K E M B A R A.......I L M U

New Lease of Life

2011-03-15T12:53:00.000+08:00

OK I just want to share a happy news with you all. After years of dreaming, watching, surfing, contemplating, imagining, disappointment, observing, envying....I finally got one for myself. Only god knows how grateful and happy I am right now.

I have been writing about it secretly all this while. But I think the time has come for me to share the adventure of up and down with "it" with you friends and strangers of my blog.

It's called Ringo !

Check out THIS link.

1 malaysia or 1% ?

Four wheels move the body. Two wheels move the soul.

January Thought

2011-01-29T02:06:00.002+08:00

It is common for peoples to plan their new year resolution when the month of January comes. In fact the most popular one is the resolution to go to the gym. I can proudly say that I no longer need to declare the gym resolution as I have been constantly going to the gym nowadays. So it is my lifestyle already babehhh...!

But I seriously think I should work my ass out to fulfill these resolutions before another January for the sake of my mental sanity:

1) Buy a harley and ride it

2) Save tons of money

UAE Dirham

Someday it could be me on that bike

So let's work on it and make it happen !

Just Do It !

My gym coach

Exploring Urdun

2010-12-31T15:40:00.003+08:00

Ruins of Jerash

I had a blast year end celebration with family in December 2010 ! This time we complete the year with a short trip to the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. Unlike Dubai or UAE, Jordan (or Urdun in Arabic) is a very old country sitting on a crossroads of various ancient civilisation. It has been inhabited by men for more than 1000 years since the stone age world. There were a lot of traces of civilisation, religions and empires here from Roman Byzantine, Umayyad, Abassid, Fatimid, Ottoman, British until the current dynasty of Bani Hashim (decendant of the Prophet Muhammad's tribe).

We flew to Amman on December 12th 2010 (which was a National Day of UAE) vide FlyDubai airline which is a budget airline similar to Air Asia. For traveling and accommodation we used the service of a travel agency in Amman called Jordan Direct Tour. They quoted me USD665 per person for 5 days including different 3 stars hotels, a car and a dedicated driver. It was worth the price and I really recommend Jordan Direct Tour for a family or group tour in Jordan. Absolutely hassle free. But take note that the quote price may vary according to season, hotel and places to visit.

Legionnaires of Jerash

Here is my travel itinerary prepared by JD Tour:

Itinerary
Day 1 (Thursday, 02/12/2010), Arrival Amman
Upon arrival, a member of our staff will meet you at Queen Alia International Airport for assistance with customs
and immigration procedures.

Day 2 (Friday, 03/12/2010), Amman/ Madaba/ Mount Nebo/ Dead Sea/ Amman
Breakfast. Morning departure to visit the Christian town of Madaba, "The City of Mosaics" and take a detour to
Mount Nebo, the site of
endearing monastery. Depart to the Dead Sea, the lowest point on the surface of the earth for a swim in its warm salty waters.
Free time at leisure including Entrance fees and lunch at the Dead Sea Spa Hotel. Then transfer back to Amman. Overnight at the hotel.

Day 3 (Saturday, 04/12/2010), Amman/ Petra visit
Breakfast. Transfer via the desert highway for a full day visit of Petra. The visit of the ancient Nabatean Capital starts on horseback, followed
by a walk through the Siq, a long narrow fissure between two overhanging cliffs. The tour then proceeds to gradually unfold the mysteries of
the Red Rose City. Overnight at the hotel in Petra.

Day 4 (Sunday, 05/12/2010), Petra/ Wadi Rum/ Amman
Breakfast. Transfer south to the enchanting desert of Wadi Rum, Jordan's largest desert and one of the most spectacular desert landscapes in the
world. Jeep Tour inside the Wadi and transfer back to Amman. Overnight at the hotel.

Day 5 (Monday, 06/12/2010), Amman/ Jerash/ Departure
Breakfast. Proceed north to visit the Graeco-Roman city of Jerash; one of the most preserved in the Middle East. Transfer back to Amman.
Transfer to QAIA assistance with formalities and departure.

Sight-seeing in Wadi Rum

We did exactly what was planned in the itinerary. In fact when I first saw the itinerary suggested by JD Tour I got kiasu and tried to squeeze in a few other places not mentioned in the itinerary like Village of Ajloun, Kerak (for Crusader's Castle) and Beida (an extension of Petra). However they explained that if I include in those places, it will affect the timing to visit the more important places suggested by them. I thought they should know better than me and so finally I just agreed with the itinerary. It turned out to be a very well organised trip ! So for a trip of 5 days in Jordan, try the itinerary above.

My wife and I had our different favourite places during the trip. I enjoyed the sightseeing trip in Petra which reminded me of the Indiana Jones movie and several other Hollywood movies shot at Petra, the latest one being the Transformer 2. My wife likes her relaxing dip in Dead Sea where we float so easily as if our bones were made of styrofoam. We covered our faces and bodies with free Dead Sea mud for about 3 hours and we almost missed our lunch..

The weather in December was a lot colder than Dubai. It was around 15 - 17 degrees celcius and very dry. We were lucky(unlucky?) that we didnt get any rain during our trip. I remember the coldest weather was during our one night stay in Petra. It was cold and windy, I could hear my bones were rattling ! Luckily I heeded to my friend's advice to bring gloves and warm jacket.

On the third day I met my colleague El-Ghul who coincidentally was back in Jordan for the weekend. He came picked me up from the hotel and we drove around town using his dad's antique car. He came with his sister who has long migrated to Australia. So both myself and El-Ghul's sister became tourists in Amman that night. We hung out at a chic bar in a trendy street near the First Circle in Amman. El Ghul told me that the First Circle is the first roundabout in Amman and was where all the development of modern day Amman started. There were a lot of roundabouts (called circles by locals) and hills in Amman. The whole city is built on hill tops. But to me the most memorable circle was the Fourth Circle because that was where El-Ghul's suddenly stop whilst ascending a hill on the way back to my hotel. The car ran out of gas ! But we were quickly rescued by El-Ghul's friend within half an hour and the city trip was completed with a bit of fun memory.

So that was the short of it..enjoy the pictures.

Amman Colloseum

The Treasury Building, Petra

..a view from the Sig (like the shot in Indiana Jones movie scene)

An optimist stays up until midnight to see the new year in.

A pessimist stays up to make sure the old year leaves..

Bill Vaughan

(American columnist, 1915 - 1977)

This Time I 'Unskirted' Her

2010-11-01T22:08:00.003+08:00

The 4 of us..

Last weekend I officially started my winter activities by joining the first desert offroad trip. Normally I join my usual group doing laid back slow paced drive to a picnic spot in a desert but this time it was different. And I found out about this during the trip itself...:-)

The 'super fine' sand dunes

For this trip I invited 3 other friends to join me. After some effortless suggestion, Jumper, Shajil and Helmey agreed to come with me riding as passengers in my Nitro. We were on the way to meet the rest of the group behind a petrol station when the adventure began. I was the first person who got stuck in the sand and it was only on the way to the meeting point ! My car climbed its way out of the delicate sands in less than 10 minutes after some push by my friends.

Nevertheless I was not discouraged by that moment though I felt embarrassed a bit. During the briefing I was introduced by the organiser to a group of marshalls who will accompany us. These men are seasoned offroaders from the Lion Desert Club. I checked out their vehicles and it was obvious that these guys were hardcore. So I made a mental note that this trip was going to be different from my previous ones.

The route was from Kalba to Al Awir desert which was approximately 20 kilometres one way. There were 4 vehicles driven by newbies like me and 4 vehicles by the marshalls. We were taught on how to handle a climb on steep sand dunes of more than 3 metres high and descent from it. I learned about the steering technique to avoid rolling from a hill as well as various methods to rescue a car from a sinking situation. It was a trip full of tips and information. The most interesting part was that we learned all the techniques hands-on and on real situations. All of the newbies got stuck several times that day !

oucchhh !

But the most tragedic one was my Nitro when I first hit my front bumper a bit rough against the sand during a descent and hit it again whilst maneuvering a slope. My front bumper detached from its mount after the second hit. I was not really surprised when it happened but it was not a pleasant feeling to watch the first injury I did to my Nitro.

Hmmm..

Naked Nitro !

I must say it was the best offroad trip so far. I got the thrill and adventure that I was looking for...with a price. Fortunately the price I paid was only AED350 at a small workshop in Umm Ramool the day after. Now my Nitro is back to its usual shape and ready to hit the sand again.

I hope I got lucky the next time.

Leave sooner, drive slower, live longer.

It's the SONS Season Again !

2010-10-12T21:47:00.007+08:00

Jax and his Dyna

To anyone who watches FX Network series called Sons of Anarchy, I know what you do every Tuesday since September. I have been following this drama since the past Season 1 (2008) and Season 2 (2009). Now the Sons are back for Season 3 in 2010 ! Although I did not subscribe to FX Network channel but thanks to Isohunt torrent website uploaders, I get to download all aired episodes of Season 3 every week.

This drama is all about the life and struggle of the members of a bikers' club called Sons of Anarchy with the authorities, its own members and other villains. The Sons of Anarchy is also nicknamed SAMCRO (Sons of Anarchy Motorcycle Club of Redwood Original). The SAMCRO's mother chapter is set in a US town called Charming in the State of California (I found out that this place does not exist in California). The stories centered around a few characters in SAMCRO namely Jackson "Jax" Teller (Vice President), Clarence "Clay" Morrow (President), Gemma Teller Morrow (Prez's Old Lady), Tara Knowles (VP's Old Lady), Alex "Tig" Trager (Sergeant at Arms), Robert "Bobby" Munson (Secretary), Filib "Chibs" Telford, Harry "Opie" Winston, Carlos "Juice" Ortiz, Piermont "Piney" Winston (Opie's dad), Chief Wayne Unser (local Sheriff Head), Happy, Jimmy O (IRA dealer), Agent June Stahl (ATF Agent) and other interesting characters.

Similar to other episode drama, you got hooked if you follow every episode week by week. So I don't want to summarise this drama here. It will be too long. You can read the synopsis anywhere in the internet. Just google it.

L-R: Clay, Jax and Kozik

What is interesting about this drama is, all human elements showed in this drama is played by bad-ass biker characters and I am looking and understanding their actions and decisions from their points of view.

I have all the episodes in Season 1 and Season 2 and now collecting episodes in Season 3. I just downloaded Episode 5 last night. Today is Tuesday, so enjoy the Episode 6, Season 3 guys. SAMCRO rules !!

"When you talk to your boss, you let him know if I find out he's been lying about my son, I'm gonna track him down. I'm gonna beat the truth out of him. And then I'm gonna let Chibs cut him from ear to ear.."

Jax
Episode 4, Season 3

Old Wish List

2010-10-09T05:42:00.004+08:00

When I was in a mountaineering club during university years there were two things I wanted the most, Karrimor Condor 80 litres and Teva sandal. These two branded items are the best gears a mountaineer could have. But I just could dream about it since these items were way out of my student's wallet. Nevertheless I still enjoyed my climbing years despite not having the best gears. Really, it was not about the gears but the spirit and passion about mountains and climbing.

Anyway the other day I was shopping around for a squash racquet and I found a corner full of Teva sandals and shoes. I got excited and immediately tried 2-3 pairs of this legendary sandals. Of course the price was still expensive. But I can afford it now. At the end I decided not to buy it. It guess I had passed it. Maybe if I climb again, I will buy it.

"The old dreams were good dreams; they didn't work out but I'm glad I had them."
Robert James Waller

(The Bridges of Madison County)

SsqqQuashhh....

2010-10-05T19:34:00.004+08:00

Recently my friend Jamizal from Kuala Lumpur moved in to Dubai as a legal counsel for one of the biggest petroleum company in Malaysia. He and I graduated from the same alma mater. We also used to live in a same building during our university years. After graduation we met occasionally for teh-tarik sessions around Kuala Lumpur and he met me when he first came to Dubai for a meeting last year. So I am very happy that he is now a new resident of Dubai as he adds to my expanding list of teh-tarik and 'happening' friends !

Last weekend I helped Jamizal moving in to his new apartment in Southridge area, Downtown Dubai. The place is a posh expatriate area and is also very close to Dubai Mall and the tallest building in the world, the Burj Khalifa. He got himself a fully furnished one-bedroom apartment with a very large patio. But the most interesting finding is, the apartment building has two squash courts.

I have always wanted to learn how to play squash. So after all the boring paperworks with DEWA and Du, we went to Dubai Mall and bought our squash racquet and balls. We played squash straightaway that night for 3 sets. It was an easy game to play and very effective exercise for cardio too.

This month is the last month of summer and that means the beginning of winter outdoor activities for peoples here. I will be playing volleyball every Friday starting next week and not to forget, a game of squash for every other days !

Squash - that's not exercise, it's flagellation.

Noel Coward
English Playwriter

Ramadan and Eid 2010

2010-09-20T15:41:00.003+08:00

Ramadan

This year I spent my month-long fasting in Ramadan without my wife and son in Dubai. The feeling was definitely different compare to Ramadan 2009 when they were here.

However I am happy to sum up that this year's Ramadan I managed to attend many congregational Tarawih prayers and read a few chapters of Al Quran. I will also remember this year's Ramadan for the good times I spent with my buddy Jumper and our new friend Radwan from France. Radwan is now back in Marseille and I hope to see him again To avoid loneliness, I also joined Iftar majlis held by Malaysian Association every Friday where I got to eat delicious home-cooked food, Malaysian styles !

Jumper and Radwan prepared these French style Iftar

AL Qasba scene after my my lonely Iftar. The tall building at the horizon is my crib.

The one thing I could not manage to do is to have Iftar together with other Muslims at mosques which is a popular practice in the UAE. I always want to do this, not because of the free food but for the humble feeling of togetherness and sharing with peoples from all walks of life. I think such feeling can remind me of the purpose and simplicity of life.

Eid

I took 2 weeks vacation to spend Ramadan and Eid with families in Malaysia. The first week my wife, son and I flew to Oya, Sarawak. I am grateful to find out that my niece is recovering fast from her brain surgery and has grown up to be a lovely girl. This year I also received a new nephew in Sarawak. I enjoyed observing how my son Adrin learned to interact with his many cousins, uncles and aunts. I hope he gained a good experience from it.

Eid will not start in Malaysia without this guy's cameo

A reunion

At home in KL, I am vary satisfied with the decorations and new curtains bought by my wife. I am lucky that my wife shares the same design philosophy when it comes to our home interior design. We like to live in a resort and that is the feeling I enjoyed everytime I reached my KL home. We have a lot of decorating ideas to be done to the apartment, slowly one by one. Apart from meeting my parents and relatives, I could not do many of the things in my coming home list. It was 2 weeks full of quality activities.

I got back to Dubai yesterday and started my first day at work. The busy time in the office provide a bit of help in diverting my mind from post holiday depression, which is good.

My mind now is focusing on the next happy occasion in November where my wife and son will come visit me in Dubai. Besides that I am also saving up some dirhams to buy an object of my dream.

I have a dream...

To want to be what one can be is purpose in life

Cynthia Ozick
Novelist

oF jOuRneY aNd DesTInation

2010-07-13T22:18:00.006+08:00

It is my second summer now in Dubai. My life is coming back to normal after the Great Depression in June. I enjoyed following my favourite teams in World Cup and going to Fitness First gym for work out. Although my favourite teams (France, Ghana, Holland) could not reach their intended destinations but the activities spent at 6.00pm and 10.30pm (Dubai time) almost every day and week end were worth its while. But it was quite tiring to watch the 10.30 pm match. By the time I watch the final match between Holland and Spain, I was half awake and sometime was in a dreamland !

In Dubai, peoples watch the matches either at homes, cafes, sport bars or public halls. There is no mamak restaurants here. The cost of subscribing to Al Jazeera channel is quite expensive so I decided to watch it with my friend in a cafe. Really..I think football match is meant to be watched with a crowd. It certainly was more fun than watching it alone at home.

Talking about my latest craze i.e Fitness First gym, so far I managed to be consistent in working out in the gym at least 3 times a week. Although to be honest I still struggle to finish my reps and lift heavier weight, I have started to like the after effect of every work out session. Like for example today, I joined my colleague Scott for his weekly RPM class during the office lunch hour at the Fitness First in DIFC. It was a group exercise on cycling machine and fuhhh...it really sweat my ass out. I thought I was going to feel tired and sleepy after lunch hour, but to my surprise I felt alert and refresh throughout the day. I think I can do this lunch exercise everyday.

