Cuci The Musical 2

We got free tickets! Good seats, somewhere in the front rows, very close to the stage. Sweet! My sister already saw the first one which had AC in it, and she said that it was great. So I went that night with a bit of high expectation.

My verditc? Boleh la. The chemistry between the four guys was no doubt great. The jokes however, were suam-suam kuku je. The funny thing was actually seeing the guys struggled to keep a straight face every time they deliver their line. Once or twice some of them just burst out laughing. Memang lawak.

However, it was a tad too long. 2 hours. There were a few touchy feely, lovey dovey scenes that I think could be cut short. There was even a scene where the heroine was dancing with her father. During the scene where the romantic pair was suspended up in the air, I hope that they did not see my bored-pretend to be interested-fighting a yawn face. I looked around and saw that some folks were actaully buying it, so I suppose it does work for some.

It's a bit worry that came intermission, I was only too eager to check out the concession stand. What a lovely suprise. I always thought that the food would be expensive. A packet of peanut was only 50 cents. And the nicest egg sandwich that I had for a long time, was only RM2. Drinks were around RM1.50 I think. I have been to Istana Budaya for a number of performances, and this is the first time that I actually ate something during the break... so let's not dwell further how I really find the performance then.

Whatever it is, I still think that Malaysia could do with a lot more teater performances,and this one is a good attempt and a commendable effort, least to say.

Believe it or not, this is my 5th time writing this entry as I somehow keep on accidentally deleting them. Arghhh ada hantu ke apa.

Score!

First goal for Liverpool. 27 seconds into the match. Well done!

Circle in The Sand

'Round and round
Rising of the moon as the sun goes down
And you complete the heart of me
Our love is all we need - Belinda Carlisle

This is one of my favorite part of my stay in Qatar. Ima and Man, brought me and my colleague out for an afternoon at the sand dune. It's a singing dune. Supposedly the wind will produce an echo or sound against the dry sand around the dune. (Read more here). Unfortunately, takde pulak bunyi-bunyian hari tu.

I discovered a few things here 1. The sand is very smooth and it's very nice to bury your feet in 2. The harmless looking plant in the desert is not so harmless after you get its torn stuck on your feet. 3. I'm so out of shape, and climbing the sand dune almost cause a cardiac arrest. 4. Sliding down the steep dune is loads of fun.

Another activity out in the desert or dune, is dune bashing. I thought it's more suitable to call it car bashing as you are actually bashing your 4 wheel drive rather than the dune. Lucky us because we were invited by this local guy who was bashing the dune (so to speak) and seemingly bored, alone.

With little English, he call us over. No problem. No problem. Come. Come. He introduced himself and me feigning ignorance, shook his hand. He had the smoothest hand! I can see that he was a little shocked but kept his cool. Hehehe.. I'm so gonna burned in hell. So in we climb into his Prado Cruiser. He put his car in gear and off we go. We being me and my colleague. Up and down, zig zag, 45 degrees tilt, 60 degree climb and what not. At one point I almost hit the roof as the car bounced up and down the dune.

The guy didn't know much English. He asked my colleague if we are brothers and sisters. I wanted to answer yes to end further query. But my colleague sibuk jugak nak explain that we are officemates, colleagues bla bla bla. I can see that he is so confused. Apa benda pulak officemate tu. Aku dah risau dah... bila la pulak mamat ni nak keluar hujah-hujah...Not muhrin? Haram!!! So, went he dropped us off, I quickly jumped out from the car, after thanking him. Lupa pulak nak posing dengan dia. Heheheh. It was good fun. I wish I could drive the car myself though.. heheh. Below is the picture that I managed to snap while we were dune bashing.

We managed to stay a bit to see the sunset. To those camera buff, the photo op is to die for. I hope I could come back after I learn how to capture pictures properly :) To Ima and Man, thanks a million for this great experience. Below is a few of my favorite shot from the afternoon.

Klutz Cop

A few trips outside of the country, on board a plane, doesn't warrant me to become a savvy traveller. I would very much like to, but no, I keep on failing tremendously. I wish a few practise would make it better, less nerve racking or at least a low ball ok.

