the Tower

dah lama teruja nak ke kl tower, tapi kenapa tak pernah pergi ?. alasannya belum ada kesempatan waktu ( ish ish ish memanglah a lame excuse !). the tower is so near yet so far away. terfikir jugak, kalau aku dah pernah sampai ke eiffel tower di paris, milad tower di tehran, berlin tower di germany dan cairo towel di egypt, tak kan kl tower yang dekat ni pun tak boleh sampai.


a view of kl tower from our garden


so, last sunday we decided to visit the tower. tak sangkalah pulak ramai bebenor pelancong asing di situ sehinggakan nak dapat parking pun susah. entah apa event yang mereka promote, ada pulak bazaar di dataran tower yang menjual perbagai cendera hati dan makanan dari middle eastern countries. rata ratanya pelancong pelancong tersebut sangat terhibur dengan cultural show yang dipersembahkan.




and since it was lunch time, we decided to have our lunch dekat restoran berputar di atas menara. nasib kami baik, sebab masih ada kekosongan tempat di restoren tersebut. forget about the deco which is a bit off, for only 12 euro, one get a very lavish buffet with a live entertainment and a fantastic view. kalau kat europe 12 euro tu boleh dapat kebab dengan mineral water jer. and honestly this is what i like about our beloved malaysia - cheap & fantastic food (lama lama boleh boroi perut ni !)


pemandangan dari restoran berputar menara kl. sikit sikit gayat adalah !





suasana dalam restoren agak meriah dengan kehadiran pemain pemain bolasepak negeri kedah yang sedang celebrate kejayaan mereka selepas memenangi perlawanan akhir piala malaysia pada malam sebelumnya. tapi tak adalah pulak nampak pengunjung restoren minta autograf mereka. ish, kalaulah yang dine tu pemain permain Arsenal .......

AMSterDAM ... here we come !

masa dinner malam khamis lepas, rj @ fdm tanya samada aku nak ikut dia ke amsterdam. entah kenapa, secara spontan aku kata okay. rj kena attend training session kat headquarters dia selama dua hari. esok petangnya aku collect ticket kat KLM office di park royal and there we goes .... 3 days latter we were on our way en route to amsterdam. ish ish macam tak percayalah pulak, decision nak pergi amsterdam dibuat on the spot. nak balik kampung pun mau fikir seminggu. of course isteri aku thought i was joking bila aku bagitahu dia 'i'm off to amsterdam in 3 day's time'. sebenarnya aku dah pun 2 kali pergi amsterdam, pertama in 1986 dan kali kedua semasa bercuti bersama isteri & anak-anak pada tahun 2003. btw, terima kasih kak p**h kerana belanja makan malam tu.

penerbangan terus ke lapangan terbang schipol selama hampir 12 jam agak meletihkan sebab aku masih meneruskan tugas on call dua jam sebelum aku mengambil erl ke klia. dah memang begitu selalu, time aku nak pergi bercuti, masa tu lah pulak banyak kes. on arrival at 5.00 am, cuaca dah terang benderang sebab dah masuk musim panas (summer). seperti kebanyakan negara eropah, sistem pengangkutan awam di sini sangat komprehensive dan mudah. kami mengambil shuttle service yang di sediakan oleh pihak hotel yang terletak hanya beberapa km dari lapangan terbang. selepas check ini, kami keluar semula untuk explore the city.

dari schipol airport kami menunggu bas untuk ke schipol oost sebab rj nak kena beli something for his friends di klm shoppe. punyalah lama tunggu barulah ada bus. tak tahulah pulak syarikat bus ke laluan tersebut sedang melancarkan mogok. yang bestnya mereka ambil penumpang tapi tak ambil tambang. kalaulah malaysia airline atau airasia buat mogak macam ni kan best !. kita memang bernasib baik sebab on the way balik ada pulak a beautiful young dutch lady yang sudi tumpangkan kereta dia, kalau tidak tak tahulah berapa lama nak kena menunggu.

memandangkan the following 2 days rj will be busy dengan training session dia, jadi sebelah tengah hari kami buat perancangan untuk explore the city. keretapi dari schipol station ke amsterdam sentraal mengambil masa 20 minit. so apa specialnya amsterdam !!!!. 'the sex capital of the world' (sorry tiada gambar gambar XXX untuk diupload kerana this time tak pergi red light district), 'bandaraya basikal' , 'bandaraya bunga turlips', 'bandaraya terusan air'.


