Everclear - Sparkle and Fade

Everclear's Sparkle and Fade is one of my all-time favorite rock album that I bought when I was 16. Listening to this album again today, brought back fond memories of my high school years. There we were at a boarding school in rural Kelantan, surrounded by palm oil trees and secondary jungle, no Internet, MTV or whatever but still we were rocking to Everclear, Greenday and Weezer. How cool is that?
I don't know what happened to the cassete that I bought but even today, Sparkle and Fade is quite hard to come by. Nevertheless, I managed to get my hands on this album and put them up here for all the world to share. My personal favorite songs are listed in bold.

Everclear - Sparkle and Fade (1995)

1. Chemical smile

2. Electra made me blind

3. Heartspark Dollarsign

4. Her brand new skin

5. Heroin girl

6. My sexual life

7. Nehalem

8. Pale green stars

9. Queen of the Air

10. Santa Monica

11. Strawberry

12. Summerland

13. The twistinside

14. You make me feel like a whore

2008 in memory

It's that time of the year again for me to look back and reminiscence on the good times, learn from your mistakes, bla bla blah of the past year. As always, these past 365 days is filled with bitter-sweet memories. Some are pretty good and some are just plain bad. Here's what happened in 2008.

Nothing much happened in January this year. My wife was heavily pregnant with our second only child and we found out (much to my delight) that it's going to be a girl.

In February, I took my family for a short trip to my in laws place in Manjung, Perak. I think that's the only vacation (sort of) that we took this year. During that 3 days 2 nights stay we had lots of fun especially with the picnic that we had at the Teluk Batik beach. February also marks the beginning of the General Election fever and I joined in the fun by writing this little piece that got featured on Malaysia Today, of all places. I won't deny that I was brimming with pride when that article was published there below The Corridors of Power and No Holds Barred. To think that I was not even remotely interested in politics a few months before. Today I'm a full-fledged supporter of the Pakatan Rakyat coalition.

Aaah, who could forget March of 2008. I voted for the first time ever in the March's General Election and along with more than half of other Malaysians, we voted for a change. Long before Obama and the Americans go clamouring for change, we Malaysians did it first in that political tsunami that gave the Opposition control in 5 states and denied the seemingly mighty and invincible BN 2/3 majority in Parliament. This is just the beginning. I believe when more and more enlightened young voters like me went to the polls next time (2013 the earliest), another party aside from BN will be in power. Mark my word.

Still in March, on the way back from the elections my son's head accidentally smashed into the windscreen of our car because he just couldn't sit still. It costs us a cool 400 ringgit to replace the windscreen. 25th March 2008 was definitely one of the happiest day of our lives when we welcomed our 2nd child, Mia Ariana into the world.

In April we finally subscribed to our first paid satellite TV ever, Astro. That was only after they offered me an irresistible 80 ringgit installation fees and they threw in a free decoder and dish as well. The next month, I bought myself my first ever notebook, the Asus EEE PC 4G. It was a dream comes true sort of moment for me. I've been wanting a notebook of my own since like forever. Little that I know, it's going to turn into a nightmare not long after that.

In June we started sending Adam and Mia to a new kindergarten/nursery. We were less than satisfied with the previous place and found out Tadika Bestari Ceria is a better place to send our kids to. June also marked the month our dear Pak Lah (prime minister for all) hiked up the fuel price to a record RM2.70 per liter compounding the miseries of millions of Malaysians. That's something he should take time and ponder after his early retirement next year. My Linda celebrated her 27th birthday this year. Who would have thought that Bujal finally found his one true love this year?

9 July 2008 was probably the darkest hours of my family. A gang of thieves broke into our home and got away with most of our prized possessions (including my PC and notebook). We never recovered any of our belongings despite the police's assurance that they are hot on the heels of the thugs. If I didn't know better, I'd say the thieves are in cahoots with the investigating officer in Seri Kembangan. Highly unlikely you say? I'm not so sure about that.

Since the thieves took our wireless broadband along during the break in, I was without Internet for almost a month. Only after we paid Maxis 600 bucks for the new modem that we're back online in August.

In September, I think we somewhat recovered from the tragedy last July. At least I can afford to get a new digital camera to replace the one that I lost. September is also remembered as the month my hero, RPK was thrown into Kamunting under the dreaded ISA.

