Recount.

Tuesday 24.9.2024

Eddin's passing at 7 last Friday morning, conveyed to me by the Cikgu who used to be the mosque's secretary,  caught me by surprise. Eddin was a Deputy Minister from KP. I didn't realize it then that in fact the sad news was already in my phone's whatsapp,  But it got me to thinking.

I moved into this housing estate in Seremban in the middle of 1995. I'd just made a  life-changing job-change decision, and needed to move into town, from Damansara Utama, where I'd been for 17 years. So now I've been here for nearly 30 years.

TDS is the first housing estate in the Ampangan area within the old Municipality. Seremban is a "Bandar Raya" now, and I'm sure there have been geographical and legal changes. The point is, TDS is small, maybe with about 200 original houses, from the terraced, the semi-detached, to the bungalow-type. It started as "Fortune Garden" maybe in the 70's. Now as the renamed TDS there have been added houses. But all are single-storied. Except for Ustaz Ahmad's illegally modified 2 storey bungalow just behind my house. "Illegal" because the ustaz said so to me himself. He never tried to get the necessary permission for the alteration from the authorities.

I counted yesterday, one by one, as I'd known them, 65 residents of TDS who have passed away since the day I moved here. That's more than 2 per year. It made me feel very mortal, indeed. 

This brought me to the Russo-Ukraine War raging still since February 2022. And the t-shirted president says it's drawing close. He hopes, I might add.

As I'd commented elsewhere earlier, it's to its interest for Ukraine to request a coming to the table with Russia. The 23-month War is being cruelly  prolonged by US and its Western European allies, to the delight of the arms manufacturers, of course.  Russian arms are pitted against US-European arms. Even the soldiers are non-Ukrainians. Russia has a population of 145 million,  4 times more than  Ukraine's 38 million. Russia's wealth  is more than 6 times that of Ukraine's.  As Putin insists, the "special operations" of February 2022 was forced by Western Europe's actions in Ukraine against Russia's "political integrity".

Right here in NS, especially in KP, this new, but old, sore deviant Islamic group criminal activity uproar has been exposed by the Police investigations. This was the old Arqam that was banned. When these people are banished, they don't disappear. The just find new hideouts, new operations.  This makes me feel truly mortal.

I can only recount.

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Another forced golf break.

Thurs 19.9.2024.

This morning's four-some was my first golf game in exactly 50 days. It was another forced break. And that, too, nearly didn't happen.

It had been my, maybe, 5th motorcycle accident, in 59 years of riding, on Friday, 2.8.2024. That's 1 every 10 years. Not a terrible record, owning  7 bikes in total.  So  5 accidents out of 7 is even a better statistics. The 7 include the kapchais, from the  90 cc (1965 Honda BN 3950) to  750-cc (1993 Kawasaki Vulcan Cruiser - WCR 6000). And the fastest I went, with the 1992 Honda CBR 600 Sports (BDP 600), on the Tg. Malim highway, was 260 kph ! 

This last one was on my current ride - a Yamaha NVX 155 scooter, (SD 198 T) bought by No. 3 Son about 2 years ago. Another m/c rider was involved, at the Istana Hinggap round-about. I only had scratches, as did the other bloke. But the heavy scooter landed on my left foot. The swelling lasted right until last week. Thus the forced break. The doctor just asked me to buy some rub-on.

It nearly didn't happen because Tokzaha didn't say one way or another when I whatsapped him about the Thursday suggested date. Until Wednesday night. The Tokzaha-Toksleman-me late exchanges finally settled for "on as planned"  - this morning.

"Bus" Chong (he owns a bus company) greeted me at the car park when I arrived before 7 this morning. Later NYK joined us. We got to talking about our golf. We agreed that it's one activity we should try to continue doing. We spoke about a number of friends who stopped, and soon they were gone forever.

My swing felt awkward after the break. So I just slowed the backswing. That's what some people say should be done. It seemed to work. Then I remembered to keep the "pendulum" - having the back swing the same as the follow-through. This is also one of the advice. It worked, too. So I guess having to relearn is one way of finding your old game. In the end I only lost one ball, in the wager, after the full 18 holes. But I lost 2 balls in the rough, in total. Not too bad, lah.

The good news, really, was finding, on the notice board, my latest official handicap of 22. All the while it was hanging around 15. That was too much to carry at my age. Even Ameng has been on 22 for sometime. We used to play every week at the same handicap (12) years ago, and it was always "ding-dong" between us.

