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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
for the first 45 minutes of the champions league semi final, i found psv eindhoven such an ordinary team despite having calibre players such as philip cocu and van bommel and highly intelligent coach such as gus hiddink. in the first half, milan had almost 60 percent posession which was very impressive. they were probably still high from their 3-0 trashing of the poor parma last saturday. i think if not for the psv's flamboyant goalkeeper, gomes, milan would have scored a few goals in the first half. the keeper was good as he made many great saves throughout the night.
crespo as usual missed lots of great passes. but then again, what else is new? (mr. hariselva and siddarth - what did i tell u about crespo eh?) his performance was totally below par, it was almost embarassing to watch him play. actually lots of milan players were out of form - gattuso lost his zest, pirlo just got back from injury and look really unfit but still he provided several beautiful, accurate crosses. i thought ancelotti should play rui costa who was on top form recently instead of the unfit pirlo. seedorf played poorly and wasted lots of good chances. i didnt know what was his problem lately, but he did some pretty fancy moves which was delightful to watch.
hurray! kaka was back in business. after watching his form dip game after game, i wonder when he would return to form and he finally showed the fans what he was capable of. such a joy to watch him play.
the pairing of maldini and stam in the middle was a complete disaster. my goodness! if the game was watched by a first timer, he or she would probably think what was the hype about milan's defense. the back four were totally sucks! man! both maldini and stam were great individual defenders and they both did some great defending last night but their partnership wasnt ideal for central defending. milan need nesta to be the central defender along with stam. and the idiot got himself carded in the quarter final and miss this first semi. kaladze was the weakest link in milan back four in my humble opinion. he was terrible last night. milan was lucky because they have the five defender in the form of pirlo. as he was more of a defense midfielder, he did a lot to take out the pressure from the milan back four. now i understand, why ancelotti wanted pirlo in the main eleven instead of rui costa cause he couldnt defend.
it's always lovely to watch a prolific striker like sheva at his best. he was terrific last night. he was alert and timed his run perfectly to get the first score for the home team. not forgetting the beautiful defense-splitting passed from kaka. if i was a psv fan, it was a nightmare to watch their defense went to pieces at the 42 minutes in the first half.
thank god! ancelotti came to his senses when he substituted crespo for jd tomasson. finally, get the hell out of my face. in the second half, milan turned complacent, as if 1-0 was enough to get them through. i hated it when milan played like this.
my opinion about psv changed in the second half when they dominated the whole 45 minutes of the second half. it was embarassing to watch milan defense rattled by sheer determination of the psv players. fortunately, they didnt have lethal strikers like milan. farfan and ji sung park did their best to break down the milan defense and for a while they did only for dida to stop them. i was so glad that we had dida for a goalkeeper even though he did two mistakes that were almost costly. so did, maldini, three huge mistakes by him all in one night. fortunately, stam was there.
anyway, kaka's shot on goal was deflected and fell on tomasson feet and he unlike crespo didnt miss. the 2-0 score was quite a safe result for them to bring to holland next week. but i hope they will win the second leg semi final with a bang. i hope milan will at least respect the dutch team by playing their best and not giving such stalemate performance like last night's second half.
as always, forza milan!
when i first read an english version of the late mochtar lubis controversial novel called Twilight in Djakarta, i had never imagined that i would be able to see one in jakarta.
and here i was, nine years later, standing in the middle of the merdeka square at the heart of jakarta city, watching the sun going down. and it was made more special because i was sharing the moment with two of my closest friends - diy and liza and my newfound friend adi wahyu. in reality, it was no different from any twilight that i've seen all my life but at that moment, the twilight i saw in jakarta was somehow more meaningful and far more beautiful.
u see, jakarta turned dark very early at about 5pm. little by little, beautiful orange colours emerged amidst the thick haze that seem to permanently engulfed the whole city, covering the vast jakarta sky announcing the arrival of the twilight. each one of us was lost in thought while admiring the picturesque scene in front of us. the noises in the background faded slowly, so immersed i was in the beauty of the twilight in jakarta and wondering when i'll get the opportunity to see another one in the open like this.