Result First !

Alright...last Friday I drove out to Muscat again. It was an impromptu planning whilst doing a lunch on Thursday afternoon. The trip was planned by Jumper together with his 'couch surfer' friends - Radwan from France and Martin from Germany. It was another good road trip to Muscat. What made it interesting was because I had a very good company in super cool Jumper, Radwan and Martin. These guys are great travel buddies. To make it more interesting we even had a host in Muscat. Yousef was not only very friendly but also a generous 'couch surfing' host who offered us to crash on his couch and finished his large bowl of Tunisian style spaghetti. It was also my first encounter with a Tunisian bloke. Yeah, you probably is asking what do I mean by 'couch surfing'. I will get to its story later but if you can't wait, check THIS out.

We made a move to Muscat around 10.00 am on Friday morning. I voluntered to be the first driver since I decided to drive my Nitro and Jumper just finished his night shift at 8.00 am. By 2.00 pm we reached our first destination - Bin Ateeq Restaurant. This time we were lucky because there was a special menu on offer. The dish was called Shiwa', another traditional Khaleeji food. It was basically a generous serving of basmati rice topped with chunks of mutton. What made it so special because it was cooked under the sand. True bedouin style ! We had no problem finishing everything in less than 30 minutes. Everybody ate like a hurricane.

After lunch we headed to Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque. We met Yousef at the mosque parking lot. He was so friendly that at first I thought he was a long time friend of Radwan. I performed my Asar jama' with Zuhr prayer and Maghrib before we drive to Yousef's apartment in Al Ghubra area, near the Grand Mosque.

At night we went to several hanging out places around Muscat City. There was not many activities to do and things to see. In one of the places we drove through, there was this stretch of street dubbed a Love Street by the locals. It was named so because there are a lot peoples who park their cars in the dark and make out with each other in the back seat. Funny thing was, the place is not only popular with lovers but also gay lovers ! And to sum up the story , I was told that Sultan Qaboos himself is gay and this has been an open secret in Oman...woohooo that's crazy stuff ! At last we decided to have kebab and shisha at a cafe near a seaside. Everybody was exhausted but we stayed at the cafe for almost 3 hours anyway.

The next day we woke up very late. I could not sleep at all, thanks to Jumper's vuvuzela..haha. But I was not feeling groggy or tired. As a driver, I planned to bring the group for a sight seeing in Ruwi area. After a very frustrating lunch (too much vinegar in my supposedly chinese noodle which turned up like a chicken salad !), off we go to Ruwi.

After a few photo shots we stopped by at Oman Dive Centre in Ruwi. To be honest nobody was planning to go in, but when the security guard asked us if we want to get in, everybody said Yes ! I like this kind of spontaneous adventure. Oman Dive Centre, as its name suggests is a diving centre in Muscat. But besides the diving equipments, they provide decent club-like facilities such as swimming pool, cafe, kayaks and benches. So for the next 3 hours we enjoyed swimming in the pool and open water, sun-bathing, boob-watching and ass-watching...hihi.

On our back to Dubai, we stopped by Yousef''s house. The intention was to say good-bye but Yousef was very generous to cook us meal, a tunisian style spaghetti ! It rectified my tongue which has been polluted with the sour noodle I had for lunch. After wiping up a big bowl of spaghetti whilst watching one of Yousef's favourite Hindi movie - Dostana, we finally said goodbye and drove out to Dubai.

tourists

Jumper and me

Road trip gang L-R: Jumper, Matin, Radwan and me

Shiwa' Lahm

Beach boys

Yousef the magnificent

I was very exhausted by the time I reached home. But the trip was one of the best spontaneous journey I had in Dubai. It was a road trip, a memorable one.

Road trip stands for hope - that somewhere, anywhere is better than here..

Post Holiday Symptoms

2010-06-22T09:50:00.005+08:00

Foldable roofs of Prophet's Mosque. Early morning shot using my iPhone.

I just got back from 2 weeks vacation. Alhamdulillah I managed to perform Umrah and visit to holy cities of Mecca and Medina together with my wife, mother in law and 2 sisters in law. I spent 8 days for the Umrah trip and 6 days in Kuala Lumpur. It was one of the best home retreats I had since becoming an expatriate. I think the last 6 days in KL were the first holidays where I didnt have any specific plan to do except hanging out with my wife and son at home. It was so relaxing and fulfilling. My wife was happier because she got to spend some quality time with her mother and sisters after they came back from Umrah.

As an after effect, now I am back in Dubai and suffer a post holiday depression (sounds like a big word when I write it). In addition I am having a viral high fever in a heat of Dubai's summer. My body temperature rose to 39.5 degrees celcius yesterday which was nearly the overall temperature of Dubai's summer at 41 degrees celcius. As a result I had many bad dreams and hallucinations whilst at sleep because of the high body temperature. It has been a while since I felt really sick like this.

Today I felt a lot better and am trying to focus my mind to positive channels. I cannot let myself down with depression of missing my family so much, as it will not benefit my well being and purposes here. Yesterday I took a sick leave, and hooked on Skype video for almost 3 hours with my wife and son including a cooking session in my kitchen. It was fun and made me feel that my wife and son were at home with me.

Recently I had subscribed to Fitness First gym membership. All this while I could avoid going to a paid gym because I had good gym facilities at my apartment. But the gymnasium in my current department has been closed until further notice which is quite frustrating. I have gained a lot of weight to the point that I could feel it changes the way I move around. For example my feet really hurt when I walked in bare foot whilst performing tawaf and sae'i during umrah. I cannot sit long without feeling a muscle cramp on my abdomen. So I must loose some weight as soon as possible before it leads to another serious problem.

It is the month of June again. I guess it is natural for me to have this feeling of reviewing all my decisions and having a dilemma in the middle of a year. When I looked back at this blog archive in the past June, I was amazed to see how a year passes so quickly nowadays. It was in June 2008 when I had my last oversea gig trip with my band Dewangga Sakti. They are now still actively performing for events in KL without me. It was also in June 2009 when I had my first jam session with musician friends in Dubai. Some of them now have gone back to Malaysia for good. So I dont have any jamming activity anymore. And here I am in June 2010, having a high fever and post holiday depression at home alone.

Well that is a cycle of life. I am sure there will be more good progress to come if I focus on it.

We are the Best

2010-05-30T23:20:00.003+08:00

Today I started my normal work back in the office. For the past 2 months I have been seconded as a legal counsel in a bank's legal department. It was really a good exposure for me in term of experience, knowledge and networking. But I must admit the workloads were heavy having to attend legal matters from all departments and branches of the bank during office hours and burn the midnight oil back in my office to finish some office files. I literally worked double shifts for the past 2 months.

The year 2010 is a recovery year for UAE, Dubai and the world generally. In legal world, recovery will mean boom time for litigation, arbitration and restructuring works. The law firm I work with have been receiving quite a fair share of the market's works and we have enough to keep everybody busy, most of the time up to our eye balls. It is a normal sight in my office nowadays to see lawyers still typing, reviewing and talking with clients up to 11 pm. Everybody is working around the clock to meet deadlines and billing target.

Recently we had a moment to stop our hourly race for a while, raise our coke tin and pat each other's back when my law firm was voted the Best Law Firm 2010 in Arab Investment Summit 2010. It was a joyous occasion for us to see that amidst the demand and pressure from our clients, they do take some effort to appreciate and recognise our contribution to their businesses and struggles.

As a mark of celebration, my big boss bought a giant cake and held a simple cake cutting ceremony in the office. I could not attend because of my secondment in the bank. But I cant help to feel proud to be part of the best law firm recognised among the Middle East business circles.

Big boss with a big cake

I pray that this will mean more stability and prosperity not only to us but to our clients and friends. Because rich clients want to do more things and can pay good fees...:-)

"The good lawyer is not the man who has an eye to every side and angle of contingency and qualifies all his qualifications, but who throws himself on your part so heartily that he can get you out of a scrape"

Ralph Waldo Emerson
American poet
(1803 - 1882)

Life Should Be Extraordinary

2010-05-12T04:33:00.003+08:00

If I can name only one thing that can make me unhappy, it will be "routine". I dont like routine, I hate it. In all my life I have been trying to avoid it. Which sometimes made me quite an inconsistent person. For example I can never dine in a same restaurant everyday, no matter how tasty the food is. I have to force myself to focus on doing the same set of movement in the morning when rushing for work. Most of the time I will end up doing things which I should not do and arrive late to the office.

Recently I have been blessed with an opportunity to attend and work at a client's office, instead of mine. I was delighted to have a change of route to work every morning and meeting new peoples. I walked to different restaurants everyday for lunch. I learned new office jokes and made new ones with new colleagues. Everyday has been an exciting new day for me especially when I passed by my office in Sheikh Zayed Road heading to the client's office. But now after 4 weeks, I have started to miss my desk, computer and usual colleagues. I think the dust have settled down on me in the client's office and everything has started to feel like routine.

However despite my habit of change, one thing which I constantly and steadfastly feel and do is to miss my wife and son at home. This year I plan to visit them every three months. My last visit was in March. I just bought a flight ticket to come home in early June. Instead of just coming home, I have been blessed with opportunity to arrange Umrah trip with my wife, mother in law and 2 sisters in law. This will be my second Umrah trip InshaAllah...I hope my journey to Mecca will bring good change to me as a person and Muslim.

Until then..

"There is nothing wrong with change, if it is in the right direction"

Winston Churchill

New Feeling

2010-03-23T14:42:00.003+08:00

The month of March has been a month of "Hijra" for me. I moved to a new apartment in Dubai and also moved to my own apartment in Setapak, Kuala Lumpur. I took a 1 week holiday to sort out final renovation works for my new apartment. Although things did not really go as smooth as I planned (contractors delayed works, variation orders, broken lamps..etc) but eventually we managed to move in to No. 5-10, Apartment Madu Mas @ Setapak after waiting for 2 and a half years. This time I decided to hire a professional mover company so that I don't have to lift a thing. Their service worth every single cents of their fee (RM1350). They wrapped and boxed up everything in my house including the thrash in the dust bin.

Wrapped up

Later my wife and I learned that we have been keeping a lot of unnecessary things in our house simply because we thought we would use and appreciate it again in a future. But the truth is - and this is an important lesson I learned from this moving exercise - the moment we put or store a thing away, it means we no longer need it and its use has expired in our life forever. Unless we intend to build our own museum, there is no reason we should keep it and let it rot in our store room.

My Interior designer

For example I have been keeping all my university notes and files as I thought I would refer to it from time to time. But ever since I left classrooms I have never opened the old files because there is nothing in it which I cannot get from textbook in libraries everywhere. In fact I also realised that my class notes were not really reliable as most of the time it was written in a sleepy mode (wahaha).

Second example, my old clothes. I always thought that I can keep my old clothes for my son(s) later on or whoever wants it. But in reality keeping clothes in damped boxes are just creating a heaven for cockroaches and mice. It will take more than 20 years for my son to be in the same size as my clothes and by that time, the fabrics would have damaged. And unless I give it away immediately, nobody want to wear clothes kept in boxes for 2-3 years.

So after we moved in, I cleared out all the boxes and keep only things which we still use from time to time. It turned out that I have thrown away almost 1/3 of my stuffs.

I am enjoying a new feeling now. A feeling of a house owner. Although I live in Dubai, but my mind always wonders about my own house in KL. I am really grateful to my wife who took care most of the design and renovation works. I am really satisfied with her design and choice of colours. It really is a place which I can call home.

We managed to throw a mini house warming party (makan2 with doa) with my parents, siblings and a few friends. Next time we plan to hold a bigger makan2 by the swimming pool in our building.

In a TV room

Living Hall

Mini Makan2

Until the next makan2...

Things do not change, we change.

Henry David Thoreau
(1817 - 1862)

New Routine

2010-03-01T14:46:00.014+08:00

It has been more than a week now since I moved in to my new apartment in Al Khan, Sharjah. My apartment is at the 45th floor. I enjoy the view of the Arabian/Persian Gulf and the Al Khan Corniche very much. In fact last Friday I spent the entire day at home which was a rarity in my life.

I was very anxious in the beginning about the traffic condition during the rush hours to work. But I discovered later that the traffic was not really bad. I have experienced worse than it. The only thing changed is that I no longer have a privilege of waking up at 8pm and drive to the office in 15 minutes. Now I can call myself a morning person. I wake up either at 5.00 or 6.00 am and drive out either at 7.00 or 7.30 am. So far I have never left my house later than 8.00 am. It is a good lifestyle to be a morning person. My parents always taught me about the benefits of being the early bird. One of the things that I look forward in my morning routine is to enjoy a cup of coffee/tea and sandwich at a petrol station in Al Awir Road (Refer to map: between E44 to E66) whilst enjoying the morning breeze of the desert and view of skycrapers in Shaikh Zayed Road. I love doing the breakfast on top of the hood of my Dodge. The breakfast in Al Awir Road is sort of a victory breakfast for beating through the morning traffic of the day. It motivates me to wake up and hit the road early in order to do just that.

My daily route.

But it is not always sunshine out there. Yesterday was the worse traffic I have ever had in this country. The UAE received a short but heavy downpour on Saturday's night and as a result a lot of roads in Dubai and Sharjah were inundated with water. One of the main causes for this is because there is no drainage system in UAE roads. Since UAE only received less than 6 cm of rain on average every year, the government has decided that spending millions for a drainage system is not worth it. Instead let give the motorists some worst traffic days every year for a change. So I spent 2 hours for my morning journey and another 4 hours on the way back. But after spending more than a year experiencing the Cheras - KL highway in the past, my mind and body quickly changed to 'zen' mode when I got stuck behind the wheel yesterday. Although I was exhausted but it did not alter my mood whatsoever. It was just a bad traffic day in a year...

The only thing that I regretted last night was I could not skype with my wife on the eve of her birthday 1 March 2010. God knows how much I miss her and Adrin especially on a special occasion such as her birthday. HAPPY BIRTHDAY Honey !! I look forward to see her in the middle of this month in Kuala Lumpur.

Before I call it a day, an incident happened when I arrived at my door step. When I wanted to open my door I realised that I left the only key to my apartment in my office ! Damn...what should I do !!? I just arrived home after 4 hours of driving and there was no way I want to drive back to the office just to get the key. So I called up the security guys to find out whether they keep a spare key. But they did not keep one. Luckily a security guy passed me a handphone number of a lock master who lives nearby my area. So I called up the lock master and he came with his tool bag and changed my door lock in less than 10 minutes. I was very grateful that he turned up as it was already 12.00 midnight.

The price of lock master service = AED175
The price of not checking my pocket before leaving my desk = stupid stupid stupid..

“The paradox of courage is that a man must be a little careless of his life even in order to keep it.”

G.K Chesterton
(1874-1936)
English writer

Hidden Jewel of Sharjah

2010-02-06T15:42:00.004+08:00

For the past one week I have been busy looking for a new apartment, as my rental in Al Warqaa 1 is coming to an end in the middle of March 2010. My mission this year is to move to a 2 bedroom apartment with rental in a range of AED50,000 to 70,000 a year.

The property market in Dubai and UAE in general has slowed down due to the credit and economic crisis. When I came to Dubai in 2008, the property market was in the biggest of its bubble. A studio in International City and Discovery Garden was for AED40,000 to 50,000. A 1 bedroom in Jumeira Lake Tower was for AED80,000 to AED160,000. A 2 bedroom in Jumeira Beach Residence was for AED200,000 to AED300,000. At that time I was even ready to rent just a bed space in Bur Dubai or Deira. Luckily my recruitment agent was kind enough to let me continue the rental of his studio by paying monthly installment. Not only the rental price was blown over, the accepted payment terms was for 1 or 2 instalments only. The landlords were really greedy at that time. And being a newbie to Dubai at that time, I simply did not have the cash money.

Coming 2009, the rental prices has come down tremendously between 30 - 40%. I was able to rent my current 1 bedroom apartment at AED62000 which was a reduced price from AED80,000. I have been living in a peaceful place called Al Warqaa 1 which is just a 20 minutes drive to my office with smooth flowing traffic at any time.