The break also allowed me to watch more golf on tv. The South Koreans and the Thai girls are really doing well, playing world-class golf, even grabbing between them the World No. 1 ranking once in a while. Which is more than I can say for our Malaysian girls, and even less for the boys. What's the secret, I wonder. I mean we're fellow Asians, physically. The South Korean New Zealander girl even won the Gold at the Paris Olympics.

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Another wedding, but inexplicably delayed.

 Sunday 15.9.2024.

The reception at the bride's place was some months ago. It's family (on the missus's side) but I didn't attend because of an unavoidable meeting with me as the Secretary. Nobody asked why the delay in this reciprocal function. If there was conception from that earlier reception, it would have shown yesterday. But the tiny bride looked all of her slim self.

Like my previous anecdote, this was one of these "wedding venues" so popular now among the Malays in the Klang Valley. It's ok, but they have to figure out the logistics. And the fixtures.

The logistics: we left the highway into the Gamuda hinterland, through to the Bkt. Kemunting/Shah Alam backwoods, and the short-cut suggested by Waze was rough, to say the least.  I was reliefed Hanif decided to take the standard way back to Seremban for the return trip. But then we hit the typical Malaysian holiday drivers. It was past Magrib when we reached the gates of the house.

The fixtures: the event-manager only followed the host's instructions. So instead of the crowd paying attention to the actual ceremony, they just dug into the food while talking and laughing, giving nary a glance to the stage. It didn't help that the couple chose black, and the groom in slippers.

Then for lucheon, they put the bride's brother and sisters with spouses on the shared stage. Brother and sisters ? There was Pa' Anjang, Pa' E, Mak Idah sitting in the crowd.

So much effort was put into making the tasty "wajid", and I thought that would feature in the "menyembah" ceremony. But it didn't happen.

And, not the least, the place wasn't air-conditioned. This alone would have been enough reason for me to reject the venue.

I just took my leave without meeting the hosts. I had my "Zohor" at the tiny "surau" and went to Dekna's car, already filled with the rest of the group from Seremban.

We stopped at the Arab restaurant in Bkt. Jalil before departing for Seremban. I did my "Magrib" at the S2 surau near the Greenstreet home housing before we stopped for take-away satay and finally driving home.

I could have gone to Basit Abai's "kenduri".

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One of these "wedding villages".

 Sat 31.8.2024.

Yesterday was the second relative's wedding ceremony we were more or less obliged to attend in one week's span. "Obliged" because it's family. "More or less" because the obligation remains, whatever we decided.

These days they go for these wedding village thing. Fine. Mostly the function would be professionally managed, the more elaborate the more expensive, of course.

This one was no different in that "management" part from last weekend's. But if I were to grade them, last time the party gets top marks. Yesterday's fails.

The preparations of the venues compared well. The surrounding sceneries were basically different but in each case nice. Last week it was urban, in spite of the pretty lake. Yesterday it was forestry, but beautifully set. Last week we had to be ferried by golf-carts because of the limited parking against the distant walk demanded. Yesterday - the same parking woes, but there were a couple of MPV's made available to take guests from their parking spots to the hall. Luckily for us, Dekna gave her car's number earlier, and we were given one of the few parking spaces close to the place.

The failure by me is the choice of location. And the running of events.

The wedded couple is from KL. That's like the other side of the country. Because of the traffic woes. And to make bad worse, we were  stuck in a dead jam just 3 km from site because of a serious and fatal road accident. There were police cars spotted, but not a single one of the policemen came out to control the lock-jam on the narrow, winding and under-repair road to Ulu Langat. There are countless places nearer to their houses that pose less traffic problems. We left Seremban at 5. It's just 60 km. We finally squeezed into the tight parking spot at 7.15. That's about 30 kph all the way ! It just robbed me of the mood.

Then there was the event-management.

This was supposed to be a Malay wedding.  

There was a poor show of a "light show"introduction - I didn't see the theme. Certainly it wasn't Merdeka Day fireworks. 

The bridal entrance was accompanied by some guttural noises instead of the more appropriate salutations to the Holy Prophet. 

And instead of the cake-cutting and feeding of traditional modern weddings, the couple were playing with each other's shoes in a parlour game  of sorts.  A more modern wedding ?

And the MC just got drowned by bad acoustics . The unwalled hall just wasn't helpful with the use of insufficiently powered  p.a.

To top everything, the guests wandered around, unattended, helping themselves to unidentified culinary that wasn't the tastiest I'd come across, especially the mutton, and limited desserts.

