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.

April is a girl's name...

Goodness me! It is the end of April already... and I have not posted anything apart from the Pantun 4 Kerat item to mark my 4th anniversary of being a blogger. It has been a terribly busy month. Plenty of unfinished and overdue stuff. Luckily the Inland Revenue Board has an extended closing date for e-filing of tax returns, otherwise I'd be late on that one too.

While I do have a few ideas floating in my head on what to write, the mental and physical fatigue at the end of each working day is hampering efforts to put those ideas on screen. Even blog-hopping is becoming rare nowadays... but I do hope it does not last, because I really enjoy writing in this blog and reading the entries in other blogs.

So what shall I write about today? Nothing serious, just another one in my `merapu' category.

Of the 12 months in the Gregorian calendar, a few of these have been used as female names. April, May and June are the obvious examples. I have also previously seen January being used as a girl's name, although not often like the other three. Of the other months, only August (from Augustus Ceasar, the Roman emperor) is considered a male name, at least to the best of my knowledge. The word `august', as an adjective, carries a noble meaning as well.

Of the 7 days in the week, perhaps only Friday is used as a person's name... even so, only as a fictional character in Robinson Crusoe. Compare that to the Malay names for days of the week. Isnin, Jumaat and Sabtu are quite common Malay male names. Persons with these names are obviously born on the days their names represent. Similarly, a few of the name of months in the Muslim Hijrah calendar are adopted as individual names - Muharram, Rejab, Ramadan and Shawal being some examples.

Our eldest son was born on the first day of the first month of the Hijrah calender, 23 years ago. Some of our elder relatives suggested that we name him Ahmad Muharram, or something similar. Of course, we didn't... that would've been too easy and uninspiring.

Ok then, let's say goodnight to April and welcome May...

Pantun 4 Kerat

Anak punai anak merbah
Terbang turun buat sarang
Blog ditinggal terlalu lama sudah
Sampai penuh habuk dan sawang


Asal kapas jadi benang
Dari benang dibuat baju
Hal yang lepas jangan dikenang
Ayuh dibuka lembaran baru


Selat teduh lautan tenang
Banyak labuh perahu Aceh
Kerana pembaca yang sudi bertandang
Ku ucapkan berbanyak terima kasih


Kalau pinang masih muda
Rasanya kelat sudahlah pasti
Kalau hilang pembaca hamba
Rasanya sunyi di dalam hati


Empat rangkap pantun empat kerat yang telah saya modify dari lirik lagu yang pernah popular zaman 70an dulu, sebagai posting pertama pada bulan empat ini. Dengan kesibukan tugas serta perjalanan ke sana ke mari, terlepas saya untuk menulis sesuatu sebagai tanda blog Just Observations ini telah pun menjangkau usia 4 tahun.

Terima kasih saya ucapkan kepada semua rakan blogger serta pembaca (samada pembaca senyap mahupun yang bersuara) yang telah menemani saya sekitar pengembaraan saya di alam siber.

Indah budi kerna bahasa... ingatan saya kepada tuan sentiasa.

Tan Tin Tun

In the early 1980's, a local humour magazine called Gila-Gila was a huge best-seller. I was a regular customer and used to keep so many old copies of it. Among the popular cartoon series in that magazine was one done by the late Rejabhad called Tan Tin Tun. I cannot now recall what the story was about but it had to do with three characters carrying that names.

At that time, I believed that such names could only be found in a fictional creation... until one day, someone told me of a true-life example.

At my first workplace, I had a colleague named Atan. He married a pretty clerk who worked in the same organization called Zaiton. I was part of the groom's entourage for the wedding ceremony at the bride's kampung, somewhere in Kota Tinggi.

Some time after they were married, Zaiton became pregnant and later gave birth to a beautiful baby girl. The name they gave their daughter was Fatin (actually a long name of Fatin something or other, sorry can't remember). At first I didn't realise it and I'm sure my friend Atan had not either... but the happy family inadvertently became a complete set. Tan, Tin, Tun... for Atan, Fatin and Eton. True story.

Fit for the job

It is standard procedure nowadays for prospective employers to require would-be employees to undergo medical checks, the results of which would determine whether the employee would be offered the job, or if already employed, to be confirmed in his post. I have worked at so many places and the requirement of each employer is different. No doubt, the most basic of such requirements is the standard chest x-ray, urine test and vision check. Many employers today also ask for a blood test.

I remember when I first got a job in 1984, I had to take the medical check-up at the government hospital. Those days, the hospitals aren't as well-equipped as now and we had to wait quite a long time to go through each of the tests. Chest x-ray images required a week or so to be developed. Same goes for urine samples. Forget about blood samples... it would've taken weeks to get a result.

Nowadays, many private hospitals and some private clinics have the full array of diagnostic equipment to carry out whatever tests the employer wish to check, with most results being made available within a single day. The more complicated blood tests may take a day or two longer.

Earlier today, I went to a private clinic to do a medical. I had to pee into a small container, had my body zapped with x-rays and my arm pricked with a needle to draw blood. The clinic could've given me the result by tomorrow except that my employer wants my blood to be HIV-tested. That would take a few more days. I guess they want to be sure that I am not immune-deficient, have not been taking illicit drugs and be as healthy as I can be while in their employment.

Godown sand

A godown is the name given to a warehouse or large store but this name is only in popular use in south and eastern Asia. Don't use this word if you are in the west, otherwise the people there would think you want to head somewhere.

Apparently the word godown comes direct from the Malay translation of `gudang'. I had always thought it was the other way round.

