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Archive for November, 2005

Zappitty Zap

Posted in Uncategorized on November 19, 2005| Leave a Comment »

Caught myself singing this song while watching the rain from my living room. Cuppa tea in one hand, John Gray’s Children Are From Heaven in the other. Kitreena was at the Time Square having her day out with Ka Cher. Be won’t be home from Houston til this Thursday.

Hujan-hujan kau datang lagi
dingin-dingin menyiksa diri
semakin dingin semakin sepi
sudahlah dingin daku sendiri
ku panggil kau tak menyahut
akan menjerit tak sanggup lagi
aku pun menangis lagi
hmm hmm hmm hmm

Hujan membawa cerita lama
dulu sepayung kita berdua
semakin dingin semakin mesra
sedangkan kini daku sendiri
membeku rindu di hati
rindu yang tiada pula berarti
tiada jua berhenti
dingin dingin dingin dingin

Yada yada yada yada
putusnya tali ikatan
kekasih kini berpaling pada yang lain
bukan denganku kawan bersanding
nak ku damba lagi tak mungkin

Hujan seakan dicurahkan
dingin dan gelap mencengkam
oh malang sudahlah dingin tiada berteman
hati sepi ku bawa mendengkam
mata pun tak mau memejam

Oho mendesis angin dan hujan
oho menangis ku kesepian

Well no, I wasn’t feeling lonely or anything. Frankly, I was enjoying the rain. Didn’t get to see much when we were in Oman. Be wouldn’t have liked a day like today. Those cloudy rainy days in Milan almost drove him nuts. I, on the other hand, enjoyed them tremendously. Came rain or snow in Calgary, I was chirpy as the robins.

Actually, my nawaitu asal writing ni was to thank those who posted comments on my blog. Thanks Dan (and wifey poo). And to apologize for not responding earlier. My Cicero was zapped by lightning twice last week. Once when we were away – in KK. Fried the network card. We were going to replace it and was like standing on one foot using the dial-up connection instead of Streamyx…when the second lightning struck. Zappitty zappp!

Sent it for a repair work and basically got a brand new pc back. Nothing was NOT replaced except for the processor. Dengan motherboard pun hangus. Lucky Kitreena’s pictures, thousands of them, are still in tact. I haven’t made any back-up since we left Muscat. There’s another story about the TMNet modem, but I don’t want to bore my own pants off. Enough already!

Thanks jugak to those who made it to our open house/Kitreena’s birthday party last weekend! You made our very FIRST attempt opening our house pening-free! It was a breeze and I definitely won’t be serik to do it again next year. I should fax Hidayah Maju Catering a thank you letter lah for doing a great job. I am impressed! Those who could not make it, no worries. I’ll find some excuses to do it again sooner than you know.

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Error Asia

Posted in Write On on November 19, 2005| Leave a Comment »

Would it surprise you to see a woman hauling her 32-week / 8-month size pregnant tummy at an airport if you saw one? I mean here lah, in Malaysia tanahair kucintaik. I am not talking about Pearson Airport. I did haul my 33-week size pregnant tummy there in 2002. Nobody cared, let alone looked surprised. Well, let me nyenyenye about what happened to me at KLIA and BKI Airport recently.

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A couple weeks ago, I went Cuti-Cuti Malaysia in Kota Kinabalu, where I was born. For about a week. Yepper! Hauling my 32-week prego tummy and the whole cargo, armed with Dr Ravi Chandran’s precious Fit-To-Travel (FTT) certificate/letter. At the check-in counter, I wasn’t asked for it. So okaylah. Air Canada pun, when I flew Calgary-Toronto-Calgary in 2002 didn’t bother. Maybe Malaysia was as lax, I thought. We proceeded to the boarding hall with the kangkong style of lenggang indeed.

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Lo-chia and behold, Cik Kak Asiah at the boarding gate…upon seeing my protruding cargo, stopped me and asked for the fit-to-travel cert. I handed it out to her feeling so relieved that I ‘came prepared’. Hmmm…if the story ended there ah, I wouldn’t bother nyenyenye about it today lah kan. Being the employee of the month as she probably would be, Cik Kak Asiah read the FTT certificate like she was going to memorize every single word and number, and take an exam on it.

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How much do you want to bet that she would find a fault? True enough! There was one. The date of the FTT. I was flying on October 29th and the FTT was dated 11 days prior to that day. Cik Kak Asiah dengan penuh dedikasi dan taat setia to the policy gave me the… “It’s in the policy that you have to have a certificate dated within a week or seven days prior to flying, Ma’am. We are sorry, we cannot have you on board.”

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Sorry seemed to be the hardest word for me to swallow that day.

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So I asked her what my options were. There was no way I could ask Dr Ravi to fax me a new certificate as he was also on leave until the day I was supposed to come back to KL. Would Air Asia reimburse us on all the tickets – mine, Be’s and Kitreena’s? Ha ha ha, that would be a joke! Anyway, Cik Kak Asiah asked me (politely) to just have a seat nearby while she ran around like a ladylike Chicken Little trying to solve the sky-is-falling problem we had.

