Angels and Demons

I was thinking of blogging something based on the title above last night but ended up reading the e-book instead ... something I wanted to do for a very long time. I watched the movies but some Netizens commented that reading the book was soooooo much better as the storyline was simplied in the movie. I have problems with imagining something so technical or involved symbolism ... therefore watching the movie then reading the book seems to be a better option.

Anyway, angels and demons seem to be warring within me these past few days. I really don't like it that people are taking their frustration on the economy, the politics, or even the weather on government servants. Hey ...who do you think we are .. punching bags ... or God? They are angry at other agencies ... they thought that the other agencies are the same. At one point I raised my voice at one very prominent hotelier for not wanting to sponsor his project after his sinical reply that "all the money went to RM 1.8 million FB account". I told him that I am protecting taxpayers money from people like you. Personal project not taking into consideration public interest ... fund it yourself lah! 

I am sure many of my colleagues are doing the same thing ... but often been potrayed differently by some opportunists. God knows how many files, records, mesyuarat pagi, minutes of meetings, minit ceraian everytime there are events ... just so that I could explain to internal audit and of course a control measure just in case, there is indeed some little Napoleon in my office. But most important of all ... I hope my successor got some guidance on how to handle those event in the future.

But even all these "bona fide" gestures might invite criticism from certain people ... "You are not going GREEN. You cut down so many trees and should go paperless". And so ... I had to let out the demon inside of me to counter them ... "what concerns you more now ... is it the tree or how we spend your tax money". By the way ... I drive a Green car, do you?

1Malaysia Parks and Gardens Carnival and 1Malaysia Harvest Festival 2011

Actually I was really really busy these past few days as I have little time left to prepare for the 1Malaysia Parks and Gardens Carnival at Penang Botanic Gardens on 11th and 12th June 2011. But this is still OK compared to 1Malaysia Green and Clean launching at Penang state level last year. I had to organise it within 7 days ... after "mentertawakan" Nel (Sabah Director) who first got the "heart attacking news". Suddenly I found myself the one to launch the event in Penang whereas Nel had to appease the community leaders for the change of plans. It is really not easy to be State Directors.

Anyway, I took up any jobs "thrown" to me with an open mind and heart. As a civil servant, I have a secure job and steady income whereas there are many people out there struggling to make end meets so events such as these are their chances to get jobs or make some income... This statement may be a bit subjective as many head of departments, whether in private or public sectors, still practice the "10% culture".

However, I have to be honest that for this event, I had to organise it with "tears in my heart" as I will again miss the Gawai celebration. For the Chinese just visualise yourself had to work during Chinese New Year and the Malay, missing the Eid-Mubarak .... last year I couldn't celebrate Gawai because I just moved to Penang and running out of cash because of delay in travelling claim payment.

And to be honest, I also didn't intend to blog tonight. However after listening to Sayonara Hari Gawai (on Jethro Henry Adam recommendation) ... especially to Jenny Tan's vibrato ... suddenly I find myself started singing and speaking in Iban hahahahah (when Hokkien took me like forever!) and into the festive mood! I called everyone in Kuching ... my mom, my sisters, my godmother, my GINAAAAAA (when we started calling each other "sibuk") and everyone seems to be cooking Itik Pak Lor (5 Spice Duck). Seriously ... I miss home! I miss Gina the most.

So here is my Gawai song for year 2011 .. And don't forget to read my last year's entry for Gawai as well. Just to help you to get into the Gawai mood. Happy Gawai Dayak everyone ... harap ka bala nuan, gerai nyamai lantang senang ... and yon bara madis, dingan ... doh kambot ku mun ngan man Pak Lor hehehe

Just Do It ...

Hahaha ... tiba-tiba terasa nak mengekspresikan perasaan yang terbuku di dada dalam Bahasa Melayu (or Anglo-Melayu). Lama ya tidak menghasilkan sebarang nukilan.. Terasa janggal pulak nak menulis dalam 100% Bahasa Inggeris ... "feeling" dia lain sikit. Well, memang pun 2-3 minggu ni penulis seems to be under the weather ... biasalah kan "climate change" makin teruk sekarang ni.