Okay, back to the title... godown sand does not make sense but a sand godown does, i.e. a place where sand is stored. Only that it wouldn't be the correct translation of the Malay place-name which is the subject of today's post. Pasir Gudang is a township to the east of Johor Bahru city and is where my present workplace is. It is a large housing and industrial area first developed by Johor Corporation in the early 1980s. My first stint working in Pasir Gudang was in 1990 where I was part of the engineering department which undertook the construction works. My present employment is not related to my earlier job, which I left in November 1991.

On most mornings before clocking in at the office, I would stop by a nearby restaurant for breakfast. A few days ago, as I was holding a mug of nescafe tarik and looking for a seat, I spotted a familiar face sitting alone at a table. This person also saw me and a few silent moments passed as both of us try to recall who the other person is. He was the one who spoke first.

"Encik Fadhil ke?" he asks.

"Betul," I nodded. "Alias kan? Ingat lagi kamu kat aku ye."

He smiled, we shook hands and he offered me to sit with him at the same table. Alias Shahdan was an excavator operator who worked in the same the department as I did, more than 20 years ago. He worked under a separate section and did not directly report to me, so I was surprised that he still recognizes me. And he was polite enough to still address me as 'Encik' although I have long ceased being his superior. Alias is now retired, of course. We chatted a bit about the old times... when Pasir Gudang was still a barren and dusty place but busily growing like a restless child eager to become an adult.

There were perhaps 50 to 60 machine operators and workshop crew working with our department then but I can recall Alias by name because he was one of the more dedicated and hardworking ones. A soft-spoken man with no disciplinary issues.

Before I left Pasir Gudang in 1991, one the last projects I handled was the construction of an indoor stadium. It was still at the initial design stage at the time but the top bosses wanted to hold a ground-breaking ceremony so that the Menteri Besar would have a reason to come to Pasir Gudang. My colleagues and I discussed on what manner the actual ground-breaking event is going to be. We decided that the MB shall sit on a Caterpillar backhoe, work a few of the levers to move the bucket and symbolically dig a hole in the ground. Of course, you can't expect the MB to actually know how to operate a backhoe so we had to have one of our operators to be his guide. The choice of who this operator should be was obvious... it has to be Alias bin Shahdan. And so, the man was informed of his upcoming important task and he accepted the news with hardly a complaint. Over the next few days, he took the extra effort to have his machine cleaned up and applied the standard yellow colour touch-up paint. When the day came for the actual ceremony, the backhoe looked like it just came out of the showroom.

The Menteri Besar of Johor at that time was Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin. When the MB finished reading his officiating speech, Alias accompanied him to the backhoe parked some metres away and invited him to sit in the cab. With the MB seated comfortably, Alias crouched alongside the VIP and coolly showed him how to work the hydraulic levers. The bucket made a small arc, dug a bit of the earth and the ceremony was done. Alias had his pictures in the newspapers the next day.

I departed from Pasir Gudang shortly after that and so did not see the stadium being constructed. Even upon completion I have never actually set foot inside it. Yesterday afternoon after work, I took a drive to the stadium just to view it from the outside.

When it was first completed, the indoor stadium was simply named Stadium Perbadanan, to reflect the fact that is was built by Perbadanan Johor, the state development and investment body. It has since been renamed Stadium Perbandaran Pasir Gudang, after the state civil service took over the administration of the local authority now known as Majlis Perbandaran Pasir Gudang.

Stadium Perbandaran

A signboard that is proof the stadium originally had a different name

Colours of the rainbow

I really must have nothing better to do to be writing a post on this subject...

ALL men see in only 16 colours, like Windows default settings. Peach, for example, is a fruit, not a colour. Pumpkin is also a fruit. We have no idea what mauve is.

The above statement is one of twenty-three from a list of observations called `Men's Rules' some smart guy wrote as a relationship guide for his female partner. I posted this list previously under the heading of `No hints please. Just say it!'.

I'm not talking about the rules again this time but about colours... specifically about the various unfamiliar names given to the hundreds of shades of colours. I remember back in secondary school, my science teacher asking the class, "How many colours are there in the rainbow?" Of course, the standard answer that came back from us students was seven. Well, that's what the textbooks tell you, my teacher said. "If you are to go and ask a shopkeeper selling paint," he continued, "he will say that there are hundreds of colours."

Indeed there are... a few hundreds from what I can see in Wikipedia's article on this topic. Unless we are working in an industry that depends on colours (for example : fashion design, paint, lipstick, electronic display screens), most of these names would escape us, let alone identify which shade of primary colour it is.

I just found out that there are two sets of primary colours : the Red/Green/Blue grouping is called the additive combination (as in overlapping projected light or CRT display) while the Red/Yellow/Blue grouping is called the subtractive combination (as applied to pigments and dyes). All the other colours can be obtained by mixing of the primary colours, in varying proportions or degree. And since there can be an infinite combination of such mixes, there is therefore an endless shade of colours. New names are coined to go with the new shades, which sometimes add to the confusion.

Apart from the primary colours, the established secondary colours are well-known and readily identifiable. Colours like brown, pink, purple, grey and orange are easily understood. It is when we come to the derivatives that we get stumped. Maroon is reddish-brown, or is it brownish-red? Beige is a popular colour but is it more pale-brown or pale-yellow? Cyan is another well-known modern day colour that's found on our computer display screen (although the origin of the name is quite ancient). It is a blue-green combination... but how much blue and how much green?

The names of many of the colour shades come from nature, especially plants and flowers. Names such as peach, lavender, periwinkle, lilac and asparagus (yes, there is a special shade of green that takes its name from the vegetable). Some natural sounding names are easy to identify (charcoal, ivory, maize) while some takes a bit of describing (fallow, teal, russet). I am quite hopeless at identifying colours. That is why I guess, I like to stick to grey (or sometimes spelled gray) as my favourite colour... there's just light grey, dark grey, ash grey, smoky grey and maybe one or two more. Pretty drab and unexciting, huh?

