Wednesday 30 July 2008

Typical Malay Living room

Typical Malay Living room

Disclaimer: This is through my observation, there is no right or wrong and after all rumah adalah hak masing-masing dan suka hati dialah nak decorate macam mana pun. The reason for highlighting this is because I find it amazing although the houses are geographically apart but discovered a pattern, a small similarity in every living room I've visited and I would like to share my findings with you . Why living room? Takkan visitor nak lepak bilik tidur pulak? The observations and research were through the eye of a "guest". Have fun!

Medals and Trophies.
Most of the houses I’ve been mesti display medals and trophies in the living room. Tak kisahla bronze medal lari dalam guni ka, years of service plaque or trophy menang sepak takraw anjuran Belia 4B. For medals selalunya akan tergantung cantik di hook plastic, tersusun indah across the wall. To some yang creative akan susun zig-zag. Trophies and plaques will definitely on the rack or TV.

Photo Album
while waiting for the teh-o and biscuit, guests has the honour of viewing the Tuan Rumah's photo albums yang tersedia di bawah coffee table. Normally pictures from oversea trips, holidays at Port Dickson, graduations and Raya pictures.

Certificates
Certificates from school or work will be well framed and hung on the wall. I guess this is to inform guests that they should not worry if the house is on fire because the owner scored 'Cemerlang' during his Fire Rescue Training anjuran the district Fire Department.

Photo Frame
Sometimes the photo frames will occupy the whole side table and forces the owner to buy a plastic hook from Tesco to hang the keys. Tak cukup lagi? letak atas TV, tak cukup lagi? Hang kat dinding..Tak cukup lagi? Letak on the floor. The living room shall now be called - "the galleria"..

Rack Pinggan Mangkuk
To give an impression on how important the guests are, along, angah or achik akan pergi ke rack pinggan mangkuk tepi sofa tu, keluarkan pinggan mangkuk yang mahal-mahal beli from last year's Langkawi trip, lap-lap buang habuk sikit (membuktikan yang lama tak pakai-saving for VIPs only), buat muka malu-malu, zoom masuk dapur hantar to the master chef untuk digunakan masa lunch/dinner.

Plastic Flowers
It is beautiful, colourful and easy to maintain and makes the room looks totally fresh! Especially the watery effect made of glue stick.

Kipas Cina
non-Functional Kipas "cina" yang besar, normally 5-6 feet spread wide, gantung di dinding, either paintings suasana indah di hutan ataupun sunset di laut dan sedikit bukit di tepian.
Mungkin as substitute kalau bekalan elecktrik terputus. Malaysia kan panas.

Gantungan di dinding.
1st plastic hook for keys-car, house, office... 2nd for ID card and colourful neck straps, matric card, Sure heboh Staff card, Lima 2001 exhibitor card, Pesta Buku 98 visitor card etc.. 3rd hook for kopiah, cap Pesta joran 2008, cap Barisan Nasional, cap Merdeka 1999 etc..

Did I left out any?

Saturday 26 July 2008

Britain's Got Talent

I was Youtub-ing the other day and found this.. Britain's Got Talent winner Paul Potts and the talented 6 years old, Connie Talbot. Ooh they were gorgeous! This is the audition episode. I always love the audition stage. Tak kisah la American Idol ka, "You think you can dance" ka..

So here goes..

Paul Potts

This is the first opera performance yang buat aku rewind banyak-banyak kali.

Connie Talbot

She is just adorable. Kalau kat Malaysia sure dia menang punya..all the makciks sure vote gila-gila!

Did they make your neck hair stand up?

Tuesday 22 July 2008

"Why do birds.." you know that song..

Hmm.. baru je hantar wife balik KL naik train..back to normal mode.. the same ol' thing... morning to work, home in the evening, sleep and on and on and on...anyway thanks Yang for lightening up my weekend..hope things won't be so busy in the office (doubt it!) so i can come home and see you more often.

