This was 17 days ago...

The pictures above was taken on 11th and 13th November 2008. 13 days later, Suvarnabhumi International Airport in Bangkok was shutdown after being held under siege by anti-governement protesters. (read more here)

I just couldn't believe it!

We did plan to go to Bangkok around 25th Nov.. but after we discovered that Loy Krathong will be on the 12th, we felt that 11-13th Nov was the best date to go. Alhamdulillah, selamat pergi dan balik.

I just can't imagine if we are stucked there with thousands of other people. No flights out. Jadi la pulak Die Hard 5.0 - Taste of The Last Tom Yam.

We were just there taking pictures here and there. And running around thru out the terminal trying to stop at as many shops as possible while trying to make it for our flight and our gate, which as usual is at the end of the earth. Imagine Hillbillies meet Home Alone - the whole family going on vacation - late for their flights, kind of thing. When will I ever learn? It's 2 hours before flight.. not 20 minutes :P

The airport was huge! Lagi besar dari KLIA. The duty free shops pun best. Quite a number of major labels were there. Well, I hope everyone will manage to find their way back home amidst the chaos.

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Unlike Bangkok which had some kekecohan a couple of months before, I went to Bali with a clear mind. Macam takde apa-apa. Rupanya, the Bali bombers were scheduled to be executed. The news runs day in day out of how security was tighten and police were anticipating riots. Travel warning was issued all over the world. And yet, here we are right smack in the middle of action, satu hape pun tak tau.

Every morning while getting ready, we would listen to the TV. Hari ni cerita Amrozi makan apa, masuk bilik mana, kampung dia di mana, helikopter nak bawa mayat dia nanti landing kat mana la.. apa la.

Despite it all, things remain calm in Bali. In fact diaorang pun macam tak peduli with what's going on. News paper pun tak baca. Aku je beriya-iya nak beli Koran sebab nak baca pasal the execution. Beli la Bali Post ke apa tah.. sepatah haram pun aku tak paham. Sampai dah balik Malaysia pun, the execution has not been carried out yet. Again, alhamdulillah selamat pergi dan balik.

They were executed on 9th November. Innalillah. Whether what they did was right, or whether it is really Jihad, hanya Allah sahaja yang menentukan. As sad and unfair as it seems that lives were taken abruptly by the bomb that they planted, I just had a small thought - those who died were mostly party revellers at Paddy and Sari Club, at least take comfort of knowing that they were having real a good time before the bomb went off. They die happy.

Read more about it here and here

'Ground Zero' - Monument to remember those who perished during the Bali Bombing 2002

Sepagi di A1GP

Memang dah lama nak pergi tgk A1 GP ni. Ada la jugak once or twice dapat ticket free tapi malas nak pergi. Akan tetapi, coming into this race Malaysia team was in number one spot with 28 points. Wah wah wah.... walaupun aku tak pernah mengundi di pilihanraya, when it comes to sporting events - akak so the patriotic one.

We'll we got not one but 5 free tickets. Semua kat grandstand. If it's F1, dah ribu raban dah tu. Walaupun kerja the night before, I forgo my sleep and drove to Sepang Circuit with my dad, sister, brother and two nephews.

Aha.. so the very good, sebab orang tak ramai, parking murah and parking dekat pulak tu (tak macam F1). We got tickets for the whole 3 day shebang - from practise session on Friday to Feature race on Sunday. Since this is the first time (plus aku still kena keje malam tu), we agree to just watch the sprint race.

Mula-mula nak duduk depan Malaysia pit. Lepas tu gatal nak duduk kat starting line pulak. After half hour of taking pictures, the race is finally going to start. Yipeee. The boys are excited and gelak2 kan aku konon berlagak nak pakai ear plug. Sekali tu bila the engines are fired up, semua rasa macam telinga nak tercabut! Baru kau tahu labu! For the sprint race, after the first safety lap with the safety car, they will immediately sprint down the lane as soon as the safety car dives into the pit. Huyooo..everyone is on their feet now..adrenalin pumping....Come on Malaysiaaaaa...... here comes the car..camera readdyyy..... Ehhhhh tetiba ada tayar bergolek depan aku. Damn it! There's a 3 car pile up at the corner coming into the grandstand. Jealousnya orang yang duduk kat corner tu. Check out here for pictures of the crash.