So what's the colour of this orchid flower?

My previous post on a similar subject -> Colourful words.
Interesting source for origin of some colour names -> The colour of words.

The absence of darkness is light

My current read is a novel I borrowed from the local library called The Rule Of Four, written by Ian Caldwell and Dustin Thomason. It has been three weeks since I first took it out and I still have not finished reading it. I am perhaps two-thirds done... pretty slow by normal standards but I want to complete it nonetheless.

It is a story about two university students trying to unravel the mystery contained within the pages of a book written by an Italian during the Renaissance period. Quite heavy going sometimes.

Anyway it is not my intention to do a book review. I just would like to share a passage from the book which I found quite enlightening. I was afraid if I wait until I finish reading the whole book, I might forget where the passage is. In this paragraph, the narrator is musing about his room-mate and fellow researcher...

The fact is, Paul has always kept secrets from us. For years he hid the truth about his childhood, the details of his parochial school nightmare. Now he's been hiding the truth about his relationship with Taft. Close as he and I are, there's a certain distance now, a feeling that while we have a lot in common, good fences still make good neighbours. Leonardo wrote that a painter should begin every canvas with a wash of black, because all things in nature are dark except where exposed by the light. Most painters do the opposite, starting with a whitewash and adding the shadows last. But Paul, who knows Leonardo so well you'd think the old man slept in our bottom bunk, understands the value of starting with shadows. The only things people can ever know about you are the ones you let them see.

The Leonardo mentioned above, is of course, Leonardo da Vinci, the genius artist, inventor, mathematician, engineer and everything else. The last sentence in that passage is the one I really like.

I guess I am like that... I don't reveal too much of myself. The surface me does not tell too much of the inner me. Even close friends or family members have different bits and pieces of who I am. If they are to gather around and share information, some of them would probably say, `Hey, I didn't know that about him.'

The only things people can ever know about you are the ones you let them see...

Early withdrawal will lose interest

I think I'll write about an interest subject today... yes, that's right, an `interest' rather than `interesting' subject. Although I do hope the post may turn out interesting for readers in the end.

But first, I have to go back in time a little bit. It was the winter of 1983 and I was in the final year of my engineering degree. One of the toughest subjects in that degree course is Structural Mechanics, not one of my stronger suits. The professor who taught us that subject is Dr. Neil Taylor, a brilliant and aggressive man who's quite unlike any of the other lecturers in our faculty.

Dr. Taylor is slim and tall, sports long hair to his shoulders and keeps a beard and moustache. He normally wears a white shirt with a narrow tie but with collar unbuttoned. Over this he dons a black leather jacket. In fact, he looks more like a rock star than a university professor. His classes are never boring. He speaks in a loud, clear voice and at great speed. You'll never fall asleep during his lecture... or perhaps you dare not fall asleep. He'll pick a bored face among his students in a second and start shooting questions about the subject at hand, just to make sure we all understand what he's talking about. I was always afraid to be caught by him because, as I said, I'm not terribly good at Structures.

He would start his lecture by first talking at length about a particular topic. After that, he would scribble out his notes, longhand, on the blackboard. His notes are copious and he writes like he speaks... at great speed. When he runs out of writing space on the blackboard, he returns back to the earlier section and starts rubbing them out. Sometimes, those of us slow writers would need to hold out our hand and shout, `Whoa! Sir..', and he pauses for a while to give us time to catch up.

It is during such pauses that Dr. Taylor would usually tell a story or share bits of trivia that has got nothing to do with engineering. It can be something about music, movies, sports or current affairs... practically anything. And such interesting stories too... which sort of put the slow-writing students in a dilemma. Do you stop writing to listen to the stories and risk not copying down the complete notes... or do you continue to scribble furiously before he starts cleaning the blackboard and you miss the story being told?

I liked listening to his stories so I trained myself to be speed-writer.

One day, after filling the blackboard with his sprawling handwriting, he paused for a while to allow us some time to finish copying... and then starts to share another trivia.

`Do you know why most of the big time bankers are Jews?' he asks. None of us answer... so he begins telling the story about Christians being forbidden to be involved in usury and that the Jews may not charge usury among their own kind but can do so to others. He said that money-lending first started out as one of the least respected professions and strangely enough today, it is the money-lenders who control most of the world's economy.

`I bet you didn't know that, did you?' he mocks us. `Heck, does anybody even know what usury means?!'

`Yeah,' I immediately quipped. `Interest...'

`Who said that?' Dr Taylor looks around at his students, his eyes wide in disbelief. I sheepishly put up my hand halfway.

`Right, you are!' he said. And with that, he turned around, erased the blackboard and resumed writing his notes.

When the class was over, Dr. Taylor heads out of the room but when he reaches the door, he turns back and walks to where I was sitting. He bends down to my eye level and nodded to me to say, `Usury... that's good.'

From then on, I could no longer remain low-profile in Dr. Taylor's class. But the good thing was that my grades in Structures improved...

Nature at home...

I was doing a spot of gardening earlier today and came across a reptile and an amphibian enjoying their day among the leaves of my plants.

Garden snake on the stem of a potted palm

Frog taking a rest on an orchid leaf

Look before you leap

Today is a special day. It is the first time I am able to put up a post in this blog on a day that comes once in every four years. February 29, 2012.

