The Court Case - Long Long Time Ago

I remembered reading something about sensitivity nowadays in our so-called multicultural society nowadays somewhere in Star; the writer Wong Sai-Wan and Marina Mahathir both delved on this issue before. According to them, who has lived longer than me, comparing to the early days of Malaysia days, people are not as sensitive.

Why I brought up this sensitive issue? It's because if the story I'm gonna tell soon happened now, it will be made into some big brohuha. OK, the story is like this......

This new classmate of ours, let's call him K befriends both R and S where one of them is actually Muslim. K is naughty and in a way or other managed to con both of them to eat the food he brought from home, which contain meat that was prohibited. When R realized that, he complained to Teacher J. ( And yes......I was destined to write this post because I bumped into Teacher J just now, like 30 mins before this in Giant. ) Teacher J decided to practise his creative teaching method and set-up a court to trial the case!!! And I still remember he elected a judge and 2 lawyers, both the prosecutor and accused (thanks for the legal advice). Liangmoi was actually one of the lawyer and the other was FPL. The judge was Leslie (well... if you guys still remember her... the runner). I forgot how the case went but I remember what Teacher J said as the conclusion, "Memandangkan kes ini tidak dapat diselesaikan di mahkamah rendah, maka Cikgu akan membawa kes ini ke mahkamah tinggi (jumpa guru besar)" translated as "Since this case cannot be solved by this court, I will bring it to the Higher Court (which in this case, the headmaster).

Well, K was definitely guilty and should be punished. But what I want to bring up is that pulling pranks was one of the things schoolkids do a lot and sometime it didn't do anything to harm the friendship among them. Of course I don't know where're R and S now but I'm sure if K saw them and recognize them, they may remember this old case and smiled about it.

Like Marina and Sai Wan said before, we have to learn to laugh at ourselves sometimes.

P/S : I dunno what's the verdict of the Higher Court. If K is reading this, do drop some lights please.

The Gal Who Made Sandakan Proud.......

Alan really searched every corner for Patricia's picture and the latest one is with her family during some award ceremony I supposed.

Here's the pic: http://thesisofacruelangel.blogspot.com/2007/11/picture-of-kapten.html

On the far left is Augustine and far right is Ignatius, with parents, I presume.

Bravo Patricia!!!

Self-Search

Inspired by Alan's search of Coolie Sink's stuff on the internet, I did the same and found that this blog of mine was linked in Lluis Coloma's website, mainly on my write-up for the 2nd Miri International Jazz Festival. No wonder one of my friend said the same as well after self search on internet.

Here's their link on the page :
http://lluiscoloma.com/en/noticiaDet.asp?id=19 You can click on atanck for my write-up.

Thanks Lluis Coloma. I can only listen to your albums now.... luckily I bought 2 of them.

Movie Re-cap

Watched quite a few movies in the past two weeks, courtesy of boring hotel TV channels and the need to clear the unwatched gems in my collections, or rather those lent by my best mate, Sherry.

1. Joy Luck Club

Adapted from the book of Amy Tan of the same name, watched now after more than 10 years from its release date really do no justice to it. Apart from the unknown actors except Ming-Na Wen and Russell Wong (maybe not known to you guys as well....), all the actressess were unknown, at least to us in this part of the world. The acting was stiff and the story line seems to be faithfully faithfully based on the book. Not a flick I enjoy and personally I don't think it will stand the test of time.

...from http://www.impawards.com/1998/central_station_ver2.html

2. Central Station

Helmed by the talented Brazillian director, Walter Salles, who gave us The Motorcycle Diaries and Paris, Je'Taime in the later days, this movie featured the very talented Fernando Montenegro who was nominated in the 1998 Oscar as the rare non-American/British actress honored in the category. Her portrayal of the old woman who's not entirely angelic in her way of life really caught attention, naturally and non-actingly. The little kid in the movie also is the charming factor shining throughout the whole movie. Can be treated as a road-movie with a twist and deserved any attention and time spent. Some even wonder why it lost out to La Vita e Bella in the same year!!! Highly recommended though Sherry complained that it was a tad slow.

