ORDINARY SUPERHERO

Salam tahun baru 2010. Semoga dikurniakan kesihatan yang baik; rezeki yang melimpah ruah & keberkatan yang berpanjangan. Good luck for all your new year resolutions! - Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Soalan: "Adakah anda sudah berkahwin dengan Dato' B?" Jawapan: "Saya tak boleh bagi pengesahan" Soalan: "Tapi Dato' B dalam interview yg lain sudah confirm dia dah kahwin dengan you?" Jawapan: "Oh, ... Kalau Dato' dah cakap ya, maka iyalah." Apa punya lawak (bangang) daa..... - Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

The finisher medal. The reward for the fun this morning. I left home about 10 minutes after 5.00AM. Just blew kisses to my wife before I left because I was ready with my ablution and had all planned that the first thing to do once I reach Bukit Kiara Equestrian and Contry Club was to find a prayer room. Reached the public parking space near the Securities Commission at about 5.30AM. There were already many cars and I could see the early birds were walking towards the club. After asking for a direction at the secretariat, I went straight to the club house where the surau is located. The guard manning the club house just woke up from his 'jaga' duties. Ha hah ha...were they paying him to sleep or to do 'jaga' works? Still plenty of time before the starting time at 7.00AM. This time I knew that I need to have a proper warm up. I realised that I would be losing precious time if I were to warm up on the run. We were given pink ribbons before the start and at exa...

Yes....thank God I managed to complete the race within the qualifying time. Based on personal hand timing, I clocked 1hr 24 mins and 52 seconds. The qualifying time for the 12KM event is 1hr 35 minutes. AlhamdulilLah. - Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Yes, are you ready to run? What: Malakoff 12KM, Kuala Lumpur 2009 When: Tomorow (20th December, 2009) Where: Bukit Kiara Equestrian & Country Club So this is it. It's going to be my last running event for this year. I never thought I would ever enjoy and embrace the fun of running and competing in competitive running events. My target is to complete the event within the qualifying time of 1hr and 35 minutes. InshaAllah. Will give my best shot. *************************** Today's training log: Distance: 9.23km Time: 0: 41: 54 Activity: cycling all the up to the new Bukit Antarabangsa mosque at Taman Bukit Utama Average Climb: 197m (highest point 200m) Average speed: 13:21 km/h Highest speed downhill: 46.7 km/h.

Training log for today. Distance: 11.41km Time: 0: 51: 41 Activity: cycling all the up to the new Bukit Antarabangsa mosque at Taman Bukit Utama Average Climb: 242m (highest point 202m) Average speed: 13:24 km/h Highest speed downhill: 49.4 km/h.

Congratulations to Malaysian Football team for winning the gold medal at the SEA Games in Vientiane in Vietnam yesterday. The team finally ended 20-year old drought. The last time we won the gold medal was in 1989. But while we are so happy with the football team's achievement, we must not forget that the women badminton team should also receive the same accolades and praises, if not more. Our female badminton team won the gold medals in the team event for the first time in 34 years!! Yes, thirty four years. No kidding!. - Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Quick workout towards preparation for the 12km run event this Sunday. Distance: 7.45km Time: 0: 30: 49 Activity: cycling all the way up to the new Bukit Antarabangsa mosque at Taman Bukit Utama Climb: 165m (highest point 199m) Average speed: 14:51 km/h Highest speed downhill: 44.1 km/h. I think i should do this again for the next few days in the morning before going to office. It's a good endurance workout. - Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

If the trial run that I had last Sunday were to be used as the indication of my performance for this coming running event , adoyai..... I need to buck up. Last Sunday I clocked 1hr: 39mins: 43 seconds for 12KM or thereabout. Average speed of 6.74 km/hour; average pace of 8:54 per km and average climb of 75meters.That means I may not be able to finish within the qualifying time of 1hr 35minutes set by the organizers. I thought the distance I covered for the first 50 minutes or so was much better than what I did on Sunday the 13th November. In fact, I actually managed to run non-stop for the first 6.3KM including a killer hill near the International School in Taman Melawati with a climb of 94meters (more than 300 feet). That was a big improvement compared to the other weekend but still.....a bit frustrated. May be I got a little bit of dreaming and my mind was wandering too much from the task at hand thus I did not realise that my pace was getting slower towards the final 40 ...