It was Aidilfitri again in October. This year it was our turn to celebrate at my wife's hometown in Tanah Merah. October also witnessed the day Faiz dragged me and the entire family to Sungai Buloh to meet our possible future in laws. Hmm, he seems to be quiet about it at the moment. Nothing exciting happened much in November save for that historic Obama victory. We terminated our Maxis wireless broadband subscription during the same month. Last week we received our final bill totalling something around RM220 ringgit. Yes, Maxis even had the audacity to suck our blood one last time by charging us this ridiculous 200 ringgit discontinuation of service handling fee. Give me one reason why I shouldn't switch my phone line to Celcom.

I didn't have Internet at home for most of December until (after going through so much trouble) I successfully registered for Celcom wireless broadband. Although the USB modem costs me 400 ringgit, I assure you it's all worth it with Celcom. I got a new niece when my sister delivered her second child on the 26th of this month.

Although I had a few good moments in 2008, I think what happened in July just overshadows everything that's good this year. As much as I hate to admit it, I think my Boss is right when he said never take anything for granted. Lesson truly learned. So goodbye 2008, hello to 2009. I hope things will be much better next year.

p.s: I do have a new year resolution (2 in fact). You'll have to see it for yourself to find out :)

Computer

My first experience with a computer was during my school days in Machang, Kelantan. Back then not many schools in this country have computers, let alone a computer lab. Then again my boarding school was special. I quickly became fascinated with that incredible machine. I always look forward for the weekly computer class, usually in the afternoon. The computer that I first used in 1993 had Windows 3.1 installed on them. I bet some of you might even never heard of them. I learned to use Microsoft Office, learn typing, printing and stuff. I also learned my first programming language there, MS Basic. It took me like a month (4 classes) to master that language. By the end of my computer class, I started coding advance programs on the computer to show off to my friends. I became so obsessed with the computer that one day, during the weekend, I rallied a few of my friends and we broke into the computer lab just so that we can use the computer. We did that for a couple of weeks until we finally got busted by a teacher. I couldn't remember what's the punishment that was meted out to us. Probably nothing serious or else I won't forget it like this.

After I finished school, my dad bought me my first ever computer. Actually I've been nagging my dad to buy me a computer ever since I was 10 (1990) but they probably cost a fortune then. So it's only 7 years later that I only got my hands on my own PC. I still vividly remember that day in Kota Bharu Computer Center (KBCC), one of the few existing computer store in the entire state back then. The computer costs us a cool 2000 ringgit, quite expensive by today's standard. My first PC was an IBM clone (naturally) with Intel Pentium II 166 MHz processor inside with MMX technology. The main memory was 64MB EDO, the hard drive was only a meagre 3GB and the OS was the now extinct Windows 95. Later on my mom bought a Canon Buble Jet printer for another 400 ringgit so that I can type and print her school works.

Since I was out of school, I had plenty of time to explore my computer inside out. I spent hours clicking through every files and folder. Read all the help files for every programs installed and experiment all sort of things with my PC aside from playing FIFA 98 day and night of course. After 2 months, I was already bored with my PC so I started tinkering with the final frontier for the computer world. the Internet. At first I went to the local cyber cafe in Pasir Mas town but I soon found out they were quite a burden for me (RM3 an hour) and the place was like crowded 24/7. Then my good mate Suhairiman taught me how to do a dial up connection from home. I borrowed my uncle's user name and password to go online. Although the Internet was still at it's infancy back then, already I found out the world wide web was exploding with so much knowledge and information. Since I only had a single telephone line, I only get to use it in the morning when my mom and grandma is out and late at night when everybody's asleep. I learned to create websites (at Geocities), chatted for hours with people from all over the world on MIRC and do practically everything I can think of on the Internet. There was a time when I got to know this Russian girl and she was like really into me. She even persuaded me to come visit her in Balakovo (a town in central Russia). Said she would have a fur coat ready for me if I ever come. Aaah those young and innocent days.

Soon enough though, the telephone bills started to swell up dramatically and let's just say my Mom wasn't too pleased to see it. So I slowed down with the Internet and not long after that I got shipped off to do matriculation in johor Bharu. In JB I didn't bring along my computer so I had to kindly ask my new friends to use theirs. Heck, some even charge me 2.00 ringgit an hour to use them. So stinky. After matriculation, I got into UPM and I bought my second computer. Actually my mom paid for that. It was my uncle's old MyGenie PC. I don't remember the specs but it was slightly faster plus it has radio and TV card on board as well. The picture and sound were hardly clear. Apart from that I had a horrid time finding all the drivers for that PC. It took me almost a year to collect them all. After that I had 2-3 more computers mostly Pentium IIIs, all of them clone/not branded and very low end.