...from http://www.impawards.com/1998/central_station_ver1.html

3. Manchurian Candidate

Great acting chop from a commendable castings consists of Meryl Streep, Denzel Washington, Jeffrey Wright and Liev Schreiber with fleshed out character managed to turn this remake into a commendable thriller. Greatly relevent especially with the gulf war and etc hot on the plate.

Captain Yapp and the Flying Sing

Haha.... seems Alan caught the bug and only now I know she held a special place in his heart. Good luck Patricia. Of course it's really a proud moment for her and her family. Seriously, I think our alma mater Sung Siew should really get hold of her when she's back to Sandakan to motivate our students who's drowned in endless homeworks and tuition and forgot about the fun and other learning activities while in school.

Speaking of flying sing, who in 5D Class of 96 can forget his famous act that catapulted him to the peak of his fame defying the dominatrix grip of the You-Know-Who(YKW) in SS that time. (I shall not name him as I dun think I'm qualified to, as I never enrol to his tuition class) His cool cat answer of astro-travelling spared the class some laugh and indeed YKW himself was impressed as well. The remaining normally gruelling hours of the subject in lab was filled with some unanswered questions and lingering awe as Flying Sing enchanted us with his mini-lecture on astro travelling with big bombastic words such as "out of the host", "state of mind" and dozens more that eluded my memory as I can't even spell the words, let alone understand the theory or explanations behind them. I forgot how his mini-lecture ended but Flying Sing was spared of the punishment, which ranges from the usual standing during the whole period, standing in the middle of the basketball field, which YKW used to describe as "jaga gelanggang" and made us all squirmed in silent laughter.

Also came back in my memory is another famous incident happened to Flying Sing when he first came to Sandakan and enrolled in Sung Siew Primary School. He was the new-boy and as the tough-guy kid he was, he refused to pay the insurance when Cikgu Anna or Cikgu Jumain (was it Std 3 that time or Std 5?.... I remember it's that classroom though....) collect the RM5 insurance.

He cool-catly answered "Saya boleh jaga diri sendiri" (I can take care of myself)

During recess time on that day itself, he famously fell down in the car park after unsuccessfully jumping over the steel chain in the car park at the back of our school. IMMEDIATELY that day. I wonder how many of the 90' Class 5 Merah still remember that incident...

Of course, his signature act or "doi biu zok" is somewhere edging along the sensitive lines during Std 5 times as well when he introduced prohibited meat to our other classmates..... but maybe that will be another story in another post.... And also his kungfu stunts during secondary school and uni years...maybe that one leave it to Alan to be the storyteller...

P/S : Didn't see Flying Sing for quite some years already and hope he's doing well.

Taiwan - Transport Galore

How many type of transport you use during a travel??? This Taiwan trip, I used these:

1. Airplane (courtesy of MAS Matta Fair)
Took about 3 hours from KK to Taipei. Normal 737 only. No leg-space!!!

2. High Speed Railway

Shinkansen-like. A costly way to travel. RM100plus from Taipei to Chiayi.

3. Train

Took this slow yet dependable (it's punctual in Taiwan, not KTM) from Taipei to Ruifang enroute to JiuFen. Also to Hualien enroute to Taroko Gorge.

4. Bus

From Chiayi to Alishan, due to the railway damage in Alishan, took this instead. So disappointed!!! Took the city bus in Taipei as well, RM1.20 for most of the intra-city ride.

5. Taxi

Reasonably priced in Taipei and majority of the driver knows the importance of good service attitude and never been refused, unlike in KL, "Jam lah...", "Tak pi sana lah" and dozens of excuses.

6. Boat

Roaming around the Sun Moon Lake, enjoying the magnificent sunset.

7. Van (Hyundai)
5am in the morning in Alishan to watch the sunrise and then took another one that brought us from Alishan to Sun Moon Lake.

8. MRT
MRT rules in Taipei just like it did in Singapore though I can't say the same for its brother in KL.

9. Motorcycle
This was the highlight of my Taiwan trip in which we drove a motorcycle from Hualien to Taroko Gorge all by ourselves!!!!!!!!!!!!! License???? Err........the weather was nice :)

10.Walking on Foot
Of course who can dispute that the best way to travel is by foot. Walk and walk and walk... you will find the unexpected.

Oct 22 - Taiwan, Here I Come!!!!!!!!!!!

