Oh, Pasar Malam

Food stuff are expensive at pasar malam these days. They are eating deep in my pocket and I am feeling the heat every time I dig deep inside especially since I am now officially a Government servant. Just look at the prices of food I just bought this evening.

1. 2 slices of Murtabak at RM 4.40 when they should cost around RM 3.00

2. 2 packets of Mee Rebus at RM 6.00 when they should be priced at RM 5.00

3. 3 sets of Roti Jala (each set has 5 slices) at RM 6.60 when they be priced at RM 6.00

4. A packet of Laksa Kedah at RM 3.00 when it should reasonably be just RM 2.50

5. 3 plastic cup of soft drinks at RM 3.60 when they should be priced at RM 2.40

6. A kebab with sparse beef is at RM 2.50 when it should be priced at RM 1.50

I spent a total of RM30.90, just to have a quick and fast dinner that we thought could save us the time and money preparing one. I should review my spendings these days, as my bank account is fast turning red. I need to save and see a cost reduction in the expenses of some of the essentials and energy-based facilities.

Maybe I can look at the root causes of the high electricity and water consumption and high hand phone usage.

Passion for cooking

I think I am a good cook. I am passionate about experimenting and exploring the magic of the outcome of the dishes afterwards. Throw in dashes of herbs, or mixing that fresh slice of meat or chicken in that fluid of wonderful colored paste, and the simmering of a beautiful broth, the feelings that just make my heart sing.

I am always at ease and find peace of mind when I hold the laddle. When I taste some new dishes, unknown to their ingredients, I would return to my kitchen and concocted the dishes that I have just tasted. Voila...I come close to the original taste.

Recently, my wife and I made lunch for relatives and neighbours. We decided to cook gulai pisang muda, masak lemak soun & tauhun, sambal tauhu, ayam goreng berempah KFC-styled, sambal belacan with a mixture of strong tamarind paste & lemon, sambal laksamana (a traditional family recipe of pounded fried green chillies, shrimp paste and Indian red onions) . We also had fresh ulams like daun pudina, pucuk tengek burung, daun selom, daun ulam raja and some other fresh leaves unknown to my vocabulary. We also had an assortment of ikan kering masin and ikan kering masam (salted fish) like tenggiri and gelama to accompany the mouth-watering dishes. As for deserts, we bought some delicacies from my wife's friend and my sister, donated her usual kueh Melayu.

It was a blast. Everyone liked the taste of every dish served. These dishes were prepared with love and passion. There was nothing like it; it had been a long time that we had these kind of food at our homes and sharing them with my dear relatives.

Although it was tiresome, we dished out every skills and knowledge we had about cooking traditional food. Although the food was not out of ordinary, the dishes were like fit for the kings.

Vandals, Thieves and Rubbish-dunkers

I hate vandals, period. They also steal things too. I hate them, that's it.

They are the worst kind. They did their filthy job at night and disappeared. They damaged public utilities and disappeared. They stole wrought-iron street covers, electrical poles cover, fences, and even public sporting utilities and disappeared, carting off with public property, with the intent of selling in some Indian backyard iron scrap dealers in Puchong.

The last one was obvious at Section 7 Shah Alam lakeside jogging track. It is prevalent that these thieves have wrecked our hopes when the rip off the sporting utilities: the master swing walk holder, the notice boards, safety parts and pieces of the rower, hipster-swing-around and etc.

The lakeside jogging track, public park gymnasium (if you can call it) and children's park were the only sane thing left in Shah Alam for people like me to utilize, as there is hardly anything else you can do in this dead by 8pm, rustic town but rotting Bandaraya of Shah Alam. I have been exasperated by attempts to complain but these have fallen on deaf ears. Those dickheads in MBSA are just bureacrats who do not think that enforcement on new facilities is their KPI and KRA.

Talking about new, this area has been open to public for a year now but the facilities were ready and completed by July this year. I am sad that the thieves and vandals got away with their freaking criminal activities and antics, I am sure some day they will get "rewarded" by their bad deeds.

I like the lakeside jogging track, which is about 1.5km in circumference. It is serene in the morning, however, with some eyesores of household rubbish strewn about in the lake. These unscrupulous rubbish-dunkers are as bad as the vandals and thieves. They should be punished for the irresponsible act they have created and done.

