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dan jendela pun berbisik...
"Life is not about what you've gained, but what you've done" - Wong Ka Kui (1962 - 1993)
"I disapprove of what you say but I will defend to the death your right to say it" - The Friends of Voltaire, 1906
"A dirty mind is a terrible thing to waste" - Anonymous
"If you read, you will judge" - Kurt Cobain
last modified Mar 17, 2005 at 0:17
I was on a food binge throughout the whole weekend. it started last Friday night and finally ended on Sunday night. Actually, going on a food binge at my age was not a very smart thing to do but what the heck it was my birthday. Who would want to think of such thing as calories on his/her birthday, don’t u think so? Life is too short anyway.
Last Friday night, diy and I went out in my car but we didn’t actually have any particular place to go to. I was hungry, tired, sleepy and so bloody restless, I didn’t think I could stand to stay inside the apartment for another minute. So, I just drove the car without really knowing where to go and we finally ended up at the Plaza Damas in Sri Hartamas. We were wondering around the plaza, admiring the lifestyle of the rich when diy and I stumbled across this little restaurant called Yum Cha. Just our luck, we arrived 15 minutes before closing time but still the waiters were very nice to let us have our dinner there. I would love to sit inside where its lovely ambience looks really inviting but we could only sit under the stars.
Diy and I went crazy over the menu and ordered about seven varieties of dim sum including the pao. Diy ordered Chinese tea while I had my usual ice lemon tea. the steam and fried prawn dim sums were so bloody delicious that both of us were moaning in ecstasy. Fortunately, we sitting slightly far from the rest of the diners, otherwise they would think that we were a couple of lunatics on the loose. That was one of the best dinners Id ever had for so long. The waiters were so nice too and they waited patiently for us to finish our dim sums and drinks. Blessed them.
Sat – 19/3: I was late going to class and when I arrived in bangsar, jln telawi had been turned into an open studio where a tv advertisement was being shot. There were so many crews and models for such a short airtime. Apparently it was for the Walls advertisement. I even got invited to join in the fun but I politely declined of course. Sheesh!…I hated the limelight.
I was in a good mood because it was my birthday and I figured it was time to learn a new song after two weeks of practicing bad english’s when I see u smile. actually, I got pretty bored with the song. My teacher suggested poison’s every rose has its thorn but I told him I wanted to play hotel California. So, he taught me a simplified chord which was fine by me. I love this song even when eagles spent forever on the solo part. A half an hour later when I was about to leave, one of the teachers sang me a birthday song accompanied by the classical guitar. I was touched. Hehehe…
Then, the celebration begun. my new colleague, ena wanted to celebrate my birthday together. So we went to this café called Delicious by ms read at bangsar village. I fell in love with the café’s interior design. it was such a lovely and bright place to enjoy my meal and the waiters were so nice and friendly. I ordered spaghetti carbonara, ice macchiato and orange cake for dessert while ena had spicy seafood pasta, ice lemon tea and an apple pie with vanilla ice cream’s topping. We talked almost non-stop for three hours and I was really enjoying the conversation. a delicious food and interesting conversation made my birthday felt more meaningful. She gave me two huge decorative butterflies. Oh, wow! I am crazy about them. so, I have lots of decorative butterflies at home now not to mention my butterfly bracelets. Hahaha…we went our separate ways after that and I went home and watched the arsenal vs Blackburn game.
Sunday-20/3: I was quite depressed after reading kurt cobain’s journal and watching the motorcycles diaries. So, I woke up and read the journal and then I slept again and woke up and read some more. It’s 5 pm and it’s time for me to take my housemate and friends out for dinner. It was raining cats and dogs but we had to pick up ena at ttdi before continuing our journey to sungai buloh. She wanted us to try the food at a thai restaurant, which turns out to be in some remote kampong area in sg buloh. We were caught in a traffic jam for almost two hours and we were so bloody hungry especially I who didn’t take any lunch at all. We were sneered by other motorists left and right for stopping at the red light. So much for berbudi bahasa campaign. Could u imagine, people jeered at u just because u’re following the rules. Assholes.
