In London Again???

Yeah, I'm London again at my aunt's place. Wow, I feel so merdeka now after finishing and submitting all my 8 coursework last Friday. That's why I did not post up any post since the last one on Sunday. Insya-Allah, I will be traveling again on 23 January 2007 and this time I'm going to Belfast, Northern Ireland with my classmates. Another celebration for completing all those demanding assignments. To who ever thinking of pursuing his or her Master degree, please and please pick a programme which is longer than a year. One year is too pressuring and pack.

Zam, zam ala kazam. To Belfast, my flying carpet!

Last night, I followed my aunt and her family to a class called 40 Hadiths Compiled by Imam Nawawi. The class is conducted by Ustaz Fairuz and the students will take turn to hold the classes at their home. I enjoyed the gathering very, very much. It was informal and held in a homey kind of ambiance. And I met my old friends there too - Dr. Kamarul Rashdan and his wife. Yeah, they are still there, almost nine years now. I don't think they will come home, at least not in this next three or four years. He gave me the number for my ex-housemate, Addi Faiz who is currently working in Bristol. Dr. Kamarul asked me whether I still involved in the perjuangan. Oh, God! When was the last time I heard that word - Perjuangan. Wow... I love really like strong words. hehehe.

Before you guys making any wrong conclusion, hehehe, let me put the record straight. It has nothing to do with any radical movements or terrorism activities. Not long time ago, a couple of my friends and I subscribed to the idea that we need to be in a jemaah because as a human being and in order to function well as human being, we cannot live alone. So, we joined every single jemaah that we can afford. You just name it, I'm sure at least 75% of your wild guesses are correct. Malaysian Student Society, Kelab UMNO, Hizbi, ABIM, filmmaker wanna be, I-just-support-any-clubs-but-Man-United and of course, tabligh.

And that was how I utilised my stay in a foreign land! And I hope I did not scare you.

I still don't know where those enthusiasm now. After returned home, I just spent less and less time outside.

I remember when I used to tumpang berteduh with my aunt in Kepong. My routine was like got up at 6.30 and took my komuter ride to Bank Negara station at 7.15 am and stayed in my office until 8 or 9 pm. Arrived at Taman Bukit Maluri at about 10 pm for an hour or two chat with my aunt on her day and updates on those telenovelas from the Latin America or the Phillipines. On weekend, I helped my aunt in the kitchen, folded the family clothes, did my wonder with the compound in front of the house, ironed my own clothes and spent quality time with the family in front the 29" Samsung TV. If I'm not mistaken, watching Akademi Fantasia and I was rooting for Nija and Sahri.

When I moved into my own rented flat in Pandan Indah, I almost had a similar itinerary but this time with my housemates and my neighbours. Yes... you read it right. My neighbours! Even my housemates still cannot understands how can I spent 45 minutes to a hour talking to my neighbours - abang K, abang S, abang B, akak A, akak T, pakcik R and makcik M. Oh yeah, another two neighbours about my age who live on the first floor.

No... we did not talk about the weather, and not the politics too, thank God. With the abangs, we talked about football (hehehe jangan tak percaya, si kaki bangku cakap pasal bola!).

"Kenapa kau tak sokong Man United? Habis tu, kenapa pergi ke Manchester?", asked abang K.
"Errr... saya sokong Manchester City?"
"Team division satu tu?" asked abang S this time.
"Errr... saya suka warna jersey dia. Biru cair. Sejuk mata memandang."

I'm sure those kind-hearted abangs still can't comprehend my rationale. My God, what a stupid answer from stupid guy pretending to like football. hehehe.

Chatting with the kakaks were conducted in a more personally way, always one to one chatting in our corridor. And the topics were diverse. About the rising costs of living, life as bankers (because akak K is a banker too), the arguing couples at wee hours (siap polis datang, ok! And I had at least 5 couples during my 4 years there.), and of course my all time favourite, the tangkap basah episodes!

Talking about tangkap basah, there was this case, where the group serbu a house on the second floor on one find day, they were surprised to death to find out that those weekend couple was legally married. The visiting husband came to the house (the wife rented the 3-room flat with another 2 single ladies) from Kuantan every weekend. The next day, an announcement was up on our notice board, which I guess from the family of that poor couple, stated their disappointment and anger about the incident.

"Apa perasaan tuan-tuan dan puan-puan kalau anak perempuan anda diperlakukan sedemikian!"

Two months after that the couple moved out and five months after that sad but kelakar (well no offence to the poor couple, but my kelakarness was directed at those caring 'neighbours') incident, I moved into my own place, which is about 2km from the Pangsapuri Inai. At Graha Residen, I tried to revive my jemaah enthusiasm, but I was short of time - those people in the office really, really made me 'suffer' (I'm exaggerating this part in case you need to know) before I could go for my sabbatical leave.

And here in Manchester, with those piling up journals to be read (I can't understand why these journals have to be at least 30 pages, when everything can't be written for about a tenth of those pages!) and the fact that I'm too old for to be a perfect buddy for the undergrads and too young for most of my classmates, I guess those spirit of perjuangan will be disappeared at least for another year.

At the end of the gathering, Dr. Kamarul and I made a promise to keep in touch to do some catching ups. We arrived home about 30 minutes after midnight and I straight away went to bed hoping for a chance to meet Joe up tomorrow to watch the Kite Runner. I hope I will enjoy the film as much as I enjoyed the book.

One fine day in 1984

(This picture was first published on News Strait Times online)

First of all, I would like to take this opportunity to wish my small cousins all the best in their new life in school. I still remember my first day of sekolah betul. Some people call kindergarden as sekolah olok-olok or sekolah makan, at least during my time, long, long time ago. I woke up very early, a few minutes after the mu'azin called for a prayer. Thank God, my beloved mother has boiled two kettles of water for my hot bath. Yeah, we didn't have water heater that time and that what most people did. If not, I'm sure I will have the same label that some of my classmates got for not taking morning bath.

