garfu si foodie

Silamat Ali Layerrr

2009-09-21T17:00:00.001+08:00

For the past couple of years aku mcm tak suka text org wish hari raya. Rasa mcm typical. Kalau ada pun just reply wishes orang out of courtesy.

Tapi tahun ni, tah kenapa, mungkin sbb taktau nak buat apa masa khutbah raya (ok sangat berdosa buat ayat ni, tapi aku rasa khutbah raya di masjid aku agak political, so not totally my fault ok), aku sms semua org dalam phone book. At least korang tau aku masih ada nombor korang kan?

Hehehe.

Minal a'idin wal faizin.

For what it's worth...

2009-08-09T15:17:00.004+08:00

Have you ever encountered moments in life when you'd stop and think "is it worth it?". Over apa2lah, be it what you did or what you saw other people did. I'm sure you had.

Coz I had one recently. I was at a jualan amal that my Yayasan Salam friends did to raise fun for charity event we're gonna have at 2 orphanage homes during fasting month...

We were closing the stall for the day, most of us busy packing up the stuffs, and one guy was counting the "proceeds" for the day, in the end he said out loud "seratus empat puluh tujuh ringgit" and everybody cheered...

I paused for a while and thought to myself "really? with all these time and with all these volunteers for this amount of money?" well, it was kinda expected when you sell everything at just 1 ringgit, but still... and that's when the multimillion dollar question "is it worth it?" strikes.

It's not long before I got the answer. I was driving home when I think I found it.

You see, the seratus-empat-puluh-tujuh-ringgit is not the end for all these effort and time that these group of people put together.

It is only a material, explicit reason that brought all these together. But it's not the real cause. There's far greater good that was created from all the efforts and time the volunteers sacrificed, much more that the mere ratusan ringgit...

And that, my friend, is the inner self enrichment that is created when you do something good with no expected return. It is a selfless deed that you do thinking just to help someone else out there, knowing for sure that you ain't gonna get anything in return, or at least materially.

It is a satisfaction that you cannot get with money. You know, like when you let one car from the other side of the road to cross in front of you to get to this side of a turning when the traffic is really bad.

Or, like when you help a total stranger by the roadside who is asking for money, and you know full well that the stranger could just be a part of a complicated syndicate trying to syphone money off hardworking blue-colar workers like us, but truth is, that stranger could as well be a genuine unfortunate human-being undergoing difficult moment in his/her life. But you helped anyway. And you feel good afterwards.

Those examples that I used would of course do very little justice to what my friends did. But it's just an easy metaphor.

You see, when you put together a bunch of people who are so looking forward to do selfless, good things, the eagerness and spirit sort of multiplies. Because you are with friends. And I proudly say that it is these kind of people who would ensure that us Malaysians do not turn into our southern neighbours, who are so obsessed with material achievements in life that they disregard societal value and the need to care about others, and thus in turn the need to care about their inner self. And what does it mean in the end - nothing. It creates a feel of nothingness in life.

I am so proud of my friends...

......s

2009-07-28T21:00:00.004+08:00

Funny to think how things could turn totally in a way that you can never expect it to be. Or people. Whatever. But then again, who am I to judge?

Sometimes you'd think, why did that thing that happened, happen?

I can choose to continue torturing myself by thinking of it over and over, trying to find an explanation. Trying to justify.

But I can also choose to let it go.

I do hope that I can let it go. Forever.

It just hurts so much when sometimes it came flashing back to mind slicing through like a poisonous wound. And I know it will. These things won't just go away like that. Even how much you want them to go away. They just don't.

I just want to forget the misery, go to sleep, and wake up to brighter days ahead.

Tunggu...

2009-06-01T20:57:00.002+08:00

Dah lama gile tak hapdet blog ni. Mcm best jugak hidupkan balik.

Sekarang aku sedang menunggu. Menunggu email dari seseorang dengan penuh sabar. Harap2nya respond dia seperti yang dihajati.

Tak sabar nak mulakan suasana baru.

Tapi aku mesti akan rindukan si dia....

Aku pasti kembali.

