The One With The Spanish Armada 

* Disclaimer : This post is related on football.. non-footie fan.. u may just skip.. :P *

When Wenger and Houllier started to manage Arsenal and Liverpool consecutively, the league began to flood with French players.. most remembered names would be Barthez, Blanc, Sylvestre, Desailly, Vieira, Makelele, Djorkaeff, Pires, Henry.. Like naming the whole French national team; only without Zidane.. According to Premierleague.com, all-time history of the 12-years-and-counting English Premier League recorded 126 frenchmen (including profilic Cantona and Ginola) ever played or still playing in any of 38 teams that ever reached the top flight of English Football league, the third highest behind English(1237) and Scottish(130) of course..

When Gullit started to manage Chelsea, he tried to influence the team with his Italian connection.. mobbed by famous Zola, Di Matteo and Vialli.. However.. Italians failed to invade EPL since their national team would not give a call-up to any players play in other league except their Serie A..

Frenchs, Germans, Dutchs, Brazillians.. most of them found themselves easily adapted in the league.. except for Spanish.. before season 2003/2004.. less than 5 Spanish ever played in EPL.. Marcelino for instance, signed for Newcastle but didn't play a single Premier League game for almost two years which later got his service terminated and headed back to his home country..

Then, when Wenger poised to splash a record-breaking £17m for Jose Antonio Reyes from Sevilla in order to help his previous free-signing Cesc Fabregas to settle in EPL, everything went the other way around.. This 2004/2005 season, the two wonder boys made a huge impact.. Reyes scored in every game while 17-year-old Cesc produced strings of assists.. made everyone forgotten about the inexistance of currently-injured Vieira from the team.. As for Liverpool, newly appointed manager Banitez already signed Josemi, Nunez, Xabi Alonso and Luis Garcia.. Bolton have ex-Madrid players Campo and Hierro, even Sir Fergie copied Wenger move by signed Gerrard Pique from Barca (whom yet to play any game)..

As for today, 13 Spanish recorded their name in the EPL history book.. Banitez and Wenger are still keen on signing many others.. this year would be a new era of EPL which brings to much greater excitement for all footie-fans, I bet..

p/s : Ironically, Camacho of Real Madrid signed two more englishmen, Owen & Woodgate for his side..

The One With The New Settlement? 

Trivia : Where do Arabs go for shopping?

I guess eversince 9/11, Arabs don't get their chance to visit the States, Aussies or UK.. So, where do they head to? Suria KLCC..

A friend of mine who's working in KLCC asked me a week before that regarding this matter.. i just couldn't care less.. I thought it was just a normal view.. We haven't been to KLCC a lot lately since OU and Midvalley are just around the corner.. With some particular reasons, (going to Mothercare biggest outlet to be precise) we went there last Wednesday.. I was damn surprised.. There were a Lot of Arabs.. a Lot with capital L.. From those with purdah, hijab and even some with hanging bellies.. Some you only could see their eyes, some you could see their pierced belly-button.. you couldn't pretend not to notice.. they were everywere.. seriously everywhere..

I wonder.. Where do they stay? Are they creating their new settlement over here? Like those africans in Bukit Bintang & Chow Kit area? Do they come here legally?

Well, in a way.. Suria KLCC has achieved its objective to attract tourists from all over the countries visit our so-called great country.. which also contributes to nation income and gives a big boost towards economy growth..

Looking from another way however.. I think KLCC is no longer relevant to be an attraction for Malaysian ourselves.. For both of us especially.. we went there, straight to Mothercare.. looked for some nice stuff for our little one.. had an 'expensive' dinner at its half renovated foodcourt.. (The last time we had Nasi Dagang with Ayam percik for around RM 5.50.. that time, they charged us RM7.. RM3.50 for Nasik Dagang kosong with telur.. Ridiculous..).. and stopped a couple of minutes at ISETAN and went back.. we managed to spend approximately 1 hour and 13 minutes only.. (how we know for exact? every now and then we were conscious on the parking rate.. :P)

For no certain reason.. we definitely not going there.. How about you?

ps: Harian Metro published stats here

The One With The 1.5" TV 

Does anyone here finds it's cool to watch TV on a 1.5" screen? No.. no.. not 15".. it is 1.5"..

