Jabbeer's thoughts

2010 Under the knife

2010-12-01T23:01:00.000-08:00

Post Mortem on the events I participated for 2010.

1. 30K run, January, Pdg Merbok-Bkt Tunku-Hartamas.
Time: 3:15

Good: Manage to complete with minimal training and while carrying an injury.

Bad: 18 mins slower than 2009. Cramped and walked the last 5K.

Lessons Learned : Train and prepare. Dont join a race unprepared and injured. Result will be bad and injury worsen.

2. PD Tri, July.
Time: 2:55

Good: Improved 35mins overall from 2009. Excellent(by my standard) bike time (1:15). Running was OK. (55)

Bad: Swim was slower than expected (39). Was panicky 3/4 of the course.

Lessons Learned : Good prep on bike. Apparently not enough sessions in the pool by looking at the result. Dont try to 'pulun' at the start of the swim. Hard to get back composure.
Run was ok considering minimal time spent training bcos of injury that got me sidelined for a good 4 months. Enjoyed the race overall.

3. Desaru LD Tri, Oct.
Time: 6:40

Good: Improved 1:10 from IM 70.3 PutraJaya. Bike was excellent ( again by my standard 3:07). Hot weather did not hinder my race bcos of acclimatisation sessions. Nutrition timing was good too.

Bad: Run (2:34). 20 mins off target. Struggled in the mid part of the course. Swim was ok-ok je la.

Lessons Learned : Good prep overall. Need to preapare cold coke on the run course to boost spirit. Enjoyed the race.

4. Penang Marathon, Nov.
Time: 4:56

Good: 6 mins faster than my last and only Marathon in 2009. No cramping and pain factor was kept at minimum.

Bad: Too Slow. Not enough speed work. Hard to sustain 6-6:30 pace for the first half of the run.

Lessons Learned: Need to loose some more weight. Need to be sub 70KG to truly perform for Marathon.

Of IM and long road to recovery

2010-03-07T18:05:00.000-08:00

Since I started doing the multisports, I have come to a conclusion that being an Ironman would be the pinnacle for one's personal goal. I made friends with many IM, some before they become IM, and some after, so much so that I want to be like them. Not because of the glamour or the the title "IM" that u can proudly place in front of your name, it is simply because of the question that I would like to answer it by myself. "Can I do it?" I JUST NEED to know this...and so the long journey begins.

End of Feb, went to Langkawi to witness the 2010 IM for 2 reasons;
1. To recce the venue
2. To soak up the whole experience

Suffice to say the event was nothing short of inspiring, and now, I also have a better sense and idea on the full distance IM. With that, my goal is getting much clearer, which shd translate into a better training plan. Needless to say, the plan looks very long and intensive. It better be.

However...(mesti nak kena ada however punya, drama...) I need to overcome the first obstacle right from the word go. To begin with, I'm injured (since Jan). Dr diagnosed me of having minor meniscus tear and MCL sprain on my left knee. Need to undergo Physio and few assesments. The next one is gonna be early May, which if it doesnt turn out right, the knee will be put under the knife.

So, my training is limited to swim and cycle, which is actually a blessing cos cycling is my worst decipline and cant say otherwise for swimming too. So this "time out" from doing 'weight bearing' activity has forced me to focus more time on swim/cycle which I think is bearing some fruits now. Now my ass on bike saddle have a higher pain threshold and my swim stroke is looking better than before.

I also started slow runs, but not without problems. The pain is still there but not as bad as before. The bigger issue now is the confidence level. For every step with my left foot, I'm always cautious, which resulted in putting more strain on my right. Not good, need to improve this.

Diet is also another area that I'm focussing. There is a certain weight range that I need to achieve to race effectively. Its always hard for endurance athlete to loose weight bcos u always need to have high level of input(food) to sustain the high level of work without affecting performance. So I'm targeting on 3 areas, the 1-Quality of food, 2-The compositon of food and 3-The Timing of intake. It is showing some result as I've lost abt 2 kg for the last 1.5 months without ever getting starved. Hope to shed few more kilos of fat.

In terms of knowledge, now I have a better understanding of the bike, with the help of Bandit, Stupe, Kam and others. I spent some time browsing the net reading bike articles as I'm also planning to upgrade my current bike to something that can do the job in Langkawi.

In summary, to do an IM is a big commitment. I'm hoping that I'd have the tenacity and strive to achieve my dream.

P.S: Eventhough the post date is Mar 7, I only post this on April 27.I drafted this post in early Mar but only now get to post it. Lazy...

Fat boy

2010-01-17T22:43:00.000-08:00

Survived NB 30K, in a disappointing 3:20.
Target 3:15.
Time last year was 2:57.
Pls read report from last year http://jabbeer.blogspot.com/2009/01/polar-bear-on-run.html .

Verdict - 2 reasons
1. I'm fat
2. My legs are not strong enough

Woke up at 4, took the shower and had my ritual 'kubab'. Stomach still feels full from Nasi Lemak dinner binge , instead just had half a cup of coffee. Pushed off with Azmil arnd 4:40 and arrived at 5. Sampai2 je perut buat hal.

Walked from Tugu Negara to Pdg Merbuk. My heart was racing the moment I saw the long queues for the 4 portable toilets. Survival mode kicked in. No choice but to looked for the most isolated longkang to release my bombs there. Was unfortunate as Ikang caught me on the act. Not during the actual bombing, but just before....

At least my stomach felt good for the run. Was flagged off at 5:30. Maintained avg 6min/k for the first 10K. Enjoyed the hill at sekolah Arab cos they were no ligths at all and it was pitch black. Felt like running to Eternity and did not feel like u r climbing a hill as u cant see anything except for ppl few ft in front of u.

Slowed down the pace at the turning of Hartamas as suddenly the left knee felt so painful after running up the hill at Plaza Damas. Tried to put more weight on my right leg, and after 1-2 K, the left knee was OK. Was running at 6:30 avg until the start of Double Hill, probably KM 19. Started to walk for the first part of the hill as fatigue kicked in.

Met Mantat at 21K as he handed me the power gel. Managed to push myself to run 7K/min throughout the hills and came out around Tijani. Was excited to bump into my wife, D, Ezan, Yvone and Nizz at Tijani water station. They were in such a cheerfull mood, wonder why? Walked again for abt 100m just before the climb to go back into double hill. Ezan was there and encouraged me to run up the hill. I sure hell needed that and ran in 6:45 avg untill the start of Jln Sultan Salehudin.

Walked for abt 200m. As I wanted to start to run again up the hill, I start to feel tingling on my right quad. I know well enough that the cramps are coming. Couldnt do much and just walked from there on untill few hundred mtrs before Tugu. Told my self that I need to fight the cramps and slowly started running. As I started to pick-up my pace the cramp tangkap my right calf and left quads, almost stumbled to the ground. No choice but to walk again.

Started runing slowly pass Pdg Merbuk and stopped everytime the tinglings came. Met up my wife and D again at the junction of Bank Rakyat, they tried to give me encouragement and urged me to run. Wanted to run as I'm not really feeling tired but couldnt do much as still having the cramp problem. Sticked to 100 run 50 walk untill the finishing line.

I'm relieved that I can complete the run albeit 5 min off target and 22 mins slower than last year.

Really proud of Ikang from my running group as he clocked in 3:40, 20 mins earlier than target.

But for now;
Immediate target : Recovery and fix the knee
Intermediate target : Strength training + proper diet = Weight loss

To 'tekan' or not to 'tekan'

2010-01-14T00:17:00.000-08:00

I woke up late again this morning. 6:20, wont have enough time to do 5K and to be ready behind the desk before 8. This has been a constance battle for me lately. I can wake up to the rings of my alarm clock but I just dont have enough will power to stay awake.

Earlier, I woke up at 5:30, and turn off the alarm. Sedar2 je dah pukul 6:20. Crap...

My plan was to do at least 5K around KLCC park, in the early morning. Looks like now I have to go to the gym instead during luch to make ammend. So to the gym I went.

I never really enjoyed running on treadmill, so I set a modest target of 6-6:30min/K for 30min. Changed attire and dah pakai kasut semua cukup, terlupa pulak nak pakai knee brace. I've been wearing a knee brace on my left knee to give me extra support when running. I suspect I'm suffering from a minor meniscus tear, but Stupe told me not to self diagnose myself.

Anyway, malas nak bukak kasut utk pakai the knee brace so just decided that I will take it easy on the treadmill. But after 4-5 mins, the knee felt right, so i set the speed to 10.5, which will give me the pace of 5:45-6min/K. For some reasons, felt really good. Decided to 'tekan sikit' and increased the speed untill 12 and ran for 42 mins, tertambah sikit time utk genapkan 7K. So average was 6m/K pasal the earlier part lari2 anak.

Was very satisfied with the run as I think now my knee is getting better. Hopefully it will be in a good conditon for this Sunay 30K run. Insya'Allah.

Lesson learnt: When everything feels right, do extra than what u've planned. It will make up for the time when u feel shitty.

Catching up

2010-01-12T16:43:00.000-08:00

I have not been writing in this blog for about 6 months. I dont need to give any excuses, this is my blog, I can write whenever I feel like writing, and nobody can say anything about it. That's the beauty.

Many eventful things happened in the last 6 months, Noah turned 1, I completed Half Ironman, Tesa completed half marathon to name a few. But one of the thing that stands out and that I take pride on is making my family and friends to lead a more healthy living. I shared and guided them with what little knowledge that I have to help them kickstart their healthy and fitness journey. It just made feel good that at least I'm making impacts on their lives.

But now, I'm gonna write on something that is more current. There are many things that I wanna do this year, but let me scope it down to sporting goal, as it is mainly within my control. I have 2 attainable goals;
1. Complete KL Marathon in 4:30
2. Complete Half IM in 7 hrs

Basically, its all abt improving the timing for these 2 events that I struggled the most last year.

This month, I'm still charting up the plan to attack this. There are so many factors that will come into place. As planning is very crucial, I'm using as much time as possible to design the most effective plan to me.

In general, There are few things that I need to improve to achieve the goals above.
1. Get into my optimal weight of 68KG.
2. Improve in my cycling ability

So my plan will revolve around the 2 areas of improvement above to achieve my goals.

From time to time, I will update the blogs to share my experience in terms of training, races, nutirition etc as I think ppl can learn as much as what I have learnt from this journey.

Wish me luck guys.

Nasi Lemak Bukit Antarabangsa

2009-07-26T18:48:00.000-07:00

Nasi Lemak Antarabangsa!!! U better watch out, there's a new rival in town, and she's loaded with Ribena Berry. Catchy starting sentence huh? Boleh buat iklan kat 'broadband', eh silap, billboard..

Lets go to the report guys...

Had Nasi Lemak at Ikang's house as a reward for him in completing larian Bukit Antarabangsa. His wife Dee, woke up at 5am to cook the rice and then waited through out the whole race to ensure her hubby will get all the support for his maiden run. In fact, as he claimed so often, it was a first attempt for him to do any health related activity after RMC. (Pls Ikang, cake throwing at Hard Rock is not a sport).

Ikang as he is affectionately known by his friends did something that he'd never imagined maybe few months back. He completed 7K of hilly Bukit Antarabangsa terrain and did it in a good 45 mins or so, very, very good for a first timer. And I made it a point to be there and join the race to support him.

But I think his wife was the most happiest. Her effort of persuading him to live a healthier lifestyle has paid off. Eventhough she has been pestered by her ever demanding friends to masak nasi lemak and invite us all to have breakfast at her house after the hubby complete the race. It's so worth it kan Dee?

As for me, a satisfying run and managed to complete it in 34 mins. The only difference for this race was that I got number 26, and top 30 was called to the stage to get a medal. It was so unexpected as I thought I will be slow having had to run sub 5min/km for 5.5K from my house to the venue bcos I woke up late. Had always planned to 'run from house' (my wife hates this phrase), but in leisurely pace as a warm up to the race. But as I mentioned, woke up late and had like less than 40 mins to reach the venue. Apalagi, pulun la, and the heavy rain also did not helped that much. Was happy that Tesa, Noah, Ezan 'Barra' Azira(kesian, couldnt join pasal Dr bodoh tak bagi lari), Ikang and Dee were there to witness it.

After race, ramai2 pergi serang rumah Dee/Ikang for the Nasi Lemak. Were joined later by Atuk(who didn't joined the run pasal bangun lambat), Piche&Ubai, Sahura&Doya, and Farouk&Aff.

Later in the afternoon few of them came to my house for a splish splash session at my condo's pool and Tesa's Kuew Tiow. We ended the day with a Karaoke session at Ampang Park.

All in all, it was time well spent on weekend. Feeling is good to know that more and more of my friends are inclined towards healthier living. Next mission is to get Mantat(in S'pore to see his new heroes - Liverpool) and Black(Piche) to run.

Maiden Triathlon - PD 2009

2009-07-13T18:09:00.000-07:00

Apa ni? semuanya 'Maiden'. Well, its better than saying 'lost virginity' kan? as I lost my virgin in triathlon-ing. And did it joyfully.

This event came 2 weeks after KL Marathon, where I struggled to complete. So this time, I dont want to get hard done by again. I vowed to prepare myself better this time.

The real training only starts the Sunday, a week before the race. As this race intially, was supposed to be a warm-up for the half ironman(IM) end of July(postponed to Oct) , I planned for a heavy duty training sessions, fully knowing the risk that I might not be in peak condition for the PD race bcos I would only be in the middle of my 1/2 IM training.

That was also add on to the fact that my feet was still hurting from the Marathon. So the Sunday a week before the race, Bandit was kind enough to accompany me for an 80K ride in Dengkil/Sepang. Chipang was there too. Was sluggish after the first 50K, but was not worried bcos will be doing Olympic Distance (OD - Swim 1.5K, Bike 40K, Run 10K) in PD.

The week leading up to the race, did double sessions everyday. Gym during lunch followed by run/swim at night. By Friday, I think I'm at 60-70% condition. Good enough to pull me thru the race.

On Sat, checked in to PDGC. Then when straight to register for the race, took me bloody 45 minutes. I was actually intimidated a little bit, looking at all the well defined and toned body of most of the athletes, and the bikes, talk also no use, semua power2. But re-grouped my thoughts, I need to focus abt me only, dont get physcoed by this.

Had a trial swim in the sea with Bandit before the sprint event, which was really a good move, cos now I know how it feels to swim in open water. Needed some time to get to use to, as the water was quite choppy.

Later at night, had the carbo loading dinner and briefing at the hotel. Tesa, Noah, Cyrus and Alisha came arnd 9.30 pm. Went for another round of sea food dinner, and joined by Mantat as well.

Woke up at 6am on Sunday, do my usual stuffs, kubab 2 kali. Biked out from the apratment with Stupe and Bandit. They helped me a lot on how to organise my stuffs in the T area. Did the body marking and went kubab again as usual.

Went for a warm-up swim with bandit 30 mins before start. Tesa and Cyrus came to see me start-off, and I told them to wait 45 mins, cos Ill be out of the water by then. Confident je nak cakap mcm tu.

I was not really nervous at the starting line, even when I dont fully know what to expect. Maybe its because I was confident that I did enough training, and the fact that I've done distances more than the OD in my trainings, cuma tak pernah buat continously je la. The only thing that troubles me was how would I react if I have a puncture. Only had that once during training, and itupun Bandit yg tolong. Well, too late to back out now. Belasah je lah.

We were flagged off at 8:15, and what Stupe said was entirely correct, It was a contact sport. Ppl keep on sepak-ing, pelangkung-ing and shoving me left right up and down for the first 200-300 m. And the choppy water was not doing any favour either. It was very hard to keep my strokes, end up that I need to lift up my head every 3-4 strokes to look to where I was going. After the 1st bouy, as I was entering the marina, the strokes were getting smoother and the traffic clearer. Starting to enjoy it.

As I made the U-turn, tried to relieve myself, kencing la...Ok, now I learn 1 thing, susah nak kencing while swimming, kena stop jugak. The route back was excellent, really enjoyed it. I think I did the fastest in this section. But it gets harder again when I'm back at the last bouy as we were faced again with the strong waves. To my surprise, I clocked 47 min to finish the swim and Tesa n Cyrus were still there, keeping to my words that I'll be done in 45 mins.

Ran to T1, takkan nak jln kot, tak macho la. But at T1, relax gile, pakai kasut slow2 and jalan tolak the bike out. As I started pedalling, I remembered Bandit said not to push too hard for the first few K. Did just that. But after 5K, I've been passed by a lot of cyclist. Lembab sgt ke aku ni? Bila ada org potong je, I will look at the crank position they were using and try to emulate that. Tapi tak laju jugak. I even stopped to pump my back tyre as I tot it doesnt have enough air, a reason I was slow. Shdnt have done that.

I wanted to enjoy the ride, but looking at so many ppl passing me, on the route back I tekan sikit. Maybe shaved 5 mins off. But total bike time was 1:37. Terrible. Need to improve. Especially on the techniques.

At T2, sama jugak mcm T1, took my own sweet time to pakai kasut and tukar bib to my running vest. Leceh betul la nak kena pin2 ni. Shd have bought the racing belt the day before. Started off running behind Upiq and passed him few hundred metres after that, and saw Tesa and the whole family there to cheer me on.

Felt my legs very heavy for the 1st 5k, effect of cycling. Kam told me to do bricks to teach the muscle memory not to have this effect. Walked at all the water stations. Probably was doing 6-6:30 in the first 5K. But hit my strap turning back. Maybe it was like 5:30/km. Enjoyed it very much. Passed by all friends during this leg.