located right in the middle of the square, the indonesia national monument or monas stood 135 meters tall, an eminent figure that must have been a symbol of pride among the jakartanians just like how the malaysians felt about their own tugu negara, a symbol of independence. the monas was already closed when we arrived there, so my friends and i didnt get the chance to see the monas from the inside but there were a couple of museums in there i think and visitors could take the elevator to the top for a bird's eyeview of the whole city. the monas would emit myriad of colours when night fall.
the twilight added an ethereal and mysterious look to the statue of prince diponegoro, a local warrior who struggled to free the javanese from the dutch’s greedy clutched. the greyish black statue of the prince mounting a stallion was perfectly sculpted and gave me an eerie feeling as if the prince was watching my every moves.
visitors to the square could also take a ride in any of the decorated horse carts located near the entrance. there were so many of them lined up waiting for a passenger willing enough to tour the whole square. so, our walk around the monas was accompanied by the sound of the horses' gait - kluk, klak, kluk, klak - carrying excited tourists in their cart and the sound of its riders urging their horse to move faster.
there are so many poor people all over jakarta trying to make ends meet by selling things to the people on the street, people in the cars during traffic jam and monas was no different as there were lots of them there. they sell almost anything from food to handicraft just so there will be meal on the table for their family. i didnt quite know how to help them. i didnt want to end up buying things that i have no used for but at the same time i wanted so badly to help them. in the end, i just walked away but not without feeling a little guilty.
from the monas, we could see the biggest mosque in indonesia, masjid istiqlal, its huge white dome a stark contrast to the greyness of the indonesian sky shrouded by the haze. and from the monas we could alsosee the trains moving back and forth carrying passengers probably towards bandung or maybe jogjakarta. what attracted me to watch the train was because there were passengers sitting on the roof. the train was probably full and those passengers were probably used to it. interesting...i sometimes wonder how does it feel to sit on the top of train while it was moving, the view would have been interesting i guess. there were also lots of stalls selling goods nearby. you can get just about anything at any of the stalls. dangdut cds, clothes and shoes. i bought 4 pairs of cute socks for just 10,000 rupiah and that was like RM4. how cool! adi bought us a drink called teh botol. actually, i drank lots of teh botol while i was in jakarta.
when the twilight turn into night, my friends and i left monas but not without one of the best memories for me to keep forever.
if it is possible to fall in love with a country, i am definitely in love then. for i couldnt stop thinking about all the places i had been to in jakarta and bandung and also all the kind people that i'd met throughout my journey.
it is strange to see another country that is so similar to my own yet so different. and that i believed is part of the charms that has a strange hold on me. for six precious days, i lived and breathed jakarta, i blended with the people, the customs, the cultures and the language. i'd seen the good, the bad, the beauty and the ugly sides of jakarta, yet i am still in awe with the place. i am sure that given the chance, i would probably fall in love with the whole country.
when i first arrived at the airport, i had to admit that we were treated badly by a few airport staff who had mistakenly took us for a tenaga kerja indonesia (TKI) returning home for a holiday. apart from a badly bruised pride, i was grateful for the experience. if i didnt take the wrong turn, i would have probably missed seeing the humiliating way the tki were treated in their own backyard. let's just say that it was a great lesson for humility. but it did nothing to discourage me instead it made me more eager to explore this vast city of jakarta.
i have to tell you that i was not prepared for the traffic in jakarta. i was always grumbling about the traffic jam in kuala lumpur but it was nothing compared to jakarta. 'macet' as the jakartanians like to call it was my favourite topic. chaotic, haphazard are some of the words that i prefer to use to describe the traffic in jakarta with people honking each other every five minutes and lots of near misses. strangely enough, that condition was one of the things that i missed the most when i came back to kuala lumpur. i have just realised that the traffic jam and the uncharacteristic driving of the people in jakarta were part of the city's charms. most of the cars on the road are big cars especially indonesian made car known as kijang. i wonder if small, compact cars like our very own kancil and kelisa can survived the road in jakarta.