Waaaah, dah boleh blog direct thru IPhone via BlogPress specially for IPhones. Previously if I were to blog using my IPhone, I have to send my entry through email. So ada reason lagi ke for not blogging more regularly? Ermmmm...sebenarnya ada. Deadlines kerja yang tak habis-habis! - Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Salam Aidil Adha untuk semua. May be it's a bit late, but still better late than never as the saying goes. Me and family are in Ayer Keroh for Hari Raya. Earlier I was toying with the idea to drive back to my home town in Pasir Mas, but the non-stop raining and news about worsened flood condition in the east coast states caused a bit of concern. So I dared not take any risks. Again, Eid Mubarak and maaf zahir batin to all of you. P/s: lots of things currently in my mind; but too lazy to blog. I just wanna have a good rest over the extended weekend.

A train or a long long queue of buses? or could I call a train of buses ? I counted and there were at least 24 buses in the picture, all the way down towards WIlayah Complex.

(Picture: the start(yellow)/end(white) arches) AlhamdulilLah, the run went out quite alright for me. I reached the place quite early roughly about fifteen minutes before seven in the morning. I saw the organiser was trying to put up the hot air balloon. Went round and round looking for registration booth but turned out that there was no need for registration. They just collect the slip once the participants were gathered in the starting area. This time the build up was not as exciting as the one I had experienced during the KL Marathon 2009 . There was flurry of camera flashes when the VIP arrived and suddenly I heard the starting gun shot. Haiyaa, tak thrill langsung . I was with my office partner for the first 1 - 1.5km when I found it though to follow his pace, so I drifted behind a bit but I could still see him in the crowd about 20 meters from me. Well, that's what happen when you don't train much! Heh he he... My partner has been running very diligently as...

Any body game for a run? When? Tomorrow (morning of course). Where? DUKE (Duta Ulu Kelang Expressway). Distance? 5KM. InshaAllah I will be participating in the Dukethon event tomorrow - just for fun. This will be my second time participating in a run after the 10KM event during the KL Marathon earlier this year. Just like before, this is just suka-suka and for personal satisfaction. No way I am going to compete with those serious runners. Come and join the fun. There are many other interesting activities besides the 5KM run. Wish me luck!

AlhamdulilLah, segala puji dan syukur dipanjatkan kepada AlLah yang telah memudahkan segala urusan. My brother has successfully undergone a bypass operation. He was wheeled into the operation room at 9.00am. The operation commenced at about 10.00 am and only finished at about 4:30 pm. We were allowed to visit him at the ICU room. Of course he was still unconscious. In fact he would be unconscious until tomorrow afternoon. I am so glad that everything went out well. Thank you for your kind doa and well wishes. Sent from my iPhone

Updating from KLIA now. Waiting to catch a flight to Kota Bharu. Was in Johore the whole day today. To be exact, I had a long meeting a client's office at Port of T*anjung P*elepas. The meeting ended at about a quarter past four then drove back to KL. Luckily I was not the one who drove. There were 3 of us plus the office driver. The Alphard was very comfortable enough for me to catch some sleep. The road was clear all the way until we reached jalan tun razak/jalan istana intersection. Took almost an hour to reach my office from there. Luckily I booked the last flight. Rushed from office and reached KLIA at about 8:30pm. (Nasib baik minyak kereta ngam2 aje). Still plenty of time to change my clothes and do my jamak prayers. I m going back to visit my elder brother who will be undergoing a bypass operation tomorrow morning. Please pray for my brother; please pray that the operation will be carried out smoothly. InshaAllah. Thank you. Sent from my iPhone

Thank you for your kind wishes and encouragement, I managed to finish the paper and emailed it to the organiser at about 8.30PM on Saturday. Yup....spent the whole of Saturday in office. :( The presentation by my Boss went out well yesterday. P/s: actually my colleagues and I were betting whether my Boss will be presenting the paper or he would just ask me to take his place since I did all the preparation. Well the possibility was there - and it had happened before. Needless to say, the guys owed dinner now.

