ode to the soapbox

aku tengah tgk american idol nie, 2nd group of 12 vying to be top 3 to get into top 12 to get into.. ehhhh.. final 12 lahh...

first part B.O.R.I.N.G... merepek2 ok.. aku nyanyi pon lagi best. i mean, they have one chance to impress, for God's sake, pilih lagu betul2 laa.. aku sampai dah start main facebook kat bed room sambil dengar tv dari jauh..

..until that 16y/o brunette nyanyi lagu Alone. wah.. i like her. she has this rocky edge, icy attitude that i found cool.

then after her, this young boy-band-look kinda guy, Kris, nyanyi lagu Maikel Jeksen.. wah i like him more ok.. he reminds me of zaman2 dengar lagu westlife dulu...

i think i'm soooo gonna root for this guy throughout...

actually, bukan nak eksen ke, riak ke, tapi aku ada tendency to pick the winner based on past seasons.. macam fantasia.. i loved her from the beginning. then jennifer hudson. aku makan hati sesangat bila dia booted out prematurely, but now she's a big star kan?

then after Kris, this girl megan pon aku suker. aku rasa rupa dia ada iras2 cameron diaz.. very very beautiful and nice to look at. dia gelek2 pinggang tu funny laa.. tapi cute. i'm gonna root for this girl too.

the rest ermm.... biasa jek.

bring on the other 12!




...adie

adoiii kenyangnyer.... aku rasa macam ular sawa. serious! ular sawa yg baru baham seekor ayam dan terlantar kekenyangan tepi reban.

cuma aku bukan laa dalam reban, dan ayam yg aku makan tadi tak sampai setengah pon aku habis makan. ntah kenapa biasa jek aku rasa nasi beriyani zamzam tadi. nasi dia kering laa.. sedap lagi kalau aku masak ahahahaha...

memandangkan sejak semalam si tom kemaruk nak makan nasi beriyani tapi malangnyer meja memanjang penuh kat ah mei cafe AMK Hub, even lepas tu jalan keluar ke AMK banquet pon ntah kenapa takde jual lak nasi beriyani malam tuh.. memang takde rezeki laa.. so aari ni aku arrange dinner kat zamzam arab street.

yelah.. karang dia carik batu belah bertangkup, saper yg susah???

lagi pon, ari ni birthday tom!!

tu yg kenyang giler tuh. ayam beriyani dah seketul tergolek atas pinggan, aku pulak menumpang roti prata tan. besarr okee roti prata dan roti telur dia, macam sebesar alas kaki pon ada kott.. tu pon kalau tak aku ingat nak beli kek.. tapi dah kenyang. lagipon nasi beriyani dengan kek macam tak kamcing jek.. tak seswooaii..

anyway.. wahh dah besar dah kawan aku sorang nih hehehe... berapa umur dia?? cepat2 dia ingatkan alah umur tu sekadar angka.. hmm ye laa.. takkan huruf pulak ye tak?

aku tanya dia, apa azam birthday tahun ni? dia kata, nak menjauhi lembah kehinaan...

err... aku no commento.

padan laa tiba2 ari ni hujan turun mencurah2 time aku balik keje tadi. dah lama ok tak hujan sampai ada kebakaran hutan kat tampines. aku ingat indon jek hutan terbakar.

bukan hujan jek, ada pulak pelangi lepas tuh!! wahh.. aku rasa sejak aku dok spore nie, ada laa 2 kali kot aku nampak pelangi. ala2 endangered spesies gituh, kerap lagi org nampak big foot kat johor.

berkat si tom nak menjauhi lembah kehinaan laa nie kott..

nora pon join for dinner! nasib baik laa dia datang, at least habis gak lauk pauk atas meja kan hehehe.. lagipon dia ni fresh dari balik indon, so sempat laa dia laa impart wisdom kat kitaorang aku dan tan, budak2 yg baru nak merangkak ke indon nih..

alamak.. tak sabar pulak nak tunggu april...



...adie

because i'm addicted hehehe...

Semalam nak tido,. tiba2 dapat mail dari Airasia, kata ada promo ke Indonesia. Pergi Bali/Bandung/ Jakarta/Yogja SGD50 jek pergi balik termasuk semua tax etc etc..