Anyway, we finally found the restaurant at the end of the road at jalan kg Melayu, sg buloh. De chiengmai thai seafood restaurant is one of those restaurants that look lovely from inside out. The u-like design is so unique and the lovely garden in the middle of the restaurant was decorated with small bridge and ponds. It creates a zen-like atmosphere especially after the rain. We had tomyam campur, kerabu mangga, sizzling tofu, prawn tempura, green chicken curry and kailan ikan masin. A lot for three people but what the heck, we were famished. The tomyam was a bit different because the chef put santan in it and so did the udang goreng tepung. It looks and taste different too. We had longan for a drink and pengat for dessert.
Diy and I sent ena back to her house in kelana jaya and met her cat for the first time. Wow! Her cat was so fat and heavy but I think kaka is more handsome. Hahaha…anyway, we had to rush home to watch the Merseyside derby but we made a stop at bangsar’s coffee bean for my double shot espresso. Liverpool won the derby against everton in what I would call a nail-biting 94 minutes. The double shot espresso didn’t help me stay awake until 3.30 because just when the Milan-roma game was about to start I was already fast asleep. So much for a hardcore fan.
All in all, last weekends were the ultimate food binge experience, for me at least.
HAPPY ONE-YEAR BIRTHDAY KAKA, MY BELOVED CAT.
DIY, ZAL AND I LOVE YOU SO MUCH.
TOMORROW IS SITINESTA AND ALESSANDRO NESTA'S BIRTHDAY.
SO HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO SITINESTA AND SANDRO NESTA TOO.
after all the sweats, tears, blood and dramas, three italian teams, two english teams, a french and a dutch team had made it into the champions league quarter final. not even a single spanish team made it into the quarter final after 13 years. wohoo!!!surprised! surprised!
i watched the last 30 minutes of the juventus vs real madrid game. i hate juventus but I hate real madrid more than I hate juve, so i supported the “old lady” albeit half-heartedly and hoped they would send the galacticos home with their tails between their legs. zalayeta late goal was brilliant but of course the clearance made by raul bravo was hideous. i watched in horror as he cleared the ball as far as zalayeta and the striker must have said thank you very much for giving me the ball and kick a blasting shot into the back of the net. Hahaha…however, trezeguet’s goal was really beautiful. how did such a tall player managed to do an acrobatic flick with such control. phew!
zidane looked very agitated before the start of the extra time and look terribly dejected after the match ended. He was shaking his head in disbelief. For some reason, I wanted to know what he was thinking about. after all, the della api stadium in turin used to be his playground. he was worshipped by the north Italian supporters but in the end, he left juventus for a much more lucrative incentive in madrid. and when juve beat real madrid last week, I thought it was poetic justice for the “old lady” supporters.
michael owen left Liverpool for real madrid because he said he wanted to win the champions league trophy, well unfortunately for him, it was liverpool who had qualify for the quarter final this year and not real madrid. in my book, that is poetic justice for the Koppites.
arsenal sold sylvain wiltord to lyons because he was an injury-proned player. a liability for his teammates and arsenal thought he wont be able to help the gunners win the champions league. Well, arsenal lost to bayern munchen last week but wiltord scored a hattrick and brought lyon to the quarter final. Is that poetic justice? i know u had all the answers and 100 reasons why but im entitled to my opinion eh, mate! Err…diy, kau jgn marah tau. Hehehe….
well, anything can happen in football. come friday, the crème de le crème of world football will pull the name of all eight teams out of the box. And we the fans cant wait for the result. And I pray with all my heart that they will not cast Milan and Liverpool against each other. I don’t think I am strong enough to choose between the two teams.
But at the same time, I really want to know what will be the game like if the two teams were to meet. Where does my loyalty stand? Maybe I should ask myself that question instead of questioning the players’ loyalty towards their team. But I wasn’t born and bred at the Merseyside or even Milan. Why did I love both these clubs so much? I don’t know. Where does the loyalty come from? I guess it will remain unanswered. If people were to ask me which club I love the most, I don’t have the answer for that either.