So for this year 2010 I checked the property market again for a 2 bedroom. As expected, the price is not only affordable but I have a privilege to choose for prime location and development, because for the past 1 year there have been a lot of new buildings completed all around Dubai that a tenant can choose from.

There are several prime locations in Dubai which are marked by its building quality, location and community. Some of the prime areas are Jumeira Beach Residence, Dubai Marina, Jumeira Lake Towers, Emirates Hills, Arabian Ranches, Discovery Gardens, The Gardens, Al Wasl, Mirdiff. These places are closer to the sea (except Mirdiff) and mainly populated by expatriates. My area Al Warqaa 1 is not a prime expatriate area but it is a peaceful Emirati villa residential area and very close to Dragon Mart, Uptown Mirdiff, Dubai Festival City and the upcoming Mirdiff City Centre. My only complaint about the place is its lack of landscape and undergoing construction. The latter is a general complaint by everybody who lives in Dubai !

After surveying rental market in Dubai, I found that I can get a 1 bedroom in the most prime area within my budget but not a 2 bedroom. So I expand my search to the neighbouring emirate of Sharjah.

Talking about Sharjah, my first impression about this city is, a driver's nightmare. My few excursions to Sharjah last year were not really happy experiences because of its traffic jam and crowd. Eventhough in Sharjah I could get a 1 bedroom apartment for AED30000 last year, I figured that my life would be miserable everyday to see its traffic condition. So most of the time I just avoided Sharjah and it remained as the least explored emirate in my travel log.

I stumbled upon rental advertisement in areas called Al Khan and Al Majaz in Sharjah. These places are the areas surrounding the natural corniches of Buhaira. It is a newly developed area in Sharjah. So last week I drove around the Buhaira Corniche to look for a 2 bedroom apartment. To my surprise, the area is quite exclusive and primary for its fantastic view of the Gulf Sea and of course, the Buhaira Corniche. There is a family entertainment place called Qanat Al Qasba which offers a big ferris wheel and outdoor F&B area along a man made canal. There are also plenty of shops and shopping mall surrounding the area. It is not over crowded with traffic and the population is mainly arab families from the Levant countries. A hidden jewel indeed !

What is more surprising, almost all the 2 bedroom apartments that I checked, offer a high rise view of the sea and corniche at a rental price between AED60,000 - AED70,000. To me this is a very good price at a premium location. There was one unit in the Palm Tower 1 building which I like very much. I think I am going to go for this one. The landlord even accepts payment by 4 installments.

Attached are the pictures of the building location and a video of a unit at 35th floor, Palm Tower 1. Feel free to say something.

All windows offer picturesque water view

To the extreme left is the famous Al Mamzar Park

The three corniches of Sharjah

Just 14.5 kilometres to my office

A house is good if it can make you smile every morning.

me

First Melody of 2010

2010-01-19T20:37:00.004+08:00

I was sitting in Old Town White Coffee kopitiam in KL LCCT waiting for my flight back to Abu Dhabi, when I received a message (sms) from Azli - "Ko sampai dxb what time? Gimme a buzz nanti. MTC suruh perform depan Najib on the 18th ni."

My face immediately beamed with a light of excitement. My UAE band (now we have decided to call it Ashabul Kahfi) was asked to perform in front of Malaysia's Prime Minister and his delegate in Abu Dhabi. I was very delighted to think that at least I have something to be busy about rather than suffering from my post holiday depression alone at home. When Azli sent another sms - "Ko interested nak main tak?", I frantically typed and sent "Yeah, I am in !" without any hesitation.

We had only 7 days before the big event. My UAE band members have not met and rehearsed together for more than 2 months. I have not been a good bass player for not brushing up my bass lines at home unless there is a jam session or a show to attend. So that means my finger memory of our usual songs was not really smooth and I need to practice very hard in a very short period of time.

When I arrived in Dubai, we agreed to jam on four consecutive days - Thursday, Friday and Saturday followed by a last full rehearsal on Sunday's night. The show was set on Monday's night (January 18, 2010). Because we were engaged by Malaysia Tourism Board, so we were given a privilege to use the Malaysia's Embassy in Abu Dhabi as our jamming venue.

It was really a tiring ordeal for me to commute between Dubai and Abu Dhabi (distances 160 kilometres), to practice everyday and to crash into someone's house when I should have a quiet week to wind down (and do laundry) after my hectic holiday in Kuala Lumpur.

But I must be lying if I tell you it was no fun at all. Because I indeed had another great time with my friends in the band. In fact I made a few new friends who are very talented musicians.

Rahimi and yours truly

Sahibulkahfi during soundcheck

On the day of the event, we were all ready to give our best. We had a list of 8 songs as follows:

1) Mustika - M Nasir
2) Getaran Jiwa - P Ramlee
3) Lagu Kita - Aizat
4) Sinaran - Sheila Majid
5) Ayat-ayat Cinta - Rossa
6) Widuri - Bob Tutopoli
7) Pupus - Dewa
8) Hati Emas - M Nasir

Azli the percussionist

Latif and Faniz, the singers

Taufiq the darbuka and toy master.
Also happens to be a creative videographer

Azlin the keyboardist

In the end we were only allowed to perform 4 songs because of the time constraint. I noticed PM Dato Sri Najib and his delegate were really tired with their round the clock tour and was hardly seen as really enjoying the event. But I was glad to see the PM made an effort to tap his fingers and moved his body to the beat of Sinaran and other songs. Well at least, some reaction.

Our show lasted for less than an hour. But the journey and preparation behind the scene was what really counts. It proves my believe that with music, peoples of different backgrounds can be friends and work together more easily. I find it interesting when our singer made her opening remarks during the show that - "We are not professional musicians but we are professionals here in UAE with 3 lawyers, 2 engineers, 1 architect and 1 financial analyst." That kind of summing up some of our diverse backgrounds but unity in music.

"Ah, music. A magic beyond all we do here"

J.K Rowling

Enter 2010

2010-01-17T22:27:00.003+08:00

If you noticed, my blog posts lately have no pictures in it like usual. The reason for that because my Olympus pocket camera's lens is jammed. So until I fix it or buy a new one, I don't have a picture to show to you. But already I am taking this as a strong excuse to look for a new camera. Only money could tell.

I just got back from 2 weeks holiday in Kuala Lumpur which turned out to be the most hectic holiday of the year 2009. Despite the busy schedule I managed to spend a quality weekend holiday in Langkawi Island together with my wife and son. The trip to Langkawi has been in my list of Cuti-Cuti Malaysia for quite sometime and I am relieved now that I can to strike it out a done deal. My wife was the one who insisted for the Langkawi trip as she had never been to Langkawi before. I first visited Langkawi back in 2002 by bicycle. Yes - I have traveled from Kuala Lumpur to Langkawi by bicycle. Although our stay in Langkawi was a short 3 days but we managed to ride the longest and steepest cable car in Asia and eat the most delicious and authentic laksa I have ever had.

The reason for my hectic holiday started when I received a set of keys to my new apartment - the one I mentioned in Life is an Improvement.

Then I met a contractor and the rest was like a spinning game of home improvement where a participant is given a budget and a task to renovate his house within that budget and specific timeline.

Except for the days I was in Langkawi, my life started with waking up before 7.am to send my wife to her school. Then I either have to run for breakfast (if my brother has not left for work) or stay at home until my son woke up and ready to be sent to his caretaker.

After that I drove around Klang Valley to look for lamps, airconditioner units, hob and hood, sink bowls, taps and many more. It sounds like a task which can be completed in one day but with the KL's notorious traffic, the abundance of designs and specifications, the quest for reasonable prices and the fact that I have to pick up my wife at 6.00 pm everyday, I hardly can buy many things in a day. In fact when I left KL for Dubai, there were a few items left which I could not find and buy. However I am a happy caveman with a new cave now. And I look forward to see how my apartment looks like after its renovation soon. Especially when I decided to let my wife choose and surprise me with her choice of colours for the apartment.

I still feel tired since I arrived from Malaysia last week. But this is due to another reason which I will tell in my next posting, hopefully with a few pictures.

"Success usually comes to those who are too busy to be looking for it."

Henry David Thoreau

Happy New Year 1431 Hijra

2009-12-17T14:11:00.002+08:00

The Dubai World's chronicle on the indebtedness of its subsidiary developer Nakheel was finally settled with Abu Dhabi's injection of USD10 billion to Dubai. This was expected by many. I personally have anticipated that there is no way Abu Dhabi will just let Dubai be torn apart by the creditors. Dubai is not a separate country. It is an emirate in the UAE. Between the 7 emirates in the union, Abu Dhabi is the richest and considered the big brother. Abu Dhabi gives budget annually to the other emirates. It has written and unwrtitten obligation to take care of its sibling emirates. That is the ties that bind them all together in the union. To let Dubai down would be an embarassment to Abu Dhabi and the union. But what interesting was the way Abu Dhabi and Dubai managed the announcement and all. Critics say that the waiting period had given enough time to tarnish Dubai's image in the market, and highlight the superiority of Abu Dhabi. Other people say the down time gave Dubai opportunity to buy back its shares in a stock market at a very cheap price. My friend in the Dubai Ruler's Court told me that Sheikh Mohamed prefered to downsize Dubai World rather than accepting a rescue fund from Abu Dhabi. But has Dubai got enough to survive without any rescue in a first place?

Again I dont think the rescue fund comes for free. There will be some consideration to be negotiated between Abu Dhabi and Dubai, business wise. We will see.

At the same time I am glad that Dubai managed to move on with the Nakheel's problem before the New Hijra Year. I hope Dubai will recover very fast and remain as one of the top cities in the world. The last thing I want to see is Dubai becomes a deserted city like the one depicted in the latest released for the Grand Theft Auto game.

I had a blast fun time with my parents and family for the past 2 weeks. It felt great to have spent 2 weeks with my parents at my age. The last time I stayed home with my parents for more than a week was about 15 years ago. Both my son and I really enjoyed our moment in the morning whenever we wake up, check out the living room and see my parents were already sitting on a couch and greet us together.

Let us pray "peace be upon Prophet Muhammad" and may the new Hijra Year 1431 brings more happiness, peace and prosperity to the world, as same as it did when the Prophet made the first Hijra.

To put the world right in order, we must first put the nation in order; to put the nation in order, we must first put the family in order; to put the family in order, we must first cultivate our personal life; we must first set our hearts right

Confucius

Go Picnic or Panic?

2009-12-01T19:58:00.003+08:00

For the past 5 days Dubai has once again made to headline news but for the wrong reasons. This time the world talked about the debt laden Dubai with total liabilities of up to $80 billion. The news was triggered when a government linked company announced its wishes to ask for at least 6 months delay for its bond's payment due to be paid in another 2 weeks. That request was believed to be the first for a series of defaults in other borrowings by that conglomerate. Being in the capital market industry I will not say that I am not excited at all about this news. In fact most of my times in the office lately were spent on reading and monitoring this story. Some peoples criticised on how it happened or laughed at the misfortune. To achieve fast tracked development like in Dubai involved a lot of money and risks. It has been a great 9 years for banks and investors in speculating and earning money out of Dubai's potentials. So now it is time to share some risks and bear losses. But the question with these capitalist banks and investors, are they willing to share the risks or incur losses at all?

Although the situation is serious for the future of Dubai in particular and UAE in general, Dubai need to experience this as a process towards a matured nation. My interest is to see how Dubai managed and solved this problem, what lessons have they learned and how can we improve the situations through laws and regulations.

Off course the hope of being saved by Abu Dhabi is always there, but Dubai is reminded that nothing comes as a free lunch. So we will see what will be the solutions soon.

Moving on to another interesting stories, Muslims in UAE are celebrating Eid al Adha since last 27 November and tomorrow will be the 38th UAE National Day. That means a long holiday to us yuppies. To celebrate these joyous occasions my wife, son, 2 brothers and parents came over to Dubai for 2 weeks holiday. My house is full with travelling bags, clothes and what more important, good laughters and foods. Despite the gloomy business news, peoples in Dubai continue to do what they are best at - work smart and party hard ! And that is business during these holidays. I have lined up some activities with cooperation from a few friends, like sight seeing, desert trip, beach and parks picnic and road trip to Oman. We will still discuss the grave going-ons in Dubai but over BBQ, shisha and home made cookings, out in the colder temperature of Dubai.

Adha Mubarak and enjoy your year end holiday, wherever you are.

Desert Offroad: Series 1 2009

2009-11-01T03:03:00.010+08:00

Yalla..yalla...yallaa I got an interesting story to tell here.

Remember that I just bought a new SUV in Honk...Honk..Vrromm..vroommm ? After about 2 weeks driving the Nitro I am quite happy with its handling in the city. I feel safer and superior on the road, and the ride is sure more comfortable than Toyota Yaris. But yesterday an opportunity came to test the Nitro off the tarmac road !!

I have been wanting to do offroad since I first saw Jeep cherokee in Malaysia. That was like more than 15 years ago. But buying and maintaining a four wheel car in Malaysia is not cheap. Hence all this while I could only dream about it.

Last week a friend invited me to join a group of Malaysians who planned a desert 4x4 excursion. It so happened that one of the organisers was my friend Farid Hussein, a Malaysian lawyer in Zaid Ibrahim & Co, Dubai. So without further ado I said yes to the invite and quickly packed my gears for the ride. Actually I didn't know what to bring except bottles of water, fruits and gas stove...hehe. Hey I was a newbie alright...

So on the day of event (Friday 30 Oct.) we gathered at Eppco petrol station, in front of Dragon Mart, sharp at 2.30pm. In the email only 7 cars signed up, but to our delight 10 cars turned up at the last minute, bravo! The cars were:

1) Hummer H3
2) Nissan Armada
3) Mitsubishi Pajero
4) Ssyangyong Rexton
5) Jeep Wrangler 2 doors
6) Jeep Wrangler 4 doors
7) Volvo XC60
8) Dodge Nitro (mine)
9) Toyota Land Cruiser
10) Honda CRV

After a briefing by our 'kapitan' we headed to Al Awir desert, which was apparently just 15 minutes from my house. We stopped briefly at the last groceries store to buy firewood. The shop charged us AED5 per log. My friends told me, in colder days, the price will go up to AED8 per log. Hhmm..nowadays even price of firewood fluctuates.

We passed through a small rural village before we arrive at the entry point of the desert route. Typical of my ignorance, I became the first car to get stuck in the sand. That was only after 5 minutes off the tarmac road. I was confused at first but quickly realised that I forgot to switch to 4wd mode. Haiyaaa bikin malu !

Ascending...well executed ! Good Nitro !

We charged into the desert area until we arrived at our first hilly area. This time we stopped again to deflate our tires. I was clueless on how to measure the deflation. Later I learned to use a deflator gauge to deflate the tires to a correct pressure. The ideal pressure is 15 - 20 psi. Next trip, I definitely will buy this gauge. The reason to deflate the tires was to get more tires surface touching the sand for better traction and to prevent the tires from sinking easily into the soft sand. Brilliant huh ..

Farid was giving me a tutorial on deflating tires

Anak bukit

When all tires were set, one by one, we revved up and ascended the first hill. This was when I started to feel proud of my Nitro, which managed to execute it very smoothly. The tip was just to accelerate without hesitation and never apply a sudden brake, as it will sink the car into sand. However we got delayed for about 1 hour when Volvo XC60 and Honda CRV got stuck in the sand several times. One thing I quickly realised about desert offroad, we could hardly rescue a car using a rope as most of the time, there was no hard surface area for the rescuer car to base on. When a car got stuck we have to push it up and rev up the engine until it gets out. The Honda CRV finally gave up as the driver felt his car was not suitable for the route. So I offered him and his family a lift in my car, as I was driving alone. But to save any embarrassment I reminded him that I was also a first timer.

Tires stuck in the sand

Men giving direction to a struggling Honda CRV

The next 1 and a half hours ride was exciting and fun. I could not follow the Jeep Wrangler 2 doors bashing the silky smooth dunes though, as I got 2 toddlers in my car. But at least I got to explore the Nitro's capability in ascending and descending the steep hills. Nitro definitely shares the similar specification and capabilities of Jeep and Hummer. I felt worth every fils of my purchase price for the Nitro. Had I not been carrying passengers in my car, I would have talked and praised the Nitro everytime we passed a hill.

