Eff Wan 2009

feets are sore-h! next time, we’ll just sit yeah? more pixs here.

selamat hari raya 2009

a bit sullen this year round, with much of the elders not around any more. raya is family, family is love.
not much of snaps, rest can be found here as always.

the sweet silver song of a lark

3 days of scouring, shouting, screaming, singing…somehow, this visit is more emotional compared to 2001′s. thank technology for that, probably.

for me, the highlight was indefinitely singing ynwa on the banks of the river right in front of them. well, xavi and carra, specifically. (if only there was finnan. oh how we missed the irish lad.) carra was stumped, xavi actually managed a smile and waves, kuyt was actually amiable and sammy lee, bless him, was sporting as always. even rafa acknowledged he found the singing along the river was very, erm, emotional. no kidding. except for the fucking irritating cavern emcee who keeps on and on egoing himself. idiot.

as for the match, it was justifiable. only the section that we were sitting were motionless most of the time. i swear i can hear a pin drop in most parts of the 1st half. no singing, no cheering, just sitting and mumbles. luckily it did pick up a bit in the 2nd half.

and words of advice to noh alam shah and indra shahdan: dont be a fucken prima donna. you shld be glad yourselves that you are actually playing against one of the top teams in the world. of course you shld know who the people are rooting for. BODOH NYE MAMATS.

Penang / KL 2009

terima kasih budget airlines! kalau tak, tak larat gue mau ke penang, walaupun dah lamaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa skali tak gi sana. kita orang dua dua pun last minit lah cadang nak gi sana walaupun untuk satu setengah hari ajer. tau takper.

cun cun time pergi pun ada jugaklah dia nye festiviti untuk ulang tahun pertama georgetown dapat gelaran unesco world heritage site. glamor tuh. upscale tuh. lebih lebih lagi nyt ada bikin ulasan penang destinasi nombor kedua untuk dilawati untuk tahun 2009. amboi, tak agak agak nak up.

sunday morning

national runway cycling @ paya lebar air base. fun! sarip did ony 15 k while jaja and ain completed 45 k.

good friday is my favourite holiday

ain starting the bouldering @ yishun safra. legend has it that climbing can tone your body. and so sarip begins his journey. but not without pains on his toes and joints! and smelly shoes is not the way to begin the futile journey to slimming sanctuary. but he has to. his lost pants are the testimony of the (current) losing battle.

so much for the healthy living and eat in moderation. but we guessed lots of veggies and tender meat are good for the body. or so we thought. but quite frankly, sarip thinks eatzi’s steak is not as good as it seemed to be. so much for the brouhaha.

lps was attacked by the lfians. speaking of lps, try as much to avoid stall num 9. trust sarip on this.

on a sidenote, for as long as sarip can remember, ang mo kio is a very pathetic place in case you want to find good (halal) eating places. most of the good ones are gone, and it seems people can only head to banquet to eat, which is sad because sarip doesnt like banquet that much either. it feels so “franchisey”. heh.

well thank goodness, there’s charcos. even though its stucked in one other end of amk. even though its been there for some time and it is only now that sarip is raving about it. but the food’s good. the prices are best! and the setting is very relaks jek. the salads are bountiful tak lokek nye type (blessings to the owner!), ribs are tenderly cooked and the portugese chicken makes me want to go to porto and do the portobello. ok no relations. but its damn good considering the price, which is so unlike other *atas* eateries who wants to justify its prices by proclaiming its *better* quality dishes, are better. sadly, most times that ain’t true.

ok dah.

super size me

i think i’ve gained about 12 kilos since the past year. *gulps*

i’m on an eating binge and i can’t stop. and truth be known, my metabolism rate has gone SIGNIFICANTLY down eversince i hit the 3-0. sheet. i’m THIRTY?!

and it doesn’t help when our weekends are mostly spent on eating, and more eating, and more eating.

and peaberry and pretzel was nice. *teehee* place was nice, environment was nice, super burger was super and teh tiramisu werkz. but imma not fond of creme brulee cos i’m like dat. :S

oh! and labrador park at night was actually, nice. unlike the expectation of “tempat keras giler” type.

and prata cafe @ evans road sure has a lot of flies. we were a bit kepunan after hearing about prata maggi mee served there. verdict? satu bite and you can sure to be kenyang like mad. we can’t even finished it. it was that filling…though not in a good way.

i. need. to. stop. binging.