Is Liverpool the weakest team in the quarter final or is it PSV Eindhoven? What will be the game like if bayern and Milan were to meet? Pizarro and makaay against nesta, stam and maldini. It’s a dream match. I used to dream of pizarro playing with Milan but I think he was happy playing in the bundesliga. I hope there will be no repeat of the 2003 final. I want Milan to win but against a team other than juventus. I thought inter is a great team but I don’t know why they cant win a game, their games in the serie a are mostly ended in draw, hence the draw specialist nick name.
as for Chelsea, damn the club! damn the coach! i thought eric cantona was arrogant but mourinho’s ego was out of this world. respect has to be earned, mourinho, in case you’ve forgotten about it. you need to learn about humility. i mean, i had been watching andrea frisk refereeing so many international games for so many years. he is one of the greatest referees in the world. he ranks up there with the like of pierluigi collina. he is likeable and a no-nonsense referee. and then, one fine day, you accused him of having a conspiracy with Barcelona’s coach that instigated the death threat by the bloody crazy Chelsea fans on frisk and his family. The death threat forced him to retire and the world of football lost a great referee. mourinho, you are truly an enemy of football. What a disgrace you are. u are a great coach, i give u that much but remember this, no matter how many trophies you win with chelsea, you still sucks! as a human being that is...
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it takes about three hours to reach gua musang from kota bharu. the journey seemed endless as everytime i woke up, the bus was still moving. The day was terribly hot as kelantan hasnt had a single rain for almost a month.
i remember thinking that if only i could read in a moving vehicle, i would have finished reading the whole novel by the time i reached gua musang. but then i saw them, the limestone outcrops towering above the gua musang town. Man! the place is simply amazing. there are caves everwhere you look in gua musang, how cool is that. there's no word to describe it, i guess. surely, it's love at first sight.
we checked-in at the kesedar inn where i shared a room with my colleague. i felt a bit apprehensive at first because i'd to share a room with a colleague i barely knew but then i discovered that she was one of the nicest people i'd ever met. she reminded me of my former colleague 'durian belanda'.
the room at kesedar inn was quite comfy and the bathroom was also clean. the lunch however was superb. i thought the food would taste a little sweet but it's not. pedas giler, kalah pedas kari mak aku. and what is kelantan without budu. Actually, it tastes quite delightful.
we left the inn at about 3pm to make our way to one of the caves in town. i was not really interested in exploring the cave but it would look awkward if i were to stay outside when everybody else went inside the cave. damn! now, i had to act brave and look nonchalant even though I had butterflies in my stomach and at the time there were thousands of them. but I forgot about all that when I entered the cave. its interior looks really lovely, seriously. i forgot about my fear of claustrophobia and became one of the first to go deeper inside the cave. i was in another world. there’s a sense of tranquility and a surreal feeling that you wont get to feel anywhere else. the cave had a strong chemical odor and for some strange reason, the smell sort of stuck in my memory
the cave was so bloody dark i couldnt even see myself. you had to have a torchlight to guide you while exploring the cave. there are a few narrow and tricky passages inside the cave that required us to bend, squat and climb sideways to get past them. actually, exploring gua ning was a piece of cake but to an inexperienced and unfit woman like me, the routes were quite tough.
We saw a small river inside the cave and our guide told us that if we followed the river we could come out on the other side of the town or something like that, I wasn’t sure I heard him correctly because I was admiring the rock formations. there was this honeycomb like rock formation that were really beautiful. all it was missing was the bees. hehehe... to the untrained eyes like me, the cave looks beautiful but to a seasoned cave explorer, the cave was actually dying. I mean visitors shouldn’t have touched the beautiful rock formations because it’d destroy them. the coral reef like formation beckon people to take it home and put them in their aquarium. pretty kiasu of them. all of a sudden, i felt attached to the cave. the guide told us that the communist used to stay in the cave during the 50s. so, i got pretty excited thinking about it. hahaha...
when it was time to leave the cave, i felt pretty sad because i didnt know when i would get the chance to visit the cave again. but what I do know is gua ning wont be the first and the last cave I entered as there will be others in the future. believe me, this activity is addictive.
There is a saying about an Italian defender, "the man might go through or the ball might go through, but the man with the ball won't go through!
