Atokkk Jugakkk..

ermz.. thatz my Princess' favourite quote..

I just got back from Shanghai yesterday.. no pics this time coz I think I had taken enough pics of that place for now..

spent the entire day sleeping, and I headed out for dinner at 6pm, and then to XiangYang market to get some stuffs for my mom and thatz it..

read Michael Connelly's book, Blood Work, from beginning till the end, in a single night..

damn.. I'm totally addicted now.. bought 2 more of his books just now..

thatz it for Shanghai..

and to update the past week..

I had managed to change my flight away to do a Melbourne flight as my mom was flying back from there.. and I had the chance to take care of her for the first time at work..

We had guests invited over to commemorate my brother officially receiving a Permanent Residency in Australia..

and now they are bugging me to start making plans to move over..

so my mom cooked briyani and we had abt 80 family friends with us.. and we celebrated my 2 nephews, Iskandar and Ameerul's 9th and 8th birthday, respectively..

so much work.. and luckily we had someone to supervise the event that day..



Macam construction site foreman..

ok.. and this is how she is when she's off duty..



and ShaSha the Cam-Addict.. she refuses to let anyone else use the camera at this point and kept on snapping pics of herself..



Nadra, ShaSha's best friend.. itz hilarious listening to the two of them having a conversation.. baby-talks that only the two of them understand..



one of my close friends, Syariffa Radiah.. who had gone to Melbourne recently to take a degree in how to be a storewoman.. doing Logistics..

heh.. she felt out of place coz she's the only one without a tudung.. all the women and even the young girls had tudung on.. wahahaha.. kesian.. I didn't expect that either.. but it will be funny looking at her with the tudung too I think...

I think I'll spend the entire night laughing..



and here..



another treasure of my family.. Yayat.. or Alauddin Riayat Shah.. my bro is a history freak and we were shocked when he really named his first son that..

I thought that he was just kidding when he suggested that name..

so now we call the kids by numbers.. itz easier that way..

Iskandar Zulkarnain a.k.a No.2, 9 yrz old
Ameerul Mukminin a.k.a No.3, 8 yrz old
Saifullah Hil Maslul a.k.a No.4, 5 yrz old
Sayeeda Nafeesa a.k.a No.5, 2 yrz old..


Yayat, a.k.a No.1, is turning 10 soon.. and his good health is a miracle for us considering the fact that he was 2 months prematured and spent his initial months of life in an incubator..

Being the oldest child, he takes in the responsibilities of taking care of the house and his siblings..

now.. that's a proud uncle..



Me and No.5



Me and Omar.. our close family friend in Melbourne.. he's a Pakistani as well.. but born and raised in Melbourne..



Some of the guests.. the rest of the guys filled up the garage where we had another set of food..

The fella sitting closest to the camera is a distant cousin of mine.. and I didnt know it till after he left that he's my cousin.. coz i couldnt recognise him now.. the last time i saw him was when he was 5 and abt 1/10th of his current size..

ok.. had an exhausting nite.. and i hate winter nites in Melbourne coz I have to take a smoke outside.. and it will be freezing.. it was abt 5 degrees that nite..

had to leave for flight that morning.. with my mom on board.. and I managed to get her the closest seat to the galley so she was under my constant watch and care..



family pic.. I was already on board the plane at this time..

from left..

No.1, No.4, My Brother, No.2, No.5 in tudung, No.3, My Mom, and the Mother Of All Numbers.. my sister-in-law..

and this is my fav pic of her..



My youngest brother, Azlan, will be getting married tomorrow.. and that will make me the only unmarried one among my 9 siblings..

eh.. I got 1 elder sister whoz mentally handicapped.. so that makes 2 unmarried ones..

but I'm the only unmarried sane one.. I think..