Is that car going into a hole?

Nitro was taking a breath

Finally we arrived at our camp side. After a maghrib prayer, we lit up our firewood and set up barbecue pits. The rest of the events were nothing but talking, grilling, eating, laughing, drinking and eating again. The ladies were busy with their stories and news, the kids were singing and running around the silky dunes and the men were occupied with their fire and barbecue. It was another great chance for me to know more Malaysians in Dubai. Most of them have been around for more than 3 years. One guy has been in Dubai for 13 years. Where was I 13 years ago?

Praying in a desert reminded me the life of prophet

The "kapitan"'s Hummer H3

Goodbye sun

The ride back was short using a shortcut to the nearest tarmac road. When we got on the tarmac road, we stopped again to inflate our tires. This time we use air compressor which was charged from the car's battery. This another gadget I should buy next time. After saying goodbye and exchanging telephone numbers, everybody departed to their own destinations.

Air compressor inflating a tire

Jeep Wrangler 2 doors..the champ that day

It was my first introduction to a desert offroad excursion. I am excited to do it again, now that I have the right vehicle to do it. One of the must-go destinations which they told me, was a place called Fossil Rock. It was named as such because the area is full of fossil of pre-historic sea creatures as the area was under the sea billion of years ago.

Fossilised taik unta?

"Sunshine all the time makes a desert"

Arab proverb

A Child's Hug

2009-10-25T20:30:00.006+08:00

Everything has its end. I knew the time will come but I didn't expect it to be very emotional for me. My wife and son have been staying with me for more than 3 months and last night they have to leave for Kuala Lumpur as my wife's school term will start before a long holiday in December.

So after an early dinner I sat on the sofa and watched TV. My son suddenly came to sit besides me and we watched TV together. This was one of those rare occasions when he wanted to watch TV together instead of jumping and playing around the house. So I just started talking to him about what he was going to do that night, going to the airport, flying to Kuala Lumpur, behaving good in my absence, listening to mama, meeting Atuk and Nenek and he occasionally repeated the words I said like aeroplane, Atuk and Nenek. I just talked to him and didn't expect him to understand anything at all. It was just talking, to get him occupied with me.

But I underestimated my son. He actually understood. He started to calm down and looked up to my face when I was talking to him. He rested his head on my arm and hugged me. He never acted like that before ! I was so surprised and touched.

I stopped talking and patted his back. I didn't know what to say, I just lost for words. My ego and macho armour as a man and a father slowly melted down like an ice cream. It felt awkward. For a moment, I tried very hard to hold my tears by swallowing my saliva and focusing on a scene in TV, but it was hard. Tears brimmed quickly in my eyes !

I just could not hold it anymore when my wife came out from the bedroom and looked at me hugged by my son like that. Drops of tears slowly fell from my eyes. I tried to talk to my wife but I was so overwhelmed with my emotions. I never experienced this feeling before ! I never felt so touched, never by a man that small.

My wife whispered to me that I shouldn't be too sad as they will come back after a month. I wanted to say 'Yes, I know' but the more I opened my mouth, the greater the emotions. My lips just trembled and oozed some inaudible words. Finally I just succumbed to the feeling and let it takes over everything. My wife understood and quickly snapped a few pictures of us.

I was stunned not just for the fact my son understood the situation but because of his simple and honest gesture of hugging me. It was the very right response. I didn't expect it to come at all.

My son finally fell asleep on my chest, letting his father to deal with his newly found emotion.

It was my first cry for the love of a son. I felt embarassed at first (for shedding tears) but eventually felt very natural. It was indeed a lesson of life and fatherhood. And I praised God for the wonderful feeling.

I love my little man.

I was speechless

My oh..my, life is tough sometimes

"It is a child's hug that permeates our soul and thus we are graced"

Salvador G. Valdez

Honk...honk..Vrrooommm..vroommm

2009-10-18T14:27:00.005+08:00

After a year in Dubai I can say that I feel more confident about my career in this country. My law firm is not badly affected by the economic crisis as our litigation practice is booming. I am also becoming busy day by day, with banks and clients trying to make money out of new deals and products post 2008 crisis. Everybody is talking about recovery and becoming wiser for the years ahead. World economy is speeding up as peoples feel better to spend again.

To mark my first anniversary in Dubai, I decided to buy myself a car. This has been a plan since my arrival here but because of the economic crisis, I put it on hold for fear of being laid off. All this while I rented a basic sedan car (Toyota Yaris)which cost me AED1800 a month. That is double than what I paid for my car in Malaysia which is of the same model (Toyota Vios).

Now I have settled with a new set of wheels which is more comfortable and within the same budget. Presenting Dodge Nitro SXT 2009. It's a truck based-SUV and pretty much share the same specs with the new Jeep Cherokee. Equipped with 2W and 4W drive capability, I think it answers my dream of driving a 4x4 on a desert. I has the look, safety features, 6 CD changers and big cargo area. The only setback, are that it's quite thirsty (of course la) and the headroom is tight (same like hummer). But the overall good factor, I bought it after 10k discount as a last Ramadhan promotion stock. Ok la.

One thing for sure, no matter how cool my car here, I can never own it forever because the car is a left hand drive and too expensive to be exported to home. I can only enjoy it when I am here. At the end of the day, it is the same like renting a car only that I get a better one.

Talking about cars, when I was in UK, I found it interesting that the British don't really bother to drive big fast cars. Everybody drives a small compact car (I think Perodua Kancil can have a good market in UK, why there are not there?). But in Dubai, the automotive trend calls for big super cars. Almost 70% of cars in UAE are four wheel drive cars. It gives an advantage when one have to drive on the desert sometimes. It also works as effective armour when one is driving in the fast Dubai superhighways and busy Sharjah streets.

In the meantime I have passed two licences in Dubai, one for driving car and another for riding motorcycle. It has been a challenging experiences for me to obtain these licences starting from the costs up to passing it through. Thank God, I passed both licences with only one test. I am saving some moneys now to buy my dream motorcycle. I have to be careful though not to incur more debts as it will defeat the purpose of working here. But purchasing that life-dream motorcycle is a great motivation for my struggle in this dusty city. The price of my dream motorcycle in Dubai is 3 times cheaper than the price in Malaysia. One good point is, I can export the motorcylce to Malaysia at a reasonable tax in the future. It also has a high second hand value in Dubai and Malaysia. This is a dream which makes me smile whenever I wake up for another day.

Also, my wife and I have been making a lot of friends lately and becoming closer to the ones we knew, which is a greater thing to a social animal like me. Friendship takes time, effort and reciprocity. Life would be meaningful if we can share it with peoples who listen and care. My wife and I are so eager to get to know our new friends and understand their interesting lives that sometimes we have to remind ourselves that our new friends may need more times to accept us in their circles. At the same time, we are keeping close watch on our friends in Facebook. It is a great feeling when I can laugh to tears in front of a laptop looking at pictures and leaving comments to my FB friends.

Winter is approaching and that means a season of outdoor and social activities in the Middle East. Cafes and restaurants have opened up their summer curtains and arranged their chairs and tables on the pavement, alfresco style. Peoples bought air tickets and booked hotel rooms to bring in families and friends. Birds have started their long journey to escape the harsher winter in the western and northern hemisphere. My mind now is busy thinking how to make it merrier and busier than the last year.

Yeah...I am open for any invitation, friends !

I like the look of the front fender..tough !

It's a truck

The front grills

The Horns !

Grab Life by the Horns !

Dodge

It Has Been A Year

2009-10-12T13:54:00.004+08:00

It has been a year since I missed my first flight to Dubai and boarded another flight on the next day. It has been 52 weeks since My First Day In The Office. It has been 365 days since I looked in amazement at the snowy Ski Dubai, the wide Sheikh Zayed Road , the air-conditioned bus stop and the tall Burj Dubai. It has been 12 months since I winded my watch to be 4 hours behind Malaysia's time. Yes, it has been a year...for today marks the First Anniversary of my life in Dubai.

This morning I woke up feeling very refreshed after a good night sleep. My wife was still sleeping besides me. Adrin was also sleeping but has moved 360 degrees from the position I placed him last night. I got out to my dusty balcony and looked at the workers constructing a building near my apartment. A building which blocked half of my view to the neighbourhood. I focused my view to the left of the building and felt relief to see a blurry image of a row of highrise and Burj Dubai Tower guarding the Sheikh Zayed Road under it. I smiled.

chilling in Jumeira beach

Time flies very fast. I still could recap the feeling of dilemma and confusion on 12 October 2008. I analysed it for a while and concluded I was not confused anymore. I knew my way around in Dubai. I felt at home when I arrived Dubai from my UK trip about 2 weeks ago. I am used to the extremity of weather between a hot 48 degrees to 16 degrees celcius. I bought a new vehicle last week. I have been back to Kuala Lumpur twice for the past 12 months. I played my first musical show last weekend. Most importantly I got my family and friends here in Dubai.

View of Sheikh Zayed Road from Metro Station bridge

The past one year has taught me a lot and opened my mind up to a new horizon. I learned about survival, integrity, hardwork, respect, honesty, friendship and family values. I am very grateful to Allah for giving me opportunity to experience a life like this. At the same time I feel ashamed that I have not done enough to show my gratitude to Him.

View of Dubai Creek from Dubai International Arbitration Centre office

I look forward to do more in life and even more for Him. I prayed that my happiness and joy are not a prelude to something worse in the days to come. I prayed that I will never forget my purposes, responsibilities and more importantly my path to Him. Moving forward I will try very hard to be better as a Muslim, a husband, a father, a son, a relative, a brother, a colleague, a friend, a lawyer, a musician and a person.

My wife and son will leave for Kuala Lumpur in another 1 week. They will come back after a month together with my parents, brother and his friends to enjoy winter with me in Dubai. I hope they will enjoy their trip and my company soon Inshallah.

Now that I had survived a year and breathing. So lets do it for another year...Yeah !

Alhamdulillah

me

Lands Above the Wind - part 1

2009-10-07T03:17:00.005+08:00

Just after I thought that the summer was over when the first stream of cold water ran through my body this morning, it slowly felt lukewarm and warmer and warmer and hot ! But it is not a bad thing, really..I like summer. It's just that I am having a mild flu right now and kept telling my wife that it was an indicator for a change of climate in Dubai. So I was hoping I was right.

Anyway talking about summer, let me share some exciting trips that I have done recently. For the first time in my life I celebrated Eid-ul-Fitri outside Malaysia this year. To commemorate this, I have decided to go a further mile. Whilst Malaysians in UAE packing their bags to come home to Malaysia, I dragged my wife and son to fly to the Lands Above the Wind (translate in Malay - negeri di atas angin). In Malay folk literature, Lands Above the Wind refer to the European continent. To be exact, my family and I celebrated our Eid in 3 countries - Scotland, England and France.

The idea of visiting Britain has been stuck at the back of my head for quite some time. I thought I would be able to do it when I was about to retire. This was when I was working in Kuala Lumpur. But ever since I worked in Dubai, I realised how achievable the idea was, considering the geographical location of Dubai and hence the affordable airfares. It was also fueled by the opportunity that my good friend Zulkifli Hasan is studying in Durham and offered to be the host for my visit at anytime. Well, I took his invitation at "anytime" literally and decided to go there during Raya.

Coincidentally one of my younger triplet brothers got accepted to study in School of Pharmacy, University of London. His arrival in London also happened on a day earlier than my booked flight. So it was all a happy good plan for me.

Zulkifli Hasan and his family have been a great host during our stay. He basically arranged everything for me, from his house, hotels, train tickets, my rental car and even my own navigator which he managed to bid and bought in ebay, days before my arrival. May Allah bless him and his family with all the good things in this world.

It was on 18 September 2009 when we landed in Newcastle International Airport. It was 7 days after the anniversary of September 11. I was prepared to be stripped naked in the airport, in a worst case scenario. Not that I have ever been in the black list, but my skeptic brain was worried on the fact that my passport has never gone through any western security system before, so who knows..But to my relief, Newcastle International Airport was such a quiet airport. After we filled up the visa form, my wife and I noticed that we were the last persons to approach the immigration counter. In fact the corridor lights were being switched off behind us whilst we were walking towards the immigration counter. When we got out from the airport, Zul and my brother were waiting for us and the weather was at a cool 14 degrees Celsius. Nice !

We were greeted by the sight of greens and hills planted with grass on our way to Zul's house. Zul lives in Bowburn. He calls it Kampung Bowburn. It is actually a residential area next to Durham University. My first impression of Bowburn was a quiet and peaceful old residential estate. Besides the local whites, it was populated by students with families like Zul. After Iftar and Isha' I felt so tired and skipped my chance to pray Terawih in UK for a cold bed. I was trying to close my eyes when it became so apparent to me that the area was so quiet that I could hear buzzing sound in my ears. Dubai must have been a very noisy place.

The next day was the last day of Ramadhan. Again we planned for something special. Equipped with a hired Ford Focus and a navigator, I drove to Edinburgh, Scotland. The journey took me about 4 hours. It was worth every penny I paid for the expensive British petrol (GBP20.00 for not even half tank !). We enjoyed the clear air, cloudy/sunny day and the magnificent English countrysides. In some parts of the places I saw, it resembled the houses and areas in some old places in Malaysia, especially Ipoh and Taiping. It could be these places were landscaped during the colonial era to look just like home by the British architects. I was surprised I didn't sleep at all during the entire journey.

Peoples in the street at the foot of the Castle's hill

Edinburgh Castle

In Edinburgh, we were more excited. The whole city looked like a film set to me. I have never seen any city like it before. Every structure in this city was older than a hundred years. I imagined what my forefathers were doing when the Scottish built this city slowly. Our first visit was the Edinburgh Castle. The castle was situated on a rock hill overlooking the sea. The hill itself was a very ancient habitat for men dating back 850 BC. Oh yeah not to forget, in this city I got the chance to see men in mini skirt. The Scottish's traditional costume are a cashmere shirt and tartan kilt. A tartan kilt is made of a heavyweight cashmere. The design on the kilt represent a clan in Scottish society. In this clan aspect I share the same tradition with the Scottish. For I come from a Mandailing clan of Nasution ! After the castle we stroll along the Road Mile, a street in Edinburgh which ends on a seashore. Very nice. But we didn't complete the entire street to its end as we have to ruch back home for the last Iftar.

Wife, Adrin and me strolling along Road Mile

Zul and me

On our way back, we detoured to Alnwick Castle. I have never heard about this castle before but Zul's wife, Nani explained that this castle's other popular name is Hogwarth School which none other than the school of Mr Harry Porter in that kids' movie. It was a majestic building and we snapped a lot of pictures for our Facebooks...hehe

Alnwick Castle

We reached home on time for our last Iftar for the Ramadhan 1430H. It was sad to say goodbye to this holy month. I never knew for sure whether I can see Ramadhan again next year. Nevertheless, I told myself this whilst sipping my hot tea..."Edinburgh, been there, done that..Alhamdulillah..burrpppp".

To be continued...

I dislike feeling at home when I am abroad

George Bernard Shaw

Run for Your Visa

2009-09-14T19:01:00.008+08:00

One of new aspects of my life as an expatriate is a concern on visa. I think I am better off dealing with UAE visa laws compare to Saudi Arabia visa laws. I heard in Saudi Arabia, one not only need visa to come to Saudi but expatriate also need visa to get out from Saudi Arabia. I don't know whether this is true but if it is, that is really a headache.

In UAE, visa is issued for various categories of visit and stay. There are visit visa, tourist visa, multiple entry visa, residence visa and transit visa. Apart from visa, tourists and expatriates require sponsors who will apply visa on their behalf. Like in my case, my sponsor for residence visa is my employer. But Malaysians tourist are lucky because our government has a reciprocal agreement with UAE whereby Malaysian tourist will be entitled to 30 days free visa on arrival in UAE. So for Malaysians, they don't have to find local sponsor to apply for their visit visa in UAE.

A common culture for expatriates in Dubai is during school holidays, many expatriates bring in their wives, children and families to come over for long vacation in Dubai. I am one of them. My wife and son are staying in Dubai for a 4 months vacation. For a stay more than 30 days I am supposed to apply for a special long visit visa for my wife and son which costs around AED500 each.

