We went bowling the other day at the recently opened Terengganu Equastrian Resort (TER). Though comparatively small with just 15 lanes, it is certainly better than having to go to Kuantan just to satisfy your craving to smash those pins.

Certainly looking forward for more enjoyable time there.

There has been a number of cases that catch the eyes of foreign media to Malaysia lately... what the hell am I talking about, basically I am suffering from "too many things to say, too little drive to create a decent posting" syndrome...

Furthermore, my stomach is warning me that it is in the reserve mode... so, until the drive is back these are the only lines I could come up this time around...

I never have any fear of flying, in fact I always look forward to get my feet on the plane and enjoy the view from 'high above the sky so high'. However, I discovered that I do have a fear of flying; flying with stupid bangang idiots that is.

It was during one of my flight from Kuala Terengganu to Kuala Lumpur. After a short bumpy patch when the airplane was climbing to the required height, I relaxed for the rest of the journey by reading the newspaper which I have bought earlier.

We were approaching KLiA when a familiar tone suddenly came to life. I swore that it was a message received tone from a Nokia handphone. At first I thought that must be my imagination, who would be so dumb and stupid to his/her life just so that they could receive a call which could be deferred for just a few more minutes.

Then a Doraemon ringtone filled the cabin space and it turned out to be that it came from the handphone of the person sitting right in front of me. He did not answer the phone but did not switch the hanphone off.

My God! What an idiot!

Then once again, Doraemon's song blared from this idiot's phone. I have had enough. With a hushed tone I asked him nicely to switch off his handphone. Everybody was looking at him and this time he oblidged. What a f#cking idiot!!! Thank God that we landed safely.

A friend of mine who works as an engineer with our national carrier had informed me during our conversation that the probabilty of a handphone causing an aeroplane to crash is small, BUT he did not rule it out altogether, so why take the chance?

Perhaps later, with a new generation aircrafts and a new generation of handphones the stewardess would not have to remind us to switch off our handphones before the pilot takes us off the face of the earth for a while and enjoy the view of the previliged ones.

Until then, do switch off your handphones during all flights...

Life as a Gooner has been sweet and good lately. Winning twice at Anfield and coming back from behind against traditional foe Manure were the highlights with the poor display at Brammal Lane being the only blip.

Now it is the time to face our neighbour Tottenham Hotspuds twice in a week to grab a place in the Carling Cup Final. After their sensational nine goal thriller at Anfield, confidence must be running high among Arsenal youngsters to get one over their neighbours.

Earlier in the week the Spuds had sound a warning by beating Arsenal 3-0 in the reserve league at Underhill. Even though most players from either side are unlikely to feature during the semi-finals it should be taken as an indication of what the Spuds intend to do during the clash.

In between the two legs there is a matter of the FA Cup fourth round tie against Bolton Wanderers at the Emirates. It would not be easy against Sam Allardyce's team, as it had been in previous encounters. These three matches could possibly make or break the season for us, defeats would leave the Premiership and the Champions League as our possible chance of silverware this season, and even those are long shots by any mean.

To many people there is nothing wrong with the picture above. What is wrong with cramming as many people as possible into a Perodua Kancil. We see this everyday happening on the road all over Malaysia.

I could take a high hand approach and state everybody is guilty on this matter as we know that most people who buy a Perodua Kancil are those who come under the lower income group, who would welcome a roof over their heads to shield them from the sun and the rain. It is certainly better to own a Kancil rather than having your spouse having her hands full with junior 1 and 2 while trying to keep her balance on the kapchai.

But the above picture is a different matter altogether.

The point that I am trying to get across here is that most driving schools in Malaysia do not practice the very attitude that we want to instill in our young drivers. How many time have we seen the driving school instructors do not buckle up when driving or failed to use the indicator (lampu signal) when changing lanes or making a turn.

If the instructors themselves failed to practice what they are teaching their students to do on the road, then our hope for our drivers to be more courteous and safe on the road would just fade away, just like our hope to see the price of petrol go down significantly within the next few months despite oil price being at its lowest for quite some time.

Ten years ago to this day... the following moments unfolded...




HAPPY 10th ANNIVESSARY, BEBEH!!!

Hey hey hey... what do you know...

Remember me complaining about the events that happened whan Linda and I were at the KL-LCCT in November? Well, it has made it to the mainstream news today (KOSMO!, 17-12-2006)


The headlines were 'TERMINAL LCCT UMPAMA BILIK TIDUR' (The LCCT is like a Dormitory) and 'Ramai terkejut dan kecewa (Many were surprised and disappointed)

Most of the complaints were about the lack of proper rest area for those who have to wait for their connecting flight to another destination after arriving from another. Just like us who had to wait for nine hours for our flight to Kuala Terengganu after arriving from Langkawi.