MURAH!

aku memang nak gi Bali, so terus beli pegi Bali untuk Good Friday holiday in April, lepas tu beli pulak ticket ke Yogjakarta untuk National Day Holiday in August.
Takde restriction apa2 pon, semua SGD50 dollar jek.

SGD50 isi petrol kereta satu tank penuh pon tak cukup ok. Very worth it.

Hmm.. Tahun nampaknyer ni berjalan jer laa, tapi ok laa.. semua murah2. setakat lawat2 neighbour jek, pergi pulak weekend tambah sehari dua.

Adie's 2009 travel plan

Mar - Labuan
Apr - Bali
May - Kota Bharu/Perhentian
Jul - Kuching (RWMF)
Aug - Yogjakarta


Bila laa AirAsia nak buat promo gi Umrah..



...adie

i like musics. songs particularly.

i always dreamed of being able to play musical instruments like guitar or piano, but so far i don't think i'm all fated to be able to play any of those. i'm just hopeless...

anyway, i'm content to just enjoying the music for now. good songs rarely come by, but when it does, it stays on rotating playlist inside my brain. which means, if you ever caught me while i'm driving, or walking in a lone path or taking elevator with no other people around, chances are i'm gonna be humming the tune :)

like the recent song i'm hooked with. it's by utada hikaru, one of the prominent figure in japanese j-pop world. a note about her, i seriously thought she had run her course few years back but apparently she's still going on strong, even more after her divorce.

hmm.. previously amuro namie, now utada hikaru. women do tend to do better when they are not married, don't they?

ok the song is called 'the flavor of life'. i like how utada plays with her soft upper notes in this one, and the lyrics! i don't know why, but when i sing it, i got goosebump. seriously! i got chills on my back. the lyrics are very ermm... innocent and frank. when she sings it, i believe her words after words. plus, where else could you find a song with "aoi fruits" in it? :)

here is the video that i got in youtube with the english translation. for japanese speakers, the japanese lyrics are below.

enjoy!

~ diamond yori mo yawarakakute atataka na mirai te ni shitai yo
kagiri aru jikang o kimi to sugoshitai :) ~







Flavor Of Life

ありがとうと君に言われると
なんだか切ない
さようならの後も解けぬ魔法
淡くほろ苦い
The flavor of life...... The flavor of life......

友達でも恋人でもない中間地点で
収穫の時を夢見てる青いフルーツ

あと一歩が踏み出せないせいで
じれったいの何のってBaby

ありがとうと君に言われると
なんだか切ない
さようならの後も解けぬ魔法
淡くほろ苦い
The flavor of life...... The flavor of life......

甘いだけの誘い文句
味気のないTalk
そんなものには興味をそそられない

思い通りにいかない時だって
人生捨てたもんじゃないって

「どうしたの？」と
急に聞かれると
「ううん、何でもない」
さようならの後に消える笑顔
私らしくない

信じたいと願えば願うほど
なんだか切ない
「愛してるよ」よりも「大好き」の方が
君らしいんじゃない
The flavor of life…

忘れかけてた人の香りを
突然思い出す頃
降り積もる雪の白さをもっと
素直に喜びたいよ

ダイヤモンドより軟らかくて
温かな未来
手にしたいよ限りある時間を
君と過ごしたい

ありがとうと君に言われると
なんだか切ない
さようならの後も解けぬ魔法
淡くほろ苦い
The flavor of life......The flavor of life...






...adie

i'm at home right now. well of course i am. 99% when i wrote this blog, i'd be at home because

1) that's when i'm free
2) free wi-fi speed outside sucks
3) free internet/wi-fi almost non existance outside this country
4) i'm aware of ppl nearby peeping at my screen

... which is silly because it's not like i'm writing anything about earth-shattering secret, or alien invasion or something. ok maybe some wild gossips and bitching once in awhile but hey, who doesn't?

even at home i find it difficult to write. mainly because recently i'd rather play my xbox 360, watching heroes, lost or desperate houswives and bugging people off with my endless notifications at facebook.