However there is a cheaper way to do it. Instead of applying for that long visit visa, peoples here go for a visa run. Literally it means running to the border, get out from the country and come back in with a new visit visa. This privilege is only accorded to a handful of countries lke UK, USA, Singapore and Malaysia. It sounds easy? But I have to do it every 40 days. And that is boring..

Desert tree

So here are the steps for a visa run in Dubai, UAE:

1) Drive to the border. Don't forget to bring passport. There are 3 popular borders from Dubai ie, Hatta, Musandam and Al Ain. These are UAE borders with Sultanate of Oman. I use Hatta border because it is close to my house;
2) Present passport to the immigration counter. Get the exit stamp;
3) Drive to Oman border post. On the way, there will be car inspection. Should not be a problem if you are not carrying drugs or dead body;
4) At Oman border, present your passport to the counter. If you really want to visit Oman, you have to buy car insurance. But if just to renew visa, you can simply tell the officer you want to renew visa;
5) Pay AED60 per person and get visit visa to Oman;
6) Make a U-turn to Dubai and drive to Dubai border;
7) Get a visit visa stamp from Dubai immigration for 30 days. You are done.

A straight road to Oman border

Last weekend I made a record of 3 hours to complete the whole run. I felt lazy to do it in the beginning because my wife and I will be leaving Dubai for UK anyway, this coming Friday for our Eid vacation. But I didn't want to have any problem with the immigration for overstaying without valid visa, so I did the run.

It has been said that a pretty face is a passport. But it is not.
It's a visa and it runs out fast.

Julie Burchilli
British Columnist

Ramadhan in Dubai

2009-09-06T16:56:00.002+08:00

Muslims all over the world are enjoying the holy month of Ramadhan from August 22nd until September 19th or 20th, depending on the sighting of the moon crescent to mark celebration of Eid-al-Fitri. For me and my family this year we celebrate the Ramadhan for the first time in Dubai.

There are a few differences on how Ramadhan is celebrated in Dubai compared to Malaysia. The first thing I noticed is the shortened office hours. Whilst in Malaysia, government offices and some private companies close at 4pm, here government closes at 2pm and private companies at 3pm. It is a very short working hours for me to finish my usual day's workload. But on the other hand, I spend more quality time with family at home either preparing Iftar or looking for restaurants around Dubai.

There is no Ramadan Bazaar for public in UAE. But I am not deprived of Ramadan Bazaar experience here due to Malaysian Association's Ramadan Bazaar every Friday in Abu Dhabi and Dubai selling home made Malaysian cuisines. I have been to both Abu Dhabi and Dubai Malaysian Ramadan Bazaar. The peoples and the foods were amazing. Ramadan Bazaar is truly the Malaysian thing which cannot be found elsewhere.

There is no 'moreh' or refreshment after solat Taraweh. The solat Taraweh in a mosque near my apartment is performed for 20 rakaat. The Imam recite long Quranic verses with no zikr and praise to the 4 Caliph between the rakaat similar to the style in IIUM Mosque.

Iftar buffet. WOW ! there are a lot around hotels and restaurants in Dubai. I can find any type of buffet to suit my appetite. However I have never been to any of them, because I think it is too much for me. In fact, there is one international restaurant in Atlantis Hotel (the famous hotel in The Palm) which sell Malaysian dishes for Ramadan Iftar. I have not been there but I read that the price starts from AED400 per person. Wuhu...maybe next time or maybe not !

Iftar Tent. This one I have never seen it in Malaysia. Maybe some places in Kuala Lumpur but not a custom yet. But here, I find a lot of companies and wealthy individuals sponsoring Iftar tents for the public. So everybody irrespective of background and race can freely come and enjoy whatever dishes supplied under the tents during Iftar. This is Ramadan culture in Dubai. I have never been to any tent so far, but am planning to, inshallah.

Respect for the fasting time. In Dubai the laws require all restaurants including food court to close during fasting hours. Some restaurants which are allowed to serve foods must operate its business behind full curtains. Not only restaurants are closed, the public are not allowed to eat and drink in the open. This applies to non-Muslims as well. Restaurants and food court are allowed to take orders starting from 6 o'clock but the foods can only be enjoyed after Iftar time. The other day I was waiting for Iftar time in a food court and an Indian couple behind me started to eat their meals when it arrived. They were quickly been told off by the mall's security guard to wait until Iftar time.

Eid preparation. I have not seen any special Eid promotion. Most of the sale advertisement promote their discount as Ramadan sale. It was not as grand as in Malaysia. Maybe it is not the time yet.

Ramadan drama. I am not referring to real life drama here, but the special tv soap for the month of Ramadan. Here we have one drama titled "Siraa' ala al Reemal"(Struggle in the Sand) which is a UAE-based production, aired in Dubai One channel at 7.00 pm. The story was based on the poetry and imagination of Sheikh Muhammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum (Ruler if Dubai) himself, revolving around the life and struggle of groups of bedouin. His poem was beautiful, not bad at all. But at the same time my wife and I have been watching a very addictive Malaysian soap as well titled "Nur Kasih". You can watch this drama in Catch Up TV in TV3 website. This drama is very touching and made me cried with some of it scenes and dialogue. It is a good drama to exercise my tear glands.

I look forward to enjoy the rest of Ramadan days. God bless us all.

Ramadan Kareem...Ramadan Mubarak !!

Plans and Ramadhan

2009-08-09T22:24:00.002+08:00

Everybody in UAE is rushing now to complete all urgent jobs, disputes or deals before Ramadhan. My clients tried to close deal or settle disputes as soon as possible. This is because peoples here reserve Ramadhan as a month to focus on ibadah, family and relationship with friends and clients. Nobody really want to talk business or quarrel during the holy month except for networking. This month is not only for fasting and attending tarawih prayer but also strengthening relationship with peoples and helping the needy.

I personally feel Ramadhan to be a very lively and busy month with family and friends. I hope I will get that same feeling again here in Dubai as this is going to be the first time my family and I spending Ramadhan outside Malaysia. I really thank Allah for making me able to bring my family here.

One of the Ramadhan things in Malaysia is the food bazaar. Recently the UAE Malaysians Association has been planning on having our Malaysian Ramadhan Bazaar in Dubai. Although I dont really need that much of food for Iftar or Sahur but the food bazaar will certainly be a good session to meet friends and create new one. Especially for expatriates, our friends are our families now.

I have also been busy planning certain personal projects this month. We will be travelling to new places during our upcoming Eid holidays and I am planning to acquire some things by end of this year.

I just hope that Allah Almighty will give His approval and blessing to me, as always, to carry out all these plans, inshallah.

Ramadhan Karim to all my blog readers !

yours truly

Deira Fish Market

2009-08-02T15:31:00.003+08:00

The weather in Dubai is very bad today. It is not only hot and humid but dusty with a visibility of around 100 meters. They say this dust come from nothern Iraq. I hope a strong wind will blow away all these dusts soon. My wife and I are already coughing a lot since last week. Thankfully my son Adrin doesn't suffer the cough. I have been drinking a lot of water to clear my itchy throat.

Yesterday my wife and I executed our weekend's project. It was a trip to Deira Fish Market. The hassle was to go there early in the morning in order to escape the heat. We arrived at the market at 9.00 a.m. It was too late. The temperature was a soaring 39 degrees celcius. There was no parking available in the market compound. I have to drop my wife and son at the market and parked further 300 metres away in Hyatt Hotel. I walked to the market from my car, and I still regret it until now, because it was so hot that I bled my nose rightaway !

However our discovery in the fish market was worth the trip. My wife being a Melanau loves fishes very much. The Deira Fish Market IS the place for the freshest catch in Dubai. To our surprise we also found some species of cockles and fish that is available in Oya, Sarawak. We bought Ikan Lumik and later prepared it with Sarawak sago for our lunch. My wife even prepared her first Dubai umai which was really spicy to me. I told my wife that she should suggest other Melanaus in her hometown to come and work in Dubai, because of the similarity in the fishes.

Because of the heat, we totally forgot to take out camera and snap photos. I was in fact became clumsy a bit trying to finish everything very fast and escape to an air-conditioned environment.

I bought a half mackerel fish. At home we cut it to fillet and I personally prepared a lemon butter mackerel for lunch. The taste was quite satisfactory..hehe. Really, I think I did a good dish yesterday. I like it.

We plan to go to the Fish Market again next week to stock up fresh fishes. My wife's face is beamed up with happiness now that she can eat the freshest fishes again.

"All cats love fish but fear to wet their paws"

Chinese proverb

Sharing

2009-07-08T14:28:00.004+08:00

Ever since I bought a Macbook laptop and subscribed to internet at home, I am wired to the cyberworld almost 24 hours of my daily life. This could be literally true considering that last night I felt asleep infront of my Macbook and woke up this morning with my hand still on the keypad. I hope I didn't send out any nonsense email whilst unconscious. I am connected at the office and even can google whilst walking, using a blackberry. Indeed I am living in two worlds now.

One of the things which fascinates me lately is on the sharing concept of the internet users worldwide. Like the Mac applications that I am using now, I didn't have to spend any single cent to use the additional software, as I can get it free using the sharewares and freewares abundant in the web. Not only that, the inventors of the software also make sure that the users get all the latest fix and upgrade from time to time. How cool is that !

I naturally tend to be "overdosed" with my new-found hobby. I have long heard about torrent files sharing but never had the time to learn and use it. With the plenty of spare time at home now, I had the chance to use torrent application and ...what a great discovery ! There are several torrent hosting websites in the net that you can choose from. These websites host the files 'torrent-ed' by the users or act as search engines to locate torrent files in the world wide web. My favourite search engines have been isohunt, mininova and pirate bay.

As a background I am a movie maniac. I have spent thousands on purchasing VCD, DVD and VHS tapes. I was also addicted to DVD rental. Sometimes I rented DVDs on daily basis. But with torrent sharing network, I feel like I am the son of a DVD shopowner. I can download any movie I want for free and the picture quality is generally very sharp and high. So far my average downloads are 2 movies per day. I am so addicted to watching all the downloaded movies that I watch a movie before going to work and another movie before going to bed, ....sometimes two movies.

The plus point is that sharing movies in torrent network does not give me the guilty feeling of contributing to piracy industry. Simply because I dont have to pay anything and the guy who uploaded the movie to the network, I believe, would have bought original copy of the movie judging from the picture quality. Yes I will not be contributing moneys to the directors' pockets, but I am not stealing money from them too or give money to the piracy bosses. I am just sharing with my friends. On top of that I sometime donate to them for being very generous friends. So my simple mind says sharing is better than stealing.

Really, I feel very grateful to live in this era !

"It is appalingly obvious our technology has exceeded our humanity"

Albert Einstein

First Jamming with the Abu Dhabi Gang

2009-06-22T11:28:00.004+08:00

Last Thursday relived my memory of the busy life as a musician juggling between work and studio when I was in KL. But this time I experienced it in Dubai when I tried to finish my work at 6.30pm to be at the studio at 8.30pm. In between I must get back to my apartment to pick up my bass. I decided not to bring and keep my bass in the car since the temperature was hot and that could affect the guitar's wood.

To make matter interesting, I lost my way to the studio. The studio was oddly located inside a warehouse in an industrial area. But I like the studio's setting because it looked like a garage studio. It had the "homey" ambience and "discreet & underground" feeling to it. I memorised the route based on Google Earth map but in reality the routes were messed up with diversions and construction sites. At the end I arrived 1 hour late at the studio. (To Dewangga Sakti gang this all sounds too familiar huh..hehe)

The jam session was arranged by my friend Azli (the drummer). I got to know him in the Iron Maiden concert last February. Azli is actually a familiar face in the circle of performing art back in Kuala Lumpur. He has performed with acoustic bands like Siul Murba, Akar Gita Estetika and Swakarya etc. He is also a member of the Dubai Drums of the World, an 18 pax ensemble which performs every year during the Dubai Jazz Festival. He is the only Malaysian with a set of Gendang Sunda in Dubai ! He has been in Dubai for 4 years now. The other musicians were Zaidi (aka JD the pilot) on guitar, Mie on guitar, Ida (Zaidi's wife) on keyboard, Hanizan and Zaki (both sang that night). All of them hail from Abu Dhabi.

I had really a good time jamming with them. It was a sort of breaking the ice session with new friends but through our instruments. The songs "destroyed" by us that night were:

1) Green Tinted Sixties Mind - Mr Big
2) Hati Emas - M Nasir
3) Gerhana - M Nasir
4) Yellow - Coldplay
5) Clock - Coldplay
6) Californication - RHCP
7) Use Somebody - Kings of Leon
8) Larut - Dewa 19
9) I Will Survive - Cake (this was played impromptu when I was running the bass line to warm up my fingers and suddenly everybody followed...and I said jalan !)
10) Fade to Black - Metallica

It was an exciting introductory jam with new friends. I look forward to know all of them in person. That night we could not chat for long since the jam finished at 12.30am and they all had to rush back to Abu Dhabi. But I can tell they are very talented musicians. They also own several guitars each. I look forward to see their collection.

Azli

Mie

I felt a little bit awkward heading back home after a jam session without any teh tarik session. Because to me the teh tarik sessions before and after the jam are integral and as important as the jam itself.

But it was a great fun and my first jam in Dubai with totally new friends. I really want to do it again !

yours truly

As good as I am, I am nothing without my band

Steven Tyler

Making a (feel) good decision

2009-06-21T16:39:00.005+08:00

The month of June always inspires me to look back and asses the trail of life which I have left behind. Times fly very fast since I first set my foot in Dubai in October 2008. Now it is going to be another 4 months to complete a 1 year cycle of my life as an expat in this great city.

As my life settles day by day in this new place which I started to call home, there are many decisions which forced me to make up my mind on my commitment to my new life. It is easier to advise a client than to advise myself. Because to me the struggle is not only to ensure that I make a good decision but the decision must come with a feel good factor with it. It is about making a decision and feel happy about it.

One of such decisions is as simple as whether I should buy a car or continue on renting. On 6 June 2009 I attended the most awaited event of my life in Dubai i.e my driving test. I passed the test and now I have a valid UAE driving licence which also entitles me to buy a car here. I can write a lengthy opinion if a client ask me on the advantages and disadvantages of buying or renting a car in Dubai. But when it comes to me making that decision, the hard facts alone are simply not enough for me. I need something to spark the good feeling behind the decision. I dont know what it is, but I must continue looking for that factor.

Anyway, maybe there is no such factor in the first place. Maybe it is just the overwhelming anticipation of going home this July. So let me not run to the car showroom but instead take a lazy relax leisurely stroll whilst listening very hard to the beats of my heart.

The risk of wrong decision is preferable to the terror of indecision

Maimonides

Spanish philosopher
1135 - 1204

Hot.. Hotter.. Hottest News

2009-06-01T16:48:00.005+08:00

Trees in Safa Park during summer

For those who came to Dubai in November last year and thought they have come to paradise where the beach is a stone throw away, it is sunny day everyday and the wind is soothing and cold, this month they have to re-think again. For UAE is entering its pre-summer season and already the temperature has been 40 - 50 degrees celcius and the daylight is longer. The weatherman reported that this year the temperature rose very early in the season compared to last year. Welcome to the desert as you love it!

I love the dry heat and my iced tea. As long as it is not humid, I am smiling to the sun. In fact last weekend I met up with 2 friends for evening tea and it was around 4.00pm when the temperature was at 44 degrees celcius. I purposely asked them to sit outside the cafe in the heat and I saw my friend's boyfriend raised his eyebrow to my invitation. We sat outside anyway and I enjoyed the conversation whilst the hot air was blowing to my face. But I could see the boyfriend could no longer sit still and not long after that broke his accommodating politeness and asked us to sit inside as he did not want to soak his shirt with sweat.

