Roaring Forties

October 26 - We started off the day in our favourite noodle shop; Peter’s Pork Noodlesin Brickfields. After a very sumptuous brunch, we proceed to conquer Bukit Sapu Tangan again to test our edurance as forty year olds since the last time we did the climb, we were in our twenties with V Meng & Y Peng. Our objective was to do the hike non stop as compared with the last time where we had to stop a couple of times for a breather due to the steepness. Our decision to do it a bit later time after brunch at 10.45 a.m. proved to be a mistake.

The inital part of the 1.8 km climb was gradual but the last half kilometer was a steep upclimb, definitely steeper than Maxwell Hill. The midday heat and steepness overcame me again and I failed in my task of trekking non stop to the top. I had to stop for rest and water. When I finally restart my steps, I realised that I missed my goal by only 300 meters because after the next bend was the summit. It was so near yet so far. If only I knew. Nevertheless, we did better than we did more than a decade ago. Next time around, I won’t fail, it would not be a problem to walk to the summit without a break.

After the Sapu Tangan climb, we continued walking around Bukit Cherakah and clocked in about 9km in total. Mei wanted to continue but I had enough of the heat. We left at 2.45 pm after spending 4 hours.

Our next stop was One Utama. No! We did not do the normal shopping trail. We went straight to the Upper Roof where my friends Eddy and Moses were having a game futsal. The last time I played in football game was 11 years ago and while futsal – never.  Despite being exhausted from my hike, I decided to test my endurance to the limit, symptoms of  mid life. Well, my first touch saw me flying and landing on my face on the astroturf. My new futsal mates were shocked and concerned. I only had some scratches. No problem. I continued. I tried to perseverve. I lasted only 6 minutes on the field running side to side chasing for the ball like a chicken without a head. I then took myself out of the game and collapsed flat out on the floor at the sidelines.

After a relatively long snooze, I rejoined the game. This time I tried the relatively more sedentary position of a goal keeper. Within the first 30 seconds, I let in a goal. Oh Shit!! This is turning out to be a nightmare!! I cannot leave my first game of futsal on such a low so I decided no matter what i do, I cannot let it anymore more goals. So for the next 10 minutes, I was diving to the left like Arumugam, diving to the right like Ong Yu Tiang and dropping to the ground instantly to hug the balls like Rashid Hassan. I thought that the goalie position would be the easiest position but it ended up to be the busiest position as the other team was stronger and overwhelmed my team. I was kept busy and I was making saves after saves. Most of the time, I believed I looked like a fat clown but to my relief the there were no further goals after the initial one I let in.

Whew!! My first futsal game turned into a happy experience. If I had let in 5 goals, I would probably had to dig a hole and hide my face.

After the game, we took our lunch at Charms. The Cucur Bawang is absolutely to die for. The Pineapple fried rice is good. The Vietnamese coffee is a good copy of the real Hanoi street version. It is also one of the few places in Bandar Utama that offers the good old fashion Ice Kachang. After finishing our lunch at 5.30 p.m., we had to rush home to shower for our dinner.

We were so tired that we tried to catch even a few minutes of sleep after shower but by 7.10 pm we were out of the house again, this time we went to Ara Damansara to a new branch of Lala Chong. We were celebrating Gwen’s birthday. The Seong Tong Lala was very good but I found the rest of the dishes ordered to be good but normal. The best was the Heinneken and the second best was the  Seong Tong Lala. The fish, the baby sotong, the vegetables and the omelette were good but not extra ordinary. I found the price (RM 260) to be expensive for the choice of food we took. The same food, better taste would have cost much less in Lau Heong.  

After dinner, it was a gathering at Tim’s places for Gwen to blow her candles and we had Malbec and Chianti to accompany a rich chocolate banana cake.  The darling of the gathering was definitely Choco. She (four month old Jack Russell) is just absolulely adorable. Party ended mildly at 12.30 a.m.

What A Day!

Well. It is true. I am back. Back from a 2 months hiatus. Friends been asking why have I stopped blogging. Have I been busy? Have I been engaged in more interesting endeavours.

Busy ? A bit! More interesting endeavours? Possibly Facebook.! But the truth is that I have been inactive because I have not been motivated to write. So much has happened in the local Malaysian political scene that keeps my tummy churning inside out. I feel like puking each time I read the papers or switch on the TV. How could I be motivated to write about other things, about life, about my encounters, about what I feel when I feel sick most of the time. You need to have the feel, especially the good feeling in order to write about something otherwise it just for the sake of writing. I feel sick. I guess I am not alone. I guess most Malaysians feel sick too.

The Malaysian state of affairs is really sad. It is the darkest period in its history. A period where common sense fails and greed triumphed. Everyone have their share of horror stories and if I were to start wrting what saddens me, I could continue writing until 2009.

What sums everything up perfectly is my article back in December 6, 2007. I was only 6 months late in my assessment. Syabas!! We now have a Chief Justice who sat on the bench as a judge less than one year.

Check out my December 6, 2007 article –  http://asme.wordpress.com/2007/12/06/new-chief-justice/

I could only echo Patrick’s words – Niamah