If you do, 'all' you have to do is.. Make sure u live in Klang Valley, buy a Nokia 6230 which cost around RM1.8k, or other brand that support EDGE (currently u dont have any other choice).. subscribe to DiGi postpaid / prepaid.. pay VoD subscription fees of RM14.50 per month (on top of yr monthly bill).. and.. volla.. u can watch TV via ur tiny-weeny handphone's screen..

Oh BTW.. I forgot to mention.. U may only watch live broadcast of a non-24-hours show NTV7, and some delayed telecast of TV3 and 8TV thru Video on demand..

Still sounds cool?

Ref : Siaran TV di telefon bimbit RM14.90 sebulan

The One With Malaysians' Math 

I'm pretty sure u would have experiencing something like this before..

Scene : A roadside stall

Seller : Hi, good morning. What's for breakfast young man?
Young Man : Hmmm.. can I have one fried rice, hmmm with fried egg please..
Seller : Ok.. anything else..
Young Man : How much is this kuih?
Seller : Three for RM1 only, son..
Young Man : Hmm.. I just take one then..
Seller : So.. RM1.50 for fried rice, plus one kuih.. RM1.80..
Young Man : I think I want to take another one of this kuih.. How much?
Seller : RM2.20 ...

I just dont get it.. they are selling 1 kuih for 30¢.. but it will be RM1 for 3.. even worse 70¢ for 2.. Hmm.. well.. probably they actually rate one for 35¢.. since it isnt easy to provide a 5¢ balance and 40¢ for one sounds too expensive.. they just override the 5¢.. BTW how many would really care, do you?

p/s: That 'Young Man' never buy more than one kuih ever since..

The One With The All-In-One Card 

I read on one article in Computimes, MyKad: A step towards cashless society.

Excerpt :

"If then we have to carry at least four cards, namely IC, driving licence, ATM, Touch 'n Go for four different transactions, now we only need one, that is MyKad," he says.

Heheh.. I dont wanna talk about the rational, implication etc etc etc.. I just wanna share some experience.. when the worst case scenario happenned..

It may not be straight-forwardly related coz it happened 10 years back actually.. (way before Mykad came into the picture).. 1994, I went to (ermmm.. i couldnt remember which school, RMM I guessed) to play handball for our school team in district tournament.. excited with our winning streak.. 4 of us by mistake left our bags at a side of the field.. yup.. it was a hectic tiring day.. we completely forgotten about our stuff.. that day.. we celebrated winning the U-15 district tournament by losing our bags + wallets.. crap..

It wasn't that bad until when we wanted to make the replacement card.. First.. we went to police station to make a police report.. they gave us temporary ID which valid for (ermmm.. 3 days or a week.. i couldn't recall).. we had to bring that temp ID to JPN before we can request for new NRIC..

There... the major problem began.. we needed to have two copies of IC size picture + RM10++ for penalty.. heh.. of course.. when u are in a boarding school.. you don't carry so much extra money except in ur wallet and in ur bank.. since the wallet had gone.. we headed to the bank.. we got the bank book but to withdraw money, we also needed an IC.. temp ID from police station was not accepted by Bank Simpanan Nasional as a legal document.. Is was so ironic when BSN said "No IC no money.. " while JPN said "No money no IC".. double crap..

In system development, we describe above mentioned scenario as 'dreadlock' 'dead-lock' and 'starvation' situation.. (for further reading u may google on dining philosophers which normally being used to explain the case).. In order to solve the dead-lock, additional resource(s) from outside need to be brought in.. in that case.. We had to borrow money from other friends.. (obviously we cannot borrow somebody's IC).. Few days later, school admin told us they'd found all our stuff except money of course..

So, if we have this all-in-one card in exercise.. and the worst case scenario happen.. Would this kind of dead-lock not occur anymore.. or could it become any worse? We shall see..