Anybody game for a teh tarik session? Hah ha ha...the blog owner is actually under extreme pressure to complete a presentation paper to be presented this coming Monday (2nd November 2009). It is already late. The deadline was last week. My Managing Partner (a.k.a. my boss) just informed me about it and requested my help to prepare the paper for him. Aiyoo...and it's not normal power point slide presentations. The format of the programme is that the presenter will first present his (research) paper on certain issues given to him and his paper will be discussed (and commented) by 2 discussants. The paper that I am preparing will be on legal issues affecting Islamic Finance and to be discussed by none other that the former Chief Justice (mantan Ketua Hakim Negara)!. Mati la gue....cannot cincai-cincai one. Worst, the paper will have to be in Malay!!!. Adoyai....susah la cam ni - because my mother's tongue is.............French! :)

Semalam pergi kenduri kahwin sepupu my Wife nun di Kampung Permatang Pasir di Banting Selangor. Meriah nya bukan main. Maklum lah, anak sulung tok penghulu. Sudahnya sepanjang malam dan hari ni seisi rumah sakit perut. Memang semua lauk kenduri podeh nak mampuih...yang amat pedas. Malam tadi terjaga pukul 3.30 pagi, Abang Akmal sampai nangis (manja?) sakit perut. Pagi tadi sebelum ke sekolah, Kak Ngah dah dua kali ke tandas. Aku sendiri kat ofis pun dah dua kali ke tandas. Ini baru betul punya Ya Qadhial Hajaat... Tengahari pulak Abang Akmal telefon ofis, mintak cuti dari pergi sekolah - takut sakit perut di sekolah; dan komplen tandas kat sekolah kotor.  Aku sempat melawak dengan dia, aku cakap kalau tak sempat berak aje dalam seluar. Tup tup...dapat SMS dari my Wife cakap dia nak ke sekolah ambik Abang Akmal. Dia sakit perut dan dah ter...... dalam seluar!. Aiyooo...   ******** Semalam sempat pergi Shah Alam sebelum pergi kenduri. Ada appointment ambik specs Ka...

Esok orang-orang Makkal Sakhti nak beraya. Tapi pagi ni masa lalu depan SOGO lebih kurang jam 9.30 pagi - nampaknya yang ramai-ramai duduk tercongok kat tangga SOGO, yang tak sabar-sabar tunggu SOGO bukak - bukannya orang depa; orang kita lah jugak. Aik,.....tak habis raya lagi ke?

MA was spot on in her second attempt to guess what were in the pictures in my entry yesterday. They were baby hamsters - roborwski snow white hamster - not so sure about the spelling though. (Ni dia 5 ekor hamster, sekor lagi tengah bergayut kat puting mak dia masa aku ambik gambar ni) When I came back from office on Wednesday night, all the kids were really excited to break the news that one of Abang Akmal's hamsters has given birth to six (6) new babies. They were reddish in colour and so soo small. I mean, I have seen 'anak tikus' before; but these newborn babies are so small. To give you the idea of how small they are, I put a 20-cent coin beside them. And this is the picture of the mother hamster standing guard of its babies. ******** Honestly I was not really in favour of pets. Be it rabbits, cats, hamsters etc. They are cute and may be fun to play with but I don't have the time to really take a good care of them, feed them, wash their cage...

Look at this picture below and tell me what it is.... No price for the correct guess though. :P ***** OK la...since MA said the picture is not clear enough, so I put up another one below. So, what is it? When I showed it to my colleague this afternoon, her first guess was a potpourri. No it is not correct (....see...there goes one clue).

I had a swith of profession last weekend. I took the opportunity to trim and cut Arif's hair. Of all my kids only Arif was born with lots of hair. Others were born almost without much hair and remained so for almost 1 1/2 or two years old. Even my girls were the same. But Arif is different. He has thick hair especially on the sides of his temple. This was Arif before the hair cut.