As I was entering the finishing line, wanted to sprint, tapi kaki ada rasa keras2 mcm nak cramp, so just maintained the pace. Greeted first by Chipang 30 m from the line, and then by Tesa, Noah, Cyrus, Alisha, and Mantat. Crossed the line in 3:31. Still in a very good spirit, and enjoyed it very, very, very much. Will come again next year.

Timing:
Swim 1.5K = 47 mins
Bike 40K = 1 hr :37 mins
Run 10K = 58 mins
Total Transitions = 9 mins
Total Time = 3hr 31 mins

Target was 3:30. Lari seminit.

*I want to say special thx to Bandit, Stupe, Mantat, Kam, Upiq, Chipang, Cyrus, Alisha and off course my beloved Tesa and Noah.

Official Timing

2009-06-30T19:21:00.000-07:00

Got the official timing for 42.195K

05:01:53.94

And this is my wife's timing for 10K

01:22:54.02

Maiden Marathon

2009-06-28T19:16:00.000-07:00

As I'm writing this, the pain below my feet is still tingling. Good, that will make my memory fresh from the marathon that I ran yesterday. Yup, I ran the Kuala Lumpur International Marathon and I completed the full 42.195 KM in 5hrs 02mins.

I shd porbably start with my journey to reach this goal. As some of u are aware, my ultimate goal is to be an IronMan(IM), and marathon is 1/3 of the disciplines that I need to complete to become one. It would be foolish if I go to IM without even completing the full marathon distance first.

The farthest that I had run before this was 30K, and this was back in January. And since then, my training has been irregular becos of so many unavoidable reasons, but some of it because I had lazy ass. To cut story short, I had compressed my training plan into 1 mth, and that was a month before the Marathon. (not a good idea).

With the compressed training plan, I never achieved the distance I wanted to achieve in training, because I will always get cramps abt 3/4 of the distance. Eg; If i planned to run 24K, I will end up running 20K only. So, coming in to the Marathon dates, I was not as prepared as I had hoped for. This is not good for me, because my confidence always comes from knowing that I had enough preparation. But I guess now I just had to rely on my mental strength than anything else to carry me thru this.

In terms of food intake, the preparation was the same as before, a lot of carbo 2 days before, but this time, I add on a lot of potasium and sodioum from stuffs like banana and prunes, hoping to prevent the cramps.

So on the race day, woke up at 3.3o. Had breakfast and most importantly, kubab. My dearest wife sent me to Dataran Merdeka, she needs to get back to prepare for her 10K which only start at 7. As I entered the field, met up with Kam, Budin and Akmal. Then Bandit and Shazly came along.

The race was flagged-off at 5 am sharp. The only thing that was on my mind was the the tip by Stupe, 'keep your pace, don't get overly excited'. I felt very good for the 1st 10K (1:10), as it was quite cooling after the slight drizzles just before the race. I re-hydrate at every water station, and that was my plan, to keep on drinking at every stops. Succesfully maintained 7-7.30m/km.

As I passed 15K, my mind started to think abt my wife and Noah. I dont know why, but I was feeling the goosebumps. One thing for sure, I know I have to do this for them, I need to show them u can do anything if u put ur mind into it. I had a banana at the food station, and my pace had risen up to abt 6.45K/min, the sun was abt to rise.

Reaching the 2oK mark, the time was 2hr 1omins. I was going too fast, need to slow down. Went to relieved myself by the bushes and continue running. At this point, I have not stop running yet.

Moving along, tried to slow down the pace to 7mins, but I felt strains on my calves if I try to do that, so maintained 6.45 pace. As I reached 25K, I think somewhere arnd Beach club, I walked up Jln Sultan Ismail instead of running as I'm starting to feel strains on my quads. So I changed my strategy, I will only run up any hills if I dont feel the strains.

But after that, managed to run at 6.45-7min pace till 30K. Eventhough, the pain in my legs is getting stronger, I told to myself, I'm not tired, I'm just in pain. Just shut-up, tahan sikit sakit and get on with it, dont be such a sissy.

I know Mantat is somewhere arnd 30K as he was distributing the power gel. From abt 100m I could saw his towering firgure. I dont why I just felt terharu to see him there. I even refused to take a power gel from the person in front of him, I want to take it from his hands. Well this is what 30k of running is doing to u, it will get u emotional.

It was 8:15 when I reached 30k. I have 1hr 15 mins to do it sub 4:30 and 1:45 to do sub 5. Very do-able. Or so I thought...

I'm telling you guys, the marathon only starts after 30K. The last 12K felt like forever. I only ran when there were flats and downhills. Unfortunately, half of the last 12K was uphill. The part from Istana to Jln Sultan Sallehuddin was ruthless, with big hills and totally exposed to the sun and traffic.

But the worst has yet to come. I was doing the walk 50m run 200m strategy from lake gardens to the peak of Jalan Sultan Sallehudin, to my horror, there was no water at the water station. Its 5k to go and 40 mins to do it sub 5. Sounds easy right? wrong. It was the hardest 5k of my life.

As I start to run with a faster pace, both legs started to cramp, everywhere. Shit, all sort of questions came thru my mind. Will I be able to finish this? I cant even run without having any cramps. But I have to do it, for Tesa and Noah. They must know that I'm not a quitter. I'm not running against time anymore now, I'm running against myself.

At 39K, my strategy is walk 100 run 100. On top of the cramps, I'm starting to feel sharp pain at my rib cage. I was trying as hard as I could to run, but the legs just wont give in, it will just lock.

As I see the finishing line, I was trying with all my might to run, I dont want to finish a marathon walking. But I couldnt bend my legs anymore now, little bend will cause severe cramps. I was limping 100m from fininsh. To withstand the pain, I was grinding my teeth so hard that I think it would crumble into sands.

50m from finish, the public was cheering for the finishers. I tried to run really slowly. I could hear Isma and Callie (frow work) cheering for me.

But my saviour, my angle, my wife came to me 30m from the line. She screamed on top of her lungs and dragged me to complete it running. I dont care abt the pain anymore, I ran as hard as I could without bending my legs at all, to reach the goal, the ulitimate recognisiton of being a MARATHONER. And so I did....Alhamdullillah. Thank God for giving me the opportunity to realised my dream, my everloving wife, the pillar of my strength. And my family and friends, for giving the me support.

Kinabalu Climb - 10th Thoroughbred 20 years of friendship (part 6)

2009-06-03T05:13:00.000-07:00

Day 3 - 22 May 2009 ( Summit Climb)

The guides told us that we need to reach Sayat-Sayat, the last and only checkpoint, before 0530. That gives us abt 2.5 hrs to do that, very do-able. Our game plan was to stick together as a group, at least until Sayat-Sayat, where the guides will verify and certify you to climb to the top.

If I'm not mistaken, we were the 2nd group that started the climb to the peak, as we can see few moving lights ( assume to be headlights, abt 50m ahead of us). We were all walking in a single file. To make sure everybody was close to each other, we started calling ‘nombor dari depan’. I was no 2, behind Ayun and in front of Idi.

It was pure climb all the way man, and you couldn’t see anything except the person in front of you. From time to time, when there were clearances(no trees/rocks), as I turned back, I can see the shimmering lights of KK city. And at that point , I started to realize that the view was not much different from an aero plane. Heck, we were like 3500m above sea level, that’s abt 10-11K feet.

Every 10-20 mins, Ayun will shout for nombor. Mula2 tu dgr la, 1 sampai 11, lepas tu 1 sampai 7, bila dah sampai 1-5, dah malas dah nak call for nombor lagi . Apparently, some of us needed to stop and rest. Air was getting thinner, susah nak bernafas.

To keep the spirit high, at the front of the pack, Ayun, Idi and myself tried to keep the spirit high by singing. But it was a tall order, adala 3-4 lagu je kitorg menyanyi, sampai ‘Taman Rasyidah Utama’ kitorg stop, tinggi beb lagu tu, tak sampai….angin pun dah tarak.

The real...I mean the 'real' climb came when we saw so many lights high above us, but not too far from us, basically kena dongak abt 45 degree jugak la. It was a little bit congested actually, bcos this was the part kena start panjat pakai tali, so pergerakan agak slow.

There were no more trees to protect us from the forceful wind. And for the first time, I doubted myself. All the negative thoughts started to kicked in (kalau terlepas tali, mesti jatuh bergolek2 masuk gaung) . But I stopped for a moment, rechecked, and doubled up the positive thoughts. I’m not one to be put off with this challenges. I must carry on.

At this point, I realized that only Ayun and Idi were left with me. And bcos of that, Ayun was the sole victim of the angin that came out of my ass. Gila bai, asyik terkentut2 je. Ni la bahana makan byk sgt, tapi tak berak2. Eventhough Ayun was walking in front of me, because of the wind, dia yg terpaksa menghirup dan menikmati kentut aku. Sorry bro, Mantat kata pasal ‘Nature’s Valley’ bar. Byk kacang dlm tu. Don’t blame me.

After abt 1.5 hrs, we reached Sayat-Sayat. We cheked in our name and I went to kencing. Still no sign of rasa nak 'kubab'.. good. We(Ayun&Idi) shared, the power gels and put on lip gloss here.

After abt 10 mins rest, we started again. In my opinion, this was the hardest part of the whole climb. Steep gile, kena pakai tali and totally exposed to the wind. Silap langkah mmg Jatuh gaung punya, gerenti.

But it had the most beautiful view of the sky, it was soooo clear. I just felt so close to the stars, I feel I can reach them. But on the ground, we struglled to move up. We stopped every 50 steps.

Kaki rasa berat gila and perut tiba2 buat hal. Byk org kata, tuhan akan bagi dugaan yg berbeza2 dalam perjalanan ini. To me, the god was testing whether I can hold my stool or not. FYI, when I climbed G. Tahan, I sudah melepas kat puncak, and perut sakit the whole way back (Own, my G.Tahan buddy can verify that). Now I don’t want to make the same mistake again. I said to myself if I have to berak dlm seluar, so be it. I don’t care any more. Well obviously, I did not do that. I kept my dignity intacted and passed the test with flying colors as the sakit perut hilang after 10 mins.

Few stops later , suddenly we heard a very familiar voice. Capoi!!!.

As he was the only experience climber, initially he was at the back of the group trying to support the others who he anticipates gonna have problems. But he said, he needed to make a move up bcos he would not be able to continue the climb if he arrives too late at Sayat-Sayat.

He urged us to walk faster if we were to catch the fantastic sunrise. But we told them its hard to do that, so he asked us to walk zig zag. Really zig zag man, like if u walk straight u take 5 steps, by zig zagging u’ll take 20 steps. Sounds like kena jalan lagi jauh, but it fought off the effect of gravity as compared to climbing straight. It works man, it really worked. But by then, Capoi was nowhere to be seen, mcm sherpa la dia jalan.

Now, we were not struggling as much as before. I kept on walking, and I made a target to reach a landmark abt 200m ahead where I saw few lights close to each other. It was actually the 8K mark signboard(3929m). I stopped there and waited for Ayun and Idi. They arrived few minutes later, with Itik and Own, who also started at the back as the sweepers. Unfortunately, they told us that Izzat could not join us to the summit . I feel for Izzat but at the same time I felt very happy as I can reach the summit, which was abt 750m away, with at least 4 other guys at the same time.

We stopped abt 10 mins, gobbled up the PowerBar Gels and drinks and snapped up few pics. Now, this is it man, the last climb up to the peak. We started walking again and I felt very comfortable doing the zig zag. After a while, I turned back, the others were quite a distance from me. But I couldn’t stop, I’m on a good rhtym now.

At the 90 degree turn, maybe 100-70m from the peak. I started to feel very tired again. But as the sun started to rise, I can see the imposing figure of the peak....It was a very humbling feeling.
Allahuakbar, Allah maha besar, those were the words that I uttered, subconciously . The feeling was indescribable. I just felt like I'm soooo small, terharu, sebak and happy. God is great. I don’t know what else to say.

Well I need to keep on. I'm not there yet. I kept on saying “One little step at a time, don’t stop until u reach your goal’. Abt 50m from the peak, suddenly I can hear very clearly Capoi shouting, “C’mon Jabir, sikit lagi”. Those words brought strength to me. I ramp up the pace and at points was running. 5m from peak, Capoi held out his hand to reach and hug me.

At 5:50 AM, 22 May 2009, I was the highest man standing in South East Asia (4095m). Alhamdullillah....

Ayun, Idi, Itik and Own reached the peak few mins after me, to join Capoi and myself at the top. We spent quite some time at the peak to take pics. No need for me to elaborate on the view, it was fantastic. But more importantly, we stayed up there as long as we could (sejuk gila bai angin dia) to enjoy the moment, the moment that will stay with us for the rest of our lives. The moment where we celebrate 20 years of friendship....

Farouk, Pelat and Mantat reached the summit a while later. I’m just so happy for them that they can reach the summit despite all the problems(during the climb) that they had. Bedul succefully reached the 3929m mark and Izat also achieved 3272m.

TIADA GUNUNG TERLALU TINGGI, BUAT KAMI DAKI DI TENGAH "MALAM"....

Kinabalu Climb - 10th Thoroughbred 20 years of friendship (part 5)

2009-06-01T01:32:00.000-07:00

Day 2/3 - 21/22 May 2009 (Laban Rata)

We were given 2 bunks at Laban Rata Rest House. One can fit 8 and the other 4. Semua double deck. The only good thing arriving earlier than the second group was that we can pick the lower deck. Sorry ye kawan2. You know, kalau dah letih tu, nak panjat katil double deck pun considered a serious effort.

After taking the icy cold shower (to be fair, kadang keluar jugak air panas), we waited for dinner and the 2nd group to arrive. We wanted to greet them as they arrived, so Farouk was on standby with his cam. And as I mentioned earlier, they arrived just as the rest house was starting to open the food buffet counters.

I never had that much food since god knows when. Hentam cukup2 punya. Nasi 2 pinggan, mee sepinggan. Belum campur lauk2 and other stuffs. Literally rasa mcm nak pecah perut. Ni bukan carbo load lagi ni, ni dah kira mentekedarah. Lepas makan, most of us just hanged out at the canteen drinking the local coffe and tea, and not forgetting the PowerBar recovery powder, again, courtesy of Mantat. It tasted quite good, mcm orange Tang.

During this time, we were not so active compared to when we started in the morning. Mainly to conserve the energy, or we were actually dead tired. By 7.30PM , most of us went back to the room. Nak kena tidur awal, pkl 1.30 pagi nak kena bangun dah. Semua dok apply deep heat and put on layers of clothing, sejuk gila bai. The room heater only started working at 8PM, and that was only after they stop the water heater, kena gilir2 la... So we lights off at 8.30PM, the heater was still not working.

At this point, lying flat, I started to have difficulties breathing. Rasa mcm tak cukup oxygen je masuk. Took me like 30 mins to get my breathing rhtym back. For me, the key was to inhale really slowly as compared to sharp and intense inhalation. And I was also not feeling comfortable bcos of the bloating in the stomach. Perut tak digest2 lagi. I started to worry bcos I know I need to excrete the food before the summit climb, kalau tak mesti susah nak cari tempat kubab punya.

Tiba2 arnd 10-10.30 most of us bangun serentak, and to my horror, I saw the towering figure of Mantat wearing only his underwear, walking out of the room. Baru je nak sound dia gile ke sejuk2 pakai spender, I felt so hot and warm. Rupa-rupanya the room heater was working sooo well that it made the room felt like an oven. To make it worse, tak boleh nak control la pulak heater ni. Cikai betul. So Mantat was actually walking up to open the door to let the cold air in and balance up the temp. After that it took abt an hour for most of us to get back to sleep.

At 1 am, we were awaken by the thunderous voice of Bedul. Angin betul kitorg semua, ye la, semua kunci jam nak bangun pkl 1.30, mamat ni sudah masuk awal setengah jam. Dah la susah nak tidur, especially si Pelat, langsung tak tidur(teringat girlfriend kot). So we started the final prep for the summit climb and went down to get supper.

This was the point where we needed to wear the snow caps, the gloves, the wind breakers, the headlamp and all the other essentials for cold weather. All set and ready to go. But I was still feeling worried, ishh, tak kubab2 lagi ni, bahaya betul, cos I know I had too much for dinner, and tak keluar2 lagi ni.

At around 3 am, we huddled up outside the rest house. This time, we were in a more serious mode. Nothing much was said, just the recital of the doa. But Bedul had said one powerful statement. "Kita nak panjat puncak ni niat mesti betul. Allah jadikan gunung dan Allah jadikan manusia, jgnlah niat untuk 'tawan' gunung ni, niat untuk menikmati kebesaran Allah"

Dgn bacaan bismillah, we walked up one after another into the darkness of the nite and the bitter coldness of the mountain wind.

Kinabalu Climb - 10th Thoroughbred 20 years of friendship (part 4)

2009-05-29T00:20:00.000-07:00

Day 2 - 21 May 2009 (The Climb - 1st stage)

Ironically, the climb started with a descent. As if telling us to enjoy the gravity before it saps the energy out when you go against it. We started by walking in one big group. All 11 of us. The air was cooling and refreshing. Couldn't be better. But, after few corners, the track changed to ascending mode.

We passed thru a small waterfall after abt 20 mins of walking. Then we faced the first hurdle, a very steep makeshift stairs with the elevation of about 20m. It may sounds low, but the distance between one flight to the other was quite high. We had to raise our leg as high as the hip to get to the next flight of stairs. Some of us let the others passed thru at the bottom of the stairs. They wanted to catch as much air as possible before climbing up.

Just after the stairs, we stopped at the first hut - Kandis. Few of us starting to have doubts on the climb. But ppl like Itik, Capoi, Own had really helped them by giving motivation and cheering them up.

