The Queen is the most powerful

My father bought me my first chess set when I was in primary school. He taught me how to play the game and I was instantly hooked. I played against my school friends and soon became quite good at it. I even reached a stage where I could beat my father (although I still can never beat him in the other popular board game of draughts, or more well-known in Malay as dam haji... yang tu memang dia terrer).

As I entered secondary school, I became more engrossed in the game as I meet more challenging and skillful opponents. There was this one time during school holidays, my cousin and I stayed at our grandmother's kampung house to look after her. My grandmother did not have a television, so we spent the nights playing chess. Our skill level was almost equal so the games we played were never one-sided. I became so focused in playing chess to the extent that planning the possible moves and tactics made its way into my dreams. I asked my cousin if he also similar dreams and he said yes.

When I entered adulthood, I played against even stronger opponents... until I reached a point when the game no longer was fun. It was the instant when I realised that I could fairly predict what my regular opponent's next move would be. This feeling would extend beyond the game itself, i.e. to every day situations. Very eerie.

I concluded that if I could sort of read my friend's mind, then he could probably read mine too. This, I don't want to happen... so I stopped playing the game, at least against regular human opponents. To this day, the game of chess no longer interests me.

It has long puzzled me why the strongest piece on the chess board is the Queen. She can move in any direction and as many squares as she pleases. The King, on the other hand, can only move one square at a time. When my father was teaching me the game, I asked him why this is so. Don't know, he said. Maybe it reflects real-life situation. I didn't quite understand it at that time, but as the years passed, I guess there is some truth in that.

Which now allows me to close this post with a quote I read somewhere recently : Never trust a man who says he is the king of his household. He could be lying about other things too...

Hitting the half-century mark

Around this time ten years ago, I was struggling to make a living in Kuala Lumpur. I was into my second month in a new job at a construction firm belonging to a friend. He had invited me to join his company with the objective of having me lead a new road project that he said he had secured. He even showed me the Letter of Intent issued by a certain government department indicating that the project was genuine.

Since I was out of work, I decided to accept his offer with a meagre allowance on the promise that a salary revision would be considered once the project gets under way. The first month passed by but no salary was in sight. As the first week of the following month elapsed without any news of the overdue pay, I decided that the place was not for me and approached my friend to tell him I was leaving. He immediately apologised for the salary delay and promised me that some funds would be available in the next few days and that I would get paid soon. But once I make up my mind, I seldom turn back. And so I left the firm with no money in my pockets and entered the jobless scene yet again.

I had just celebrated my 40th birthday... well, `celebrated' is an overstatement since I was alone and miserable in the capital city. Whoever coined the phrase that `life begins at 40', certainly had other things in mind.

From that point onwards, the next 10 years of my life has been a roller coaster ride, at least for the last few years anyway. But then, isn't a roller coaster ride meant to give you that thrill of adrenalin rush, that feeling of excitement? Indeed, such ups and downs gives life that colourful spread of variety that we call experience.

I reached my 50-year birthday two days ago. Nothing special happened, just a simple family dinner at a restaurant in town. But I am happy and grateful. I have my reasonably good health and my sons are doing well in school. We have a roof over our heads and our debts are manageable. I have a lot to be thankful for.

Now that I have reached this milestone, half-a-century doesn't seem to be long time at all. May the Almighty grant us all the life and good health to be meeting again in another blog post next year... insyaAllah.

My youngest son Imran and his grandfather (my father) at our simple dinner last night

Apa dah jadi?

Apa dah jadi? Apa dah jadi?
Blog ini dah sunyi sepi...

It has never happened before that I failed to post anything in a whole month. June has passed by without a single peep. So what caused me to be postless in the previous month? Busy, bored or blurr.... take your pick.

Actually, it has been terribly busy on the work front for the past few months, and it looks to stretch out as such for the next few. So this quick entry is just to keep this blog alive. I am just posting a few pictures taken in Mersing the previous week when we made a quick weekend trip to my wife's hometown to attend a wedding.

Stay cool people...