The One With The Gen.2 Special Edition 

Excerpt from my school old boys assiociation bulletin :

-----------------------------
4. LIMITED EDITION PROTON GEN.2
In conjunction with the Centenary Celebrations, Proton Edar has agreed to produce 100 units of the Proton Gen.2 in four colours: Black, Pearl White, Red and Yellow repectively. Of course, this depends on whether we can get at least 100 confirmed orders first. It will carry the Special Edition logo and the interior fabric can possibly be furnished with your house colour.
-----------------------------

Actually, the idea came up months ago but I just decided to post after they made it official.. Such an interesting idea to celebrate the 100 years of school establishment. A hundred units of special edition Gen.2. And probably with special number plate too.. The first "real" Proton model, with Malaysian designed and built Campro engine..

--content edited--

Read March Press release where Proton STRONGLY denied that there exists any technical defect to its CAMPRO engine as claimed by an article originating from Dow Jones and published in Bloomberg.

Excerpt :

"The engine has accumulated more than 25,000 man-hours and successfully completed more than one million kilometres of testing, equivalent to driving around the world 25 times"

Hopefully this special edition model will be equipped with at least fire-proof bodykit and a fire extinguisher.. *wink

The One The Fire Awareness & Training Programme 



I spent half a day attending this talk today.. erm.. I was a Fire Brigade Cadette back in my secondary years, so almost nothing new for me.. anyway.. The best thing was, at the end of the talk session, the Fire Marshall aka Head of Security Committee asked the audience, "Did I use the stage well-enough, how was my pitching.."

Hehe.. some people still in their fever mode..

The One With The Shopping Rights Denial 

Have u ever been to a mall, wandering in a shopping department and all eyes were on you?? Like you are some kind of alien or a potential shoplifter.. or even worst, serial rapist cum killer or sumthing??

I spent my lunch hours today looking for a stethoscope.. (real, not toys.. do you know where to get one?).. But ended up at FOS; if there's any bargain stuff.. i was lucky since there were some kewl items for less than RM10 a piece.. two for RM16 to be exact.. nice.. however while I was checking out the size, I noticed two shop assistants were suspiciously look at me.. as per my description above..

I did check my zipper, but nothing was flying.. What did I do wrong?? Was I not supposed to be in there?? As far as I know, I have the rights to do anything I want to do, shop wherever I want to shop.. But those two seemed likely denying my rights.. I felt like looking at them back, show a finger and say "What's ur fcuking problem??"..

Heh.. I'm not that bad.. I just picked my stuff and went to the check out counter..

Well.. it must be their first day at work.. Or first time they saw a young male executive, shopping alone in Babies/Maternity section.. :P

The One With Mikrolembut Tingkap XP 

You guys may think It is pretty weird when these two computer geekies couple never talk about computers and gadgets.. We don't really into that.. Computers for work and not for our lives.. hehe.. however I decided to do so as it kinda pulled my interest when I flipped into Techcentral today; which reported :


I studied Computers for 3 years and a half in a local uni.. there I was introduced by some words such as ; 'Tetingkap', 'Kekunci', etc.. I couldn't remember others.. darn.. such a silly way to learn Graphical User Interface subject in BM.. especially when we were asked to describe functions of 'Antaramuka', 'Butang Radio', 'Menu Tarik ke Bawah'?? Oh my.. Really, it was so damn hard..

Years later, Microsoft decided to introduce "Bahasa Malaysia "lite" version of its Windows XP operating system".. What shall they call it? MikroLembut Tingkap XP?? Hmmm.. lets just wait and see..

The One With AF Magic 

Excerpt from Aznil Hj Nawawi, AF Final Concert :

"Yang 'magic'nya Akademi Fantasia, bila dua jiwa ditemukan semula atas dasar persahabatan, Yang 'magic'nya Akademi Fantasia bilamana kaum keluarga berkumpul tak kira umur menonton satu rancangan."

True enuff.. That's what we did.. (I was supposed to record all those moments but somehow I left my digicam at home).. hanged out at our uncle's newly renovated house.. 'Pot-lucked'.. watched the final concert of Malaysian favourite Akademi Fantasia on the wide (& colored.. hehe..) projector screen with parents, aunties, cousins, 'nieces' while enjoying our dinner.. The ladies, mostly would be bz with their handphones AFUNDIng their favourite contestant, (couldn't really say favourite actually since mum voted for at least 4 out of 6 contestants)..