Taiwan airport basically has nothing to boast about, unlike our very own KLIA who's the architecture marvel in the middle of oil palm estate or the Suvarnabumi Bangkok who's having a game of spotting where's the leak... it's plain and simple. But for someone who arrived about 10plus at night, all I'm asking for is an airport that is not that big to minimize walking. Direction-wise is perfectly OK since I understand Chinese.

First night will be staying in Taipei House, a hostel which is not a very good choice as I stayed in much better hostel before. The area the hostel is located is quiet, Songshan Rd, which has quite a number of foreigners staying around as it's quite near to a lot of foreign language school. Hence the hostel is full of foreigners. Get better hostel if you have time and budget.

Finding the hostel was interesting enough. The alley where the hostel is lurking deep inside comes with the CCTV-ed street light. What's that? It comes with some sensor which will light up the light once it detected human (by movement???) and I was left in awe. I mean I was immediately letting off my guard a little bit though the area is extremely quiet.

So where's the next stop you ask? Well... MAS did provide meal but that was not enough for youngsters like us haha.... So we went to the ever-dependable McD for late night supper about 11pm plus. The McD as usual is the brightly-lit place with aircond with its staple meals. Late-night worker and some uncle/aunties were sleeping in the particular McD joint we went. Maybe I should save the money staying in that Taipei House and tumpang in McD instead. Youngster holding pen and book and each-other's hand on the other were still having meal cum studying (oh ye ke tu?) in the wee small hour of the morning.

The meals ordered. McD, the best fries among all!!! :)

Tak sangka my first meal in Taiwan was McD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Cintailah Malaysia time : It's becoming a habit due to the nature of work, I always look at the packaging of the goods and I found out that the tomato sauce sachet in Taiwan McD was indeed made in Malaysia!!! Subang to be exact.

Bravo Patricia - Errmmm.... Sandakan Boleh!!!

The snippets below is from the Sunday Star 18th Nov 2007. (The title with the errmmm..... didn't mean to doubt Patricia's achievement but merely the writer's hesitation to succumb to the cliche-used-to-death mantra of the self-fulfilling-prophecy-esque nature of Malaysian....so, ignore the internal dilemma of him)

KOTA KINABALU: A Sabahan’s quest to become the nation’s first female astronaut is getting the backing of women’s groups in the state.
They are certain that RMAF pilot Kapt Patricia Yapp Syau Yin will do the country proud if she achieves her space travel dream.
They said Kapt Yapp, one of the nation’s first female MiG-29 fighter pilots, had the “right stuff” to become an astronaut and hoped that she would be given a chance, just like the country’s first Angkasawan Dr Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor.
Kapt Yapp, 30, who won the Ratu Inspirasi contest on TV3 recently, said she hoped to become Malaysia’s first woman astronaut.
She said the country’s recent success in sending the first Malaysian into space had opened the eyes of many people, including herself, and she hoped to continue that success.

Salute to Patricia who had made it to become the first female MiG-29 fighter pilot though I am not convinced that being the first female Malaysian space tourist will do anything to enhance her credit or achievement.

Why I posted her here? She's actually from Sandakan, yes... the tiny hometown of mine plagued by power disruption endlessly. And yes, she's from my alma mater as well... SM Sung Siew!!! I seriously think the school now needs to find more information about her and let her be the school model for the students.

I remembered her as my senior and also my superior during the Majlis Pengawas time... She was the Ketua Pengawas (HP-Head Prefect) under the supervision of Mr. Michael Tan, who's the Guru Disiplin. She's the Head Prefect for the whole school and that time I was one of the small-prawn under her in-charging of the afternoon session, i.e. Remove Class-Form 2, together with Gavin, Rowena and gang. Her trademark is her big friendly smile constantly plastered on her face. Below is the picture of her in the Star....

Well... I'm wondering should I dig out her old picture from the school magazine but fear that it will be violating her privacy. Anyway, proud of you Patricia!!!

Further reading..... http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2007/11/18/nation/19508568&sec=nation

Couch Surfing (CS) and Hospitality Club (HC) Friends V

Introducing............ ChiaChun. A great CS member in Taipei. Stayed at her place in Taipei for 2 nights and chatted for quite a while as well hehe... even though I think she was tired after work. Thanks my fren!!!