I used to have an old but really fast 3.0 GHz Pentium 4 PC with nearly 2GB of RAM not to long ago. Then somebody came into my house and decided to borrow it, permanently. Currently I own another old Pentium 4 PC, 1.2 GHZ where most of the parts was salvaged from various sources. Broken PCs, obsolete PCs that somebody throw away at me and sometimes I would buy the parts from Imbi or Low Yat plaza. Some new, most of them used parts. Although I play games a lot, I don't plan to purchase any high-end gamers box yet. Even if I can afford to, I'd probably buy a Mac, any Mac. That's my dream machine for now. And that's my story about computers. My first and last notebook ever was the Asus EEE PC 4G netbook. Too bad somebody borrowed that too along with my P4 PC.

Is it any wonder that I now work in the IT field dealing with all sorts of computer day in and day out? I really got to thanks my Dad for buying me my first PC 10 years ago. I doubt it I would be this proficient with computers now I he hadn't bought it then. Thanks Dad.

Yeah you guessed it. Today's prompt was Computer.

Down memory lane

On Wednesday I got the chance to be at the top floor of the TM Annexe building you know the one next to the blue Menara Rebung TM building along the federal highway? No? Anyway from the 32nd floor you've got a lovely view of Kerinchi, Pantai Dalam, UM, federal highway and some part of PJ. I used to spend a lot of time around this area not too long ago because Linda used to live there when she was still studying at University Malaya.

In other word, I hang out here often because there's where all the hot UM chicks lived ha ha!
This is the federal highway leading to KL. Once upon a time my bike got a flat tire just before the Mobil petrol station near Seputeh and I had to push the bike all the way to Kerinchi with Linda to get it fixed. I remember that day because 3 days later we got married. 2 years earlier I had another flat tire near the same Mobil station and my friend Isa and Fendi came all the way from Serdang to help. You should know by now that some unscrupulous people deliberately scatter sharp objects along the motorcycle lane so that they can make a quick buck on unsuspecting victims (like me).
This is Pantai Dalam and the project under construction used to have hundreds of squatter houses only 2 years ago. Linda and I used to hang out at Warung Rindu a lot after work or any other time for that matter.
Vista Angkasa was the place that Linda and her university mates once called home. I remember they lived at block 7 on the 14th floor facing the University LRT station. I was close with most of Linda's housemate and even today we still keep in touch and went to each others weddings and stuff. Once Linda and her mates had a huge fight with one of their house mate (named Lia) and her boyfriend came and joined along and stole half a dozen hand phones. I personally drove the girls to the Jalan Pantai Bharu police station nearby to lodge a report. I heard her boyfriend spend a few weeks in jail following the incident.
The area next to the Vista Angkasa apartment is Kampung Kerinchi where we used to go to the pasar malam there once in a while. You can see the roadside eateries next to the main road is all but gone now, demolished by the city hall. That's where Linda and I first ate together :)
You can also see much of University Malaya from TM Annexe. I used to come here a lot too, sending Linda to class, hanging out at her faculty and the library, eating out at the colleges. Sure had a lot of sweet memories there.
And this is the Kerinchi Link highway which is the fastest way to get to IKEA in Mutiara Damansara. Yes you guessed it, we went to IKEA every other month.

2007 in memory

2007 will be remembered as the year I started a blog called Afif PLC. A lot of things happened in 2007. Some of them I'd like to cherish forever in my memory, others I'd rather forget. Lets take a look at what I've been through all this year.

January was my most prolific blogging period ever this year. I posted about 40 posts that month alone. Yeah I guess I was pretty excited with my brand new blog then and got so much to say. We moved from Sri Serdang to our current rented house in Taman Universiti also in January.

In February we welcomed Adam's cousin, Nur Shafy Hani into the world. Linda's sister went through a c-section for her delivery. I also had my first ever car accident in February when some dude accidentally reversed into my rear door. Fortunately we resolved that incident amicably and in a very civilized manner.

March 2007 was the month I'd rather forget. 2 computers went missing in our watch and we felt the full wrath of our boss. March was also Grease fever month and when I changed my blog template to plain white after much inspiration from Karen Cheng.

April went by without any incident while in May, Liverpool made it to their 2nd Champions League final in 3 years only to loose to Milan. We were devastated by the defeat. Later that month I caused a little stir in the local blogging scene for my comment on Lina Joy's court verdict.


In June Linda celebrated her 26th birthday and the boss decided that we (the Famous Five) suffered enough for our alleged wrongdoing. Bujal is really my friend indeed.