One world one nation

2008-05-22T23:14:00.003+08:00

I am only 2 weeks here but am so fucking pissed off already over how ignorant this country is. They seem to be living in a world of their own, totally separated from the beautifully diversified world that we all know. Most don't bother to understand even simple english words. They even have a chinese name for every single english name, just so that non-chinese speaking foreigners will really suffer in this country to even do the simplest stuff imaginable e.g. telling the taxi driver the name of your hotel, let alone to find "halal food" - renaissance is known to the locals as "ren pe yek kau", fraser residence is "fau ka you". Ok i made those names up. But it's true. And worse, these chinese names are, of course, written only in chinese. So how are you supposed to know? Ask the hotel staff? Good luck, i say. It might take you at least 7 attempts to get your question right into their head.

To those true fighters of bahasa kebangsaan in our country, i suggest you come to china for maybe a month and you will know just exactly what i am talking about.

Tremor

2008-05-12T23:56:00.002+08:00

I was interviewing some girl (well, for work, obviously) when suddenly there were some commotions and panic in the office. Then that girl asked me if i feel kinda dizzy, which i did. I asked what is about, and she said there's an earthquake. Oh man, that was my first encounter with earthquake (i somehow missed the one that hit KL last year sometime during the tsunami), and i was not totally amused. When i arrived in hotel at about 8pm, the death toll as reported on CNN was somewhere around 100 (including 900 students trapped under the collapsed school building). But by now, 12.01am, the total fatalities has hit a disastrous 7000+!! The center of the quake is a province called Chengdu, and only last week did the team have a small discussion on whether we should include Chengdu or not for field visit, which we eventually decided against it in view of its less consequential activity as compared to other provinces.

Dear friends, pray that I will be back to KL in one healthy piece.

Freezing

2008-05-11T23:57:00.003+08:00

Beijing is so cold, with temperature between 5 to 10 degrees celcius. Aku plak dengan tshirt murah petaling street, memang menggigil2. Orang2 lain yang berjaket bagai, semuanya pandang semacam je. Jaket yg bawak pulak kotor, kena antar laundry dulu.

Sesampai je kat sini, dah memalukan diri sdiri - lepas dah jumpa driver kat airport, dia bawak aku ke kereta, dia tolong letakkan beg dalam bonet, aku plak dengan spontan terus ke pintu depan sblh kiri. Tiba2 dia cuit belakang, kemudian bagi isyarat tangan yg aku tak paham (oh, by the way, language is really a problem here, much like bangkok). Lama aku fikir, pastu tergelak besar. They are right-hand driving, so pintu yang aku bukak tu seat driver. Tah apa2 lah agaknye mamat tu fikir, hopefully bukan "berlagaknye dia ni, baru sampai dah nak pandai2 drive"

For dinner, had sthg that i wish i could immediately erase from memory, forever.

And before you ask, no it's not pork.

Nor was it frog.

Yucks.

Midnite mumbling

2008-05-03T01:22:00.002+08:00

It’s 12.45am and I just reached home from office. It has been a really, really loooong and tiring day, and it’s Friday for crying out loud – left home at 6.00am today (or, technically it was yesterday) so that I could jog around the klcc park before I start working. Been working till so late everyday that I couldn’t find time for my own health that I have to resort to exercising (albeit irregularly) in the early morning instead.

When the works just got too hectic to the point of unbearable, I couldn’t help but always thought about the options that lay ahead of me within the next few months – stay and get promoted, get moved out to another function which will definitely require me to not stay in each place more than 2 months (at least for a total of a good 2 to 3 years), or the last option which I quite like the most but probably with the biggest hassles – resign and go work elsewhere, far from this work-crazy society.

As for now, I try to take one step at a time – finish the fiscal account for the audit next week, then get myself ready for the audit in china which starts end of next week (the audit boss has warned me over our teleconf the other day “you must come running and in high gear. Do not spend the first 2 days there just trying to understand the work program”), then come back and do the crazily tedious month-end on my own in preparation for the internal promo. It’s actually all these that in the past several months has robbed me from my own personal time– all the weekday nites and weekends that I should have spent more leisurely.

Right now I couldn’t help but think – are these all really worth it? I really need to start re-considering my priorities.

Text

2008-01-13T20:33:00.000+08:00

Tak tau kenapa but I don't fancy the technology called "short messaging system" or "sms".