Camera Gear

I'm back at "ciwi" mode with my new camera accessory. Guess what? Vertical Grip for my Sony A100! How cool is that? After long search through the internet, secara tak sengaja terjumpa depan mata..apa lagi! grab laa! Thank you (hate you) Credit Card! Sony A100 is already obsolete, plus compare to Nikon and Canon, Sony's accessory is very limited..lagi-lagi third party's.. From my research, there are only 2 vertical grips for Sony A100.. Korean made DiCain and the one in my possession, Taiwan made Ownuser. For a fast comparison, DiCain’s has only one battery slot, one shutter release and selling in ebay at RM1k plus. My Ownuser pulak, it has 2 battery slots (normally Vertical grips has 2- for back up) 2 shutter release and I bought that at only RM300 without postal fee and 7 working days of waiting. Ok, it does look a bit “plasticy” and cheap, but to hell with that! I’m no pro.. i’ll buy a better camera if I were one..hehe..what I need now, is another flash.. the one that can swivel unlike my HVL-36AM.. maybe the HVL-56AM or the new HVL-42AM..or the just released HVL-58AM..ooooh Gorgeous!!!! Nafsu nafsu.. Lets wait for ‘them’ to fall from the sky..


Movierama

Had few movie treats these last few days. Watched Hancock on Saturday (Batman was full house in Gurney Plaza), Lucky Number Slevin at Cinema Extravaganza D’Taman Murni and the Dark Knight (at last!) at Sungai Petani.

Hancock
Hmm..entertaining, another “Cinderella-ish” movie. Sleepo-meter – Wide Awake (Surprisingly!) The cuts of the “Assholes” and gaya dia terbang were really a turn-off. I give Hancock a handsome 2 out of 5, for keeping me wide awake.

Lucky Number Slevin

Yeah it is an old movie and I’ve been keeping it untouched in my DVD folder for quite some time. The reasons I got that were because 1, recommended by Abang a long time ago and 2, the Heavyweights starring in it- Morgan Freeman, Bruce Willis, Lucy Liu, Ben Kingsley etc. A definite 5 out of 5! I just love this kind of movie! Unexpected, unpredictable and a little twisted at the end. But I may say it is quite a Hindustani-like story line, bukan cinta and menari/nyanyi tu! The dendam kesumat ..agak Hindustan-ish

The Dark Knight
I’m not a fan of Batman. Not a fan of DC Comics although I like Superman. The main reason is Heath Ledger. Not because that was his last movie and all, I shall give my credits to the work of Heath Ledger as the Joker. Brilliant! He deserves to get an award for that!! Memang brilliant! 5 flat for the best Joker, a 4 out of 5 for the Dark Knight, also for keeping me wide awake. I don’t fancy the batmobile and the bat “kapcai”.. maybe memang dah standard Batman kot since the “Kapow! Blam!” version.

Thursday 17 July 2008

26 years young - 17 July 2008

Photobucket

Today I’m 26 years “young”. Alhamdulillah so far I’m blessed with a good life, a steady career, financially stable, showered with love from family and friends and happily married to a beautiful, caring, and understanding comrade. Heheh

Special thanks to my mom and dad. Apak and mak, I don’t think you’ll read this but I would like to say thank you very much. Thank you very very much. Thank you, thank you, thank you, and thank you. I’ll call you later to continue with my ‘thank yous’.
Abang. You are the best “abang” in the world! Thank you for being such a wonderful Abang!

I would like to take this opportunity also to thank everyone, the main casts, the extras, the villains, all of you out there for the precious education, experience, the TLC, hate and uhm..semua lah! Lihatlah dunia! Siapalah aku without all of you..

Ampun dan maaf atas segala kesilapan yang telah aku buat..sesungguhnya, aku hanya seorang insan yang lemah dan tidak boleh lari dari membuat kesilapan…cewaah.. no seriously, please forgive me for all my wrong doings..

Happy birthday to me…

p/s: my wife konon nak buat surprise datang Gurun, but lastly kena beritahu jugak because kalau tak beritahu, sapa nak pick up dia at the bus station at 3 am?? Hehehe Yang, thank you…

Wednesday 16 July 2008

July 2008

Sudah lama tidak ber-blog. Kehadiran isteri tercinta di rumah selama 3 bulan yang lepas telah mengisi masa lapang aku untuk tidak ber-blog. Ya, aku hanya aktif menulis blog apabila aku keseorangan dan sangap tidak tahu nak buat apa di rumah ni.

