An ode to friendship

I am not really an extrovert person. Those who know me will beg to differ. My wife just recently had this idea of me being the big bully who loves to pick on the defenseless and makes fun of them. Then there are the dirty jokes/words/inferences I like to tell. Still, even with my public persona, I actually love to just sit at home. Writing, watching television series, read a book and sometimes, just sleep. And that's why I love travel. In a foreign setting, you rarely have to talk to other people except the companion you are with.

However, life has change a bit for me a few years ago. One was due to the social media environment in Malaysia. I started out as a blogger. I joined everything that were related to blogging. Meet-ups, events and such. It was fun and it helped me in my writing career. If not for blogging, my book will have been published in 2010. That year was one of the milestone of my life. A book and a second degree. I would never have guessed I have it in me. It was mostly thanks to my best friend, my wife.

After blogging, comes Twitter. I got to know more people. I crashed a few parties and even gatherings I don't think I was really welcomed but I made new friends. Friendships then become cliques and the rest as they say, if any biography is ever written of me, was history. We lost a few friends along the way. Some changed due to various reasons and we don't meet as much.

I don't really have lasting close friends in life except one who is now too busy with his own life and another who becomes my business partner. I rarely talk to the former anymore and the latter is someone I meet every day due to business. Close friend whom I confide everything? Just my wife. 

What I am trying to say here is that those friends I met on Twitter are now the closest thing to close friends that I have. I am writing this as for the past week they have been quite busy with work and life. When you have free time on your hands and you consider yourself a writer, you write. I am now appreciating the friendship we have as we currently are too busy to meet and discuss. I don't even need to say their names or what their profession is as when we are together none of these matter.

You always know that they are there when you want to have a laugh or want to be yourself. You will be made fun off. Be ridiculed. But you just can't stay away as you know they will always be there if you need them.

Here's to friendship. May it last into the next life.

2011 : The year I learned to love rice

Yep, am born and raised in Malaysia where the food is always partnered with rice. There are so many type of rice and the way it is cook that there Malaysia imported from so many countries. So, in a way, it is weird for me to just get acquainted with rice.

I am so not really into rice when my wife and I eat out that she would go to her mom's when she wants to really eat rice (which she always eat with sambal tempoyak, which I still hates). 

So, this year of 2011, I start to eat rice. A lot. Some are rice-based. Some are flour-based. You get the idea.

I want to say it was due to my wife. However, it was the making of a friend who loves to eat by the name of Jahabar. 

He loves to recommend places to eat and most of them consist of rice as its main dish. The beauty of it? All these places are well known to my wife. And we sometimes eat without the presence of others. Just the two of us.

Here are some of these rice places :

Three Seven and counting

Celebrated my birthday last week. A small affair like every year with just me and my wife. I don't harp about my birthday and actually hate celebrating it. However, my wife made it memorable all by herself. Here were the highlights :

Wife sent a balloon surprise early in the morning of my birthday

Wife brought me to dinner at Prime, a posh steakhouse in Hilton KL (she really knows my meat)

Wife took me to a spa the next day and we checked-in into JW Marriott KL where a cake awaited us

Had a tasteful dinner at a Luk Yu Tea House at Starhill Gallery

Drove back home on a rare sunny day at this time of the year

Had a simple lunch at home and spent 2 days holed up in the house

On Monday, was out in the newspaper in an article promoting my 1 and a half year book

Received a card from colleagues with sick sense of humour

All in all, I had a great birthday!!!

8803

8 years ago, after Asar, which then was nearly the same as now, at 4.45pm, I solemnized and officially become the man in someone's life. I was so nervous about going to the mosque from my kampung in Negeri Sembilan, I actually took a wrong turn to the highway. I had to detour nearly 20 kilometers away. I am not sure whether I ever told anyone, including the person I now called wife, about that tale. When it comes to the exact moment for solemnization, I don't think I had any problem, except due to the heat, I was sweating....

Just to commemorate the day 8803, which we have embedded in most of our plate numbers. 4 cars and counting.... One was written off due to an accident. One is being used by your sister. And two is still in our possession.

As this is Ramadhan, let us celebrate this anniversary with a quiet sahur later....

And reflect...

Obedient Wives Club wins?

