Kek Lapis Anak Pak Hisham

Singapore hasn't stop to impress me with its vibrant colours. This photo was taken near the Bugis Street MRT station just last week.

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This one is so longggg overdue. I was tagged by D.N.A.S and Leymah moons ago but better late than never right? (that phrase is like a mantra to me these days!)

Layer One: On the Outside

Name: I have many names..Ryzah is the commonest but depending on which group of people I'm with, I can be Shai,Ryz, Hazyr, Sherry, Ayie, Barm (as in Bambino... can't remember why exactly)and a name that means 'yang terpuji':) You see, I was a real headache when I was small up to the point that my mom had to change my name to calm me down... bless her! :)

Birthdate: 16th january.

Current status: single again

Eye color: I don't know.. Dark brown?

Hair Color: Black. My hair is still a virgin..never been coloured, never been permed or straightened. Very low maintainance!

Righty or Lefty: Lefty all the way


Layer Two: On the Inside

My heritage: Bugis + Chinese + Jawa (I think)

My fears: Water. It's like a love-hate thing. I enjoy swimming and all sorts of water sports. But for some odd reasons (6th sense?) I used to think that I will one day die in water..drown in deep sea probably? erghh.. just thinking of it already giving me goosebumps!

My Weaknesses: Chocolate Indulgence, no doubt!

My perfect pizza: I'm not a pizza person.


Layer Three: Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow

My thoughts first thing when I wake up: Which clothes doesn't need ironing? (exactly the same as Kak Dayang! hehe..)

My bedtime: varies.. can be 8.30pm (when I just dropped 'dead' after a busy day at work) or 3.30am (when there're MSc datelines or after mamak sessions with friends)

My most missed memory: The day I found my true love (what happened after that is another story)


Layer Four: My picks

Pepsi or Coke: Neither.. Fresh manggo juice from Studio 5 near my house.A big glass for RM3 saja!

Mc Donald's or Burger King: Mc Donald's for its apple pie

Single or Group Dates: Single.. you don't date in groups. That's called hanging out.

Adidas or Nike: How come Reebok is not an option?

Tea or Nestea: Tea (Teh Halia to be specific)

Chocolate or Vanilla: Chocolate

Cappucino or Coffee: Cappucino


Layer Five: Do I

Smoke: I am a certified smoking cessation counselor..what does that tells you?

Curse: Of course...I'm no angel.

Take a shower: Do I have to answer this??

Have a crush: Quite a few. I'm easily drawn to intelligent, charismatic men. But they're normally too complicated so staying away is the best. That's why it's only called a crush.

Think I've Been In love: A few. Not that any matters now anyway.

Go to school: Am still 'schooling'unfortunately.

Want to get married: Don't know.. Abit disillusioned for now.

Believe in myself: I'm a control freak so, yeah..

Think I'm a health freak: Not at all. Otherwise I would go for health drinks instead of chocolate indulgence wouldn't i?


Layer Six: In the past month

Drank alcohol: Never

Gone to the mall: Hardly.

Been on stage: Yup. Will do so again twice next month.

Eaten Sushi: Once

Dyed your hair: Never


Layer Seven: Have I ever

Played a stripping game: Haha.. yup!

Changed who I am to fit in: Nah.. I'd rather be myself (didn't I say I'm a control freak? heheh)


Layer Eight: Age

I am hoping to be married: When it happens, it happens.


Layer Nine: What was I doing

1 min ago: Doing this tag ler..

1 hour ago: Had a hair cut

4.5 hours ago: Woke up with a blocked nose. Can't wait to have the surgery done.

1 month ago: Made a difficult decision and broke someone's heart

1 year ago: In Perhentian if I'm not mistaken.. Time flies!


Layer Ten: Finish The Sentence

I love: the sea but swimming pools will do for moments in need

I feel: empty

I hate: to admit that I AM missing someone

I hide: nothing to hide.. what you see is what you get. Ok, maybe my flabby tummy but it's not my fault. It's because I hardly play basketball anymore since my basketball friends don't want to play on saturday mornings anymore! (hehe.. easy to put the blame on others eh?)