The words summed up the game between milan and man united early this morning. milan back four totally dominated the game from their half line and man united had no chance whatsoever. the rossoneri really showed an excellent piece of defending throughout the match
i just loved watching maldini getting back his position as a left back after stam took over as a central defender alongside sandro nesta. his pace may have become a little slower but he is still one of the best left backs in the world. maldini is equally good in defense and attack and this morning, he could do no wrong. the swinging cross in the 19 minutes would have been a goal if the striker was other than crespo. maldini didnt give players such as young ronaldo and rooney chance to create goal. the best il capitano a team can ask for.
nesta was as usual an elegant defender who had the ability to make the difficult looks easy and the complicated looks simple. that's nesta. he was a perfect sweeper in this game. he didnt give nilsterooy or rooney or giggs or keane even a wee bit of space to have their shot on goal. he had perfected his clearances, gave accurate passings and did clean tackles and deserved a 9.5 for his performance, imho.
stam was a bit of a mystery. he wasnt that impressive in lazio and he'd missed lots of matches through injuries after joining milan. he was quite good during the barca's match but last night he was superb. for a giant man, he moved like a dancer. with stam and nesta in the middle, milan's penalty area was impenetrabled.
cafu totally dominated the right wing. heinze didnt know what hit him. he might want to know though that cafu's nickname was "commuter". despite his age, he didnt look tired at all running up and down the milan's right side either to defense or to attack. crazy old man! but as always, it was his accurate crossings that produced so many milan's goals. milan could have scored more if sheva or inzaghi were playing the forward instead of crespo as cafu's crossings were simply lethal and accurate.
a gifted player like pirlo need no introduction. he is the backbone of milan. he dictated milan's game and if he played badly, the whole team would be affected. that's how influential pirlo is in the this red and black team. he was the link between the defenders and strikers. i was just glad that ancelotti noticed his talent and put pirlo at his best position - In Front of Defenders. he didnt do badly in the game, though i missed his usual defense-splitting passes. i wished i was there at the san siro where i could see pirlo's movement a little better. that's the best way to appreciate his authority on ball, when you were inside the stadium.
gattuso surprised me with that move on the 85 minutes. kaka with his stylish back flick and gattuso trying for goal inside a cramp area. wow! unfortunately, it's gone wide. he did great last night mowing down the whole man united's midfielders and along the way managed to break ryan giggs's nose. sheesh! it did look painful.
seedorf started a little slow, playing deep but still effective. but in the second half, he picked up his pace and started to go forward more and therefore created more chances for the milan forward. good old seedorf.
kaka was not on his best form. actually his form had taken a dive this season. despite that, he still managed to create chances for crespo who unfortunately squandered them all. it must have been frustrating for kaka to play with such a slow striker like crespo who couldnt read the move. but his shot on the 38 minutes was really sizzling and it would have been a great goal if not for the crossbar.
rui costa seemed to have lost a few of his skills. it might have been because he spent most of the season on the bench. a bit rusty but the fighting spirit was still in him.
dida was on vacation. he was barely tested by the man united players. that was how good his defenders were.
crespo as usual missed lots of great chances but his header was really majestic so to speak. it's a beautiful goal i have to admit but for once he was at the right place on the right time.
milan was exceptional in this game. they are far more classy than the english team. ferguson was really gambling when he took out a defender for another striker in the dying minutes of the second half. it proved how desperate he was to have a goal but he forgot milan had only conceded three goals throughout the whole CL matches and they werent about to concede another one at the san siro especially to a team like man united.
forza milan per sempre...
i cant breathe and i feel trapped. how am i going to get myself out if this situation. i guess i cant. damn! i was bogged down with so many things i could barely take my eyes off the computer. i felt like 24 hours wasnt enough for one day. i need more times to finish all my assignments.
i was just about to start on my kelantan's assignment when i was asked to do an article. i had finished that and just as i was about to continue my kelantan's story, a translation of another article had to be done. and when i was just about to do the translation, a speech needed to be written urgently. huh? and on top of that a two-day meeting. what the hell! i dont know how my colleagues did it. maybe after a year i will too but right now, my head felt like its going to explode anytime soon. they are amazing writers and very cool about the situation. and they helped me a lot, luv them.
no bliss weekend for me as i need to finish my kelantan's article. man! right now, the only satisfaction i get is when i write in this blog. no demand, no grammar and no expectation. it's as simple as that.
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