Whenever I receive an sms (that warrants a response that is, not just some promotional smses from banks or Senheng), my mind would be contemplating - should I respond now, or can I respond later? If I need to respond now, would it suffice to just type a few words as a reply? Is it appropriate? Or would it be interpreted by the other party that I am just being uninterested? OK, if I delay my reply (in order to come out with a longer, more appropriate reply) won't the other party start wondering why does it take so long for me to reply an sms? "Isn't it simple a task to do?" one might ask.

Sigh. And most of the time, I ended up not replying anything.

That, until I have some time on my own when I have nothing much to do but to see thru my inbox and start clearing it up - deleting, replying if required, moving them to other folders etc.

Once, I got this "Dah 2 hari aku send sms tu hari ni baru kau nak reply? Lama aku pk ape benda yg kau cakap ni..."

Sorry folks :)

Aku letih...

2008-01-12T13:01:00.000+08:00

Selepas hampir seminggu tak masuk office because of the work in Kemaman, macam-macam issue menimpa di ofis di KL. Follow up issue stock count, deadline account yang makin dekat dengan staff yang tak cukup, beban kerja bertambah - I so need a break!

And yes, break I shall have, for on Friday 18th 6am I will embark on a few hours journey to Tanjung Harapan, from where I with 7 more angler friends will take a 1.5-hour boat ride to One Fathom Bank - a lighthouse structure out in the Straits of Malacca.

Woohoo! Screw you office!

Friends, pray that I will have good time fishing here like the one I had in Kelong Paradise coupla months back, and that I will catch some pretty big fishes... :)

Kemamang

2008-01-12T12:37:00.000+08:00

Aku ke Kemaman 2 3 hari lepas. Menemani sang auditors untuk pengiraan stok dan lain lain untuk akaun hujung tahun.

Ramai orang kat sini bagitau, kalau kat Kemaman, jangan lupa makan stuffed crab. So, daripada 2 malam aku di Kemaman, deduanya aku dinner dengan stuffed crabs. Malam pertama kat steven's, malam kedua kat tong juan. Tapi aku prefer tong juan (jangan risau, ia restoran halal).

Tapi aku rasa makanan yang paling sedap kat Kemaman ialah sata. It's fish-based and mixed with some other stuff I don't really bother to know, maybe coconut milk or etc.

Dan aku juga beli some keropok lekor, but I think I like KT's keropok lekor much better.

So kawan2, if you guys happen to be in Kemaman, jangan lupa beli sata. Seriously worth the search.

Ta.

Menemui sahabat ku yang di kasehi...

2008-01-05T21:11:00.000+08:00

Pesanan ini dinukil khusus untuk sahabat handai aku yang sedang membaca blog ini... sapa2 yang belum ada facebook, TOLONG LA REGISTER FACEBOOK!

Sekian.

Selamat Ciidwayneey

2007-12-19T21:41:00.000+08:00

Aku balik kampung lagi. Rasanya macam baru je bulan lepas aku balik untuk raya puasa. Anyway, since banyak jalan tak boleh lalu (banjir dan landslide), aku tak drive. Bukan lah nak cakap aku selalunya drive pun bila balik kampung (it's more than 6 hours' drive for crying out loud!). Tapi saja nak jadikan alasan. Ahhhh.

Mak aku, seperti biasa bila anak-anak dia balik kampung, akan berkampung di dapur dari pagi lepas bangun tidur, sampai lah ke malam, with only occasional short breaks for solat. Kenapa? Sebab dia nak jamu anak-anak dia.

Makcik-pakcik dan cousin-cousin aku gelarkan kami 9 beradik ni "flower horn".

(Nota kaki: untuk yang buta ikan, flower horn ialah sejenis ikan hiasan yang pernah terkenal satu masa dulu. Cara pemakanan - ganas!! Tangan aku pernah luka disondol masa cuba menyuap flower horn kami)

Apa yang mak aku jamu kitorang banyak-banyak tu? Tak perlulah sebut kot. Korang bukan boleh imagine pun masakan-masakan pelik negeri ni.

***

Bila balik kampung, aku tahu ada satu topik yang mak ayah aku teringin sangat nak utarakan. Isu biasa. Dulu lebih vokal, tapi sekarang rasanya semua orang lebih berhati-hati.

