2008 Revisited

I haven't written an entry to recap my 2008 yet... so here it is!

Key events of 2008, grouped into categories and not in chronological order. For chronology, check out a pictorial recap that I made and uploaded onto my Facebook account here.

Come and Go

• Nina moved into new apartment
• I moved out of my Putrajaya house and into a rented condominium in Damansara Perdana
• MakTeh & UncaBob return to KL for a few weeks
• Hairie completed his studies and returned home from Durham
• Saie & Cipau move into new apartment
• Fiqrie left for Singapore
• Ili left for Manchester

Holidays and Trips

• Family holiday to Jakarta & Bandung
• Grads' trip to Singapore (I partially joined)
• Terengganu road trip with Afiza, Jorge, Wee Kee and Sabun
• First trip Miri and Bintulu for work
• First trip to Pakistan for work
• First trip to Dubai
  

Marriages

• Zai & Ulfah got married (and I emcee'd the dinner function with Johan)
  
• P.E. got married
  
• Azida got married
  
• Shahril got married
• Bobol got married
• Noreen got married
• Shahrin & Ririn got married
• E'am got married
• Lavinia & Martin got engaged
• Thomas got married
• Stella got married
• Fatim got married
• Chris & Janenette got married
• Azwan & Liza got married
  

Babies and Birthdays

• Rykal's Akikah and 1st Birthday
• Alham & Fasihah had a baby girl
• PakBoy & KakLin announced their pregnancy
• Zai & Ulfah had a baby girl
• Emir's 1st birthday
  

Concerts & Events

• Sold Offiicial Switchfoot merchandise at their Kuala Lumpur concert (hence getting into the show for free!)
• Explosions in the Sky concert in Ruums, Kuala Lumpur
• Got free tickets to watch Backstreet Boys at Sunway Lagoon
• Watched We Will Rock You the musical TWICE, in Singapore
• Incubus in Singapore
• Incubus in Malaysia (Sunburst Music Festival)
• Sunburst Music Festival (list of acts here)
• Own band performance at Shell IT's annual dinner
• Goodnight Electric in Ipoh
• Performed at Shahrin & Ririn's wedding
• Watched Chelsea FC vs Malaysia football friendly
• Got free passes to Daughtry live at One Utama
• ENVY in Singapore
• Death Cab for Cutie in Singapore
• Stanley Clarke, Marcus Miller & Victor Wooten in Singapore
• George Michael live in Abu Dhabi (opening by Alicia Keys)
  

Personal High/Low-lights

• Bought and took over operations of Hoxe's Bookstore & Cafe
• Started working with Muna & Eema at Hoxe's
• Started on a new role at Shell as a Business Analyst with an HR Programme, consquently moving work location. Left Cyberjaya for Damansara Heights
• Made my first investment in Unit Trust
• MET AND TALKED TO INCUBUS LIKE OMG OMG OMG!!!! (except for Ben Kenney.. sigh)
• Birthday surprise party thrown for my benefit, at my own cafe! Haha
• Punked Bonnie big time on April Fools Day
• Went for my HUGE family gathering (tracing back 4 generations).. the Abdul Rahman-Maimunah family
• Passport stolen in Singapore
• Lost my cat, Misfit, who was catnapped
• Gained a cat, Coca Fandango, whom I adopted after the mother abandoned it

Phew, that was quite a year (and still I may have overlooked a few happenings here and there)! I can't wait to see what 2009 brings...

Soundtrack: British Sea Power - A Trip Out
Mood: Nostalgic
Location: Shah Alam home
Random thought: I need badminton rackets.

Was going through Kevin Rose's blog and he had this in a list of 'Top 10 Gifts for Geeks':



It's like COOL and CONVENIENT combined! I want one!!!


Soundtrack: Arcade Fire - Keep The Car Running
Mood: Cheerful
Location: Bed, Shah Alam home
Random thought: I want to buy a pair of badminton rackets

Welcome 2009!

Happy New Year everyone!

It's currently 2.41am and I think tonight was one of the best year-end/new-year nights I've ever had! Received several invitations from friends to parties, barbecues or just simple hang-out sessions at their houses to welcome in the new year, but I decided to turn them all down to stay home because tonight, after quite a long time, is the first time my whole family is back in this Section 9 house of ours... all in one place, at the same time!

I woke up at 5.50am this morning to Amir's SMS informing me he'd landed in KLIA from Melbourne. So Izhar, Farah and I all got out of bed early to drive there and pick him up. The minute we were all in the car the conversation had no end. We decided to have breakfast at the Dawood mamak place in Sec.6 and stayed there until 8.30 chit chatting. After dropping everyone off at home I drove out again to the Shah Alam lake for a jog, then came back home, showered, had MY breakfast and rested for a bit.