July, my brother in law Pak Tam continued his studies at KUITTHO in Johore. Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows was released and I bought a Nikon L10 digital camera.

In August I passed the one year mark at my workplace. Still a long way to go and so much to learn. August also came bearing news of our second baby when Linda was confirmed 7 weeks pregnant. I took my GDL license test that month and passed. My mother performed her umrah and there was a little glint of hope for Malaysian football as we won the Merdeka Cup final against Myanmar.

My new sidekick Irwan came into the fray in September and I also got my first ever credit card this month. September also marked the beginning of the fasting month and does anybody remember the idiot who got cheated into buying a broken PDA? Hmm I don't know, beats me.

I had a jolly good time for Hari Raya this year because I get to celebrate the 1st of Syawal at my hometown in Pasir Mas. October was also the month Dr. S.M.S blasted into space.


In November we went for a weekend getaway at A Famosa Resort followed by a visit to historic Mallaca. My wife gave me the best present ever on my birthday this month.

December marks my first foray into the fun and exciting Linux world. Internet made the world so much smaller cause my little piece on Linux made a few people notice my humble blog. And oh yeah we bought a new washing machine this month (big deal!).

So long 2007 and say hola to 2008. I got a feeling that 2008 is gonna be a pretty exciting year for us. Happy New Year to everyone and thanks for visiting!

You'll never walk alone, cheers!

p.s: My new year resolution is 1280 x 1024 ha ha!

Once upon a time in SMACH...

My first time

It was post PMR and the form 3 students got no class to go and pretty much nothing to do except join some inter-classroom games held every other day while waiting for school term to end. So our teachers and wardens thought why not give the kids a break and gave us free access to the TV/recreational room in the evening. They even let us bring some movie tapes to watch during the weekend which proved to be too much for us. Why? Here's the story.

It was just a regular weekdays night and as usual I decided to hang out in the TV room to watch some TV (duh!). Anyway when I got there, the TV room was exceptionally quiet. Normally you can hear the boys chatting and making so much noise clearly from the next hostel's block. But not that night, suddenly the boys was very well-behaved for some strange reason. So I joined them and there they was watching a video tape. Soon I found out that the video was about a white chick getting humped by a white dude and they were making some pretty weird sounds. It doesn't take a genius to figure out what's that all about so I being a normal 15 years old the good student as I was back then watched the video with them to the very end quickly made my way out of the room and grabbed a book to read instead.

So yeah, that was my first encounter with porn. Of course I didn't make this up. Just ask any students of my batch (SPM 97) and they'll relate to you the very same story. Of course the kid who brought that tape in the first place got transferred to another school soon after that. He meant to kept it a secret you know watch it with his close friends but who was his kidding? I mean sooner or later the teachers/wardens will definitely find out. You can't sweep this elephant under the rug!


That's how my friends spend their free time. Of course this only happens at SMACH :)

Not that I'm saying I'm proud of all that. It's just a story to share :P

Once upon a time in SMACH...

The crush

When I was in form 2, I had my first ever crush on this girl named Rose Iriyanti Saidin (what is it with me and girls named Rose??). She was in another class and I've been keeping an eye on her for quite some time but I didn't have the guts to say hi to her or anything. So I just kept looking at her from a distance and smiled a little everytime we met. Being just an ordinary looking 14 year old with no special abilities to speak of, I'm pretty sure she didn't know I even exist. For the first time though I had that you know, flowery feeling like I'm feeling happy and rosy all the time - that kind of feeling? It's like I look forward to come to class everyday just happy to see her even if it's only for a while...

Anyway, for preparation (prep) class, the boys and girls were separated you know, boys in one class and girls in another. So I happen to sit in Rose's class and deliberately sat at her desk. One day I braved myself to write her a letter spelling out my admiration for her and stuff and leave it in her pencil case.

The next day to my delight, she replied my letter and wrote something like "oh okay" or whatever (I can't remember the exact details) and she also asked my favour to find her missing pen (or whatever). Encouraged by this positive start, I wrote her another letter pledging that I'll get to the bottom of the case of her missing pen (something like that)

The next day however, some pesky boy went through her desk and found my letter and before you know it, the entire form 2 knew about our correspondence! Embarrassed as I was but I kept it cool and acted like nothing happened. My close friends and classmates were less then sympathetic to us and like whenever Rose walked in front of our class or when we met at the canteen or wherever, everybody started making noise, calling out our name, whistling and stuff. That's sooo immature of them!!! Then again what else you expect from some 14 years old? Dating, couple-ing, boy/girlfriends were literally unheard of in my school especially at my age so no wonder they made so much fuss of it.