Entahlah, it's a delicate matter. Am a very sceptical person. It's an innate thing for one. But I guess it was further aggravated by my 3 years in a department whose work is mainly to investigate corporate wrongdoings. Despite seorang kawan sentap aku selalu cakap "Kau kan risk taker" sambil tergelak kecil, I am not. Apatah lagi dalam decision that's gonna affect the rest of life sebegini.

***

Kakak aku baru dapat gaji tunggakan. Dah 17 bulan dia lulus KPLI, tapi baru sekarang dia dapat gaji sebagai guru ijazah. "Habis tu, selama ni?" Dia dapat gaji guru taraf lepasan SPM. Aku rasa government agency kita lebih tak efisien berbanding Somalia.

Tapi in a way, bagus juga. It's like a forced saving. Cuma, without interest. Macam kita simpan duit di BSN masa zaman sekolah dulu tu.

Oh, dan dia nak jamu the whole family di restoran, ambil kesempatan celebrate birthday 3 tahun anak bongsu dia. Courteous as I am, hari terakhir di kantor (err... office) semalam, aku berniat nak singgah belikan hadiah on the way home. "Hang singgah la Marks & Spencer, kan tengah sale sekarang" kata Perempuan di sebelah meja aku.

Aku berada dalam M&S tidak lebih dari 1 minit. Maaf. Masa aku terlalu berharga untuk dihabiskan dengan melihat-lihat baju bayi yang harganya lebih mahal dari kemeja kerja yang sedang aku pakai.

Walaupun selepas less discount.

End up aku settle down dengan Poney dari Isetan.

***

Ada pautan ke pojok ni dari SDN. Aku berasa terharu. Walaupun Mikon mungkin menyenaraikan semua blog-blog yang membuat pautan ke SDN, I choose to believe otherwise. "Yelah, Mikon kan famous. Aku bayangkan mesti banyak blog-blog yang ada link ke SDN. Takkanlah sesikit yang tersenarai kat SDN tu je" Haha. Satu percubaan justifikasi poyo.

Thanks bro. Whoever you are. Kalaulah hidup ini macam Friendster (yer, aku belum naiktaraf ke Facebook), aku boleh bayangkan diagram kaitan aku dengan kau. We are linked by 2 mutual friends. One is a writer like you, another is studying film.

Ada kawan-kawan aku (terutamanya perempuan) tanya "Siapa SDN tu? Pelik lah blog dia". Obviously, aku tak kenal pun siapa Mikon tu. Aku cuma kenal dia melalui tulisan-tulisan dia. Tapi aku suka dengan cara penulisan dia. Dan aku suka dengan cara dia berfikir.

Tapi itu tak bermakna aku bersetuju dengan semua idea-idea dia.

Everyone is entitled to his or her views, believes... whatever.

Bak kata Ambiga Sreenevasan kepada Nazri Aziz “We believe in the freedom of speech and although we do not agree with the minister, we would be the first to defend his right to give his views” semasa Nazri Aziz memberi kritikan pedas terhadap "People's Freedom Walk". Sangat ironik. Dan apa-apa sahaja yang ironik tu, aku rasa, melucukan.

***

Ohhhh, aku beli baju raya. Cap Delsey. Nak tengok? Hehe >:)

Dan, selamat ciidwayneey maksudnya selamat aidil adha dalam bahasa Somalia. Tak percaya? Err...... pernah dengar wikipedia?

L'amour

2007-11-24T19:24:00.000+08:00

I have a new love. A new passion. And that is my shiny brand new HTC TyTN II. Check it out, yo!
http://www.htc.com/product/03-product_tytn_II.htm

Newly launched just less than a month ago, it is currently the best in the market - with 3.5G HSDPA, GPS, WiFi, 3MP camera and the TouchFLO technology, it kicks the hell out of O2, HP, ASUS and the likes. Woohoo!!

Killer abs

2007-11-18T11:11:00.000+08:00

It was Saturday. 3rd week of November. I was bored to death. I suddenly realized, 2007 has only 6 more weeks to go.

For four consecutive years, one of my new year resolutions (and a rather significant one indeed) has always been to gain a killer abs by the end of the year. For the last 3 years, admittedly, I failed. And I guess only the biggest miracle can make this year a different one than the past 3.

Nevertheless, I packed up my gym stuff, ready to go. "Semangat, semangat!!"