As I mentioned in previous posting, we kind of split into 2 groups. I was with the group that push off first from the hut. But as we started walking, Capoi reminded us no to go too fast, as it is still a loooong way up. And its not a race anyway. Stick to the target -> to reach Laban Rata in healthy condition with enough gas to climb the peak the next day.

At this point, we were still walking in thick jungle with mostly moist clay track. Humidity was quite high. After 30-40 mins, we stopped again at the 2nd Hut - Ubah. Bedul, however, continued walking as he told us that he wanted to keep his pace and rhytm.

The group that I was in had Ayun, Idi and Farouk. We will always munch something every time we stop. Betul la cakap Capoi, u'll always feel hungry. Luckily the ration pack that they gave us was quite a huge portion. Every pack had 3 sandwiches, 2 boiled eggs, 4 popiahs, 1 fried chicken and 1 big fuji apple. Air dpt air soya. It was supposed to last untill Laban Rata. The ration reminded me of the food they provide in Charlie(TUDM's Hercules C-130). As a boy, I always had this kind of food when travelling between Kuching and KL. As a matter of fact, it almost tasted the same. Same caterer kot.

In addtion to the ration, we had all the supplements given by Mantat, and not forgetting the cola electrolyte tablet as well, that we can put in our drinks to replenish the stuffs that goes out with the sweats. I fully utilised the stuffs given by Mantat. Before climbing, had the peanut butter PowerBar, managed to finish it albeit struggling a little bit. Powerbar ni kalau time sejuk keras gila. Boleh patah gigi. On top of that, I always munched my trusted mini sneakers bar, even if I felt slightly hungry. Worked for me in Gunung Tahan, I'm sure it will do its wonders again in Kinabalu.

By the time we reached the 3rd hut-Lowii, we met the first group coming down. Exchanged few words, well, mostly we asked their experience climbing it. They gave some encouraging words, enough to keep our spirits high.

I still sticked with the same group from second hut. We took the opportunity to snap any nice pics along the way. And from time to time, Ayun and me will start singing. Our repertoire of songs ranges from P.Ramlee, to lagu cheer to lagu rock kangkang 80s&90s. Most of the time lagu rock kangkang la. Mcm terer je nak nyanyi, padahal tercungap2 jalan. Habih lirik semua kitorg tukar.

Next stop was Mempening. By the time we reached there, we saw Bedul lying to the tiang with both feet flat on the bench. He said he was starting to feel the cramps. Tgh lepak2 makan my mom called, asking me to go the Australian Embassy to sort out her visa. Alamak, lupa nak cakap mak aku yg aku panjat gunung, sori la mama, balik kl nanti baru buatla.

From this hut and all the huts until Laban Rata, we will call Itik asking on the condition of the group he was in everytime we stopped. It seemed that the are still slugging it out and enjoying every moment of it. Itik said not to worry, they will be in Laban Rata in time for dinner, which will be at 5 pm. So, they are shifting their focus to food now, not a bad idea.

After Mempening, some of us were showing signs of struggles at times. Ayun and myself could only give them words of encouragement to keep them going. Hold on, we did more than that, we finished up their food. Some of them wanted to reduce the load, so I helped them by finishing up their rations, bcos mine dah habih by 4th hut. OK la tu, kira tolong la jugak tu, tolong makan. This was also the time when masing2 sudah bawak keluar all the deep heats and what not. Kaki dah cramp2 beb.

Yg best bila berenti makan kat hut was that all the cute squirels will kerumun u mintak makan. Bagi apa pun depa telan je. Mcm aku la, bagi apa pun aku telan je. Mantat cerita, in his group , Izat will cabut lari bila tupai2 ni mintak makan kat dia. Geli dia kata.

After Villosa, 5th Hut i think, the terrain has changed. And we are now above the clouds. I think the altitude was more than 2.5K M. It started to get cold, and pokok2 pun berubah kepada pokok2 renek. The track pun dah start berbatu, air started to get thinner. Tapi, mamat2 and minah2 porter boleh selamba lagi panjat angkat tong gas lah, tong minyak lah, pakai kasut getah je bai. Rasa malu je kalau kena potong dgn diorang.

By this time, Capoi managed to catch up with us, dia kata kupon makan ada kat dia and dia nak kena check-in utk kitorg. Pasai tu dia kena cepat, so he had to leave the 2nd group. So he climbed with my group until Laban Rata. Yg lawaknya, Farouk ada la dekat 5 kali kena con dgn Capoi. Bcos he kept on asking 'brp jauh lagi Poi?', after Paka hut. And almost everytime Capoi will said 'lepas corner depan tu"... mmg tak pernah betul la. Angin je Farouk, tapi terubat dgn keindahan awek Jepun yg jalan depan kitorang .

At last, after abt 6-8 hrs of climbing. the first group reached Laban Rata arnd 1515 and 2nd group arnd 1700, just in time for dinner. Way off from our targets. But as I said earlier, its not a race, we were just enjoying every moment of this first stage of the climb by taking pics, singing and busy rubbing deep heat.

*To get a better idea of the trail, u can go to http://www.mount-kinabalu-borneo.com/mount-kinabalu-summit-trail-1.html

Kinabalu Climb - 10th Thoroughbred 20 years of friendship (part 3)

2009-05-28T01:21:00.000-07:00

Day 3 - 21 May 2009 (pre-climb)

For all the talk that we have talked, this is the time to walk the walk...

Woke up at 0600, dah terang benderang. Bangun-bangun je sudah angin, nak kubab tak boleh pasal air tarak. Dah la terpijak air yg bertakung dlm toilet, mak ai..sejuk gile. Ni semua Mantat punya kerja la semalam. He wanted to sort of clean/rinse the toilet floor, but to his horror the toilet doesnt have any water outlet. Leceh betullah...

We reported to Capoi of this water problem. He went down. 10-15 mins later air dah ada. I think the org cabin tu takut dgn loud speaker Capoi kut. Cepat2 dia bukak pump. Dekat cabin ni, the water heaters are a bit special. They are being heated by actual fire. Serious man, no kidding. They have this kind of penunu bunsen bawah heater compartment to heat the water up. Jakun jugakla kitorang tengok.

We went down arnd 8, wearing the magnificent orange dyr-fit t-shirts designed by Mantat. Jauh sebatu pun boleh nampak. Had another photo session with the mount as the backdrop. Betul la cakap Itik, bila tgk gambar balik mcm team Holland, except the real team tak boroi2 mcm kitorang la.

One thing I wanna touch about this t-shirt is that we had a line of lyric from commando song written at the back "Tiada gunung terlalu tinggi, buat kami daki di tengah MALAM". I'm sure you can spot the difference. Yep, the original line was PANAS, but Mantat changed it to MALAM, accidentally. But come to think of it, it does make sense, bcos our final climb to the summit will be at 2-3 AM. Good thinking lah Mantat.

We reported ourselves at Kinabalu Park arnd 0830. They passed to us the permit to climb, a tag that bears our name. You need to hang it on your neck at all time. As expected, they misspelled my name - Mior Arip Iskandar. Arif la bang. Ada jugak 2-3 org yg nama tak betul. We need to correct this at the last checkpoint(Sayat-Sayat) tomorrow, kalau tak tukar, it will be the one written in the cert.

The guides (Tubik & Sigol) did a briefing on our climb. Some key points that they touched were on cleanlines (jgn buang sampah rata2 and kalau nampak sampah tolong kutip)and on the pace (dont stop for too long nanti senang cramp).

The plan for the whole climb was,
1. Timpohon Gate - Laban Rata (4-7 hrs, 6K)
The next day
2. Laban Rata - Sayat-Sayat (1 - 2.5 hrs, 1.5K)
3.Sayat-Sayat - Low's Peak (1 - 2 hrs, 1.5 K)
4. Low's Peak - Laban Rata (1-2 hrs)
5.Laban Rata - Timpohon Gate (3-6 hrs)

Got on board the van again to get to Timpohon. This time they sumbat all 11 of us in the van. The spirit was very high. Hingaq gila with the usual kutuk-mengutuk. We were anxious and excited. The adrenalin starting to kick in. As we got off the van, Ayun had the last say..."selamat menZAKI"....as he saw the sign at Timpohon.. "SELAMAT MENDAKI"...Mantat panas.....

Some of us bought the nicely carved climbing pole for RM3 at the gate . Others have the canggih aluminum poles they brought from KL. This walking stick/pole really helps the climb. Advisable to use, as it can lessen the force you put on your legs.

Before the climb, I lead the strecthing and warm up. Meletup-letup bunyi sendi2 and lutut budak2 ni. Angin2 dlm badan, dgn kentot2 semua keluar sekali. Then we huddled up ala-rugby team, one hand on top of the other person's hand, the other hand hugging the mate next to you. Masing2 memberi sepatah dua kata which was caught on Farouk's camcorder. This moment was..... special.

After that, Bedul and Own recited the doa. Finally we had the loudest roars of GEMPUR WIRA. Habih terkejut beruk2 and ungka2 dekat Kinabalu Park yg baru nak makan breakfast.
3 kali GEMPUR WIRA!!!
GEMPUR...WIRA!!!
GEMPUR...WIRA!!!
GEMPUR...WIRA!!!

The official climb started at 0910. And so it began...

Kinabalu Climb - 10th Thoroughbred 20 years of friendship (part 2)

2009-05-26T01:19:00.000-07:00

Day 1 - 20 May 2009

Woke up at 4:15, went out arnd 4:45. Picked up Bedul at Taman TAR. Supposed to rendezvous with Ayun at KL Sentral. Arrived arnd 5:30, tapi Ayun lambat sikit so we couldnt check-in at Sentral. And we scrapped the idea of using a cab as ERL would be much efficient and just cost a little bit more. Arrived at KLIA arnd 6:15, tried to check-in using the kiosk, failed. Nasib baik Ayun stayed in the line, so managed to check in without much problem, anyway, I didnt have any check-in luggage, so it was fast.

At arnd the same time, Farouk, Mantat and Capoi were on their way to LCCT. The Air Asia flt was abt 30 mins earlier than us. They spent the night before at Itik's house, and they did not sleep at all, as they were busy looking for Farouk's watch which was lost, as assumed by Farouk, in Itik's house. So terbongkok-bongkokla diorang tgh2 malam dok cari jam farouk.

While waiting for Itik and Idi to arrive, we had breakfast at KFC. Ni semua Ayun punya pasai la, dok mengidam KFC dari dlm train lagi. So hentam la kat KFC without knowing that MAS provides meal. Arnd 6:45, Itik and Idi sampai. While waiting, sempat la jugak aku 'kubab'.

Along the way to the aircraft, Idi dok mintak mcm2 kat Itik, mintak upgrade la, mintak tu lah, mintak ni lah. Sekali Itik sudah perli baik punya "Company in memang aku punya, mintak la apa2 hang nak mintak" Adusss, tajam...

Flt was 80% full. I think the meal in the box by MAS is a good idea, cos u can easily carry it off the plane if u want to. And BTW, we did that, saje nak bagi Mantat panas bcos dia naik air Asia, makan kena beli.

Flight was smooth, except for the landing, bumpy sikit. Mantat, Capoi and Farouk greeted us at arrivals as the van picked them up first. We pushed off straight to Hyatt where we will meet Izzat and Own who had checked in there the day before. Bila sampai, berlonggok2 lah kitorang semua duduk dlm satu bilik while waiting for transport to Kinabalu Park. Rasa mcm lepak kat 'bunk' masa boy dulu la. Asap berkepul2.

We had lunch and last minute shopping kat mall sebelah Hyatt. And Pelat, the last member met us there. For some, that was the first time they met Pelat after RMC, 16 years ago man. Quite emotional, especially for the Delta boys.

Bought myself a pair of football socks, to give extra warmness while climbing. Most of them bought towels as Capoi told us our next destination tak provide towels. Ada jugak yg stocked up their medical kits and food supplies, But Farouk was the best, he bought a digital watch for 48 bucks. Dia kata tak complete kalau tak pakai jam.

At 1430, we pushed off to Rose Cabin, located 5 mins from Kinabalu Park, 2 hrs from KK. We split 8 into the van and 3 in a car. The view along the road was breathtaking. Its kind of ironic as Sabah has so much land, but still some areas need to be reclaimed. I can understand this bcos its easier to dump land rather than to blow up hills, especially to widen roads that are sandwiched by the sea and the hills.

We were busy taking photos of the mountain at any glimpse we could get from the van. Memang susah, siap pening2 kepala semua cukup. Fortunately, we pit stopped (more than an hour actually) at pekan Nabalu, abt 30 mins before Rose Cabin, which has an opposite view of the mountain. The town is about 1000M above sea levels, and it is separated with the mount by a valley. We had tea break and took a lot of photos again. Some did their craftworks shopping. I bought a fridge magnet, beli la something buat kenang-kenaangan, takkan tak beli langsung kut.

We reached Rose Cabin arnd 6 and checked in. This was when we supplied our names for certificate preparation. I bunked in with Itik and Mantat. Crap, masa tu terlupa pulak yg Mantat punya dengkur mcm bot ekzos pecah. Settled in an waited for dinner. We had a good look of our track for tomorrow because u can see the landmarks(Power station, Laban Rata) from our balcony.

While waiting for dinner, we were busy packing our stuffs for the climb tomorrow. We tried to minimised as much as possible but not leaving the essentials behind. I brought my medical kit, knee guard, compression top and tights, 1 dry-fit shirt, windbreaker, gloves, scarf, snowcap, toiletries, camera, phone, polar HRM and footpod, a small towel, PowerBars and Gels and last but not least my beloved mini pack Sneakers. I guess the others were also bringing up more or less the same stuffs.

We had a good dinner at 7. After that we had the last briefing for the climb by Capoi and distribution of supplements by Mantat. We did discussed on the strategy for the climb and decided that we shd only decide whether to break into groups after the first checkpoint tomorrow. The objective for tomorrow was simple, to reach Laban Rata and yet still conserve enough gas for the summit climb the next day.

After dinner, lepak2 and sembang2 until 10-11.Some of them were still packing and repacking their bags. I only managed to sleep after putting on the ear plugs. Dalam bilik tu mcm medan perang, kalau tak pakai ear plugs tak tidur la aku.

End of Day 1.

Kinabalu Climb - 10th Thoroughbred 20 years of friendship (part 1)

2009-05-24T22:11:00.000-07:00

Background

3 Jan 2009 marked 20 years I knew most of my batchmates from RMC. On the same date 20 years ago, we registered ourselves, not fully knowing what to expect, into The Royal Military College, our home for the next 5 years of our lives. Should I say here, 5 wonderful years of our lives. From that moment on, we were strangers no more. We have become more than friends, we are family.

To strengthen this bond, Itik and Mantat came up with the boldest idea early this year- "Apa kata kita panjat Gunung Kinabalu to celebrate this?" My first reaction - Gile ke budak2 ni? I fully knew the pain and tribulation of climbing a mountain having had the opportunity to climb Gunung Tahan with some of the boys. This was back in 1992 when we were in form 4. And I can tell you it was not that pleasant of an experience. And this was when we were at the peak of our fitness level.

But I guess, the feeling of doing this kind of activity again, only with the boys, was a good enough reason for me to sign up. And I do agree with Itik and Mantat, what better ways to celebrate our friendship than doing silly things, yeah, its kinda silly considering the fitness level of most of the boys now. Well, boys will always be boys.

Preparation

Mantat and Capoi were the ones who were practically doing the actual planning and organising. Stuffs like sending emails and sms communications, budget, itinerary, and etc were mostly done by them. We did have few meetings, well basically more of a TTS at Rasta Taman Tun to sort things out and do some discussions.

Itik organised few futsal sessions just to get back the boys in shape in a fun way. I also lent my experience by conducting fitnes sessions (running and climbing stairs). Some of them also had few ping pong sessions, dont ask me how it can help in climbing a mountain, it works for them

All the while from the moment the idea was mooted until the climbing day, the list of participants keep on fluctuating. In the end, only 11 confirmed to climb, they were;

Razlim Rashid - JUO C (Capoi the Sherpa, 6 time reached the summit)
Ahmad Razman Zaki - SP C (Mantat, PowerBar Man)
Khairul Nizam Tajul Hasnan - SP C (Ayun, blackberry Man)
Khairul Anuar Abdul Wahab - SP D (K-Own, Futsal Owner)
Rafiee Kamarudin - JUO D (Pelat, Org kuat Pekan, reached summit in form 4)
Farouk Abd Khalid - SP D (Farouk, Got Streamyx problem, call him)
Tuan Azmil Abdullah - SP E ( Bedul, Official pembaca Doa)
Mior Arif Iskandar - JUO F (Jabir, IronMan wannabe)
Romizan Hanifah - SUO G (Itik the Sweeper, with Golden(MAS) wings)
Eikma Izzat Ripin - SP G (Izzat, Towkay Minyak "we are drivers too")
Idi Kadiron Mat Isa - SP H (Mataron, can sell anything under the sun)

For equipments, Capoi gave us a list of stuffs to bring. I took the opportunity to get my stuff during my biz trip to the States. The others were being advised by Mantat on what and where to get those stuffs. Most of them bought Salomon trekking shoes, damn good. Benda2 yg susah nak cari mcm headlamp, Capoi beli murah je dekat uptown Danau Kota.

For food and supplements, we were fully sponsored by Mantat with his PowerBar products. We got everything, from PowerBar bars, to carbo gels, to recovery drinks and etc. Semua Mantat sponsor.

Flight ticket masing2 beli sendiri. MAS ada Air Asia pun ada, in the range of 170-450 for return flights, we purchased early.

>>to be continued.