I remarked to Ai "Chi oledi" when we were in the toilet "why only two for the whole hall of about 300 people ?"

This was a very young bridal couple from two broken families. For their sakes, I pray theirs would be a more lasting union, though marrying too young won't help. Both bride and groom's parents divorced when they were still at school.

We reached home at precisely 12 midnight. That was a good 7-hour outing - I mean the time-lapse, not the outing proper. At least Adik and Jujai made it, so 3 out of the 4 cousins attended Usop's second kenduri for her 2 children. Even arwah Bangtai's family, except for two, made it all the way from Kuantan, as did Aza & Fadil, all the way from "Ganu Kite".

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Jimi's last daughter's wedding.

Sun 25.8.2024

Jimi "Bok" (ask Malik Daim about the nickname) held his 3rd and youngest daughter's wedding at "The Boathouse by the Lake", Ampang, KL yesterday. On his request, I came for the aqad nikah in the morning, and stayed and attended the reception in the evening, both at the same venue.  Also on his request, I prepared the short speech for him, which he mostly used, except for some modifications. 

We left Seremban at 6.45 am, yesterday, and returned and reached home this morning at about 9.30 am. Thankfully, Dekna loaned her MPV, and Bok paid for the room at the Flamingo Hotel for last night.

As usual, we arrived at the aqad nikah venue at 9 am, well before everybody else. I'd made allowance for the traffic, coming, but not a single accident was seen, and we arrived at the Flamingo well ahead of time. That was fortunate, because I made the circles around the place thrice, first going around the Datuk Keramat u turn, then the Risda Hq side road, and finally the congested Jalan Awan Chinese housing area, before deciding to actually enter the Flamingo barricade. The Boathouse is inside the Hotel grounds. In spite of the road run-around, we had to cool our heels for a good 30 minutes before the first white-dressed participant showed her face.

I had time to do my thing, and Idah hers, at the non-functional staff washroom on the ground floor. The guest wash room, much more superior as expected, is at the front, we found out later.

The whole full event, from the morning session to the evening culminating function, came out excellent, by my reckoning. This was a full sit-down affair, very much the long lost practice of yesteryears. Nowadays people want to be more practical, and guests come when and as they please, often leaving the main event - the wedding couple's arrival - almost like an afterthought.

The solemn sitting-down feast gave way to a more robust sing-and-dance affair. Which all present enjoyed. And two professional singers were even added to the scene, including the nationally acclaimed Datuk Jamal Abdillah. They even pulled the celebrated couple to take take part, and they did, with obvious enjoyment.

It so happened that I was talking to someone at the morning event, saying that when Bok stayed at my parents' house when he was doing his SPM, we called him "Jamal Abdillah" because the singer was making his name at that time, and Bok looked like him. I didn't know that Jamal Abdillah would actually be one of the guest artistes that evening.

By design, the whole crowd was selective, because of the venue's physical constraints, or maybe the crowd size was the factor on the choice of the venue. But the event was well-planned and everything turned out well, I thought.

Bok generously booked a room at the hotel that saved me the late trip returning to Seremban. So we got sufficient rest, and took our time to take the provided breakfast this morning, before taking the highway back home. But not before 2 traffic snarls because of what appeared to be nasty accidents causing 2 huge jams on the PLUS highway.

Conen & Calit came, as also Dekma and Yan. The seating was numbered because of the RSVP, so Dekma and Yan disappeared somewhere, and I never saw them again that evening. Conen left very early, before desserts, and Calit soon after. We stayed almost to the end, because we were staying back.

Several ex Felda staff were there, including Zainal Ujud, Azizan, Rusdi, Husain Menggong and others whose names escaped me. It's been  35 years, man. Samad the ex ADUN waved to me from the nearby table, and when I pointed him out to Bok, he went to the table and they embraced. So, he didn't realise Samad was already there.

The Machang MP related to the groom was introduced to me in the morning session. We spoke a bit about local politics. In the end he took my number. I told him I wouldn't mind giving him some suggestions about how the BERSATU top management can improve preparations for the next GE.

Bok staged a good wedding for his youngest child. I hope they have a good life together.

A sad addendum to this beautiful event was the tragic news that Dr. Onny, who sat with us, conveyed to me: of Mutalib's passing this morning, at home in KL.  I learned later that he died in his sleep. He'd complained to Kak Lang Noi, his wife, about a chest pain, that morning. He was brought back for burial in his kampong, Sawah Lebar. Al Fatihah.