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Cik Kak Asiah – if you haven’t already assumed it by now…is not her real name – had been very courteous for that 15-20 minutes dealing with our issue. Until! I was standing less than 2 feet away from her when I heard her exact words, “…Tapi perut dia memang besar lah!” speaking to a colleague on the walkie-talkie. Hah? Hey! That was NOT very professional of her to say that when I was standing right next to her desk. So what if my tummy was like the largest Wok With Yan‘s wok ever? Her ketidakprofesionalisma begitu menusuk bukan saja ke jantung kalbu, malah ke tali perut dan uri aka placenta ku! Cisss! Cakap siang pandang-pandang Cik Kak Asiah oi.

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Unimpressed, to say the least, I asked her to show me where in the policy that says that the letter had to be dated within 7 days. I remembered very clearly reading it and I very luckily printed it out and had it in my very right hand at that very moment. So, there was no way she could out-smart me, cross me, double-cross me or cross me out. (There! The difference between being smart and looking smart, ladies and gentlemen!)

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Cik Kak Asiah then gave me a very confident “Oh yes it is in the policy, I just know it,” statement and was going to approach the pilot to see if he would let me fly. Fine! I wasn’t going to crawfish out. Na’ah! Not after hearing her unprofessional words and knowing that she was bluffing me with the ‘oh yes it is in the policy’ bs. Sorry selorry. And in the meantime, Be was ready to blow a fuse over the whole thing and because Kitreena wasn’t in her best behavior either. Me? Patience? Oh, if you asked me 32 weeks ago…I might have had it.

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Just as the passengers started boarding like kambing terlepas kandang sembelih, a senior Cik Puan Kak Asiah came with an indemnity form and some apologies for me. She verified that the pilot had no problem having me on board as I was under 36 weeks prego. And that it was not true that I had to present an FTT Cert dated within a week of flying. She, however, did suggest that I should get a post-dated FTT for my return flight on November 5th -“to make things easier”. Hmmm, ok, whatever. Time to roll my eyes, and keep ’em rollin’!

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I did get a post-dated FTT for my return flight, actually. Thanks to Muzi, Dr. Ravi’s secretary. And guess what happened to me on November 5th, on the way back?

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A longer nyenyenye story.

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Tanjung Emas Kampung Punya Wayang

Posted in Grammaticalizationism, Humor on November 8, 2005| Leave a Comment »

I went to Tanjung Golden Village website for the first time tonight to see if I could book some tickets to see Chicken Little with my Little Chickadee. But of course I couldn’t! It didn’t allow advance reservation. One can only do so for shows on the following day. Anyway, I kept on browsing when I saw this synopsis of Anak Mami Kembali in English:

The film rotates the colourful life of the Piee family that consist of his daughter, Mak Bee (Azan Irdawaty) and two adorable but mischievous grandchildren, Saiful (Saiful Apek) and Ida (Waheeda). Mak Bee is a single mother that is very dominant and has a strong personality. She is very firm and conservative in the up-bringing of her two children. She is also the kind that is very partiular about the family’s status quo.

Saiful is an oversea university graduate. He is the hip and rugged type but likes to brag about things. He is often the victim of her mother’s babbling because she is unkeen of the way Saiful portray himself. Saiful has a lover, Fasha (Fasha Sandha) the daughter of Ismail (Ismail Din) and Saleha (Sheila Mambo).

Saiful did not tell her mother about his relationship with Fasha because of Mak Bee dominance in controlling the family. Ida, his younger sister also faces the same problem when she become involve with Farid (Farid Kamil) the only child of Zulkifli (Zulkifli Zain) and Normala (Normala Omar).

Things seems to be turning worse when Mak Bee got to know of Ida’s relationship with Farid. What will happen to Ida? Are lady luck shying away from her? Are Saiful safe from her mother wrath? Will Mak Bee for go her status quo for the sake of her son and daughter? Wait for upcoming Notorious and Hilarious movies “Anak Mami Kembali”.

Well well well. Dare I comment on the writer’s grammar? I think it’s pretty obvious that the SVA (Subject-Verb Agreement) – the most basic English grammar – is not quite there, i.e. :

  1. “Things seems to be turning worse….“
  2. “Are lady luck shying away….“
  3. “Are Saiful safe from her mother….“

But what I do admire is the writer’s pride in his/her work. Bravo/Brava! He/She went on and posted the synopsis without having it proofread. Sloppy as it may have been, there was a tinge of pride and confidence in his/her attitude. Right on! But…uh, proofread please. I am sure Tanjung Golden Village is not short of writers who are highly capable of writing in grammatical English. Afterall, itu bukan Tanjung Emas Kampung punya wayang kan?

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