I need: LOVE?? Nah.. I just need a new pda phone. Anyone kind enough to donate me one? I am currently using a very old phone - a monophonic version that is at the verge of extinction (hence the centre of teasings by my friends) and a bulky CLIE PDA which I hardly bring around with me anymore due to its bulky size.

Sometimes Love Just Ain't Enough

People say we need to give and take in relationships.. But if you can't give that much, it's only fair that you don't take at all, right?

Oh well, it's over now...another chapter closed.

Reds in the final!

It was a nerve-wrecking 120-minutes game with one controversially disallowed goal and a very brief appearance of Robbie Fowler (which is pretty rare in important games nowadays). Although the winner had to, at the end, be decided by penalty shoot-out meaning that I didn't get to bed until 5.30am, it was well worth it.. because Liverpool won and they're in the final!!

Fowler didn't get to take the penalty kick at the end (that was the only reason why he was brought in during the extra time) since Riena did a marvelous job saving 2 spot kicks from Robben and Geremi. Now... bring on the Red Devils :)



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It's been a while since I last saw a play.. the last was Puteri Gunung Ledang I think. So, when I was offered a corporate box seat for a play at Petronas Philharmonic Hall a couple of weekends ago, I didn't think twice and just took up the offer. I didn't know anything on the tales of Malim Bongsu and definitely didn't have a single clue on what was Mek Mulung all about so I went thinking it was just one of the usual traditional plays to cater more for the tourists since it's VMY anyway..but I was wrong.

I still don't know exactly what the art of Mek Mulung really is but the play was a highly entertaining musical with integration of slapsticks and current issues although in thick Northern accents. There were times during the show that I had 'delayed' laughters compared to the others in the audience since I needed time 'to digest and convert' the language used. But it was entertaining all the same anyway and I was glad I went.

Oh, my favourite play of all time, Phantom of the Opera is now showing at Singapore's Esplanade. I shall make my way there in about a couple of weeks' time to watch it (again)... Am really looking forward to the trip!

Drowning

I thought I had it sorted out. But recent events had me back again at square one.

So this time, I will just let myself free in the open sea and just let the tides wash me ashore. Wherever I will end up at, be it. I'm done with thinking. Tiring..

The weird-weird me

I would like to believe that I'm a normal kind of person but for beloved Kak Eija's sake, I shall take up the challenge..

Me Weird No 1:
I am a thoroughbred lefthanded for as long as I can remember and my right hand is pretty much the 'secondhand' except for eating. But when I was at college, I one day discovered that I could actually write on the board using chalks with my right hand. Not just scribbles but normal, legible hand-writing. I've tried writing on whiteboards with marker pen and also tried writing on papers with chalks but both didnt turned out well.. so, only vertical boards, only with chalks. Emm, maybe I should try writing using both hands at the same time. Pretty cool if i can do that eh?

Me Weird No 2:
I only wash my car..err.. every 3 months on average. I am so NOT a dirty person but my car is silver metallic in colour so the dirts can easily go unnoticed (this is my excuse anyway..) There were times when my friends would write 'please wash me' on the car to show how thick the dirt was but that went unnoticed for quite a long period too!

Me Weird No 3:
I have a crooked septum in the nose. I think it got injured when a basketball went straight for my face long long ago at school. Or was it a handball? Can't really remember now... Anyway, the septum is now more to the right nostril but for some scientific reason, the uneven division of my nostrils is causing the turbinate in my left nostril to become bigger hence causing me having frequent bouts of blocked nose. Anyway, one day a few months ago, a ENT surgeon cum a friend of mine persuaded me to go to his clinic and did a scope when I had one of those bad blocked nose. To cut the story short, I will, in a few months' time, be having a septoplasty to correct my septum and a radiofrequency treatment to reduce the size of my turbinate, all in one go. I will soon be on par with Cameron Diaz and Jennifer Aniston for having a 'nose job' done!

Me Weird No 4:
I can remember faces well.. I may not remember their names (I'm very bad with names)nor can I remember where I got to know them at the first place but those faces that I find familiar would normally turn out to be either old friends/ neighbours/ colleagues/ patients/ students etc. I remember I had one patient whom I found very familiar and upon questionings(me being as curious as a cat!) I found out he used to go to the same eating place that I would go for dinner near my house. Not that we ever talked at that eating place anyway, but yeah, his face got registered in my brain..