Around 1.30pm we all went back out again, Farah to join her family for lunch and us three siblings to PJ as Izhar needed to go to the Digital Mall for some computer stuff. We decided to have lunch after at Bangsar, but got caught in the beginnings of the anticipated New Year's Eve traffic jam *groan*. Didn't matter too much to us really 'cuz we still had a lot of story-mory to do haha. Made a bit of a funny booboo when we tried to take a 'shortcut' via Universiti Malaya to get from PJ to Bangsar, but instead got asked by the guards to turn around and go out the way we came from. Not such a long complicated story but you had to be there to experience the funny so I'm gonna skip telling it here :P

After finally arriving in Bangsar, we had our lunch at Nirwana for some good ol' banana leaf rice, and Farah joined us again after her dad dropped her off. I had a RM50 Haagen Dazs voucher that I got from Shell and that expired 31st December '08 so we nipped into Bangsar Village's Haagen Dazs outlet to spend that. Definitely very nice to tuck into rich creamy branded ice cream on the last day of the year, eh? I only had to top up RM15 on the total bill so it was well worth it! Yeay!

Earlier tonight Izhar, Amir and Farah made another trip to the airport and this time it was to pick Mummy and Baba up, who arrived from their 40+ days Hajj trip. I really wanted to go along and greet them at the airport but the car would've been too full by then so I stayed home instead. They reached Shah Alam at around 12.15am and we all went to Syed mamak in Sec 11 for some makan before finally settling in back home, everyone with so many stories to swap and tell we all barely felt the tiredness from each of our long days!

So as I said... I think tonight's one of the best new year's nights I've had. Just the whole family in the living room yakking away. It's just too bad Izhar has to return to Melbourne already tomorrow night, as his course doesn't have a long break and he's already cutting some classes to be home long enough for Mummy, Baba and Amir to return. Sob. But hey, 2 days is better than nothing right!

Here's to 2009 (well technically we celebrated our Islamic new year 3 days ago already so... here's to 1430M too!). May my blessed, wonderful start to this year bring significance to a great year ahead, InsyaAllah.


Soundtrack: The sound of Amir showing his sky-diving videos to Mummy and Baba
Mood: Happy, blessed and content
Location: Family home, Shah Alam

Top 40 Sense

Not to boast or anything like that, but I have an ear to pick out songs that will be sure Top 40 hits. My close friends can vouch for this. You can give me a fresh new album and I'll pick out one or two songs which I 'like' and 6 months or so later it'll be on the top of one chart or another.

The theory proved itself again today but only because I'm a bit late in reviewing an album. Snow Patrol's new album, A Hundred Million Suns to be specific. They released the album sometime in late October but I'm only previewing it today for the first time. As I listen to the songs, one particularly caught my attention so I checked the title and it's called "Crack the Shutters". It's nicely composed, carries the typical Snow Patrol sound, and it's one of the most sexiest songs I've heard in quite a while. I did a YouTube search for it (with the intention of illegally ripping it off the 'net, if I may shamefully admit), and only then found out that it's already been released as a single off the album. I didn't know this because I never tune in to MTV / [V] / radio stations 'cuz I think mainstream media sucks. I haven't checked the charts, but all I can say is I have a feeling this song is going to become overplayed (like Chasing Cars) soon enough.





Now, I don't know if it's a good or a bad thing, it's just a knack I have. Good I guess because I tend to 'spot' hits before they become overplayed. Bad because.. well... to me it just means that I get drawn to normal Top 40 hits that appeal to the masses. Heheh. I hate what the mainstream media tend to do with really good songs though. They overplay it and totally kill the magic.

Maybe my true calling is to work in A&R or marketing for a record company.

Soundtrack: Snow Patrol - Disaster Button
Mood: Upbeat and alert
Location: Office cubicle
Random thought: Wouldn't it be really awesome if we could have chocolate-coated cotton candy? Imagine biting into a crisp, thin layer of dark bitter chocolate and then the disappearing, melting goodness of the sugary wisps of candy on your tongue. Yumm!!!

I am a Grup

... but not of the Trekkie kind.

My friend Udjinn posted a link to this article on his Facebook account and I really liked the write-up, hence the decision to share :D

And copying here too my comment to him on his post:

" As I sit here in my MNC-office cubicle, wearing faded jeans, a Minus the Bear t-shirt, a frayed biker-esque crop jacket, iPod blasting out Mogwai to drown out the sounds of my colleagues on their work conversations, I realize I'm a Grup. I'm 3 years away from turning 30 but hardly panicking about it 'cuz I know at 30 I'll probably won't change much (aside from additional grey hairs popping up).

There ARE others younger than I am who've comfortably and happily molded themselves into 'adulthood' as we know it but.. somehow I don't see myself getting there.