Best performance of the night would definitely came from Bob.. interesting songs sang with a powerful voice.. Although it was too little too late for him, as Zahid won the most votes and drove home the Citroen C3.. While seeking the true talent, some may be overlooked the composers & song writers.. Adnan Abu Hassan composed two great songs.. Cat's rap was a so-so but Zahid managed to uplift it so well.. JFK/Teejay's specially made for Kaer really touched.. Nurul & Ajai need to do better..

However the most controversial performance was from an AF2 ex-student with AF1 runners-up aka her (so-called) ex.. Aznil forgot to mention the magic of AF, could turn a friend of mine, green.. heheh..

And finally..

"The magic of AF, when viewers RM7.5m worth of money successfully transferred to Astro via Telco providers.."

p/s: From AF Fever back to EPL Fever..

The One With Inflation Getaway 

From today's The Star, I read on government concerns of oil price.. World oil prices hit the record high on Aug 10 at almost US$45 (RM171) a barrel. Pak Lah also gave a hint on oil price hike.. (again??..) Parallel with this, Deputy Minister of Energy, Water and Communiaction reported in Utusan, TNB will probably announce the their new tarif rate starting next year due to changes on oil and gas trading price..

The price war goes higher and higher.. Inflation.. Main reason? Oil and gas prices..

When Henry Ford mass-produced his T-model, I bet he won't project what would happen in centuriy or perhaps centuries to come.. Scientists and researchers had involved in engine evolution from powerless noisy steam, unhealthy diesel and current petrol/gasoline powered engine.. But future long-term replacement for the black-gold is still unclear.. When can we stop depending on this resource? There might be some alternative, but the best yet to come..

Here are some possible replacements :

1. Electric/battery powered : Had been used since as early as 1900.. however it failed to break the market as it become one of soon-to-extinct invention.. In July last year, GM made a mock funeral of for their wiped out EV1 model.

2. Hydrogen-fuel cars : Mercedes-Benz already launched 6 of their trial cars to be tested in chosen country, our neighbour Singapore for two years.. hidrogen-fuel cars is said to be the most environmental friendly machine of all time since it will only emit water vapors and heat.. However some source said, in order to produce the compressed hydrogen-fuel eg: burning coal, could lead to green house effect yada yada yada.. It also dangerous actually.. Furthermore, cost of the hydogen fuel is still too expensive nowadays.. The Mercedes A-Class that use for 2-year-trial alone cost around S$1.8m.. clean but way expensive.. I pass...

3. Bio-fuel powered : Or fuel created from stuff that can be grown. Eg: ethanol from Corn, biodiesel from soy.. or even from Malaysian self-produced palm oil.. (I've heard some Malaysian researchers also looking into that.. ).. On the positive side, it is non-toxic and biogradable.. imagine, rather than depends on oil from Middle East, it will be them who will depend on us.. It is still new and major development need to be done..

The best choice so far would be hybrid cars.. (Combination of 2 or more sources eg :rechargable battery+petrol powered) cars where fuel consumption is lower (in a long-term calculation)..

Man had been to the moon(?? did they??), wireless communication, dengue can be cured.. Hope one day, a breakthrough energy replacement for resource-shrinking oil would be found.. May be the 'hijab' hasn't been open..

The One With Couch Potatoes 

I realized that we both couldn't 'really' live without TV.. We live in a condo that unable to provide a centralized UHF antenna, thus we subscribe to Astro.. Last couple of months, the decoder got kaput and needed to be serviced, I bought a UHF indoor antenna.. the receiption still not very clear.. so, we spent most of our Astro-less time at my in-laws.. Luckily the servicing just took less than a week..

The best thing is.. for the two of us, for almost each and every day in primetime esp. (7-11pm), we would have at least one of our favourite tv shows .. eg: Saturdays=AFFever, Sundays=Futurama, Mondays=Still Standing + Boston Public, Tuesdays=John Doe + Law & Order, Wednesdays=CSI + Charmed (now replaced by Ed) etc etc etc..), may be someday, it may not our best favourite shows but STILL we can watch it eg: Friday=Malaysian Idol etc.. EXCEPT (i repeat, EXCEPT) on THURSDAYS..