but right now, i'm kinda forced to stop my gaming and stay in my room because there are people servicing my aircond. so i have to stay in the room and protect my area. not that i'd peed at every corner of the room, but it's more for a peace of mind. especially because directly below the aircond they are servicing is my drawer where there are USD2000 dollars cash in an envelope.

i've never serviced my aircond before, and i've been staying here more than 3 years. do you service yours? i'm only triggered to do this because when i signed the agreement to rent this house few months back (which eventually i ended up terminating a week after that and paid them almost SGD6000 in compensation), there was a clause stating they need to service the airconds every 3 months or face the firing squad (haha ok i made up that last part). so i figured this must be something that everybody does.

plus, my aircond sort of giving funny sounds lately.

or else, i've never thought of servicing my aircond. it sounded like throwing money down the drain. probably because my entire childhood was spent in a room with fan in it. how the hell am i supposed to know we need to service our aircond every quarter of the year? i mean, you watch tv everyday, but we don't service the tv right?

but think about it, we do send our cars for servicing also huh?

ok now this is what i'm gonna do. i'm gonna service my aircond every 3 months from now on. it's recommended because apparently if the thing spoiled, it's massively pain in the neck to take out the unit and replace, not to mentioned the amount of money i'd chuck down the drain. it's like an insurance you know, even we need to detox once in awhile right?

and also because the silver star company i enganged is pretty good. bless them for dropping their company paper brochure into my mailbox. they charged me 30 bucks for one aircond one time servicing. that's cheap, because previously when i called electrician or plumbers, they charged almost 50 bucks just for coming here, not adding the services yet. and this silver star company guys even cleaned their mess and most importantly never asked me to change any parts and induced more money spent for me.

oh ok they are done. so i'm gonna go back to my gaming.



...adie

i'm watching american idol now, yet i'm writing this.

after 8 seasons, i really want to see someone who could blow me out, make me jump off the couch but what i got so far were mediocre singers.

ok some of them do have a good voice but they were plain boring to watch. i mean, what's up with the songs selection? why must it be elvis', or aretha franklin's songs? they should know that most of the voters are youngsters, and even me cannot relate much to those kind of songs. i'd rather hear backstreet boys than, you now, elvis or even the beatles.

and those contestants! have some attitude please. goodies-goodies are plain b.o.r.i.n.g.

and the judges now are 4 people! i don't know what's the point, 3 of them are just bleah ass-kissers. really! only simon comments with some sense.

so far.. not liking it.



...adie

pagi ni bangun2 tido jek aku bukak pc kejap kan, sementara tunggu air heater panas kat bilik air. aku bokak laa utusan malaysia, sesaja nak tau mana tau kan, perak jatuh balik ke tangan PKR ke, najib razak kena langgar lembu ker...

dalam pada browse2 tuh, aku terbaca la this article yg joyah tulis... apparently si joyah ni dok critisize this particular malay movie laa.. and its theme inside..

nak tau title dia apa?

ANU DALAM BOTOL.

boleh?? yes.. title movie by raja azmi nie, ANU DALAM BOTOL.

wah.. sensasi ja nai??? padan laa si joyah tu tak sabar2 nak tulis.

kata lah ko bosan2 weekend takde mende nak buat, so pegi tengok wayang kan.. ko browse2 through movie showing now decide apa nak tengok, tiba2 ternampak 'anu dalam botol'... sure teruja nak tengok kan???

yg aku tau, citer nie pasal gay. sebab joyah yg dok critisize raja azmi sebab dia pikir raja azmi nak publisiti murahan letak title movie lagu tu, also kritik theme citer nie yg pasal gay. apa yg dia anti sangat aku pon tak paham. PMS kott dia ari nie.. ahahahaha...

amende agaknyer ek? benda dalam botol tuh...