And because of her, I the chance to use iPhone for the first time!!!!! Tried it with my own hands the gung-ho flipping action on the touch screen. Well, she made me promised not to write anything on iPhone in her CS Profile and yes... I kept that promise but I couldn't help but mention it here though... still keeping my promise right fren?

She's friendly and helpful and full of funny and interesting stories about her travel and I would love to hear more from her. Her work is interesting as well and we shared the love of books. She recommended me the nice library in Beitou. Though I just passed by the library in the bus but the building from outside totally amazed me especially its natural light glass window design. Read that it even snatched the Best Design award in the newspaper when I'm still in Taiwan. She's a great friend and definitely welcomed here in Sabah!!! Oh yeah... will definitely ask her to roam the bookstore in Taipei next time!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Happy Couch Surfing!!! Hope to hear more stories from you my friend!!!

Oct 22 - Onset to My Taiwan Trip

KK airport is always the best in terms of location. Nearby to the city itself and also the offer of breathtaking sunset view are some of the reasons to justify that.

Taken while waiting in the departure hall to Taipei....

The Mission - liangmoi

As usual, all of liangmoi's friends will not be spared from being given a list of CDs or DVDs to purchase on her behalf and I, being labeled as the DHL of course is on-the-mission again.

The list as followed :

1. Eason Chan - What's Going On...?

2. Nicky Lee 李玖哲 - 想太多

3. Monkey Majik - 天马行空

4. Tackey & Tsubasa - Greatest Hits

5. Soler - 2x

6. 罗美玲 - 我是罗美玲

7. 藤木直人 - Turning Note

8. 盛夏光年 (DVD)

Of course the list is not that short but I only buy selectively for her. Well... some of the album she listed, I'm never gonna buy for her!!! e.g. Vic Zhou's - Aku Bukan F4, never ever. Sorry Vic's fans out there.... Furthermore, that album can be bought in Malaysia kan?

CK's shopping in Taipei

The albums I bought.

Tizzy Bac

One of my favourite singer : Bobby Chen 陈升 - 丽江的春天 Summer in Li-Jiang

这位太太 - 是谁

蔡健雅 - Hello and Goodbye

Note that all the photos above taken with another album as background and it is the best album I bought this time, after having searching for their album unsuccessfully, rightfully deserve an individual post dedicated to it.

I'm Back!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

They said happy times fly fast!!! And indeed, it is....

Ended my trip to Taiwan and it's a GREAT one. Will definitely blog it but this old set of bones needed some rejuvenation and rest, also to sort out some photos to blog about...

Anyway, I'm back.... and great to blog again haha...........

Tiring Week

Tiring yet an enjoyable weekend...........

(up and coming featuring great friends during Elena's wedding)

The Nobel Peace Prize goes to........... drum rolls.....

Al Gore!!!!!!!!!!!! (and the UN Climate Change Panel, who's not omitted intentionally in the original version of this post)

What??? I mean our "great" Tun Mahathir lost to the ex-Vice President of US??? What????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????

OK, does that make me sound patriotic enough of defending our ex-Premier who was one of the 181 nominees of the coveted Nobel Prize of Peace??? I thought that should be the response isn't it??? I mean, we always make a big hoo-ha if something Malaysian-related didn't go our way. Also how much we like to relate other's success or fame if there's a single teeny-weeny relation to Bolehland? Remember the Miss Georgia in Miss USA contest some time ago? Or the Australian Idol, something Sebastian?

But I guess since Tun M is not such a great supporter of the government when he criticize the government policies lately, my action above would not generate the patriotism aura around me. I should try another way then.

By the way, hope Tun M recover soon...

And to Mr. Gore, bravo and it shows that you dun have to be bothered that much about the betrayal of the Florida election results.

YOU WON AN OSCAR AND A NOBEL PRIZE MAN!!!! Nothing beats that, I say!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

To Mr. Bush Jr. : This maybe the inconvenient truth (pun intended) that may hurt you so much but I guess that's the price you need to pay.

WORLD PEACE!!!

It's Ours, NOOOOOOOOO, it's OURS!!!!!!!!

Recently, an Indonesian politician claimed ownership of the song Rasa Sayang and since we are using the song as a campaign lately, we have to pay royalty.