Perth, Podcasts, Politicians and Baby Kissing Pictures..

just got back from Perth this afternoon.. and so stoned out now that i fell asleep while typing out this posting.. heh.. so this one was written within 3 hrz.. with a good long nap in between..

i was looking forward for a day of catching up on my sleep in Perth, till i met a good friend of mine, Miske, an Indonesian crew, travelling as a passenger on my flight..

so i knew.. ok.. i'm not gonna be sleeping that much..

but itz ok.. Miske is a good friend.. and we actually had fun doing a flight together to Los Angeles several months back, where 6 of us on that flight clicked and had fun partying and spent an entire day having a hangover in Disneyland.. so I was looking forward to meet up with her and catch up on the several missing months..

so we made plans to meet up for lunch.. i got abt 4 hrs of rest after i checked in.. we met at 1.30pm, and headed down to Fremantle for a Fish and Chips lunch at the beach..



The restaurant..

and..

by the way..



Dont feed 'em.. or they'll shit on you..



Seagulls fighting over some chips at the table next to us..



one of 'em.. close up..



this is what will happened when Seagulls have a lil bit too much to drink..



view of the Pier from where we were seated..



the coastline at Fremantle..

so after lunch, we headed back to the city to have coffee and dessert.. was almost 5pm when we got there.. and we sat down in the chill.. at abt 10 degrees..



the City..

after coffee, we got back to my hotel room, and had a chit chat session with my Inflight Supervisor, John.. while keeping tab of the time..

Miske left just after it got dark, and me and John continued for a lil while longer before we end the evening..



Sunset, view from my room..

so our conversations revolved ard the topics of the day..

one of which i'm gonna talk abt now..

Politics.. Oh GAWDDDDD..

Election mah.. so i'm gonna just say my piece on it.. and coz i have not talked abt it so i dont need to take a licence from MITA for it k.. coz this is a one-off comment from me, a voter.

Actually.. ermz.. i did talk abt The Election once before.. but it was a Pro-PAP entry.. so if i lash out a lil bit on the PAP now, i think it should be ok.. balance things up a lil bit for my inner self..

The Election and the James Gomez issue..

Dont u wonder why when they posted pics of James Gomez, he always looked like he have a sorry face..

He dont really look like that in real life.. probably in recent months he had put on so much weight that he pouts.. but no.. he dont have a sorry face.. and please dont think that he felt so guilty coz of the incident that he perpetually have a sorry face..

he doesnt..

I had gotten the chance to know James in my personal capacity.. as he is a good friend of my brother in Melbourne.. and he has a good character, he's smart, and he's honest..

and he dont have a sorry face..

Dr Chee Soon Juan is a friend of my brother too.. and for those of my friends here who dunno who my brother is, ask me privately and I'll tell u..

and I had the chance in knowing Soon Juan personally too.. and like everyone else in Singapore, I didnt have a good opinion of him.. I mean.. what kinda Singaporean politician in the modern era would go on a hunger strike?

till i talked to him.. and got to know him..

and not only i found out that he speaks with intellect.. he's a nice guy too..

and he dont have a perpetual defiant face as how his pictures are always published in the papers..

in the papers, he always look like he wants to get into a fight..

sure.. he might be stern in the way he speaks.. but it doesnt mean that he wants to beat up someone..

I think that if I dont know him personally, and in recent years I had been looking at his pictures in the papers, I'd regard him as a rogue..

damn.. he even resembles a Pak Hai Tong headman that i used to know..

really..

but c'mon.. the man is a Neuropsychologist.. most of us cant even pronounce the title of his job.. how to regard him as silly?

and he's not silly..

look at the pictures of PM Lee.. his pictures always show him with a lil bit of smile, but not too much, with a his forehead raised slightly, to portray a thinking person..

Dr Yaacob Ibrahim is always laughing at something, his arms outstretched..

Dr Vivian Balakrishnan.. ermz.. ok.. he always look pleasant.. i dont think anyone can say anything bad abt him even if they really really really try to..

i'm sure these ppl are nice ppl in their own capacity.. just that we dont get the chance to know them personally.. so we rely on the media to show us our leaders.. and they show us what they need to show us..

i'm sure they can get a picture of Dr Chee smiling..

i'm sure they can get a picture of James Gomez hugging an 80 yr old hawker and getting good luck kisses from her..

itz election time man.. baby kissing time.. every politician will be kissing even the not cutest of the babies in their constituencies.. try to get a fair picture of them doing so.. so we compare pictures of who looked the best when they kissed the not cutest of all babies..

get all of the politicians to kiss some babies in their district..

then let them walk further to hug 80 yr old hawkers and take pictures of that too and we compare..

the one who can smile thru the ordeal the longest wins the vote.

the Election Committee made podcasting illegal..