..adie

god. i'm coughing coughing coughing...

it's been a week, hasn't it? my flu is better now but god, my throat itches like crazy. it feels very dry too inside there, which is weird because i swallow my slivers everytime.

wait, do we normally swallow our slivers?

anyway, cough or no cough, i'm still going for my tennis later. i might give reason not to swim before because my body is still weak, but i'm never gonna give any reason for not playing tennis.

even if nadal has lost his final against muray last night. god that was so irritating. i'm never gonna open any tennis site now for a few weeks.

ok what else should i write? hmm.. i guess this is part of the year when suddenly things become uneventful. except the suicide of our colleague last week of course but even that, nobody was talking anything about it in the office. like it's one big taboo now in our company.

gosh, why does everybody wanna keep things hush-hush? just now when i was busy doing my weekly report, few of my colleagues behind me got together and started whispering to each other. as if i cared what they were talking about. for all i know maybe they were discussing about work.

ok maybe i did care a bit.

at least one of my long lost friend suddenly dropped me a message today at work, just when i thought facebook has became so boring with no new notification for a long time ~gosh my contacts/friends are all so passive and boring~.

wow we haven't been in touch for.. close to 9 years! can you imagine? actually come to think about it, we tend to move through different stages of our lives and unintentionally dropped our friends along the way. such a waste huh?

ok me going to grab dinner (as usual, milo and oat biscuts again...)



...adie

Day-02

ok today we wait for other participants who are scheduled to arrive to Kota Bharu Sultan Ismail Petra Airport on 0825 via air asia. maybe just wait from the city will do.

then we need to find out how to get to kuala besut. a bit info on kuala besut.
- Kuala Besut is in Terengganu, 50km south of Kota Kharu, 110km for K.terengganu
- It is the gateway to the Perhentian Islands.

Kota Bharu - Kuala Besut

* From Kota Bharu there is a direct local bus service.
tak jumpa info lagi dalam net, how much? hong long? where to take?
* easy to arrange shared taxi ride-virtually any guesthouse/hotel will organise this.
* will take about 1 hour by road
* so far i only found taxi fare from kuala besut. let's assume they charge the same.
Kuala Besut - Kota Bharu (Town) - RM40( Ac )-RM30( N-Ac )
Kuala Besut - Kota Bharu (Airport) - RM49(Ac)-RM45( N-Ac )

Kuala Besut - Perhentian

ok this one need to survey the various package first....


...adie

we are going for pulau perhentian trip in may, so i must start planning. planning for trip is always half the fun hahaha.. i'll start with what to do on Day-00/01.


DAY-00

Singapore-Johor Baru
Express Timuran
Depart 1800
Arrive 1857
SGD9.00

Johor Baru-Wakaf Bharu
Express Timuran
Depart 1857
Arrive 0814 (next day)
RM47-52 (sleeper class 2 ADNS)
* check if sleeper class 1 ADNFB RM98-106 applicable


DAY-01

Wakaf Bharu-Kota Bharu
* wakaf bharu is 5km away from Kota Bharu city center
* take public bus

Kota Bharu
* go-round city

• Go to the day and night markets.
• Walk around the downtown area.
• Go to the beach, either PCB Beach or Irama Beach.
• Local Food
  Ayam Percik (Yati Ayam Percik (847, Jalan Long Yunus)[5] has got to be the best around;
  Nasi Ulam (locally called Nasi Kerabu) traditionally dipped into budu (fish sauce), sambal Murtabak (Murtabak Raja is the famous one on Jalan Bayam)
  Keropok Lekor Losong (the local version is Keropok Gote)
  Lepok Durian or Gelembung Buaya, they are in 3 colors: red, yellow, and green, at Kubang Pasu wet market in the mornings - for durian lovers with strong stomachs only. Buy from the lady at the corner, not in the middle of wet market.
• Other attractions
  Masjid Muhammadi ( State Mosque )
  Padang Merdeka
  War Museum
  Islamic Museum/Istana Jahar /Istana batu/royal museum
  Kota Sultan Ismail
  Bazar Buluh Kubu
  ***Pasar Besar Siti Khadijah
  ***Pasar Malam Kota Bharu

* sleep

• ridel hotel ~5 minutes walk to pasar city khadijah RM97/room <-- looks good.
• others??