Hm....also read somewhere that another Indian politician claimed ownership of the Bhagwad Gita epic stories as well and since we have a localized version of the Mahabharata epic in the form of Hikayat Pandawan Lima, do we need to pay royalty as well when Mahabharata is claimed?

Reminded me also of the case of South Korean's United Nation World Heritage status of the Dumpling Festival (Duan Wu Jie) which sparked online objection from the mainland China's internet users.

So, siapa punya? Or it will be, HEI, ITU XXXXXX KITA PUNYA ALSO LAH!!!! Bolehlah kan!

I want to be sponsored too...as a tourist.

OK, if other people got sponsored for being a tourist and got his/her place plastered everywhere and DEFINITELY mentioned in the Bolehland Book of Records for 200mil, I wonder can I get the chance also? Oh, no! I guess not, cox practically, I'm not eligible.

But I can argue I also can do a lot of experiment up there! I mean, I have a full 6 credit hours of lab work in our extremely well equipped lab during my undergraduate years to justify that request. Also the ability to make-do with the improvisations of methods or procedures to accomodate the damaged/faulty lab equipments (oh... did I contradict myself cox I just mentioned how well-equipped was the lab). So, bring it on, whether to challenge the physics law or conduct experiments that will result in us winning the coveted Nobel Prize in whatever field, I can do it. I dun mind undergoing the tough and gruelling fitness program as I seriously needing that to curb the expansion project of my waist line. I dun mind braving the cold and loneliness in Russia preparing for the mega-project to fly our Jalur Gemilang in the space together with the other 2 tourists who purportedly pay less than me but never mind cox we have money cox we are now developed country already and we love premium seats. I can lament on and on about that but I can't help thinking about the whole angkasawan thingy though I had been avoiding reading the news covering the story these few days in the papers.

I was having a cup of teh tarik (how can they scrap the idea of making teh tarik in the space, which for SURE will be the only record unbroken in the Guiness World Record???) in Restoran Amboi and there was a live telecast over the national TV stations. I was not aware of the whole brouhaha until the loud commentator shouted MALAYSIAKU....... GEMILANG (reciprocated by the crowd at the event). Hmm.... I think at this point of time, I will be labeled as not patriotic. I looked patron, table next to me who shouted in unison with the TV; he finished his puff of cigarette after without fail exhaling the 2nd-hand smoke to his vicinity and nonchalantly threw the cig butt to the drain in front of the restaurant. So, should I say....Amboi, patriotiknya???

Dr. Space Tourist, wish you have a safe trip. Our nation need a hero and we find that in you.

Couch Surfing and Hospitality Club Promo

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www.couchsurfing.com

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HAPPY TRAVELLING

Welcome Back to Sandakan, CK

Though I had moved my base back to Sandakan, the fact had not hit me that hard yet. The real pang of truth occurred last Sunday when I arrived in the evening time about 6pm and found out that there was POWER DISRUPTION. For my beloved Sabahans, this may not come as any surprise, especially those from Sandakan.

So, bring it on... But what irritated me is that this is not "FULL" power disruption, which means that there were some houses in my neighbourhood had power supply while some pity ones such as my house get nothing at all!!

While I was struggling to find my torchlight in the dark (darn... where did I put it???), my neighbour few houses away was blaring Lee Mao Shan to the full volume (ok, maybe not full volume cox in the silence of no power supply, it may appears to be very loud). As if that's not enough, she decided to enchant the whole neighbourhood with her horrifying version of Teresa Teng's classic.

Thank God the power came back soon after that. With the fans starting to cool off the air in the stuffy space, I said thank you, for the welcome gesture of my beloved hometown Sandakan.

P/S : Extended welcome to Alan de Great who's back with her gal and maybe having konlou mee in Sibuga market though I seriously doubted it since it's only 757am now.

Filler

Do you know why Mat Saleh's award ceremonies audience seats always full, never empty? Because they have people paid to dress nicely to sit on the seats the guest left; whether it's going to restroom or getting a puff, or receiving an awards for that matter. They are fillers, whose job is to make things looked full.

So, this post serves as the same function; to make this blog seems to be maintained regularly by its owner, oh... it's yours truly here.

Having said that, I don't want to be filler in anyone's life and vice-versa; even if it's not full. But I guess it's different when it came to completing someone's life right? Haha.... filler post turned into babbling post. Adios.