the presence of hundred of thousands of bicycle in the city is very interesting and unique. no wonder susah nak jumpa warga amsterdam yang berperut boroi sebab mereka burn the calories dengan berbasikal


bandaraya amsterdam juga unik dengan terusan terusan air yang cantik (airnya agak kotor jika dibandingkan 20 tahun lalu). amsterdam merupakan banyaraya eropah yang sangat senang untuk explore - untuk first timer pun confirm tak sesat. pada musim summer amsterdam adalah merupakan tourist city. secara amnya orang belanda adalah seperti warga switzerland - sangat peramah, very helpful dan tourist friendly.



windmill - lagi trademark of netherlands. looorrr teringatlah pulak lagi windmill of my mind !




and thank you puan azlina & suami, theo (opps lupa nak tanya nama islam dia) yang sudi menerima kunjungan kami ke rumah mereka serta belanja makan kat restoran morocco tu. seronok dapat berbual dan mengenali orang muar yang dah lama menetap di holland ni. dia ni memang peramah. dan terima kasih juga kerana sudi offer kami tinggal di rumah mereka. jangan lupa yer, kalau balik malaysia give me a shout !




dan masa summer begini ramailah yang akan bersantai menikmati cahaya matahari di dam square.



sebenarnya niat kami untuk ke amsterdam square untuk menyaksikan game holland dengan italy dalam perlawanan pembukaan mereka pada EURO 08, tetapi disebabkan terjet lag maka terpaksalah redha dapat tengok 2nd half game saja di hotel. negara Eropah memang fanatik dengan eufa euro cup .....bandaraya amsterdam memang dihias indah dengan warna oranje.



bunga turlips , satu lagi trademark netherland. walaupun dah masuk musim panas, turlip buds masih lagi boleh didapati di kedai kedai khusus di bandaraya ini.

well, the only thing i miss about amsterdam is the tram .... kenapalah kena tukar warna yer ....warna oranje dulu kan cantik jika dibandingkan dengan warna biru !

Tahniah & Selamat Berjaya

Memandangkan seorang kenalan yang juga merupakan seorang dj radio akan dinaikkan pangkat dan bertukar ke Miri, maka kesempatan pada hari cuti wesak digunakan untuk meraikan beliau. it's more of get together over high tea rather. ingatkan nak berkumpul di menara Kl tapi ada pulak yang gayat. Marriot Putrajaya is a good option with it's good food, nice live music and polite crowd tapi jauhlah pulak. finally ended up kat Nikko. adik memang suka bebenor tiramisu kat Deli Lobby lounge Nikko tu. Lagi pun Nikko is only 5 minutes away from home.













and pada semua, thank you for joining us. maaf kalau ada kekurangan. Pada kak Diva tahniah kerana dinaikkan pangkat dan selamat memulakan tugas di tempat baru.

Tribute To The Teachers

May 16 ... teachers day ! So what ! come to think of it why do people nowadays emphasize so much on the special days ....teachers day, mothers days, nurses day, labour day, fathers day .....and all the donnowhat days !. In my good ole days, i don't think anybody borders very much on the so and so days.

Come teachers day, i bet every body would give a good account of their teachers. Do I have fond memories of my teachers ? - of course I do. Well, some are worth mentioning here.

1. Cikgu Wan Mustapha (my standard 1 teacher)
- his son, wan farid was the class monitor. every time cikgu comes into the class, the monitor will stand up, acknowledged and says 'murid murid semua berdiri, selamat pagi ayah' ...and follows my the rest of the class.

2. Cik Gu Yahaya
- I was in standard 4 when the late Cik Gu Yahaya taught us mathematics. A very strict and ruthless teacher I would say. Even his name send shock tremors to the class. He would just point to any student to come forward and solve the mathematical problems on the blackboard. with the ratan always in his right hand, one is sure to get a token on the palm if one can't solve the problem. then automatically, you'll be sent to stand up on the chair. but he was also quite considerate as he would always give you another chance .... a second mistake however will see you on the highest peak in the class (standing on the table!). I do recall, whenever my name was called to approach the blackboard, rather then wasting his time, i would automatically spring up to stand on the table. I learned that by doing so, i always spare the mandatory canning - wow, clever me !. and of course a very common sight to see ... before the maths period was over, 90% of the students in the class will either be standing on the chair or table. needless to say one of the regulars on the table is now a professor in statistics at universiti kebangsaan malaysia.