I was sent to school by my father but he just waited outside the class for a few minutes. A week before I already attended an orientation session for budak darjah satu, one of the few words of Mrs. Simpson, my class teacher, which I still remember until today. Another one is "seperti mulut murai". I wonder where she is now. Oh yeah, I attended the orientation session with abang Janjan, because Abah got a prior arrangement and Mak was too occuppied with my two little sisters. If I'm not mistaken, Mira was almost four and Lia was slightly over one year old. Thanks, abang Janjan!

My first few weeks in school was very interesting and fun because I made a lot of friends and we hardly learned anything serious. And of course, I was enjoying myself looking at a handful crying six plus year old boys. Hehehe, one boy even terkencet in his pant. Wow, I'm glad that I still remember this "ancient" word!

However, a month or two after that, I was bored to the death because my teachers taught almost the same thing that I've learned about a year plus ago at Tabika KEMAS Pasir Puteh. I complained to my mum and made known of my intention of not going to school. When Abah found out this, he asked me to go into his room and get him his belt. Hesitantly, I followed his instruction and get myself a gift for me to bring to my bed. The next morning, my mother suggested a briliant idea.

"Kalau Along dah tahu semua tu, along boleh tunjur ajar pada kawan-kawan yang belum pandai lagi."

I guess that was my first lesson about charity or amal jariah. And I'm so thankful to my beloved mother for this greatest lesson. And thank God, my fourth month onwards, I started to learn new things and I began to enjoy learning. And my favourite subject was Mathematics, which remain so until I lost Mr. Chong in my 4th grade. Although I still scored good marks, I guess since then, it was just for the sake of learning. My next pick was Bahasa Melayu and Alam dan Manusia. And it was these two teachers (Puan Fatimah was my BM teacher and Mrs. Muthiah for Alam dan Manusia) that had nurtured my love for reading. Since I came to school very early in the morning (because my schoolbus driver, Nyonya, picked me up at 6.15 am and my school was the third school in her list of almost 20 schools!), my routine was to wait Mrs Muthiah at the school gate for me to help carrying her bag to the Bilik Guru before she walked me to the school library.

Anyhow, I did enjoy most of my time in schools. So, once again... good luck, cousins. Break a leg! I'm not sure whether or not I learned that in my darjah satu. Hehehe...

I've Been Searching My Soul?

Some of you might know how crazy I am about this lady.

I started to know her, way back in 1998. She's from the States but I first saw her in United Kingdom, and saw her again in Malaysia until 2002. Since then, she has disappeared. The last thing that I know about her is she's happily living with her only daughter somewhere in the States. Or is she still in Boston?

And everytime I think of her, I will hum this song:

I've been down this road
Walking the line that's painted by pride
And i have made mistakes in my life that i just can't hide.

But I believe I'm ready
for what love has to bring
I've got myself together
Now i'm ready to sing.

I've been searching my soul tonight
I know there's so much more to life
Now I know I can shine a light
to find my way back home.

Baby.
Yeah.
Oh Yeah.

Well, I am not the only one (at least in my circle of friends) who loves her. I bet Mus still fancy her although he has someone at this moment. And like other best friends do, we did talk in lengthy about our fascination on this gorgeous and successful lawyer.

Last weekend, while surfing the Internet I spotted a couple of her pictures. And today, after returned from my Research Skill lecture, I received a note from the Royal Mail to notify me about a package awaiting for me to collect at the Post Office, two blocks away. Unfortunately, the package is too big to go into my tiny mailbox.

And... this is what inside the said package:

I do not know what happen to the first season of one of my all time favourite shows - Ally McBeal.

To those who did not have a clue what I am talking about, Ally McBeal is an Emmy/Golden Globe award-winning sitcom, which was created by David E. Kelly. It is about a young lawyer (starred Calista Flockhart) searching for love. She is smart, beautiful, confident yet clumsily funny.

About ten years ago...

I had an interesting lecture today, given by Prof. Colin Kirkpatrick on Financial Regulation and Supervision in Developing Countries. One of the subjects that is close to my heart or at least close to what I have been doing for the past 6 or 7 years.

While I do not want to bore you guys with the details, I must point out one statement that I received from my Professor, which in line with some of literatures that I have read before class. And what the statement is?

Malaysia was not badly hit by the Asian financial crisis in 1997/98, at least not as bad as Thailand, Indonesia and South Korea.

Hmmm...

Actually, I am in a difficult to verify how true this statement is because by the time my beloved country started to sneeze, I already flew to United Kingdom to read my first degree. My only indicators are Ringgit was fastly depreciated by God know many percent and majority of my classmates from the MARA College Banting cannot further their studies overseas because MARA has raised the cut off point up drastically.

To tell the truth, I do not think I was directly affected by the crisis because I received my monthly living allowance in pound sterling. And coming from a poor family, I did not expect any money from my parents. Therefore, I did not feel the pinch from the exchange rate fluctuation. In fact, I did benefit from it when I sent (and brought) home money. And Alhamdulillah for all of His blessings, I don't have to pay off my education expenses because I met the requirements for it to be converted into a full scholarship at the end of my studies.

So, is Prof. Colin Kirkpatrick right on this matter? I really hope some of you could give me some light on this because I am positive that our country was hit as bad as Thailand, Indonesia and South Korea during the Asian financial crisis. I have saw the statistics during my course of work as a regulator, but later today as I talked to another student from Malaysia, she also give the same personal experience as mine. Or the crisis only "attacked" the working Malaysians?

Does this make any sense?