Sepi tidak bererti "senyap" yer tuan-tuan, puan-puan, Dato'-Dato', Datin-Datin ... Terlalu banyak yang berlaku sepanjang penyepian ini. Kalau rajin menjenguk Facebook ... tau lah apa yang berlaku. Hehehe

Sepanjang bulan April, penulis sebenarnya sangat-sangat tertekan dengan penganjuran Malaysia Books of Records untuk Persembahan Boria Teramai. Untuk makluman, tekanannya bukan sebab ia adalah penyertaan pertama tetapi disebabkan penulis dan team penulis kena pecahkan rekod sebelum ini iaitu 2020 peserta. And then semasa meeting, pengelola bersama Festival Boria, Jabatan Kebudayaan dan Keseniaan Negara dah awal-awal bagi tau peruntukan tak mencukupi dan set minimum peserta 2500. Mula-mula penulis agak tidak berpuas hati juga sebab peruntukan Festival pun datang dari Kementerian penulis tetapi entah mengapa, jauh di sudut hati penulis ... ada seakan suatu suara yang mengatakan .... "Just Do It" (ok .... perasaan ini tidak ditaja oleh Nike yer)

Dengan hati yang masih ragu dan sedikit tidak berpuas hati, penulis teruskan jugak dengan penganjuran acara tersebut. In fact, if i know it is not going to be easy ... awal-awal lagi I surrender. Dengan keadaan politik di Pulau Pinang yang sedikit berbaur perkauman, dan di kalangan yang sama kaum pulak berbaur keagamaan (dan wang)... penulis teruskan jugak sebab someone must show what it means to be 1Malaysia. As expected, a certain group of people that supposed to support us didn't even care actually (after we supported their event). But we get support from groups of people that I least expected ... local medias ... tak kira lah mainstream, tabloid, commercial, free circulation .... they seemed lebih excited and wonder .... could it work? Heard this idea was mooted many years ago.

Secara jujurnya, in between, penulis juga menghadapi tekanan dari pegawai-pegawai atasan. Mesyuarat, laporan, taklimat dan macam-macam karenah yang buat penulis menaikkan suara dalam satu mesyuarat sebab with the type of pressure that we are in penulis would prefer seniors yang accommodating rather than commanding.

Tetapi suara ini masih bermain lagi di fikiran penulis ... "Stop arguing! Just do it"

Memang sangat tertekan mengenangkan hari-hari menjelang Festival Boria. Syukur, rakan-rakan sepasukan di pejabat pada tahun ini memang sangat bagus. Sengaja penulis tak bagi semua terlibat dalam perancangan acara untuk membolehkan beberapa pegawai menjalani kursus dengan tenang, menghadiri mesyuarat dan melaksanakan tugas-tugas hakiki. Timbalan penulis juga seorang yang sangat berpengalaman dan "wise".

Sesungguhnya penulis tidak menyangka Festival Boria 1Malaysia mendapat sambutan yang di luar dugaan. Kalau pasukan penulis tidak stop pendaftaran pada jam 8.30 malam. Maunya mencecah 4000 penyertaan malam tu. Kami setuju rekod 2811 peserta. Penulis dengan pengarah Jabatan Kebudayaan dan Kesenian menangis kegembiraan malam tu. Betul ... we were soooooooo happy and relief.

Kalau dibandingkan dengan semua acara yang penulis pernah anjurkan sebelum ini, acara ini kecil saja tetapi kepuasan dan tekanannya memang luar biasa. Bila penulis dapat tahu "kesengsaraan" yang Pengarah Jabatan Kebudayaan dan Kesenian kena lalui selama 7 hari di lokasi acara ... baru lah penulis sedar mengapa penulis perlu main peranan supaya acara Malaysia Book of Records yang di bawah jagaan penulis perlu berjaya.

It was the heart of the whole festival.

Semalam masa di Perlis, penulis dapat tahu kemeriahan acara tu dah jadi topik hangat "other" Kementerian berbanding Kementerian penulis sendiri hehehehe sampai Menteri the "other" Ministry bangkit dalam post-cab (biar betul ... )

Anyway, this month pun pressure teruk jugak ... anyway ... Just Do It!