albatross

Gluttons in KL

this is the main excuse for sarip to keep coming back to kl. the oh sungguh delicious nak mampos kueh teow kerang at jalan alor. cheap! oily! dirty! yes, sarip’s kind of fine dining.

best part? they’re open up till the weeeee hours in the morning.

sarip actually intended to borong kain for you know you know lah kan semangat raya nye type, but after awhile, he tak kuasa selik belik along jln masjid india. and so he looked around and somehow bumped into this eatery tucked inside masjid india.

as they say, the crowder the place is, the better the food is. and it did not disappoint.

oh yes. looks plain ‘ol nasi goreng but the taste ooomph giler lah! sarip does not know how they make it better, probably thinking the cook’s sweat drips most likely more pekat. :>

BUT! the bestest part? this arrives in 2 mins FLAT! sarip thought this might’ve be some fishy technique, but apparently ALL the orders for everyone came within 2 mins. crazy!

a few months back, a friend of ain introduced a seafood place secluded deep within bukit bintang. so naturally, we gluttons must go. again.

they say their crabs are the best in town, but sarip does not know how to appreciate them. leceh lah. BUT! the tiger prawns are the werks lah dei. so works, until cannot be bothered to take photos.

and crowded the place is. and amazingly, only ONE uncle was cooking meals for hundreds. and he has a tendency to put up big fireballs. skilling pulak sidini.

+++

the jam was severely bad that day. how bad? to get from sungei besi to klcc apparently took sarip almost 4 hours! funny story he heard: the reason it got so bad that day was a tunnel – called a SMART one at that- closed one of its level for traffic and substituted it to become a makeshift canal to let rainwater to be drained out. it’s so absurd it’s amazingly funny! and it happened the next day too, which is sad as there are many other places to go to but the traffic kills the joy. they say bangkok’s traffic is bad, sarip says kl’s tops everything up.

thankfully, the kuay teow kearang saved sarip from boredom.

pixs here hor.

the meek have spoken

1. sarip doesn’t know about you but sarip feels the whole of kampung glam is polluted with the cliche crowd. the air is so stale, it’s sad. sarip wishes it goes back to the time when the place was still raw and mucky.

2. mega raya courts sale – when idiots run a marketing campaign targeting senseless makciks and pakciks for their credit rebates.

3. sarip tells himself to better read wedding invitation cards properly the next time so as not to go to BOTH places on the same day and BOTH places were either still in preparation or have ended already.

selenger is sarip.

but congrats to aidil and fiz! the meek shall rule the world!

and for old times sake, from the creators of “lord of the beard’.

sarip, the meek, fav_animal. good times.

Pulau Sapi – Pulau Manukan – KK

Since there was nothing much to do and with time to spare, we decided to head over to visit the islands in the Tunku Abdul Rahman Marine Park. Saw from the pixs looked macam lawa and the best part it’ll take only 20 minutes from KK. That seems to be the greatest news Sarip’ve heard so far since the previous lawa islands he visited – Pha Ngan, Perhentian, Phi Phi Ley, Tinggi – are all ass killers that requires hours of uncomfortable rides.

Set off point is from Jesselton Point Ferry Terminal, further up north the road from Wisma Merdeka. We chose to go to Pulau Sapi and Manukan. Tix costs RM 27 and the boat will only set off once the desired number of people is completed.

Here’s a tip: When entering the island, tell the counter that you are from Messia and the staff will charge you RM 3 for entrance permit instead of RM 10 required for foreigners. Heh heh.

Whitewater Rafting @ Padas River & Tanjung Aru (Day 6)

Now tell me you go to sabah and kedebak kedebuk and you did not go whitewater rafting at Padas River. FAIL! Heard so much about it so naturally must. go. and. do. it. Nampak sah tak nak kalah nye orang. Haha.

Ok some details. We book the trip via Riverbug. You can book this from your lodge. Fees include transport to and fro, meals and whatever in between. They’ll pick you up around 8 in the morning and muka jangan songeh sangat ‘cos a cameraman will follow you around. [nak promote lagi - they'll jack up the price for you if you sign up directly with them. sarip can give you discount PLUS get free riverbug tshirt liao!]

Anyways, Padas River is categorized as category 4 river. Looking at the vids, Sarip was thinking betul ke tak betul ni anak nak pergi nih? Macam rabak jer. And the water so coklat, how come dia panggil “whitewater”? But ok lah, buat ajer nak experience.