We all know what a leap year is... but why does it have 366 days instead of the 365 that we get from a normal year? Nowadays, it is very easy to get an answer to this question... just google. But back when I was in primary school, I remember looking for the answer in a thick book in the school library.

It was 1972 and I was in Standard 4. My teacher told me that the month of February in that year has 29 days. When I asked why, she told me to look for the answer in a book that explains about our solar system. I remember looking at an illustration in the book showing the Earth with an imaginary line circling the Sun. The caption below the picture says that the time it takes for Earth to do one complete revolution around the Sun is 365 and 1/4 days. This then equals one year. But then, it would be impractical to have a quarter day at the end of each year... just imagine that there would be a December 32nd that lasts for only 6 hours, from midnight to 6am, and that New Year's Day (1st January) would then start at 6am. Everything would be out of sync.

It was Julius Ceasar who first introduced the concept of leap days when he invented his Julian calendar at around 45 BCE. It was not terribly accurate and was later improved by a new calendar created by Pope Gregory XIII around 1,500 years later. The Gregorian calendar now forms the basis of time tracking and measurement for most of the modern world today. But why do we need to add that extra day every four years? It is because of the seasons. If we don't add the extra day, we lose about 6 hours every year and winter in the northern hemisphere would start to move forward. The recoupment of that 6 hours each year for 4 years ensures that the seasons happen at roughly the same time every year.

While refreshing my knowledge on this subject earlier today, I found out that the Earth's orbit is not exactly 365 and a quarter days. It is approximately 365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes and 46 seconds... and I say approximately because this duration can vary slightly depending on the relative position and influence of other planets. This means that even adding a day after every four years is not really that perfect if we look at the big picture. But the effect may only be significant in 8,000 years time. That's way ahead in the future for us to worry about... let the people living at that time solve it themselves.

Two weddings and a sunset

It was a packed day today. The first wedding was at Rengit in Batu Pahat while the second one was at Muar. After the second wedding, I headed out to Masjid Sultan Ibrahim by the south bank of Sungai Muar. I had hoped to catch some good sunset pics at Tanjung Emas near the river mouth but unfortunately the clouds were dark and overcast.

1st wedding : Bride is my colleague named Zurainah

Proof of attendance at 2nd wedding : gift boxes and a telur pindang

Masjid Sultan Ibrahim, Muar

Muar's second mosque, across the river

Dark clouds indicating heavy rains on the way

You never knew it had a name

"Sometimes it is," she said.
I nodded. Watched the rapid blinking of her eyes, shiny with unspilled tears. Watched the moisture that had pooled in the little valley above her top lip. What was that indentation called? I always forgot. But God, didn't it feel nice the way her fingertips were grazing the veins on the back of my hand?

The above passage comes from a novel that I just finished reading last night. It is the latest book written by Wally Lamb and is titled `The Hour I First Believed'. I bought the book at Popular Book Store's fair a few months back and it has taken me this long to finish reading it. At two and a half inches thick, it is one of the thickest novels I have held in my hands. And it has a great story. Pure human drama that spans a few generations from the 1800's to the modern day. But this post is not a book review... I may do that a bit later, if I do manage to digest and summarize the multiple-layered stories into a few lines.

A very good read but only for those with patience

Let's go back to the passage above, specifically to the part about the groove in the middle of our upper lip right below the nose. I am sure the author knows what it is called but he wrote it as a question, perhaps to prod his readers to actually find out for themselves.

The moment I read the sentence, I became agitated with myself... because just a few weeks before, I had read an amusing website link shared by a friend that shows a list of `25 everyday things you never knew had names', and that groove on the upper lip was one of the 25... but I could not remember. Feeling a bit peeved at my poor memory, I put down the book, fired up my laptop and went online to search for the link.

Philtrum... that's what it is called. So now you know...

Don't book a judge by his cover

Firstly... make sure you have read the title right. No, I did not type it wrongly.

I came across a comic strip in The Sunday Times of Singapore yesterday which gave me a chuckle. The strip is called Get Fuzzy by Darby Conley, and it was about a certain fable that makes a twist of a well-known English proverb. I did a search and found that the strip is also available online. Click on the image below for a larger view :

Source from -> gocomics.com

While googling for the comic strip, I came across a limerick which touches on the same subject but at a different angle :

An old British justice named Glover
Once murdered his wife and her lover.
A clue was then found:
His wig on the ground!
But you can't book a judge by his cover.

Heheheh... This lovely pun came from Mr Graham Lester, whose website has other funny poems.

If you find the above two pieces amusing, then you might be interested to know that there is another cheeky version that deals with `don't cover a judge by his book'. But we'll leave that story for another day...

Filthy rich

The well-known phrase `filthy rich' must have been originally used by the not-so-rich people to describe the overwhelmingly rich ones who gained their wealth by unfair or improper means. Nowadays, the negative connotation of the phrase is somewhat muted and labelling some people as filthy rich simply means that they are exceedingly wealthy, no insult intended. I wouldn't mind if someone calls me as such... except that I do not qualify.

A few days ago, the Malaysian Business magazine reported that Robert Kuok is still the country's richest man. The staff of that magazine have been doing complex calculations over a number of years and comes out with an annual list of Malaysia billionaires, based on their reported holdings in listed companies. Kuok is said to be worth RM45.7 billion. The richest bumiputera is Syed Mokhtar Al-Bukhary, who comes in at no. 5 with RM9.53 billion.

Wow.... billions, huh? Let's just try put that into perspective, shall we?

Let us just look at RM1 billion... that's a One with nine Zeros behind it. Assume for simplicity's sake, that I have worked 50 years of my life to get that RM1B. On average that works out to RM20 million a year or RM1.67 million a month... and we are not talking about gross salary here. At present, I'm taking home less than 0.5% of that monthly figure. In other words, those billionaires are waaaaaay out of my league! Can dream only meh....

