Optimus

Such a co-incident, the meaning of my name in Arabic is similar to the Chinese characters to spell it....and quite similar to the actual meaning of Optimus Prime!! (Ahahah!! Tak caya pi belajar Arab & Mandarin & English, I am doing it for my kids to valide this claim of mine! Weheheheh!)

Anyway, we went to the see Transformers: Revenge of The Fallen.
The kids love it (mak & ayah diorang pun laa!)

The only minus was when a stupid lady stood right in the middle of the aisle as Optimus was about to be resurrected by Sam. Who does she think she is? Megan Fox?? Bodoh ke apa itu orang....
People were restless with the presence of that stupid bitch so as Optimus Prime, I had to save the day....used the mask of Optimus to nudge the bitch away from blocking the people's view.....and the battle between Optimus & The Fallen was viewed by many who sat on the same file as we did, without a stupid bitch blocking the way!

So....ada sesiapa lagi nak cari pasal dgn Optimus Prime? Wehehehe!

Alisya is a massive fan of Optimus Prime.
Naufal prefers Bumblebee
Neena: "Neena suka Megatron!"

Celebrating World Refugee Day

UNHCR (Malaysia) Celebrating the World Refugees Day
for the refugees in Malaysia.
No shots of the refugees will be displayed here lah, sorry!

That's me doing "BazukiShot" lah,
with the UNHCR staff & volunteers

...some people may think they can always do better than others....
...but mostly, they were always not there, but we were....
...I don't compare, I just do what I can and capable of doing...
...I never say I am the better than others nor I am the best,
...I just walked my steps, took what's being offered, gave my best
...and keep on moving...

On assignment

Self photography - on a Medevac helicopter piloted by the ultra-cool Captain Rohaizad during the 2009 Petronas-Malaysian GP F1 Week.

The first time for me in a heelo! The first for me doing aerial photography & medevac too.

Like my Grand Master Moi Chee Keong says - "There's always the first time..."
The fear of failing is nothing compared to the fear of trying. You will never know what you are capable of until you took that step to prove it to your self, gain more confidence as you do it and one day you woke-up telling yourself - Hey! I have made it this far already!

Of course, you must put your priorities right, measure the possible risks involved and put proper milestone of achievements, with the end-state clearly defined. Otherwise, you might end up being like the vast majority - always competing to the end of their life but in the end their life has no meaning and its too late to do anything about it but continue bragging on what they monetary & positions they have achieved - but not necessarily what they love to do and managed to do it well....

Some people I know (close and far), I find it that they are always fiercely competing each other (though they don't really admit they are doing it!) ...some achieves what they want (in proper, truthful ,noble ways or not, that's between them and their creator lah!) some does not....but both are pure losers in the end because all the time is always about how rich you are,: who drives a Merce/ Beamer, who owns Rm1m house, etc etc.. Kaya camana pun kalau part pergi Haji always bagi reason "Belum sampai seru"...jawabnya tak ke mana laa kut.

Only those who realize that there is more to life than competing against each other, would be the one that realize they should put more time on doing something they really want to do in that ONLY ONE LIFE that they have! InsyaAllah these bunch will achieve something that they want (not necessary worldly wealth)

....and we should always be humble no matter what we achieve. Celebrate it with your family & those that matters , acknowledge others that made you achieve what you have achieved, help others to achieve their goals, share your stories but not to the extent that you are actually boasting about it.

Anyway, to the losers out there....GET A LIFE! (.....NOT!!! Continue losing, we are not interested to know anyway!)

Miahahahaha!

Optimus Torque....(don't tell my kids & wife ok!)

Ni kes nak sangat masa kecik2 dulu laa ni....time tu mana mampu...
sekarang, ada masyuk sket duit ambik gambar etc, boleh la layan!
Alhamdulillah!
Weheheheh!!

How Cute

1.
The P1 WiMax is really a massive upset. I could not upload anything without getting error message. If the file ever get to be uploaded it will take hours. It is lucky if I can manage to upload one single shot per day....and all they can do is, ask me to check the connection, light color, setting etc...and then change some technical setting which I did - and it worked only for a few minutes...then they asked me to go to their "Pit Stop"....yeah right...fast service, my foot.
So, that's why I had to go to Old Town White Coffee Jusco AEON AU2 to upload the shots below.....and the kids enjoyed the foods....well actually they wanted to go there - they just love the roti bakar served....and while they did some shopping, I get to upload all the shots I wanted to my FlickrPro and blogspots. Then we head home.

2.
After a good afternoon rest, we went out for dinner...and Mama started baking her kek lapis Sarawak for a regular customer. Just before I decided to call it a day, the kids called me and they presented a nice cake baked by my Wifey....something called Japanese Cotton-soft cheese cake or sumthing, a recipe my wifey is trying out for her line of products.
They wished me happy father's day and Neena insisted to sing Happy Birthday to me! Ahahah! What a cute bunch I have! Alhamdulillah.....