Congrats Baby

2009-03-17T07:41:00.000-07:00

I just want to specially mention to everbody that my wife, Tesa, completed her first 10K race in 1:22 last Sunday in Larial Amal Bukit Jalil.

I want to give special credits to her for having the determination and commitment to achieve it. Her target was simple, complete 10k in 1:25 and not to stop at all in doing it. She achieved both.

FYI, she had just given birth to our wonderful baby just 7 months ago, and to be able to do this when she was not even running this far pre-pregnancy was something to be proud of and shout about.

And I need to mention here too that she got a lot of help and motivation from Ezan, who also completed the race in 1:15.

Congratulations to both of you, and good luck for more races to come.

Running in "Lone Star State"

2009-03-17T06:54:00.000-07:00

I have not been updating my blog for more than a month that I dont even bother to write what I've been doing duirng those period. Too much to write.

Anyway, I've been a week in Houston now and have 2 more weeks to go. Before I flew off from KL, I made a pledge to myself not to make this business trip as an excuse not to train. Initially, it was very hard to start, with jet-lag and all. But last Wednesday, I finally managed to pull myself together and did a 3 miler (saje nak ikut org US, diorg pakai mile je semua kat sini). I ran at arnd 10 pm and there were still so many ppl running or playing in the park. And the way the park being lit, was very helpful.

Then on Friday, I did a run in the morning. I only realised how cold it was only after I got out of the hotel. Crap, just last nite it was like 30 deg, and now like 5 deg. Luckily I wore the compression top that I bought for Kinabalu trip. Did a 5 miler.

On Saturday, went out in the morning as well. And it was worse. Freezing temp + rain. I took it as a challenge and did 10K in 49 min. I guess bcos it was too cold I ran faster than normal bcos I wanted to finish it faster and get it done with. And btw, Houston is as flat as it can be thats why I can do good timing.

Besides that, ate a lot of steaks and did a lot of shopping. Its crazy2 cheap. Well, they are stimulating their economy by getting ppl to spend. Most of my shoppings are done at Factoty Outlets, and most of the deals are discount 50% on selected items, and on top of that 30% for entire store. So an item that cost 100 bucks, will end up like 35 bucks. And its already cheap to begin with becos its being sold at Factory outlets. Simply said, ada org pesan coach handbag, it would costs 1,500 rm in KL, but got it for only 165 USD. Crazy man...

Off course, bought 2 adidas shoes for total 70 USD. Got myself the Adidas Response Cushion 17 for the marathons and Boreal TR for Kinabalu escapade.

And Noah is the one getting the most of my shoppings. Talking abt that, I miss him and Tesa so much. Especially when Tesa told me that he'd 'cebik' when I'm being put on speaker phone when I call home. Man....2 weeks to go.

Saturday romantic run and 10th Thoroughbred ride.

2009-02-15T19:16:00.000-08:00

We celebrated Valentine's this year by running at KLCC park. To make it even sweeter, Noah was with us.

We went out from our house at 7:15 to meet up with Ezan at the park. We were a bit anxious as this would be the first time we are bringing Noah out while he is still sleeping. He was sound a sleep while we get in the car and put him in the strolller as we reached KLCC.

Initially, I was running and pushing the stroller at a leisurely pace of 7-8 min/km. Noah still sleeps. So I ramp up my pace to max 5min/km, and Noah just slept like a 'baby', well he is still a baby. He must be enjoying the motion. And I'm glad that the stroller can hold up to my run. I only need to slow down at the un-rubberized part of the jogging track as it can cause the stroller's front wheels to shake uncontrollably. So after this, we can always bring Noah for our family run.

Was also proud of my wife, completed 5 rounds( abt 7K) without stopping. Her target by mid March is to complete 10K without stopping, which I truly believe she could, and I think she can complete it less than 1.5 hrs.

Had a sort of welcoming dinner to OP Farouk and Af. They had just moved in to UK Perdana, which is about 5 mins away from my house. So Farouk is now officially part of Ulu Kelang cycling fraternity. I'd surely enjoy my ride up to his house. Damn long hill.

On Sunday, did a ride at Guthrie. Co-incidently, all the riders were from my batch (Chipang, Itik n Farouk). First time(distance wise- abt 40K) for both Farouk and Itik and they did it with ease, except for few complaints on sore ass. Farouk was using Chipang's MTB and Itik was using fully carboned Giant Time Trial road bike given by his National Coach brother in-law. Ringan gila beb...

I truly enjoyed the ride, especially when we stopped for our breakfast at Elmina R&R. I think the time we took to eat was almost half the time we ride. We were joined in by Mantat, the Powerbar Man. Well, he definitely did not rode with us. He drove from his house to join us just for the breakfast, but by the portion of rice that he took, looks to be more of a lunch rather than breakfast.

Hopefully we can do this ride with my batch mate more often in the future.

Update 2nd Half January

2009-02-02T21:40:00.000-08:00

I can sum up this update with only 1 word, COLONOSCOPY. Yep, I had that procedure done to check on the everlasting stomach pain that I had for more than 3 weeks.

COLONOSCOPY = Having a camera shoved up the Ass.

And I was relieved that they found nothing serious (eg; polyp, ulcer, cancer) in my stomach/intestine/liver etc.. only some bacteria infections that can be solved by taking some antibiotics and regular worm medicine. But I cant tell you how does it feel, bcos I passed out. Well, I was supposed to pass out, kalau conscious cuak jugak...And BTW, they also inserted 1 more camera through my throat, like the nurse asked me, 'Encik nak kena masuk atas bawah ke?' while prepping me up.

Spent my CNY in Cherating. This was when I discovered that u can take cinnamon to cure stomach problem, especially for heartburn or acidity problem, bcos cinnamon has some level of alkali that can cure that problem. At first, asked my wife to sprinkle ground cinnamon on a toast bread. And it worked. But after that, whenever I had pain, I just chew the cinnamon raw, and believe me, it is sweet and quite soft, and easily dissolved in your mouth. But it leaves a soapy after taste, like u just licked a soap kind of taste.

We also attended Stupe's open house. His house is nice and cosy, complemented by the warm hospitality of Stupe, his wife, Ryan and Nadia. And the nasi lemak was fabulous, no wonder the towkay drives a C-class, as Stupe told me, he sent the nasi lemak to Stupe's house using that car. Business must be really good.

But last Wed, as I started going back to offc, the pain in my stomach was unbearable. So decided to see the specialist (gastroenterologist). They had taken my blood sample and told me to come the next day for the colonoscopy. I think the worst part about this procedure is the preparation. I need to fast more than 12 hrs and can only eat plain white bread/porridge before fasting, and then drink up 2 litres of laxative in 2hrs time to start excreting the content of my stomach to be ready for the procedure.

First, the laxative drink's taste was terrible, mcm minum air laut yg tawar campur glukos. 2 liter pulak tu nak kena minum.

Second, had to go to toilet 15-20 times, mula2 tu ada jugak keluar isi, last2 tu keluar air je. letih.....

So guys, better watch what you eat, as the Dr told me, the possible cause of my problem might be bcos some contaminated food.

On my training, took almost a week rest after GE 30K. Started with recovery run in Taman Tar, then did 1 x DUKE ride, 2 x beach run in Cherating and 1 x Guthrie ride during CNY holidays. Azmil rode for the first time in Guthrie and he did very well to complete the 40K.

After the pain on Wednesday and procedure on Thurs, start of again with a 10K run in Pandan loop on Friday. It was sluggish, I think it may be the after effect of the laxatives and the procedure. Did and interval run on Saturday using Polar for the first time. Set 3 zones with different speed limits. It will beep whenever u go too slow or too fast. I like it a lot.

Polar Bear on the run

2009-01-19T17:09:00.000-08:00

Had a shopping spree mid-week last week. Not really a spree, just wished it was. Actually went to Mantat's sports shop in Bandar Tasik Permaisuri. Mantat co-owned this outfit. They are, if I'm not mistaken, sole distributor of Powerbar in Malaysia. You'd never missed them in any of the endurance events. They'd normally set up booth to sell their product, which BTW not limited to Powerbar only. And sometimes, co-sponsored those events.

If you want to buy cheap high quality sporting goods, u guys can go to his shop, sorry la lupa nama kedai dia, but u wont miss it if u go to Bandar Tasik Permaisuri as his shop is the only sport shop there. It might not carry the major brands, but I can tell u, the stuffs that he is selling is the same quality if not better than what u can find in the mainstream market. I bought an un-orthodox designed cycling jersey for RM75 and Polar(HRM+FootPod) for a much lesser price. Cant disclose, but definitely much cheaper. So guys, pergilah beramai-ramai ke kedai Mantat. And Mantat, aku dah buat promo ni bagi la diskaun lagi.

Bila dah dpt jam baru, apalagi, Batak la nak try. Petang tu jugak sudah layan Taman TAR dgn Tesa. Yes, my wife has picked up again her love for running. So she was using the nike+ while I used Polar. She did 1 round but I continued another round to test out more features on the watch. Verdict - Very satisfied, couldnt say much actually as I have only compared it with nike+, I know, its not apple to apple comparison.

On the other note, Ezan, Mantat's wife is also addicted to running now. And I felt good cos she said I'm one of the reason she wanted to run again, well, actually the main reason bcos her hubby gave her a Polar watch too. I was happy that I could give some tips for her to get started, not to say that I have enough experience, just trying to help anybody starting out. In Ezan's case, starting out again.

Slowed down my run routines for last week as the big race was on Sunday. Did freakish carbo loading on Fri and Sat. Tibai nasi 2 pinggan pkl 5 on Friday and malam boleh tibai pizza and pasta lagi. Saturday was no different, had 3 pinggan nasi and lauk sikit during my batch 20 yrs friendship re-union dinner. But had to passed the Kambing golek.

The dinner was great as this time we did something more meaningful. Did the Maghrib, Yassin, Isya' and sembahyang Hajat. After dinner we viewed a slide show on old photos. As you could imagine, suasana gamat ya'amat. Kudos to Ikang and other committee.

Well, at last, Sunday is here. Woke up at 4.30. Had 2 slices of bread and a cup of coffee. Azmil and Faisal came to my house and we went off together at 5:15. Arrived arnd 5:40 had difficulty finding parking space. Walked down for about 1.5 K, which is good, sort of to warm up. Lepak kat tent Powerbar Mantat. Met Kam. Terkucil 2 kali behind the bushes.

The run started excatly at 6:17am. Cant do much on the 1st K as the run started up a hill, so it was quite slow and very crowded. Took this oppotunity to jump into the bushes and terkucil for the 3rd time, well, at least tak terasa nak ter'kubab' tu dah kira cukup bagus la. Maintained arnd 5:30/k pace for a good 10K. Clocked 56 min/10K. Was dong quite fine and was enjoying the climbs more than the decsends (note: need to work on downhill run). Reached 15K on 1:26. Walked for few hundred meters to eat the carbo gel and replenish my fluid.

As I started running back, felt some pain on the outer part of my left foot. Kept on running but couldnt shake off the pain. Stopped and re-strapped my shoe. Pain still there. I think Adizero LT is good only for short distance 20K or less, coz the impact of the run started affecting me arnd that distance. The cushion is quite minimal, more for speed I guess (Shd have listened to Stupe to get a more cushioned shoes). Just buat bodoh and kept on running. Met up with Stupe(he was pirating) arnd Plaza Damas. He ran with me for few hundred mtrs and he left off to seek for OP Chief Kutu. Tabik la kat Stupe. He was supporting few other runners as well by giving encouraging words, even after he had ran more than 20K.

The real pain started at 18K mark. It was unbareable, the pain in my foot. But had to maintained as I know Shazly is waiting somewhere there taking photos, tak nak la dia snap photo muka aku kesakitan. When I reached 20K. The pain was too much. Walked for about 500m. And started running very slowly for abt 1-2K. Was doing as slow as 7min/K.

But some how, got back my spirit. Was telling my self don be such a sissy. So pushed myself not to exceed 6min/K if I were to complete it sub 3 hrs. Almost wanted to stop again at KM 26/27. But Shazly came a long and told me 'jgn nak mengada2 berhenti skrg, 3K je lagi'. Well, just pinned back my ear and pushed whatever left in my tank. Finished GE30K in 2hrs 57min. Puas hati...memang puas hati. Next stop, Kenyir triathlon.

Getting Ready for G.E.30K

2009-01-11T17:52:00.000-08:00

The whole week was spent wisely, I think, to prepare my self for the run on th 18th.

Started of with 14K on previous Sunday, from my house, Wangsa Maju to Taman TAR + Taman TAR loop.
Recovery on Monday, 6.5K, KLCC.
Intervals on Tuesday, 6.5K, KLCC.
Long run on Wednesday, shorten to 4 K only, perut buat hal.
Long run on Thursday, 10K, Pandan Loop.
Leisure ride 22K with Bandit, Kam and the Melewati gang on DUKE, before it opens on Friday.
Bogged down with stomach bug, Friday and Saturday.
Long run on Sunday, 24K, Bukit Aman-Hartamas-Double Hill-Bukit Aman.

Tested the nike+ plus sensor(borrowed from Azmil) for the 1st time on Thursday, and I think the reading was quite accurate. Did not have any problem eventhough I was wearing Adidas shoes, easily slip it in the side of the shoe. This was what it reported. Time= 1:01'29", Dist=10.83K, Pace=5'40"/K. Wasted a lot of time as I was fiddling with the iPod and stop so many times bcos of that. Maklumla, perak, baru 1st time pakai.

Enjoyed it so much that Ibought it the next day for RM 109. As I have iPod Nano already, the investment made is minor. I figured, before I have enough money to buy the Polar GPS watch, I can just use nike+ plus for the time being. Now, I need to korek in my boxes to look for the arm strap, leceh siut nak bawak keluar masuk iPod from my running short's pocket.

On Friday, went to The Bike Boutiqe by accident. Went to pay my bills at Flora Damansara, and then teringat Bandit cakap TBB is besides Citibank. Spent quite some time there looking arnd and bought the magnetic reflector/LED lights that u can paste it on your running/cycling jersey. I think this is one of the best device from safety point of view. The lights are quite strong and can be seen as far as 1/4 mile. Now I'd have a better peace of mind if I ride/run in the dark.

Saturday went to Irina's (Charlies's and Noreen's daughter) aqiqah in Putrajaya. The food catered was fantatastic, had this poached telur itik masak lemak. Sedap gile siut. And ayam goreng Kg. Attap was to die for. As this day was my carbo loading day, apalagi, hantam cukup2 la.

Sunday, the plan was to do the GE route. Started of at 6:50. Was actually sesat after the Memorial Tunku Abdul Rahman. Managed to find my way back. That was also the point where I realised that the nike+ sensor was not working. I've slip it in my shoe the other way around. Stupid, only realised this after running for abt 23 mins.

Nevertheless, reset the device and ploughed my way quite solidly to Hartamas Petronas. Had a can of 100 plus. And continued up Jalan Hartamas and turned back. Was still running solidly to the start of double hill. Stupe would have been proud of me. I was not panting as badly as when I had the run with him few mths back. He had made a significant change in my life from that run, I stop smoking. Went tru the hills without stopping a single time.

This was the timing I got from nike+(after fixing it).
Dist= 19.62 KM, Time=1:44:32, Pace=5:19/km.
As I had ran a good 23 mins before I reset, taking avg pace of 5:19/km, I'm guessing that I actually have covered 4.3 KM. In summary, this wd be the details.
Dist= 23.93 KM, Time=2:07, Pace=5:19/km.
For the race on 18th, I need to cover 30K. My target is to complete it in 3 hrs. I sure hope I can.

2nd Half Dec Updates

2009-01-05T18:40:00.000-08:00

Where to start, too many things to talk about as I've not been updating this blog for quite some time. Basically, Dec was jam-packed.

Attended few kenduris and B'day parties. Aisyah's wedding, Anak Arfan's Aqiqah, Iman's B'day and the biggest of them all, my brother's wedding ceremonies.

Also had few rounds of golf, the first one for Maon's farewell, and the other one for Atuk's homecoming. Nothing much to talk about except that now I know Maon can hit his drives 270-300m. Mamat ni makan besi agaknya, and to top it off, he hit 80% fairway with that monstrous drives. If only his putter could be more loving to him, he could have easily hit mid 80s.

Kapt Mior Azmir Shah (Mir)'s wedding was the major and significant event for my family. Since he's the last one, our family wanted to finish it with a bang. I was really feeling the heat and stressed as I was being tasked as the entourage coordinator for the trips to Syikin's(Mir's wife) house and the floor manager for the event in KGPA.

A lot of planning needs to be done and it was made much more difficult bcos u are dealing with families, not so easy to dictate them, if u know what I mean. I cant recall the number of times I need to print and reprint the itineraries and plans to accommodate changes that changed so dramatically like the weather in December. Alhamdullillah e'verything went smoothly for the Akad Nikah on 31 Dec night, Bersanding di rumah perempuan on 1st Jan and of course, the biggie one at KGPA on 3rd Jan night.

I am very proud with the committee members and all the working personnel as the event at KGPA was right on the dot, starts at 8pm and finished at 9.30. Very rare nowadays. And I fell very satisfied that more than half of the guests could witness for the first time the ceremony full with Military tradition with sword bearers, bag pipes etc. My sister in-law, Jehan, even said that one day she wants to marry a Military man, just so she could have this kind of wedding.

On the other hand, I was not able to do much training for the GE30K this 18 Jan, even though I was so inspired by Dean Carnazes, the Ultra-Marathon man. So inspired that I ran from my house in W maju to Taman TAR, complete the Tmn TAR hill and finished at 7E Ampang Jaya..at 12 noon last Sunday. Hoping that this punishing route could cover up for my lack of training the past few weeks after Malakoff 12K.

