Barbeque Blues

I'm bored. I've been wasting my time on YouTube mostly and I checked and checked my RSS feeds every half-an-hour. If that is not boredom, I don't know what is.

Anyway, Erare called me just now concerning the barbeque party thing and from his concensus most people couldn't make it this weekend. First and foremost, I would like to clarify my initial intention on voicing the idea of having the barbeque in the first place. I never planned it to be a reunion. There's a different between a reunion and a gathering. I was having the impression of a few friends coming over and have a simple meal by the grill for one night and after it's over, everyone go home, end of story. Nevertheless, now I came to understand that most people interpret it as a reunion.

I have no problem with having a reunion, it's great to see all of us back at one place hanging out together. But then again, there is a problem with reunions. For starters, it is going to be big. Erare's house, though bigger than mine's, is still not enough for a 50 people party. Then we need to consider the surrounding of the location. Erare's house is well within residential area and on weekends, most people would appreciate calm and quite which is not going to happen with 50 Budak Koleqs in the equation. There is also the issue on where we are going to park our cars. You don't expect us all to take the LRT do you?

Next we talk about budget. My idea of the barbeque is for the host to sponsor the food while the kids do the grilling and the cleaning. A reunion barbeque on the other hand, would put heavier burden on the host since feeding 50 hungry kids isn't cheap. Well, of course those who came can chip in money but as I recall, anything that is not free is not really popular so it could cause less people to come thus defeating the purpose of a reunion.

I don't know about you guys, but that is quite a thing to consider. Nevertheless, I will definitely go with the majority so that no one would end up hating me and Erare, though by doing so, I might aswell miss the whole barbeque thing. Why? According to my schedule, I'll be off to Penang next weekend for 4 days. The week after that I need to attend Kak Effa's wedding in Kepong and the week after that pulak I will most probably have an appointment with a doctor in Penang. There, now you see why I'm bitching about this. I already missed Old Boys Weekend and now it seemes that I am about to miss the barbeque party I planned.

C'est la vie? Tisk..

Labels: friends, mckk

A friend in need

Last weekend I received a message from a friend in Kelantan, Abé:

Salam.. our Azham Aizad is now is Selayang Hospital due to severe accident. Both hands plastered and he is brain-fracture suspected.

Wow.. You don't get that kind of meseage everyday, even more about a friend. I immediately called Abé and he told me he got the info from Ainan. I ringed Ainan to get the ward and bed number: Wad 4B, Bed 14.

I drove to the hospital with Hariri who happens to be around. Rawang and Selayang is very near so I guess it would be very wrong for us not to go. Heck, I would even go if it was in Serdang; he's my friend! I've never had a friend in the hospital due to an accident before and most of the visit to the hospital are mostly about a member of the family or my parent's friends so I was very much unsure how to handle the situation. Neither did Hariri but we head on anyway.

Nevetheless, no safe driving public awareness campaign could prepare us to the time when we say Azham. I was speechless for a moment at the sight of my friend on the bed in that situation. I admit there is this tingling sensation in my eyes but I tried my best not to weep, it would make it worst for him. I was very happy that he is conscious and he told me about how it happened and how lucky he is to secure his helmet tightly just before the accident. Even that, his head suffer minor fracture, both of his arm broken and all the stiches he had to endure..

We stayed by his bed for half and hour until another group of visitors came and we wished adieu to Azham and his family. Thinking back to the days we were in College, I was not really close to him and we indeed have a lot of dispute. Nevertheless, the unity we instilled in our soul back then on the blistering heat of the Grey and the dark uncertaities of the Prep School Common Room managed to conquer all odds. Unity is strength, and strength is what my friend Azham really need.

To all Budak Koleq, do visit our friend Azham Aizad. It could be anyone of us on that bed he's on. A friend in need is a friend indeed, isn't it?

Labels: friends, mckk

Of language and dialects

I just came back from my Indonesian friend, Keisha's house since she need some help with her Information Age essay.

Anyway, I always thought she stayed in Cyberia with her friend but it turned out it was her aunt's place. I clicked on her doorbell and her maid opened the door for me. I remembered what Tante Yati said that most Indonesian have maids so it wasn't quite a suprise about it. Most of the Indonesians living here also brought their maid along with them from back home.. I wonder why they don't employ those who are already here. Hurm..

Nevertheless, her aunty and her mom came back a few hours later which I must admit, shocked me since I thought this is just her aunty's place; I didn't expect her to live here along with Keisha's mom! Anyway, I was hungry and her aunties brough back some very thick murtabak and asked me to help prepare the dishes. She must've though that I'm Indonesian too since she speak to me in Bahasa Indonesia throughout the way. Thank God I somewhat understood what she said!