Refugee of the world, are we not?

1.
20th June - World Refugee Day.
One of the races that's has been in this country as refugee would be the Myanmar tribes. Vietnamese and Cambodian would also be common faces to Malaysians. Many this are left untold about these people, except the text that are publish on the media locally. The untold truth would remains the untruth to the masses and not really a matter that concern them.
Not unless one day they woke up and find themselves wearing the shoes similar to those of these refugees, on a foreign country, unwelcomed by the locals, literally, struggling to survive, fighting for what they are being denied back home. A struggle that seems endless but nobody seems to care.

2.
At about 7am, after a good breakfast and morning chat from 630am, with a group of buddies I went for a street shooting to day. Though I could not get the one shot that I wanted, I got the secondary shot....and an interesting experience. We heard somebody shouting for help from a distance and after a short while a Vietnamese refuge came out from an alley holding his head, bleeding.Pha Mun Tai, was pulled by a group of Myanmar and forced to surrender his belongings. He lost Rm300, and lotsa blood.

Passers-by were stunned and literally did nothing. Mun Tai then tried to contact his friends but everybody were busy today. We helped Mun Tai by applying whatever emergency rescue steps that we are familair with and a few minutes after the incident we were lucky to have a police car on duty passing by. We stopped the car and the officers called for an ambulance. Immediate treatment was done on location before Mun Tai was taken to a hospital for furter treatment.

Imagine What if we are in his shoes instead?

Pha Mun Tai - A Vietnamese refuge, was walking pass a small alley in Kuala Lumpur when he was pulled by a group of Myanmar refugees and forced to surrender his belongings. Hit with long sticks, he managed to escape. Pha lost Rm300, and lotsa blood.

~ Khairil F. Jamian/ CHAPs, Malaysia

Keep On Moving

<- My two buddies, on the left is A.dli Ghazali (A.G.) and the one behind the iBook is Rahman Roslan (Rahman). When it comes to pursuing one's passion, I think I am blessed to have a group of buddies who support each other regardless what level of achievement every single one of us are at. Regardless which age generation we were born. Yeah we have our disagreement and all but it is part and parcel of the synergy to move forward and onwards. At least between us there is no back-stabbing, denying one's worthiness, taking credits of others' works & contribution.... Humble. Passion. Discipline. Helping each other all the time, all the way. Something that would be quite a mystique in an organization, I would say.

Teotihuacán

Teotihuacán...in Nahuatl it means "The City of Gods...or "Where Men Became Gods". Since I was 12, I have been amazed by the ancient civilization of the Toltecs, Aztecs, Mayas, Incas...the South Americas. One day - on my 3rd month of retirement, after spending the first 2 months in Maghribi - I'll find myself photographing & documenting these marvelous ruins...insyaAllah...a friend of mine, a Peruvian wind-instrument artiste living in KL, promised he'll help me with my intent, he used to be tour guide to Machu Pichu...by that time I could already afford some Leicas in my bags too...insyaAllah.

I can't wait to retire....but not until my kids are able to live on their own.

..enjoy the Teotihuacán - by Noel Gallagher of Oasis, for The X-files Soundtrack.

Cendol and Rojak

Since my childhood days, I have been eating (drinking?) cendol. The best would be to have rojak mee with cendol. Perfect match.....and my kids seems to fancy the idea too. From time to time we'd go out for rojak & cendol but I have to make sure the gravy ofthe rojak is not too spicy for the girls - Naufal is ok with spicy & hot foods.
We tried the famous cendol of Haji Wahab's near our rumah pangsa recently. The kids love it so much and they fondly name the place "kopitiam cendol" ~ because the tables & seats are kopitiam style!

On the last day of the school break, we did the pool all out...after which, the kids were complaining that they are hungry! Their appetites are really amazing...kuat makan siut...and they wanted to go to....Kopitiam Cendol! Ahahaah!

Sadly, it was late in the evening and they have to prepare for school wake up early (today la tu)....so, no Kopitiam Cendol for them....maybe this weekend, insyaAllah...

Those who has not tried Haji Wahab's Cendol shoud give it a try.
The taste is superb, the quality is consistent.

Priorities-2

1.
This would be my second day with the kids on their mid-year school break. With the present condition I am in, I could not afford (Rm, time & energy factors lumped together) taking them for proper holiday so I have to ask them what they'd like to do for the day and try to meet their expectations as much as possible.