However I am not the only person who likes this heat. My salute and admiration goes to the construction workers who work through out the day not under a single shade. These guys are really amazing and indeed a special breed. As much as I like to challenge myself to withstand the heat and sun, I think I can only withstand it for 1-2 hours or so, before I get any serious dehydration syndrom or heatstroke. But I never saw any single worker who run and hide under the shade but they continue to come to their sites and work as usual. However

Recently I have been trying to lose weight by swimming and running everyday. However the harder part was to change my diet. Nowadays I only eat vegetables, fruits and fibers. As you probably know, I cannot live without eating rice and because of that I have overdosed on my rice intake due to my passion for Mandi Laham and briyani since I came to Dubai. I hope with the help of the inconvenient temperature it will hinder me from going out to restaurants for heavy meal. But I am also sensing that by restraining myself from my usual food made me longing and aim for the food more. Lets pray that I will not go crazy with this lack of rice in my body.

Last weekend I attended an Extraordinary General Meeting of a group of Malaysians living in UAE for the formation of Malaysian Association in the United Arab Emirates (MY-UAE). MY-UAE is the first formal club for Malaysians in UAE under the patronage of the Malaysian Embassy and it will be the umbrella club for any other Malaysian clubs in the future. All this while the Malaysians expatriates in UAE have been organising activities under an unofficial club called MY-UAE Pro. Legally the setting up of this club in UAE is quite easy here since UAE do not have laws governing societies and clubs. So it was sufficient by just writing officially to the Ministry of Interior informing them of the formation and existence of this club with no political and commercial interest. They have launched their new MY-UAE website which can be the one-stop portal to interact amongst the Malaysians in UAE specifically and worlwide in general. The annual membership fee is fixed for AED50.00 and members will get to be informed and involved in all activities run by MY-UAE.

The Constitution of the MY-UAE club

The line-up for the Executive Committee of MY-UAE chapter 2009 - 2010 are as follows:

President : Affandy Mohamed Shaari
Vice President : Ahmad Imran Zainul Abidin
Secretary : Yusree Yahaya
Treasurer : Nor Afzanizam Bin Abd Manan
Exco members :
Ahmad Firdaus Mansor
Chan Chooi Lai
Clinton Ooi Chin Keat
Hasnoal Idris
Haza Hilmy Mat Zean
Khairul Affendi
Mushil Mustafa
Nik Fakhrulanwar Nik Abdul Rahman
Putri Khadijah Mohsin
Rozana Rahmat

During the EGM in Malaysian Consulate Office.

So if anybody need help from Malaysians community in UAE, the above peoples are contactable through the MY-UAE website. I can also help, no problem.

One of the activities by MY-UAE is the upcoming Tri-Nation Soccer tournament between Singapore, Indonesia and Malaysia to be held on 5th June 2009 at Airport 2 Terminal Field. I hope it is not on the airport landing field itself.

Malaysian soccer players and supporters

The ladies will be having Captain's Ball Tournament

I will not be participating in the soccer tournament because I am not fit at all. Maybe I will join next year. Anyway I came to their training day and met up with the players. Good thing is, during the tournament like this, some entreprenueral Malaysians will open their discreet stall selling nasi lemak, mee rebus, kuih, nasi dagang and many more. That where my interest is !

Chef Haris manning his nasi ayam booth. AED12 per box.

It was hot yesterday, it is hot today and it will be hot tomorrow. I got to go for another glass of iced tea..

A community needs a soul if it is to become a true home for human beings. You, the people must give it this soul.

Pope John Paul II

Muscat : From Dusk Till Dawn

2009-05-11T14:27:00.009+08:00

Arriving Old City of Muscat

Have you ever watched a 1996 horror movie called From Dusk Till Dawn? This is one of my favourite road-trip movies and it has been my inspiration for spirit and excitement for road trips in the past. That includes my recent road trip to the land of Sinbad the Sailor - City of Muscat, Sultanate of Oman.

I was having a chat with my friend Zulkifli Hasan last week when we suddenly talked about going for a road trip to Muscat. None of us have any information about the journey and the destination but we thought it will be a great adventure for both of us, the lonely husbands in Dubai.

We started our drive at 8.00am, slightly late from what we planned (as usual we planned right after Solat Subh) and the temperature was already hot like in a mid-day. In denial of the hot temperature and the desert surrounding us, we packed our home-made Nasi Lemak with a dream that we will enjoy it at any good spot in the desert (I magined the silky soft sand dunes..yehh) we could find on our way to Muscat. After 2 hours of driving, we reached Hatta, the last town before the UAE border post and we decided to finish our breakfast at the best spot we have found. Inside an air-conditioned shopping mall.

The immigration process in UAE border post was smooth amidst the fierce faces of the Emarati officers and the hot air blowing to our faces. Next we drove into the no-man's land, a stretch of 4 kilometers road between UAE border post and Oman border post. Before reaching the Oman border post, we stopped to buy an insurance policy for our car which caused us AED100. I found it interesting that despite Dubai's addiction to big buildings and structures, the UAE border post was very simple, only movable air-conditioned cabins where visitors have to queue outside, compared to the Oman border post which has a proper building, a big parking lot and an ATM machine. I guessed the comfortable working place made a difference when we noticed that the Omani officers were more friendly in their communication to us.

We passed through the Oman border post without any problem and drove for our first marking in the map, Al Widayat junction. By the will of Allah, we couldn't find the junction but we found a short cut which led us to the freeway to Sohar. Sohar is famous for being the birth place of Sinbad the Sailor as well as its souk and ancient forts. However we decided to just pass through it and continue our drive to Muscat. For the first 1 hour I was really amazed with the scene along the journey. There were a lot of dates trees, banana trees, green bushes, wadis, camels and sheeps visible from the main road. For a brief moment I thought we were driving in Terengganu because the houses, the landscape and the calmness of the place resemble the typical scene in Terengganu. We didnt feel like we were driving in a desert at all !

After driving for about 3 hours, we reached our first destination marked in Zul's tiny pocket map - Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque. I read that this is the biggest mosque in Oman. We went in and snapped a few pictures. As I was busy taking photos of the main entrance to the prayer hall, I was stopped by an officer (tok siak). The following dialoque ensued:

Officer: wein ruhh? (where are you going?)
Me : Solah ! (praying)
Officer: Ente muslim?
Me : Aih, ana min Malaizi, ismi Muhammad (yup, I am from Malaysia, my name is Muhammad)
Officer: Kam raka'ah fi Zuhr? (how many rakaat for Zuhr?)
Me: Arba'ah ! (Four)
Officer : tayyeb (ok)

Big Lamps Inside Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque

Cheh.., I guessed because Zul and I looked like Filipinos or Indians (I of course look like Italian la..) to him, that we have to answer his quiz first before we can enter the prayer hall. And the "tok siak" was carrying a pistol ! I wondered if our tok siak carry a gun in Malaysia.

We continued our journey towards Muscat. We passed through the modern Muscat city area where we observed there were no tall towering buildings but 3-10 storey buildings lining up the streets. Muscat certainly don't need tall buildings to impress its visitors because it already has beautiful rock mountains surrounding the city. The view of the city backed by the rock mountains was simply majestic !

Frankinscence burner..not flying saucer

Gate Museum

After about 2 hours we reached the Old City of Muscat. The view of the old city from a top of the hill was really fantastic. The buildings were painted in white surrounded by black rocky mountains and the architecture was truly of ancient middle eastern. I felt like a merchant arriving at a busy port city to trade my spices. We checked the map and took the right turn to Qantab beach. Again we were in a state of denial hoping to dive and swim in the Oman Gulf in the middle of a hot desert afternoon. The road to Qantab beach was quite steep and winding as it ascend and cuts through the rocky mountains. The view of the mountains and the sea was fantastic. We were completely mesmerised by the beauty of the rock formation and the greenish sea next to the rocky fjords.

Winding Road to Qantab Beach

Qantab area and the yachts

After spending about 30 minutes in Qantab beach, we drove down to the Muttrah area. Muttrah is one of the areas in the Old City Muscat. The main attraction in Muttrah is the Muttrah Souk where visitors can find and buy varieties of perfumes, silverwares, fabrics and traditional jewelleries. There are several old forts in Muttrah namely Muttrah Fort, Al Jalali Fort and Al Mirani Fort. These forts were built during the Portuguese occupation of the area in the 17th century. I was surprised to learn, that not only these forts are preserved in good condition, but they are still being used by the military for security purposes. Amazing isn't !? Imagine our A Famosa fort is still in use by our military! Other than the Souk, Muttrah also offers 1.5 kilometres pavement by the corniche for visitors to walk and enjoy the sea breeze and the view of the busy port of Sultan Qaboos. Yeahh, we found out almost every building and big road here is named after Sultan Qaboos. He is the Sultan anyway..

Muttrah Fort

Muttrah Souk

Ceiling inside Muttrah Souk

We checked in at one of the hotels facing the corniche. At night we tried to look for a local Omani restaurant selling "mandi laham". We drove around up to Ruwi city area to look for the restaurant. Our clue was based on the direction given to us by one of the hotel staffs. After searching for about 1 hour we concluded that the hotel staff misunderstood us because the area that we went to was full of meat shops (selling "Luhum") and not even a single restaurant serving "mandi laham"....chit poddahh..!

Muttrah corniche at night

I couldn't finish it

The next morning we went to Qantab beach again with an ambitious plan to swim. Again we were disappointed because the temperature was so hot. In fact when we arrived at the beach we were the only visitors. We were greeted by a fisherman who offered us a ride in his boat to explore the area. Hahaha.. he must have thought we came there to be fried and baked by the sun. ..No thank you sir, I have enough tan on me.

As the temperature continued to rise, I suggested to Zul that, instead of feeling down, let's embrace what the nature was giving to us. Let's enjoy the heat and the dryness. So we hung out at one of the alfresco cafes facing the corniche and enjoyed a good glass of iced tea (actually several glasses and a big bottle of mineral water) under the cafe's facade. We looked around and there was a table full of "mat saleh" group sitting beside us, also enjoying the heat and the sunshine. The temperature was at 48 degrees celcius. We felt so cool...

Zul and the Huge Rocks

Grand Canyon?

Thermometer

As soon as we got to our senses and sanity again, with the help of the iced teas, we decided to visit the museums in Muscat. There were quite a number of museums and art galleries in Muscat. In my opinion, if a city has museums and art galleries, indeed the city and its peoples have souls and organic growth. We chose to visit a private museum called Bait Al Zubir first. This museum was actually the house of Shaikh Zubair Bin Ali, a wealthy merchant of Muscat during the early 20th century. The house was built in 1914. In fact, the items displayed in the museum were his private collection of the daily items of Omanis like old pictures of Muscat and other regions in Oman, swords, personal affects, clothes, musical instruments, guns, silverware and jeweleries. The items and the information gave us insights of the rich traditions and cultures of the Omanis. No wonder when Marco Polo visited Oman, he called the place "paradise".

Entry Fee 1 Omani Rial

Abu Fatylah (P. Ramlee called it "Senapang Gajah").

Guns were amongst the early export of old Muscat

Dishdasha and Khanjar of Omani

It was a shame that we had to cancel the visit to Omani-French Museum because we were running out of time and hungry. So we headed off to the town of Al Khuwairah searching for a restaurant called Bin Ateeq which serves traditional Omani foods. The GPS system in my brain worked this time and we found the restaurant after just a one time miss of a junction. We ordered a local Omani food called "Qabooli Laham" which was a serving of rice cooked with ghee, raisins and mutton. The dish was served in a big iron tray (dulang) in a private room where we can eat while lying on the carpet. We wiped out the tray clean in less than 30 minutes. Amazingly Zul did it whilst texting his wife ! The dish was so delicious and it was worth cracking the GPS in my brain to look for the restaurant.

On our way out from the restaurant I bumped into a guy wearing a suit. He looked like a Malaysian. So I asked him and my guess was right. Apparently he is the Third Secretary in the Malaysian Embassy in Oman. He came to the restaurant together with the Malaysian Ambassador to Oman, His Excellency Datuk Mohd Zamri Mohd Kassim to entertain a group of Malaysian lecturers (Ustaz) who came to Oman for Arabic language courses. I was about to leave the restaurant when the Ambassador came out from a room to wash his hands. I greeted and introduced myself to him and we ended up joining him in his room with his guests. We had a great tea session with the Ambassador and his guests chit chatting about the Ambassador's adventure in Oman. The chance to meet our Ambassador in person really compliment our road trip. At the end of the session we were even invited to join them for a group photo. I thought, had I worn my Motorhead t-shirt that day, that group of Ustaz would have a guy with a Motorhead skull t-shirt in their group photo. Pheww...

Qabooli Laham..settled

Datuk Ambassador cracking his joke

Our journey back to the Oman border post was filled with picturesque view of rural Oman and its dwellings. I kept saying to Zul that the feeling was really like driving in Terengganu. We tried to look for any stall selling local fruits or delicacies but there was none around. But we could see Omani children and youths riding their scooters without helmet, playing football on sandy pitch, hanging around at coffee shops, sitting with friends playing poker and discussing about cars in front of a car workshop. We even saw camels and cows jaywalking by the road sides. It was really a retreat for us from the hustle and bustle of the metropolitan life in Dubai.

We arrived at UAE border post around Maghrib time and proceeded smoothly to my home in Al Warqaa 1. It was a great introductory excursion to Oman and I am planning to do it again in the near future.

Zul was happy to have made the trip before he leave Dubai this weekend. I look forward to do the road trip again with my family and friends. In the meantime.. I will go to work.

Ma'a as Salamah..

I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel's sake. The great affair is to move.

Robert Louis Stevenson
(Scottish travel writer 1850 - 1894)

Life is an Improvement

2009-04-27T11:13:00.005+08:00

The pilot announced "we have landed in Kuala Lumpur International Airport. To all passengers Welcome to Malaysia and to all Malaysians..Welcome Home !"....fuhh I never felt so excited when I heard this announcement. My adrenalin pumped up when I saw the green grass and lines of palm trees surrounding the airport. After 6 months ....I am home !!

My wife wanted to pick me up at the airport but I declined the offer because I wanted to travel by KLIA Express, LRT and taxi so that I could see the faces of Malaysians again in their morning rush to work. I enjoyed the journey very much amidst the pushing, the squeezing, the humidity and the thousand smells of perfumes. Along the journey to the heart of Kuala Lumpur I could see a lot of completed development in KL. In fact I could notice how tall the trees and its shades have grown. I smirked alone whilst watching all the scenery of KL through the LRT windows. I wondered whether I could notice all these changes had I never left KL.

Although this trip home was for 4 days only, my schedules were full with activities with families and friends. In fact I have attended birthday bashes (for me by my wife and Dewangga Sakti), newborn greeting (welcome to Muhammad Rafiq Bin Muhammad Zurrusydi) and a funeral (Al-Fatihah to my Atuk Usu Hj Harun).

The new man in town

In every place I went to and peoples I visited, I saw nothing but good improvement in them. There is an up-market version of Nasi Lemak Antarabangsa restaurant near my house in Taman Melati, my Madumas apartment is almost completed, the DUKE highway is in full service, my son Adrin has become cleverer, Dewangga Sakti is progressing rapidly with their recording using newly acquired instruments and voice, the recording studio Purple Sound has moved to a bigger place, my parents looked fit and healthy, my father bought himself a new LCD TV and my wife looked more beautiful (hehe..).

Madumas Apartment@Setapak..any taker?

Walking with a big boy

For the record..my wife and son

Talking about improvement, I took advantage of the cheaper prices in Malaysia by upgrading myself to a Fender Jazz Bass and a Macbook. This upgrade is not a privilege but a long-time dream that finally come true due to long hard efforts (in earning and saving money !).

Kasi murah la tokey..

The crazy guys in Dewangga Sakti

Keeper of the keys

Purple Studio's new cat

Well...Alhamdulillah. That is all I can say when my aeroplane touched Dubai airport again.

"Home is a place you grow up wanting to leave
and grow old wanting to get back to"

John Ed Pearce (Pulitzer prize winner, writer)

A Day to Remember

2009-04-15T23:18:00.012+08:00

I have completed another year in my life. Yesterday 14 April 2009 was the 33rd anniversary of the day my mother made her panic journey to Hospital Besar Kuala Lumpur whilst my father was still thinking whether ShamZai will be a good name for his first son. Eventually my father changed his mind and named me Muhammad Syamsulfaiz after he consulted his Ustaz, Hj. Yusof.

I have thought of celebrating it properly like buying a cake for the office staff, but suddenly I decided this year I will celebrate it in the simplest way ever. That is by making use the technology of email and Facebook.

