vRoom vRoomsss...

Best-laid plans are still bound to come undone some day. I will now have to switched to Plan B since my search for a room hasn't been as successful as I'd have imagined. However I am confident that there will be light at the end of the tunnel very shortly, and in the meantime Plan B probably involves some bunking in with a friend or moving temporarily otherwise. I am considering many factors and this is making it more difficult to weigh some of the pros and cons.

Was actually quite close to getting a nice-looking place the other day, but my colleagues said that the area was definitely not recommended, and that was the end of the story. But I didn't see any rowdy youths/drug pushers/car thieves that day when I visited the property, so I guess it wasn't late enough at night.

However, I think I saw a theft in a "good" area of Cardiff in the afternoon last Sunday. Oh well I guess it can never be very safe anywhere....

Football

I played indoor football again this week. Last week, after playing for the first time since the Nottingham Malaysian Games last year, I started again with some of the guys from my company. However it was a bad debut and I was out of breath and out of position mostly. Today I chose the thicker pair of socks, with the England flag. But no Leicester City t-shirt like last week.

I had two shots right from the start, both taken with my left leg. Not well-driected enough, but I was playing some better positional football and not over-running myself. Had another terrific chance when I smashed a free-kick right in front of goal just over the bar, when the gaping goal called for the ball to go in. You don't get so many chances like that.

I also skipped around better with the ball, including twice doing the turn on the ball and leaving Andy behind. The second time I was pulling away and got fouled. The kick on my shin drew blood but I did not know it at that time... Nevertheless I still managed to get the ball on to a teammate but nothing came out of it.

Towards the end of the game, I got another golden chance when the ball broke free near the top of the D, and I swivelled and shot. Not a good shot I reckoned, but it was on target. The keeper did his job and came out, but I got a bit luck, the ball slipping superbly between his legs (which were not far apart) and hitting the net. My first goal!!!! In more than year I think.#

Hopefully more to come next time.
Probably gonna be playing every week I think.

Shin is still painful but at leaast I don't have the muscle aches from last week. =)

Another week

Looking.... for a room, and I have set my sights on Cardiff.

Weighing the pros and cons, and it's still more compelling to stay in Newport actually. Hope the new place I decide on is good enough for me. Storage space isn't great but it does seem like a pretty decent place to live in.

Work hasn't been terribly great, bogged down by some stuff, and trying to balance a few things. Let's see if I'm able to arrange them quickly.

Open my eyes.

I smell something fishy in our kampungs....

...could it be the rotting ikan kuning?

So you think "normal" Malaysians are dum-dum dim-witted pea-brained mentally-retarded intellectually-inadequate cognitively-lagging idiots? How could I not see through that poor attempt at justifying an improper policy?

I chose the safe word 'improper' instead of other harder-hitting words for a reason. Even as the Ministry confirms that the internet is a portal for free speech for Malaysia I have to be a bit more careful sometimes.... like when some big minister opens his big mouth (like a few mths ago) to try to scare off some clear-headed bloggers. He should let the relevant ministry/minister issue the statement, which in the end was to disagree with him. Hah!


Bangsa Malaysia in mind

By MARSHA TAN, TEH ENG HOCK, MEERA VIJAYAN and FARIK ZOLKEPLI

JOHOR BARU: The Bangsa Malaysia concept is the state of an individual's mind and does not infringe on Malay special rights and privileges, said Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak.

The Deputy Prime Minister said Bangsa Malaysia was a concept and had nothing to do with the Constitution or national policies, but was related to an individual’s state of mind.

Najib: Bangsa Malaysia is just general concept.
“Bangsa Malaysia means we do not evaluate someone by his skin colour, race or religion,” Najib said when closing the Johor Umno Convention at Persada Johor here yesterday.

“It does not question the special rights of the Malays, our quota or anything of that sort.”

He was commenting on Johor Mentri Besar Datuk Abdul Ghani Othman’s opening speech on Sunday which questioned the need for people of different races in the country to be ethnically diluted or mixed up merely for a concept that was still “hazy” in its meaning.

Later Najib, who is also Umno deputy president, told reporters that the Bangsa Malaysia concept was far from needing change in the Constitution, as it was just a general concept.

Asked about Gerakan president Datuk Seri Lim Keng Yaik’s statement that Johor Umno was going against government policy when it rejected the notion of Bangsa Malaysia, Najib said: “It is for the Government to decide on suitable policies from time to time, on whether to retain or review existing ones.

“But if we can focus on the concept of Bangsa Malaysia being a state of mind, then we can avoid polemics.

“If we try to define it, this could raise more questions and hot up the debate. If we were to amend the Constitution, the country would be in disorder.”

