But, the kittens didn't like the box...and ventured out (by way of their mum) to my wife's flower pots...oh dear...

Unfortunately, the lil kittens didn't survive. At least, not all of them. A few days ago, my wife found one of the kittens died (by this time they had moved to the back of the house...), and Horny was washing off the blood. By the time I got back from work in the morning, there's not much left of the kitten (!), I wouldn't want to go into details on that as my wife is still having nightmares about it. Up until today, we still didn't know what happened. I took it upon myself to clean the place up, dug a grave for the lil kitten, said a lil prayer and buried her.

We managed to find one of the surviving kittens yesterday, and we're hopeful that this one might survive until she (?...i still have problems identifying their gender) is a bit bigger. Keep your fingers crossed...

That "Raya Card" we sent out...

2008-10-23T05:42:00.001+08:00

Realizing that we didn't have time to send out Raya cards to everyone; me and the boyz thought of taking a picture of all of us (or most of us, that is) and send it out to everyone...A hasty picture taking session ensues... :-) And with a little bit of help from modern technology (d'uh...it's the email...), we managed to send out Raya greetings to friends, colleagues and some of our clients. A little touch of "pantun" made it even more special:

Anak Dolah makan lepat

Makan lepat sambil melompat

Nak hantar kad raya dah tak sempat

Pakai e-mail pun kira ok what?

:-)

This is a first...

2008-10-23T04:59:00.000+08:00

This is the very first time I've ever tried to write and post something of my own on the web, other than a comment or two on other people's sites. Whether or not I'll continue, not even I would know. So, here's to blogging...! :-)