adryazad.com
my thoughts, my creations, and what not….

okay.. it was a thursday night. I WAS SUPPOSED to go for Futsal in out of KYSEPAKS session (spelled wrongly on purpose.. kyspeaks… kysepaks.. get it?) but then again.. it was the lovely Serene’s birthday yesterday plus we’ve been talking about karaoke for a long long time but it just never happened. so off we went…

the fee was about 38 ringgit per head inclusive of the buffet dinner. but i must say that i was very very very very disappointed with the food available. it’s not like i’m some awesome food connoisseur or something, in fact it doesn’t take much to please m palate, but the food was seriously not up to expectations. the lamb was inedible, because it taste too damn lamb-y, and the quales were horrifying. it was utterly tasteless!!..

didn’t get to get much pictures taken because i DO NOT HAVE a brilliantly designed phone with an awesome camera. but steve took a few pics.. here they are..

the vincent and the wei kee striking out some really outdated pose

check out the dood’s facial expression. in malay we call that JIWANG

adry azad sitting on the floor, cause i didn’t want to block people from seeing the screen

birthday girl Serene, don’t worry you’re not an auntie yet… and auntie gary..

steve and I hiding out in the toilet. Ok.. this picture looks a little odd.. why are two guys in the toilet? i hear you think.. but because a few of us can’t stand the smell of cigarette smoke, the smokers had to hide out in the loo to sneak a quick puff and fulfill the nicotine addiction

Anyway, we started at about 7pm and a few of us stayed back until midnight. i remember walking to the car feeling talking in a really low voice, because, well.. i didn’t really have much voice left.. heh

cheers guys for the great nite. and once again happy birthday serene.

i’m not known to churn out entries after entries after entries, in fact, looking back i don’t think i post that regularly anyway. but until recent, i feel that i’ve had too much on my plate to clear… with my new found schedule which i find hard to keep to, more often then not i find myself too lethargic to squeeze a post or two at the end of the day. work has been really good lately, been busy doing some drawings and stuff for submission, and after work its either badminton, or badminton or futsal or maybe hit the gym a little. with all these activities, i can’t believe that i still fall asleep at only 4am EVERYDAY. and eventually, i wake up regretting that i slept at 4am and promise myself i’ll sleep earlier tonight. but that never happens. heh.. wow such discipline dree.. bravo.

on a separate note, i was at the lobby of my office the other day. and the lobby where i work at is manned by an indian chap who’s probably in his 50’s and another dude from Nepal. i’d guess that he’s in his 20s or so. I was downstairs for a smoke by the handrails and there the dude from nepal was standing beside me.

so, how’s things ? i asked

ok laa.. everyday people come park here, they say 5 minutes, but they park here few hours. then one car go, another one come. *in a thick indian-y accent

*think dree… think what else to talk to him about… damn you suck at small talk*

sooo… back hom in nepal you got how many brother and sister? that was the best thing i could figure out to ask

ooh, i have 1 younger brother.. ( he goes on saying something about 2 years old or something like that)

wah.. 2 years old… what is he doing there la?

he’s in the indian army.. my father also indian army last time.. 

(muka malu la.. sebab dia cakap dua tahun lagi muda tapi kepala biul aku ni dok pikir yang adik dia umur dua tahun la pulak kan?)

oh then how come you never join the army also? why come here work as a security guard? i asked again

i went for the training and go for exams. i passed everything, shooting, marching, the physical. but then, when i go the medical check up, the doctor say my health very good, but i cannot join the army because of my face. (points as his fairly visible scare which was probably from a fire or something). the doctor say, because of my scare, maybe i cannot work in cold place, because very easily affected. nepal dood said

i see.. hey.. i’ve got to go back up to the 10th floor…see you later ya 

thankfully my cigarette finished by then, because i didn’t know what to say to him.

the conversation definitely spurred some thoughts. at first i began to wonder how much a soldier makes in nepal, then compare it to how much he’s probably making here working as a security guard. if he was in the army, at least he’d be home with his family, but due to the slightly disfigured face, he’s here.. in malaysia. probably earning meagre pay trying to make ends meet and everyday after work, he goes back to a room shared with 6 other people. and the next day the whole routine repeats itself.