Anyway, I had to endure their taunt and teasing for a couple of weeks before it eventually died down. Let's say Rose and I never get further than that correspondence stage cause obviously she had an equally tough time with her fellow friends. I can totally understand her predicament so I decided to just forget about it.

That's how my first crush turned out to be and I learned a few valuable lessons from it like:

• Never-ever leave your correspondence in a pencil case (give it to her friend for goodness sake!)
• 14 year olds are sooo immature!

Of course I had several more crushes and infatuations after that in my school but I just kept it to myself. Sigh.

Mais ce qui si Rose lit votre blog aujourd'hui ?

Nah, I’m pretty sure Rose Iriyanti doesn’t read my blog. I doubt she even knew I'm alive heh!

A rose by any other name ...

Warning! Sappy/pathetic love story ahead.






The first time Rose and I met, we had this serious case of mistaken identity. You see, I took my 1 year matriculation at Kolej Islam Johor somewhere in Larkin near Johore Bharu. I was this quiet and reserved, slightly chubby 18 year old, fresh out of school and had no previous experience whatsoever with girls. While studying there I noticed these two girls who kept staring and smiling at me whenever we met. I didn't give them much thought then since people do stare at me occasionally because of my bald head (and dashing good look maybe :)). And then one day those two girls finally approached me and said one of them was like interested in me. I was quite taken aback you know for their directness. Coming to JB was a huge culture shock for me in the first place but having a girl interested with me was like totally bizarre! I always thought it was the other way round but apparently city girls are like more open??

Anyway the two girls was Aida and Rose. It was Aida who liked me all along. So somehow she got my hostel's room number and started calling me and stuff. I was excited of course since I never had anybody interested in me before. So we went along together fine, even went out together with Rose to JB city once. The funny thing was, all those time I thought Rose was Aida and Aida was Rose. They never did introduce themselves properly the first time we met so I just assumed that skinny girl must be Aida and the slightly bigger one was Rose. It went on for some time until someone pointed out the truth and I was like completely freaked out when I found out the truth. And all those time we went out together all 3 of us, I kept walking next to Rose thinking she was Aida also at the library where we usually met I kept sitting next to Rose again thinking she was Aida.

Rose and her good friend Meow

To cut the story short, we kinda broke up after that. It's pretty awkward for everybody involved to continue our relationship. But Rose and I remain close friends after that. We kept in touch even after I left JB. So I moved on with my life, got into UPM met another girl, got my heart broken real bad and didn't hear much from Rose until some time in my second year. One evening in my second year at UPM, Rose gave me a call asking me "Hey Afif, would you like to be my boyfriend?". I thought she was just kidding with me so I said, "sure, why don't you fill up an application form and send it over to me then I'll think about it". A few days later I actually got her application letter by mail. Although the content of her application letter was really amusing, she was actually really serious about this. Although she's not exactly a drop dead gorgeous type of girl, I thought Rose was a really nice girl to begin with. She's funny and friendly and caring and I had a really good time just talking to her. We were doing just fine just being friends so when she wanted to be more than that, I was afraid we'd destroy this beautiful friendship we already had. Plus I was still recovering from the big heartache because of that other girl, my heart wasn't ready for anyone just yet. So I said sorry Rose, let's just be friends and sent her those lyrics from the song Dan by Sheila On 7. She was rather disappointed with me of course (and cried reading that song's lyric) although she'd never say it out loud. But like I said, I was not ready for any relationship just yet.

dan

Fast forward a few months later, Rose and I were still friends and we kept exchanging snail mail to each other (yes I love writing letters :). And so season changes and time heals and eventually I started to develop feelings for Rose. I thought my heart could never open for anyone again but it just did (this is where u make that vomiting noise). This time it was my turn to go chasing after Rose instead. She gladly accepted me with open arms of course and soon we became a couple. I was studying in UPM at that time and Rose meanwhile was doing her diploma in the same college we met. So we had to maintain this long distance relationship which prove to be a huge burden for me emotionally (and financially too!). But we managed alright. I even took the trouble to visit her once by train just so we could go on a date together and she returned the favour by coming to KL (with her family though!). That's when I met her family and folks for the first time. She's got like 6 brothers and she's the only girl in the family so they're like quite protective of her. (In another word her brothers were garang giler!).They'd probably think what's this punk doing with our precious?? Her parent we're quite nice though when we met at that fun fair in front of Mines. Then again we only met for like 10 minutes where we shake hands and chatted a little and then I left. (I came with my black leather jackets, ripped pants and all).