I think the authorities are slow in acting up. They should install CCTV at the parks or install something that looked like camera with flickering lights every other 5 secs. That will scare them off. These authorities, especially those arm-chaired bastardly-good-for-nothing bureaucrats in MBSA, need to think outside the box rather than just pleasing politicians who think that this is their bapak-punya country.

Don't build parks, jogging tracks if you don't intend to maintain them and more importantly, protect them. And, I wonder if residents' associations here or the Qariahs have any initiatives to patrol these areas at night, as the parks are not only a perfect to cart off with public property, they are also a good haunt for unmarried young couples to do their quicky there.

C'est la vie.

Changing lanes

I have been working all my adult life - started as a cadet journalist at Berita Harian/New Straits Times in Johor as early as I was 19 of age and now to working with the Government as a contract officer. I think of all my years' of working, there were two jobs that I enjoyed thoroughly. One, when I was a journalist for Berita Harian, The Star and NST afterwards (post-Operasi Lallang 1987) in Penang and second, when I was in Toyota in Shah Alam as a PR.

I don't mind slogging, clocking long hours for these organisations, as the jobs themselves gave me more than satisfaction. The jobs were simply fitting to my qualification, experience and character. More importantly, it was the organizational system that was solidly in place. However, as I moved on from one organisation to another over the years, supposedly looking for better wage, I could not find the X factor - not just emotional satisfaction and the right remuneration package, it is the organizational systems that I always be looking at.

Changing lanes on a busy road can be dangerous and hazardous to you, your family and to other motorists. You either make other motorists annoyed by your carelessness as you could snake in and out of the long lines of vehicles which you feel are hogging the lanes. However, when I really look at it, it is the system of having multiple lanes on the road that made us like crazy drivers who love changing lanes all the time.

Likewise, in life like mine, changing lane in careers can also do the same thing to you, your family and people around you.

The only big advantage of changing jobs that I know of is the learning process. Certain organisations have certain ways of teaching and learning, sometimes in weird kind of ways and sometimes, you'd be so challenged that your life is threading a thin line between right and wrong, good and bad, and sometimes, your conviction in whatever you believed before hangs in a balance. I have always believed in life-long learning, as you learnt through practices, visual experience and these are kept tacitly somewhere in your head.

As I was saying, different organisations have different strokes of learning process. I return to the Government, after a lapse of 10 years, and what I found the Government is still at the same level of mentality. Every minute of meetings is recorded conservatively and calling of a meeting is done on paper, when every officer has an email that he or she can utilize without spending too much time printing an invite. It is irony that Putrajaya is a first class infrastructure, but it has the worst kind of work methodology. I am sure not all Government employees are dried basin of uncreative ideas or malas, but someone has not done his job of managing work processes. I blame MAMPU and even Tan Sri Sidek Hassan, the Chief Secretary to the Government, for not able to see the processes through and through. There are just too many overlapping duties and activities, but they keep doing in circles until they don't realize the replication.

I have also seen fantastic Government employees who are dedicated and committed to their work but not given due recognition. It is sad, however, these employees are not noticed or being used by their selfish bosses to advance their careers. Promotions are still not based on performance or meritocracy, promotions are still based on seniority and well sometimes, whoever is closer to the bosses. This nepotism also happens in private sector but in private sector, performance always comes first, as the performance assessment system is well in place.

These factors have done one thing to me - they damage my hope and aspirations to be a better civil servant in helping the Government to be better than it is today. The administrative system and the work processes are so inefficient and flawed in every way that I look. Trainings and courses are given to the civil servants in hoping to improve work process, but when the system still remains the same, nothing can be done. Dato' Idris Jala waited for 3 weeks for his security pass to be ready, as the system flawed. I waited 3 months for my salary to be paid. Not the people who flawed; it is just the system.

Sometimes I think I have made an error in my own system of judgment - swerving into the wrong lane in this current career. It does not give me any satisfaction but a lot of anger, disappointment and frustration. Pay-wise, though I have a lot to complain, but alhamdullillah, this is God-given and I shall be thankful with that.

What relations mean to me...