Have you seen this YouTube video which is an evening show called The Evening Edition by BFM Radio? This show is where two or three guests will be interviewed about one topic which can be favoured by both or dissented by both or to make it more interesting, where these guests have opposite views. 

For this particular The Evening Edition, the panel consisted of the Obedient Wife Clubs which was represented by Dr Azalina Dato' Jamaludin, Marina Mahathir who represented Sister in Islam and Dr. Ahmad Farouk Musa from Islamic Renaissance Front. 

Let me put the question which has been debated and made jokes of by the social media community (which you can find through this Twitter link) : Did the Obedient Wives Club win here?

Now, let us look at the debate from a different perspective in point form :

1.  Is this a debate or an attempt to ridicule a person?
2. Shouldn't a debate like this has moderator(s) and then the same number of debaters, not one person against FOUR people who attempted to make her see the light?
3. Isn't Islam a faith? If one doesn't believe in a faith, why must it be question? Did Islam ridicule other people's faith?
4. Isn't there a bully here who couldn't accept another point of view and was not really debating?
5. Is the Obedient Wives Club for all or just for Muslim women and is it compulsory to all? Even I lack the one factor in being a male.

As you can see, I am kind of bias in my analysis.If you ask me why, it is simply that I hate a bully (much like those Public Service Announcement in radio stations about how we shouldn't bully people).

Whether I believe in the Obedient Wives Club, that is another question altogether. They have valid points and for would you believe that a majority of my Muslim friends have swayed to believe in the Obedient Wives Club causes. Surprisingly they are hardworking Muslim women who have through a lot when it comes to men.

Most of you will now go "Oh, really?"

Nur Kasih the Movie

It seems that I have been watching a few Malaysian movie these past few months. More than I usually do. Still getting use to it due to a new business I am involved with which deserves its own blogpost as it is actually a business dream which finally came true. I was ribbed about this business once but I am not into it big time. Let me make sure it is off the ground first before I tell the whole world about it.

So, Nur Kasih the Movie is another movie which I got to watch much, much earlier than the 19 Million fans (which the advertisement claimed had watched the television series). I can attest to its popularity as a household of two like mine, who never tuned in at all to the television series, know of its existence. So, it is no denying the fact, I was intrigued in watching a film about it.

Is it any good?

As a Malaysian movie, which is full of melodrama and love story, it does tug at the heart. Couple it with the sweeping vista of panoramic landscapes in Malaysia, Jordan and Saudi Arabia, it does make it into a movie.

Plotwise, there does stay true to the original storyline which made it famous in television. It also borrowed the storyline of another famous love story but I still would give credit to the scripwriter for making a great story greater. There is a complain about the usage of CGI but it didn't make it any less entertaining.

Tomorrow, 19th of May 2011, it is the first day the movie will be shown nationwide in Malaysia. I can predict it will be a successful movie. It has a twisted plot and it will bring tears to your eyes. There was a parody video from Youtube shown at the start of the movie during the premiere which actually rings true. Why not if you want to spend your money on a few other summer movies from foreign shore, treat yourself to a Made in Malaysia movie which is actually well worth the price of your tickets.

One more thing, if those who never watched the show and said it is all about polygamy, there is no trace of it in the movie.  

A 'new' anniversary

I wrote once in this blog, in this blogpost entitled : All anniversaries roll into one where I mentioned that for married couple there are only 3 dates which are important (not including any of the children's) to be remembered. The wedding anniversary. The birthdays of either one of the couple. That's it. All other anniversary become redundant. Unless you are those who really don't have anything to do except celebrate anniversaries.

But last year, my 'lovey' wife and I decided to add one more anniversary to our list.

I was the one who brought it up. 

It was like those 'declare' thingy you do when you were still young and you will tell your friends something happen between you and the girl you have been going out with. That 'thing' can be something from really declaring it, kissing, sleeping together or so many other ways you can think of when people decide they are now a couple.

For us, it was today. 9th February 2000 was the date that 'thing' happens. 

Nothing vulgar or anything but let that 'thing' be something kept between us two.

p/s : I was the one who forgets about it when today came. 

Here's to you, my love....

