Monday, October 27, 2008

Makan

Sekarang musim makan-makan (walaupun harga makanan naik melambung, tapi makan tetap makan).

Mula-mula sessi tahunan Silent Hours. Langsung tak silent lah. Kehadiran kurang berbanding tahun-tahun lepas atas alasan berikut:

"Sorry la brader keter aku rosak la" - Mttop
(sebelum tu elok2 je pi office masa weekend ada kerja lah, itu lah, tiba2 keter rosak)

"Sorry brader aku ingat nak naik motor tiba2 hujan pulak" - Buncit
(tapi sebab Buncit yg cakap ni aku percaya la, batak punya pasal Buncit sanggup meredah lautan api)

"Sorry brader mak sedara aku sakit la" - La'ba
(he he yang ni aku rasa authentic kot)

"Sorry brader aku kat Italy la" - Syam
(rekod kehadiran baik, so kira authentic la ni)

.... dan macam-macam sorry brader yg lain.

Tapi champion batak tetap di tangan Haji Botchap - yang datang all the way from Johor; siap dengan 20+ bungkus mee bandung khas dari Muar. Semuanya habis ditapau! Malangnya attire Hj Botchap - baju melayu (selepas dikincing oleh Idzam yang kononnya WAJIB pakai baju raya) - tidak memungkinkan Hj Botchap menyembunyikan karipap or ayam goreng berempah dalam poketnya.

Oleh kerana kami semua malas memasak, maka kita pun tempahlah food dengan caterer. Sampai2 je (lepas caterer dah balik), baru realise nasinya mentah! Letih KNO and Radin tanak balik nasi mentah....

Right after that, Badut & Red, Idzam and me sped off to KK for annual dinner anak2 itik. Ha ha tak pasal2 kitorang jadi VIP malam tu. Badut bagi speech, sebab if yours truly bagi speech tak makan la budak2 tu. Tapi Badut pun boleh tahan jugak membebelnya, tak kurang 15 minit kitorang dok dengar lecture pasal "commitment" ha ha.


Dalam diam2 pulak Badut pi sambung lecture (more like maki hamun) dengan anak2 itik Form 4. Marah Stadium Bukit Jalil tak habis lagi ha ha. Dalam keter 10 kali lebih Badut dok ulang dia puas hati boleh maki.


Red pun puas hati boleh main2 dengan anak itik kesayangan dia :-p

Masa Silent Hours, kitorang managed to pau sampai RM300+ tapi tarak cukup ha ha. Tunggu lah SMS dari kitorang, masing2 dah ada KPI berapa banyak nak kena collect.

Saturday, October 11, 2008

Allahyarham Shahrol Nizam Yusoff: Part III

It was very surreal to be back in Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) one week after Raya, staying at the same hotel and almost the same room. As I entered the hotel room, it really reminded me of the late Shahrol Nizam Yusoff (Class of 93).

Almost one year ago, I received the news of his untimely death when I was in HCMC, almost one week after Raya too.

During last year’s Raya, I sent a lot of SMS to the people from MCKK who were close to me, especially when I felt we had drifted apart. I sent one such SMS to one of Shahrol’s batchmate from Class of 93:

“Oit XXXXX i know we went thru rough patches lately. 4 whatever it was worth I always think how u r masa raya2 ni n I nvr 4 once 4get what u hv done 4 me n d kids. Went thru some old pix of d db8ers when it was a lot happier – n I thot I owe u dis sms”

Unfortunately, for whatever reasons (mostly taking him for granted all along because you always thought he would be around for you forever) I didn’t even reply Shahrol’s raya SMS last year.

The next SMS I received from his handphone was when I was in HCMC:

“Raf, shahrol dah tak ada. Dia meninggal pkl 6 pg”
7:38 22-Oct-07


There was a series of SMS as it began to dawn that the unthinkable had happened:

“Ko buat joke ke apa? Oit joke jgn la joke mcm ni.”

“Aku dpt sms ni frm shahrol no. Aku call tp x dpt. Cn u check - Raf, shahrol dah tak ada. Dia meninggal pkl 6 pg”

“I feel that I ll never know how to feel ur feeling coz I m not in ur shoes. But, be strong his soul will be remained in a better place up there”

“Abg XXX jgn seedy sgt.. Walaupon sy x knl allahyarham, tp sy phm perasaan kehilangan sorang tmn tok slamenya.. We are still being given a chance 2 breath on diz earth, so we’ve 2 use it wisely.. We just can pray 4 his goodness there.. Alfatihah”

“B storng abg XXXX. I know it must b very hard on u to lose abg shahrol. All I can say is hav faith in God’s judgment. Allah syg kat dia.. ada hikmah 4 all of us behind dis. insyaAllah..”

