ahh...yes..life starts now.. or does it really?

Yes. I turned 40 on sunday. No fan fare. No cakes, no parties. Being woken up and wished in the morning, after a late nite watching football, by my two daughters was the best gift I could ask for.

Theyre still down a bit with cough and cold. D took the trouble to do a birthday card with a drawing of a tortoise within. She had traced it from an animal book. Ok, I get the message. Her old man was getting old!

That nite, coincidently, there was a cultural show in town. We brought the kids there. All the way, throughout the show and the way back, D and K kept asking and mentioning the same thing. Wahhh.. Dad's birthday got show. Why? ... Naturally, dad answers "Cos so many people likes dad"..LOL!

Well, its the big 40. Its just another number. Somehow the feeling this time around is a bit different. One tends to realise that life is precious. Lost touch of Shak, an old classmate for like 25 years, and a group of us were emailing about 2 years back. We just found out he passed away due to illness a few weeks ago.

We are reaching an age where one by one, quite a number of us will depart. Losing Dad one and a half years ago was a major blow to me. I still wish I could have done more for him. Well, thats life, most will say.

Attended a funeral of a family friend's dad. He was 92 and died after an illness. Now, thats what one calls a ripe old age, living a full life. I had casually mentioned to a couple of uncles in the 50s and 60s age group that the younger generations can only dream to reach the 90s age band. We're not even sure to reach the 60s or 70s. Somehow that didnt come out right. I had to elaborate and say that with each passing generation, the life expectancy is reducing.

Another year passed. Wishes? Yes, am hoping for many years to come. Hoping to see D and K grow up and be there for them. And for mom to see it too. To see them settle down and have kids would be a bonus. As for now, I just hope they stay healthy.

and they continue to spin..

Its been getting more ridiculous. To all my friends who a couple of years back didnt agree when i said AAB would be useless and was all talk and no action, i have unfortunately been proven right. Time and again.

It is getting worse. As someone online quoted.. SSDD ... same shit different day.

We will continue to lose the best brains.
We will continue to get less FDI.
We will continue to discriminate based on skin and we're heading towards discrimination based on religion.
We will continue to see old favour seeking leaders helming political parties who wouldnt finish serving until they die.
We will continue living in a third world mentality world, even though i think equating with third world countries is an insult to such countries. We're probably worse.
We will continue to be told to leave, if we cant accept such rubbish and hypocricy. We will continue to see the special hypocrite ones not understand that this world and its occupants are created by HIM and that to discriminate or chase away from a particular region or country, is something that is so contrary to any morals or religious beliefs. To have a blind concept of brotherhood, yet demanding patriotism for the country, are, to me at least, two concepts that will never go hand in hand. We will continue to see hugely inflated contracts issued to friendly parties in the name of social restructuring.
We will continue to churn out a substantial percentage of unproductive grads who will go around demanding the government owe them a living.
We will however continue to see the not-so-special ones rise above the shit and improve themselves while hoping for opportunities across the fence.

And sadly, we will continue to see many blinded by such injustice, who will continue to support such injustices all because they are benefitting from such or dream of such benefits.
And, we will continue to see many who rather look or keep their grey matter preoccupied with mundane personal lifestyle happenings.
Finally, we will continue to see a growing number who just cant take it and resort to ballooning the size of the blogsphere.

Excuse the grammar. Am just so tired. Only brazil thrashing ghana, and spain beating france, will perk me up today. Its been too long since i had liquor.

chaos

Everything is chaotic. Life is in a state of chaos. Work has been very very tiring. Health has been trying. Kids have been unwell for such a long time, one after another. There has been too many distractions. The only welcome distraction being the world cup thats been going on the past week.

Been travelling a bit too. Two trips to segamat by road. Another to KL a few days ago. All work related.

As a result so many things that needed to be done the past month has been at a standstill. The calls from all over is very very tiring to handle.

When oh when will this chaotic period end......

Funny thing happened though.

What would anyone do or how would anyone react to this:

An acquaintance changes h.p. number. The person then asks if you want the new number. How would you answer?

Me? I reacted in my usual way.

Swettenham, Usman Awang...