It didnt take an effort at all. As soon as I reach the receptionist's counter I just smiled and greeted the 2 cute receptionists manning the counter and when the time comes to reply to their greeting I just replied casually whilst walking to my room...."Ohh I feel super!..today is my birthday anyway.." After a brief moment of congratulation and asking about treats I said thank you and promised them a treat later and continued my lazy steps to my room.

Within 5 minutes after I switched on my computer, as expected, my receptionists broadcasted to all departments in the firm complete with their dancing cartoons and dangling ribbon .."This is to inform you that today is Muhammad Syamsulfaiz's birthday"...Hahahaha it works ! I can say the next 8 hours of working my inbox were filled with all the wishes and replies from almost everybody in the firm. I had a cyber party with them all! In fact I received a couple of emails from lawyers in the office who I have never spoken to all this while.

The Facebook website is blocked at my office which I am very grateful, otherwise I dont think I can finish my works. I could only check my Facebook using blackberry. And when I checked my profile I received around 57 greeting messages from old and new friends. Fantastic ! another party in the palm of my hand.

I went out for lunch with my colleague, Zulkifli and his friend to Metro Falcon Cafe for a good cup of teh tarik and chapatti. I offered to settle the bill but one of them refused to accept the treat. So I just settled the bill for the remaining who didnt mind.

At night I decided to go out with Zulkifli and his 3 children and wife to Dubai Mall. I promised them a lot of fishes in a huge tank. Luckily they were impressed with the sight of the biggest aquarium in the Middle East, the Dubai Mall Aquarium. We hung out at the food court whilst enjoying our fresh juices and ice creams.

It was a simple day for me but I was so grateful for it. Deep in my heart I could not stop thinking about how my wife felt on her birthday on 1st March last month. She was the reason why I chose to have a simple day on my birthday this year. She doesnt have email at her school and she doesnt have Facebook account. I skyped with her for about 1 and half hour and showed her the preliminary gift that I bought for her. I made sure that she felt remembered and all my family wished for her. It has been a challenging period for her to raise a kid without a husband at home.

Moving forward I cant wait to see my family again next week in KL and have a double birthday celebration at home. After all my world is my family...

"Thank You To ALL My Friends Who Remembered and Wished For Me You All Have Special Places In My Heart"

Rain, Water and Sand

2009-04-05T02:34:00.005+08:00

I don't know whether it is a bad effect of global warming or what but lately Dubai has been receiving quite an extra litres of water when it rained for a week here. Being a city in a desert, the infrastructure here are not built to withstand rain and because of that even a short rain for 3 minutes could cause a serious flash flood on the road. In fact there is no drainage network or "longkang" in most part of Dubai.

Last 2 weeks I moved to a new apartment in Al Warqaa 1. It is a one bedroom apartment with a balcony at 4th floor. The task of finding this apartment was really quick and easier than I anticipated in My Quest For a New Cave previously. This "cave" is simply meant for me. I like the balcony view which is facing a big mosque with a background of rooftop of houses in nearby downtown Rashidiya. The view reminds me of one of the scenes in James Bond movie when Mr Bond open his window after checking in a hotel in Morocco...wahaha. The rental rate is affordable, the payment term is reasonable, the location is superb and guess what ...I got a free gymnasium and swimming pool now. Cool huh?

Besides the move to a new apartment, I almost forgot to update you guys that I have been hosting a very good friend of mine Zulkifli Hasan as a resident guest at my apartment. Zulkifli is a Phd candidate in University of Durham and currently he is doing an internship in Hawkamah Institute for Corporate Governance in DIFC Dubai. Zulkifli used to be my classmate during my second degree in Shari'ah years in IIUM. So not only I have a good buddy as a company at home but it turns out Zul is a very good cook. So far I had enjoyed a variety of tasty and quality home made meals like Nasi Tomato, Nasi Lemak, Roti Canai, Nasi Ayam Hainan and a lot more prepared by Zul. I will never forget anybody who gave me a good meal. May Allah bless you buddy !

Recently I have started a new routine of swimming in my pool. I guess the sight of daily rain in Dubai have made me feel closer to water. The "Yang" effect is doing its part in my feng shui. Not only I started to swim but yesterday I went to the beach to jog. So again closer to the water. I am thinking of doing some water sport activities this month. Coincidentally Zul is also a certified Life Guard and he has been teaching me a proper swimming techniques. I think the month of April will be the month of water for me.

That's all for now guys, I am off for my swimming class...blurrpp..blurrppp..blurrpp

The three great elemental sounds in nature are the sound of rain, the sound of wind in a primeval wood and the sound of outer ocean on a beach.
Henry Beston
(1888 - 1968)
Writer and Naturalist

Rockin' and Rollin' with Motorhead

2009-03-18T21:41:00.009+08:00

This posting is really late. In fact I have forgotten some of the points that I want to write about my recent visit to Dubai Desert Rock Festival.

In summation, my feeling about Dubai Desert Rock Festival 2009, was like watching and listening to the evolution of music.

I regret that I missed the first two bands - Scarab and Hatred. When I arrived Nervecell was already setting up the stage for their turn. Nervecell is a Dubai's local band. They play death metal. To me death metal is characterised by damped heavy riffs and brutal growling vocal. Nervecell has all these necessary features and if they stay long enough and continue to produce good music, they will soon join the rank of respected death metal bands. Not only they are the only Dubai's well known death metal act, but they put a lot of effort to produce standard quality album, music video and merchandise. Nervecell breaks my stereotyping of Emiratis on music.

Nervecell

The next two bands called Chimaira and August Burns Red were the US bands. Chimaira's music was full of double pedals punctuated with a lot of rest. It was quite technical. August Burns Red's vocalist used a lot of high pitch growl. However I failed to appreciate the attire on stage of the members of August Burns Red. Call me old fashion but I think when it comes to stage performance, not only your playing must be tight but at least your clothes should be cool too.

Chimaira

August Burns red

Opeth? this Swedish band is legendary. I think their frontman Mikael Akerfeldt is quite a funny guy especially with his macho and gentle speech with the crowd. Or maybe he wanted to set up the gloomy ambience of doom death metal. Anyway it worked ! They had good sound quality on stage and their guitar riffs and keyboard composition were very melodic.

Mikael Akerfeldt of Opeth

By the time Arch Enemy came on stage, majority of the crowd were already tired and exhausted. My back bone and calves were really in pain after standing and jumping for almost 5 hours. I saved my energy just to pogo for the song My Apocalypse. I wanted to join the mosh pit, but I scared I would get a pulled hamstrings. So better not. I was a little bit dissappointed with Arch Enemy's sound quality. It must have been due to the worn out backline system after 6 hours of overloaded decibels of death metal music. But it was great to see Mike Amott playing live in front of me.

Yeah ..Mike Amott and his ESP flying V

Angela Gossow...a lady with powerful voice !

We had a long break before Motorhead come up on stage. The organiser must have noticed the slow reaction from a very tired crowd throughout Arch Enemy' show. I managed to finish two shawarmas during the break and could not care less to lie down on the tarmac and gave my entire muscles a brief relief from any vertical pressure. I had never been to a long-hours metal festival like this in Malaysia. I was so exhausted.

rock n roll ..yeahhh..!!

Two black metal fans from Lebanon

I had never imagined to see Motorhead play live. I smirked when I see the latest look of their drummer Mr Mikkey Dee. My mental picture of him was the one he posed in King Diamond's Them album. Mr Lemmy Kilmister humbly opened his stage speech by saying "We are Motorhead and we play rock and roll". As if there were peoples who don't know them. Motorhead is the godfather of killer rock and roll riffs, period. It was the simplicity of the melody and rocking husky vocal of Lemmy Kilmister that made them legend. I was hoping they play Orgasmatron but they did not. After the first song Lemmy immediately asked the soundman to raise their amp volumes. It was really loud, really rock and roll attitude. Between the songs Mikkey Dee showed off his decades-old drumming skils. My jaw almost dropped. At the end of Mikkey's show, Lemmy simply said "Mikkey Dee, the best drummer in the world". In two of their songs, two leather clad ladies came on board the stage and did fire dance. It was spectacular !

Mr Lemmy Kilmister and his pyro dancer

Phill Campbell

Mikkey Dee...after 3 decades

It was my first experience and a great one. I never thought of seeing these legendary bands when I made a decision to move to Dubai.

I am indeed a very happy rocker now ! mashkuuuurrrr....

"There is no end. There is no beginning. There is only the passion of life"

Federico Fellini Italian dramatist

Dubai Desert Rock Festival

2009-03-05T16:33:00.004+08:00

It is the month of March and for the metal fans in Dubai, it means the time to practice that pogo dance again in an outdoor concert called Dubai Desert Rock Festival. Before I come to Dubai, I have never heard about this festival. Apparently this year's festival is going to be the 6th. The organiser is Center Stage Management who is very active in bringing various international artists to perform live in Dubai.

This year's Desert Rock Festival is featuring:

Motorhead
Arch Enemy
Opeth
Nervecell
Chimaira
August Burns Red
Hatred
Scarab

Sincerely I have never really listened to these bands' music except a few songs by Motorhead and 4 months ago I bought Nervecell's Preaching the Venom album after I found out about them. But I am never too old to be their new fan and enjoy their music after this.

Tomorrow morning the Malaysians community here are going for a community picnic in an island in emirate of Umm al Quwaim. I am sure it is going to be fun and exciting but I have to pass this time. What a shame..but how can I miss Motorhead !! I drew their band's logo on my geography's textbook when I was in secondary school last time. I never imagined I will get the chance to see them alive in my lifetime !

So I have chosen pogo dance and blasting guitar sound over the calm and serene beach. I will enjoy myself ...I should...I need to...I better be..

Rock on....Hell yeah !!

Music has to breathe and sweat, you have to play it live

James Brown
(1933 - 2006)

Sand, Sun and Fun

2009-02-22T14:29:00.006+08:00

I remember when I was a child there was a pile of construction sands beside my parents' house where my brothers and I used to play with. My brothers and I always had some imagination on how to play with the sands either by riding our three wheeler bikes on it, building sand castles and caves for our small soldiers or burying our toys in it with the hope it will be a sort of pirates' treasure after a 100 years. However non of our activities around that pile of sands were ever approved by my parents and most of the time we got punished if we got caught playing with it. I knew my parents were concerned about skin rashes or disease since we were playing with construction sands. But to us, playing was more fun than worrying..

Last Friday my big boss invited all his lawyers for a casual day out at his farm. I thought, in Malaysia if I come to somebody's farm, I would expect to eat a lot of durian or rambutan fruits or catch fishes in a pond. But a farm in a desert, I could only imagine dates trees. So I accepted the invitation and hoped I could pick the freshest dates from the trees.

However I fell asleep after the Friday prayer and overslept until 3.30pm. When I woke up I quickly headed to my boss's farm which was located in an area close to Dubai-Al Ain Road. When I arrived I was already late for the lunch and my colleagues asked me to wait for them beside the main road as they were already on the move to the desert area. I felt hungry and thirsty.

And when they arrived, I was so surprised. For they didn't arrive on their proper salon cars or perfumed 4x4, but on colourful quad bikes and high rev dune buggies and jeep !! Apparently my boss were treating us for a desert ride using all his quad bikes and dune buggies. I locked my car and jumped onto my friend's jeep and our desert journey began. Heck, suddently I felt full, not hungry anymore.

I have never been surrounded by so many sands dunes and literally asked to play with it. It could never be cooler than that ! On top of that I was given a quad bike and a dune buggy to knock myself out with the dunes. I cannot describe my feeling more other than wooohooooo !!!!

This kid was about to get dangerous with his new toy

The ride with the quad bike was really crazy and dangerous. The machine was engineered to bash on the sands and it could take on any type of slopes and cliffs as long as you ride it on it. It got 3 gears, but most of the time I only need to use the first gear.

Rev it up mate !

These guys won the craziest driver title on that day.

The dunes baggy is one hell of a machine. It got only two gears, forward and reverse. It came standard with roll cage and a safety belt. But I bet it can be of any use. In fact one of my colleagues accidentally smacked his forehead on the roll cage and got himself a 2 inches cut. I like it very but I personally prefer the quad bike.

Another kid in the office

This morning, my boss sent an email to all his lawyers thanking them for coming to his farm. He also asked for any suggestion for the event as he considered it as a company's activity. I replied to him with my gratitude for the event and wrote to him that I have only one suggestion, and that is - to do it again !

When I was younger I could remember anything, whether it happened or not.

Mark Twain

Up the Irons !

2009-02-15T13:34:00.010+08:00

The Crowd.
Imagine peoples who live in those highrise apartments could just watch the concert from their balconies. But nothing beats the atmosphere of the Crowd

The Ambience of peoples who were about to rock !

I just could not describe more how excited I was to see one of the godfathers of heavy metal/rock i.e Iron Maiden. I have been listening to their songs since I was in Form 3 and finally I got to see them performing live ! What a great experience, considering that these rockers are already at their 50-ish and they may not be performing again. Also for the record, that was my first attendance to an international outdoor concert (as oppose to local small concert/gigs in pub/stadium).

The show started at 8.00pm. So at 5.45pm I drove to the Dubai Media City Amphitheater alone from International City. My friend Irwan told me that he will park beside Hard Rock Cafe and walk to the venue. So I drove to Sheikh Zayed Road and was looking for an exit to Hard Rock Cafe from Sheik Zayed Road. But it was not as simple as I thought it should be. To make matter worst I missed the exit to the Cafe and from that point onward began my journey of finding the right turn/ U-turn/exit road for about an hour and ended up passing byHard Rock Cafe 3 times but still in the wrong road. Finally I parked my car at a road side in front of a hotel and to my surprise the entrance gate to the amphitheater was right behind the hotel. Cool # 1!

After I passed the entrance gate, I followed a crowd of people swarming a booth. It was an official Iron Maiden merchandise booth and they got a lot of tour merchandises on sale such as t-shirts, caps, wallets, posters and Belgrade show vcd. Fantastic offer! and I jumped in the queue and bought myself a tour t-shirt for AED80. It was a good price compared to the stock Iron Maiden t-shirts sold in Virgin Music store which are priced AED150 each. Cool # 2 !

The stage that night was opened by Lauren Harris and her band. She is none other than the daughter of my two-fingering idol Mr Steve Harris. She flared up the mood of the chilly night with her 80's styled heavy metal songs of her Calm Before The Storm album. The bassist and the guitarist were already donning tight fit jean and t-shirt with glam rock hair style. They really complement the greater aura of Eddie and did a good job of warming up the crowd who were about to rock that night. Being a young artist she constantly promoted the band's official myspace at http://www.myspace.com/laurenharrisuk. I reminded myself that in the future if Lauren Harris become legendary rocker like her father, at least I could tell my son that I have seen her act back in 2009. Cool # 3 !

Lauren Harris and band members

Iron Maiden appeared on stage sharp at 9.15pm. They played on the Winston Churchill's speech and blasted the stage with pyro flare and the song Aces High. I was amazzed with Bruce Dickinson's high pitched vocal and the band's overall sound quality which sounded exactly like in their records. But how can they don't, that was the mighty Iron Maiden I was looking at.

Kaboom ! at the end of Winston Churchill's speech

2 rockers having fun with fingers sign

Irwan and Shajil - thrilled rockers that night

Throughout the show, I just could not leave my eyes from Steve Harris's fingers running on his bass. I listened attentively to the picking, the rest, the tone and I was really flabbergasted with the consistency of it all when compared with the sounds in their album. And about the two fingers gallop technique, I think it was three fingers gallop technique which I saw that night. I liked Steve Harris's classic style of aiming his bass guitar like a gun to the audience and tumm ..tumm... fuhhh I really got shot by him.

