Ben 10: Power of the Omnitrix

Ben Tennyson is in town and the kids are really excited especially Ilyas and his cousins, Sulaiman and Idris. I took the opportunity to treat them by buying tickets for the live show held in the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre. Whilst Umi, Maisarah and Eela went for a stroll in the shopping complex in KLCC, it's a boys day out with the Ben 10 and his alien monsters.

I'm quite surprised to see how well behaved they are when we were seated in the auditorium. The show was brilliant with the performers performing stunts on the bike, wire, skateboard or just doing the dance. The kids were simply mesmerised with all the lighting and sound effects and they clapped enthusiastically whenever one of the Ben 10 monsters shows up. During the intermission, all three rushed out of the auditorium. I thought they wanted to go to the toilet but instead they went straight to the stalls selling toys. Luckily I already prepared for this and once I paid for them, they just tore up the boxes, pulled out the toys and ran straight back to the auditorium. We then enjoyed the rest of the show and afterwards I treated them with foods at the Burger King restaurant.

Breakfast with old friends

Jo received a call this morning from Teena, our schoolmate when we were in the Sekolah Menengah Bandar Baru Bangi, back in the early 1990's. She were having breakfast with her family at Old Town Coffee House in Bandar Baru Bangi so we decided to join and see them since they are going to Indonesia for a holiday in the evening. The kids are abnormally quiet and sit nicely on their chairs, possibly because it is still early in the morning or most probably because each one of them is playing games on their IPod/IPhone/PSP. Because of that the parents are having their conversations in a very nice and relaxing manner. I don't know whether that's a good thing or not.

FEP Internal Audit Closing Meeting

Not many attending the meeting because tomorrow is going to be Hari Raya Aidil Adha

Air Hockey

Ilyas and Maisarah favourite arcade game

First Aid Course

I have reported for duty for nearly two months now and since then I have received numerous letters or invitations to attend symposiums, courses, trainings and even an MOU signing ceremony. I readily accepted them because some of these programmes might be useful in the near future, and today's course is definitely one of them. I'm a bit squeamish when it comes to blood so I had to look away whenever the doctor showed to the participants several slides of injuries on the screen. We practised on Heimlich maneuver, Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and learned how to tie up the bandages, among others. I learned a lot from this course but this is one kind of knowledge that I hope I don't have to put it on practise.

Biodiversity Seminar

I had to go to Putrajaya with my father today but before that I had to accompany him to a seminar on biodiversity in Kuala Lumpur. Since I am not familiar with the roads in KL, my sister became our driver. We sat in the seminar and listened to my father talking about mainstreaming biodiversity in local context. This is the first time I heard him giving a speech. My sister said he did not give the speech in his usual manner. Usually he spoke in a very deep but loud voice.

ANSARA Annual Dinner

Dato' Mukhriz giving his speech

I was invited by my friend to come to the dinner organised by my high school alumni, ANSARA at the PWTC. At first I didn't reply to the invitation because I had to teach until 9pm on that day. However, he said that the event will continues until midnight so after the class ends, I drove and managed to be there before they serve dinner. I met many old friends and new ones and I'm glad to be there. Most of the people use the event for networking and therefore I kept receiving lots of business cards. Unfortunately the only cards in my wallet are my identification card and credit cards.

Executive BBA Programme

I have been appointed to teach Introduction to Accounting to the BBB Executive students starting last weekend. These students are actually working in the private and public sectors during the weekdays and they only attend lectures during the weekend at my faculty. On Sunday they will be having three 3-hours lectures starting from 9am until 12 noon, 2pm until 5pm and 6pm until 9pm. And my class is the last one. It's difficult to keep them focused after a long day of lectures so I tried to keep my lecture brief and to the point. And plenty of breaks in between.

