Getting Fit

Getting Fit while fasting, sounds hard isn't it. Not really, at least for me, I needed just a little bit of tweaking of my mindset.

FYI, I have been harping about being fat and flabby since I got married, geez..it was 4 yrs ago. When ppl were making remarks that I've put on weight, I'd always give creative excuses, bak kata org, sekadar nak menyedapkan hati. And recently, when my wife was pregnant, my excuse was "I gained weight bcos I had to accompany my wife to satisfy her cravings. Kesian tgk dia makan sorang2". What a whole-lot-of-crap.

Enough is enough. The turning point to me was when I realised that I can comfortably fit into only 2-3 pants/jeans. Seluar lain kalau pakai, lemak terkeluar.

And there is no better time to start loosing weight than bulan Ramadhan, u are forced not to eat anyway, so that was a plus.

I dont want to get into details of my fitness regime, but I have few goals that I want to achive;

1. Can fit back into most of my pants
2. Loose at least 4 kgs
3. Getting fitter ( target to complete 5 rounds klcc park/ 40 laps at my condo's pool)
4. Tone the muscles, subjective

Basically, I go to the offc gym 4 days a week during lunch time. And on weekends, I play at least a round of 9 holes. So far folks, after going thru almost 3 weeks of fasting, I've lost 2.5 kg and I can fit into few more pants.

So go dig out your exercise gears and start hitting the gym.

Freedom of Journalism

In a democratic country, do you think journalist has the freedom?

This topic has kind of interest me with our country's latest development, especially in the political scene. The mass media, especially the printing media in Malaysia had been accused of being biased and favouring certain quarters, be it the govt or the opposition, well mostly govt, as they wd be the easier target to attack bcos they are in power.

I think, even in the most so called liberal and democratic western countries, there is no true sense of freedom for the journalists. They are just working for media corporations which are owned or rather majority controlled by certain people or organisations. Capitalist in action.

I can be very sure, whatever that is printed wd be in favour of whoever that controls the media corporation. So, in a way, the reports coming out from this media wd never be fair, independent and unbiased.

So to me, the freedom is actually being implemented if the distribution of the publications are not being blocked. The consumer would then, shd have the freedom to choose and read whatever that is available in the market. Having said that, this scenario can only happen if the journalists themselves produce responsible, factual and accurate reports.

There's always 2 sides of a story...

Of courage and sacrifice

I promised the readers that I'm gonna talk about our history, I have to put that on hold first, but still, I will touch on Merdeka spirit.

My close friend is coming back to M'sia for good after completing his Masters Degree from Cambridge UK. Few of us were quite hyped up in preparing for his homecoming dinner.

We are going to celebrate his success in completing the studies. But to me, I want to celebrate it to honour his Courage and Sacrifice. Why? Because it's just hard for me to understand why he was willing to leave his very comfortable position in Petronas to pursue further studies.

Obviously, he's not materialistic, and definitely not one who likes to be praised for. We had talks before he left, and he told me one of the main reasons he wanted to go for it because this is his way of contributing to the nation. He said he wanted to use his newly acquired knowledge and experience to help the nation. I could sense the sincerity in his words. He was not just saying it for the sake of saying it and to win my favour, he doesnt need to in fact.

Not many of us ever thought about this. We are just busy filling our pockets and indulge in easy life. We never really bothered what is going to happen to our nation. We would just say that we have done our part by voting, well, let me tell u. Thats not enough.

I just have my outmost respect to him as he has the courage to change, and making few sacrifices to achieve his goal. To me, this is the true spirit of Merdeka. Having the sense of freedom and wanting to appreciate the freedom by advancing in one's life, and giving it back to the nation. So OP Farouk, congratulations again and may god bless you.

Appreciating Malaysia

In conjunction with the recent Hari Kebangsaan dan sambutan Kemeredekaan and the coming anniversary of formation of Malaysia, I think it wd be fitting if we just go back a little bit and reflect back the struggle of indipendence and the formation of Malaysia.

I will be putting in series of facts, chronology of events, lessons learnt in my writings. I have always been interested in History. I think everything evolves around history. What ever we wish for, we plan or we decide almost certainly be based on history. Because whatever happened 10 seconds ago is also history.

I'll get my resource and reference from one single book 'Malaysian Studies', a text book being used in KDU. I borrowed this from my brother in-law. My objective is just to remind myself and all the readers on what had happened to our country in the past and how we have become what we are now.

What's UP?

Hi! What's UP?

Well I have a baby boy now. That is really2 UP, my emotions la, bukan UP as in UP.

So I'm using that as an excuse for not writing to this blog for almost a month. And for almost that period, I have been cocooning myself in the vicinity of my home and office only. I have not been to anywhere except when I need to buy provisions for the house. So, I cant tell much abt UP stories.

Having said that, I do have some occurences where people really get on my nerves...

The norm in our culture is to visit the parents and the newborns. We are very grateful and thankful for those who had visited us presented us with gifts and wished us well. However, they have to be 1 or 2 that really get on my nerves.

In one instance, this person and his family visited us at the hospital. During their visit, my baby was crying a little loud. So this guy looked at me with disbelieving look and flicked me with his finger on my elbow instructing me to pick up the baby. Pantang betul aku org main cuit2 ini. I just tell him off saying that I purposely want to let the baby cry, tak nak bagi dia manja. And the baby did the most wondeful thing, he immediately stop crying as if conspiring with me and to prove that guy wrong. High five kiddo.

In another instance, it has something to do with UP. I'll call this as 'backdoor self praising' which I learned from '30 Rock'. Its actually UP, but hidden in a general statement. Well, naturally when people visit newborns, they will say things like cutenya baby ni, byknya rambut baby ni, putihnya baby ni and etc.. That's the norm, people will look at good things about the baby and praise the parents.

Well, this one particular person, she came with few other people. When other people were admiring my baby she would follow up those statements comparing to her child and saying that her child pun macam tu jugak masa baby. As if I stole a blue print from her and construct my baby to be exactly like hers. Come onla Cik Kak, you had your glories and praises, please let others enjoy the moment....