Life is but a dream ……

I took a Continental Airlines 757 from LAX to Houston’s George Bush. Everywhere in the brochure, the in-flight magazine, the safety instruction etc. never fail to mention about their 45,000 Continental co-workers. I think next time, I’ll use that word, ‘co-worker’. It sounds great.

Anyway, there’s a black American sitting beside me in the jet plane. Being true to my ownself (naturally unfriendly), I really don’t give a damn on who’s next to me. To my surprise, he said, "You from Malaysia?"

"Yes, I am." How the heck did he knew. I tried to look like locals, i.e. the Latino or Hispanic (did someone said ‘Pablo’?).

"Actually I saw you talking that Malaysian accent with the guy with the skull cap (he meant the Haji who I’m with). I just came from KB."

What Al (Alfred? Albert? Alf the Alien?) meant was Kota Baru, where he was going on and off to Cakerawala offshore platform doing some work. From Houston he’s going to Lafayette in Louisiana. 

Nice talking to you, Al.

LAX

For the last 3 hours I was with one guy speaking Malay at this Tom Bradley Airport. Good to have some company. Nak solat pun senang. My next flight to Houston will be in 3 hours time.

Meanwhile, Starbucks is the place to dwell.

Life is a journey, through time and space. Every day of your life is a page of your history. According to an Arab saying, all of us are divided into three classes: those that are immovable, those that are moveable, and those that move. I don’t know what that really means, but here I am again, on the move.

“… all my bags are packed, I’m ready to go …”

I’m flying to Houston, for some deepwater oil (nope, not the minyak urut) business. The journey will be a long and arduous one. It will be a 20 odd hours of either sleeping, watching all-not-yet-shown-in-AXN House episodes, playing In-Flight Trivia, chatting with the kebaya-clad stewardess, but mostly sleeping.

I have a couple of non-business days in Houston and LA. Donno who I’m gonna meet this time. Hope everything will go well. Lemme share a secret, before entering to a new place, or a premise, or a city, make it a practice to recite the ‘Doa Masuk Bandar’. God willing, people will love you, and all your dealings, will be smoother than silk.

Sudah terasa rindu padaku?

Why don’t you grab the GLAM Magazine February 2008 issue. Hayati goresan tintaku. Rindumu pasti terubat. Or worst case, maybe getting shoddier.

“… tentang rindu yang hilang di suatu musim dingin …”

What if hypothetically two animals could assume the same identity?

‘Bro, hang tau tak sekarang ni kancil dah jadi babi.’

Said a colleague to me one day. What the heck is he trying to imply. Being a proud owner of a non-fussy, very low maintenance, good mileage second national car, his statement would obviously made me upset.

Kancil is a very robust no nonsense car which you could bring it hassle free to any pasar malam, Kg Lindungan, Taman Medan, Taman Datuk Harun, to a packed Carrefour car park etc. I have no frail, I have no comment on my multi purpose Kancil.

The other day, I went with Jay to OneU during the weekend. We took the other car (the family 7-seater). Somehow, after minutes of looking and searching, high and low, for an empty parking lot, it was fruitless. There were occasions where I was (as if) racing with another car to rush for a potential empty space, and lost.

‘Abang, quick, further right, at that corner, there’s an empty parking lot.’ Jay said with much enthusiasm, after almost quarter an hour looking and searching hopelessly.

As if injected by a rush of adrenalin, I pressed the accelerator, and about to make a turn to the seemingly empty parking lot when, without realising I uttered …

‘Babi betul. Ada Kancil la.’

There you go. My colleague was right after all.

I’m not too sure, whether it’s just me or some of you out there feeling the same. Somehow the passing of this month of January I feel very very slowly, at a pace even the siput babi would have no problem in winning the race. So many things to do, and yet the days really seem long and unassuming. Nak kata summer time, tak jugak. I agreed to my spouse that some how, the bodoh sepat play some role in this.

Anyway, remember this pantun:

Pulau Pandan jauh ke tengah

Gunung Daik bercabang tiga

Hancur badan dikandung tanah

Budi baik dikenang jua

Thanks Nyon!

Imagine this, a dedicated CSI investigator found a badly burnt headless female (quite easy to distinguish between male and female bodies …) with no finger print, no nothing. After analysing the DNA, he told his boss, ‘Boss, the body that we found … there’s something wrong with it, there’s few strands missing in the DNA.’ The next day he found out that the body was indeed not human. It was a gorilla.

The difference between a human and a gorilla is only in few strands of the DNA structure. The other is the ability of human being to think.