i guess its a little true.. when my dad used to tell me that we can’t have everything, instead we make do with what we have. he told me that when i realised i wasn’t going to be able to do my degree in the UK due to the shortage of funds. i was sad, broken hearted, and bitter. i begged MARA, who turned me away, because apparently they don’t send ART students overseas for degrees. i wanted to take a bank loan, but it was a little too much to put the house as a collateral.. JUST FOR ME.. so i didn’t go. did my degree locally instead. got a ptptn loan to finance it. and looking back now, i guess it was a blessing in disguise. i would have never met the people whom have put much colour in my life, but most of all, if i did take a loan to head to the UK. i would be slaving just to pay back the loan ammount. haha..

so its true when people say ‘if life throws you lemons, you make lemonade’. but you know what.. i’d rather life throw me apples.. then i’de make the apple pie i used to make.. and give it to all you guys that matter.

apologies to those whom i’ve wronged lately. you know who you are. 

nothing really out of the ordinary happened this week. today started off late as i only woke up at around 4pm after a hard night out with my colleagues. had some ‘breakfast’ and headed to One Utama to get my oakleys replaced. people often ask me why i only wear oakleys.. and my answer is always the same. they make good sunglasses and whats even better? the service of course. i bought myself a pair of oakleys after losing the M-Frame pro’s during the Chamang Waterfalls excursion. but when i bought my new Oakleys monster dog, i kinda forgot to ask for polarised lenses. so i called up the store i got it from and asked if there was anyway around this, besides purchasing just a new pair of polarised lenses which would have set me back about RM408.. JUST FOR THE LENSES..  anyway the store said they’ll enquire for me and get back to me in 2 days.

the day after that, they called me up and told me that they’ll get me a new pair with the lenses and all i had to do was pay the difference which added up to RM150. all in all, i think that pretty much justifies the whole reason why i only choose to buy oakleys instead of shelling out rm200 a different brand and get no after sales service later on.

On another note, my mate Arvind will be leaving for Kuantan in a few hours, he’s been posted at a hospital there or something. we definitely went through some good times together. from high school, playing in the same hockey team, playing pool and so on and so forth. really hope that he does well over there.. but then again i don’t think i have to worry much, after all he is a doctor.. $$$ rich… hahaha

sometime interesting popped up during our conversation earlier on.. another mate of mine mentioned that he has got a friend with a indian father, and a chinese mother.. but he was classified as MALAY.. what the fuck!? we were all shocked and later on he went on to tell us that both his parents are of the muslim faith. but what the hell??? how can a person have a chinese mother and an indian father but be called malay? i guess this is another case whereby, religion and race are intertwined. heh.. weird… but then again.. since he’s malay on paper, i suppose he gets the whole bumiputra status and stuff.. lol

as the title says, this shall be the first installment of our trip to bangkok. i don’t think i took any FANTASTIC shots, frankly because half the time i didn’t know what i was shooting at nor did i know why i was taking a picture. so the bottom line is i think i have a lot of pointless photographs. I wish i had a longer reach lens, perhaps then i could take more obscure pictures without disturbing the moment. i didn’t want to take frontal pictures of people at temples as i feared that it might make them feel uncomfortable while speaking to ‘god’.

i particularly like the way the light fell on her

cowboy lost in the midst of chatuchak weekend market’s madness

view of a riversider at a temple

golden gateway

a hawker riding his bike

a monk with his phone

child divers, diving for creatures to sell

amulet fanaticism

my first tuk tuk ride

ky tryign to march

-__-

rows of gold

casualties of war

solace?

stark contrast

feminine warior statue?

please do check Ky and Terenceg’s sites to see their view on the trip.

i wrote once how i was in ikea and i took out my wallet and wanted to scan my card to open the door to the smoking room. something really similar happened today. perhaps it was the exhaustion from the bangkok trip, perhaps it was the lack of sleep because i stayed up to watch the liverpool / arsenal match. i don’t know.

i was at my table in the office today, when i had the sudden urge to take a piss. so off to the loo i went. I stood outside the toilet door, and pressed the switch, but i found myself standing at the door waiting for the sound of a beep. Took me a while to realize that i DIDN’T HAVE TO PRESS THE DOOR RELEASE BUTTON to go in the toilet…

i laughed at my stupidity and walked in to relieve myself.

anyway, vacation is over and its back to some serious work. gotta get my head into it or else i’ll fall behind. i’ve yet to find the time to finish going through the photographs from the bangkok trip. i’m not even half done in fact. but they shall come. sooner or later

i’m back from the land of smiles. nope i didn’t really have the time to go through all the pictures i took as of now. but i’m going to put up a post on one of the few memorable moments we had in bangkok.

as previously said, KY , Terenceg and I went to bangkok from the 2nd of April to the 7th of April. We were huddled up in a hotel room quite some distance from town. One night, i guess terence just got bored and said..