But if we don't dream, we'd never achieve reality, right? Yeah, that's what I thought. There was this one time I was listening to this particular guy talking about how to become rich. He was asking his audience if we knew anyone in particular who wakes up every morning and have thousands of ringgit coming his way without doing anything? Of course we didn't. It's Robert Kuok, he said. And do we want to be rich like him? Of course we do. So let's join this new amazing business programme that would help us realize our dreams, he pitched. Many others have participated and made it big, so what are we waiting for?

It was a multi-level marketing recruitment seminar and I was duped. Yeah... don't be surprised, I did try MLM once. I guess the dream of hitting my quick million had dulled my senses. I quickly learned that sales is not my skill at all. I doubt any of those guys in the annual billionaire list got rich from being involved in direct-selling. *Sigh* Enough of the dreaming... and back to the grind.

Halal Steamboat BBQ in JB

There are quite a number of Steamboat BBQ restaurants in Johor Bahru today that are operated by Muslims. You know... the type where you pay a single-cost per person all you can eat until your tummy is totally full and you don't waste food by taking too much on your plate because you think you can eat everything and end up not cooking the extra stuff that you took and run the risk of being charged for the excess at RM5 per 100g. So don't be greedy...

I have been to a number of these places, some of which I discovered from food blogs while some were simply spotted while driving past a particular place. These restaurants are typically located in shophouses in the many new housing areas that have sprouted all over JB city. They are of budget standard... not to be compared with the likes of Seoul Garden but good enough for a simple family dinner if you have kids with huge appetites.

Making comparisons among the many steamboat restaurants is quite easy really... because they all fall under the concept of own cooking and grilling. I judge them on the following aspects :

• The spread and variety of the fresh and frozen food selection. This normally consist of the customary meat cuts (beef, mutton and chicken), seafood and shellfish (fish, prawns, squids, crabs, mussels, cockles), vegetables (kailan, cauliflower, bell peppers, kangkong) and the yong-taufu stuff (bean curd, fishballs, meatballs, crab-sticks etc.). Most places offer some form of noodles and rice vermicelli. Plain rice and fried rice are also normally available.
• The tastiness of the broth. Most places nowadays offer two types : tom-yam soup and chicken soup. They now have boiling pots with two compartments so that you can have both soups.
• The choice of drinks. Generally the drinks on offer are two or three types of squash-cordial drinks. Some offer carbonated drinks dispensed from those fizzy machines. Most places offer hot drinks but at extra charge.
• The choice of sauces. The good restaurants offer three or four tasty homemade sauces.
• The seating arrangement and general restaurant layout. Since the cook-your-own-food concept will involve a lot of walking to and fro the food counters, a good layout would be very convenient, especially when the dinner crowd is large.

To date, me and my family have tried eating at five (5) such steamboat & grill restaurants, and they are :

1. D'Terrace BBQ Steamboat. Located at Jalan Md Amin in the Kolam Air area of JB. RM20.90 per pax, the last time we went there over a year ago.
2. Kapten Steamboat & Grill, located in a new shophouse block near the State Education Department at Jalan Tasik Utara. When it first opened last year, they charged a fixed price per person. Nowadays they charge based on a fixed set menu, which sort of takes away the fun.
3. Otai Steamboat & Grill at Larkin Impian, near the Larkin Stadium.RM19.00 per pax.
4. Steamboat & Grill Cottage at Taman Austin Perdana, not far from Sultan Ismail Hospital in Pandan. The published price was RM17.50 per pax, but when I paid the bill I noted the hidden charge of the wet towels added to the total.
5. Tropika Steamboat & BBQ at Taman Setia Tropika in Kempas, near the new Home Ministry complex. RM18.80 per person.

The last one on the list above was the latest one we tried and which I would recommend. They have a somewhat limited spread of meats but a reasonable variety of seafood and shellfish. The vegetables and frozen stuff is quite varied. Both the tom-yam and chicken soup have a thick taste, not the thin watery stuff at some other places.

Actually, the thing that make me like this place has nothing to do with taste. It's the crockery... they use quality Claytan stoneware plates and bowls. Most of the other places use cheap melamine plates which get deformed when exposed to the heat of the grill stove. Bent and distorted plates really take away a lot of the good impression of a restaurant.

If there is a single minus point that I may say of Tropika Steamboat is that they only have two sauces ; a homemade black pepper sauce and a commercially produced chilli sauce. Perhaps when I have become a regular customer of this place, I might drop a hint or two to the owner.

Okay then.... that's my post for `Another Good Makan Spot in JB - Part 5'.

The boys do most of the grilling

Coolers where the foodstuff are

Stove placed on a thick marble tile to protect the table

Al Qamar

The full moon as captured tonight Tuesday 07.02.12

Blessed is He who has placed in the sky great stars and placed therein a (burning) lamp and luminous moon - Surah Al-Furqan : Verse 61.

Real old school

The boarding school that I went to, MRSM Kuantan, is 38-years old this year. Not quite as old as some of the more established boarding schools in our country but reasonably old when you consider that the first generation of students who came out of that place have passed the half-century mark in terms of age. And to further to illustrate this point on successive generations, two of my former classmates have/had children study at this same school.

1975 photo of a partially completed school. Pic lifted from Capt Norhisham Kassim's FB.