Me Weird No 5:
Coffee has no effect on me. I can have a cappucino or a latte at night and can still doze off straightafter my head touches the pillows. So, you can ask me out for coffee late at night and I'll surely wont say no.. Oh, and I love Chocolate Indugence Cake from Secret Recipe too, just to let you know :)

Me Weird No 6:
I hate shopping especially during sales. I hate the crowd and definitely hate the long queues for the fitting rooms and at the paying counters. And I find window shopping is just a complete waste of time. So, it's a small wonder that none of my girlfriends would ask me out for shopping unless we have specific things to buy or even better, specific shops to go to and get it over and done with fast. Not so typically feminine eh?

Ok, to follow the rule of the game, I must now tag 6 more people. Since I'm among the last to do this it's not easy since most bloggers I know have been tagged. Sape ek?

1. Itiq - to give him an excuse to update his blog.. dah lama sangat la wei..
2. Inaleem - another blogger who has gone zzzzz..
3. Ardy - I know you dont have a blog but it's ok, you can use mine as the platform. Why? Because you're just weird and I want the world to know that too! hihihi..
4. Baine - a blogger whose blog is always interesting to read :)
5. Eija - A long-lost friend.. and we re-connected through blogging!
6. Abdun - a now proud father of Muhammad Ikhwan Rasydan :)

Here's the rules:

RULES: People who are tagged should write a blog post of 6 weird things about them as well as state this rule clearly. In the end, you need to choose 6 people to be tagged and list their names. Don't forget to leave a comment that says 'you are tagged' in their comments and tell them to read your blog.

Have fun guys!
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St Emilion March 2007
More photos here.

Miss you like crazy

In my inbox today:

There are moments in life when someone is missed so much that it makes us long for them every day..

I just realised that it's been a long while since I last truly missed somebody..
Missing someone can be a painful experience but not to be able to miss anybody even when you really tried can be quite painful too, don't you think?


Looking out of the window
Bordeaux March 2007

Forever friends

"Shai!"

My heart stopped... I've not heard that name for years. Oh wait, that was MY nickname when I was at primary school. I turned around and saw the stranger. Do I know her?

"Shai... ni aida la... SIGS?"

Gosh.. I couldn't believed this.. We used to be really close back in JB, up till about twenty years ago. Yup, the last time I saw her was in 1988 just before I entered STF. I'm not making up excuses but there were no emails or mobile phones back then, so we just lost contact.

Anyway, at the hospital's car park that morning, old friendship renewed. I couldn't believe she recognised me even when I was still in my car, doing a reversed parking while I, err.. took quite a while to remember her. Nevertheless, I did. And now that we're actually working under the same roof, we've made promises to meet up again to catch up. Was also told that another old friend is now working in HKL.. so, hopefully, we'll have a thresome reunion soon!

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Went to a charity dinner at Cyberview Lodge Resort and Spa with Srikandi sisters 2 weekends ago. It was a last minute plan but we had fun. Good food, good company and great entertainment by Jac Victor. The goodies that we took home even worth RM1k++ ... all in the name of charity of course :)

Anyway, the difficulties of getting into my dress for that dinner was a good reality check...I've gained so much weight in the last couple of months due to physical inactivity. So, I've now making attempts to exercise again. Still out-of-breath after 30 laps of swimming today but better than last week.. couldn't even finish 20!

Total confusion

I drove all the way to Country Homes in Rawang last saturday morning to fetch a special lad whom we've been missing dearly for so long. He used to stay with us for about half a year when the parents suddenly decided to go on 'jihad' missions in Pakistan and Syria and just left their kids at a few centres for the their family to literally pick up..one by one... and that was just before raya in 2005.

When we first got the lad, he was malnourished with a disproportionately bigger head (just like the poverty-stricken african kids you normally only see on TV, believe it or not!) and a body infested with scabies. Alas, we took care of him, shower him with lots of love and to no surprise, he loves us back like his own family to this very day. The quiet and sad-looking undernourished kid turned out to be a clever (more than average I'd say) and cheerful young lad afterall!