No, the earth on our part of the world didn't shake last two days. Unlike in Padang Sumatera, where an earthquake in the magnitude of 7.6 of Richter scale had caused massive destructions, what we felt (or had gone through) two days ago was nothing but a mild sway of the earth. I was in my car waiting for my son outside of his school in Taman Melawati. I was a bit engrossed with the games on my I Phone when suddenly I felt that my car moved or swayed. It was as if a big heavy vehicle just passed by a bit too close to my car. I looked at my side and of course there was no lorry or heavy vehicle in sight. In fact, no lorry would be able to squeeze through as most parents have double parked their vehicle while waiting to fetch their kids. When I came out of the car, another parent asked me whether I felt the earth moved a moment ago. I said yes, it lasted for a few seconds. He said he felt it too; and he said he just received call from his colleague in office somewhere in Damansara tha...

'Eid Mubarak to all kind visitors. Yeah, may the 5 or 6 of you out there. My warm wishes on the coming Eid al Fitr. May it touch your life with peace, prosperity and joy. May you be blessed by the Love of Allah and be guided by Him in all that you do. If you are travelling, my prayers for your safe journey to your destinations. MAAF ZAHIR & BATIN. Kullu 'Am Wa Antum Bi Khair. *image from here .

I have been receiving many SMS'es wishing for a blessed Ramadhan, but this one particular SMS from a friend of mine is worth sharing, Sawadee...Rumah urut kiew-kiew danok mengucapkan selamat berpuasa pada semua pelanggan setia. Langgani promosi all-in 1Malaysia chip-chip masat servit dapat B1N1 mask + berbuka puasa percuma bermula 12.30 tengahari esok. Kami menyediakan bilik tambahan sepanjang puasa. (Masuk ikut pintu belakang sahaja.) By the way, it's actually from the same friend in my  previous entry. ***************** Ramadhan Mubarak to all blogger friends and kind visitors. May you have a blessed Ramadhan. InshaAllah.

I saw my friend on his bicycle riding to his office somewhere near Jalan Sultan Ismail this morning. Upon reaching office, I SMS'ed him. ME: Bro, saw u on d bike this morning. Congrats.....but I hv to say this.....u need to lose some more pounds! Hah ha ha too much flesh is...........gross! Shortly afterwards, he replied FRIEND: bet u enjoyed the view of my cute ass.....esok main bola? ME: Like I said, too much of flesh is gross! Nasib baik belum stat puasa. Yes, esok aku main futsal. FRIEND: cisss, sebelum raya mung kena mintak maaf dgn aku. Hah ha ha what a way to start a day.

Terkedu saya membaca berita ini hari ini, "Rahsia Beg Berdarah" . Seperti mana tidak lama dahulu saya terkedu bila membaca berita tentang kematian seorang pelajar wanita kerana melahirkan anak bersendirian di hostel di sebuah IPTA di selatan tanahair. Semoga Allah memberi keampunan kepada anak-anak ini; dan semoga Allah memberi taufik dan hidayahNya kepada kita semua.

AlhamdulilLah, thank you My Lord....for the rain. It's raining now outside my office. I could see from my room that the rain is quite heavy. I hope it would help to clear the haze...yes it's suffocating to see the haze engulfing your otherwise clear blue skies. At the same time, it would help to bring the temperature down a bit here in the office. One of the aircond chillers of the building where my office is located has not been working since Monday. So it's a bit stuffy in the office. Standing fans are not enough to circulate the air within office. Again, AlhamdulilLah for the rain. Now let's sing together.... Thank you Allah, Thank you Allah (remember Raihan's song?).

I am currently at the Coffee Bean somewhere near 1 Borneo complex in Kota Kinabalu. Been here for since Wednesday. My flight back to KL is at 3.30PM. So I have a lot of time 'to kill'. The fourth instalment of the national symposium on Islamic banking for the state of Sabah was concluded yesterday. We still have two more stops to go - in Trengganu for east coast region and in Kuching. Unlike the earlier three events that were held in Penang, KL and JB, this time the symposium in KK was conducted in 2 days instead of one day. The organiser felt that we need to give more exposure to the bankers and lawyers in Sabah on the basics of Islamic banking both from Shariah and legal perspectives. I presented two papers at the symposium - one each per day. It may be a bit tiring, but I am glad to see the enthusiasm in the face of the participants during the 2 day event. I would say they were genuinely interested to learn and gain more knowledge on the subject. I could feel that during...