I wish I was like that Clooney's character Up in the Air. He has mastered the art of checking in and out. Sighhh....Till now, there's always something... tiny or big, keeping me from the satisfying...ahh that went smooth. I now compare the period of checking in on a flight to part of passing security and immigration and, boarding the plane and actually sitting in my seat on the plane... as well as the reverse ie getting off the plane, getting my luggage and passing thru the immigrations as a game of Virtua Cop 2. Do you know the shooting game at the arcade? It's loads of fun (still have it on my pc :)). At the end of the game it will rate what kind of cop are you. The worst would be Klutz Cop. The way the low toned voice said Klutz Cop, serious macam failure.

I would like it very much to get out of the rut, and stop being a Klutzzz Copp.

Here's why:

1. Late boarding the plane - I have done this a few times. I don't know why. I don't know why I subject to running to the boarding gate. Perhaps watching the Home Alone scene where the whole family was late and running all over the airport have subconciously make me do these things. There was one time that the ground crew were holding out signage and urging us to hurry up. Naturally we were the last to board the plane. Why late? My friend was trying to figure out how we can sneak in a tube of cream which were forbidden on the plane post 9/11.

2. Overload baggage - Done and done. The airline are making a small fortune out of me paying excess baggage fee. Damn it Malik! I couldn't think of any trip that I did not come back with excess baggage. What's wrong with me? My poor luggage, my poor arm. 4 days trip pun boleh excess, apatah lagi 2 months trip. Here's Ija posing with my bags when I came back from Doha. It was towering me, sampai orang tak nampak aku. Ya Allah, bantulah hamba mu ini.

3. Visa - Almost did not make it to Sydney sebab takde visa. O.M.G.

4. Screwed Up Online Booking - well, it's not the booking that got screwed up, it was actually my credit card. Note that some airline will verify your booking via the credit card that you used for the booking. Of course. But did you anticipated that your credit card company was going to issue you a new card (with a different number naturally) because they wanted to upgrade your limit? Of course you would drop the old card like a hot coal and didn't bring it on the trip. I had such a great time at Changi trying to convince that this is my booking, please issue me a boarding pass already. I ended up having to purchase a new set of tickets and wait for the airline to refund my old booking. Whatever, aku hendak pulang ke tanahair ku please.

5. Hell Ride to airport - There was once, thinking that we could be economical, we take a ride on the bus to the airport. Only not to have it broke down, but it was actually on fire. Serious tidak tipu. The engine was blowing out smokes ok. The driver made everyone evacuate immediately and he had the fire extinguisher in his hand. Nasib baik it happen near hentian duta. We had the luxury of dragging our luggage a good 100 meter ke.. and find a cab to continue to the airport. Exciting!

6. Losing your booking information - You did print them out, but you don't know where you put it. But actually you don't really need them because the check in counter, could double check with your pasport. Well that is if you are in Malaysia. But if you are in let say.. Bandung? You are not even allowed to step into the airport without the printed booking information. Nice. Oh wait, all is not lost. They do have a special counter to help you to get print outs. Not everyone has printers at home (or in the office), right? But still without the booking number it can still be a hassle to search your booking. Arghhhhh.

7. Wrong Terminal - "Ya, pesawat apa ya?" "AA" "Ya terminal yang ini". Terminal ini untuk domestik sahaja... internasional terminal sana. Sana mana? Sana 3 batu dari sini. Harambejadah.

8. Failed security check - Of all the screwed ups, this is to date the most crazy one. It saps all of my energy and most probably some of the joy from the actual trip. Hong Kong. As usual, we came with 2 luggage and going back with 6 (including hand carry and what nots). Somehow, ironically, I don't know why that particular day I was intrigued to read the warning signs about prohibited items on board a plane. There's something about 100ml liquid. I mentally went thru my hand luggage... Nahhh all of my stuff are still new and unopened. Should be ok. So we went to the check in counter, again the clerk ask us if there's anything in our hand luggage that shouldn't be here. We said nahhh.