July 2008

So much happenings in the month of July! First and foremost, my first wedding anniversary last 7th. It was a blast! Mr. Jay gave us a wonderful anniversary present; a studio photo shoots session in his cool studio in kg.Pasir (kot). Heheh..thanks bro..


On the anniversary day, we went all over KL. First to VI (ada kerja sedikit), then to Gombak to take my baju raya (yes! baju raya ni!!!this year beraya di izza’s, so the family ada colour theme..first time my raya ada colour theme! Sebelum ni nak berbaju melayu pun susah..hehe) and next melepak di Bukit Bintang, Pavillion, Lot 10 and my favourite, Low Yatt. I surprised Izza with a romantic candle light dinner up at the “historic” revolving restaurant on the 18th floor of the Federal Hotel. Although at times the revolving platform jerks (mungkin mechanism dia dah lama kot), the scenic view, romantic ambient and the lobster set completes the night. Sayang the band plays on weekend je.

So macamana kehidupan setahun menjadi seorang suami? Honestly, tak rasa sangat..because most of the time i’m alone in Kedah and Izza in KL. But the last 3 months dapat la rasa sekejap. Morning ada breakfast, nak pi kerja, salam-salam and she will stand at the door, “bye-bye” and tutup gate. Sejuk je hati. Balik kerje pulak, salam-salam lagi, dinner dah ready, solat jemaah, lepak baring-baring depan TV, tidur...oh i miss all that! Susahnye bercinta long distance ni..


We have family birthdays as well in July! 9th is Apak’s and Papa’s birthday! My cousin, Jonathan and kalau tak silap my Pak Andak also on the 9th. 17th pulak, hehe sapa lagi..and Lissa too. Banyaknye birthdays on July. Oh my Tunang anniversary also in July! Ok thats too much..



Semalam 15th, Kedah was on holiday! Golden jubilee Sultan Kedah . Roslee and I took the opportunity to register our Masters at USM. With this student card, officially, i’m back as a “student”! Hahaa.! I was quite rebellious during my UiTM years. Baju serabai, student card tak pakai, kereta malas nak register resulting to few summons and was even sent to the “mahkamah” once for that and macam-macam lah (tak perlu cakaplah kan..). This time around, lepas dapat je kad student card tu, terus pakai, tak tanggal. Satu perasaan bangga pulak pakai. Bila dah kerja, baru sedar betapa bestnya jadi student. Menyesal je dulu tak buat kawan dengan student-student from other schools. Kalau nak belajar business, lepaklah dengan budak business, minat medic lepak dengan budak medic, engineers, law, architects and so on..lagi best, the library! I think selama 5 tahun kat UiTM, 10 kali je kot pergi library tu..sungguh kureng.. so my azam this time, melantak library secukup-cukupnya!!

Kawasaki ER-6N


Tested ER-6N yesterday. Oh boy! That 650 cc naked really made my mouth waters! It may not be the best among it’s class, but at RM29500, totally worth it! There are some styling issues especially the meter on top of the headlamp, it looks weird and funny from the front and the “round” shaped rear is quite a spoiler. The frame is cool but quite disappointing when the Malaysian version comes with only silver colour instead of the European version; gold frame for black body, red frame for silver body etc. For a beginner rider like me, the torque is overwhelming! Well i didn’t get to test the maneuverability, i guess the awesome tubular frame design with the rear mono shock may help to score that points. This is an entry level naked bike, so i don’t thing there is an issue with the standard fork instead of the popular inverted.
My verdict? At that price? Hell yeah!! Will i buy? Hell yeah!!(kalau gaji naik...hehe) RM500+ per month, RM1000+ per year for the maintenance (tyres, rantai,etc.) insurance and road tax lagi? At least another RM1000+..so..kalau cukup duit..belilah..

Our house


Our house dah nak siap!! Pintu dah pasang, tingkap, plaster, porch..wahh!! The water and electrical works je belum lagi..We have bought the lightings already. Cool design yet cheap!
Can’t wait to “SIM” up the house...ooh dah lama tak main the Sims..Next, grills and cabinets...and of course, furniture...


Till then..

Monday 7 July 2008

Our 1st Wedding Anniversary



thank you very much to Mr.Jay Ismail for our beautiful wedding anniversary shots! More pictures when i'm back in Gurun.

Yang, thank you..hope you'll enjoy the dinner tonight! :)