i have tried almost all public transports existed in jakarta. bajai was like an extended motorcycles. my friends and i really enjoyed riding on a bajai even though our clothes smelled of benzin, our hearing was probably damaged by the sound of its engine and had a 50-50 chance of being thrown out of the bajai because the three of us combined were too big for the bajai. we were laughing like madwomen throughout the journey from wtc mangga dua to our jayakarta hotel. it was 10.30pm and we were a bit worried that we were going to get mugged by the driver but so far so good.
and then, there was this thing called mikro-let. a van-like transport driven by expert but sometimes crazy drivers that could give me concussion if i wasnt careful. i didnt know how many times i got my head banged on the wall or the window when the driver did an emergency brakes. it reminded me of the old mini bus that was once a lifeline for thousands of workers in the klang valley. i felt like a sandwhich inside the mikro-let. somehow though, the best way to take photos of jakarta, was from the inside of the micro-let, that is, if you were fast enough.
if you prefer to take a taxi, choose wisely because you'll be conned. it happened to us a couple of times before we became wised enough to use only the bluebird taxi. the drivers may not be the same every time but what was uppermost in their mind was the same. ambalat, war and siti nurhaliza. i didnt realize that some of the indonesian people took the ambalat matter so seriously that the possibility of going to war did cross their mind. i didnt expect that at all. either the malaysian people are too ignorant or the indonesian people are too patriotic. "malaysia sudah mencemar kedaulatan negara kami. apa pendapat kamu kalau negara kita berperang" said one taxi driver to me when i was on my way to tanah abang to do some shopping. i was caught offguard with his remarks. it made me sad because if both indonesia and malaysia did go to war, it will be like a civil war to me. i told him we were like "saudara serumpun" and it would be ridiculous to fight each other over some stupid thing like oil. fortunately, he agreed with me. another favourite subject is siti nurhaliza. i prayed silently that they wont ask me about her albums because i dont really listen to any of her songs.
one taxi driver told me about how bad the malaysian people treated indonesian workers and even indonesian tourists. i admitted that there were some isolated cases where indonesian workers were treated badly but i wasnt so sure about the indonesian tourists. i was on the way to the airport actually at that time. before i go, i told him that my friends and i are good malaysians and he answered back with "kami rakyat indonesia yang patuh" it was worth thinking, my friend...
there are so many things to tell about my journey in jakarta that this first article was just like an appetizer.
p/s: to so many kind people i've met throughout my journey especially adi wahyu, rina, pak triyan, pak yono and pak nas, hanya tuhan yang dapat membalas kebaikan anda pada kami.
aku mula dapat rasakan yang kerjaya baru aku ni telah mengkucar-kacirkan kehidupan sosial aku. sejak awal april lagi aku dah tak menang tangan nak buat perkara-perkara lain selain daripada kerja,kerja dan kerja.
banyak plan-plan percutian aku dengan kawan-kawan terpaksa dibatalkan di saat-saat akhir, semuanya kerana tugasan last minute yang selalu diberikan editor aku tu. kadang-kadang, aku kesian jugak tengok kawan-kawan, dia orang kena adjust cuti ikut aku punya free time. masalahnya, event-event yang ada biasanya dibuat masa hujung minggu. hampeh betul.
dua minggu lepas, aku sepatutnya pergi ke pulau rahsia aku tu dengan diy dan zal. aku ingat nak bawak ena ke pulau tu untuk introduce kat dia pulau rahsia kita orang. tapi last minute, aku ngan ena kena kerja that saturday. menyumpah-nyumpah aku masa tu, tapi nasib baik jugak diy pun kena kerja weekend tu sebab ofis dia pun ada event. taklah terkilan sangat, cuma kesian kat zal jelah. dia pun kata nak bercuti dengan kita orang for the last time before dia kahwin bulan ogos nanti. tapi apa kan daya, aku kena kerja. sandwich peanut butter and banana yang ena promise nak buat untuk trip ke pulau tu hanya dimakan di putrajaya sahaja. sedapnya.