We arrived early at the airport. Planning to window shop (as usual). We even lounged around, sempat makan nasi goreng tapau dari muslim restaurant that morning. We checked in at terminal 2, and the boarding gate is somewhere in terminal 1. It's a good 1Km walk if I say so. We made it to the security check before the immigrations, and had to go thru the metal detectactor. This is where things starts to go south. Beep Beepp... damn, it's my belt. I had to step aside and being frisked by a policewoman. Benci aku. Shit, in that a few minutes span.. I knew that they had the time to scrutinize the contents of my hand carry. As soon as I got back to my bag the guy ask me to open it. Shit. Stay calm. I take my own sweet time to look for the keys to my padlock which annoyed the guy a bit (heh). Finally, I unzip my bag.... and the guy start to dig around. What's this? I told them, it's Mak Jakob perfume, still in it's box, unopened. Then he dig further... Oh this one cannot... straight to the bin. Babi! I was saving that. It's the mineral bottle from the casino in Macau.. shaped like a liquor bottle. Tak sempat nak argue, he found something else. F*c*k! I totally forgot all about this! I just bought a set of my 3 steps cleanser and each one of them are 100ml items. Lupa gila. Dah la aku sumbat masuk dlm baju kotor... bertaburan segala underwear. Maam, you cannot bring this. I know I'm licked. So I asked the guy, what am I suppose to do now? You can still check this bag in. I have to go all the way back to the check in counter? Yes. SIGHHHHHHH...

By then, my sister already passed thru. So I asked him, can she come with me. No. Aiyo. He took my details, and pass me back my passport. He then, the humiliation of it all, escorted me all the way to the end of the hall, out via small side door. Kena escort macam pendatang haram tanpa izin. F@#!@#$%%%$$#@!!! I had to run all the way back, to the check in counter which is might as well be in another continent. Can I check in another bag? Yes.. but it will be counted as excess baggage, so you have to pay. I was too angry with myself to remember what is the ammount. As far as I'm concern, it is now more expensive that what the 3 steps set should be. A little comfort though, coz there's a guy at the next counter arguing that he now can be bringing in his deodarant spray or something like that coz the person that checked him in earlier had asked him to remove some of his belonging from his bag as it was a tad over the weight limit. Arghhh, as much as I would like to see this guy went all out to vent his anger, I had to rush back to the other terminal, pass the security people again and get my pastport stamped. After that board a train to take me to yet another terminal ... not before going down a 3 flight escalator. Then had to search for my sister.. only to realize.. alamak credit dah habis. Arghhhh... finally managed to reach the gate with a few minutes to spare.

Window shopping? That went out of the window. The irony of it all... the 3 steps were also sold at the airport, and I could've just bought it at the terminal and bring it on board. So let me see.. I can't bring the same set of stuff that I just bought , unopened, pass the security to bring it on board, but if I buy it from the terminal, right after the security check and I could bring them onboard? Who created all these paranoia? We will die someday at the precise moment that god have decided.

All I could hear was... Klutzzzz Copp. Klutzz Coppp.

Klutz Bloody Cop.

This Never Happened Before

So far the holidays have been great. I planned to laze around the house and watch all the movies that I have been 'collecting' in Doha. I have had several marathons finishing Glee, How I Met Your Mother (3 season over a weekend!), and an assortments of old (uncensored Sweetest Thing.. hahahha!) and a handfull new movies. I would recommend you to watch Single Man if you could get your hands on the DVD. Vair, vair chic despite the sad and ironic storyline.

And.. I watch Lake House again last night. Best gila cerita ni. So best that I will ignore how merepek it is that there's a magic mailbox that allow people to exchange letters across time. I will also ignore how kayu Mr Reeves in this movie. It got me thinking, there's so many romantic (comedy or tragic) love stories out there, which one is really my favorite? My favorite being the ones that I would recommend people to watch it (or force them to watch with me :P heheh).

Well, there's the Tom and Meg's collection, the Sandra's collection, the Julia's collection, Hugh Grant's and bla bla bla. I googled and see what's out there. Of course there's Titanic (cringed 100x, though I went to see it 3 times! 3 times! what the heck was I thinking). Jerry 'You had me at hello' Macguire (boleh la). Legends of the Fall (yes, this is crazy tragic.. tapi tah kenapa aku mcm hangin dgn Tristan dlm movie ni). Harry Met Sally (boleh la.. but not a big fan though). When a Man Loves a Woman (sakit jiwa sial tgk cerita ni). And of course, there's the endless list of classic that I have never watched: Love Story, Breakfast at Tiffany's etc etc.