2012 Movie Day Winner

I'm quite busy for the past few days that there are many emails went unchecked and unanswered in my Inbox. This morning I went through them one by one and came across one email from Exabytes, my domain and hosting provider, in the Spam section! They would like to say their thanks to those clients who turned out for the 2012 Movie Day and pictures of the event were posted on their blog. I browsed through it but could not find any picture of us because I'm sure they did ask us to pose for them several times. When I read their posting in details, it turns out that they also have a competition for those who came to the event. I clicked on their latest posting and lo and behold! my wife, Joanna is one of the winners! She won the Exabytes EBiz Gold Linux Unlimited hosting plan, absolutely free for one year, which is worth RM449. She had a plan of having her own website and I guess one of her dreams has come true today.

Cupcakes

Hari Anugerah SKS

After the FEP Internal Audit Opening Meeting ends, I sneaked out from my faculty and walked across the road towards Dewan Percubaan UPM. My former primary school, Sekolah Kebangsaan Serdang is having their annual prize giving ceremony to their outstanding students and I was actually invited by the headmistress to attend this event. This reason I got invited by the school is because last week my old SKS schoolmates and I have managed to collect RM1100 among ourselves and the money has been used to buy prizes for this event. I'm quite lucky to catch the live performance by the pupils and afterward I told the headmistress that I enjoyed the event very much. I even managed to have a chat with one of the longest serving staff in the school and am quite surprised that he still remembers me, or he might just want to please me.

IPhonaddicts

RIP Boyah (2001-2009)

Tonight I witnessed the death of Boyah. He has been suffering from fever for nearly a week and at first we thought it was just a normal fever that he occasionally had. However, things turn to bad when he disappeared several days ago and we feared the worse. Two days ago, he suddenly came back in the middle of rain and we immediately cleansed and wrapped him in blanket. The next day we brought him to the clinic to get the necessary medications but his condition has not improved. We brought him again to the clinic today but even the doctor has lost hope on him. And tonight he breathed his last surrounded by all of his family.

Mama Tok said that Boyah is one of the most determined cat she has ever had. Since the first time she heard him wailing non-stop throughout the night outside the neighbour's house, she knew that this scrawny and disease-ridden kitten is not going to give up hope of staying alive. He was the only cat I knew who eats his meal right on top of it and sleep on it afterwards. He ate too much and when he is a bit older, his belly became unusually big, hence the name Boyah, a Kelantanese term for big belly. Seconds after his death, Awa called from the UK because Boyah was his favourite cat and they used to sleep together in the same room for many years.

Since we came back from the UK, two of our family close friends have passed away (both to cancers) and now two of our family cats have died. I just hope that we will get through the rest of the year without any more sad news.

We will miss you, Boyah.

Bangi Junior Football League

Every Friday night is the time when I play futsal at Sg. Chua courts with some of my Bandar Baru Bangi friends. Two days ago after the game, Daniel, who is an Anthropology PhD student from Mexico, told me that there will be a junior football league to be held in Section 15, Bandar Baru Bangi and maybe I would like to bring Ilyas along. We had planned to bring Ilyas to the rugby training (where his cousins Sulaiman and Idris are already playing) in the evening but since I have started to teach executive classes every Sunday from 6pm onwards, it might be a better option to take Ilyas to the football training in the morning instead.

When we arrived at the stadium, there were already lots of kids training and playing football. We watched them by the pitch side at first and when I noticed a spare ball, I practised passing the ball with Ilyas. I then saw the registration table and promptly registered Ilyas for the next year league. After that one of the coaches noticed Ilyas and invited him to play with the rest of the kids. Ilyas was quite excited but by the end of the game he is completely knackered. I'm sure he can't wait for the next session of training.

2012

I am one of the clients of Exabytes, a hosting and server provider company in Malaysia. Several weeks ago they offered free tickets to watch a movie titled '2012' and I applied for them. Today is the day and I brought Jo to watch the movie and left the kids at home under the care of Tok Wan. We were greeted at the registration counter and were given goodie bags and coupons that can be redeemed for free drinks and popcorns. Before the screening we decided to have meals at Sri Melaka restaurant. Their nasi goreng and mee goreng are simply amazing, not to forget their specialty dessert, sagu gula melaka. The movie itself is not bad although at more than two and a half hours it can be a bit  drag. The special effect is amazing but since this is a Hollywood movie, it is always guaranteed a happy ending, sort of.