The race came to a complete stop. Red flag out. Lorrrr. Team's that are out India, USA and tah sapa. The cars were totalled out and they had to bring out the cranes to pull the cars out. 15 minutes later, the race start again. All cars managed to clear out the first corner this time. The race is ONNN. Yeay Malaysia is now on 8th spot. From where I sit, I can see the straight line in front of the pit right down to the first corner, as well as the naik bukit part behind the pit area. So we were counting the cars to see Malaysia no berapa. Eh... mana pergi the yellow car ni? Looorrrrrr Malaysian car picked up a puncture pulak and was limping to go back to the pit. There goes the race. Malaysia ended up in 15 spot, way out of the point positions.

Walaupun kecewa, we had a great time. Keluar tu ada pulak rows of Lotus and Ferari. Apa lagi posing time people! We had lunch and went back to catch the feature race pulak. Maybe it's not Malaysia week. We lost the lead as the team ended 10th in the feature race. Malaysia was in position for a podium finish, tapi biasak la.. ada mis comms pulak, the driver went into the pit when the crew was not ready for him. So salah sapa tu?

Whatever pun, next year nak pergi lagi (with free tickets of course :))

To read more about A1GP racing format, click here

Ida & Tania - I salute you!

I owe a lot of people apologies. Some of it I admit I was wrong, some of it I hope no one will ever brought it up ever again. But this time around, I was wrong and I should apologize. I'm admitting it and I'm writing about it in this blog.

Boy... I was WRONG. with captital W!

When I first saw that Ida Neria and Tania will be the contestant of the TARA3, my first thought was "Hek eleh... takde ke orang lain?". Then I saw their 'description' - Heiress?! Takde yang lebih sombong lagi ke? I was happy that there's another Malaysian team to root for. I was sure that they will be out by the 3rd leg. Ni mesti jadi team yang asyik nak kena kutuk aje for being diva nanti. Don't get me wrong. I have nothing but admiration and respect for Ida as an actress. No one can be a better Ena Manjalara Wagiman. Tapi tak boleh imagine macam mana dia nak race nanti.

Sekali tu bila dah start race. I'm pleasantly surprise that they were very very good. All task was executed without much complaint or unnecessary squable. Takde nak dengki2 orang. They manage to come in 1st on a few leg. At some points, they are more tougher than the guys. They rarely get lost. And yang paling penting, they are always happy. And take things light - making them to be the most enjoyable team to watch. Paling tak boley lupa Ida Nerina sempat nak beli Merinda Oren from a boat lady walaupun dah penat dayung sampan. A true Malaysian! Apa-apa hal, mesti soru dulu.

It really broke my heart when they did not manage to board the plane in Oman. Satu Malaya kecewa! The other two teams were just lucky. Langsung tak deserve to win. Satu team tu lemau, satu team pulak ada 5 year old yang degil tak nak dengar kata. Aku gelak gila tengok si 5 year old yang insist nak pikul treasure chest tu sorang2 though the girl friend offer nak tolong bawakkan. If they were head to head on that final leg in Phuket, perhaps Ida and Tania would have been the champion.

Hopefully there will be TARA - All Star, and Ida and Tania would be competing in it.

Perasan tak, so far Malaysian team mesti dapat top 3. Indeed Malaysia Boleh!

More interesting read about TARA at http://www.izadsyah.com/cp/

Where Do I Begin?