Before I forget, the whole family witnesed the first time Noah rolled over un-asssited...this just tops everything.

Malakoff Sunday

2008-12-22T19:10:00.000-08:00

With all the postings I had made before, this posting would be the first on an actual race that I participated.

Date: 21 Dec 08

Time Start: 7:12 am

Venue: Taman Rimba Kiara

Route: Taman Rimba - KLGCC - Sime Darby Convention Center, patah balik and make another round.

Distance: 12K

Time :(unofficial 1hr 03 min)

First and foremost, I'm glad that I completed the run, and shaved 2 mins from the trial run I did a week ago. However, there are few things that I'm not satisified and I can see a lot of improvement could be done.

Woke up at 4.40 am. Straight away ate half of Powerbar energy bar (courtesy of Mantat). Manage to kubab a little bit. Went out abt 5:20. Reached TTDI arnd 5:40. While looking for parking, mcm biasa, perut buat hal lagi. So dashed off to look for the nearest Petrol station. Kali ni byk sikit keluar. Lega...

Met Azmil, with Suraya, adik dia and his children(kecik2 dah ikut daddy, besar nanti boleh jadi pelari M'sia) on the way to check in. Sampai je kat padang tu, I can see a long line (min 10) of runners queueing up to use the toilet. Nasib baik aku dah melepas. But, walking further down the field, I saw 2 mobile toilets with nobody queueing up, and tak pasal2 perut meragam lagi. Apalagi, terus la pergi melepas for the 3rd time!!!. I think I have the opposite of 'jambanophobia'. Nampak jamban je rasa nak melepas. Apa ubat dia ha???

The runners line up for the run at 6:40. Very uncomfotable dgn bau mcm2 and nyamuk yg dok tibai kaki aku. And boleh pulak rasa nak terkencing pulak masa tu. So, mcm biasa la, sprint out to take a leak.

Finally, thank god, the runners we let off at 7:12. I took the righmost lane, and was running at 60% capacity. Started tu bukak langkah on the first small hill. Just to create gaps and distance with other runners.

Had no problem on the first long hill. But, starting to fell sluggish on the second hill towards turning back point at Sime Darby Convention Center. Took a sip from the water station. And maintained a good rthym untill the hill at klgcc. I think I made a mistake by quickening my pace climbing up that hill, when I reached the peak, I felt my legs a bit heavy and I'm panting more than usual. So just strolled down the hill untill the turning back point for 2nd round.

I could not maintained the speed that I wanted to on the long hill for 2nd round. And the worst thing happened at KLGCC entrance hill. I WALKED for 30m. This is unacceptable. After walking, I was not running at the pace I did on the first round. However, to my surprise, looking at my analog watch. I have 10 mins to complete abt the last 1-2K to equal the time I made last week. So, apalagi, dgn segala kudrat yg ada, I quicken my pace and did the striding ala 400m to reach the fininsh line. And still sempat to senyum to Suraya who took my picture at the finish line.

The positives:

I know I can complete 12K

I know I can push my body for the last 1-2K.

I broke my personal best for 12K

The negatives:

Bad preparation, need to eat the right food and control my bowel urge.

Walked for 3om.

Did not maintain pace

Action for improvement:

Educate myself on better preparation (food, going to toilet, etc)

Buy heart rate monitor, pace checker watch

Train harder..definitely.

And so the DUKE was conferred

2008-12-21T18:13:00.000-08:00

On Saturday, 20 Dec 2008, 7.30, The 'DUKE' highway was officially conferred by myself, Bandit, Kam and dozens of other cyclist/runners.

Bandit called me on Friday dgn penuh semangat to tell me about the Saturday ride. I told him I shdnt be doing any serious activity as I wanted to ease up my body for Sunday's Malakoff run. Bu tthen he said, kita layan pelan2 je, and the total distance shd be less than 30K. Its too good to resist and so I agreed.

Saturday morning, ride down to Bandit's house to pump my tyres. Kalau pakai my pump tangan yg kecik tu berzaman la nak habis pam. Started out from Bandit's house abt 7.20, went down from Akademi TV3 simpang and managed to get thru the plastic barricade to get into the highway at Setiawangsa intersection. Bandit called Kam, and he was just abut to leave his house, so Bandit ajak layan time trial. Clocked max 43km/h. I think I can tekan some more but didn't want to overload my quads (Sunday Malakoff).

Turn back and waited Kam under the Setiawangsa overhead. Kam, future IM09 came riding with just a mountain bike and without the cycling attire (short n jersey) Dia pakai seluar and T-shit biasa je. As we started off, he told us just to carry on if he's lagging behind as he was using Mountain bike. But, that did not happened, he was with us all the time pedalling effortlessly on his MTB.

From Setiawangsa, the hway took us thru belakang polis depot, belakang ttwangsa and cut thru in the middle of setapak near the Masjid Jamek. Its a bit weird bcos u never knew all the Taman perumahans existed kat area Setapak, but one thing that was very familiar was the 'tungkik' smell from the Loji belakang TTwangsa GC.

The highway stop short at Sentul. Stop for a while to check out the incomplete part of the hway. We think it will take 1-2 months more to be completed, hopefully they can do it sooner, tak larat la nak pakai Jln Tun Razak kalau nak pegi to the other side of KL.

From that point we turned back and headed to Gombak. On the way, there was this high point on one of the bridges/ramps. Stopped to look at the view of Genting and the range of moutain belakang Melawati. Kalau photographer mesti suka gile because the view was exhilarating that it made me fell off the bike, litterally. Very funny man, I forgot that I was using cleat pedals, so when we stopped, I just fell down with my bike like a nangka busuk, lupa nak unclip the shoes.

The Gombak part stops at the simpang 3(kiri Sentul, kanan Setapak). So we turned back and made our way back. The wind was blowing very hard on our ride home. That was where I learned from Kam that he had experienced the difference between aero and normal position, it can go about 20K/h.

Parted with Kam at the Setiawangsa intersection, and still need to climb damn steep hill to get out of the hill. Nevertheless, this will be my new favourite route if I need a quickie.

Morning smile

2008-12-18T16:48:00.000-08:00

One of my colleague today asked why I smiled without no reason. I was smiling from ear to ear bcos I was happy. I was happy bcos now my blog has attracted readers that are very critical and sharp minded. It was reflected on the comments made on the previous post.

Those kind of of comments are good. It helps me to check myself rooted to the ground and be more sensitive to what I write or tell. How ppl view issues or ideas almost always depends on which side of the wall they are in. Like Charlie always said, its a matter of perception.

Even though initially the idea of creating this blog was to logged all the UP stories that my close circle of friends always discussed(bunyi intelek giler, padahal bergosip sebenarnya), but it has evolved into a place where I logged my quest to become a triathlete( disclaimer: ada unsur2 UP disini), and also a way for me to share interesting stories about the activities, places, events that took place.

But some times, what I put into writings were completely bcos I was angry, frustrated, sad, disappointed and many other negative feeling. So it can be very one sided and biased and to a point can be a little bit hostile. But, as I mentioned in few postings before, writing to this blog is one of the outlet of my emotions, hence, I can be emotional at times.

If any of you readers think that I depicted you guys in a negative way, I'm so sorry for that. I don't like to mention names when I talk about bad things, names are not important, the lessons learnt is.

Can u really save?

2008-12-17T16:40:00.001-08:00

Saving money might be one of the important agenda to most of us nowadays... impact of the current economic crisis. But come to think of it, this is also a good opportunity for us to start investing as prices of stocks and properties dipping further down. And sometimes, for you to invest, you need to save up for you to be able to put your hard earned money into good portfolios.

Talking about saving, I'm still trying to figure out, to what extent can you save? Would it be to a point that you 'ikat perut' and suffer on the basic needs of a human being, like eating?

A friend of mine, just bought a house for half a million. After going thru the hassle of getting loans and coming out with the down payment, he is still scratching his head(even though there's not much hair left) to figure out how to fund his renovation works as he claimed costing up to 150K.

I guess, after doing much scratching, he figured that he could save a lot by only drinking plain cold water(not mineral) for his meals. It is definitely not for health purposes. If he goes to places like Nandos for example, he would specifically ask for plain water. But if he goes to say, McDonald's, he wont even be ordering any drinks. I wonder, how much can he save by doing this.

Ni semua pasal dia nak UP la. Brader, 'ukurlah baju di badan' dulu. (mcm Karam Singh Walia la)

Noah's Aqiqah

2008-12-15T23:21:00.000-08:00

I would like to express my gratitude to those who had attended my son's (Mior Ali Noah) Aqiqah feast. People say, the more people came, the more rezeki the person(Noah) will get. Alhmadullillah, I praised the lord for the attendance on that day eventhough there was a short heavy blitz right after Zohor's azan.

One of the intent or purpose of this ceremony is to show gratitude on the gift(baby), given by Allah to the parents. And I feel so satisfied that I had performed this ritual. Insya'allah, Noah will be bestowed with rezeki and happiness all his life.

Malakoff 12K 'dress rehearsal'

2008-12-15T19:40:00.000-08:00

Last Sunday would probably have been one of the busiest Sunday I had for quite some time. Woke up at 5.30, wanted to do a trial run on the route for the Malakoff 12K next Sunday. Decided to do the route survey first by car. Got into KLGCC, but the road leading to Taman Rimba can only be used by authorised users. Never mind, turned back and got into the highway across National Science Center leading up to Hartamas. From Hartamas got into the Sprint Highway. All the while, I was looking around on the best way for me to run, i.e; which side of the road, when to cross over on the highways, the best visibility for the traffic to see me, etc.

After passing thru the tunnel, made the exit into TTDI. Tiba2 perut buat hal, macam biasa. So as always, did my kubab business at petrol station. Parked my car at VADS. And started the run at 6.50.

The weather was excellent, just after rain, and the temperature was quite low. The route starts off by a climb towards KLGCC. I was following a group of seasoned runners (looking at the way they dressed and run). Interestingly, I managed to maintained 10m behind them all the way untill National Science Center. Proud of myself. They took the turning to D'sara Height while I went straight towards Hartamas. That was the second long hill, almost 1K I think.

From Hartamas needed to get into the Highway. Luckily there was an abandoned ramp adjoining to the Highway. It was pure more than 1K climb to reach the toll. After that, its all downhill except for a small hill in Taman Tun.

I quicken my pace as soon as I saw VADS building. My target was to complete it before 8. Successfully completed the run at 7:55. Overall, 12K=1:05. Pretty good huh? Hopefully can repeat this feat next week or do even better.

'Istikan' tea

2008-12-12T04:29:00.000-08:00

For those of you who like to eat Mid-Eastern food, you may came across 'istikan' in the beverage section. It is a famous black tea popular among Mid-Easterners. I was told the history of the name 'istikan' by my dear neighbour, Omar Ganim, Iraqi born Qatari while having lunch at 4.30 PM in Naeb, Ampang. Istikan originated from India, (main exporter of tea to the Mid-Eastern region) was actually picked up by locals after hearing the British saying 'east can', referring to the Indians(east) drinking the tea from small(can), hence as it goes through the tongues of locals... 'Istikan'. Sounds Arabic.

What? Lunch at 4.30? Yep, Omar told me, back in Qatar they only work from 7 until 1 PM, and they are done for the day, so lunch is always at the end of office hrs. He was buying me lunch for a small favour I did for him. The food was great, as usual, but what was more satisfying was the conversations that I had with him.

He is an Economic Analyst for the Qatari embassy. His insights on local and global economy and politics were very juicy and delicious just like the food that we had. If you want to know what we discussed, you need to bring me out for 'Istikan' la. Too sensitive and controversial to be published here.

Yap..yap..yap... mr/mrs/ms 'know all'

2008-12-10T17:31:00.000-08:00

While driving to the office this morning, listened to an interesting discussion on Lite FM. They were discussing on the effect of phsycological condition to the physiological state of a person. One of them were saying that if we dont treat the problems that we have in our head, it can lead to actual illnesses or diseases like cancer, tumor etc. He was saying if we try to keep our tears from flowing thru the eyes, the other organs internally will do the eye's job by weeping inside, thus putting unnecessary stress to the internal organs which may eventually leads to complications.

I did not listen till the end of the discussion, but one key point that i learned is that, there must be an outlet for anger, frustation or other negative feelings. This blog is actually my outlet, so today I'm going to write on something that has been bugging me for quite some time...'Mr Know All'.

In our lives, I can be very certain that you have came across a mr/mrs/ms 'know all' (MKA).

Let me try to define it first. I think MKA is a person who will try to get into a conversation, try to dominate it, and act as though they know better than the others...when in actual fact they are just bullshitting.

This behaviour is quite common amongst small kids. For adults, its just immaturity. OK, let me give some example to illustrate this. Say in a conversation, an MKA will know every person that u mentioned, been to every places that u have been, knows every gadgets that u have and off course they know everything that I mentioned better than you.

Bila u cakap pasal mamat 'X', dia mesti kenal 'X' and kenal as though as mamat tu is his/her brother. Bila u cerita pasal a place that u recently traveled, MKA will goreng as though as they had been living there for 10 yrs, so on and so forth. I think u guys are smart enough to get what I mean.

But the truth is, they dont really know. It will just force them to UP and bullshit.

So why are they behaving like this? I believe the main reason is inferiority complex. I just tagged them, as what my wife always said -> immature underachievers.

So when they are in a group of ppl that they feel superior than them, they will try to prove their worth at any cost, most of the time by 'UP'ping or lying. And you can almost be certain that they would just yap..yap..and yap.

Well friends, I'm also guilty at times. I'm so sorry for that. But I also know when I've crossed the line. At least I'm aware of it and try not to do it. Problem is with people that doesnt know that they have this problem. How do we tackle them? What I'd normally do is I'd probe and probe some more to a point that they would admit that they don't actually know what they are saying. Man, damn satisfying....

'Tekan' in Taman TAR

2008-12-09T16:46:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I had fully exercised flexibility in my training regime. Initial plan was to do intervals in the morning followed by lower body strength training. Threw off that plan as I only woke up at 6:30, not enough time to complete everything before 7.30.

Then, I changed the plan to do pure gym work during lunch instead. Threw that off as well as I went to lunch with Azry and Azmil. Wanted to know more details from Azry as his in-law's house was just 1 house away from the land slide.

Finally, I had no choice but to do some serious work in the evening. I'm not really keen on doing my runs in the evening bcos of the weather condition. It will usually be either raining or too hot. But yesterday, knowing that I was going to have 'Lamb Mandy' dinner date with Ampang-Jelatek Foodies (Maon, Lifah, Erika, Anna), I had to increase the metabolism rate so that I can really belasah the food for dinner.

My oh my, how surprised I was after completing 2 big rounds of Taman TAR in a rather fast pace. Managed to maintain the speed while even doing the uphill sections. It was helped, by a group of 'bapuk' who was busy looking at the monkeys on top of the hill. They were whistling to me, maybe bcos I was quite sexy with my tight sleeveless T and Adidas formotion short, and the body drenched with sweat. (UPPPP siot). Well for whatever reason they whistled to, it did motivated me to run faster.

My posting wouldn't be completed if I don't follow up with food stories. Yep, we did the 'Lamb Mandy' date and it was fabulous. We literally clean off the plates, we thought we wanted to help the dishwasher by doing that. We had 2 Lamb Mandys and 1 whole ayam golek. These dishes were sitting nicely on top of big plates of rice. The ayam was juicy and succulent inside and damn crispy outside. Habih tulang2 dia pun kitaorg kunyah. (Charlie: We definitely need to come here)

Next date is the initiation of Jelatek foodies to Nong n Jimmy or is it Jimmy n Nong? Who cares?

Its a time bomb

2008-12-08T17:21:00.000-08:00

I dont think any body was really surprised with the land slide tragedy last Saturday, it was a ticking time bomb. I felt somewhat connected to the incident as I have so many friends and relatives staying very near or nearby the location. Some are even as close as few houses from the slide. I dont want to comment much on it, just hope that everybody impacted is safe and well.

For me, last weekend was not really a bomb. Ate too much train too little. I still eat even when I'm not hungry. Come on Jabir, you are stronger than that.

Did a solo ride to Bukit Ampang look out point on Saturday morning. Pretty happy as managed to do 28-35 KM/H on flats. Struggled a little bit climbing up the hill. I was actually quite nervous bcos I saw few dogs by the road side. At that point I just hoped that they dont come and chase me, cos if they do, I'll definitely turn back downhill. I wont even attemp to outsprint them up the hill.

One other thing that made me happy is that I think now, I'm quite used to using the cleat pedals. It was tested heavily as I had to stop many times at the countless trafic lights along Jalan Ampang. Overall, did 35K in 1.5 hrs.

Sunday was an intentional rest day. The problem was, I did not rest my stomach. I was practically slogging from noon til 6. Had brunch with Maon, Alifah, Erika and Anna at Alexis. I had this hearty breakfast meal which comes with coffee/tea. I opted for coffee. They said they couldnt make it as the coffe machine was out, I need to wait for a while for them to fix it. So fine, I said I'll wait. After practically cleaned off my plate, licin bro aku sental, called the waiter to check whether the coffee machine is ok or not. It was still faulty, so I asked them to get me tea instead. The waiter went back to the bar, then came back and told me I could not get my tea too as the hot water was coming from the same coffe machine and it is still broken. Was just too lazy to argue, apala benak sgt diorg ni, pegila masak air pakai periuk ke apa ke, itu pun tak boleh nak pikir ke? After Alexis layan Starbuck's and at 4.30, belasah lagi kat PHOP in Curve to celebrate Mir's B'day.