“Hey, have you seen how Kim Jung Il’s (i think thats the name he said lahhh) wife’s headgear is made? Come i show you…”

you need a face towel

divide into three and fold to overlap

fold the ends in

repeat 2 - 3 times

repeat the same at the other end. Part the middle and wear it on your head. Its perfect for some camwhoring shots

Here’s KY in his ever fashionable headgear

Ky again

terenceg and the ky

urh… thats me.. lol

who would have thought that 3 guys could do such things.. i know i was shocked. DAMN.. now i’m embarrassed that you’ve seen these pictures.

as of 2220hrs tuesday wednesday night, adryazad shall leave Malaysia and head to Bangkok for a long awaited holiday. A well needed break from the computer, internet and people i suppose. I don’t know what to expect whilst there, but since i’ll be traveling with ky and terenceg, i would say that i can expect some good times. hehe. anyway i still got tonnes of things to prepare. Hope my next post will bare the fruits of our adventure. till then, see you on the 9th of april!

it actually occurred quite some time ago, but hey lemme write it anyway. sometimes, we all are so accustomed to doing something that we automatically do it subconsciously. just like how drivers know when to shift gears, or how you automatically pull out your keys when standing in front of the door. this is what actually happened to me.

i was at the curve one day to attend a birthday party at laundry bar. i was hungry so decided to meet KY at ikea’s food court. so i rushed there got my sweedish meatballs (yeahm i totally love ‘em) and gobbled them down. stomach full and contented to kingdom comes, i got up and walked to the smoking area (a small glass walled cubicle). opened the door and started puffing away.

my thoughts wandered while having my nicotine fix, looked around admiring the passer-by’s. before i knew it, i was done with the cigarette. i got up walked towards the door, put my hand in my rear pocket, pulled out my wallet and ’sorta’ swipped my wallet against the wall and pulled the door open.

that’s when my face turned red and i almost broke out laughing…

guess what happened….??

I actually thought i was in the office, and i pulled my wallet to swipe it against the reader to unlock the door.

hehe

i wonder if anyone else has ever had this kind of situation…

dum di dum…

 perhaps i’m just to critical when it comes to things like this. perhaps, its because i was trained to be critical when it comes to things like these, i find this picture weird. i’m not even that meticulous when it comes to my work. but like we malaysians say :

“Kuman diseberang laut nampak, gajah di depan mata tidak pula”

 ”you notice a germ across the sea, but an elephant dead ahead of you, you don’t.”

 ok i must admit once more that my powers of translation is horrible. but i hope you get my point.

Anyway there i was at the top most level of my office building have my lovely nicotine fix (i shall not reveal where i work for the sake of self-preservation), when i glanced down and set my gaze upon the newly constructed office block right opposite. My head tilted to the right, then the left. and i finally decided that what i saw didn’t justify itself. Like i mentioned above, it could just be my overly-critical mind that made me come to these conclusions, for all i know, it’s acceptable and a norm to have it made that way.

so, what i’m actually ranting about is the placement of the handicapped parking lot. I shall try my very best to record the chain of thoughts that ran through my mind at that moment, i’ll do it in point form so it’ll be easily understood.

• POINT NUMBER ONE : the handicapped parking spot, is built (layed) on a gradient. and by gradient, i mean the lot is not level whereby one end is actually higher then the other end of the lot. So how would this help the user with things? would it make it more difficult for a handicapped person to get in and out of the vehicle? Perhaps the developer could argue that the sloping parking lot will assist the user in exiting the vehicle, as gravity would assist him pulling him out of the car. but i highly doubt it.
• POINT NUMBER TWO : there is a drain right beside the lot. i don’t know if they noticed this, but after so many years of living in malaysia, we have always been driving right hand drive vehicles. WHICH MEANS THE DRIVER IS SITTING ON THE RIGHT SIDE. with the drain in that location, this would hinder the driver to disembark and get on the pavement smoothly. okay, so they can cover the drain up… but what will they cover it up with? steel drain grating made from welded rebar? or prefabricated concrete slabs? i don’t think a wheel chair can move with ease on such surfaces.