What I've always wondered is, if/when I have kids... if there will come a day when they turn 18 and defiantly say "Mama. I want to study Physics" and I'll go "WHAT?!! But becoming a musician is SO YOUR CALLING! Now all that money I spent on that studio for you is going down the drain!! YOU LISTEN TO ME YOU FORGET ABOUT THAT SILLY SCIENTIST DREAM OF YOURS!"

Haha. "


Soundtrack: The S.I.G.I.T. - Let It Go
Mood: Cheery
Location: Office cubicle
Random thought: If the UAE can play host to great international acts like Queen+Paul Rodgers and George Michael.... why can't we?? *sniff*

Greetings from Karachi

So I'm blogging from Karachi heheh. Been meaning to post this since I got in a couple of days ago but it's been a bit busy. Even now I'm actually still in the middle of today's workshop but we're on a bit of a longer break due to some of the participants having meetings. Plus we're a little bit ahead of schedule today so we have some slack.

Anyway, I still need to keep this to a quick-ish update so here you go:

• There are SO MANY local security forces standing/driving around the city with rifles in their hands. It's kinda intimidating.


• Otherwise it's actually been quite alright here for me. The people in general are polite. They stare a lot but they're not hostile towards you or anything. Not that I've approached any of them heh.


• Hotel's quite nice. The gym has great equipment (I went at 6am this morning for a workout)


• The local food is AWESOME, but oh so fattening (hence gym visit). Lots of capati and naan (they have different names here tho) and kebabs and masalas and hummus and mmmm yummy.


• Coincidentally this same week, our hotel is the venue for an "IDEAS (International Defence Exhibition and Seminar) - Arms for Peace" convention. Yes, Arms for Peace. Kind of an oxymoron isn't it? Anyhoo. What that means is that I'm staying at the same hotel with a huge bunch of the leaders of armed forces of the World. We have no idea if that's a good or a bad thing!!! Good because security is heightened 'cuz so many important army people are here. Bad because, well.. doesn't that make Sheraton a hotspot???? Eek.


• I did however meet two top Generals of Malaysia last night (if I'm not mistaken one was from the Airforce and another was from the Navy, although I don't remember their titles 'cuz they sounded complicated and long when they introduced themselves to me). I was waiting at the hotel foyer whilst a whole bunch of the delegates were there and the Malaysian delegates saw me and asked if I was Malaysian or Mongolian (wut? Ingat aku Altantuya kah??). Kinda cool to have chit-chatted with them all the way here in Pakistan when the chances of that happening in KL would be nada.


• Sadly none of the delegates were hot men in uniform. Oh they wore their uniforms alright, hundreds of them in their navy/airforce/army uniforms with loads of badges and stars and medals etc but none looking like Pierce Brosnan or Robert Downey Jr hahaha.


• The Shell office here is pretty nice. It's not too big a building but the interior's good. However, the electricity goes out for about a minute or two, occuring about 6-7 times a day. Like India and Indonesia, they also get quite an unsteady supply of electricy. So we'll be in the meeting room discussing when *poof* it goes dark and the airconds shut off. Thankfully the computer ports and projector are on backup power supply so they remain on. When this happened on the first day we were here in the office us visitors kept jumping and going "oh!" everytime there was a blackout. But after that happening so many times, we're now as calm and steady as the locals haha! I don't even stop midsentence now when the power goes out... I just continue talking like nothing happened. Dah champion ah macam local :P


• They have A LOT of hawks flying around in the skies. I've always thought hawks were lone creatures and don't live in flocks but there's a whole big bunch of them hovering in the skies above the city all the time. And they're pretty huge. I was up on the office building roof yesterday getting a view of the city and the birds flew pretty close. It was quite cool.


• We were out for dinner last nite, one of the local HR managers took us and gave us a semi-tour around the places we passed by. We drove by Benazir's late father's house, and along the road her brother was killed by local police whilst she was in power.


• Books here are quite cheap. I went into a local bookstore chain (Liberty Books) and found some great titles at about 30-40% the price of books in Malaysia at full price. And guess what. I've bought 5 books from here so far haha :D
  

Will write more comprehensive stories of my trip when I have the time!

Soundtrack: Nothing at the moment. Office is pretty quiet.
Mood: Work work work
Location: Shell Pakistan Limited, Karachi office
Random thought: I'll get fat if I stay here very long.

Post-Graduate Musical

Heehee I know this is soooo lame but ohmygod I'm splitting my sides from the amusement! :D

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Soundtrack: Pitty Sing - Anyway
Mood: LOLapallooza
Location: Hoxe's Cafe
Random thought: OMG gotta try all the other JibJab HSM3 stuff now!