This morning, I saw a shoe (was it left or right side?) lying in front of my gate when I was going out to send the girls to school. My thought was, "....budak mana la punya kasut ni". It was an 'Admiral' jogging shoe. Came back from sending the girls, I had a quick bite of toasted bread and ready to send Akmal to his Sekolah Agama. Meanwhile, Kak Chik was all set and ready. Yes, I has a date with my daughter this morning - we had earlier planned to go for jogging around the neighbourhood today. (Kak Chik's school was closed for three days from Monday because 2 students were down with hand, foot and mouth (HFM) disease). Only when I came back from sending Akmal, I realised that my jogging shoes were not at the place where I left them yesterday. Oh no....! And when I checked in the shoe closet - I was surprised, not only my new Nike jogging shoes were not there; my 2 pairs of futsal shoes were also gone. Cisss,.....tak guna betul punya pencuri. Sakit h...

So what happened last Sunday the 28th? The run went out well I would say. I wish I could have put up an entry much earlier; but I was caught up in terrible deadlines in the last few days. Let the pictures do the talking. The participants were asked to collect their Race Pack on Friday and Saturday. I went to collect it on Friday (26th June) itself since I would be sending my niece to UiTM on Saturday. There were long lines divided into each race category. The lady with a tattoo on her arm was in the queue next to my line. Hope to see her again during the race. :) This is the Race Pack. It contains the running bib and another smaller bib to be attached to the bag on race day. There's a complimentary event T-Shirt inside. But I didn't wear it on the race day because......I bought a new running shirt specially for the event!. Baru la semangat. Heh he he...gaya mesti mau. Penting tu..... It's a Nike dry fit made of thin fabric that is supposed to ensu...

Chong Wei won! Chong Wei has just defeated Taufik Hidayat 21-9 and 21-14. It was a daunting task to achieve that feat in front of the home crowd at Istora Senayan. Sent from my iPhone

Yesss! For the first time ever, our women pair won the Indonesian Open crown. They defeated the Chinese pair in straight games 21-16 and 21-16. Congratulations to Wong Pei Tty and Chin Eei Hui. They are currently the world's number one pair; but may be less in the limelights because they didn't win the major tournaments so far. Lee Chong Wei will be up against local favourite, Taufik Hidayat next. Let's pray hard Chong Wei will be able to pull it off this time to make a great outing for the Malaysian team. Sent from my iPhone

Dear all, go and read an article by N.H Chan, a retired judge of the Court of Appeal on the decision of the Federal Court in the recent case of Zambry vs. Sivakumar. In this case, Zambry has applied to the Federal Court, amongst others, a declaration that Sivakumar as the Speaker of the DUN of Perak was wrong when he (Sivakumar) suspended Zambry and other BN elected representatives. In the article, "The Gobbledegook of Augustine Paul FCJ in the Federal Court's decison in Zambry v Sivakumar" , the former Supreme Court judge wrote that the written judgement by Paul FCJ unintelligible. He used the strong word "gobbledegook" which means, "unintelligible language" to describe the written judgment. His main contention is why the Federal Court Judges (all five of them) failed to rely on the wordings of Article 72(1) of the Federal Constitution. To quote, And that point is Article 72(1) of the Federal Constitution. It reads: The validity of any...

Normally if I read newspaper, I will read almost all the pages; including classified, auction notices, bankruptcy notices and even orbituaries. Seriously, you may find something interesting in those columns or items. In orbituaries for example, sometimes I noticed there is a different name in the list of the family members of the deceased. Then I thought, may be one of the deceased child has converted to become a muslim, that is why you find the deceased's son/daughter in law has a muslim name. That's a good sign...at least the deceased family did not disown one of their family member who has converted. Some other time, you will find funny/weird classified like this one that I found in the 'Other Personal Services' section of the Sun today. It reads, "Chilli massage, Cheras KL. 03-9130****/Susugirl 016-2510***/Wantan mee 017-3857***/....". And the list goes on with other names like Ajinomoto, Tomato, Colgate and Hamburger . Mmmm.....anybody interested? Sen...