We subscribe minimum package of Astro.. which bring about (4 cartoons + 3 variety + 3 sports + 17 family + 1 8TV = 38 channels all together.. (my sis subscribe to astro back in my hometown in Johore.. I lost count on how many channel we have; Astro + S'pore tv + indon tv..)).. we tried to flip our remote to find ONE good TV show on THURSDAY; we yet to find one.. hmmmm... you guys may suggest us to watch a girl who slay the vampire, I'm sorry that's not our taste.. I can tolerate with three pretty witches killing demons but not one skinny slayer; nor vampire killing vampire. Angel.. those are a No-No..

I wonder why... My beloved wife informed me, when she worked for two months in the Land of Ozzies, there won't be any good tv show on Sundays.. simply because they encourage people to get socialized, spend quality time with family, visit the museums, zoos, parks, etc rather than just laying their lazy a$$e$ on couch on Sundays.. That really make some sense..

However, here in Malaysia, crappy TV shows shown on Thursdays.. What do they want to encourage?? What should we do without TV?? Hmmmmm.. Khamis mlm Jumaat.. Oh... we should be at mosque for 'Bacaan Yaasin'.. *wink*

p/s: Do you guys think so too? or is it just the two of us think Thursdays TV shows are crappy?? :P

The One With Garfield : The Movie 

Garfield, a big fat lazy orange striped cat born into the comic world in 19 June 1978.. He loves lasagnas, TVs and hates Mondays.. Now from the comic strips and animated cartoon series(Garfield & Friends), creator Jim Davis adapted it into movie screen in Garfield : The Movie..

Last night we were selected to be among the first to watch the movie premiere at GSC Midvalley (thanks to Cinema Online Contest)..

Garfield the Movie - features Breckin Meyer(Roadtrip) as Garfield's owner Jon Arbuckle, Jennifer Love Hewitt as vet Dr Liz Wilson and Bill Murray as the voice of Garfield. Storyline is all about Garfield being too fat, too lazy and always takes advantage over his loving long-suffering owner Jon.. One fine day, he discovers Jon's love and care turn to his new pet dog, Odie.. Garfield feels disgusted and left out.. Then, when Odie got lost and kidnapped by a mean trainer, Happy Chapman(Stephen Tobolowsky), Garfield admits he's responsible and turns himself from zero to hero..

All in all.. it was a good 90-minutes movie.. (particularly helps by free tickets+nice center seats factor).. However, the idea to join CGI cat and live-action stars was slight a mess because most of the time the graphic wasn't smooth enough and a little bit 'awkward'.. For most of Garfields' lovers (or ex-lovers), the fat cat looks cuter and more adorable in his daily strips and Animated series.. For chicks lovers; Jennifer Love Hewitt appears as a too-thin Dr with a bad hair day.. I still prefer her appearance in Can't Hardly Wait & I know What You Did Last Summer.. Bill Murray's voice definitely saved the day.. Something you shouldn't miss would be a short animated movie 'Go Nutty' shown before the movie.. Enjoy!!

Garfield's Quotable Quotes :

"I hate Mondays"
"I'm not overweight, I'm undertall."
"Diet is 'die' with a 't'."

The One Where I May Ban U 2 

We are in a situation where both of us need to provide a detail bank statement for the period of 6 months.. We both use same bank but different branch..

So yesterday we both went to our bank account branches.. My missus went in the morning to the one nearby our house.. everything seemed to be easy.. she needed to fill up one form and the bank will charge RM5 per request which will be deducted from her account.. The statement will ready for collection after 3 working days.. Everything went smooth..

Mine is nearby my office.. Wisma Consplant to be precise.. I went during lunch time.. walked in there and asked how may I request for the statement.. officer in-charge told me that I should just print from their Online website.. I said, I need 6 months data whereas from the website just provides 3 months of transactions.. Then, he replied with a straight-face look that I may request from them but they will charged RM11.. erm.. furthermore he asked me to write a formal letter.. WTF!! I dont have time for all those craps..

Then as I walked out, I bummed to a financial executive; so I asked her is there any easier way rather than writing a formal letter.. Without a smile, she said I may request via its online website..

Hmmmm.. That's better.. so far so good..