Festival Boria 1Malaysia Malaysia Book of Records Attempt!

Please support us in our effort to break the Largest Boria Performance record on 30 April 2011, 9.00 pm at Kampung Seronok, Bayan Baru, Penang. So here are the dance steps for you to practise! See you there!!!

Soul Cleansing First Quarter 2011

In my last entry I mentioned about life is getting tougher lately and that it took all my strength and energy to face all the obstacles. So I decided to loosen it a bit for my own sake ... with rigorous "soul cleansing" rituals that took place in the heart of KL. Yes, life is also too precious to be wasted.

Don't be deceived the sweet smiles ... the eye-bags couldn't hide the stressful life that we had.

My soul cleansing rituals started with a "coffee fix " at Pavillion's Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf with the girls. It had been quite a while since our last get together and every one was having hard time in the office (and top management). I had to be honest to them that even my current Ministry had loads of management problems that stem from people with "bad interest". My only consolation is that ... I learned more related new things.

This was just the warming up session .. Roy pun belum start tarik suara Amy Search!

Then we proceeded to next ritual - karaoke session at Redbox. Singing our heart out loud. We were joined by Datin Zaitun and Norzah's wonderful family plus Syu's hubby, Shafril. I had a blast ... shouting  at the top of my lung to Whitney Houston's I Had Nothing ... hehehe! I could feel all the stress and burden were flushed out from my body. We also had a singer in the house ... Lin who sang I Will Survive so beautifully! Norzah and Datin sang exactly like the Golden couple ... P.Ramlee and Saloma. Nostalgic ...

Datin Zaitun and Norzah ... the Golden couple.

For the following rituals I had to wait for Emel, who flew all the way from Kuching, Sarawak. Yea ... it has also been quite a while Emel and I had outings like this. The last time we met was during Chinese New Year but was mostly centred on my family events. By the way, Emel had nothing else in her mind the moment she stepped on the Kuala Lumpur soil except for Thiam Sang's Hokkien Mee and Lala (click for story). Luckily she had the courtesy to tapau my Kuching Kolo Mee as I was so hungry driving 4 hours straight from Penang.

The entrance to the cinema.

I think we were the only kids that didn't require supervision that day .. hehehe

The next following rituals were mainly revolved around our favourite activities; eating, massage and watching movie. We decided to station ourselves at Midvalley and the Gardens as there are many shops and outlets to choose from. We had sushi at Sushi Zanmai (click for story), followed by trying out the expensive but exclusive GSC Signature watching the movie HOP (we couldn't find better movie to watch), then a 90-minute Thai aromatherapy massage session at Thai Odyssey, followed later by a Thailicious meal at Flying Chillies.

Banyak angin dalam badan ... terpaksa tahan kentut during massage.

Emel with that "what to order look".

The next day ... Emel and myself decided to rediscover Bukit Bintang and getting reacquainted with the LRT and Monorail system. But before that we went to KESAS Highway via Bukit Jalil for a "simple" lunch of Nasi Ayam Kampung. Gosh ... I really wanted more but need to save some space for Lot 10 Hutong and The Loaf hehehe. By the way, we found a great place to chill out at Level 2 Lot 10 and found out that it belongs to Jackie Chan!!! In fact, one Caucasian guy bought a cup of coffee and dozed off there.

Mie relaxing with a cuppa.

We also went to the Pavillion and stopped by my favourite bakery ... The Loaf to get freshly baked buns or whatever that interest me. However, it seemed that they had so many customers that they ran out of so many items. Luckily, they had my Cream Pan ... and I bought two even though I was still full from Lot 10 Hutong eating spree.

I always love their Langkawi outlet.

My cream pan ... hey who ate my bun???

I really enjoyed the rigorous soul cleansing and hope to do it more often. I really recommend it to every one with acute "heart" and "head" problem. Felt relax and lighter (literally) when I returned to Penang the following day. Now ... it's time for all the belly and intestine cleansing hehehe