Dating in JB (Holiday Plaza to be exact)

Everything was going fine, or at least that's what I thought. But things wasn't all that rosy on the later in our relationship. Turned out, somewhere after me rejecting her application form, she was applied for by another guy, a friend of mine during my matriculation year too. So this guy was like calling her from time to time and was about to take that guy if I haven't make my move like a few days earlier (u still with me here?). I don't know what she sees in that other guy but that butt-ugly alien (forgive me for being a little bias) somehow charmed his way onto Rose. So suddenly she's like having this dilemma of choosing between the two of us. Huh? Whatever happened to you jump - I jump Rose?

Considering the gravity of the situation, I decided to go down there to JB immediately to see Rose and settle this once and for all. It was the end of the semester and most students had already gone back to their hometown and all. Being a student I was understandably without much money in hand at that time of the year. So borrowed a hundred bucks form my good friend Azif and rode my beat up, 15 years old RX-Z all the way down to JB. I just got my motorcycle license that year and I've never travelled further than Selangor before but I did it anyway by the name of love (cue: vomit sound again). So in JB, I crashed at a few of my friends place since I don't have any relatives living there and there's no way I can afford a hotel. First day I got there, Rose decided she was not ready to meet me yet so she told me to wait until the weekend (it was Thursday). So okay I thought, I waited a little longer but the problem was, my friend's place where I was staying at that moment was about to have a kenduri so I can't stay there for long. Lucky for me I had a few more friends in JB where I can stay at their place. So on Friday I managed to stay at another friend's house in Larkin but on Saturday I actually had to crash at another friend's hostel room since I ran out of place to stay.

We finally met on Sunday afternoon where we talked and talked and when we finally finished talking she came to the conclusion that she couldn't make up her mind of choosing between the two of us and had to let both of us go.

To say I was devastated would be an understatement. I went through so much trouble for this? I'd totally understand if she'd chosen the other guy but letting go of both?

Did I say I was sad? Anyway we parted our ways and I slept at the hostel for one final night. The next day we meet up again to say our last goodbye. I still remember vividly that fateful morning at that bus stop in Larkin where she made some of her special cucur kentang for me before I left and we talked for the last time. She also let me hold her hand you know cause we never get to the part where we hold hands while dating and stuff. It's the first time I've ever touched any girl's hand and hers was like sooooo soft and gentle! Anyway, It was slightly drizzling when I started my bike that morning and left and it poured somewhere in Tangkak and I had a flat tire just after Mallaca. I had to load up my bike on a pick up truck for the rest of my journey to Seremban. Talk about bad day huh?

(Okay you can wipe those tears now)

"You're like the most romantic and devoted lover ever!" that's what my friend said after they heard of my story. I just thought I was this totally gullible/stupid and naive young man. We moved on with our lives after that. Of course Rose and I are still friends till this very day and we still keep in touch occasionally. She finally made up her mind on one Zahrin Azlin cause they're getting engaged this Sunday. Congrats to you guys. Sorry I won't make it to JB but I'll definitely come to your wedding in Cheras next year (Insyallah). You're still the only girl I can call my ex-girlfriend and thanks for all the wonderful (and the not so wonderful) experiences. I do hope you won't change your mind on this Zahrin guy though. You're not getting any younger and you know Adam won't have a brother/sister before you do first (ha ha!).

The end.


Okay time for the most depressing song ever..

percayalah

I'm just glad I met Linda in the end :)

McDonald's days

For four years from 2000 to 2004, I worked as a part time crew at McDonald's next to Uda Ocean in KL.


from left Syukri, Manesa, Amir and moi

Four years of working there, I learnt a lot of stuff especially about the inner working of McDonald's and the store operation. I also learned some important lesson on life. How hard it is to earn a living for yourself and valuable lessons on love and friendship. It was there also where I met my other half, Sharifah Haslinda.


Linda like the first time I met her

I started working on March 2000. I was specifically looking for a job at any McDonald's at that time. Probably because I liked McD very much and prefer them over the other fast food joints. There was no McDonald's outlet yet in Serdang back then and the one at Mines had no vacancy so I rode around town (Kajang to KL) with my bike looking for a McDonald's restaurant. I went to Jalan Silang, Wisma Thrifty, Amcorp Mall, Sunway Pyramid, Dayabumi and several more before ending my search that day at Uda Ocean KL. I was tired like hell that day so I thought this would be my last try. I still remember my interview with Abang Sudin the assistant store manager that fine evening. My hand was still in bandages from my first bike accident so he must have felt sorry for me back then.