And an opposition candidate (either SDP or WP.. i cant recall which one) was quoted saying that he dont know what podcasting is and he dont know that therez such a ruling..

and he wants to stand for election?? not knowing the basic of all buzz surrounding this current Election?

what the hell?

and so, the Government said that we dont have a First World opposition..

dammit.. we dont even have a Third World opposition..

the very limited ppl who qualifies to be of a good standing to challenge the government's ideas are the very same ppl that they are pushing down.. but then again.. itz politics..

if in a parallel universe, Dr Chee and James Gomez had been in love with the PAP.. they might be Ministers now.. they have the intellect and qualifications..

he might even be Rear-Admiral (NS) Dr Chee..

or a BG (Ret) Dr Chee.

itz illegal to post up articles abt politics.. supporting a specific party.

i'm supporting no one.. i'll vote whoever who seems the best in my constituency.. and at the moment, the SDP GRC candidates in Tampines definitely dont look even close to be it..

my vote sticks to the PAP for now..

if James Gomez fights here, i would definitely vote for him.. even if i didnt know him personally..

i'm ranting too much abt politics..

and i hate politics..

dammit..

let's get this Election over.

then we all can talk football.

Chelsea won.

we lost.

we, meaning, the Manchester United-loving-world.

and on the good side of the current depressing world..

X-Men 3 is coming out on 25th May.

Superman Returns in June.

and Brasil will lift the World Cup once again.

Johanna, Give Me Hope..

ahh.. I just got back from Africa abt an hour ago.. lots of pics this time.. and since I have not updated about my flights for a couple of weeks, I'll update it all here in a single posting..

WARNING: This is a *LONG* Posting.

It was my first time to Cape Town, coz previously, all the Cape Town flights that we did were shuttle flights from Johannesburg.. and for the first time, I managed to catch the beauty of the place, which I had heard abt so much from some of my colleagues who had been there..

We flew up to Johannesburg and stayed a night there.. didnt do much there coz the stay was short, and I had my dinner alone at the food court coz I missed the time to meet the crew for dinner at one of the best steak restaurants that u can get, called Butchers...

We stayed in the city, in Cape Town.. and the place reminds me so much of Australia and New Zealand.. it looks and feel the same. Even the weather and the seasons are the same. it was abt 10 degrees in the day. and it follows the same reversed seasons. itz April now and itz Autumn, going on to Winter, just like how it is Down Under.

Another similarities.. ppl dont go out at nite here as it would be in Down Under.. but coz of different reasons..

In Australia and NZ, u dont go out at nite coz all the shops are closed. People work till 5pm on normal days, so u just get some restaurants and convenience stores after dark.

Even the food courts will close at 5pm.

In Cape Town and Johannesburg, you dont go out at nite.

Coz if u do, u get killed.

In South Africa..

Someone is murdered every 30 mins.

A woman is raped every 15 mins.

So South Africa holds the record for the place with the highest number of rapes and murders in the world.. but then again, i dont think anyone is keeping a tally of those committed in Nigeria, Sudan, Namibia and so on..

South Africa holds the record coz they keep the records. But then again, the statistics in these two cities exceed the whole of United States. More than all 52 states combined.

But in United States, u dont feel secured. You dont feel safe.

In South Africa, it gives u a false sense of security. You'ld think that itz a beautiful day for a walk, but u might end up being shot. There are several towns that had been marked as 100% crime safe though. How they do it, i dont know.. but they exists.. and we passed thru these towns.. and u see children playing and joggers on the street and families walking around and so itz a real deal..

According to my tour guide, u just shouldnt go to the suburbs. Life is CHEAP there. and thatz the place where most of the crimes are committed.

Location info: Republic of South Africa is a country at the southern tip of the African continent. and itz where Mandela presides and it is where the Apartheid was practiced slightly more than a decade ago.