Fishing Bay Resort

Old bridge at Teluk Sari

Sunset and low tide

The beach at the resort

Fisherman's jetty at Teluk Buih

Wedding weekend

In early 2011, I was involved in a construction project at UPNM in Sungai Besi, Kuala Lumpur. We were building a hostel for 500 students using the IBS (Industrialised Building System) method. Assisting me to supervise the site works was a petite girl by the name of Shahida Hairussalleh.

Shida, as all of us call her, stands not quite 5 feet tall but her diminutive size defy her stern attitude. I've seen her bark out instructions to some of the lazy Bangladeshi labourers and couldn't help but smile at the reaction from the workers in scurrying to carry out the required tasks. She can be tough but she's very fair. What I like most about her was her willingness to absorb knowledge. She asked me a lot of questions about engineering and construction and I would gladly share whatever I know.

We parted ways in June of last year when the project was nearly complete and I decided to return to Johor to handle other projects. A few weeks ago, Shida rang me up to invite me to her wedding. Of course I would come, I told her. I have always made it a point to attend the weddings of my subordinates, as long as the distance is reasonable and it doesn't clash with other events.

So last Sunday saw me and the missus take a drive from JB to Rawang where the bride's reception is being held, a distance of about 350km one way. Shida and her groom Amirul, were delighted that we made it. My wish to the young lady and her husband for good things to come their way in the years ahead. Selamat Pengantin Baru...

The bride was at the main table when I arrived.

Keris pahlawan menikam kalbu...

The happy couple wouldn't let us leave until this pic was taken.

Biting into the meaty stuff

In the days of secondary school, a few friends and I pooled some funds and went into part-time business of selling burgers and ABC (or ais kacang). We did it during one of the term breaks when our school had encouraged the students to set up stalls to sell stuff among ourselves. Part of early exposure to encourage the spirit of entrepreneurship.

We sold a variety of burgers. Apart from the standard piece of beef or chicken patty sandwiched in a bun, we had other setups such as cheeseburger, egg burger, baby burger, mama burger and papa burger. I cannot now recall what makes up each of these burger variety but I'm sure papa burger was the whopper of the lot. It had two burger patties with two eggs plus a cheese slice topping. It was a hit among the students and overall, we made a tidy profit, even after splitting it 5-ways.

At that time I thought, if I ever not make it in my studies, I can always fall back to selling burgers... and I didn't think anybody could be as creative as us in inventing burger menus. Yesterday, I found one burger stall that has gone on with ideas way beyond what I had imagined more than 30 years ago.

I first read about Planetz Burger in a local food blog JB Food Club, a few weeks ago. From the review and the pics that were shown, I knew I had to give the place a try. As I was driving home from work yesterday evening, I passed the area where the stall is located and made a split-second decision to search for it.

Planetz Burger is a simple push-cart roadside stall located in front of a row of shophouses, somewhere in Taman Munsyi in Tampoi. It is just like any other burger stalls you find at roadside corners operating next to mamak restaurants or in front of 7-Elevens... except this one has variety. I wouldn't dare to try describe them all but you can have mayami burgers, mushroom burgers, combo burgers (double, triple or even quadruple!), fries and nuggets too. And the burgers themselves can either be chicken or beef or mutton or rabbit. Take your pick. Have a look at the photos in their Facebook page and you'll know what I mean. Generally, the burgers are meant to be bought as take-aways to be eaten at home but if you can't suppress your hunger and wait till you get home, you can sit at the simple folding table to chow on your meat. Planetz Burger also sell simple squash drinks to help you water down your meal.

Ok then, we are spoiled for choice... but what about taste, I hear you ask? Well, my first order from this stall was a mayami mutton special combo cheeseburger. It had the whole works : double mutton patties, egg, cheese, salad greens, onions and black pepper sauce. Real messy to eat but the taste was exquisite.

The simple burger stall. Pic from Planetz Burger FB.

Mayami combo poster. Pic from Planetz Burger FB.

Cholesterol-laden goodness

I am definitely stopping by this place again soon to try the other versions. You can really make a decent honest living selling burgers from a roadside stall, if you are creative enough.