... next --> DAY-02

..adie

i woke up this morning with a painful dry throat and a running nose i had difficulty to keep still. i even have cough now.

now what did the company doctor gave me few days ago? flour pills and red sugar syrup? for all i know, i AM NOT getting better.

so i didn't bother to drive 12 km to my company and wait half a day to see the same doctor and get the same medicine and be expected to work after that. my cubicle mate already closed his nose whenever he came near me, which i don't blame him because he has a daughter who gets all the illnesses available all the time.

i went to this neighbourhood family clinic instead. the doctor is always this young chinese guy who always look as if he just won the lottery. well, considering the money he could get after every patients visit, he probably is.

i got some medicines, and to my surprise, they even include in vitamin C capsules. errr.. i do take vitamin C at home so do i really need this? but i couldn't make myself to stop them to include that in. oh well, at least my company will reimburse half of the cost.

so i am on MC today. YESSS!!! a whole day to rest and recuperate to get well just in time for the weekend. whole day of bedtime rest and i must remind myself, NOT to write blogs.



...adie

ok it's official. the one that jumped from the building is actually our fellow colleague.

oh man.

at noon while we were having lunch at company cafeteria on 4th floor facing the block where the person jumped, we even distastefully joked that maybe the person was from our company.

then after lunch rumours started spreading that the person in fact, WAS from our company, and a name was mentioned.

i was like.. oh god.

oh god oh god oh god.

i just saw him yesterday at cafeteria with a blank expression on his face. but again, he always had that expression ever since he was involved with a car accident almost 2 years ago. he turned into this quiet guy after that incident that left him in one month hospitalization due to broken thigh.

nobody knows why he committed the suicide. it's sad, to know someone so close yet not able to prevent such drastic insident. we could have done more to help him cope, you know, whatever things that got him troubled.

but then, this is life. some missed chance would never come back. what we could do, is to learn from our mistakes, and cherish life all we can.

may he rest in peace.



...adie

SOMEONE JUST JUMPED FROM THE BUILDING IN FRONT OF MY COMPANY.

man, there was a small blue tent there at the base of the block covering the body. the police already barricaded the area, and some kay-poh people are watching from the road side, and (including me) from the windows of our company.

it felt so surreal, to know some one just died nearby.

i bet it is due to the current recession. that person must have lost a lot of money or something..

cherish our lives guys!



...adie

by the way.. by the way...

recent hot news! have you read about chris brown and rihanna? wow apparently he hit her. ok they didn't mention who was the girl that called 991 and reported the assault but today'ss news mentioned it was, as we had suspected, RIHANNA!

can you imagine that? i mean no matter how bitchy a woman is, and this is rihanna, a girl gone bad that we are talking about, but under no circumstances should a well grown man hit a woman with his own bare hand. let alone leaving bruises and some website said (eekk!!) broken jaw.

well, unless she has superpower, a catwoman or something...

especially when that act is gonna get broadcasted ALL OVER THE WORLD. man, that guy is soooo busted.

i wonder what was the reason. they argued inside the car. maybe she just told him to shut up and drive. maybe he was in disturbia. maybe she was unfaithful... i don't know..

so i guess, this is the classic case of a good love gone bad. i bet rihanna won't allow him to stand under her umbrella-ella-ella anymore, and next time she sings take a bow, we know who she sings it for. that chris brown really should check in the rehab.

and.. and.. i'm so happy that those people and malaysia gonna miss her concert hahahaha!!! i saw her last year in the singapore concert okay..

dream on guyzzzz!!! ~evil grin~



...adie

i saw the company doctor today, right after the conference call. i was having sore throat since saturday, and by this morning i started to have a bit of flu so i better treat fix this fast. can u imagine? i swallowed half of the vitamin pills available in the drug store and still got this flu?

we have this small clinic right beside the HR department, so that everytime after we register to see the doctor, we could flirt with those HR ladies.. i mean.. aunties. they are very chatty. one of them like to call me 'adekk' which surely a bit rude? i mean, am i that close her age?

anyway..the point of this clinic also i always questioned. if we can go to the clinic in the office, that means we are strong enough to go to work, right? what's the purpose then? maybe they anticipate people get injured or something during work so it's handy having a clinic inside the office.

so i went to see the doctor. apparently they have this new doctor, dr ivan something. i read it on the door. i wonder it the doctor was the same auntie doctor last time. she was pretty ok though. ok here largely means, easy to get mc doctor. even better? the one that gives without asking. they really should teach that at medical school, under customer service section.

this ivan doctor is a tall young chinese doctor. i couldn't register his look properly because from the moment i sit on that chair, and less than a minute later when i stood up, i felt like i was in a fast forward motion. he asked what's wrong with me? since when i have those symptoms? do i feel this and that? and what medicine he's gonna give me all in one breath.

at the moment i stepped outside the door, i only realized about the mc thing. i didn't have my chance at all to play sympathetic.

damn this doctor is good!