I went back and logged in to the website.. browsed through.. I could only find a statement request for Current Account.. not Savings Account.. CRAP.. double CRAP..


Why there are differences in treating customers between Branch A and Branch B? Was it because of the amount of money in the account? Was it because of gender (+pregnant belly) factor? Do they have too many customers thus too busy to happily entertain one petite customer like me? or Do they give a red-carpet treatment only to Priority account holders?

Flashback to last 3 years when I first came into the same branch to open my saving account.. I queued for just 15 minutes but I was entertained by a first-day-at-work-clerk I guessed.. She spent one and a half hour just to key-in my information while reading the instruction manual and nobody was there to help her.. I missed my lunch, and an hour late back to office.. She didn't even apologise for keeping me waited for that long.. I barely visit that branch ever since until yesterday and as I'd expected, same crappy feelings yet again.. Worse, I cannot request the statement from other branches.. Urghh..

I will consider switching to a different branch..

The One With Good Cop vs Bad Cop 

Last Monday in Still Standing; Judy is tired of always playing bad cop and having Bill undermine her authority to the kids, so she decides to take a day off and let all hell break loose under Bill's supervision. When she realizes that Bill is actually capable to handle their kids and just isn't willing to do so, Judy decides to play good cop for good...

NOTE : (In parenting dictionary, 'Good cop' is describing one who takes everything easily, calm & relax, favourite words would be 'it's OK', 'fine with me'; while 'bad cop' is the one who always strict and plays everything by the book, favourite word would be 'No!!', 'Cannot!!' etc ..)

Last night over family-dinner, a cousin of us consulted with our uncle & aunty on treating her little one; as parents-to-be in less than 4 months time, we just listened then for our future benefit.. :).. Based from their experience, first child would be the most potential victim of young-hot-headed parents; most of the time, there won't be Good Cop and Bad Cop.. all there were would be Bad Cop and Worse Cop..

We both agreed.. I still remember my mum told how furious late dad would be whenever Along, my eldest brother gets bad results in his exam; which later led to slaps; 'rotans' or belt-strikes.. - I'm the third, so lucky me.. as far as I remember mum n dad never hit me for even once.. (could possibly because I always do well in exams).. Despite that, when I was a kid, I always see dad as the good cop; and mum as the less-good-one (Read: not THAT Bad).. Did they switched their roles??

or I guessed as the time goes by, maturity would vanished one's 'Panas Baran'..

As for myself, my ill-tempered reached its peak in my teenage years.. A schoolmate of my, in his testimonial in Friendster; describes me as "my dorm monitor........ garang giler siot!!!!!!!" Well, indeed I was.. I could easily go moody and grumpy.. It slowly dispersed as I grew older especially after I met my beloved wife.. Yup.. (You might laugh on this my dear, and say 'Nah... he's still like that..'; believe me.. if u knew me 10 years back; u'll never ever think of falling for me.. :P) Still, the potential of me to be the bad cop is there.. Heck!! i dont wanna be the bad cop.. I wanna be the cool dad.. eheheh.. Could I?

It is still a long way to go for us to decide on how to treat our child; who's gonna be whom.. good cop or bad cop.. One thing that we've decided for sure is; whenever anyone of us snapped, the other must try to make things cool.. Thus, we'll be the BESTEST cop-partner in the whole wide world.. Insyaallah... :D

The One With One Smart Ass 

Nizam gave me this forwarded mail. TQ.

The One With What's The Worst That Could Happen? 

Would like to share with you this :



Note : Above mention article was published in The Star, Star Mag section last Sunday.. U may still read it via e-paper edition..

Well, there's a Malay quote saying "Hidup bagaikan roda" or "Life is like a wheel". Sometimes it goes up and some other time it goes down.. You could say that you hit your rock-bottom, but always remember there is still a something below the rock bottom.. always see it in positive way.. and figure out how to lift yourself up and about..

Once, a friend of mine complained to me, "OMG, I'm too tired. I had to work for 8-damn-straight-fcuking days..". I simply reply, "Hey, take it easy, things could go worse.. Imagine when you had to fcuk for 8-damn-straight-working-days.. Which one would be more tiring..". "LOL".

Think about it..