Look Ma! I'm in the newspaper!

Sinar Harian (Edisi Timur) - 8 November 2009

ANSARA Cup Semi Final - ANSARA Taiping vs SJAA

BAT squad

The match is about to start

Tepen player in action

The equaliser

Team talk during halftime

The penalty shootout

After last night debacle at the Stadium Nasional, Bukit Jalil, it's time now to go back to the basic, which is managing my ANSARA Taiping football team. Today we will be playing against St. John Alumni Association in the semi final of ANSARA Cup. As the defending champions, today's match is pretty much like a final because we will be facing the Liga Alumni Division One champion. We lost 1-4 to them in the league match last April so we knew they are a very good team.

Once the whistle was blown, SJAA made numerous attacks on our defense and we were struggling to contain them. After few minutes, the opponent received a corner kick and through the ensuing confusions one of our defenders managed to head an own goal into our net. When the match resumed, we were again under pressure and it took about ten minutes before we can started to control our nerves and play a proper passing football. We started to control the game and our patience was finally paid off when Syahrir scored with a header right before the end of the first half.

When the second half starts, Syahrir again managed to get through several SJAA defenders and nearly scored but was denied at the last minute by their goalkeeper. After that both teams keep attacking each other but the score remains the same until the end of normal game. Then it's a penalty shootout. And we lost 2-4. Football is a cruel game. And tonight Manchester United will go to Stamford Bridge to face Chelsea. Sigh.

The Pretenders vs The Champions

Malaysia Cup Final - Kelantan vs Negri Sembilan

Outside the LRT station

Can you find the Negri fans?

Gomo Kelate Gomo

The lineup

Err.. right

The teams

The players

The frustation

The smoke

The fire

The 'ca alif but'

If you want to watch the Malaysian Cup Final football, you can do it in the comfort of your home, inside your air-conditioned room holding a cup of Nescafe with your Persian cat sleeping on your tummy. But I don't want to do that. I want to feel and experience what is like to be inside the stadium with the most notorious fans in Malaysia. And I am not to be disappointed. It feels more like in a battle field really. And I love it!

We arrived early around 5pm and loitered near LRT entrance where thousands of Kelate fans already gathered. Any groups of Negri fans will be pelted with water bottles and chased away by the 'gedebe' Kelate fans. This is the prelude of what will be happening inside the stadium. Once we were inside, almost three quarters of the stadium already turned red, and it's still three hours from the kickoff time. There were singing and Mexican wave every few minutes and the occasion was quite joyful. Negri fans were loud but they were simply overwhelmed by the boisterous Kelate fans.

When the match started, Kelantan started nervously and their defenders were really shaken and before we knew it, they got punished when one of the Negri strikers capitalised on it and drove a powerful shot past Halim Napi, the Kelantan goalkeeper. The whole stadium was quiet except the small section of Negri fans. However, the Kelate fans keep on cheering on their team to get an equaliser and by the end of the first half the optimism is still there.

Things got to worse when Hairudin Omar of Negri scored in a first minute of the second half. And hell broke loose on the 60th minute when Negri add another goal through a penalty. Suddenly the whole stadium felt like it was being invaded by some foreign army. Fireworks were exploding everywhere and lots and lots of flying bottles were thrown into the fields like missiles. Enol got hit by a water battle but fortunately he was not hurt. One of the fireworks exploded so near to my face that I can smell the sulphur. Chairs got burned and thrown toward the FRU personnel who did nothing but to keep close watch on the unruly fans. By then we just could not take it any longer and decided to move from our seats near the field towards the entrance. We watched the remaining of the match standing far away from the field and went outside the stadium way before the Negri players lifting up the Cup.

Will I be going to another Kelantan match? Hell yes!