According to Donald Trump, since we human being have to think … why don’t we THINK BIG. According to Napoleon Hill, if you can’t do great things, do small things in a great way.

Blue Ocean, Vertical Market, SWOT, Differentiation, Positioning, Strategy Map, Blue Sheet ….

Exactly about 2 years ago I went to the US for some business trip. The trip was long and exhausting. Especially if you’re traveling in the economy class. From KLIA, I went to LA’s Tom Bradley, then to Phoenix’s Sky Habour and lastly to Houston’s Geoge Bush.

Why I’m narrating this. Well, kalau boleh saya nak ulangi perjalanan ini sekali lagi. Di samping urusan bisnes, bermacam ragam manusia yang saya ketemu di sepanjang seminggu perjalanan. Ada seorang pembuat kebab di Phoenix, bila mengetahui saya datang dari Malaysia segera menyediakan juadah yang teramat sedap lagi halal. Si pemandu teksi di Houston pula amat memuja TDM (sampaikan ada naskah biografi TDM di dalam teksinya). Di LA ada juga yang boleh berbicara Melayu.

Rasanya ada di antara mereka yang di atas mungkin meraikan hari ulang tahun di bulan Januari ini, Selamat Hari Jadi, semoga sentiasa berjiwa besar (cerita di atas macam boleh dijadi bahan artikel majalah GLAM pulok).

Cause I’m leaving on a jet plane
Don’t know when I’ll be back again …

… a carefully planned migration which marks not only a break in history, the beginning of the Islamic era, but a new way of life, an ummah which was not to be mere blood kinship, but the greater brotherhood of all Muslims.

I’m not too sure how it must have felt. It must have been great man, almost like , emm orgasm.

I’m talking about hitting a clean six at Long On area in an ODI-standard cricket ground. After whacking the ball and launch it to orbit, I still have the time to look at it and appreciate its flight to stratosphere.

My last T20 batting figures went like this:

.  .  4  1  1  2  6  .  .  .  .  4  2 |Not Out|20|

Care to analyse that my fellow cricketer ?

Anyway, my bowling figures slump recently. I guess my 11-year Ahwaz who played with us in the last 2 matches of the Nava Shield tournament stole the limelights. He clinched 3 big wickets.

It’s 6.00 am. Both Ahwaz and Awateef looked sharp in their shiny new school uniforms, eager and ready for the first day of school for 2008.

"Ayah, cepat la!"

"What?"

"You supposed to send us to school, every morning. Remember!"

"But, it’s 6.45 in the morning. My office wont start until 8.30!"

After months of having the leisure of leaving my house at ten past eight in the morning, now I’m starting back my routine …

Waseem and Umayrah still sound asleep as their school wont start until 8.30 am. Noticing the fact that their Mom was not in the car, Yeop and Kakak did not stop talking from the point we left the house until reaching their schools at SS14. So many things to talk to their Dad …

STAROBA Orange Cricket Club won the Datuk Mir Cup in the inaugural match against the MCOBA team. After 3 years lapse, the next match is schedule at the MC Oval probably in April 2008. To defend the Cup, and to quote Shahril’s words, “If we have to lose, do it with honour”, I think SOCC need a strong team, especially we are the Visiting Team and I think MC wants to settle some scores.

My probable line up will be as below. Obviously, in need of feedbacks, comments or suggestions on or off line.

Batting Order:

·          Opening Batsman:

-          Mob / Mat Over

-          Shahril / Tot / Budak Junior (sapa nama dia tah?)

·          One down: Koyan

·          Number 4: Zali (Capt & wickie)

·          Number 5: Megat

·          Number 6: Ujang

·          Number 7: Nuar

·          Number 8: Yours truly

·          Number 9: Nafi

·          Number 10: Kally

·          Number 11: Ilon

·          12^th Man: Budak Junior No 2

·         All the rest of SOCC team not STAROBA like Kurai, Sangir, Mus, Kechik, Sam, Nedi, Nubli, etc. come and join the tour (you know, just like the Abu Samah Cup days), at least can be the scorer (the one who keep the score-book) and cheer us while savouring cendol & laksa Lembah.

Bowling Attack:

·          Opening pair: Kally / Yours truly

·          Next change: Shahril / Nuar

·          Others: Nafi / Ujang / Megat / Koyan / Ilon

·          Where the heck are: Awit (still injured ke), Ahad (still haunting by the gf?), Nur Azan

·          Where are the rest of the 1985 and 1991 heroes?

Team Jersey: Ilon, I think you need to design one helluva jersey. Jangan plain sangat.

Do you know how it feels

when your heart is soften

And those simple things

are the most beautiful

I do.