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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