Later I was back at helping Keisha with her work. I spoke to her in English and that must've tipped her aunt because she asked Keisha whether I was Malaysian. Then I overheard her mother and her aunt conversing on the couch behind me. They were whispering so God knows how I overheard them.

Aunt: Eh, itu orang Malaysia iya?
Mum: Iyak, Keisha bilang dia orang Malaysia.
Aunt: Tadi aku ngomong Indonesia sama dia. Dia ngerti kok?
Mum: Pasti, pasti ngerti. Teman-temannya rame orang Indonesia..

I tried my best not to laugh or turn around and smiled at them though I really felt like. I think most Malaysian could possibly grasp some if not all what Indonesian are saying nowadays since we are very much exposed to Indonesian material through our media. Imagine the makciks who spend their evenings watching sinetrons, they could possibly speak perfect Indonesian after the season ends don't you think?

Anyway, after finishing the work with Keisha I told her about what I overheard and she laughed. She agreed that if we really try, slowly but surely we could both understand each other when we speak in our different yet same mother toungue. I remember a friend of mine telling me that for you to learn Indonesian easily is to see it as a dialect, not as another language entirely just like how you percieve Kécék Kelaté and Cakap Utara. Nevertheless, most Malaysians are still being ignorant of these beautiful dialects and dismiss them as being kampung compared to the standard Malay which is actually derived from the dialect of Riau as being more urban. I wonder why..

Sometimes I just feel lucky to be here in Cyberjaya since I am able to be both in Malaysia yet still be able to engage people of different cultures.

Labels: friends, social

Kurasa Raksasa!

Catchy name isn't it? Well, Kurasa Raksasa is shall we say an art group formed among others by a friend of mine, Ben. It consisted of him and 3 other Limkokwing students who of course, are deeply in love with arts. From an observer's observation I can say that they're art is mostly in the league of wondermilk with interests such as lomography and stencils. In their own word, they described themselves as:

We make tshirts, (conteng) shoes, and C said she might do dresses and jewelleries, and also underwear, but we'll see about that!

We can pimp your sneakers. Plain, brand new, beaten up, bleached, torn, whatever, we can make it oh-so-pretty. Just msg us for more info.

This page is moderated by 4 achingly brilliant individuals. We don't bite and we don't discriminate. Our love for art and money is compare-able to John Lennon's love for Yoko Ono. We think

Anyway, they've just starting out and is currently selling their oh-so-cool t-shirts as what you can see from the pictures, priced RM 20 each. It was sold out during the KLJam concert last week so you know it has to be very good. Go ahead and have a look at their MySpace site by clicking the picture.

So come on people, promote this group of young individuals. It's so much better than supporting those pelumba motor haram don't you think?

Labels: friends, promotion

What a weekend!

I hate this feeling. Numbness here and there, the dizzyness, the funny nose, the sore throat.. not to mention this friggin' big ulcer on my lips. I sure have seen better days. Saya demam..

Anyway, yesterday Alepadha, Munggay and I had a little gettogether at One Utama which was suprisingly empty due to the Chinese New Year holidays. Thank God! I hate going there on weekends. So we jalan-jalan inside there for quite sometime with Munggay busy browsing for stuffs af Gap before we venture out looking for the Benetton shop which was nowhere to be found. That's strange.. I know there's one at One Utama.

Later we drove to the Curve and met Nik at his house and went for a little refreshment at the restaurant there, I think it's called Idaman. The food there's nice and the service was good and as for the price, Nik was paying. Haha.. Thanks Nik!

We later went to Cineleasure to catch the Ghost Rider movie but to our dismay, the tickets were sold out so we settled for Norbit. Thank God for that! Haha.. Norbit was a good comedy movie and it really was fun to watch especially when you have you friends with you.. though I wouldn't recommend it for families, unless you guys are liberals that is. After the movie I stumbled upon Afiq, a friend of mine back from college. He did catched the Ghost Rider movie and his reaction was really bad. Well, if Afiq says that the movie was bad, then it must really be so. Phew.. Lucky we didn't burn our bucks on that.

Anyway, we met Hariri there who just came back from KL. We had dinner at Rasta in TTDI which was my first time there. The food was nice, the atmosphere was quite okay and the place is not as overrated like Hartamas and such which is somewhere I don't usually put myself since I'm not cool like those people that lepak there.

In a nutshell, the weekends was really great. We all went back to my house and the boys played with my cat and we all stayed up till 4 and laughed at the same old jokes.. It was really meaningful. Thanks guys. You've made my week, and while I'm writing these, I almost forgot that I tengah demam...

Labels: friends