Okay, thats just two points that my mind can come up with at the moment. and regarding point number two, perhaps the parking lot was intended to be reversed in to. which i really feel is the best way to park a car. but even if the parking lot was to be used in such a manor, i feel that ample space should be provided, as wheelchair widths should be taken in consideration.

perhaps one day, given a chance, i can dwell in studying about this subject. my heart cringes every time i see something like this. just a couple of weeks ago, i witness a lady pushing her wheel chair bound mother on the streets of kl, going against traffic, because the sidewalks just wasn’t very accessible.  handicapped commuters are not a new occurrence to this country, and even though many voices has tried to be heard, there are things that have yet to be changed.

i’ll sign off here, with my heart going out to those whom has to face such situations everyday.

good night.

chinese new year just isn’t the same anymore. no firecrackers, no chances to a lion dance at the shoplots in taiping, no more relatives that flock back to my grandmothers home to have a brilliantly cooked meal. finally after years of not going back to taiping, my parents decided that we should head back there. We left on new years eve so that we could have the reunion dinner. as usual, i slept through the whole journey. I’m a nervous passenger you see, so i’d normally just choose to fall asleep. woke up a couple of times in the car, and heard my mom saying, ‘wah, don’t know why poh poh keep calling and ask us where we are’

i guess she was just happy that someone’s going back to visit her. after all, she’s living in that home all alone.

arrived in taiping at about 1500hrs. drove past an empty plot of land where my moms’ old house used to be. ahh… i have some memories of that place. it was a wooden home, with one of those arches in front. i wish i had a picture. maybe i do. i’m not sure. i remember once, i was running around in that old house, and i accidentally kicked a chinese alter kinda thing on the floor. my mom asked me to go say sorry. and i was confused. because i didn’t know to whom i should apologize. hehe.

anyway that home is gone now, land sold off, and i guess thats part of our history lost too. arrived at my grandma’s ‘newer’ home, and she greeted us with all smiles. a few minutes later, my sister and her husband arrived with the two kids.

That’s my nephew aqip. and thats my dad’s legs :/

another shot of aqip.

anyway, we sat a little, chit chat a little. my grandma remarked on how we’ve grown (in Cantonese), yes she speaks to use in cantonese, sometimes in malay (i must say that this is the first time that i actually heard her speak quite a lot of malay) and one more thing i’m a little proud of is that, she almost got my name right!!! she called me adlee!! A few years back i remember hearing her say “Uglee, eat cikin” whilst having our dinner. hehe i think adlee sounds WAY WAY WAY better then Uglee.

anyway we had our reunion dinner out, because she can’t stand too long to cook, her legs hurt.

here’s a shot of my mom and her mom, and my dad at the corner.

and here’s how my grandma looked when she was younger (it was from pictures hanging on the wall, and at least i think thats my grandma’s pic la)

so the food came,we all yelled “por por sek fannnnnn!!” we had to yell it cause she’s a little hard of hearing now… and we whacked some awesome steamed siakap, choytam with salted fish, some deep fried sotong and i forgot what else. and after dinner we headed back and i slept al the way again. after all… i was sick..

Next morning, we woke up early, and headed to the temple where my grandad’s urn is located at. i was wondering why the urn was at a thai budhist temple tho. my ‘kau gong’ led the way as we didn’t know where it was at. (yes i kno, normally people don’t visit the urns (or whatever u call those sites one the first day, but we don’t come back often so we just went and see.. after all for hari raya, my family visits my grandad’s grave in batu gajah on the first day of raya. so i guess bending the rules is okay rite)

i wanted to take a picture of each and every one of the urns (my grandad’s first wife, the first wife’s mother, my grandad, her my uncle *i think*). i asked my mom if it was okay. she in turn asked my ‘kau gong’.. he in turn said

“you can take pictures.. but i don’t know if they (pointing at the urns) would like to have their picture taken”

so i took a more obscure picture instead.

i don’t know what other people would say about seeing a malay family (read : part malay) going to a temple to visit the dead, but i don’t see whats wrong in doing so. after all, you’re doing this out of respect. Belief is belief, but respect shouldn’t be held back by the difference of colour nor religion. at least that’s how i think.

after that morning, we had lunch, then cabuted to kampar to visit my uncle and headed home.

chinese new year isn’t what it used to be. but i guess i kinda have to accept it for what it is now.