“I noe dat abg shahrol n abg ben r very special to u, which is why it must be so hard 4 u. jz hang in dere abg XXXXX..”

“Time passes by, raf, and may soon overtake us. But the love is constant and only goes stronger. Even when I am gone, I will watch over you as full of pride at you as I have always been.”

“Was going thru my intray. Just saw the raya kad from shahrol to me and nasu..”

A death of a loved one, should change us as a person. Shahrol’s passing changed me a lot – the way I look at life, the ambitions I used to have, the urgency on things I did not think were urgent before and many others.

I am sure that each time someone we love leaves us forever, we would make many promises to honour him/her. I too had made many promises to myself – some I managed to keep, some I couldn’t (or was too lazy and got carried away).

I managed to wear the MCKK tie more oftenly after his death (because that was his present to me to compel me to wear since I was initially not keen on MCKK tie), but I haven’t even started compiling all his videos and photos which I wanted to give to his little children, so that they know what a wonderful human being their father was in his life when they grow up.

I reactivated some contacts from the previous life as an activist as how he would have wished (he was whining all the time that I chose to walk away from what I was meant to do in life), yet he would have frowned if he had known that I have had plans to walk away from some other things (yet again).

But such is life – it’s a mixture of stories and baggage that we carry with us. The older we are, the more baggage we have. Yet the baggage can sometimes be a blessing in disguise – as it will always remind us of the place we have been and the people we were.

So, as much as Hari Raya most probably will continue to remind me of all the promises to Shahrol that I have not kept – at least that “baggage” will ensure I will never forget him.

Good luck Shahrol, I hope other people remember you as much as I do. We pray that you will be blessed all the time with His bounties, for the kindness you had extended throughout your life.

Allahyarham Shahrol Nizam Yusoff passed away on 22 October 2007 at the age of 31. He left behind a widow, 3 girls and a boy who was born 2 weeks after he passed away. He was a librarian, a debater, used to play basketball in his junior years, was in Dorm 19 West Wing and a Sulaiman House debater in his junior and senior years. Received a scholarship from PETRONAS to do A-Level at Hurstpierpoint College, UK before reading Accountancy at Lancaster University.

He was very active in MCOBA as one of Ballgreave Ballers and served in CCD Committee. He continued to coach MCKK’s debaters until his untimely death.

Sunday, October 05, 2008

Biar Puteh Tulang Jangan Puteh Mata

Mighty Ducks is going into high gear again after a break of a few months.

When we started out, KNO abused his presence on the blogging world and self-declared that the target is Perak Champ in 2010. Perak Champ because HE thought we were not that bad and it was achievable (assuming we were in the same league with Anderson and Clifford ha ha), 2010 because we never planned to do this for long ha ha.

Almost 2 years later, I now seize the initiative to declare that not in this world and the world after that we can become Perak Champ in 2010! Not when we don't even have a Form 1 hockey team in spite this being end of the year already.

But rain or shine, the show must go on (and it has been raining a lot lately ha ha). I guess after a while it is no longer about the targets, more about the kids and the people you meet along the way. So the next show is Mighty Ducks Cup (MCKK's annual close tournament held in Stadium Astroturf Manjung - why Manjung? Read last year's write up), then the annual BBQ with the boys (which we hope we shall crown the new "most handsome", the new "paling selebet" etc among hockey players), then the USM International Hockey tournament (don't even think about the results ha ha). All this in preparation for next year's season, starting with the MSSD's tournament, National SBP Cup and finally in June/July Premier Cup (plus the annual friendlies with RMC and PFS).

And we need money. Lots of money.

We will be going around asking for money from the batch members (don't even think of running away) - when you come to the batch's open house in 2 weeks' time I will give RM2 to your kid, but I expect at least RM50 in return for the kids in KK (ha ha betul2 Yahudi Bapak2 Itik ni).

For a start, Awie has generously prepared this promo video.

PS:

Aku berdosa besar dengan Epit, lihat komen di Foyer, excerpt-nya (excerpt apa semua lift bulat2 di sini) seperti di bawah.

kah kah kah awie...mula2 masa aku tngok video - my impression was:

"ni epit buat, patut corny semacam"

into one minute and aku still ckp - sngt lah corny.

Lepas tu aku tengok:

"eyhhh awie yg buat, ni rakan kongsi kartun aku"

So tibe2 je perception aku berubah:

SUNGGUH BERKUALITI KLIP INI, SO AKAN JADI KLIP RASMI MIGHTY DUCKS MINTAK DUIT.

ps: The "Biar PUTEH tulang" kat belakang is
good