So here's my personal favorite, in no particular order. Lazed the weekend away :)

1. The Notebook - Gila babi sedih, babi pun tak sedih macam ni. Sampai sekarang aku tak berani nak tengok lagi sebab takut ternangis sampai demam, kena MC... (hmm maybe it's not a bad idea :))



2. Love Actually - it has everything (granted that it was written by Richard Curtis who wrote Four Weddings and a Funeral & Notting Hill :)). I lobes it so much that I have a book that contain all the lines, scenes and photos from the movie. My favorite would hands down be Jamie and Aurelia.

3.Priceless (Hors de prix) - I've said it and I will say it again. Cerita ni best. Tres bein as the French say it. Fullstop. ( I think I have blogged about this before tapi tah bila)



4. Little Manhattan - If you didn't go awwww after watching this, watch it again.

5. The Lake House - as I mentioned before, though the storyline is merepek.. it was rather sweet and touching. And I love it even more... because it has this great song by Paul Mccartney.

This Never Happened Before - Paul Mccartney

i'm very sure
this never happened to me before
i met you and now i'm sure
this never happened before

now i see
this is the way it's supposed to be
i met you and now i see
this is the way it should be

this is the way it should be for lovers
they shouldn't go it alone
it's not so good when you're on your own

so come to me
now we can be what we wanna be
i love you and now i see
this is the way it should be

this is the way it should be

this is the way it should be for lovers
they shouldn't go it alone
it's not so good when you're on your own

i'm very sure
this never happened to me before
i met you and now i'm sure
this never happened before (this never happened before)
this never happened before (this never happened)
this never happened before (this never happened before)

Kim defends her title

As much as I was looking forward to last year's US Open final repeat (between Wozniacki and Clijsters), this year's final looks promising as well. Vera Zvonareva seeded 7 defeated Wozniacki in the semis. This is her 2nd Grand Slam final this year after losing in Wimbledon to Serena Williams. What's interesting is that she even beat Clijsters at Wimbledon. Hmmm.... menakutkan ni. Tough luck to her though, as the game unfolds, her nerves never settle... and hey who can beat Kim in her power splits anyway.

6 -2, 6 -1, Kim goes home 2.2 mil richer. Hebat!

p/s: what happen to Dinara Safina?

Berlalulah sudah Ramadhan...

Selamat Hari Raya

Maaf Zahir & Batin

Special shout out to 1. Brader Razak from Pesta and Mak Nani Roti Jala from Bukit Pasir. Without uols, maka kebuluq la kami sekeluarga. (Bawah ni gambar Roti Jala, sepingan RM3 je!)

2. Juga tak ketingalan pada orang yang masih buat old school kuih sugee :)

3. Wishing Amirah and Anis - Happy Birthday!

Last sekali, baik-baik bila main mercun yang bosan raya ni.

Seriously?

Seriously? .... Seriously?

This is not about Grey's Anatomy. What's with the series anyway? I lost count many people have been dating George.. Or is George still in the show. Or has Cristina been out with George.. now that they should totally explore. Don't even start with Meredith. I think she should be with the plastic surgeon. Brain surgeon too goody good shoes. Blerghhh.

Anyway, this is not about them. This is about my recent (well.. maybe a few weeks back) encountered with a rather rare species of some kind of human being. The term rare might imply that this person is delightful and interesting, but no. It's the total opposite. Seriously, I did not think that I would ever meet such person. Lucky me!

I was at the movies. Watching Inception. We got free tickets I think. I have heard so much about the movie, and was looking forward to what the evening will bring. Besides, a big fan of Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Ellen Page.

We arrived late and the movie hall was already dark. We got a seat on Row B on the right side. There were four seats, we sat near the wall next to a couple. The boyfriend sat next to me, while the girl sat on the outside. The movie started... and soon I was engrossed. I was really concentrating hard. The movie had so many twist and turn and what not... you really need to focus to understand. Interesting with capital I. And helllooo...the British dude named Eames.. had me hanging on every accented word that comes out from his mouth.