On Raya Haji morning, I planned to run. Nak test seluar Adidas Formotion baru that I bought less 50%. But it was raining, so pagi tu mcm sedap je tidur, berat gila nak bangun. So the rain was the excuse for me. (stop giving yourself excuses man). Raya, biasalah, adalah hari perayaan untuk melihat brp byk makanan yg boleh disumbatkan di dalam perut. Damn, need to train doubly hard this next few days to burn off all the food.

Public apology to Stupe

2008-11-30T21:29:00.000-08:00

I feel like kicking on my own backside 1000 time, in fact I shd ask Stupe to kick my behind. I have disappointed my self and more importantly Stupe by waking up late on Sunday morning. So late that if I go to the RV point Stupe would have already completed his run.

These things do happen to me from time to time. Luckily one time Bandit called me and I manage to do a 'change parade', a little bit late, but not too late.

It really hurt me bcos I have set a very high standard in terms of punctuality and getting on time. Most mornings, I would only rely on my handphone alarm clock to be woken up. But I shd know better that weekends are different. I need to wake up much earlier to be able to do the SwimBikeRun activity, so much so, that it wont disrupt my family time and maximise the benefits of having to do it on empty road, and of course, in a much cooler temp. On weekdays, I can automatically wake up even without the alarm. Note: Buy a proper alarm clock with the loudest volume.

I guess I dont need to explain much further, I did not do the 20 K. Stupe, thousands of apologies. I really hope that you wont be discouraged to ask me to join u again.

How much difference a week can make

2008-11-27T22:45:00.000-08:00

Just a quick one. I want to congratulate my colleague Azmil for completing 10.4 K in 1 hr 05 mins. Just last week he was doing 1'28" for the same distance.

Tak tau la apa yg dia makan mlm semalam, or maybe he got something else. Ye la, mlm Jumaat...

Anyway, I strongly believe it was bcos of pure will power and determination. Next week the target would be sub 1 hr. I have full confidence that he can and he will achieve it.

Today's morning run was also part of my preparation to do 20K with Stupe this Sunday. Wish me luck guys, hopefully Stupe wouldnt have to 'seret' me back,....

Almost like the good old days

2008-11-25T22:28:00.000-08:00

Had dinner last night at HRC. Definitely feels like going back down the memory lane when myself and the gang frequented it. Somethings do change, it has new decor and new ambiance now, but the food quality and the ppl are as great as before.

Most of us were there, the hardcore gang like Ikang, Izat, Piche, Zalee, Tesa, D, and the not so hardcore like myself, Jimi, Sahura, Ubai, Nurin and Zawiyah. Mantat..well Mantat is unique, he was always somewhere in between. Plus, the new up and coming gang led by Amir the Champion of the World, Aidan, Uqail, Malik and Adam( oldest being 4 and youngest 2 yrs old). Noah tak boleh join, kalau dia melalak takut tak dgr pasal Mommy n Daddy dia sibuk berborak. However Bagak n Ezan couldn't make it, work commitment...or golf commitment. Farouk and Af were understandably excused, new job...

Somehow or rather, or it is just me, I feel like we are getting closer again, after like.. maybe 5 yrs break. I think, along the line, they were so many stuffs going around. Nak kawin lah, tukar kerja baru lah, nak naik pangkat lah, nak buat anak lah, nak pindah rumah lah and many other stuffs. I guess now, the storm has gone and we are more stable. All of us just want to enjoy the precious time given to us by the almighty and share it with good friends.

Though its sounds like a cliche, I do feel true friendship is valued more than the $ sign.

Credits to the organisers, I'm particularly impressed with the punctuality. Keep it up guys.

And special thanks, again to Izat, semoga Allah murahkan lagi rezeki kau.

Bogged down

2008-11-25T17:36:00.000-08:00

Little late for weekend update huh? But, who cares, a story is always in the past anyway. That is why it is called history, his-story, male chauvinist tu... Apa yg aku merepek ni.

Let's start on Friday, had a running date with Azmil, my colleague. Started running at 6.15am, KLCC park. Plan was to do 8 rounds = 10.4 K. Wanted to do round 1 warm up, round 2-5 50%-70% heart rate (hr). And the lst 3 rounds 70%-80% hr. Started off with a good pace. Increased the pace on the 2nd round. The 3rd round, Azmil had some difficulties, he was suffering from athma and forgot to bring his inhaler. So we slowed down the pace. But I told him, no matter what happen, we will not stop running and we will complete the 8 rounds as planned. And true enough, full credit to this guy, despite having problem with athma, we succesfully completed 8 rounds. This guy is one tough customer, strong will power, strong determination, kudos Mil.

After breakfast, my nose started giving problems. Asyik nak bersin je, air hingus dok meleleh-leleh. Badan pun dah start rasa tak sedap. When I reached home after work, straight away took few panadols and went to sleep. Woke up around 7 pm, but no improvement to the body.

Bandit came to the house arnd 8pm to install the cleat pedals. Yep, will be going cycling on Saturday. After installing it and lenghty explanation by Bandit, went down to try it. A little bit difficult, but thanks to Bandit's explanations, I got used to it after 7-8 attempts.

Woke up at 5 on Saturday, shoot, badan tak sedap lagi. Went out to meet Bandit at Akademi TV3 junction for the Putrajaya ride. It was starting to rain. As I reached there, Bandit called to inform that the ride was cancelled. Ok jugak, pasal badan still tak sedap lagi. But alang-alang dah keluar, decided to just carry on riding. Went down to Jelatek, masuk Jln Ampang and turn left to masuk MRR2 at Suzi's Corner. Total 15K.

Had dinner-get-together at Nong n Jimmy's with Bagak, Jimi, Sahura, Ikang, D and surprise package Mantat n Ezan. Menu - Nasi Goreng ganja, curry crab, black pepper crab, kerang and sotong bakar, tom yam syahdu, siakap steam, siput lalalala kerja, lalalala kerja, kailan ikan masin n few other stuffs.Tension gile, pasal everything was tasteless, only for me, demam punya pasal. Went to watched J Bond at pavillion after that. First time tgk wayang after Noah, very fortunate to have in-laws that are always more than happy to babysit Noah.

Same story on Sunday, badan tak sedap lagi. In fact, woke up at 10.30, very rare for me nowadays. Went for lunch at Azry's house and free viewing of 'Awang Spanar'. Went to Curve and Ikea after that. Kesian Tesa, she wanted to buy this dress kat flea market, but cash tak cukup. So we went to look for Maybank ATM (my stupid ATM cant be used in other tellers) to take out some cash. It was quite far from the shop. And we also had to change Noah's diaper. When she went back to the shop, the dress was sold off already. She was very sad....Had dinner at Ikea. Haram line nak beli makanan panjang gile, waited abt 20 mins. The worst part is, I couldnt even finish my dinner, demam punya pasal.

Starting to pay off

2008-11-16T19:38:00.000-08:00

Yes, my gym works are starting to pay me off. All those squats and lunges exercises, really paid dividends. I was very happy with my performance last Saturday when I did the Putrajaya route. And talking about it, I want to stand my self corrected on the actual distance I did 2 weeks ago. It was not 80K, the actual distance from my house to Putrajaya and back was only 75K, did a mistake when I set up my odometer previously.

Back to last Saturday, I was particularly happy bcos I pedalled flat out the whole stretch of the hiway, from Pandan to Putrajaya, abt 23-25K. However, I did briefly stopped pedalling when I went down few hills, but really for brief moments. And I believe it was the result of my leg muscle strengthening exercise I did on mid-week. I dont find climbing hills as difficult as before, it is still hard nevertheless, but my tolerance level in enduring the pain in my quads is much better now.

Last Saturday started off quite badly for me. After doing good preparation the night before, ate a lot of pasta and went to sleep early. I found myself to be awaken by the phone, not the alarm clock, Bandit was calling me. Shit, I overslept, did not hear the alarm. Apalagi, kelam kabut la siap. So instead of RVing at the traffic light, Bandit came over to my condo. It was raining that morning and I did not do enough stretching. By the time I'm ready, Bandit, told me Shazly and Rashid had left. Good for them, dont want them to keep waiting for us.

We used Jln Jelatek-Tun Razak to reach Pandan Toll instead of MRR2, Ampang Hilir. Bandit ckp area tu byk anjing, so kalau 2 org je a bit dangerous. It was drizzling, in fact it drizzled the whole time. Bandit asked me to just 'kayuh' and meet again at Putrajaya. He wanted to do some bike fitting. So as I said earlier, almost 25K of pure pedalling. I think I did avg 30-35K for that distance, couldnt really tell the correct speed as I didnt have a watch to clock it down.

Shazly and Chipang were waiting for us at Putrajaya toll. Waited for Bandit and started cycling back, kind of leisurely, at least for Shazly. OP Boot greeted me while overtaking me, and couldnt be seen after that. That guy is fast. Reached back home arnd 9.15. Started at 6.45. 3-3.5 hrs for 75K. Ok la....

What-a-Getaway

2008-11-09T19:27:00.000-08:00

Last weekend was so fulfilling. We had a mini get together at my parents' place in Cherating , and it was a satisfying sand(bunkers I mean) n sun weekend indeed. Eventhough I do feel a little bit disappointed for not having able to participate in Powerman, but the fun n joy we had the whole weekend was..in Mastercard's word, priceless... Anyway, I had planned for this weekend way before I even started doing the BikeSwimRun activities, which was only a little more than a month ago.

I guess I just have to tell it starting from Friday. I took the whole day off on Friday. Plan was to do 11K run in the morning, as I wont be doing any serious training for the weekend. Started after subuh. After running for abt 1K, felt something funny with my stomach. Crap, I know that sign. So I stopped running and walked slowly back, becos I think I wd exaggerate the (u know what) if I run. Managed to reach home and blasted the crap out of me. Fuuhhh..lega. Was in the toilet for a good 20 mins. So since it was like 7 plus, scrapped the idea of running (safety reason, kereta dah byk on the road). Instead went to the pool and did 50 laps. That shd be enough to cover for the weekend.

Initial plan was to push off for Cherating at 10. If I were to do that, I need to wake Tesa and Noah up at 8. But the night before Noah only slept at 3, so I think it wd better to let them sleep a little bit more. Dont want him to be crancky in the car. Anyway, I didnt commit to anybody on my travels, so decided to take my own sweet time. After waking them up arnd 10, went to fix my running shoes and picked up Noah's IC. Yes, kids now do have IC. It is called MyKid. But obviously gambar takde la. Muka budak2 kan berubah2, masak la 2-3 bulan sekali nak tukar IC.

After packing everything up, we pushed off at 12.45. Was flabbergasted to see the number of bags we brought along, evrything doubled up now. And we need to run thru everything twice just to make sure we dont miss anything. Tu pun ada yg tertinggal jugak. Maklumlah, the first long trip with baby. We seriuosly need to improve on this. Next time need to employ a better system to make it more efficient.

The whole journey was fine. Noah was being a very good boy. We only stopped once, for a toilet break. Reached Cherating arnd 4.30. The whole journey was actually 3.5 hrs, but we wasted almost 3o mins at Taman Melati McD's drive thru. Punyala byk kereta.

My father and the rain greeted us as we reached the place. He was so excited to see Noah. Ikang n Dee were already there, they arrived 15 mins earlier. At that point, I just hope that the rain would not be the order of the day and the next 2 days. But alhamdullilah, the weather was fine after abt 30 mins untill the day we left.

After checking in, we wasted no time to jump straight into the see. Amir n Aidan were so excited, si Amir ni, kelakar gile, when we were playing in the sea, there was this group of young man pulling up a big fishing net nearby. Kitorg pun busy body la nak tengok. Nampak je ikan2, ketam, siput etc, si Amir lari lintang pukang takut.

That was also the first time Noah stepped on land and in fact touched the sea. Just dipped his feet few times. Letak je kaki, dia angkat, letak, angkat. Maybe the saltwater was giving a new sensation kot, but he was also definitely having a blast. Relax je tak pakai baju kat tepi laut atas tikar, mcm Mat Saleh tgh sun bathing je.

Bagak n Jimi arrived arnd 7. Had dinner arnd 8 and straight away went to Karaoke after that. Before the trip, there were so much hype about this Karaoke session, especially from Jimi. She thought it wd be a 'gimme' for her n Bagak to be named the best duo. Well, well, well, we were just so dumbfounded to witness the awesomeness of Dee singing Ramlah Ram's Kau Kunci Hatiku. Habis dia pukul semua org. Lepas dia nyanyi takde sapa berani pegang mic lagi. Sahura n Ezan arrived just in time to witness this.

End of Day 1.

Day 2.

Went out at 7.30 to Kijal with Bagak for golf. It has been a while that I havent played with Bagak, one of the persons that I enjoyed playing golf with. Arrived there arnd 8.15 after stoping at petrol station, to do...what else, crapping la. Bagak started off strongly with a bogey whereas I had a double par. But as we played on my scores keeps getting better and better. Managed to get a couple of pars and few bogeys on front nine.

Back nine was a whole different story. Started off ok with few bogeys. But it all started downward when I put my approach into the pond on th 12th. It became worse when we played the 2 jungle holes. I lost 6 balls in that 2 holes. After getting his second of his 2 pars on the 1st jungle hole, Bagak and I just simply agreed on not keeping the score anymore. Teruk sangat.

Reached back at Cherating arnd 1 plus. Had lunch and went to rest. Meanwhile the other guys were playing kites as the winds was quite strong.

Ohh, almost forgot, while myself and Bagak were playing golf, the others had a blast as well. They started off with pool and sea sessions in the morning. In fact Ikang had few fantastic shoots of the rising sun from horizon. Then they went for brunch in Hai Peng kopitiam and went berserk. They almost had a free meal if it was not for Ikang. Ye la, semua pakai cun2, seksi2 n glamer2, terbeliak mata org Kemamang tgk, kalau mintak makan free mesti dapat punya, Ikang kacau la.

Lepas Hai Peng they all came back. Some went to sleep, waiting for the next melantak session, which will be at gerai Satar. So at 4, we all went to this famous shop kat Kuala Kemaman. Agak risau jugakla, pasal tempat tu byk org alim2, budak2 ni belasah pakai seksi2. But, peduli apa, janji dapt soru. We ordered Satar, otak2, kepok leko, mee calung and ICT. Huh? ICT? What the hell is that? Well, its a local short form of Ikan Celup tepung. Power la org Ganu ni.

Amir mcm biasa sudah buat bisnes kat kedai tu, same as what he did kat Hai Peng. Budak ni memang kuat 'kubab' la. So lepas makan balik Cherating, and jumped straight into the sea again.

Mlm, we had a BBQ dinner. All the sea food were so fresh that some of them were only marinated with salt, u can taste the sweetness of the fish's flesh. Lepas makan, layan MU vs Arsenal while the girls played cards and gossiping. Masa tgh tengok bola, Amir was pestering me to go for karoke. Budak ni dah gian becos the night before dia dgn Harazz dok melalak-lalak. So I told him 'kalau nak karoke kena ada at least 5 org', saje je nak bagi excuse. Si Amir ni punyala determined, dia sudah pergi balik bilik and panggil the girls to go to the hall to fulfill the minimum 5 ppl. And they just couldnt refuse Amir's request. So layanla karaoke lagi. But this time, it was all his show. He asked me to sing with him lagu tentera (Si Baju Hijau - Carefree ) dekat 5-6 kali. Sampai naik biul org lain dgr lagu tu. Ezan siap melekat dlm kepala lagu tu sampai balik KL.

End of Day 2.

Day 3.

Had breakfast and main dgn budak2 kecik atas sampan. Bagus jugak, kira I did some sweating dgn budak2 ni kira mcm training jugak la. All of them checked-out early so that they can layan Hai Peng seround lagi, so Hai Peng it was. Semua org balun cukup2, ye la, lepas ni tak tau bila lagi nak datang. After meal, wished e'body farewell and went back to Cherating while the others went straight to Lanchang to Elephant's Sanctuary. After lunch, pushed back to KL arnd 3.

All in all, it was a very satisfying weekend. Good fun, good company, good food, what else could u asked for. Need to do this kind of activity every quarter....

I broke the chain

2008-11-02T17:19:00.000-08:00

Folks, last weekend was another milestone clocked by me, I did 80K (patting my back). But of course, there must be some drama behind it.

Started of the ride at 5:05 Sat morning. As most ppl were still snuggling up in their blankets, I forced myself to wake up at 4:45. Was actually worried that I couldnt get up as I only went to sleep at abt 1 am. But man... I couldnt miss the opportunity to ride to Putrajaya with those crazy Ironmen (Stupe, Shazly n others).

Met up with Bandit at his house abt 5:15, Then we rode down to simpang Kg Pasir to join the others. The plan was to go to Putrajaya n back using the new Putrajaya highway (Kg Pandan). Total distance abt 100K. I was innitially sceptical, mostly bcos of safety reasons. First, we'll be doing it in the dark, and secondly we'll be riding on hiway most of the time. And not to mention doing it with freaking Ironmen.

But Bandit assured me of my worries one by one. He'll provide me with safety lights, the highway's emergency lane is very wide n not to many cars use it and lastly, he said they(ironmen) wd only be doing avg 25K/H.

How wrong was Bandit. They were doing 30-35 from the start. I only managed to keep up with them for abt 15K. Then, I can only see the tail end of the safety light from the last person like a small red dot at the corner of my eyes. Damn, those guys were really fast.

As I was left alone in the middle, (5-6 guys in the front group, 2-3 at the back) I could feel something wrong when I was shifting the cranks. It produced some weird noises and I could just feel that the chains are not sticking. Eventually, my worst nightmare did materialised. The chains just snapped.