I was stopped at the door by my sister. She seems to be frying fishes and preparing ayam cili or sthg like that. I must admit, they smell deliciously tempting.

"Nok gi mano?"
"Gym"
"KLCC?"
"Ho"
"Pah balik la make dumoh deh, ore masok pelebih nih"
"Err.... ok"

Ahh my dear sister.

To view it positively, I am spared of one resolution to think about come 2008.

..........

2007-11-13T11:46:00.001+08:00

Kau peluk aku sebelum membunuhku
Tersenyum melihatku merenung melihatmu
Kau menungguku menunggu ku terjatuh
Setiap langkah tertuju setia dalam menunggu

Aku menunggumu menunggumu menunggumu mati
Didepanku didepanku didepanku

Kau peluk aku sebelum membunuhku
Tersenyum melihatku merenung melihatmu

Aku menunggumu menunggumu menunggumu mati
Didepanku didepanku didepanku

Apa yang kau lakukan dibelakangku
Mengapa tak kau tunjukkan dihadapanku
Apa yang kau lakukan dibelakangku
Dibelakangku dibelakangku dibelakangku?.
Dibelakangku

Aku menunggumu menunggumu menunggumu mati
Didepanku didepanku didepanku

The best nasi goreng ikan

2007-11-13T09:16:00.048+08:00

Driving to office this morning, I suddenly thought of the good old days of my final year in uni - when the four of us in Biro KM, a subcommittee of a planned trip to Middle East, were struggling making preps for the trip and series of meetings beforehand. We would stay up till wee hours refining the itinerary, accommodating to the interests of two conflicting parties. Most of the time, we would have our sahur together, and sometimes, one of us who's obviously a better cook than the others will wake up very early to prepare nasi goreng ikan, in a very humble rice cooker in our Bilik Gerakan. And I must say, she makes the best nasi goreng ikan.

To Aina - I hope you still remember how to prepare the lovely meal :)

Relief

2007-11-07T18:57:00.011+08:00

I remember once not long ago I thought to myself, "not knowing is my biggest fear".

And indeed it is true. Today I discovered a little something that relieves me of all the grave uneasiness that have shrouded my days in the last week. Well, the truth may not be the happiest thing that I hoped for, but at least I can shape my future moves in the direction of reality.

Knowledge Wish Way (my ol' school anthem).

Satu pagi di hari-belum-raya

2007-10-24T11:11:00.001+08:00

It was in the early week of Ramadhan when I was on this shuttle bus from my hometown going back to KL. And as usual, I will sleep throughout the journey.

Bukak2 je mata, nampak jam pukul 5.00am. "Ahh nasib baik, sempat lagi nak sahur ni".

Tapi tengok2 keliling, all the seats were empty except the ones around driver's seat. Tengok luar bas, I saw some factory-like buildings. "Ahh sudah, takkan kat Kepong pula ni?"

Aku pun berjalan ke depan, jumpa driver tu:
"Kita kat mana ni bang?"
"Awak nak turun Hentian Putra ke?"
"Ha'ah"
"Laaa kita dah nak sampai Port Klang ni, dik"

Damn!

Aku berjanji akan set alarm clock next time aku naik bas dari kampung ke KL, especially bas yg final stop dia bukan Hentian Putra.

So long as you harm none, do what you will

2007-10-23T22:09:00.000+08:00

do unto others as you would have them do unto you

this is not your local food guide

2007-10-21T19:26:00.000+08:00

My family has a weird tradition. Whoever that is going to migrate from KL to somewhere else (in most cases, back to our hometown up north), he/she needs to pass down a will to whomsoever that stays. The will basically contains all the places in KL that he/she thinks are nice to dine & feast.

Funny to think how important good food is to my family :) I guess that's how I got my crave for nice (albeit not necessarily expensive) meals.

And, no, I am definitely not turning this blog into your local internet-based food guide.

selamat pagi dunia

2007-10-19T10:00:00.000+08:00

There were times when i felt like mumbling stuffs - not to make an impact, but just for the sake of letting it out aloud, however unimportant that might be.

And that is the very reason why I created this pojok - going along with hundreds of millions of other bloggers out there who have co-existed and populated this new universe within planet earth - the blogosphere.

All hail the newly-born si foodie the fishish!