I started to realize that something was not right, when Ellen Page appeared. I swear I heard someone gush! And it's not a guy! And by the way the girl in my row kept on turning to the back row, I deduce as much that she's friends with the whole gang on the back row. And.. OMG, suddenly it hits me. They like worship this actress and must think that Juno is the best movie ever.. and I bet.. I bet.. they all are wearing sneakers... and wish that they know how to play guitar.. know about all about the indie bands and whatever. Basically... they want to grow up to be her. Hey, I'm cool with that. I do agree that she's a talented person... but seriously, do it own your own time, in own your home.

Anyway.. the gushing did not throw me off balance as much. I was still into the movie, crunching the numbers and processing all the bits and pieces of info. Then we hit the first dramatic scene in the movie... Only then I realized, something is reallyyyy wrong. I think the scene in the movie was something to do with structures vibrating and shaking..... it was so real.. that I realized...eh, my seat is shaking as well. What gives?

It was shaking violently.. as if a monkey was jumping up and down the seats. It woke my sister from her slumber. And we looked at each other puzzled. I stole a glance to my left.. ya rabbi... memang there's a monkey jumping up and down on the seat. Would you believe that the girl in row... was so dramtically 'scared' of what's going to happen next, I think she was actually perching on the arm rest between the seats, hiding her face in her boyfriend's shoulder. "Oh no... I can't watch.. I can't watch.." Turn right... Oh noo.. noo... Turn left. Hug me. Hold me. Damn right the jantan will hold you. At the end of the night, seriously, the dude really had some action going. Bro, don't tell me.. while you were holding her.. you did not slip a grope or two.

It gets better. Now Leo on the screen gets all mushy and teary. Nice. Agitated monkey now turns on the waterwork.... silently sobbing and blowing her nose. Silent my ass. I can hear you damn it. Out come ..awww 'you poor thing' hug from the boyfriend, only to be pushed away by crying drama queen... Dude, the girl is concentrating. Please.

I lost count how many times I rolled my eyes heavenwards.

My sister who's now fully awake, start to curse in low tone. Hoping that the agitated, sobbing drama queen monkey would just cut it out.

Would monkey cooperate?

Of course not.

Here comes the 'make it or break it' scene.... Thank you mr director that you have to make it a super slow mo scene. So slow mo.. that the monkey becomes agitated again. Ohh I can't look.. Is it over?. Is it over? ... I think in the end she might have ended in her boyfriend's lap. I dare not look, because I'm afraid that I might bitch slap her. The scene was so intense.. everyone was on the edge of their seats.. I could hear the backrow totally holding their breath... the monkey squeezing the boyfriends scrawny hands....Then, I started to giggle. Hahahahha. I purposely suppressed my gigle so hard into the seat that now.. it's shaking. I said to my sister... I swear.. I swear.. one of these idiots are so going to stand up and give a standing ovation after this movie. Now my sister join in the laughing fit as well. To the other patrons.. we apologies from the bottom of our heart, but this is revenge!

Ahhhh.... now it's all over. All is ok. Leo is hero. Whatever. Then the movie cuts into the last scene.... and poooff..screen went blank. It's a clifthanger. Instead of a standing ovation, I was welcomed with.. OHH my goddd... how could they do that. Oh no.... moan moan moan.

I have not had such bad experience at the movie as I had that night. And sadly it was at one of the great movies. Bugger!

I wanted to hang around and see if there's any extra scene after the credit rolled out... but I can't stand another minute listening to the Juno cheerios dissecting the last scene.. and having what they thought of intellectual conversation. Do you remember when you were in Uni and all movies needs to be discussed over, right after watching it. Which part you like... which part you hate....Yes, Cringe factor!

Bila dah tua ni.. all you want to do is kencing and go home after movies. Who cares who did what and who did not do what.

Parents to agitated monkey, please prevent your daughther from watching movies... not until she learned that it's not cute to pretend to be an emotional wreck in public and it's bloody selfish to do so.. because it's disturbing others.

As they did not budge from their seats, I just said to them in my sarcasm tone, "Tak nak balik ke?" They got up from their seats, and let us thru. I really supressed the urge to tell the girl, "Dik don't get your seluar dalam twisted over this movie. Leo is one happy millionaire, while you worry over him. You want dissapointment? Wait till you start working and get your year end scorecard. This is not scary. Scary is doing your tax return"

Sighhh... the blissful ignorance of youth... but why do you have to sit next to me?

Seriously?