Don't i look like a school boy with that ugly shirt and tie?

All the other McDonald's told me to fill up the application form and said they'll call me if there's any vacancy. But at that Uda Ocean branch, Abang Sudin held an impromptu interview with me there and then. I'm pretty sure there's no vacancy at the store at that time but Abang Sudin was one of those people who's really good at judging people and knows a quality signing when he sees one (like me :) ). So we chatted for a while and he asked if I can work with my hand still like that. I said of course, it's just a little scratch and it'll heal in no time. The truth was my hand still hurt like hell and it's another two week before I took out the bandages. Guess I needed the money that desperately back then.


Linda together with one of our favourite manager Piah

I was hired on the spot by Abang Sudin and started working like 2 days later. Although the pay was dirt cheap, at least I get to eat for free once a day. And if I do closing, I get to eat a little bit more (depending on who's the manager in charge). I learned a lot of stuff about a McDonald's restaurant operation and soon I know everything about McDonald's like the back of my hand. Although the store was supposed to be air-conditioned, it's always hot and humid in the kitchen. That's where I spent most of my time at. Of course sometimes I took care of the lobby but never the counter. Abang Sudin thought my dashing good look would distract the customers ha ha! Truth was, I was never confident talking to people so I just avoided manning the counter all together.


My friend Siti Nur Kamisah with that manager who got sack cause he err, borrowed too much from the counter - Fazly.

It's a common knowledge that McDonald's makes the best burger and fries around. My favourite McD menu would be a double cheeseburger or a prosperity burger. The fried chicken used to taste awful but after they started preparing the chicken in the store, it tastes slightly better now. My housemates would look forward for me coming home from closing shifts cause they knew I would always bring back leftovers food from the store. My managers are generally kind and most of them would let us take back unsold food stuff home. Only a handful of them like most of the Store Managers or some goody two-shoe managers won't let us do that and they'd rather throw them away than let us have them.


Still great friends: Manesa

I was living with my UPM housemates in Taman Desa Serdang then, some 24 km away from the store so I had to commute to and fro some 3-4 days a week on my bike through rain or shine. It took an average of 18 to 25 minutes to get there though with my trusted bike. Working right smack in the middle of KL has it's share of benefit like for example I get to know a lot of the roads and places in KL from my experience visiting numerous McDonald's store getting stuff for the store.





And we had these crew meeting every month so that we can eat and hang out and listen to some mundane stuff from the management and sometimes we played some silly games together.


Look what we made those poor kids do while playing games at a crew meeting. I'd rather die than wear those ha ha ha!

Sometimes the crew meeting was held outdoors usually at Taman Tasik Perdana nearby. Most of the crew there was younger than me and some were just out of school but I mixed well with all of them regardless cause it's no harm making friends with everybody rite?



Linda joined the store about a year later. She just looked so cute in her uniform. She didn't like me very much at first cause I was this scary bald guy who kept bugging her. And then several month later she started to accept me after my relentless persistence (and charm) and they rest, like they say is history.


My good buddy and partner in crime: Zaidi

I made a few good friends at McDonald's like Zaidi, Manesa and Zack. Even after 6 years we still keep in touch and sometimes hang out together at the store. Working at a fast food restaurant such as McD requires a lot of hard work and sometimes we just get so tired and grumpy not to mention dealing with a few of those crappy/fussy managers. But the gang and I always had a way to cheer up the place you know, cracking jokes, helping each other out and watching our backs. We often work together on the closing shift and I would always bring my audio cds to the store and play it really loud through the PA system and we would sing out loud while working our ass out at the store. We were still tired in the end but at least we're tired and happy. I could never forget those late night singing/fun times together at the store.


The gang at Gabai waterfall in Hulu Langat

Today, I'm still grateful to McDonald's Uda Ocean for giving me a valuable experience while working there all those time. It was a life changing experience for me and had I worked somewhere else, I might have not met Linda and found the love of my life. Thank you McD, thanks for the experience - I'm still lovin' every minute of it.