Attending all the Hari Raya Open Houses in a stretch this week can be laborious and time consuming. I was not so lucky in attending some of them, as some hosts have already closed their doors by the time I got there. KL was jammed packed with well wishers, as jammed as the roads and highways, and those looking for really good and free food while every of them is being hospitable to their guests.

One thing that taught me about open houses was that the connection between the host and his/her guests are really superficial. The host can't really be entertaining one guest all the time when he has hundred others at the door, trying to make small talk, whack the dishes and leave. The poor host must be feeling uneasy when two or more guests come at the same time, not knowing who to entertain first. The hosts and the guests have something to talk but ridiculously short, while amongst the guests, they too suffered the same fate of superficial talk and mingling without having a sincere engaging conversation.

Some did with a lot of success, I mean, having a long, sincere and engaging conversation. But open houses are not really a good place to have those conversations unless you are hooked to him or her or if you have vested interests in the person you're talking to. I have been in that situation before. Before you could go for your second helping, a bloke will be asking you for your business card and trying to think ways and means to be contactable again. I really hated when a stranger came up to you, after a brief introduction by the host, and began talking about things I don't like or feel like talking. Topics such as political gossips, business deals whether they are successful or ditched, and stories on Najib vs Altantuya, Teoh Beng Hock vs MACC. I hated those stories as if I knew the source of the stories and how the complicated storylinea snaked through.

The next thing you know, the guy wanted to see you at the office with a possible business venture. I hated those things when the guy called and said" "I am so and so, we met at so-and-so open house. And, I am thinking of coming to see you at your office with a fantastic proposal." Omg. This is the ill-effect of attending Hari Raya open houses, and you get swarmed with a lot of requests and proposals later on. I know, deep in my heart, this sort of relation will not last long once the guy knows that I am not really into proposals and requests. I just hoped they will go away and get repelled instantly. Sometimes, I needed to show my cold shoulder...it was not that I am powerful or have the connections to the power-to-be, but I just hated those things that do not create any value in my life.

However, I really loved situations when you are invited to "open houses" that are just extended to you exclusively. It is between two friends or two families. I just attended one in Semenyih when we had a ball of time, talking to each other about things that we all loved. Really human stuff, you know. You'd have this inert feeling that the conversation was going to be meaningful without strings attached. We spoke, we joked, we had long pauses to reflect on things and we laughed at our inadequacy. This sort of gathering is between good friends that don't mind of closing their doors even after 9pm, as they open their hearts and soul to you and your family. I have enjoyed thoroughly in having engaging conversation about how to manage adult teens, or sharing recipe to cook their favorite dish.

Sometimes, we need to pause and reflect on these open houses. It is pure glutton and show-offs, and not something that you get to earn pahala when you give food to others. It is also sign of social snobbery of many middle class Malays. For me, my house is always open 24/7 all year around and what you need to do is just to tell me when you're coming.

Join me in reducing Hari Raya open houses. It will do more good to us. It will reduce overeating and wastage of food and time, it will reduce traffic congestion on weekends, it will reduce expenditures, it will reduce the usage of polysterene food containers, of which, are rampantly used as plates and cups, it will provide quality time for families to visit their relatives rather than being with strangers in a good month like Syawal, and definitely, it will reduce fuel usage, tolls, parking tickets, accidents, and the risks of being sick after attending these open houses.

The wonderful life of stupidity

Why do drugstores make the sick walk all the way to the back of the store to get their prescriptions while healthy people can buy cigarettes at the front?

Why do people order double cheeseburgers, large fries, and a diet coke?

Why do banks leave both doors open and then chain the pens to the counters?

Why do we leave cars worth thousands of dollars in the driveway and put our useless junk in the trunk?

Why do we buy hot dogs in packages of ten and buns in packages of eight?

Why do they have drive-up ATM machines with Braille lettering?

Have you ever wondered ...

Why the sun lightens our hair, but it darkens our skin?

Why women can't put on mascara with their mouth closed?

Why don't you ever see the headline ' Psychic Wins Lottery '?

Why is 'abbreviated ' such a long word?

Why is it that doctors call what they do 'practice '?

Why is lemon juice made with artificial flavor, and dishwashing liquid made with real lemons?

Why the man who invests all your money is called a broker?

Why is the time of day with the slowest traffic called rush hour?

Why isn't there mouse-flavored cat food?