3. Miss Ng (geography teacher when i was in form 2)
- a young, pretty and sexy teacher from Ipoh who always wear the shortest miniskit!. somehow whenever she came for the class, all the boys will rush to be seated in the front rows. and once the class was over, Arief will always hold a press conference ..... goes like , 'well, today she wears a pink colour undie' ... followed by a moment of Ooooooo and deep silence

4. Cik Gu MN
- a young teacher, graduate from one of the teacher's training college. a form 2 history teacher cum warden. somehow he was always up to something and honestly i find him very irritating. when we were in form 5, he must be in his early 20's. this is one teacher who always think that he was the smartest, strict tak bertempat and very very annoying. unfortunately, i was caught on at least a few occasions - skipping prep classes, lompat pagar keluar malam from the hostel and painting graffiti. he was the one who recommended and insisted that a group of us be awarded the honourable public canning. and he was also the one who recommended me and MRM to be suspended from school for 2 weeks - and that was less then 1 month before the MCE exam. and it's still fresh in my memory when he called me and MRM to his room and said.. 'i bet my last dollar, that both of you will never go far and i'm not surprise if both of you tak jadi manusia pun'. well, i'm glad we proved him wrong .... at least i'm not a pest to the society and dato dr. MRM is an adviser to the prime minister on energy section !

LABOUR holiDAY

well, a short break for the first of May. the decision was rather late, thus despite taking the budget airline, the fare was not that cheap after all. the initial plan was to redang or tioman, but for reasons i still find hard to comprehend, we end up in langkawi. no regret really.

I can't exactly remember when was my last trip to langkawi. perhaps 10 years ago !. but i do remember taking a mid day flight and the hotel was perhaps 15 minutes away from the airport (honestly didn't remember the hotel's name). attended the opening ceremony at 3.00 pm and presented my paper just before the break at 5.00 pm. after a quick snack, i rushed back to the airport to catch the last flight home.
by the way this trip was the first for my 2 teenage kiddos.

.... and adik on arrival at langkawi airport - i gathered she was fairly excited


thought of visiting the under water world but as advised by the receptionists at the hotel, the cable car ride was a far better option . and there goes the kiddos and the maid in the cable car


and the scenery at the summit was just breath taking. and the aura and phobia of walking on the hanging bridge !


needless to say, visiting the mahsuri mousoleum was a must for the visitors to langkawi.


and of course the attraction of the beach. lots of places to hang out and unwind along the cenang beach at night - very much resemble the night life in kuta beach in bali. a lot of good restaurants serving good seafood and western cuisines. but alas, the tomyam was a mere disappointment!

and can't blame the maid - wow dia pun nak melaram !


and finally, that was me in langkawi.


Summary:-
verdict: a good and well deserved short holiday
Shopping: fantastic (at least i got 3 pieces of ralph laurent shirt for only rm 500)
Food: the restaurants were fairly good, clean and affordable
Setback: adik merajuk sebab tak jumpa cari starbucks to get her ice blended mocca

Does honesty pays ?

a couple of days ago, while having our regular nasi lemak at penang village, a close friend was asking me whether it was worth been honest and trustworthy ! naturally i startled in disbelieved with such unexpected question. knowing him way back from our hostel years, he was the honest and naive type (and a bit blurr at times ,.... sorry Mr. N****). back to our dear friend, he must has been disappointed for been left out in the recent promotion exercise - most of his peers have been promoted to a pengarah level by now. he says his only weakness was that he was honest, transparent and doesn't know how to cheat his ketua pengarah (i suppose somebody has to tell him that there is such thing as tipu sunat!).

honest is a word which is hard to describe and can be interpreted in many different ways. you may not realise the act until someone congratulate you for your deed. usually those who appreciate your help and honest act will pay you in kind, be it a simple thank you or something beyond you expectation. just to reflect some of my personal 'unsangkarable' appreciations.

a. a young indonesian man was referred to me in HKL from a private hospital in subang jaya. he sustained severe head injury when he was high on drug and fell from his second floor hotel room. immediate attempt to contact his family members proved futile even with the help of the Indonesian embassy. his dad and mum arrived from Jakarta about 6 weeks latter after his came out from his coma and was able to tell us his house no. honestly i can't bear seeing his parents then with tears glistering in their eyes. for 6 weeks they were damned worried as their son has not contacted them. he was suppose to fly straight to Amsterdam via Changi, but decided to take a detour to kl. and i was really happy and proud to see him improving as the day goes by. when his parents requested that i accompany his son back to Jakarta, i naturally agreed. another big big surprise. yes we actually flew in his dad's private Lear jet ! little did i realize that his dad also own the Jakarta Grand Hyatt (never have i imagine that I'll be sleeping in a presidential suite at the hotel). 3 days in Jakarta, been very well entertained within the circle of the super rich is an experience of a life time. and an another surprise - a small token of USD 10K(that's what his mum said).