Crap, I was in the middle of the hiway, and to make matters worse, I was on the elevated part of it. Need to at least walk back abt 5-8 KM to normal road. But I didnt panicked cos I know Bandit brought along his toolkit and he was behind me.

Stupe and Kam stopped by and offered help, but I asked them to carry on as I know Bandit will help me fix this problem. After few more minutes, the sight of a hulking man in a gayish red jersy was definitely a sight of relief, here comes SuperBandit....

Bandit straight away assessed the problem and told me that everything will be allright. He wd just cut out 2 chains(the broken ones) and re-clamped it back. But there's one problem, we couldnt get the particluar tool out of its barcket. It was too tight. We tried to get it out in so many ways, even using our teeth, but to no avail. But Lady Luck must really be in our side, while we were struggling to get it out, a CRV pulled over and the driver came down. That guy(Mat Salleh) was a cyclist too, we could see his Cervelo lying at the back seat. This poor guy was actuallly lost, he was trying to find his cycling grp. Their RV was at Midvalley, so this guy was heading totally to the wrong direction.

Anyway, we borrowed his tool to unlock our tool and gave him the direction to go back to Midvalley. Thanks and gd luck to u man.

From that point on, myself and Bandit was just pedalling at our own pace. We re-set the target -> we will stop at the next R&R and wait for the main grp to turn back so we could join them again. We use these moments together (sounds gayish) to do some bike fitting on me. So Bandit did assessed the way I cycled, my body position, the way I shift the gears so that I can enjoy the ride better.

During our stop at R&R, bandit shifted my saddle to the front, with this new setup, the pain on my shoulder and neck were not as bad as last week.

As we were waiting for the grp, OP AJ came zooming past by us. This guy is 55 yrs old but looks fit as a fiddle. Salute to u sir.

Then we decided not to wait for them but ride slowly as we were very sure they could catch up with us. And so they did, we joined back the big group back home. This time they were really doing avg 20-25K/H. Thank god. Myself and Bandit couldnt wait to do this route again in a fortnight.

I envy lawyers

2008-10-30T22:52:00.000-07:00

Lawyers are cool. With so much bad perceptions on them, I just want to go against the tide for once. I might be biased bcos my sister, my uncle and few of my close friends are lawyers. And the thought that when I was small, being a lawyer was indeed in my list of what I want to be when I grow up.

But guys, let us give credit to where its due, bcos we know there are many honest, hardworking and smart lawyers out there.

Actually, I was particularly impressed with lawyers in my company. This morning, I was asked to attend Anti-trust policy training conducted by the law dept. I was so amazed to see how easy for them to explain a concept or answer questions in a very eloquent, clear and concise manner. U could just throw the whole kitchen sink, they would still be able to handle it in such a cool and confident way.

Having said that, that doesn't mean I like all lawyers. They were also few occasions when I felt like choking them to death thru my experiences in the whole house buying/ LAD claiming process. But when I think again, I was so mad with them bcos they were good. They practically can argue any points or facts thrown at them, and I salute that. But luckyly I have the Housing Tribunal to help the housebuyers.

Well to all the lawyers out there (the good ones of course), hats off to u guys.

Jabir dah 'steam'

2008-10-27T19:00:00.000-07:00

Relax...pls don't get the wrong idea. The term 'steam' as we know it, had been used to describe men's physiological condition, but it can also be used to describe the out most joy or feeling.

Well it was Bandit(fellow OP, my senior from RMC), who said 'Jabir dah steam dah', when we completed the ride from Genting-Peres to Lata Tekala. Well, he was 100% correct. Mmg I dah naik steam. It was quite obvious as I had this 'puas' look on my face when we stopped to load up our drinks in Lata Tekala.

And now, I can declare that 'cycling' is indeed for me. Not to say that I'd be focusing on doing it alone, but I think I have enough experience to say that I can do it to complete a full triathlon. One needs to complete 40KM of cycling leg based on Olympic standard. I did 65 KM last weekend, which in term of distance, I have covered the requirement. Next step is to focus on timing.

Ok, lets talk about what I did last weekend.

On Saturday, I did arnd 8KM of running in the morning. It was a failure actually as I had initially planned to do 11K. I think(just making an excuse), it was due to overloading of protein the night before. We went to this restaurant 'Bif Sentral' near my house. On Fridays, they have buffet for 25 bucks. The amount of red meat that I had was a little bit too much, no actually, way too much than what I ought to have. So the next morning, when I did the run, my calf just felt so heavy. I made the decision not to run extra 2-3 K. But to reciprocate that, I sprinted up a hill about 300m. But still, I'd regard the whole run as unsuccessful becos I did not achieve my earlier target.

Arnd 12, I met up with Bandit to test out the road bike that he wanted to sell to me. After few pedals, I knew already that this bike will give me a totally new experience, mainly bcos its a road bike. So far I've been using Chipang's mountain bike, which has totally different features from a road bike. That was one of the reason why I wondered whether I shd pursue cycling or not as the weekend before I did abt 46 K using mountain bike, and it was not really a pleasant experience. With some basic modification to suit my body, and newly purchased cycling short (very, very important), I'm all ready for Sunday's ride.

On Sunday, the plan is to do BT18 - simpang tiga - Genting Peres - simpang tiga - Tekala -simpang tiga - BT18. Its gonna be T-shaped route. Ride from BT 18 -simpang was an easy 11K flat road. Good for warming up. Next was 9K of hard climb to Genting Peres, at times, I was cursing to myself, why did I sign up for this? But for the last KM, I was practically cursing to Bandit(sorry). He told me it was only 8K climb, I dont know where he got that 1KM discount from. But as I reached the peak, it was well worth it. And I enjoyed it even more during the ride back down. That was the 2nd Phase.

The 3rd phase was from Simpang 3 to tekala, it was abt 10K ride of rolling hills, not as tough as Genting Peres. But the challenge was that the road is more open and we were exposed more to the heat of the rising sun. I was doing this leg with Chipang, except for the last 2-3K, Chipang had to stop to fix his chains but asked me to carry on. The view was quite nice as we were riding along Semenyih Dam. As we reached Tekala, we re hydrated ourselves and rest before the last leg home.

I started to really struggle after the killer hill in Tekala, most of it bcos of the heat. Suddenly the view is not so nice anymore as I started to feel the pain in my shoulders, especially when I need to tilt my head up to look for directions and oncoming traffics. (Note: need to work on neck and shoulder in the gym).

We stopped 3K before pekan Bt 18 for Laksa Buyung, fully recommend this. So while waiting for the food n drinks, I was quite amazed to see small crystals of salt appearing on my arms, and I was not sweating at all. But, as soon as i started drinking, suddenly my body was drenched with sweats. So, earlier, when I was not sweating, I was actually dehydrated, hence no sweats only salt coming out from the body. After Laksa, we rode back to Bt 18. Had another meal in the Kopitiam. Bandit mmg terer, gila byk dia belasah kat Koptiam tu.

All in all, it was a very satisfactory ride. Good enough to convince me to buy the bike from Bandit. 2 key points
1.I was using the right type of bike
2.I wore the padded cycling shot, It had tremendously minimised the pain in my ass that I had the weekend before.

So guys, I think I can do cycling, and betul cakap Bandit, 'Jabir dah steam'. Just did 10K spin on Deepavali morning after 1K swim pasal dah naik gian dgn beskal baru.

I can feel my lungs expanding

2008-10-23T22:55:00.000-07:00

It is such a wonderful feeling. FYI, I have not smoked for almost 2 weeks now. For the record, I never intended to stop anyway. I was forced to actually.

Main reason - I felt like dying. Seriously, I can feel the oxygen not going up to my brain, almost to a point of hallucination.

What happened? In my quest of getting fit, fit enough to join triathlon competition, 2 weeks ago, I ran with Stupe(The freaking 'Ironman') for 15 KM. It may not sound so difficult, however, nobody says running with Stupe is a walk in the park. We were doing 5'30"/km for the first 4-5 K, and short sprinted up few hills on our way back. Those sprints really took its toll on me.

Man, I'm telling you, my lungs felt like burning, exploding and all the other horrifying feeling that u can imagine while doing the sprints. Stupe didn't say much when he saw me panting like hell. He just said, 'u need to stop smoking bro'.

From that moment on, I did not lit up a single cigarette. And not surprisingly, I'm feeling much much fitter and stronger now. In my daily workouts (running, swimming. gym), I pushed my self much harder than before to make my heart rate faster. And I do not(so far) felt the same pain sensations as what I had 2 weeks ago. In fact, sometime, I can literally feel that I'm taking in more oxygen than before. I cant explain it, but I really do felt it.

I just hope I can be strong enough to stop smoking for good....

Is 'cycling' really for me?

2008-10-20T00:28:00.000-07:00

I dont know and I cant answer it for certain until I tested Bandit's road bike. In fact, this would be the topic that I want to share for this posting.

Since starting distance running (tak de la jauh sgt, max so far 15K), the thought or the urge to really trying out triathlon becomes stronger and harder to ignore. And Bandit's invitation to join his 'rubberman' gang was just too hard to resist, and came at the right time.

But even before I start, there are 2 main issues.
1. I dont have a bike.
2. I know I will be hurting my ass, the end of my tailbone to be precise, thru my experience so far of doing stationery bike in gym.

For problem no 1, I was fortunate enough that Chipang was more than generous to let me borrow his Mountain Bike, helmet and gloves. For problem no 2, well, I'll explain in details later.

The plan was to complete about 50K distance on Sunday morning. Route - the whole stretch of Guthrie Corridor Hway, from Bkt Jelutong to Rawang.

I'd be crazy to go and ride without having any practice session. So on Saturday, met up with Chipang at Tasik Permaisuri Cheras in the morning. He taught me the basics on cycling, things like wearing the proper gears, some terms eg; cadence and of course how and when to shift the gears to minimise usage of energy and maximise performance. We did about 12K just circling the park for few laps.

It was a good session to prepare me for the next day, but, as I mentioned earlier, I could already feel some tingling pain at the end of my tailbones. Chipang told me its 'sikit aje, besok aku bawak gelled saddle, mesti OK punya'.

Come sunday, I woke up at 6. Gobbled up 2 donuts and a plate of leftover Kuew Tiow from the night before. And managed to 'kubab' twice before going out of the house. Reached Shah Alam toll arnd 7am. And since i can still feel some deposits in my stomach, decided to 'kubab' for the 3rd time. Fuhhh..baru lega.

We all met up at Bkt Jelutong Golf Academy. It was 15 of us. Bandit stole the limelight with his gay-ish new bike, damn sexy. We pushed off around 8, it was smooth sailing for the 1st few KM. But as we entered the hway, the first long climb was the real test. I was struggling a little bit, more of it bcos I was disheartened to see all the other bikers easily passed over me with their canggih road bikes. U see, I was using a mountain bike, the main disadvantage was that mtb uses off road tyres which is 3 times wider and have more tractions compared to the slim road tyres. Furthermore, the body of mtb are built sturdier and tougher than road bike, hence it uses heavier material. In summary, I had to used 3 times more energy to a road biker.

But again, this was not the major hurdle that I had to face. It was actually the pain in my ass, no, literally pain in my ass. For a trained cyclists, they knew how to distribute their weight correctly between their legs and the ass. So even when they looked like they are sitting on the saddle, they dont really put all the weights there. Unlike me, being a newbie, I basically put most of my weight on the seat. And this had put tremendous pressure on my tailbones, hence the pain in the ass.

So after riding abt 23 KM, we reached exit Rawang. By this time, my ass was already in unbearable pain. We stopped abt 20 min. Continued the journey back, and the target was to stop at halfway point (hentian Elmina) for breakfast. For the 13 KM journey to reach there, I only sit like 20% of the time, I had to stand or sit using my sisi bontot, ala2 senget mcm perempuan dulu2.

At Elmina, we stop for abt 40 mins. So I took this oppotunity to really sit comfortably. As we started back for the final strecth, pain was just too much for me to hande. This time, I think I only sit for about5-10% of the time. And I was pedalling quite hard just to reach back ASAP. So to them yg nampak aku pulun kayuh, its not bcos I'm super fit, its more bcos I cant stand the pain and wanted to get it over with.

We reached back arnd 11. All in all, it was a satisfying ride bcos of the distance that I covered and the calories that I burnt, but I cant say the same for the 'ass pain' part. My highest gratitude to Chipang for lending all the stuffs to make this possible and sticking with me the whole time even when I was practically not moving (bila naik bukit kdg rasa mcm tak jalan je). And thanks to Bandit too for giving me all the tips to minimise the 'ass pain'. Not to forget, all the other OPs and cyclists for letting me join the 'rubberman ride'.

Lessons Learnt: I seriously need to get the paded cycling shot. If i really want to cycle, I think I need to consider purchasing custom made saddle, bcos of my ass problem.

I can see the finish line

2008-10-14T20:51:00.000-07:00

My face was beaming with smile at approximately 9.45 am today. The President of the Housing Tribunal has made the judgement and its in favour of me. Alhamdullilah. I really think the Housing Tribunal and the Housing Act had served its purpose, which is, to protect housebuyers.

Eventhough the settlement will not be paid in lump sum, none the less , 11 mths installments is still good enough for me. At least I can better plan my budget rather than going crazy if I got it lump sum.

However, I still dont think I had achieved absolute victory yet, as long as I dont receive all the PD cheques in my hands and no money going into my account, it is as good as nothing. Still, I have to bear with the anxiety. Hopefully I can stand it for the next 11 months. Well, at least now I can see the finish line....

I'm not strong

2008-10-12T20:25:00.000-07:00

Few happenings last weekends made me realised how weak my mind was. I could have turned the tables on few occasions if I had stronger minds than what i perceived I had.

I was not strong when I stopped 3 times during my weekend run with Stupe. I know for a fact that I will be doing certain distance, yet I did not prepare my self well enough for it. So when this situation came, I had to rely to the mental toughness that I thought I have. How wrong was I, I was clinging to my dear life just to complete the distance. The whole time when I struggled I always blamed my self for not having enough rest and taking better food the night before. That was very negative, instead. I shd be focussing on the positives and my strenght to complete the run. I'll use this approach for the next run.

On other occasion, during an open house actually, I was also not strong to tell off a friend of mine for making an offensive remarks. It made me mad and I carried that feelings to bed. I shd have handed the situation better by using my superior mind rather than just be subject to abuse. I need to be more creative when faced with this situation.

I have to be strong, I can be strong, I'm strong.

Tunggu punya tunggu...tak dapat jugak

2008-10-07T01:05:00.000-07:00

I wasted half of my day in the Housing Tribunal.

Arrived there arnd 7.45, eventhough the hearing was at 9. After a nice plate of Roti Arab and conversations with other hopeful claimants, talking abt how we are going to spend the money once awarded. I still end up writing to this blog, again, to express my disapointment on this whole house buying process.

The reason was simple, the defendant(developer) was not present. They, however did sent a fax to the tribunal around 10am claiming that they never received any notice to attend the hearing. They are using Raya as an excuse saying that the staffs in the offc had gone for holidays, thus nobody was present to receive the registered letter containing the notice. Memang pandai putar.

The implication though, was very significant. Why? Even without the defendant, we as the claimant can still actually get judgement from the tribunal. And the judgement can be very much in our favour. But bcos they are not present, the defendant can appeal it to the High Court saying it was not a fair judgement, thus making it a legal issue which is not covered by housing act and therefore can further prolong the claim process.

Luckily, the tribunal president advised us not to accept any judgement and just bear to attend another hearing which the latest will be on Dec. So the waiting game still continues. I'm just hoping that I'll get an earlier hearing.

Word of advice, if u are facing this kind of situation, go get the housing act booklet and read it. It will prepare u better with all this developer's tactic.

12.65K in the bag

2008-10-05T20:18:00.000-07:00

Before anything, let me first wish all of u Selamat Hari Raya. I hope u had a joyous Raya this year wherever u may be.

The 12.65K is not money, I wish it is. It was actually the distance that I covered by running. As I said in my previous posting, there are some targets that I have set for my self. It seems now I have achieved 2 of the targets. Alhamdullillah.

The idea of running that distance was mooted by Stupe. Well he initially said it was 10K, but he conned me. I dont mind anyway, bohong sunat. In fact, I did not take much deliberations to agree on taking this challege, as I felt pretty confident after doing the hard hours in the gym during lunch time in Ramadhan. It paid off.

So yesterday, I woke up at 5.30am all fired up to start the run. However, the preparation for the run was hampered with the stomach problems I was having. I had too much to eat on Saturday during an open house. To make matters worst, I had a plate of 'Onion loaf' plus my main course at Tony Roma's for dinner. So, I'm sure u guys know what was coming. I had to take a crap twice before we started running. So there goes all the carbs that I have been packing since Saturday. And not to forget, the after effect of doing the nature's call.

But I'd given my words to Stupe, and I'm not one to back out from it. So we started running at abt 6.30 from Bukit Aman to Income Tax offc in Jln Duta. For the first 6-7 KM it was OK. But then, we started the hilly route turning back from Jln Duta. I just wished I had lungs as big as hot air balloon. It was really difficult doing the sprints up those hills. But hats off to Stupe, he inspired me to keep on going no matter how slow I can go. But I did stop for a brief 10 seconds, so that is something I need to improve for my next run.

After those difficult hills, it took me abt 1 KM to recover. I was running very slow(sorry Stupe). But as I recovered from it, I managed to maintain 6"07' min/km for the last 3-4 KM.

All in all, it was a very satisfactory run. I have to thank Stupe for inspiring and keeping 'slow' with me thru out the whole run. I can't wait to do this again next week.