Johannesburg is the capital of RSA and Cape Town is easily *THE* most beautiful place in the world. None of the pics here that i took can actually do justice to the beauty of the place. You have to see it for yourself to know it.



Cape Town city, Downtown. Just like Australia.

On the first nite that we were there, the crew headed down to the Waterfront.. a beautiful marina built on a reclaimed land, and with pubs and restaurants at the side, similar to Boat Quay.. just a million times more beautiful..



The Waterfront..



This is in front of the restaurant that we were at, at the Waterfront..

We started the tour the next day by driving up to Maiden's Cove, to take pictures of the beach. This is at the Atlantic side of the country. I'll explain this later..



Maiden's Cove..

Saw some dolphins playing in the water.. but they were too far coz we were up on the rocks so we didnt get to snap the pics of them closeup..

After we are done there, we headed down to the ferry terminal to watch some seals.. since our tour guide, Soraya, an Indian Muslim lady born and bred in RSA, said that we *MUST* visit the Seal Island coz it houses abt 4000 seals..

but then again.. i had seen seals so often whenever i go down to the Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco..

We went there just not to disappoint her coz she's a nice person and we go WAHH.. though thatz like the millionth seal we had seen..



WAHH..

but ok lah.. if u had never seen sea lions before, u MUST see them here.. but there are certain periods where the flock will move away for a while.. and thatz when the water gets warmer in summer and the sharks starts to move around the area..

and when the whale seasons starts, the seals will come back and the sharks will move away..

weird ecological cycle..

normally, the sharks will move to Singapore during the football seasons..

bets are open for the Champions League final between Arsenal and Barcelona.. please contact your friendly neighbourhood loansharks for details.



the flea market at the ferry terminal.. the handicrafts here are good.. and MUCH cheaper than those at the Waterfront.. and i think they are much better..



colourful entertainers looking for tips..

after we are done with that and had our Fish and Chips lunch at the terminal, we headed down along Chapman's Peak Drive, up and down and across roads along the mountains to see some penguins.. but the sights along that drive itself was breathtaking..



Alex, our pilot on that flight.. with Michelle, Me, Cecilia, and Daniel taking some pics along the Chapman's Peak Drive..



Look at the background.. a picture is worth a thousand words.. but go spend some thousand of dollars instead to go there coz no pictures can actually show u the real beauty of the place..



i took this pic while we are driving away from Chapman's Peak Drive..



oh.. please do check..



these fellas seems to be the best of buddies.. they walked left and right and up and down, always together.. as if looking ard for a place to hangout..



you could even touch them if u want to.. but they bite though.. so i dont think anyone is silly enough to do that..



me, still at the Atlantic side.. so behind me, is the Atlantic Ocean..

after we are done with the penguins, we drove up to Cape Of Good Hope.. the Most South-Western Point of the African Continent..



See?

is there such thing as a Bad Hope?

anyway.. along the way, we spotted some Ostrichs..



weird rite.. 2 different continents, Oceania and Africa, and both have similar creatures native to it.. but since Australia and Africa is on the same latitude, thus they have similar weather, seasons and having similar creatures roaming ard..



Damn high waves splashing onto the rocks.. scary xia..



Still on the Atlantic side..



this is a Rock Rabbit.. looks like a rabbit, with short ears.. but they walk and run.. not like real rabbits that hops.. and it is said to be similar to the elephants in terms of skeletal forms..

but i dont see the similarities ley.. this one is the size of a normal rabbit.. i cant imagine it with tusks and a trunk..

after we are done at The Most South-Western Tip Of The African Continent, we headed down to Cape Point..

anyway.. i was disappointed not to be able to see whales.. coz itz not season yet.. but it is said that during the September season, it will be a fantastic time to visit Cape Town and then u will be able to see everything that u want.. and even the nude beach will be opened by then..