What are the differences between wishes, resolution and target? To my mind, they are all almost carry the same meaning. It just that for me wishes could be very wide and may even include something that you could never achieve or something that you dream to achieve. Resolution and target to my mind has the connotation of achievability - in the sense that you make a resolution or you set your target and you work towards achieving them. Normally, you would make resolution or set target on something that is challenging enough but at the same time, achievable based on your assessment of your ownself and your ability. I have many things I want to do in my life; whether at personal level, self improvement level, career etc. But specifically when it comes to outdoor activities, I could list below are the things that I really want to do: (1) to conquer Mont Kinabalu (2) to run a marathon (3) to do a bungee jumping I have climbed may mountains during my student days at the ...

Look what we have here.... My "pokok periuk kera" - nothing significant. But take a good look again, it seems that someone has made the plant as her abode. There are two little birds resting in the nest right in the middle of my potted plant. The kids are very excited to adopt them! ***UPDATED (12th June 2009) : The two chicks died in an apparent suicide attempt....err I mean, in an attempt to learn to fly a bit too soon. The kids told me that they found the two little birds lying motionless and swarmed by red ants underneath their nest two days ago. The kids dug a hole and held a simple burial near their Ibu's plant. ***End of Update

Kak Chik demam, Kak Chik demam, Kak Chik demam.... Akid was teasing his elder sister yesterday evening when I was giving medications to Kak Chik. I touched Akid's forehead; it's a bit hot - and I knew it's coming. It's just that Akid might have not felt it yet. True enough, by midnight, I had to wake Akid up and gave his fever medication. Hah ha...padah mengejek kakaknya. Two 'casualties' so far. All for 3D (+2N) of fun in the sun at the beach and in the pool in PD. The kids were in Melaka from yesterday until the weekend. It is the first time we brought Arif to his grandparents' house in Ayer Keroh. InshaAllah, kalau tak de aral melintang, nak buat majlis doa selamat (+ potong jambul?) untuk Arif petang Sabtu ni. Sapa ada kat Melaka, jemput lah datang.

Instead of doing my routine Sunday ride up to Genting Sempah starting from Hospital Orang Asli at Batu 12 in  Gombak, I decided to park my car at the food stalls near Sekolah Teknik Gombak. That would give me an extra 6 km from the normal starting point. So I expected to ride about (12 + 32) km this morning. I was however tempted by the invitation by a group of cyclists to continue from Genting Sempah up to Goh Tong Jaya. Not knowing what to expect, I just decided to join them. On the way up, I asked one of the riders about the route. "5 km up and 2 km down" That's the only answer I got. Short and direct to the point. True enough, it was almost a vertical climb right from the guard house where the road to Genting Highland started. And I only managed to cycle for about 1 km up the hill. Crazy man; I don't think I could go any further. Made a u-turn with another rider. You know how steep the climb was when the ride downhill was at lightning speed and you ha...

This may be one of the stupidest remark that I ever come across: Anifah flattered by Anwar’s suit PUTRAJAYA: Foreign Minister Da­tuk Anifah Aman is flattered that Opposition Leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim has sued him for RM100mil. Anifah said it showed that he was someone of influence, adding that he would have felt ashamed if he was sued for a small amount over an alleged libelous statement made in Washington. “I have not had time to read the content of the suit or think of my next course of action. I also have bigger things to attend to now like the Asean-European Union meeting which I have just attended,” he told a press conference here yesterday. [The Star, 30 May 2009] What a stupid statement from a minister . I thought he is one of the smarter ones from the land under the wind. Dear Mister Minister, you are being sued for RM100 million has nothing to do wether you are someone of influence of not; the suit for RM100 million is the damages that th...