Kota Kinabalu – Mount Kinabalu (Day 1 – 4)

When Sarip was a kid, Ayah Mod showed him a pix of him climbing up Mount Kinabalu. He’ll tell Sarip stories of how he spent the night at Sayat-Sayat Hut and the conditions he faced. Naturally as a kid trying to impress, Sarip was adamant he will go up there one day.

And (naturally) year after year after year, the intention to fulfill that wish never materialized. And year after year Sarip will angan angan again and again…

…until a few weeks ago. He actually did go up there. Alone. By himself some more! Ok not all the way, but to the summit nevertheless! And here is the cerita dongeng. A bit long. So yeah. But it’s kind of a big deal. For him. :/

the pursuit of selamat

in increasing the efforts to contribute to national security, a group of middle-aged youths set out to pulau ubin to find the elusive mas selamat. even though news had came in that mr selamat’s kaki has been caught, efforts have not deteriorated to capture him.

the group set out to meet early morning one saturday. but, as should have been known, mas slamat powers to be had converted the time to waktu indonesia barat. thus one of the members a certain mr sarip dol arrived too late to enjoy his mas saujana nasi lemak whom his father said is much much better than the international nasi lemak stall whom till this day still remains a mystery why the queue is so long like that.

mr sarip said that for all of his 30 years of existence he has never set foot on ubin. but he responded that that will not deter him from protecting his countreh.

and it was a pleasant surprise for him to note that he liked the surroundings of P.U. even after stories after stories he heard of P.U. as a haven for the cik flying fatimahs, especially about a group who went to ubin to camp but somehow mysteriously did not bring THE tent and had to sleep under a tree where ms heidi glum made an appearance.

the search started off by cycling towards chek jawa. but apparently, navigation was actually quite bad, and instead of the intended place, the team ventured out ubin river where they met a suspicious ang-mohish looking man sitting alone with binoculars. The team was suspicious and made contact with him for questioning.

The team was disappointed though thinking they may found a lead to mas selamat, but instead was told by the man he was actually looking at some otters on the other side of the water.

breezes just like that…

wahliau!

the cny holidays just passed by like that?!

initially wanted to do much, but then ever the malas nak bangun pagi pagi type ended just doing some bowling, kicking some balls and let the wabbit be the main attraction of the day at the park.

surprisingly, the fella was excited enough to have a run…

…but before long, rilek one corner as usual.

oh the agony of going to work on a monday after a supposedly long break…

Southern Central Vietnam

When we went for the Perhentian trip, we met a Dutch couple who complained that their worst trip so far was when they visited Vietnam. Just because of that Sarip was apprehensive of going there thus. However, while scouring for nearby destinations on Virtual Tourist, it was noted that HCMC and Hanoi were in the top 10 list of places to visit in Asia. And just because of that Sarip responds “why not?” Fickle him.

We initially planned to head to Hanoi rather than HCMC. But due to time constraints, we decided to head to the south first. We planned to spend for at least one week and head to HCMC first, then proceed to the highlands of Dalat, then to the bustling port town of Nha Trang, after that head to the quiet town of Mui Ne and finally head back to HCMC.

staralfur

The culmination of more than a year spent promoting their hugely successful ‘Takk…’ album around the world, the Icelandic tour was free to all-comers and went largely unannounced. Playing in deserted fish factories, outsider art follies, far-flung community halls, sylvan fields, darkened caves and the hoofprint of Odin’s horse, Sleipnir*, the band reached an entirely new spectrum of the Icelandic population; young and old, ardent and merely quizzical, entirely by word-of-mouth.

Heima is the first chance to see Sigur Rós live on DVD. November 5, 2007. (thanks jo!)

weak ends

little india during deepavali season had always attracted sarip. unlike anywhere else, the place during this period of time still revels in its old world charm and identity even though contemporary “attractions” are creeping in. hopefully this will last long enough to evade any influences of the ‘shopping mall’ extravaganzas.

randoms

gee. time’s moving so fast it’s been a month since the last nasheeyonal hols. alright, natas tomorrow! it’s taim for hong the mutha ‘king kong!

gwen kawins!

adoi penat kot itu hujung minggu yang lehpas. dari jomat ke ahad gi gwen nya kawin kot. akhirnya setelah nak dekat satu dekad diaorang diijabkabulkan. yahoo! dah tak yah gue temankan hang gi swimming pool lagi kot.

gue tak tau apo nak tulis tulis, jadi gue letak ajo loh gambo gambo yang dipetik. harap enjoi.