Meanwhile, in his closing speech, Abdul Ghani said the concept that have had been widely used brought about the concept of pluralism, which was equality without a core base.

>>>article end
In case you didn't realise, I'd put it in bold.
Comments?

Locked Out

(last week)

So I locked myself out of the room again. And the landlord had brilliantly (and with perfect timing) misplaced his keys.

It was 10.00pm.

A bit of quick-thinking ensued.

I asked him for a ladder, which he said was downstairs. I could climb in.

I called Matthew to inform him I had no keys, to lock the door, and to be ready fo me when I returned from the coach station with Deng Hui in tow.

After being let in, I got down to work immediately. Took the ladder out, got Matthew to open the back door and lend me a torch, then surveyed the window. Thankfully I had the fortune to have left my window unlocked (if it's fully shut then a catch automatically locks it), just slightly ajar.

The coast was clear for me to break in.

Up the flimsy not-very-high-ladder, onto the roof, and I spread my weight out carefully just in case the rickety house decided to play a few back-breaking tricks. I was well-dressed -- Brooks shoes, jacket and track pants. I reached my window in no time and opened it. I was gonna climb in awkwardly (cos it's quite high) but decided to open the larger (and lower) window pane just beside.

Voila, I slipped back into my room in no time, picked up my keys and exited the normal way.

No door was harmed in the process.

holloween. borat. party. yeah.

My halloween was not as fun as I thought it would be... due to some complications, my friends went to cardiff but I cojldn't join them for a dinner and pubbing/clubbing there. It's a rather youthful and happening place, and it's always good to at least have a look at things. Especially when it's halloween and people will turn up in all sorts of outrageous costumes! By some (bad) luck and (bad) timing I had missed all 3 previous years' halloween at uni and havent managed to check out the costumes. In fact I was particularly looking forward to this year's. In the end I had dinner at home and walked out to feel the cold air and withdraw cash. I took a cool walk back up the road, towards Handpost, and then wandered back.

Last night we ended up in Cardiff again, and this time I was there to catch a movie... Borat, portrayed by the actor of Ali G fame. It was quite crude/rude, but good jokes (though not as spectacularly crappy as Ali G) were all around. Particularly liked the way the title came out.

It is customary in the UK to show the film's classification certificate before the movie starts. So there is this black screen with white characters and the official permission given by the Board of Film Commissioners etc etc.. This screen is only shown for a few seconds, but this was probably the first time it provoked a reaction from the audience, which kind of set the tone for the night. There was almost immediate laughter, which Alex failed to grasp (cos he was concentrating on his kebab dinner smuggled into the cinema). The title was "Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan". Haha. It was a good use of intentional miscued English... though it might be perfectly normal to ah-lians speaking singlish ("huh, how come everyone all laugh-laugh ah?")

I shall not reveal too much about the film except that it was anti-Uzbekistan, anti-Semitic, anti-US, anti--- okay. And quite very tongue-in-cheek. I like the bag of shit and his "good" english. The slapstick jokes were not as prevalent as in crap homour movies like Jim Carrey's or Scary Movie. This is why English humour (or homour from a Brit) is so high-class... hahaha...

Then we had a few drinks at Life and Jumping Jaks, the first night out I had in Cardiff. Wasn't too bad, except near the end where we nearly had some altercations... anyway we got home around 3am and I had an 8am start at work to look forward to.... luckily I had my chinese tea brewed in office...

Following up...

It took him so long to be "advised" to go by the PM (and previously the Sultan of Selangor): http://www.thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2006/11/3/nation/15912736&sec=nation&focus=1
And it appears that this councillor had also not paid assesment charges for his property for 12 years, and also illegally built a restaurant! Bloody good councillor. I smell a great many more rats somewhere....

And I think it would appear for now that he would not be prosecuted further. This is an extremely disappointing reflection of the state of the system in Malaysia, where unequal treatment and graft etc., still occur blatantly across different situations, from religious (khalwat?) to racial/political (preferential? affirmative??)...

I am surprised that he thinks he can just pay up those past assessments and miscellaneous charges that he owes and expects to go scot-free. Justice should catch up with him and ensure a strict prosecution is carried out! What more his position in politics further makes the case murky. Even if he just pays some cheap fines it's like channelling black money back to where it was taken from! Hmmph!

Sometimes I feel happy that although the tax I am paying now (to the UK govt) may be higher, but at least it does not end up being used to contribute to enhancing some politician's assets... or being used to cover the stupid mistakes made by government (eg the Singapore "honest mistake" case by IDA for compensation to Singtel)