Of mochacinnos & ballet...

Well, back at McDonald’s United Square. Ordered my usual Mochaccino medium and settled down with my trusty NEC laptop using the free wireless service by McDonalds. I realise that my mochaccino is not its usual taste and brought it back to the counter to say that it’s not as sweet as usual. The guy who served me is not the regular guy I see every Sunday and he gladly replaced my drink with a NEW one on the house! I had expected him to add only a bit of sweetness but he did what he did and that is certainly good service in my books! Good one there McDonald’s!

Today is Shahira’s first day at the ballet school near our place. And she enjoyed it whole-heartedly, prancing around and listening to the teacher’s instructions. Although new, she immediately immersed herself in the class. It was an almost non-stop movement for 45 minutes and she couldn’t wait to get her tutu and ballet shoes!

Puteri Gunung Ledang The Musical

And so it was that the 12 of us - Bik As, Cik Eton, Mak, Jihan, Aqila, Nabilah, Kak Ain, Kak Tini, Boboy, Shahrul, Mars & myself - descended upon the Esplanade to catch the much hyped Puteri Gunung Ledang the Musical.

Watching the production - with its elaborate costumes, simple but effective props, beautiful music and gorgeous dance numbers - was an unforgettable experience!

Although none of the cast members are singers by profession - except for Gusti Adipati (played by Mizal) - the words were clear and the songs well sung. The scene stealer for the night has to be when Sultan Melaka, played by Adlin Aman Ramlie, effortlessly broke into an MTV-style number! Hang Tuah definitely can sing well and even launched into an almost 20 secs non-stop high note at the end of one of the songs! Although he speaks Malay funny I guess that must be taken in the light that he did not know a single word of Malay before being involved in the production. And kudos must go to Tiara Jacquelina for her poise and grace in capturing the essence of Puteri Gunung Ledang although the Javanese in my family complained that she wasn't "jawa" enough! The thunderous applause and standing ovation at the end capped off the audience's approval of a truly magical and unforgettable experience...

Well, aside from the show itself, a few of us were lucky in that our seats were 'upgraded' as the original ones were taken out for some audio-vido equipment. I also met my long lost cadetmate, Mas S...haven't met him for 15 over years. But we instantly recognised each other when we met! He was just sitting two seats to my right! Interestingly, his partner was Rila Melati (yes, her!) and while my BH chatted with her, I caught up on old-times with him. And after the break, I realised that Khairudin Sharom (yes, him!) was in front of me. And I said hi and caught up on 'old' times with him as I had taken him twice for in-camp training back when I was in ITI. Aqila became excited when she saw me talking to him and after the whole thing, I linked them up for a photo op!

The queue that formed for the autograph session snaked all the way to the entrance and those poor sods at the end had no chance to get the autographs of the main cast. Oh but my makciks got it! It was crazy...people rushing forward...breaking thru the security line...aiyo...I came forward to take pictures only because Jihan said 'I'm too shortlah Bomi, I can't see anything to take pictures!'...

I am sure those who were there will remember the entire experience for a long time... Well, as for those of us who are trekking up the actual Gunung Ledang in a month's time, may we not meet her up there (or do we?!?!?)...jeng, jeng, jeng...

Oh, enjoy the slide show...

Exam's over!

Well, yesterday was my last paper. 3 major papers in 10 days is no joke...A total of about 40 over chapters had to be 'encoded, stored and retrieved'! Let's just say that spotting questions (or chapters in this case) is like living life on the edge but hey, what's life without challenges right!?!? All the chapters I 'spotted' came out...let's just wait for the results in late December/early January...

Hey, I’ve got a mention somewhere in cyberspace…OCS Pressbox Article.

Harry Lorayne and his Memory Power System...

I've been using his system for a long time and it came in useful for my exams...helps keep all the concepts and definitions in my mind...And it REALLY works...here's his site...

http://www.harrylorayne.com/

These are the demonstrations...

http://www.harrylorayne.com/demonstrations/index.html

Next time you meet me, I'll give a demonstration and will teach you his method (if you want to). Guaranteed to work...

The normal adult can recall about 6 letters or numbers forward and backwards, the superior adult can do it with 8 but with this system, you can remember 20, 30 letters or numbers!!! And more...

You will never again forget a person's name, telephone number, etc.

You can even remember equations and chemical formulas...And learning a foreign language is no problem with his system...

I'm not selling you koyok or anything. I have his books and tapes that I bought a looong time ago and it still works...Just something to share, that's all...

Happy Birthday Boboy!

Panjang umurnya, panjang umurnya,
Panjang umurnya serta mulia,
Serta mulia, serta mulia….

(ntah betul ntah tidak lirik aku ni...heh...thanx to Rina for pointing out my original mistake of 'setahun ria'...heh...but I think still makes sense what...)

Sempena hari spesel ni, I present gegambar masa2 silam...wait till the end for something long and hard...

Happy birthday to Julie!

Julie is 33 today! Here's a tribute to my dear sister, sister-in-law and bibik!

Less than 24hrs to D-day H-hour...

In less than 24 hours time, I will be in a place called The Grand Hall on the fourth floor of UniSIM taking my DSZS2122 Exploring Psychology exams...it will last three hours till 2230hrs...