*drools*

anyway.. among the Caucasian girls.. i think the girls from South Africa are the most beautiful ones.. u rarely see whales among them..

in fact.. i dont think i saw even one overweight local Ang Moh girl there..

the fat ones are the tourists..

but..

a warning..



they are perpetually hungry.. but the rangers there do keep track of their feeding periods.. so the baboons will steal ur food coz they know that u cant do anything abt it.. and even if they snatch any of ur belongings, u are advised NOT to attempt to retrieve it..

so my married friends.. walk with ur wives in front.. hopefully some baboons might wanna snatch her..

dont forget to say Thanks though..



i had always thought that baboons dont have tails.. but they got red-ass anyway..



and here i am.. at Cape Point..



look at the pic, slightly to the left, therez a small white splash..

thatz the point that marks the meeting of two oceans.. the Atlantic Ocean on the right and the Indian Ocean on the left.. this point is called "Where 2 Oceans Meet"..

the currents move in the opposite directions and at times, it will cause a whirlpool in the middle.. a small one..

2 different oceans, 2 directions, 2 current strength.. and 2 different temperatures..

meeting at a single point..



the ugliest lizard i had ever seen..



Alex, Me and Daniel..

after we are done with the Cape, we headed back to the city to go up the Table Mountain.. itz called Table coz of the huge plateau on top of it..



this pic is taken from inside the lift in the hotel..



on top of the mountain..



the view of Cape Town from the gondola that brings us up on the mountain..



look at the clouds below.. anyway, clouds at this level just feel like fogs.. just cold air blowing thru..

i wouldnt know how it feels like in a rain cloud though.. might be the same, just thicker and electrifying..

after we are done with the mountain, we headed up to Signal Hill, just next to the mountain.. to watch the sunset..



at exactly 6.10pm..

the sun sets so fast when it hits 6.10.. i think within 2 mins, it totally disappeared..

itz like u can really see the sun sinking..

we then drove down to the Malay Quarters.. coz i have heard abt the Cape Malays.. or Malay population who had lived here in Cape Town for abt a hundred years..

there are lots and lots of them here.. and u can easily find Halal restaurants in Cape Town..

another place where the Malays populate, though not really widely known to most, would be in Sri Lanka.. though i had never been there to check it out..

i just wanted to see the difference between the Cape Malays and my Malay friends here..



at a Malay store here... selling groceries and food.. these are Cape Malays, and they look like Malays with a tinge of African looks.. and they speak a different slang of Malay.. but some of the words seem similar.. just that u have to listen closely to notice that the words are Malay words..

i have heard that the culture is almost the same as what u get here.. but very kampung..



a Malay makcik..



the group with Soraya and Adnan, our driver for the day..

and Adnan is a pure Malay.. though he dont speak that much of the Malay language.. mostly English and Afrikaan.. which is a South African dialect, derived from the Dutch language..

ok.. thatz it abt South Africa..

and here are some pics from my previous flights..

I was in Paris last week, then headed to Manila, before doing Johannesburg and Cape Town..



Paris.. Again..

Paris is just Paris.. didnt do much.. hangout with the guys most of the time.. me, my Leading Razali, the IFS Lenny, the Chief Daniel and a pilot, Siva..

so just took one of the days to walk around after a meal with the crew in a nearby restaurant.. which cost us EU35 bucks EACH.

thatz like $75 per person for a LUNCH meal!

i'd rather have my $3.50 Nasi Ayam Goreng.

but of course.. therez a nice Vietnamese restaurant nearby which sells cheap and good food..

cheap at EU10 per meal on average..

thatz only $22 for a plate of fried rice..

ermz..

but itz really cheap, according to European standards..



after the meal, just walked ard Champs Elysees.. for the dunno-how-manyth-times..



at the Peugeot showroom again.. i love this place coz they keep on changing their concept cars on display..

this is a three-wheeler racing car..



at the Renault showroom.. a REAL Renault Formula-1 car.



and gosh.. look at how compact the engine is..

ok.. thatz it for Paris this time.. and i didnt take much pics of Manila coz the time was too short.. and i shall not post it up coz itz not really that interesting for a picture.. coz we checked in late and depart early.. so didnt really have the time to go out that nite.. i was too tired anyway...

My Princess is back in Melbourne now.. i miss her now, as much as i miss the 4 boys.. my 4 nephews.. but I'm sure my friends are missing her more.. i'll be seeing them in a few days time in Melbourne though..

and this is one of the last pics of her in Singapore that i got.. taken when i followed her for a jamming session with her band..