New Year in Sydney_1

We were there for their fireworks as we arrived on New Year's Eve 2011 and then the balance of our days were to explore the town we have never been to before. A lot of pictures which I will post later but here was the New Year Celebrations videos

1) At Darling Harbour at 9pm on 31.12.2010 :

2) At The Rock, the nearest outcrop to the Harbour Bridge and overlooking the Opera House in Sydney :

A simple memorable birthday celebration

I celebrated my 36th birthday last 27th October. It was a simple but memorable celebration.

 

Every year, I have to say I pity my wife. Trying to plan something memorable and surprising as in our own small way, we love to beat each other celebration. Meaning that we look for ways to surprise each other with the inventive way we can show our appreciation on a significant day for our other half. 

We are actually way past the surprise birthday party but I did once for her with her friends and she did it once with my friends. Both of us were surprised at the way it was done (I was totally surprised but discovered it 5 minutes before the event as 1 of the couple who are supposed to wait inside the karaoke decided to go and buy something and I caught them within the area).

So, this year, I appreciate all the small gestures my wife did as we did not have a one big celebration but a few of them. We had dinner with my wife's family at a place in Ampang where I was given this one big cake to blow candles. I can't remember the last time I actually blow candles. Then we celebrate it at home a bit later with those things married couple do. That was one memorable evening.

Then the next day, I had a birthday lunch with my staff as it was not just for me but for a few other October babies in the office. It was just a buffet lunch with no cakes or anything as that night we were going to a karaoke session at Red Box Puchong where they had cakes and all.

Before I joined that karaoke, I had a #makangang tweetup where I had chicken wings, just below my office area. 

Then, it was karaoke time where we arrived around 9pm where everyone is already enjoying themselves. We took pictures, blow the candles and cut the cake. That picture up there were all the October babies in my office except that guy in white is my Legal Assistant's fiance. Two cakes within 2 days. 

In short, it was enjoyable. Simple. And most importantly, with those I love and cherish...

How to cure fear of flight

My wife is afraid to fly though she has been on a flight alone from Malaysia to Frankfurt, Germany in 2005 all by herself. Thanks to me who was trying to cure her of flying. She is still afraid to fly and each time we are on a plane (which is every other month as we travel a lot), she will hold my hand and grip it really tight.

Meiying is on the let, seen here with Jerine

So, I did not take the offer by Meiying, a social media friend, who told me maybe I wanted to take my wife on a small plane flight all over KL for our anniversary. I told her again the same thing when I met her at the Social Media Club KL 2 weeks ago. However, she still invited me for a flight session with Reuben Lim who wants to create awareness for KL by Air which is offering these flights at affordable price. So, casually, I mentioned the invite to my wife, Nani, who immediately said "Yes!", without waiting for me to finish the sentence. It was kind of a surprise for me as she was so enthusiastic about it. I know I should have asked her earlier before we celebrated our anniversary but it is better late than never right?

Next thing I know, here are some pictures and videos to tell the story (notice that my wife is sitting in front, all excited and now she wants to do it all over again) :

The entrance to Sg. Besi Airport (it is a TUDM base)

Our fellow fliers that day (the excited looking girl is Claudia)

As it was near Merdeka day, flags were all over Royal Selangor Flying Club

Meeting Reuben for the first time (the guy in blue)

Nani and Jerine in the inside of RSFC

Signing our lives away to Reuben

Walking to the plane

The Cessna that we flew on

A still excited Claudia (she looked very different climbing down, whiter actually)

Reuben briefing us on the safety requirements

When it was our turn, Nani bravely sit at the front

Jerine and I were at the back

Some view from the plabe

Our lives in Nani's hands for about 30 seconds

Batu Caves

Safe landing

Here are some videos of our flight. The take-off (from inside the plane), the stunt that Reuben did (look out for Nani's scream near the end) and the smooth landing.

 

 

Here are some other blog posts by Meiying and Jerine about the flight :
 

Meiying : Private flight around KL
 

Jerine : I just died and went up to heaven
 

If you want more information, you can contact Reuben at le.aviateur@gmail.com or KL by Air Facebook page. Basically, their charges is RM600 per hour (our flight was just 20 minutes) if you fly using a Cessna (from Sg. Besi) or RM1000 per hour if by CR22 (from Subang airport).