Maktab Rendah Sains MARA Kuantan, to give the school its full name, took in the first batch of students in 1974. The school facilities were not fully completed at that time but MARA pressed on and the us students persevered. The first intake of students, now known as Kuatagh Pioneers, were all boys. I guess they wanted to make sure the school was at least decently ready before bringing in the girls. The second batch who registered the following year had a mix of both boys and girls. You can imagine the excitement of the seniors at having younger sisters to watch over... you know, teenage puberty and adolescent hormones :-)

I enrolled at MRSM Kuantan in 1978 at the 4th Form level, so I am considered as the second batch, with K79 being our alumni identification number (1979 being the year we took our MCE/SPM exams). In the short two years I was there, I have plenty of memories, both good and bad. But we should not dwell on the bad for too long... better to think of the happy events and experiences that helped shape what we are today. All of us have moved on in our lives. Some of us are pretty successful in their respective careers while some are doing okay. But this disparity in achievement has never prevented any of us to reunite and have some coffee together. Whenever some of us meet up for a specific occasion, it is always happy chatting about stories of those mischievous years, of carefree days and youthful adventures. And then we would ask about some of our friends who've been missing... if anyone knows where this particular he or she is, or what he/she is doing today.

In 1979 when we were in Form 5, there were 121 of us who took the MCE/SPM exams, 34 girls and 87 guys. Although most of us regularly meet and do keep in touch, there are still a number of our friends whose whereabouts are unknown. Understandably, some of them prefer to remain isolated... and we respect such decisions, but we still harbour hope of at least knowing a piece of news that he/she is alive somewhere. This is important because we are brothers and sisters. Of the 121 total, seven of our batch have been called by the Almighty. These are the ones that we know... it could be more.

I am thinking of my K79 brothers and sisters at this moment because a reunion is being held for today and tomorrow at our old school in Kuantan. Unfortunately, I am not able to make it to the event although I very much want to. The last similar occasion I attended was the Aidilfitri reunion in 2010. I hear that the turnout may be larger this time, with some friends turning up after being MIA for 33 years.

This event is actually the 37th anniversary of enrolment of the second batch at MRSM Kuantan but the ocassion is not to celebrate the 37 years, rather the fact that Batch No. 2 students are 50-years old this year. This is somewhat a continuation of the effort by our seniors who held their reunion at the school last year. Whether this trend will continue with the K80 batch, we'll have to wait for next year.

To all my brothers and sisters who are in the old school today and tomorrow, do have a wonderful time catching up with each other. Don't embarrass yourselves in front of our younger brothers and sisters (who'd most probably call you pakcik and makcik). Take care and I love you all.

Interlude

I hope I won't get kicked by my friend Versedanggerik for this...

Three kicks


A lawyer was out shooting and shot a duck. As he was about to pick it up, a farmer appeared. "This is my land", said the farmer, "so that is my duck".


"I shot it," said the lawyer. "That means it is my duck and I will sue you to prove it."


"Round here, we don’t hold with court cases," said the farmer. "We go by the Three Kicks Law. I kick you three times; and if you can get back on your feet and kick me three times, the duck is yours."


The lawyer, reckoning he could kick far harder than any farmer, said: "Fair enough." So the farmer kicked him once in the knee, then in the ribs and finally in the groin. "All right," groaned the lawyer, stumbling back on his feet, "now it's my turn."


"Oh, forget it," said the farmer. "You can have the duck."

Arab food in a malay village

My first taste of an arabic dish was when I was a small boy. For breakfast one day, my mother cooked some mashed green-coloured beans with spices and toasted a few french loaf slices to go with it. The dish was eaten with an egg fried in ghee plus some roughly-chopped onions and green chillies as garnish.

At first try, the thing had a spicy-bitter taste that was hard to describe... but I loved it. Mom said that the dish is called `kacang pol'. Funny name, I thought... but later on in life I noted that there are variants to the name : pol, pool, ful and even phool. All these from translating the original arabic name of foul medames.

In my trip to Cairo in 2004, I had my first taste of authentic foul medames. The buffet breakfast spread at the hotel had two versions of the dish, Egyptian-style and Lebanese-style... of course I tried both. Slightly different tasting compared to mom's version but delicious all the same.

My exposure to middle-eastern cuisine further broadened during my short stint working in the United Arab Emirates. The tough pressure of work was somewhat compensated by food-tasting adventures. That was where I developed an affection for lamb mandey and lovely fresh salad dishes. Nowadays, whenever I hear of an Arabic restaurant opening up in KL, I would make an effort to try it out. To date, Saba Restaurant at Jelatek is still the best in my book.

Of late, Johor Bahru is seeing a few genuine Arabic restaurants opening for business... genuine in this sense, meaning with real Arab cooks. Not those run by locals who cook from recipes they learned when they were students in Egypt or Jordan or wherever. The latest one is called Wadi El-Arab Restaurant located right here in my district of Kg Melayu Majidee. It just opened a few weeks ago and I must say the owner is taking a huge gamble in opening a speciality restaurant out of the city centre.

It was our youngest son's 17th birthday on Friday and so I decided to have the celebration dinner at this new eating place. Wadi El-Arab is located just across the Medan Selera Kg Melayu (where you can get the best ABC in all of JB). The place used to be someone's house and was renovated into a restaurant. Decor-wise, there is nothing to shout about. The front part of the dining area is carpeted and has low tables for that sitting-on-the-floor experience. The inner dining area has simple round tables of the kopitiam type, not quite to my liking.

The menu choices is about average I guess, but sufficient enough for those not familiar with arabian food to try out some variety. They have bokhari rice, makloubeh, kofta, shawarma, shish tawok plus some salads and soups. Most importantly (to me, at least) they have mandey.