Why didn't Noah swat those two mosquitoes?

Why do they sterilize the needle for lethal injections?

You know that indestructible black box that is used on airplanes? Why don't they make the whole plane out of that stuff?!

Why don’t sheep shrink when it rains?

Why are they called apartments when they are all stucked together?

If flying is so safe, why do they call the airport the terminal?

Urban Life & Urban Swearings

Stupid and stupidity - I feel stupid every time I drive into KL and it is the stupidity of the authorities not to think outside the box when it comes to managing the traffic volume in the city of KL. We are going to be stupid like the Walikota of Jakarta for not able to see the solutions to the macet issue that has been plaguing the city since I worked there in 1984.

Can you imagine the crawl I had to endure yesterday from the Federal Highway-Bangsar exit to KL Sentral was 45 minuties from 5pm. Of course, it was peak time when the traffic volume was high but it was sheer stupidity that someone has to take that sort of time to reach a mere 5-7km distance. I hate those guys in DBKL and Police Traffic for not doing their job right.

But I guess, I am as stupid as the next guy, who prefer driving than taking the public transport. I have tried taking the KTM Komuter once but the KTM Komuter and other means of public transport is as stupid as the Works Minister from Samy Vellu to Drs what-his-name to Shaziman. To take the commuter train, there was this ritual massive human traffic rushing and pushing and jostling to get into the train. I think these Ministers and their KSUs, KPs are just goons and bodoh, arm-chaired and have done nothing right. Bodoh, bodoh dan lagi bodoh...geramnya!!

I also blame Proton for manufacturing sub-standard cars that breaks down more often than not. To divert this anger ramblings a little bit, my Persona is as defective as the Made-In-China toys. Can you imagine after so many years, the power window is still having the same problem (winding and unwinding issue), which tells us that Proton has not changed its vendor and has not changed its ways of working.

I also blame Toyota, Perodua, Volvo, Hyundai, Naza and other automotive manufacturers and license holders for manufacturing and selling more vehicles than the Malaysian roads can accept. There must be a law stopping these guys from selling too many cars than they should, as they not only contribute to more vehicles on the roads, they contribute more accidents, higher usage of fuel and more damage to the environment. Just stick out your neck in the middle of a traffic jam, all you can smell is fume. And, I am fuming mad for the fact that we are threading a dangerous world right now.

Maybe I can start bicycling to work. Not a good idea now, but may be if I could find a home in Putrajaya, bicycling to work would be an awesome idea. I remember watching this National Geography on the terrestrial TV about a town in Germany that embraces environmental-friendly approach in the daily lives. The homes are all solar-powered, home garbage collected to produce electricity, no cars on the street except in the outskirts, plant-your-own-food schemes, and the town folks turn everything that they can lay their hands on into environmental-friendly business and the business is indeed thriving.

How I wish I could go back and live in remote areas like Bario in Sabah or Grik in Perak where there isn't any traffic jam and the traffic is scarce (if there is any, the vehicles are slow-paced except to those lori pasir & lori balak), where life is so rustic and people are still simple, where you don't have to spend too much money on buying your essentials and needfuls, where you don't need to use the technology so much that you'd depend your very soul on it, where your children don't have to ask to use your car and drive the whole night through leaving the oil tank almost empty, where you wake up in early morning to smell the oxygenated dew and plants; and where you can praise Allah SWT for the creation of this universe when you hear the crickets at night, the frogs singing their hearts out after a raining spell and when you hear the sweet sound of the forests in the light of the day.

C'est la vie. I love my life but not now, not here in the city where there are just too many big bad wolves that will eat your Red Riding Hood of innocence in one fast and furious gulp.

Hari Raya Aidil Fitri 1430H/2009

I love family gatherings particularly when it is Hari Raya. It was a wonderful Hari Raya this year. Everyone in the family manifested and accepted this fact.

Yes, it was indeed a blast to have everyone, at sight and at smell, gathering at Kak Intan's house at Section 8, Shah Alam, except for Fadhli-Ayu-Amir Haziq and Amira. There wasn't time wasted, as we were too busy chatting with each other, or gleefully teasing each other, or just munching all the food spread that the Ulamaks might stretch vexing it deemed as sinful. Of course, the food was abound and it was a galore as we needed to feed more than 80 people.