* Some stats : 12.65 km in 1:20'23'' with an average pace of 6'21'' and 1022 calories burned.

Getting Fit

2008-09-17T17:13:00.000-07:00

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;

Can fit back into most of my pants
Loose at least 4 kgs
Getting fitter ( target to complete 5 rounds klcc park/ 40 laps at my condo's pool)
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

2008-09-11T16:56:00.000-07:00

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

2008-09-07T19:31:00.000-07:00

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

2008-09-04T18:00:00.000-07:00

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?

2008-09-03T16:32:00.000-07:00

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....

UP on Golf Course Part 2

2008-08-07T17:53:00.000-07:00

It has been a while since I last wrote to this blog. Just some new catch from my recent golf game.

1. It was a par 3, guarded by bunkers front left of the green and huge lake to the right. Angin kencang gile mcm kat St. Andrews. Distance is 159m. On normal days, I'd take out my 5/6 iron, but bcos of the wind, I opted for 4 iron. I didnt hit a solid shot, nevertheless the ball went straight but short about 10 feet to the green. Safe. Now my buddy, asking the caddy to give him 6 iron. The caddy told him its a strong wind he might not make it. With a straight face, he told the cadyy, I pukul lagi kuat dari angin.... UP!!!!

2. Again, it was a par 3, 212 m downhill. I have no choice but to take my 3 wood. Hit it solid with an easy swing. The ball went up very high and again stop short of the green. No rolls or whatsoever. After finishing the hole with a stupid bogey I made a remark to my buggy mate. "Kalau aku pakai 3 iron tadi mesti dah on dah, aku pukul 3 iron lagi jauh dari 3 wood". Without letting me to continue my sentence my buggy mate shouted aloud UPPPPP!!!. He..he..he... kali ni aku sendiri yg UP. OK la tu, sekali sekala nak UP jugak.

Common Sense

2008-07-31T16:54:00.000-07:00

I want to tell two instances where common sense is non-existent.

1. Last Wednesday I went to The Housing Tribunal to register a claim on my developer. Becos most of the owners wanted to make the same claim, we have devided ourselves into few groups and wanted to submit the claims together in few batches. Obviously there were some forms that need to be filled up and signed. One of the form, u need to have 4 copies complete with signature. So, during the submission, there were abt 10 claimants from my group including myself. As I was submitting it at the counter, the other claimant next to me started raising his voice. Apparently, he had problem with his form. This bugger had filled up and signed the original copy only and then xeroxed 3 other copies to be submitted. The clerk at the counter couldnt accept it as the signatures were photocopied from the original one. And to make matters worse, they were 2 signatures in the form, the other one being his wife, and the wife didnt came for submission, so he couldnt even amend the forms. They kept arguing and this bugger kept on repeating that nobody informed him abt it. I think it is common sense, it's an official document, why the hell u want to give a photocopied signature. And this guys is a GM in one construction company. Pls la..GM pun tak reti ke? In the end, the bugger had to accept the ruling. He needs to go back, do the forms again and sign it on all 4 copies.

2. Two days ago, I had summoned repairman to my house to get my aircond fixed. After doing the investigation, they told me the problems were with the motor and the blower. Both needs to be replaced. I agreed with them, but they have to come the next day to fix the new parts cos they need to order it first. So yesterday, they were supposed to come arnd 5.30-6.00. But by 6.30, they was still no signs of them. Finally abt 6.35, they called me. Actually they had been at the lobby area since 6, but the security guard didnt allow them to go up. They have a strict instruction that contractor can not enter the area after 5 to do any type of work. The reason behind the ruling is that all the works by contractor will be very noisy, other residents will complain. I can agree and understand with that. But come on la, just putting in a blower and the motor it wont be noisy at all. I'm fine with the guard, he was just doing his job and receiving orders. Nevertheless, I said I wanted to talk to the supervisor. So I called the supervisor and explained the type of work that will be done, he told me he understood but he cant allow it, by giving the same reason. Now I'm getting furious, if he said he understood then why still give the same reason. Pls, some common sense here. I demanded to talk to his GM to get my approval, well, at least the GM has some common sense and let me thru. I wasted 30 mins trying to explain my problem to ppl with no common sense. I wonder what can be done to improve the level of common sense to ppl, I dont think there is any school or course that teach u that.

When your best friend UP

2008-07-29T05:30:00.000-07:00

Have you ever had this situation? What wd u feel? What is playing in your mind when it happens?

I'm sure u wd feel very awkward and uncomfortable or even mad and angry. How can a person that you trust, shares everything with, knows you inside out would do such a thing. Unless the person has been an UP person since u had known them, the feeling would be somewhat as I've mentioned earlier.

When I dont like a person(most of the time bcos they UP), I would try to not to talk and associate myself with the person as much as possible. I have better things to do rather then wasting my time thinking about how much I hate that person.

But, if that person is your best friend what wd u do? U can not just chuck them out. Will u talk to them and clear the air? or just let it go and hope the time will heal it?

I used to have this problem when I was very much younger. But now, I dont think I'd have that problem anymore. I dont have a best friend and I refuse to have one. I will try to distance myself to a person when I think I'm getting too close to them.

Having said that, however, I do have few close circles of really good friends. I dont pour out everything to them. And it works well for me. So my dear readers, this is kind of a very simplistic approach to solve the question above. I t may not wok for you, but it sure does for me.

Resmi Padi

2008-07-27T17:28:00.000-07:00

I've been very negative in my writings so far, so I've decided to switch the trend a little bit. I don't want to be perceived (why do I care abt what ppl think) as grumpy "young" man. Man...I'm not as half as grumpy as RPK and definitely I'm still very young(menyedapkan hati sendiri).

While driving to the office this morning, my memory takes me back to the time where I only think about eat, sleep and play. And I remembered one important pesan my grandfather told me. "Kita hidup kena ikut resmi padi, semakin berisi semakin tunduk, jgn ikut resmi lalang"

What a strong 'pepatah'. Total opposite of UP. This was the value that the Malays had been upholding since god knows when...zaman Hang Tuah maybe? If we breakdown the meanings, surely we can learn something from it.

First let's look at the meaning, literally; Padi (paddy) is a plant that produces rice, a staple food for more than half of the human population. It looks like a long grass (lalang) . Difference is, it yields rice at the top quarter of the stalk. As more rice are being produced, the lean stalk will bend down bcos of gravitational factor. The more rice it produces the lower the bend will be. But it wont break. However, the long grass(lalang), will be more upright and straighter as they grow, but of no use.

Now, The Malays, who had been traditionally planting paddy for ages had symbolised the scenario above. The old folks are implying that as a person gets more powerful, richer, stronger, he/she needs to be humble and to use all the good things that they had acquired for good use. Unlike, the long grass, the higher UP it goes, the more useless it will be.

*terasa mcm Karam Singh Walia la..

UP in the office

2008-07-26T19:06:00.000-07:00

The thing I like the most abt writing to this blog is that I wd feel some sense of elation after posting whatever I wanted to say. It has become like an outlet for joy, anger, dissatisfaction and all sorts of other emotions. Its therapeutic.

Furthermore, I can impart some mysteries and suspense, as most of the writings didnt explicitly points to any individuals.

I always have difficulties to express wholeheartedly what I'm feeling during conflicts, mostly becos I didnt want to hurt the other person's feeling. As I can be very brutally truthful with my remarks. Its hard for them to take it to their chin, the truth is always painful. It wd be more painful if its about u and your shortcomings.

Again, I'm putting part of the blame to our culture and the way we have been brought up. We dont have the ability to be tactful and mindful in conflict situation.

This is one thing that I feel that we are lacking when compared to the westerners(ppl in developed nation), especially the Americans. Well for them, I think they can manipulate the language better ( its their mother tounge)

I will try to give an example the difference between us and Americans when they want to UP and gain more exposure.

Real example;
One of my colleague (mestilah Mat UP) said during a meeting. " I purposely stayed back at the office to complete the job becos it is very hard and I was so busy during the day. Furthermore not many users at night, easylah"

He's tring to say that he is very hardworking and sacrifised his personal time to complete the job la konon. Padahal, it shows his lack of planning and time management.

Kalau Mat American they wd say it like this. "Due to the complexity and criticallity of the problem, we had to modify our plan. We believe it wd be best to be implemented during the night as the network is not so congested and they are not so many users online. We dont want them to feel the impact of this problem"

U see, Mat American ni pun nak UP jugak, tapi he'd done it in a subtle way an putting the user as the reason to it.

The point I'm trying to make here, kalau nak UP, UP lah, tapi bagi la ada style sikit.

Brand 'UP'

2008-07-25T18:22:00.000-07:00

I've been talking a lot abt golf for the past few posts, maybe now I shd turn my attention to other areas of UP. Lets talk abt branded stuffs.

Ppl buy branded stuffs for so many reasons;
Quality
Features
Brand Loyalty
Self satisfaction/reward
Peer pressure
Brag/Show off
Trend

The bottom half of the reason that I gave above is all abt UP. I think its ok for us to buy branded stuff for the first 4 reasons above, but pls, for god sake dont brag and UP abt it. (Unless if u are the sales person for that brand)

Do you think u are a better person if you wear a 'cole haan' shoes compared to a person wearing a 'bata'? (BTW in Rome, bata is actually a high end boutiqe for shoes). For all u know the Aldo shoes that u are wearing only cost abt 30 USD in the States. For whatever reason, when they come to our shores it became like 400-500. Thats the magic of brand name.

And the worst of all is that u didnt buy it becos u like it. So, with the economic crisis that we are having now, tolonglah, buanglah perangai UP tu. Tak bawak ke mana punya, ale2, hutang credit card kau yg melambung.

Attention Craver

2008-07-24T19:23:00.000-07:00

"btw, with regards to your theory on "up" ppl. i dont think it applies to inferior complex ppl je. some ppl brag coz they love the attention. agak waktu kecik, tak cukup kasih sayang kot. huhuhu.."

The comment above was made by one of this blogsite reader. Very valid, infact it makes up quite a number of the UP ppl. Let me do my best to give my take on this.

Sometimes, it happen becos of lack of recognitions. So what do they do ? they recognised themselves to any living souls that they can prey on. How do the do it ? UP and brag. By doing this, they wd satisfy their hunger and crave for attention. The poor souls that had to listen to all these brags and UPs wd need to endure it unwillingly, bcos, our society, our culture, our tradition doesnt teach us to menyampuk or cakap benda2 tak baik or pangkah cakap org, especially to older ppl.

And u know what, these ppl became big headed bcos nobody wd object or dispute whatever they said. However, my dear readers..... there's a proven remedy for this. Ask questions. Try to get them to explain as much as they can. More often than not, they cant. I had tested this in many situations, and it turned out the UP ppl was just bluffing to impress and get attention from others.

If u read my previous post "Top 10 'UP' statements on Golf Course Part1", No.2 specifically explaines on what I wanted to express.
"2. Hari tu aku main sikit lagi nak dapat birdie, eh par, eh bogey, oh tak, dbl bogey sebenarnya."

This was the actual conversation;
UP: Gilalah, hari tu aku main sikit lagi nak dpt birdie.
Poor soul (PS) : Ye ke? Kat mane?
UP: Dekat xxx, 7th hole.
PS: Gile power kau ni, par 4 tu susah tu, index hole. Aku nak dpt par pun menangis.
UP: Ha, tu la, aku mula2 3 on.
PS: Biar betul, kalau kau 3 on mcm mana ko dpt birdie?
UP: Ooh, silap2, bukan par 5 ke situ?
PS: Mane ada, par 4 lah. Abih tu ko dah 3 on brp kali putt?
UP: 2 putt.
PS: Kalau 2 putt, ko dpt bogeylah.
UP: a a yek, bogeyla aku sebenarnya.
PS: Ke ada org bagi ko 'given'?
UP: A..a..
PS: kalau mcm tu ko 3 putt la, dbl bogey tu.

You see, initially this UP guy wanted to get my attention by telling me how good he is. Well, he needed to bluff bcos I definitely I would be interested to hear something spectacular. His mistake was, he never thought I would ask all this kind of questions and scrutinised on his facts. And true enough, it was all made up just to impress me. You could see how hard UP ppl try to UP their stories just to satisfy their crave for attention. So, like I said, u just need to ask questions upon questions, that'll do the trick.

*I think I'm a little bit off topic from explaining the need to recognise themselves by bragging which I tried to explain in the earlier part. Who cares, I felt good telling the actual conversation.

Top 10 'UP' statements on Golf Course Part1

2008-07-23T18:17:00.000-07:00

10. Kayu ni flex lebih sgt la, selalu aku pakai 'stiff' shaft pasal swing speed aku laju
9. 'Been there, done that' (comments made after others trying to UP their birdie success)
8. Semalam aku pegi gym, muscle aku sakit2, kalau tak aku boleh drive lagi jauh.
7. 'Dulu aku main 80' (comments made by a 36 handicapper)
6. Its not my golfing day.
5. Ni baru pakai driver kunyit pun dah jauh dah, I dont need a titliest or R5.
4. I dont need regulation approach to get par.
3. Maintain posture for 2 minutes after hitting a drive that almost got on to the green. ( Yg ni up perbuatan, bukan percakapan)
2. Hari tu aku main sikit lagi nak dapat birdie, eh par, eh bogey, oh tak, dbl bogey sebenarnya.
1. 200m, eh 180m.

UP on golf course Part1

2008-07-22T23:29:00.000-07:00

Recently I had a game of golf with my Anti-UP buddy. Well, besides enjoying our golf and having a healthy competition, we are always on the lookout for UP ppl. If u wanna find UP ppl, golf course wd be like a small pond filled with big fat fish just waiting to be scooped up with a net. The ratio of UP vs normal is like 4:1.

Back to the game.. after having a rather roller coaster 1st nine, we waited to tee-off on the 10th. There were 2 flights in front of us. The first flt, 2 senior citizens abt 50-60 yrs. Second flt, 2 abled body 40ish golfers.

1st flt's UP:
The first guy hit an OK drive. Now the pressure on the 2nd guy. He hit a wayward shot to the left and fell short of the fairway bend. Instantly, he said with a rather loud voice " Ahhh, aku dah 2 bln dah tak main kat sini" . WTF! Cant he just keep quiet and accept the fact the he had hit a bad shot? It's just beyond my comprehension. I dont understand why he needed to say that. My analysis , Its all abt pride, intensified with a gallery behind him, he just need to give an excuse for his bad shot.

2nd flt's UP:
Before they even step up to the T-box, the white shirt guy was trying to negotiate the betting mode. '6-2-2 lah', '6 ringgit je kalau kalah lah', again, with a rather loud voice. Hey man! We dont need to hear that. As if telling the whole world that he's a regular golfer and betting is his middle name. And, u might know the rest of the story. That guy is KACIS!!!! Tak lepas pun the fairway bend. Sudahlah Mat2 UP.

Inferiority vs Superiority Complex

2008-07-21T00:25:00.000-07:00

Big words, but if u closely look at it, there's a very fine line that separates these two.

My definition, Inferiotiy Complex = The feeling of being intimidated.

Symptoms:
Very low self confidence
Poor communication skill
Never wants to be in the limelight

Reasons:
Lack of talent, knowledge, experience and more importantly - results/success
Peer/siblings pressure

Case examples:
2 friends that knew each other from school, being classmates, deskmates and eventually became best friends. If u look at the situation above, they became friends, initially was not by choice. But as time goes, they develop trust and fondness as they were going thru the same experience( being in the same class and all). In certain points of their friendship few tests and assessments came along. For instance, during exams, person A will always be on top of person B. B felt challenged and started to study hard to beat A. But, no matter how hard B studied or tried, B could never beat A. And to rub salt on the wound, A was not even trying and did not acknowledge the fierce competition from B. Slowly, B will develop the feeling of hopelessness and started to accept the fact that no matter what, he/she will still be inferior to A.

Well, thats life. And the situation above is not very strange to us isn't it? But what I wd like to lay out here is the impact of the situation above in general.

From being inferior, B tried to become superior in any opportunity that present itself. Every minute or insignificant details, B will try to boast up and try to downplay A. It can be as simple as, criticising A on the way A walks, looks and talks. It can be to a point where B will start to resort to lies just to impress and UP him/herself. They wd say that they just bought a half million house when in actual fact its just a 300K house. I dont need to elaborate, u got the idea.

To make matters worst, B will try to do this in front of other friends. By doing this, B will have some false sense of victory and satisfaction. There are so much negative that we can take from this, but one thing for sure, the relationship wont be the same.

So the point I want to make here, I blv, most of the ppl that have SUPERIORITY complex actually became like that bcos they felt INFERIOR initially.

Having said that, let me try to define superiority complex in my next update

Anti UP

2008-07-20T17:14:00.000-07:00

Its so easy to be critical when u r out of the fence, but now, I'm facing a ' Hang cakap hang Tera, Hang Buat La' syndrome. Suddenly, my fingers are numb and my palms sweating, looking left and right clawing for ideas on what to write. So much data in the head, just need to figure out the tools to drill it out.

Basically, I took this task upon myself becos I've had enough of it. I can't live in a society full of UPs ppl. I've always contemplated with myself, wheter I shd just tell them straight to the face or keep it quite and let it rest in the drawer. Well, more often than not, I went with the latter.

We need to understand that we live in a society, that's the KEY. Every actions and every words, will impact us and the ppl surrounding us, the ppl that we love. We need to protect their feelings and their emotions. Lets face it, at the end of the day, their HAPPINESS is your HAPPINESS, and their sadness.....

Next update I will start to define what is up ppl. And hopefully I can accompany my lectures with some real life example to illustrate what I meant.