It's over. The game is over for Man U, Barca is celebrating the win as I am writing this entry now. It's a frustrating result; but Barca was a better team tonite. It is difficult to break the curse of being a defending champions - even for a team like Man U. Arghhh....ni yang boring nak masuk ofis esok (pagi) ni. Sent from my iPhone

Oh nooo! Messi scored for Barca. 20 minutes left to go. Sent from my iPhone

Man U started off very promisingly but it was Barca who scored from their attack in the 10th minutes. Eto'o scored for Barca. Barca's passing was superior and more accurate than Man U's. I still pray Man U can overcome the defisit. Second half in on the way now. Sent from my iPhone

It's Kak Chik's turn to celebrate her birthday today. Happy Birthday Sayang Baba. She was all smiles when she woke up this morning. I gave her a big hug and whispered my congratulatory birthday wishes to her. Kak Chik even called me when I was at office two days ago just to remind about her birthday. Just in case her Baba forgets - maklum lah anak dah masuk 'nam orang. When I came back last night, she was already asleep. I looked around the room for party packs - couldn't find any. She normally asks to bring party packs to distribute with her classmates at kindie on her birthday. Checked with my wife and was surprised that Kak Chik didn't ask her Ibu to prepare party packs this year. That's a good sign. :) Kak Chik's birthday cake last year - courtesy of her cousins.

I did a 50.6 km ride this morning. With some friends, we cycled from Bt. 18 in Hulu Langat to Nuang and back. Then from Bt. 18 to the junction to Kuala Kelawang/Tekala Dam. Instead of going to Tekala waterfall as we had earlier planned, we decided to climb up the hills to Genting Peras (most of us call Genting Perez) which is situated at the border of Selangor and Negeri Sembilan. It has been a long while since my last long distance ride. For the last few months I have been regularly cycling up the Genting Sempah trail from Hospital Orang Asli in Gombak. The whole trip will be about 32km; about one hour of climbing and another 15 - 20 minutes going down hill. This morning's ride was a big test to my mental strength. I was contemplating of racing back down hill many many times during the climb. It was not my first time climbing up Perez; but the mental block was too much for me to push myself. Finally I just gave up with about another 50 - 80 meters to the summit. (isk...isk...

Today is exactly one month since my last entry. It also mean my baby boy is one month old today and ready to take his second dosage of the immunisation. We went to Ampang P*tri early to see the pediatrician. Big brother Akid wanted to be there too. AlhamdulilLah, everything went out well. So far no jaundice, no fever and no flu. Our only concern was about the baby's stomach which most of the time, a bit hardened and   'masuk angin' . But the doctor said there was no cause to worry, he would give some medication and asked us to monitor until next visit in a month from now. By 10.00 AM we were already on our way back home.    So this is the latest picture of Mohd Arif. Taken after we came back from the hospital this morning. Ibu was very happy as his weight jumped from 2.68 kg to 4.0 kg within a month.

AlhamdulilLah, AlhamdulLah, AlhamdulilLah. This is to inform that my beloved wife has safely delivered a baby boy at about 3.10AM this morning at Amp*ng Putri Specialist Hospital. This is our sixth (yes,....6th) child; and our third boy. This is the first picture taken immediately after I have performed my Azan and Iqamah in the delivery room. This picture was taken after the baby had first tasted his mother's milk; still in the labour room. Look at that smile.... Akid and other kids are all asleep after coming back from visiting their baby brother at the hospital. More later, Insha Allah. I need to catch some sleep.

I sent SMS to a friend in one of the northern states asking for any updates on the by-elections that have just concluded a short while ago. This friend of mine is known to be a supporter of parti bulan. Me @18.00 : Salam, any latest updates on dua bukit satu btg (sungai)? Him @ 18.03 : Batang i bn tgh leading. Gantang x tau dan selambau x tau. Yg penting kita punya batang stabil dan kukuh. 2 bukit masih maintain I would rather not re-produce the next few exchanges of SMS between us. Suffice to say, they're hilarious!

I am currently at Cairo airport waiting for my flight to KLIA which is scheduled to depart at 3.50AM Egypt time. It is currently about 2.30AM in Cairo or 8.30AM in Kuala Lumpur. My phone has been barred as I have been using a lot of roaming and data transfer services. I got the SMS from M*xis on Saturday that my bill has exceeded RM2k and I was asked to pay up in order to avoid disruption. So I asked my assistant to pay at any M*xis centre which he did. He confirmed that he had paid RM2k on my behalf. But then M*xis still barred me. Now could not even SMS to my wife to inform her about my tentative arrival time. Susah la ini macam....