The birthday boy and his elder brother had grilled lamb kofta while the missus ordered the same but beef. These are spiced minced meat rolled onto metal skewers, grilled over charcoal fire, served with roasted eggplant and homous, and eaten with arab flat bread. I ordered what else but lamb mandey... at RM19.80 per plate, the most expensive rice dish on the main course menu. Wasn't the best that I had (which would still be at a restaurant somewhere in Muscat, Oman) but still on the okay side. The kofta dishes are the tasty ones. Overall not too bad... but they really need to pull in more crowd to make the long haul.

The cover menu card

Mandey lamb rice

Lamb kofta

And I honestly hope they do because it is now so easy for me to satisfy my craving for a mid-eastern dish with this place at my doorstep. I'm already thinking of the next dish to try.... perhaps their makloubeh, the upside-down rice and lamb/chicken combo.

Popular negatives

In the English language, the opposite meaning of many words are created by the addition of prefixes. For example :

• de : form / deform
• dis : able / disable
• il : legible / illegible
• im : potent / impotent
• in : direct / indirect
• un : true / untrue

If you observe carefully, the application of such prefixes are onto words that are generally in the positive sense. Adding the prefix makes them negative - happy to unhappy, pleased to displeased, practical to impractical and so on. There are not many inherently negative words that become antonyms by simply adding a prefix. Let's try out some :

Would un-ugly mean pretty?
Does dis-cheat mean we are being honest?
Or would im-messy clothes mean we are smartly-dressed?

There are however, a few words that break this convention. I was reading a news article the other day and realised that the reporter had used such a word. The word is - impeccable. Apparently, there is such a word as `peccable', which means `liable to sin or error'. Adding the prefix im- makes the word carry a positive meaning. Another example that comes to mind is `indefatigable', which in itself, is quite unique because it has double prefixes.

`Impeccable' and `indefatigable' also fall into another category which I'd like to call as `popular negatives'. These are words where the prefixed form are in more common use than the root form. Here are some examples, plus a sample sentence I've written using the base form of the word, and you tell me if I don't sound awkward  :

1. illicit : I passed through airport customs without any problems because I only carried licit goods in my baggage.

2. unscrupulous : I employed that young lady to handle the company accounts because of her scrupulous behaviour.

3. dismantle : I've lost the original instruction guide so now I don't know how to mantle all these parts back together.

4. incontinent : Of course these diapers are not for me, I'm continent!

I am sure there are other examples. Perhaps you know of some more. Enjoy the long weekend, my friends...

Can register to vote

Our second son, who studies at a university in Indonesia, is back at home for a short term-break. We picked him at LCCT last Sunday. Yesterday, January 18th, was his 21st birthday.

We missed celebrating his previous birthday together because he was away at school. The year before that, I took him and some of his friends for dinner at Shah Alam. That event made it into this blog and was posted here -> Two birthdays.

Last night, we had a celebration dinner at Banafee Village Restaurant, a lovely makan place I've previously written about. My wife bought a cake from Secret Recipe and brought it along for the dinner. The cake box was placed at the edge of the table and we had not thought of doing anything special. A sharp-eyed waiter saw the box and offered to keep the cake in their cooler until it's time for dessert.

As expected, the birthday boy ordered a lamb dish but our youngest son surprised me by ordering grilled salmon. The missus had grilled chicken chop while yours truly could not resist trying another Arabic menu, lamb kabsah. I broke my own self-imposed rule of not eating lamb/mutton more than once a week. Just the night before, I went out for dinner with an ex-colleague from KL. We went to a newly-opened restaurant selling western-style dishes where I had lamb chops while my friend had chicken chop. Quite delicious... I should write a blog-post about this place soon.

Lamb kabsah

Two large candles and a smaller one in between

As we finished eating our main meal, the waiter came back with the birthday cake and also gave us four small plates. He then produced a pen and a piece of paper, and asked my wife to write down the birthday boy's name. She asked, why? To pass to the singer, he said. I hadn't noticed that the two-member live singing team were on stage and making preparations to perform.

And so yesterday, a young man named Harith Shahiran got to blow out the candles on his birthday cake at the end of the most recognized song in the world, sung by a professional singer. May good things always come your way, my son...

Coarse bamboo

In the late 1980s at my first workplace in Johor Bahru, I was in charge of the construction of the Islamic religious schools throughout the state. The project was funded by the State Government and the organisation I worked in acted as Project Managers.

Most of these schools were located in rural towns and villages where access were sometimes a problem. I loved my short stint while being involved in the project. It gave me the opportunity to travel to all corners of Johor state and reach the remotest of places in all 8 districts.

In the district of Segamat, there is a small town on the main road heading north to Kuala Lumpur, called Buloh Kasap. I have passed by this place a few times on my trips to KL but the first time I actually made a stop was when I attended a handing-over ceremony of a completed school. In the days before the North-South Expressway, a trip to Segamat from JB would take up to 3 hours. That can be considered as a very far distance but I was a young man then... any outstation trip to visit projects was always fun and worth the drive.

Buloh Kasap got its name from a certain type bamboo plant that is said to have grown abundantly in the area... at least, that's what historical reference sources tell us. Buloh is bamboo while kasap means coarse or rough. I take it that this refers to the skin or surface of the bamboo. I don't actually know how a coarse bamboo plant looks like. The ones I see growing in jungles or by river banks are normally dark green and have smooth outer surface. These are the type that lemang-makers use.

This clump of bamboo is certainly not the kasap variety. Definitely not suitable for making lemang.

The term `buloh kasap' is also widely-known as being used in a Malay proverb. According to Dewan Bahasa & Pustaka, the full proverb goes like this -> Berniaga bagai buloh kasap, hujungnya hilang, pangkalnya lesap. The Malay saying means wasteful work being done by someone who doesn't have the knowledge or skills to do it. In particular, it refers to a loss-making business venture caused by the person's own weakness.