b. Puan F****** what admitted in a state of coma at about 3 in the morning. having arrived from heathrow about 5 hours earlier, her husband thought she was still having her jet lag until she started to have uncontrolled seizure. urgent CT scans of the brain done on admission indicated bleeding within a large frontal lobe tumor. all the while her complaint of frontal headache was dismissed as migraine attack. emergency surgery to remove the tumor was done in the wee hour of the morning. Thanks god, she survived. 3 weeks latter someone from the travel agency called. 'En. J***** was very grateful that you save his wife & he insisted that you take a well deserved holiday with you family'. and there we were, an unforgettable fully paid family holiday in mount titlis, Switzerland courtesy of Mr J*****. Thank you Mr J***** and Puan F******. do keep in touch.

c. Tan Sri Dato Seri D**** had a massive bleed in his brain following a fall in a posh hotel in Jalan Sultan Ismail. Apart from mild weakness of his left limbs and mild personality changes, he has indeed shown a remarkable improvement. and without fail, come hari raya, tan sri will deliver a huge 6 feet high hamper to my house, plus the rm 1000 dinner voucher. received a fax from his office on Monday for another informal dinner at his residence in tropicana golf and country club. well this is the second dinner in a year.

d. Dato L** was grateful that i treated his son who fell from the balcony while trying to so sneak his girlfriend into his room. we became close friends since then. and again he love to entertain friends and his close business associates over dinner. that reminds me of another dinner at one world hotel next week (lucky I'll be in langkawi then !). and of course he was rather disappointed that i couldn't attend the official opening of his restaurant in Perth last year.

e. and that reminded me of the other numerous gifts i received over the years ranging from nana ricci silk tie to mont blanc pen.

f. then there was this chap from muar who always bring a half gunny sack of rambutan or mangosteen when ever he came for his follow up visit. and not forgetting Tuengku A** who regularly travel from bandar aceh with buah salak madu sumatera and keropok belinjau (for some reasons, those patients from sumatera put more trust in our doctors than theirs)

g. and of course as usual, bottles of wine and boxes of chocolate from the Scott's whenever they came to see me in the follow up clinic at the southern general. needless to say, the nurses then were the happiest lots as they known invariably they were the lucky one to carry the bottles home.

h. above all, a small crayon painting from irina, a cute 7 year old sabahan girl from tawau touch my heart the most. in her drawing, apart from her parents and two other siblings, she included me as her beloved family member whom she dearestly love. sadly she died a week after i received her drawing. medulloblastoma is always a fatal and aggressive childhood brain tumor. Alfathihah.

well, despite what some people might think, I still believe that honesty and sincerity still pays. you may not get an immediate reward, but insyaallah the reward is always there in the here after.

KLKL

selepas solat jumaat biasanya aku terus saja pulang ke rumah. receptionist aku dah memang maklum aku tak masuk lagi ofis lepas solat jumaat, jadi memang dia tak ambil appointment petang jumaat unless ada real emergency. biasanya lepas solat jumaat aku akan settle semua urusan bank, bayar utility bills, melepak kat favourite coffee shop atau terus pulang ke rumah melayari internet. jadi petang jumaat dapatlah dengar KLKL (kenangan lalu kuala lumpur) yang dikendalikan oleh dj fauziah zakaria @ kak porsh. lagu lagu yang dimainkan memang kelas dan nostalgik, lebih lebih lagi jika dikendalikan oleh dj azizah sulaiman dan fauziah zakaria. for some reasons, the two djs just have the instint for good songs. kak porsh is one dj who will try her best to please her listerners. kadang kadang terasa malulah pulak sebab selalu jugak request lagu. rasanya last week dah request lagu rafeah buang, hari ni request lagi sekali .... ish ish ish. but then, i just love her songs. so lepas dinner dengan the kids tadi di klcc terus ke tower record cari cd rafeah buang (lucky for me as that was the last copy).

petang tadi the kiddo from far away land sms ...'can i use my credit card to get a new nokia e65. they're having sale now. only rm 1500.00'(berapa rubles eh !). seems that the kiddos are upgrading their mobile once in 2 years. yang untungnya the maid ... rasanya si sri wahyuni tu dah ada 3 mobile phone. familiar sangat dengan statement ini ....'kalau abah belikan phone baru, nanti adik/abang bagilah phone yang lama ni ke kak sri' ......