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Some signs to ponder on.

 Wed 21.8.2024

I've yet to write about my 5th. motorcycle accident in 60 years of riding. This happened on Friday 2.8.2024. But that's a whole different story, to be told.

Yesterday's incident wasn't so painful, but for a short while was equally distressful.

The sub-committee meeting was scheduled for 10 am. I had 1 hour to kill, so I stopped at the Penghulu Cantik eating place. I didn't get anything to eat or drink, because I met Mary Anne's husband at the first shop I walked into. We've not met for some time, so by the time it was half-an-hour to my appointed time, we had to cut short our talk.

I was surprised the few free parking slots at the kitchen entrance of the Royal Chulan, normally not fully taken because of its location, were all full. So I entered the basement parking, and got another surprise. I went around both B1 and B2 parking floors, and practically all available parking was taken up. What's happening, I was wondering. Maybe there's a function or some group meetings on. So I squeezed into a vacant spot close to the entrance/exit that I took, now I had to turn back to.  Later I learned that the hotel offers full buffet breakfast at RM 20 per person on the 20th. of each month, when the normal charge is double that. That explained the big crowd that again surprised me when I secured an empty table for 6 outside the main dining area. That also explained why later I met Dr. Akbar and missus coming out of the dining area, obviously having come for the discounted breakfast.

We had our short meeting at the table I'd picked. There were 5 of us, out of the 7 expected.

Foo and I were the last to leave. Foo went to settle the food bill; I went to the washroom before leaving the hotel.

I took the elevator to B2, where I parked the car.

As I walked to the car, I groped for my keys, and suddenly realized that the leather card-holder usually in my left trouser pocket wasn't there. Panic came. I rushed back to the lift, went to the washroom, asking a guy there if he'd seen my black wallet. I rushed out and went back to the table we sat at. It was already cleared. I went to the waitress who was still there and got a negative response. I went to the front counter, because I stopped there earlier, before turning to the elevators, close to it. All negative responses. My heart was pounding.

That little leather wallet carries all my credit cards, Club card, MUBARAK card, Ex ADUN Card, golf  club and golf insurance card, the T & G card for parking and the highway tolls, and all my bank cards. If I lost this lot I won't die. But I might as well.

Then I thought. Maybe I left it in the car. 

I was struggling to find parking space, and when I found one, I was still a bit annoyed about the state of affairs as I tried to park close to the large pillar. 

So I now rushed to the car, joining a lady in the lift, going to B1. I told her without being asked that I've lost my card-holder. She didn't say a thing.

The cardholder was in the front seat.

This, and the accident on 2.8.2024. Are these signs ?

I'm still pondering. 

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The Paris Olympics Statistics.

 Sat 17.8.2024

To add to the earlier posting on the subject, I got hold of some statistics.

The Stade de France accommodated 75,000 spectators, with the underground warming up and waiting rooms. There's very good public transport, but the parking facility had to be enormous. The practice grounds was outside the stadium.  The circular roofing goes around the whole stadium. So that looked awesome. Merdeka Stadium can hold only 25,000, and there's nothing underground, with warm up on the side of the tracks. Only the Royal Box and its immediate surrounding has roof to keep sun & rain out. That,too, the place is about to be demolished, according to sources. The parking ? You know Malaysian planners.

92 countries won at least one Medal.

63 countries won at least one Gold Medal. That's 68.48% of the medal-winning countries, accounting for a total of  325 Gold Medals.

11 countries each won 10 Gold Medals or more. That's 17.46% of the total Gold Medallists.

The 11 top gold winners were, in the order, USA (40), China (40), Japan (20), Australia (18), France (16), Netherlands (15), Great Britain (14), South Korea (13),Germany (12),Italy (11),  and New Zealand (10). Their tally of 209 Gold Medals make up 64.31% of the total gold medals won.

Perhaps a more telling ratio would be to compare the Gold won against the total population.

The following table emerges:

Rank         Country                            Ratio

1            St. Lucia                            179,744

2            New Zealand                      521,394

3            Bahrain                               803,575

4            Slovenia                            1,059,349

5            Netherlands                       1,215,250

6            Georgia                              1,269,223

7            Czechia                              1,291,775

8            Ireland                                1,313,754 

9            Norway                               1,394,165

10          Australia                              1,484,067

USA, and worse, China are out, with ratios of more than 8 million and 36 million respectively.

USA may be out of this ranking. What's noteworthy, though, is that many of the medal winners, including from deep Africa, train in the USA.

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