..adie

i had conference call early morning. after japan hang up their phone, and i was all alone with my boss, my boss asked me..

if, touch wood, the company were to implement 4-days a week scheme, which day would i prefer to be off?

dang. there we have it. i knew it would come to this finally. i mean, our japanese branch and our italian branch already implemented a shorter week work-time as a pay cut measure to get through this economic downturn. what are the chances that singapore won't get hit too?

i asked my boss, if this is for real? but of course he said that nothing has been confirmed yet, that he was asking just in case.

yeah right. if he was asking just in case, he would be asking about all sorts of other stuff, wouldn't he? like what if the government refused to reduce the transportation fare, or what if i won that 1 billion toto. see? but he didn't.

recession sucks. i tell you, never have i been in this period so gloomy, that everyone that i met, sighed during work. a big, loud sigh that sounded like, god i wish i were somewhere else.

but you know what? there's no place left to go during this downturn. i heard 2 of my ex bosses are now still unemployed since the expansion plant was shut down. and there are many people in the interview fighting for that few empty spots.

so if i think about it, still having a job is still a bless. the point is, there's always people that fare worse than you. at least i can still go to work and bitch about the conference call or the bosses at night.




...adie

ok i figured i must write this now. it was getting harder to write nowadays. i don't know, maybe because it was due to the holiday season from christmas last year all the way to the recent chinese new year, making me abandoned all my routines. then even after that i had to go through holiday withdrawal phase, or HWP as i called it, so awhile more after that until i could come back to my senses.

..like now. so.. what's up with me nowadays? well nothing's up, all down. nothing much really. work has been neither here nor there. but still, i have to wake up early tomorrow to attend this conference call with japanese branch at 8am. deep in my heart, i wonder, what's the use? we always communicate through e-mail anyway, and it's not like we have big issues to discuss. plus, it's a dinasour-period device i'm handling as far as i'm concern. what the conference call means to me, is that i will miss my daily breakfast in office canteen.

but i guess, the boss has his own means. so i will have to be there before 8am. which means i have to try to sleep early tonight. which is kinda impossible since i have to write this, and then watch star wars the clone wars new episode after that. before i knew it, it will already be 6.30am and i have to curse and swear to wake up for work.

at least, my body seem to be holding fine after tennis just now. like every monday, it was a tennis day today. the only thing different was, one of our usual partner was hit by flu, so my another friend asked her husband to join our session. the thing is, he was so good at playing tennis. he striked the ball with ease and he could do spins and stuff. i was in total awe. if you must know, 2 things that could get me drop dead envious, are people who can play guitar, and people who can play tennis. i mean, good tennis. because i'm so hopeless in those things. for all i know, i have 2 left hands when it comes to playing guitar or tennis. so in the court just now, i was a bit stressed-out.

by the way, have you seen the moon tonight? while i was in the office today, my colleague told me that the moon tonight is going to be the biggest viewed in about 50 years. i searched for that news in yahoo news but couldn't find it. he must have got it from some chinese news websites. he surfs the chinese news a lot. it's amazing things that he knows from reading those chinese sites. anyway, i already happened to know that tonight is a full-moon night. so when we were at the tennis court just now, we got the chance to have full view of the moon. it looks like this.

of course i didn't take this while i was on the court. after my friends went back after the game, i went up my house, took my camera and my tripod, came down and shot this using my telephoto lense. some people walking by must have thought that i'm a moron who never seen the full moon before. because for one thing, it didn't look that big to me. it looked pretty normal, i'm sure i've seen the moon bigger before. it was very bright than usual though. still i couldn't see chang-er from the photo. maybe she was at the other side of the moon.

ok it's already almost 1am. did i tell you the clock always tick faster after midnight? one glance it's 12am, and another glance it will be close to 1am. and i haven't even start watching my clone wars.

so later guys...




...adie