As always, I like to ask the mystery question. How does a particular type of bamboo plant gets connected to poor business decisions?

The idea for this post came after I heard my mother use the saying the other day. My youngest sister has started a small makan business selling nasi lemak, satay, mee siam and a few other stuff from a rented stall. She has asked our mother for some cooking tips on how to make her dishes more tasty. Mom would of course, share her secrets... but not before nagging to my sister to be careful about this, be aware about that, take care about the cash collection, don't pamper your workers, don't hutang too much, plus a whole lot of other business advice. She knows what she's talking about, being a small-time businesswoman herself when she was younger. `Jangan berniaga macam buloh kasap,' she warned, `Untung tak ada, modal pun lesap.'

Mothers... they may nag non-stop, but they have the welfare of their children at heart :-)

Songs from yesteryear

In a reply to a comment from blogger-friend Dr Wati in the previous post, I mentioned that I got stuck in assembling 12 photos for compilation as my annual review of `The Previous Year In Pictures'. I have done the series twice already, for 2009 and 2010.

Apparently, there were certain times during 2011 that my camera slept soundly in its bag and wasn't doing any duty. After browsing through my photo files, there were 2 months last year when I did not take any pics, not even from the mobile phone camera. Sadly, this edition of TPYIP has to be skipped.

As a substitute, I've decided to compile all the Youtube songs that I shared on my FB wall in 2011 . There were 7 of them and there was one that I've also shared in this blog, so I apologise for the repetition. Looking and listening to the full list, you can probably can guess the type of person that I sometimes am.... mushy :-)

1. April 10 : (I Love You) For Sentimental Reasons - Rod Stewart

I hope you do believe me
I've given you my heart...




2. July 10 : Crazy - Diane Krall, Elvis Costello & Willie Nelson

I'm crazy... crazy for feeling so blue...



3. September 16 : My Love - Julio Iglesias & Stevie Wonder

Say words of love to all we see,
To rich or poor for love is equal,
Let us lift up humanity,
Spread love all over...



4. October 25 : Foolish Heart - Steve Perry

You've been wrong before,
Don't be wrong anymore...



5. November 4 : Reminiscing - The Little River Band

Each time we hear our favourite song,
The memories come along...



6. December 22 : Ain't No Sunshine - Joe Cocker

And this house just ain't no home,
Anytime she goes away...



7. December 31 : Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow - Carole King & James Taylor

So tell me now and I won't ask again,
Will you still love me tomorrow?




Thanks to all the original uploaders of the vids. I do hope you enjoy them...

A rolling stone...

Wow, it's the new year already. On New Year's Day last year, I was in Temerloh attending a friend's wedding before heading to Kuantan where I spend the night. An unplanned exchange of messages during breakfast the next day saw me having afternoon tea with blogger Versedanggerik and her family. Later on the way back to Kuala Lumpur, I made a detour to Triang, somewhere deep in the Pahang heartland, to visit a nephew whose wife had just given birth.

For the first post of 2012, let's have a discussion on English proverbs for a change.

I spent the first half of last year based in KL, with my family rooted in JB. It was a regular trip up and down the North-South Expressway every other weekend. Sometimes driving but mostly on the express buses. It wasn't something I particularly liked but what to do? Later on in June, a friend introduced me to a job opportunity in Pontian and after a quick interview, I was offered the post. Unfortunately, for one reason or another, that job didn't last... but I decided to remain in Johor Bahru and look for something new. Alhamdulillah, I recently received an offer for a job that would put me back at familiar grounds.

I am what you call, a rolling stone. The full English proverb goes like this : A rolling stone gathers no moss. Now why would we want to gather moss, you may ask. Why not gather something more valuable? Well... proverbs being based on metaphors, are not meant to be understood literally. The meaning of this particular proverb is that if we move around too much (as opposed to sticking around for a long time), then we wouldn't be gaining much experience. Jumping from job to job is an obvious example.

I hadn't actually made a count of how many companies I have worked for since I graduated, until a few days ago. While updating my resume to include this latest appointment, I realised that I have been employed at eleven (11) different firms throughout my 27 years of working life. That number does not include a few short stints at companies owned by friends and relatives. Some people say that this hopping around is not a good thing. Perhaps they are right... but it is not that I purposely seek new jobs every few years just for the fun of it. Each and every job resignation I went through has its own story. Sometimes, things happen that are not within our control. But I'm not the type to live in regret although I admit that the constant job changes had caused difficulties.

I therefore do not fully agree with meaning of the proverb about rolling stones. While I may not have gained a deep knowledge of one particular field, my different job postings have afforded me with a varied exposure of civil engineering disciplines. In which case, another familiar English proverb would apply : a jack of all trades but the master of none. It's okay... I have accepted that I'm not a master, but the little that I know of a few specialised areas are valuable enough for me to survive on. Nonetheless, I do hope this present job will last for some time. A rolling stone can't go on rolling forever.

I may not have gathered moss by not staying still but I can tell you what I've gathered over the years... bank accounts. For the purpose of salary payment, different employers want me to open account at banks of their choice. To date, I have/had accounts at the following financial institutions :

- Malaysia Credit Finance (now defunct)
- HSBC Bank
- Bank Bumiputera (a/c revived as Bank Muamalat when BB went kaput)
- Public Bank
- Maybank
- CIMB Bank (this is the latest)

As I have mentioned previously, nak harapkan akaun bank je yang banyak, duit dalamnya tak se berapa...

The stones in Sungai Bernam that no longer roll...