Smach

Today I’m gonna start writing about my past memories, all 27 years of them. The good, the bad, the memorable and the forgettable times. I feel it’s important that I write about my history from now on before I forgot. I ain’t got no flash memory you know and if I didn’t write soon, all might be loss forever. That’s why I thought, why not write my memories here on my blog so that all my friends and my kid(s) could read it someday (and have a good laugh at things I did). I have so many memories of my school days I could write a book about them! Maybe I would but for starters, let’s put them on my humble little blog.

I know I should start at the beginning but today I feel like writing only about my high school days. I went to Sekolah Menengah Sains Machang, which translates to Machang Science Secondary School situated about 40 km from my home in Pasir Mas and also the same distance from Kota Bharu, the capital of Kelantan. Sekolah Menengah Sains Machang (Smach for short) is a full government sponsored boarding school (Sekolah Berasrama Penuh/SBP). During my days there were only 40 such schools nationwide and being able to get into one is a big deal back then. This was because such schools can only accept a handful of student every year so the competition for admission is very stiff. I never applied for this school, instead it’s the teachers of my primary school who submit our names to the Education Dept. Every year, they send in a few dozen names of potential candidates and I guess that year in 1993, I was among the lucky ones. I said lucky because I feel I wasn’t that good in primary school to warrant a place in such a prestigious institution. Yes I did get straight As for my UPSR but so did 38 others. Anyway, my family was very happy that I got accepted into Smach. There’s only two such school in Kelantan, the other one is SM Faris Petra in Kota Bharu.

It’s my first experience living away from my family and understandably I was nervous and a bit scared. The next five years was an unforgettable experience for me and also for all my school mates for that matter.

Going to a high school in the east coast is really tough. Going to a boarding school is even tougher and I assure you it’s not for the faint hearted. Kids in Kelantan or Terengganu are a lot different from those who hail from the west coast like Selangor or Johore or Kedah. Here it’s the Jungle’s Law, the survival of the fittest. Anyone outside of Kelantan who went to school there will experience a huge culture shock and many of them it’s not exactly a pleasant experience. I don’t really want to bad mouth the place I grew up in but the truth is, it’s tough going to school there.

Orientation week

I survived the orientation week in one piece. The school had this informal tradition of ‘sending back’ freshies who they think don’t deserve to stay at the school. You see during the orientation week, all the new kids have to behave really good and get signatures from their seniors to prevent them from being sent home. The kid with the lowest signature will be send back come weekend. Therefore all of us tried our best to get signatures from our seniors. Naturally, many of them seniors waste no time exploiting this opportunity to make us do errands for them before we get our signatures. Some of us (including me) have heard of rumours from a few of our seniors saying it’s just a joke and I personally didn’t believe any of them either. I thought it’s just not logical for the school to send back students just like that. Still I tried to get a few signatures and about half of my signature paper is filled towards the weekend. The entire school including all the teachers played along with this prank you know so near the end it seemed almost real!

So come Friday, I called home – teary eyed and sad telling mother that I might be sent home this weekend. Forgive me for being a disappointment to you, I guess I didn’t try hard enough. You can’t blame us really, we were young and naïve and it’s a first week in high school man and already we might be send back! For the Malay Kebudayaan (performance night) we were divided into groups and had to give a performance each. My group decided to perform a dance to the tune of a popular Malaysian rap group back then, 4U2C. Yeah I was a fan of 4U2C then (although I’m ashamed to admit that now!) so I volunteered to take part in the act. You see I was rather chubby and cute when I was 13 so just imagine me dancing to the beat of rap music on stage. The stage floor must have shaken violently by my weight. We practiced for 2 days but on the last day I had a fever and couldn’t possibly perform the next day so they replaced me with another boy. I was disappointed but come to think of it, I’d probably laughed myself hoarse seeing my performance that night. :)

Finally the weekend comes and we had this morning assembly where they announce the names of those who didn’t make the cut. The whole school was there and all our seniors were clapping and cheering and booing making it a festive like atmosphere and frighteningly REAL to us! We had to pack our bags and all and brought our stuff to the assembly place. The school bus were already fired up and ready to go as they announce the names one by one. Each of the unlucky kids was crying as they board the bus. I was relieved to escape the whole ordeal and soon enough found out that it was al just one big prank. Those we did board the bus were taken for an outing at the nearest town in Machang and returned back a few hours later. So that’s how we do orientation, Smachian way at my school. And they kept the tradition going the next year, and the next and the next and I wonder if they still do that today, hmm . A bit cruel you might say but that’s their way of nurturing our love for the school. My school days are a far cry from what you see on High School the Musical. Even so, if I were given another chance to do it all over again, I wouldn’t have it any other way.