pergi kerja pun dengan hati yang tak ikhlas. panasnya pulak kat putrajaya tu, tuhan aje yang tahu. orang terlampau ramai, pening kepala aku jadinya. aku tak berapa suka pergi event yang macam ni sebenarnya. lagi kalau yang melibatkan agong, banyak sangat protokolnya. ingatkan lepas kerja boleh le relax kat rumah tapi abang aku call suruh balik kampung, ada meeting family. alamak, aku dah le miss the first meeting, kalau aku miss yang ni, mesti kena bambu dengan abang aku, setahun tak habis.
aku cabut balik masa tu dah dekat pukul 4 lebih. aku balik rumah dulu tidur, lepas tu baru aku balik seremban dalam pukul 7 lebih. bestnya bila dapat berkumpul dengan semua adik beradik. riuh macam ada kenduri kat rumah aku. kakak siap masak rendang daging, kakak ipar aku pun buat rendang udang galah dia yang memang best gila tu, ada lauk kari, ayam goreng dan macam-macam lagilah. bagus jugak aku balik ni. hahaha....
abang aku nak kahwin bulan jun ni, sebab tu dia buat meeting tu. siap ada minit mesyuarat lagi, kelakar pulak aku. tengok kat minit, nama aku tak ada dalam jawatankuasa pembersihan. kah!kah! lega aku. aku telah dipilih oleh abang aku untuk mengendalikan cenderahati untuk jemputan yang hadir nanti. oklah tu, takdelah susah sangat. kakak ipar aku pun volunteer nak tolong. bagus! the more the merrier. hehehe...
sabtu lepas, aku ke kuching, sarawak dengan seluruh warga kat ofis aku tu. ada event yang dibuat disana. aku yang terlibat dalam jawatankuasa jemputan ni dapat satu pengalaman baru yang sangat bernilai. banyak yang aku pelajari sepanjang penglibatan aku dalam event ni especially kesabaran dan pr skills. nasib baik ada ena, she is so lively and friendly, people simply love her. i wish i have a lovely character like that. aku jumpa budak dari ofis lama, dia ajak main futsal lagi. tengoklah dulu macam mana.
ini kali kedua aku menjejak kaki kat kuching ni. aku sukakan suasana bandar ni especially dekat waterfront waktu malam. scenery memang cantik gila especially tengok sungai tu berlatar belakangkan fort magherita yang bermandikan cahaya. memang nampak macam old castle, romantiknya. hahaha...apa yang aku tak suka tengok tu, budak-budak muda lepak kat sepanjang pavement, lepas tu tenung kita semacam. takut jugak aku nak jalan sorang-sorang. aku suka masuk dua tiga bazaar kat depan waterfront tu sebab hiasan kat dalam kedai cantik gila, teruja aku tengok. dah ler barang-barang yang dijual eksotik gila, leaps tu hiasan kedai pun vogue gila, apa lagi, aku habiskan masa ambik gambar kat dalam kedai tu, bukannya nak beli. tapi most of them are sporting enough to let me take the photos.
buat pertama kalinya, aku mencuba laksa sarawak dekat James Brook Cafe. cafe ni adalah antara tempat hang out yang aku paling rindukan kat kuching tu. kalaulah aku ni pelukis, mesti dah banyak lukisan yang terhasil bila lepak kat cafe tu, kalau aku ni penyajak, mesti dah banyak sajak yang aku cipta masa duduk kat cafe tu. the ambience of the cafe will definitely inspire you. kalau tak percaya pergilah.