I will like to take this opportunity to especially thank my darling wife who has been very very supportive of me...taking care of the kids while I was slogging thru the chapters, providing me with endless supply of tea and other nourishment and of course, her love...thanx dear!

And of course to my two wonderful daughters who kept asking why ayah is always in the study room these past few days...and why can't he read the book to us tonight...it's been a long time since we went swimming...and other seemingly innocent questions that just breaks your heart sometimes...Ayah will make it up to you once exams are over...PROMISE!

Life will return back to 'normal' at exactly 2230hrs on 24th November 2006 after my third and final paper...till then...

To make a grown man cry...

I know I've said that I won't be posting anything here till after my exams but I just can't miss this chance to share something truly inspirational...Dick Hoyt has made the top of my Hero list! Read the article first and then watch the most amazing 4-minute video ever...

Strongest Dad in the World

Rick Reilly for Sports Illustrated

I try to be a good father. Give my kids mulligans. Work nights to pay for their text messaging. Take them to swimsuit shoots.

But compared with Dick Hoyt, I'm lousy.

Eighty-five times he's pushed his disabled son, Rick, 26.2 miles in marathons. Eight times he's not only pushed him 26.2 miles in a wheelchair but also towed him 2.4 miles in a dinghy while swimming and pedaled him 112 miles in a seat on the handlebars -- all in the same day.

Dick's also pulled him cross-country skiing, taken him on his back mountain climbing and once hauled him across the U.S. on a bike. Makes taking your son bowling look a little lame, right?

And what has Rick done for his father? Not much -- except save his life.

This love story began in Winchester, Mass., 43 years ago, when Rick was strangled by the umbilical cord during birth, leaving him brain-damaged and unable to control his limbs.

"He'll be a vegetable the rest of his life," Dick says doctors told him and his wife, Judy, when Rick was nine months old. "Put him in an institution."

But the Hoyts weren't buying it. They noticed the way Rick's eyes followed them around the room. When Rick was 11 they took him to the engineering department at Tufts University and asked if there was anything to help the boy communicate. "No way," Dick says he was told. "There's nothing going on in his brain."

"Tell him a joke," Dick countered. They did. Rick laughed. Turns out a lot was going on in his brain.

Rigged up with a computer that allowed him to control the cursor by touching a switch with the side of his head, Rick was finally able to communicate. First words? "Go Bruins!" And after a high school classmate was paralyzed in an accident and the school organized a charity run for him, Rick pecked out, "Dad, I want to do that."

Yeah, right. How was Dick, a self-described "porker" who never ran more than a mile at a time, going to push his son five miles? Still, he tried. "Then it was me who was handicapped," Dick says. "I was sore for two weeks."

That day changed Rick's life. "Dad," he typed, "when we were running, it felt like I wasn't disabled anymore!"

And that sentence changed Dick's life. He became obsessed with giving Rick that feeling as often as he could. He got into such hard-belly shape that he and Rick were ready to try the 1979 Boston Marathon.

"No way," Dick was told by a race official. The Hoyts weren't quite a single runner, and they weren't quite a wheelchair competitor. For a few years Dick and Rick just joined the massive field and ran anyway, then they found a way to get into the race officially: In 1983 they ran another marathon so fast they made the qualifying time for Boston the following year.

Then somebody said, "Hey, Dick, why not a triathlon?"

How's a guy who never learned to swim and hadn't ridden a bike since he was six going to haul his 110-pound kid through a triathlon? Still, Dick tried.

Now they've done 212 triathlons, including four grueling 15-hour Ironmans in Hawaii. It must be a buzzkill to be a 25-year-old stud getting passed by an old guy towing a grown man in a dinghy, don't you think?

Hey, Dick, why not see how you'd do on your own? "No way," he says. Dick does it purely for "the awesome feeling" he gets seeing Rick with a cantaloupe smile as they run, swim and ride together.

This year, at ages 65 and 43, Dick and Rick finished their 24th Boston Marathon, in 5,083rd place out of more than 20,000 starters. Their best time? Two hours, 40 minutes in 1992 -- only 35 minutes off the world record, which, in case you don't keep track of these things, happens to be held by a guy who was not pushing another man in a wheelchair at the time.

"No question about it," Rick types. "My dad is the Father of the Century."

And Dick got something else out of all this too. Two years ago he had a mild heart attack during a race. Doctors found that one of his arteries was 95% clogged. "If you hadn't been in such great shape," one doctor told him, "you probably would've died 15 years ago."

So, in a way, Dick and Rick saved each other's life.

Rick, who has his own apartment (he gets home care) and works in Boston, and Dick, retired from the military and living in Holland, Mass., always find ways to be together. They give speeches around the country and compete in some backbreaking race every weekend, including this Father's Day.

That night, Rick will buy his dad dinner, but the thing he really wants to give him is a gift he can never buy.

"The thing I'd most like," Rick types, "is that my dad sit in the chair and I push him once."

Sports Illustrated Issue date: June 20, 2005, p. 88

Stuffs like these make us wonder how much potential we have within us have we unleashed.

I CAN!