Remember my Amazing Ride last year? If not for my working trip here in Cairo, I would have been riding with my cycling buddies from Kota Bharu to Kuantan starting from today Since the last ride that we did on 080808 from Kuala Lumpur to Kota Bharu, we have agreed that we should attempt to cycle the whole country; by stages of course. So today was supposed to be the start of our Amazing Ride II. In this second instalment, we were to cycle from KB to Kuantan. The plan was to fly to KB on Wednesday night (25th March) and started our journey early this morning to Setiu via Pasir Puteh. At about noon Malaysian time (about 6.00AM in Cairo), I got an SMS from the guys that they have reached Besut after having cycled for about 58 kilometres. Ahhh, frust betul . I missed the chance to be with the rest of the Gedebe(s). I pray for their safe journey and that they would have fun. They were expected to reach Kuantan by Saturday afternoon and be back in KL on Sunday (29th March). Goo...

Dialog Akid dengan Ibunya Akid: Ibu, apa nama Baba? Ibu: Mohd S******* Bin Ismail Akid: Ha?.....Mail yang noty (naughty) dalam citer Upin dan Ipin tu? Ibu: *pecah perut nak tahan gelak*

Updates I know I have not been updating my blog as frequent as I wish. Same old reasons... sibuk, busy , tersangat la busy bla bla bla... But that does not stop me from checking out my own blog. I still have the urge to click on my blog after having visited some of my favourite blogs in my bookmarks tab. Not sure whether it's funny or crazy or some kind of addiction or blog withdrawal syndrome or something....   New Passport Finally I managed to squeeze my time and went to Immigration office to renew my passport. My passport died, I mean expired since June 2007. Ini pun terpaksa. Work commitments requires me to travel. The last time that I went out of the country was during the month of Ramadhan, in year 2005 - when I went to Saudi to do my umrah . And in order to ensure that I will not be stopped by the immigration at the exit gate, I have to part with a sum of more than RM29,000.00 to pay my outstanding income tax to the Government. See.....I am a law abidin...

Kak Chik came to me when I was reading weekend's newspapers yesterday afternoon. "Daddy, can you take me to school?" "Ok, I will send you to school tomorrow." "Daddy, can you take me after I finished my school?" "Mmmm....you go and bring me my hand phone; let me check if I have meeting, I cannot take you. If I don't have meeting, then I can take you" Obligingly, my little girl went to take my hand phone on the table and handed over to me. I glanced through my schedules; no meeting tomorrow but I know I am gonna have a very tight day tomorrow to wrap up one urgent assignment. But again, I didn't want to disappoint my little girl. She's still waiting patiently for my answer. "Okay....., I will send you to school tomorrow. In the afternoon, I will call your mummy first. If I can take you, I will take you; If I cannot take you, mummy will take you. OK?" "OK, thank you Daddy." Short and sweet. ...

Dearest Kak Long, my jantung hati. Happy Birthday and congratulations for your 11th birthday today. As usual, your Baba is very busy and too stressed out with works and drop dead deadlines to even honour you with a proper entry in this blog. My apology sayang. But I did sing happy birthday song to you during breakfast this morning!. As always, my prayers with you in all your endeavours. LOVE YOU. Read.....previous entries on Kak Long's birthday in 2008 and 2007 .

This probably my final entry on the crisis in Perak. Below is an unsolicited legal view from a senior lawyer whom I have have high regard from his blog here . The articulate advice is precise and will help you to understand the legal position. The Perak Crisis - Unsolicited Legal Opinion The disagreement between the Terengganu palace and the BN's leadership over the choice of the Menteri Besar last year prompted Malik Imtiaz to write Crisis In Trengganu? What crisis? on his blog, Disquiet. I had taken a differing view than that which was taken by Imtiaz in that article. Basically I was, and still am, of the opinion that the role of the Rulers in the political arena should be approached with a degree of circumspection. I posted 2 comments to that post and it would not be out of place to reproduce a part of my comments here: "The notion that the Rulers are a part of check and balance mechanism to the wide powers of the executives is to me, wishful at best. The reality is the...