aku balik kl hari isnin, flight delay sampai satu jam lebih, dah le takde aircond. aku dah rasa claustrophobic lepas tu macam nak suffocating. peluh pulak meleleh-leleh macam apa jer. nasib betul, dah le hari selasa aku kena kerja. pukul 9.30 malam baru aku sampai pantai dalam. bukak pintu, housemates semua dah tidur, sedih gila. nasib baik ada dua ekor kucing yang sambut aku dan ikut je kemana aku pergi.
penat gila aku rasa tak habis lagi, dengan tak cukup tidurnya masa kat kuching. malam tadi tak cukup tidur jugak sebab tengok champions league. hari ni rabu, hari last aku bekerja sebelum aku bercuti panjang selama seminggu. aku, diy dan liza akan ke jakarta selama lima hari. yea!yea! setelah beberapa kali tertangguh, akhirnya dapat jugak kita orang pergi bersama-sama ke jakarta. memang aku tak sabar sangat nak pergi.
p/s: adi wahyu, terima kasih. saya harap dapat berjumpa kamu di jakarta dan makan bakso bersama-sama. hehehe...insyaAllah kalau ada rezeki.
a milan derby for the champions league quarter final isnt exactly a mouthwatering game to look forward too, at least in my humble opinion. i have already watched the milan derby twice in the serie A this season and milan had a draw in the first derby and a win in the one. and so, i didnt really want to watch another milan derby thank you very much.
inter did start the game with a bang, well sort of. for such an important game, milan players look really rusty and their game was so sloppy, i felt like kicking each one of them. i didnt want to loose sleep over some sloppy, boring game.
God! im just so busy this couple of weeks, i can hardly think anymore. im just so bloody tired, i felt drained.
milan back four wasnt very impressive especially nesta but i forgave him because he just got back from injury. thank god for jaap stam's consistense defending and accurate reading of the game. inter striker, obafemi martins blinding pace gave milan defenders so much trouble. nesta made a couple of mistakes that could have been costly if the team was other than inter. hahaha...
milan midfields didnt have much space for the first 30 minutes of the game. inter was allowed to conquer the match with more possessions compared to milan. apart from adriano and martins, i am wary of another inter player and that is sinisa mihajlovic. man! i hate his guts but even i have to admit that he is one of the best dead ball specialists in the world. so, i was praying very hard for milan not to concede free kicks. but they did, stam, pirlo and gattuso among the culprits. fortunately, milan has a great goalkeeper. dida did countless great saves in the game, he deserved a medal for that. hehehe...he is inarguably one of the best goalkeepers in the world in my humble opinion. he blocked two of mihajlovic's great efforts and another shot from cruz.
a goal from set piece in the dying minute of the first half by stam was probably a psychological blow to the inter players. it was a bit unfair i guess for milan to have that goal as inter was the team that was more active in attacking compared to milan. just as sheva and crespo struggled to penetrate the inter's defense through direct shots, pirlo and stam cracked the wall through the set piece that was really harmless. in a way, a midget like cordoba could never reach stam's height even if his life depended on it. i mean, inter did the man marking but they send the wrong person to do it.
second half was a different ball game for milan as they continued to do what they do best, mind game. it was obvious which team was stronger in terms of mental strength as milan continued to outwit and outplayed inter. shevchenko wasnt marked when he headed the second goal into the net. what the hell were the defenders thinking, letting a prolific striker like sheva running inside the penalty area without a marker. a striker of his calibre wont miss from that angle, that's for sure.
milan didnt play very well but inter didnt grab that chance to beat their rival and for that the team deserved losing. i didnt enjoy the game very much but i am happy that milan won again. forza milan!
You bloody drug addict, why the hell did u have to kill yourself and deprived us of your creative values forever.
I will play your songs tonight, Kurt. I will play your songs until my fingers cramp, my callouses bleed and my guitar strings break.
With the lights out, it's less dangerous,
Here we are now, entertain us.
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