Madnoh brought to my attention this quite some time back. Interesting read to be followed up by the following:

Usman Awang

Melayu

Melayu itu orang yang bijaksana
Nakalnya bersulam jenaka
Budi bahasanya tidak terkira
Kurang ajarnya tetap santun
Jika menipu pun masih bersopan
Bila mengampu bijak beralas tangan

Melayu itu berani jika bersalah
Kecut takut kerana benar
Janji simpan di perut
Selalu pecah di mulut
Biar mati adat
Jangan mati anak

Melayu di Tanah Semenanjung luas maknanya:
Jawa itu Melayu, Bugis itu Melayu
Banjar juga disebut Melayu,
Minangkabau memang Melayu,
Keturunan Acheh adalah Melayu,
Jakun dan Sakai asli Melayu,
Arab dan Pakistani, semua Melayu
Mamak dan Malbari serap ke Melayu
Malah mua'alaf bertakrif Melayu
(Setelah disunat anunya itu)

Dalam sejarahnya
Melayu itu pengembara lautan
Melorongkan jalur sejarah zaman
Begitu luas daerah sempadan
Sayangnya kini segala kehilangan

Melayu itu kaya falsafahnya
Kias kata bidal pusaka
Akar budi bersulamkan daya
Gedung akal laut bicara

Malangnya Melayu itu kuat bersorak
Terlalu ghairah pesta temasya
Sedangkan kampung telah tergadai
Sawah sejalur tinggal sejengkal
Tanah sebidang mudah terjual

Meski telah memiliki telaga
Tangan masih memegang tali
Sedang orang mencapai timba
Berbuahlah pisang tiga kali
Melayu itu masih bermimpi

Walaupun sudah mengenal universiti
Masih berdagang di rumah sendiri
Berkelahi cara Melayu
Menikam dengan pantun
Menyanggah dengan senyum
Marahnya dengan diam
Merendah bukan menyembah
Meninggi bukan melonjak

Watak Melayu menolak permusuhan
Setia dan sabar tiada sempadan
Tapi jika marah tak nampak telinga
Musuh dicari ke lubang cacing
Tak dapat tanduk telinga dijinjing
Maruah dan agama dihina jangan
Hebat amuknya tak kenal lawan

Berdamai cara Melayu indah sekali
Silaturrahim hati yang murni
Maaf diungkap senantiasa bersahut
Tangan diulur sentiasa bersambut
Luka pun tidak lagi berparut

Baiknya hati Melayu itu tak terbandingkan
Selaga yang ada sanggup diberikan
Sehingga tercipta sebuah kiasan:
"Dagang lalu nasi ditanakkan
Suami pulang lapar tak makan
Kera di hutan disusu-susukan
Anak di pangkuan mati kebuluran"

Bagaimanakah Melayu abad dua puluh satu
Masihkan tunduk tersipu-sipu ?
Jangan takut melanggar pantang
Jika pantang menghalang kemajuan;
Jangan segan menentang larangan
Jika yakin kepada kebenaran;
Jangan malu mengucapkan keyakinan
Jika percaya kepada keadilan

Jadilah bangsa yang bijaksana
Memegang tali memegang timba
Memiliki ekonomi mencipta budaya
Menjadi tuan di negara Merdeka

Wonder if the above is translatable into english..

down time

Life has been hectic, to say the least, over the past few weeks. Lack of sleep was the order of the day for many a week. The deadline for submission was yesterday, and thankfully we made it in time. At a price though.

A slight throat irritation turned into a full blown inflammation, cold and fever. Been down the past 3 days. My senior assistant had high bp and exhausted. Another assistant was not only tired, had to take a day off to take care of his sick wife and kids.

As a result I had to cancel a trip to KL for the meeting yesterday. Thankfully the feedback we got was favourable. They vetted the reports and only minor amendments were required. We have completed them and sent it out today.

Life goes back to almost normal, hopefully. Little D and K are both sick too. D has been complaining about headaches, crying at times. Both suffering from cough and cold, and the occasional fever. Took ourselves to the hospital today and each given lots of medication. Urghhh. Giving medication to kids is a tough job.

Here's hoping for a quiet and rest-filled weekend.