At their age - 6 & 3 - it is quite easy to satisfy their expectation. Even though it is easy,I have started educating them to appreciate what they have and what poorer others don't have - NOT what richer others have and they think they also MUST have - too much of that at the Zoo previously: sikap tamak haloba & lupa daratan. Al-maklumlah....ramai sangat orang kampung masuk bandaraya sampai lupa diri nak berlagak mcm modern-urban-being - makan pun kena tempat ada kelas & berair-conditioned, padahal masa time tak berapa ada pangkat dulu sikit punyer ngeri ke bila kawan ajak pi makan kat level 4 Suria pun....sanggup cross jalan berpanas makan kat tempat murah, frequent by orang yg tak perpangkat (ataupun yg berpangkat tapi tak pernah lupa daratan!)....nak buat camana, time tadek pangkat dulu stylo tapi sengkek cover baek punyer - style kena jaga beb, sengkek kena cover!!

Anyway, back to that value I tried to coach my kids - I realized, it's working, Alhamdulillah...today on our way back from KLCC the kids decided to have roti canai as lunch (nothing wrong with that,as far as I am concerned....), when Neena spotted a signboard of Wangsa Walk:

Neena: Ayah! Look, ada Sushi King (logo)
Me: Mana.....ohooo yes yes,pandai Neena.
Neena: Ayah, Neena nak makan Sushi King?
Me: Eh! Tadi Neena kata nak makan roti canai kan?
Naufal: Ha ah laa Neena, kita makan roti canai laa, Sushi King mahal la.
Me:*Giggling* OK, kalau nak makan Sushi King kita tunggu Mama ada sekali (Mama had to go to office today after almost 10 days working from home) ok Neena?
Alisya: Kita tunggu Mama ada sekali la, Mama tak ada tak best la pergi Sushi King.
Me: Ha'ah...nanti Mama ada kan, dia boleh blanjer kita kan kakak?
Alisya: Ishhh..Ayah ni kan....Mama mana ada duit lagi...
Me: Ehh...Mama tak ada duit duit ke Kakak?(Trying to sound surprised)
Alisya: *Giggling* Ehh....Mama ada duit laaa, dia simpan dalam kocek seluar dia laa...apalaa Ayah ni....heheheh!!
Me: So, Neena, camana ni...nak makan apa?
Neena: Neena nak makan roti canai saje lah....
Me: Ok...kita makan roti canai...
Naufal: Naufal nak roti canai dgn kuah dal & pedas (this dude kuat makan pedas considering he's only 6)
Neena: Neena nak kuah dal sahaja...
Me: OK ok...let's go...

Though they know Sushi King quite well, they also know it's not something that we could do everyday - expensive to a certain extend, to my kind of income at least. Once a month only we'd allow them McD, KFC and Sushi King....


2.
....and today it's A&W's "turn" as far as "allowed amount of fast food per month" is concerned.
After spending almost 2 hours at the playground, the kids has emptied the plain water I packed in the 1L Sigg Bottle. So I took them to A&W for a treat - Strawberry smoothies for the girls, Mango+Banana smoothies for Naufal, & "slurm" (root beer float) for the dad!
After waiting for 10 minutes - no smoothies were in sight. My slurm is half emptied by the kids already. Then the counter-lady came & said strawberry is out of stock so can they change to mango +banana instead,I asked the kids and they gave the thumbs up.
10 more minutes - slurm not even half an inch left in the mug - still no sign....intervention was imminent laaa kan?
Called the crew leader & the counter girl, ask them to settle it immediately. The counter girl then came to our table and explained that they're a bit late and apologized and asked if I'd want to cancel the order.
I told her that if it's any adult's that put up the order, I don't mind at all but it's MY KIDS, MY KIDS and they are thirsty...the counter girl promised 6 minutes and sent the kids a cup of cold chocs. OK, fine. Thank you.

When the smoothies finally arrived - sent by this bloke who'd probably had a bad childhood cuz the word "smile" is probably not in his vocab I bet - none of the mugs had a straw in it!!

As the boy put the mugs on the table, I asked Alisya & Naufal to get the straws - and the blardy bloke did not even realized the kids were doing his job and did not even helped my kids to get the straw at the counter.

Apa lagi...another intervention lah!!

Called the crew leader and asked him - Do you guys actually serve smoothies without straw? Nope! So he was trying to get the straw for me - I told him it's ok, my 6 yr old kids have managed to get it but please tell that boy you employ, next time he's on duty be more sensitive with what he's serving. I have eaten at the KLCC A&W outlet a gazillion times and this is the poorest service I have ever encountered. The only answer from the idiot was - Oh..ye ke...

I would not waste any more time on the crew...my prioritiy is my kids, not asking people to do their job better.
So, I just concentrate on what we have on the table with my kids....

Then we went off - almost lunch hour and Suria would be swarmed with "P" staff,, time to disappear before some hati-busuk people caught me be being happy with my kids!


3.
For the past 2 days, these are what I have been up to with my kids....would not trade this moment for anything else!!

Photos uploading - done much much later. P1 buat hal lagi!