Where do I begin
To tell the story of how great a love can be
The sweet love story that is older than the sea
The simple truth about the love he brings to me
Where do I start

Yes. Where do I start? ... No. Ini tiada kaitan langsung pasal cinta or cerita Cinta, Ayat-Ayat Cinta, Ada Apa Dengan Cinta or Selamat Pagi Cinta. I'm so behind with updating me blog. Cerita semua dah jadi basi.... takde inspirasi betul nak menulis.

Sighhhhhhhh.

Let's take a breather and listen to LOVE by Joss Stone. Talented! Soulful! Best banget!Tak tau la macam mana nak cakap.

This LOVE rendition by her was used in Channel - Coco Mademoiselle (a younger version of Channel no 5) tv ads (staring Keira Knightley : vomit) in 2007.

Kencangkan sabuk pengaman anda...

The first time I saw this notice I seriously thot it meant 'kuatkan aircond anda' or something like that. Only after my friend pointed out... it meant "fasten your seat belt.. (or how the pilot announced it "please fasten your shitbelt"..) Hahahhahahah. Ok aku memang jahat.

Those who have been on Air Asia flight to Indonesia would have seen the sign behind each seats. Amazingly, most mat salleh can easily learn bahasa Indonesia rather than bahasa Malaysia. Here' a few phrases that caught my eye while I was in Bali, 2 weeks ago..

The sign above actually says : Ngobrol Tanpa Batas. Bahasa Melayu: Cakap Tanpa Had?

Easy one. Bahasa Melayu: Tandas or dikenali dengan lebih mesra, jamban.

I have no idea what's this in BM. Sebab selalu baca yang english aje. I think it's Tuntutan Bagasi (kot?) in Bahasa Melayu.

How sweet. Hilang dan Temu. Yang ni pun aku tak tahu dlm BM apa. Tah-tah Los and Faun. English word yang diMelayukan. I can't find anything in Google.

Pilihan Lelaki? Gentleman's Choice

Hahahaha I sneaked in a snap of this t-shirt. Anak no 4: Ketut. Anak no 2: Nyoman. Aku gagal nak ingat apa panggilan utk anak sulung or anak no 3.

Ambik kau. Bergayut la sepuas hati. 17 hours of free talk time I suppose.

This is my favorite! You do not need any PTPTN or FAMA scholarship to use it. Tandas Percuma!

Where's the Love? It's not enough...

Remember Hanson? From the Mmmmbop fame? Heheheh. Maybe most remember them for being 3 young brothers, with the cute one on the drums. Well I remember them for this song - Where's the Love. It's has this teenage lollipop kinda of sound. It's a real pick me upper song.

It was a big hit when I was in Uni. One semester it was played on the air every morning while we were getting ready for class.

I'm dedicating this to a friend who's celebrating her 30th Birthday today! Here's to you Kak Non. Semoga panjang umur, murah rezeki dan tak cirit birit di Siam Paragon! Hahahahhaha

Something has been going on and I don't know what it is
You don't mind the taking girl, but you don't know how to give
You drove me crazy but I don't know baby
You're thinking that it's me you're fooling
Where's the right in, all of our fighting?
Look at what you're doing
Where's the love
It's not enough
It makes the world go 'round and 'round and...
Where's the love
Just give it up
It makes the world go 'round and 'round and 'round
Can you tell me what you see whenever you look around?
We're tripping all over ourselves and pulling each other down
We're separating, consciousness is fading
Are you thinking that it's me you're fooling?
Where's the right in, all of our fighting?
Look at, look at, look at what we're doing

(Repeat Chorus)

Dark clouds all around, lightning, rain pouring down
Waiting for the bright light to break through
Face down on the ground
Pick us up at the lost and found
We've got to change our point of view, if we want the sky blue
We're segregating, consciences are fading
You're thinking that it's me you're fooling
Where's the right in, all of our fighting
Look at what we're doing

(Repeat Chorus)

Won't you, won't you give it up

5 years?!

3rd Nov - tak perasan that it's already been 5 years that I'm at my shell picking and cleaning job.
Hark! If ada rezeki to be here for another 5, i hope it's a good one. Amin.