It turned out to be it is a normal situation at the LCCT and the AirAsia staff must have grown immune to the complaints that were directed to them. Of course, they are not the one who can do anything about it as the are merely carrying out their duties.

The one that must bear responsibility for this are those who came up with the idea of building the LCCT in the first place. Why must there be a seperate terminal when we have the KLiA under utilised in the first place?

All the complaints have been said before, so to repeat them again would make me sound like a broken record... but it showed that I am not alone in feeling disappointed with the LCCT... mind you, not with Air Asia (though there were a few things that could be improved) as they were merely adhering to the directive from the one that built the LCCT in the first place.

... cometh and gone. From someone who are not well versed in sailing I really would like to say that this year's edition was better organised and the logistics was not a nightmare for residents in this laid-back town of kT. Last year a number of roads were closed and a few of them were converted into one way lane much to the chagrin among the local residents.

There was also the free boat ride for those wishing to be closer to the action. These specially chartered commuter boats could accomodate around 20-25 people at one go and would take spectators to the edge of the race area. It would have been better if there was more information in regards of the races were relayed as this would help them to know what were transpiring right before their eyes.

The first day of practice promised a lot of challenge as competitors had to brave the elements of the monsoon which were pretty much evident but the weather became a bit more predictable once the competition proper began.

There were a few upsets here and there with the most notable one for all Malaysians was when Tiffany Koo of Selangor Gapura nearly beat defending champion Peter Gilmore during the round-robin (Tiffany eventually finished in 12th position).

Me and the girls attended the final day of the competition and for around twenty minutes watched the race from the boat as Ian Williams defeated Gilmour in the Petite Final and also Peter Holmberg, skippering his Alinghi team levelling the score to 1-1 against Frenchman Matthieu Richard's Team Saba.

Then we watched the next three races at the spectators stand on the Shahbandar field where two big screens were used to broadcast the match 'live' to those who does not have a pair of binoculars (including me...) Unfortunately, the running commentary was frequently disrupted by two deejays who kept talking nonsense instead of bringing attention to the final. Even, when they decided to comment on the race it was just like an obligatory few words: "A race is on going..." (without even mentioning who were the racers)

To those who are new to this match-racing concept of competitive sailing (like me) a good commentary would enable us to follow the races closely. The running commentary by the professionals were expertly delivered but to the masses who do not have good command of English it would be just like watching two boats racing without knowing who are racing against who (the only time they reacted was when there were collisions or when two boats coming so close with one another that made it look like a collision was inevitable)

Of course not everybody who came to the event had the races on their mind but it certainly would help enhance the image of the competition if the crowd can relate to the happenings on the water and not just to take a brief look before concentrating on events happening elsewhere.

The final itself was a thrilling one when Holmberg looked set to clinch the winner in the fourth race, even with the Saba Team was ahead by a few boat lengths it had a penalty against them after the two boats collided at the end of the last leg. Then Richard decided to take the penalty just before the finishing line, completed it and crossed the line two seconds ahead of Holmberg to bring the final to its fifth race.

The deciding race was another close one but Holmberg stayed the course ahead of Richard to win the richest prize on the tour and his first win in the Match Race series which saw him moved to 6th place of the overall standings.

The next race will be held in Langenargen, Germany in May 2007. The next edition of the Monsoon Cup will be the second time in the same series as the tour are set to change its format to the calendar year in 2008.

.. a sunny day in my life as the sun shoned brightly in North London and Arsenal recorded a very important win at the Emirates. After a run of two consecutive defeats at Bolton and Fulham it is very important to win against Sp*rs, who must be fancying their chances, especially after our skipper Thierry Henry was seen more suitably clothed for the catwalk rather than the pitch, just before the kick-off.

Unfortunately, for those in white it turned out to be a rather comprehensive performance by the Gunners with Emmanuel Adebayor and Gilberto Silva (twice from the penalty spot in each half) getting their names on the scoresheet. There were a number of decisions that could have gone either way that could have changed the course of the match by referee Graham Poll but perhaps the Lady Luck is beginning to smile upon us again...

... as I hope the same would be for me personally. Now to go to Porto without Henry and get the result that we need to qualify for the next round of the Champions League... and not an exit to the UEFA Cup (though winning the latter could be much easier)