There was quite a bit of pandemonium with 80 people, mostly cousins, scrounging around in the small space of 1,400sq feet of Kak Intan's home. These included the little people who are my grandchildren - E-am, Ikram and Kasih Salsabila. The other bigger children were of course anticipative of the green packets that contain duit raya and their faces beamed in happiness everytime they were handed each a packet of the duit raya.

I love family gatherings, as it brought us smiles and happiness. It brought us togetherness. It brought us love and affection. It also brought us food that we enjoyed thoroughly. I amin to that.

Jog for life, jog for health, jog for fun

I started jogging again today with my dear and loving wife, who thinks she's getting fatter than me by the day.

Yeap...my and wife I am jogging again after one month of absence stomping the paved road of the Section 7 lakeside. Frankly, I paused the regular activity of jogging because of the fear I might break the fast midway to breaking time at circa 7.30pm.

I jog because I need to feel healthy again. Not that I wasn't healthy in Ramadhan, I need to watch that sugar level or blood pressure. I was a carnivore during Ramadhan and Syawal rather than a herbivore and that was the reason I'd better do something about getting back into shape.

Getting into shape? What am I talking about...I have never ever got into shape. My body is as bloated as a dead fish that I usually see floating in the lake during my routine jogging. I just hate to realize that I could not see both my feet while looking down, as they are blocked by this rounded, bloated, shiny tummy of mine. That's obesity, I was told, when you can't see your own feet. Ooh my breast, they look like a women's breast with dark nipple encircling the big bulge of fatty muscle. I hate seeing those saggy little breasts when I look at the mirror early in the morning. I think everything is saggy between my face and my feet.

I jog again because I don't want to feel jaded again. I don't want to feel tired or exhausted while scaling a flight of stairs. I don't want to fall asleep during long meetings (I think everybody does that after 20 minutes). I don't want to lose the focus or power concentration when I am listening to people talking. And definitely, I really don't want to lose the excitement of lovemaking.

I need the energy. I need the focus. I need the concentration. I need the toxins to be blasted out of my system and I need my blood sugar and blood pressure to be kept at bay. Well, at 48, I must say all this to keep my confidence high so that all the bugs of illnesses will not easily nestled into my system.

I am now jogging for health and I am jogging again for fun. Join me at the Section 7, Shah Alam, to create this momentum a passion, a movement for healthy and fitness-looking community. Let's make jogging or brisk walking a healthy activity and a passion for the masses.

Geromal

My life -- about everything, anything.

My life

My life -- about everything, anything.

Reflecting life...

This is my life -- about everything, anything.

Do I have everything I need? Do I need everything that is required to? Life has been good to me, so far. I think there must a better way of thanking God The Almighty. Any ideas, doug?

How to thank Allah swt -- this is the quest I should embark on from now onwards. Maybe, along the way, I get inspired and be more pious but progressive Muslim. Insyallah.

Good Life

Life is good. It is like having waffle with my favorite honey top-on on a sunny morning. It is like having to share that precious moment with your wife and children, bonding in a perfect harmony of quality time, at your favorite beach.

Reflecting on something that happened to me in March this year, I have thought when I was going crazy one month before I had to accept the Voluntary Separation Scheme (VSS) offered by Titan Chemicals Corp Bhd, the most arrogant company I have worked with in my entire 25 years'career. I thought it was unfair for the company to force people in Titan to accept the VSS by closing down certain important and vital operations. What I discovered months after that was that the management closed these departments, including mine at Govt relations, with the purpose of getting rid of the heads. After getting rid of these people, the management actually resurrected and re-create the departments with different people helming them. It appeared that the people they got rid were aligned to Thomas Grehl, who employed these leaders earlier. Yours truly was included, of course.

I was angry at first but I thought I should be thankful as there was "hikmah" (blessings in disguise) on how ways turned out to be. Well, life has to go on, just like show biz. I think if we look at life deep enough, whatever that is happening to you and me is just merely temporary. Nothing stays up forever and nothing stays down rotten and trodden forever, too.

Think about it...

Gumpism

My chocolate life -- about everything, anything.

Agriculture is Business

I have just finished talking to my siblings about a business venture, that attracts immediate response.