But the happiness was short-lived. He is now back with his own flesh and blood and his 'community'. We managed to 'borrow' him a few times since(about a week at a time) but our 'lifestyles' apparently do not suits his dad's and his community believe and practice. It's now getting harder and harder to get access to him.. we only managed to get him for 4 days over the CNY holidays..that after much persuasions.

Anyway, the last time I visited their community centre was probably about 2 decades ago.. It was at Sg Penchala at the time. 20 years on, alot have changed such as they're not in 'purdah' and 'serban' anymore.. Oh, did I not mentioned they have now moved to the posher Country Homes? Don't really know whether they own the properties or not but they surely occupy more than 20 shoplots there and now have their own health shoppe, maternity clinic, boutique and all sorts. But one thing obviously has not changed... big photos of their (now bed-ridden) leader are still everywhere. Their kids, some as young as 2, still sing the same 'As****i pemimpin akhir zaman' song and regard him as their hero, to the point of even worshipping him.

A quick search on JAKIM and JAIS websites showed that this renamed group has been banned (again)and apparently, the two bodies are now doing roadshows to inform the public on the status of the group. So, and I am SO CONFUSED on this... why are the group members still continuing their usual activities as if nothing had changed? Why are they not being taken away by JAKIM/JAIS for counseling programmes? And how did the 2 leaders who were detained late last year got released without being charged of anything? And now is the 'cepumas' question.. how on earth did they manage to file 3 defamation suits against JAKIM, JAIS and the a few ex-followers for RM150millions?

And the saddest thing is...what will happen to the malnourished, lack of formal education affected kids, including our beloved lad? Oh, did I tell you that at 3 years old, he has 3 moms (probably 4 by now), 8 other siblings (again, probably more by now)with all below 12 years old and 4 younger than him? Now you can probably imagine how much maternal and paternal attention (or the lack of it)that he gets. So, can you blame him for crying buckets everytime we need to send him back 'home'? It breaks our hearts....every single time...

Does age REALLY matter?

2 years ago, I wasn't sure if I would ever find love again.. what's more the unconditional type from the male species that I was wishing for. Then I met D.

Although he has most of the qualities that I was looking for in a man, I tried my best to push him away in the first year of our friendship cum 'relationship', believing that it will never work, for only one reason.. He is far too young for me. Well, do bear in mind that I already had one bad experience, so do excuse my pessimism.. I was just not ready for high-risk relationships.

But no matter how hard I tried, he kept coming back. I did wonder why couldn't he just walk away to save him from all the hassles especially that he has a lot of other options within his own age group.. those without past baggage, excess fat or wrinkles. OK, I may not have wrinkles yet, but I'm sure some will appear just a few years down the road!

Anyway, I am now done with pushing. I have now realised that God has actually answered my prayers sooner than I expected and I am grateful. D IS the unconditional love that I was waiting for.. He loves me for the person I really am, the good and the bad. He even loves me on my bad hair/mood day. Although we are of different characters and backgrounds, we share similar principles on life which to me, is the most important thing for a relationship to survive. Trust is never a problem between us and even with the age gap, he has gained my utmost respect.. to my own surprise.

So, does age REALLY matter? I guess not.

What really matters are honesty, sense of responsibility, trust and respect. And I am glad that I have found these..

My first ever

I've been wanting to put up a song here for the longest time.. finally got the time to do it today. Although it's not a proper videoclip, shall do for a start..

Here is one of my all-time favourites, enjoy!

The time is.. NOW

It's raining outside, I was told. So instead of packing up and leave, I shall stay a bit longer although with no intention of doing 'real' work. Hence, here I am blogging again.. 3 posts in a month is such an achievement for me isn't it? ;)

I have just finished preparing a presentation for a talk that I am supposed to give in a couple of weeks' time. I don't normally bother much when it comes to giving talks but this time,it's different. For some reasons, I'm feeling anxious,worried, slightly pressured and yet, honoured.

It's one huge opportunity to represent my passion and my hardworking-yet-humble team. A chance to be heard. A chance to stand tall with the big players. A recognition.. finally.

Fingers crossed, I hope I don't screw up!

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From London, Dhaka, Shah Alam, UK Perdana and Ampang:If this picture was taken 10 years ago, we would probably only occupy half of the space ..hehe..