Mr Dickinson and his leather scales trousers

It was like a live karaoke session with the audience and singer on stage, when peoples sang together with Bruce throughout the show. There was no sign of complacency or jaded attitude on each of the band members and they really worked hard in giving the best entertainment to their fans. I was thrilled to think that I had karaoke-d Fear of the Dark, Hallowed Be Thy Name and Number of the Beast with Mr Bruce Dickinson himself accompanied with live music by Adrian Smith, Steve Harris, Nicko McBrain, Dave Murray and Janick Gers. Well, thanks for the karaoke session guys ! chehh..hehe. Cool # 3 weiii

Double head guitar playing by Dave Murray

The stage and the crew during the song Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner
(Bruce dedicated the song to the ancient seafarers who came to Dubai for trade)

When the band stopped playing and threw out their drum sticks and guitar picks peoples started to scream for more songs and and chanted "Maiden".."Maiden...I thought it was the end of the show, but my friend who has seen them before, told me it was a standard Iron Maiden gimmick. So after 3 minutes the stage light lit up again with spotlights and pyro and they continued with Number of the Beast and Run to the Hills. The song Number of the Beast reminded me of Jae'i of Sil-Khannaz.

Eddie made a cameo during the Iron Maiden song

The concert ended with the most anticipated cameo of Bro Eddie whilst the Band was playing Iron Maiden. Peoples screamed for his name and some hot chicks fans screamed "I love you Eddie!!". Wow you were so loved Eddie ! I just stared at that group of hot chicks and waited (almost prayed, actually) for their next "move" but they didn't do it. If you know what I meant ..hehehe

In conclusion, it was worth every fils and dirham for the ticket. At last, I had seen The Iron Maiden. yahooooo

Rock music should be gross, that's the fun of it. It gets up and drops its trousers.

Bruce Dickinson

Memory Songs

2009-02-11T20:30:00.003+08:00

I wondered whether you guys have a particular song for a particular stage of your life. Well I do, and I kind of regret for not documenting it in any diary or notebook. This is what I am trying to do now.

I have got certain songs which I associate with certain phase of my life. The songs are memorable not because of the lyric or trend but simply because the melodies caught my attention and memory and reminded me of that part of my life.

For example, everytime I listen to the following songs:

Ice Ice Baby by Vanilla Ice - reminds me of my life when I was in Form 3 (1991);

Hijau by Zainal Abidin - reminds me of my life and a friend named Roshidi Roslan when I was in Form 5 (1993);

Penantian by Black Rose - reminds me of my weekend routine of doing laundry in hostel while "karaoke-ing" with fellow hostel mates (1992-1993);

Boo Hoo Clapping Song by Carburetor Dung - reminds me of my early underground year and a friend Yuzli Yusof when I was in Form 5;

Anarchy in the UK by Sex Pistols - reminds me of the sudden freedom and culture shock when I first start my life as a matriculation student (1993)

The Fourth Knight of Revelation by Rotting Christ - reminds me of my first black metal band and our jamming escapes in my 'kampung' ! (1994)

Smells Like Teen Spirit by Nirvana - reminds me of my grunge wannabe year in IIUM matriculation (1994)

In the Garage by Weezer - reminds me of my "got nothing to think of" life after graduated from IIUM matriculation and whilst thrashing my mom's Kancil car (1995)

I'll be Missing You by Puff Daddy & Faith Evans - reminds me of my "confusing" year after my first girlfriend ditched me and I got dismissed from IIUM (1996). Alhamdulillah I got readmitted and straight up my life back...God gave me a second chance !

Mirai E by Kiroro - reminds me of my chambering year and commuting to work by LRT (2001)

Tamalli ma'ak by Amr Diab - reminds me the campus life and my rental car business when I pursued 2nd degree of Bachelor of Shari'a in IIUM (2001);

Human by The Killers - reminds me of my very first week in Dubai (2008)

There are a lot of other memory songs for me circa 1996 to 2002 and 2003 - 2007 but I can't remember it now.

Looking at the songs, I myself could not figure out why these songs remind me of the above memory. I think this is a magic of melodies to a human's mind.

Hallak...Do you have your memory songs?

Without a song, the day would never end
Without a friend, a man ain't got a friend
Wihout a song, the road would never bend
Without a song..So I keep singing a song

Elvis Presley

Mental Music

2009-01-27T23:41:00.003+08:00

Run to the hillssss..run for your live

Is there a music called Mental Music? Huh you don't know? Well I made that one up..

Ever since I came to Dubai I have not been listening to music (except the radio in my car) like I used to back home. And my ears' muscle is getting stiffed and my brain's gel is frozen because of that. It has also been proven that I don't really enjoy listening to MP3 songs through the tiny earphones of my Ipod. I wanted better sound, crispy acoustic quality and material originality !

After Jumaat prayer, I went to Virgin music store and purchased a ticket to Iron Maiden concert. This purchase has been planned since last year. So it wasn't an afterthought. But 2 hours after that whilst patrolling the floors of the Mall of Emirates, I decided to spend more on music. I thought in order to stay sane I must be able to buy and listen to quality CD again.

I went to look for a nice Discman first. But Dubai is all about anything trendy and fashionable and gadget like Discman is considered obsolete already. Next in the search is a mini hifi components. After listened to a few models and brands I found that the price was not worth the quality of the sound. I also thought rather than buying a small off-the-shelf mini hifi (small because of the price), maybe I should look for a quality home theater system, which I found out produce better EQ and offer superb features. Plus the landlord's DVD player that I have at the my apartment has started to play hide and seek with me when it comes to pictures !

At the end I bought a new model of LG DVD + Receiver + 6 ways home theater system. The price was affordable and I like it sounds quality. To complement the purchase I also bought the Iron Maiden's Somewhere Back In Time and Nervecell's Preaching Venom CDs.

That night I fell asleep on my 2nd round of the Iron Maiden's CD. Now I look forward to build up a new collection of CDs in this city.

"Puas hati aku !"

me

Transit

2009-01-27T19:33:00.003+08:00

Well actually I ran out of idea on what should be the title for this post. For the past couple of weeks I have been in deep thinking with myself on my life direction now. It has been 3 months now since I left Kuala Lumpur for Dubai. It has not been an easy choice for me to take and I am glad to know that so far I have managed to overcome all the challenges that came following the move here.

My wife now is in dilemma whether to quit the government job and join me in Dubai for good or keep her job and visit me during long holidays in a year. My wife and I have been discussing a lot about this topic and so far we have not reached a confirmed final conclusion yet. One thing for sure is that the current market condition and news about staffs lay off in all over the world is not helping us at all. But I can say that I am getting busier day by day in the office and for the first time in my career life, I felt grateful and happy for the workload.

One of the issues that keep on bugging us is the security of a government job versus the high return of unsecured expatriate job. To my Malaysians friends, I guess all of you are aware on how secure a government job is, plus the benefits and the pension scheme. On the other hand my job as an expatriate lawyer in UAE gives me the salary that my wife and I have been dreaming all the while. However being a new expatriate and a foreigner, my heart thumps everytime I read the news about lay off around the world, especially in Dubai.

But despite all the uncertainties I think I can rest on a notion that our life after all is just a brief transit in this world. Say that I am destined to live until 70 years old, I have only 38 years to live now. If I know this for a fact I will not in any way choose security over opportunity. I mean what the security is for? Why should I stay in my comfort zone and not see the vast world and its creatures created by Allah? In my opinion there is no security in this world but only opportunity. In my short experience in Dubai so far, I have met a lot of people who have been in any sort of situations in their pursuit of a better opportunity in this world. And they survive ! An opportunity in Dubai has come to me and I grabbed it. Next year or year after it, I dont know whether the same opportunity is still there or I will see a better one. My life is short but sure is long enough to be enjoyed.

Out of respect of one's career I will let my wife to decide about her job. As a husband I can always exercise my prerogative but I don't want to do it yet. Maybe my wife is also seeing a better opportunity by keeping her job..hahaha what do I know. But there are other factors to consider. I hope she knows...

Talking about Transit, 2 weeks ago I received a call from an unknown numbers at 12.30 a.m. I thought it was my alarm ring. It turned out to be an SOS call from a long time friend. He and a wife and 2 children were on their trip to Kuala Lumpur from Newcastle. They transit in Dubai for 24 hours and booked an airport hotel through online booking. However they didn't realise that the hotel is inside the airport before the immigration gate. As they wanted to see Dubai during the day they went throught the immigration counter and got their visit visa. But then they could not check in to the hotel unless they cancel the visit visa.

Syahmi, Shukriah and their 2 lovely angels
(the kids' English were better than mine)

Soon I have to address him Dr Syahmi..

Luckily my friend had my numbers and informed me 2 days before their departure that they intended to meet up with me in Dubai. So after he called, I came to their rescue and booked them another hotel. I could not spent more time entertaining them in Dubai because of the working day, which was regreted, but we managed to catch up for about an hour in the airport when I sent them off the next day. I wish them good luck for their Phd and pray that they will get more good opportunities in the future.

"Go through your phone book, call people and ask them to drive you to the airport. The ones who will drive you are your true friends. The rest aren't bad people, they're just acquaintances"

Jay Leno
American TV Host, Comedian

A Quest For a New Cave

2009-01-13T12:41:00.002+08:00

I wondered how did it goes for cavemen in the past if they decided to find a new cave as their home. Maybe they just go in to a cave, write some graffiti, shout a bit and declare that the cave is his. Or if somebody is residing in that cave, he either look for another cave or ask the resident for a duel. I sometime wished it could be that easy for me to find a new home everytime my tenancy contract is about to expire.

For the past 2 weeks I have been calling on agents and landlords, checking websites and newspapers and visiting apartments in International City in my quest for a new house by April 2009. At the moment the Dubai property rental market is in favour of the tenants because of the drop in rental rates for some areas due to more new houses available in the market and slow pace of recruitment for new expatriates. Thanks to the recession..well finally I found something positive about the recession didn't I?

For example when I checked the rate for a 1 bedroom apartment in International City (cluster areas) in October 2008, it was around Dhs80,000 to Dhs85000 a year payable by 1 or 2 payments. Nowadays the rate for the same type of property in the same area is between Dhs68000 to Dhs75000 a year payable by 1 up to 4 payments, and some even by monthly payments. But as Malaysian folks always say "murah tak murah la" if we compare to rental rate in Kuala Lumpur. But this is the uniqueness of Dubai, where they pay you very fat salaries with no tax but half of that salaries will go to the landlords, the Dubai's version of taxmen. But the good side is if I save up enough money then of course I can be the taxman myself, Inshallah...

Since this is January so I am not in a hurry, for I have another 2 months to choose and decide. At the moment I am sticking to International City residential area because it is quite close to my office (20 minutes drive), the traffic is smooth, plenty of shops and cafes, very near to the Dragon Mart shopping mall, a lot of multi-national hot chicks (wahh !) and the whole place is just a brand new! The downside is because of the sewage treatment plant next to it which sometime gag me with its smell. But the smell factor is really not that bad because it doesn't occur all the times and depends on which cluster I live in the huge area of International City. Anyway sometime I can't even smell my son's "pooh pooh" right under my nose..hehe

I just prayed that the trend will be better for the tenants in the coming months. Hopefully I will not have to do what I imagine a caveman would do in this situation.

"Home...I can't say where it is, but I know I am going home"

U2
A music band

A Long Lost Friend

2009-01-05T14:03:00.003+08:00

This posting is specially dedicated to all my friends who know this one guy.

I was enjoying my Mandi Dajaj lunch in a Yemeni restaurant called Zeina Restaurant in Safa Park when I saw a very familiar face entered through the door. I thought "it could not be him!". I called out his name but he didn't hear it. But I was very sure, the guy was my long lost friend.

I couldn't wait to guess anymore. So I stood up and walked towards him. He sat with his back facing to my direction, so he couldn't see me charging towards him with my hand full of mandi rice.

I patted his shoulder and said "brader kenal aku lagi tak?"

The guy turned around and I said "Amran bukan?". I like the feeling to have put a shock to someone's face, and his was full of it. And he replied "Alongggg... !"

Amran or An Ipoh as I used to call him is a long lost friend back in IIUM matricualtion centre. We had not met for at least 12 years, after he left to further his study in UITM. We never bumped into each other in Malaysia and at last we met here in Dubai.

Apparently An just arrived in Dubai for his first posting in his company. He is a Project Manager for interior design works in Dubai horse racecourse hotel. He will be in Dubai until his project finished. Probably he will look for opportunity for a permanent position in Dubai. After that day, I invited him to my house and we had a great shisha time until late at night, catching up on our lives for the past 12 years. What a great buddy session !

An is one of my friends who has a great entrepenuer skill since his student days. In fact he still owns a shop now back in KL. It is good to see him in Dubai and I wish him good luck for his new endeavour. Who knows he will open up his own business here in Dubai.

Busy managing a project..hah

The only way to have a friend is to be one

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)
American poet

Salam Maal Hijrah 1430H and New Year 2009AD

2008-12-31T19:34:00.005+08:00

I pray that the new year 1430H and 2009AD will bring more happiness and prosperity to you.

I woke up late this morning and quickly jumped to the balcony to gauge the time (I should just check the clock, shouldn't I) and to my surprise there was fog everywhere in my sight. It was quite a thick fog with visibility around 5-10 metres. It was a fantastic view and suddenly it reminded me of a lyric in a black metal band called Dark Throne. I quickly checked my Ipod whether I have the song, but I didnt have it.

Normal view

this morning

At the time of writing this posting around 4pm, a cloud of fog have already blanketed my office window at level 18th. I couldnt see the sea anymore. I thought - "what a foggy day to end the year 2008 yeah.."

Anyway, amid the crisis ridden 2008, the past 12 months have been a productive year for me considering that I received a bonus from my KL company in February, raised a healthy baby, played some fantastic gigs with Dewangga Sakti locally and abroad and of course, made the big decision of moving to Dubai in October.

So tonight I will be at home on the eve of the new year 2009. Maybe I watch a few movies at home or smoke shisha at lebanese restaurant down the blocks or finish up reading Jeffrey Archer's False Imprisonment (I bought it in a newly opened first Kinokuniya bookstore in Dubai Mall, i love Kino..). A few of my colleagues will get drunk tonight, some will go to Shakira concert in Abu Dhabi, some will go clubbing...all these are really not my thang.

My new year resolutions - A LOT ! but let me keep it to myself at the moment.

My dream car? ..no lah

So close but yet...

Well.. I wish I had a Macbook and a bass guitar now.

Cheers to a new year and another chance to get it right

Oprah Winfrey

Lets Go Picnic

2008-12-18T00:08:00.004+08:00

Dates trees

The weather in Dubai is getting chiller by the day. This week a wind called Shamal is bringing in more cool wind from the west and in effect it has lowered down the temperature to minimum 22 degrees Celsius, especially at night.

Grass on desert land

My wife, Adrin and I definitely enjoy this weather very much as we get to wear new warm clothes and do what the peoples of Dubai do in this season, that is - PICNIC !

One thing I noticed about the parks in Dubai is that they are very well maintained. It comes with a price though around AED3.00 to AED20.00 per entry per person. Initially I wondered how do they grow the grass and the trees on a desert. I found out it is not an easy task for them as every tree, grassy spot and bush in Dubai need to be watered automatically by dedicated system of underground pipe tubes. Back home in Malaysia we could just throw a seed or plant a flower stem and it will grow steadily without we realise it or sometime we don't have to do anything and some plants will grow especially lalang.

In Dubai we have been to a few parks like Zaabel Park (entrance fee 5 dirhams per person), Safa Park (entrance fee 3 dirhams per person) and Jumeirah Beach Park (entrance fee 5 dirhams per person and 20 dirhams per car).

The other day, we went to Al Ain city which is about 160km east of Dubai. Al Ain is located further in to the desert area but it is not all sand and dust here because Al Ain is surrounded by a number of oasis. In fact Al Ain is also called "The Garden City of the Gulf" because of its greenery, lush parks and dates/ palm trees. We went to one of its public parks called Hili Archeological Park which is so named because there are a few archeological excavation sites in the park where they have found artefacts of desert people dated as old as 7000 years ago. The entrance fee for Hili Archeological Park was very cheap at 1 dirhams and on that day we went in for free. Besides the grand sight of mountains bordering between UAE and Oman and the archeological sites, one good thing I remembered about the park was that it was really quite. There were not many people in Hili Archeological Park on that day. I lay down on a picnic mat, closed my eyes and tried to focus on my hearing, but there was no sound at all. I felt asleep in no time until Adrin slapped me on my face...huh...

This week is going to be the last week for my wife and Adrin before they go back to Kuala Lumpur. I will definitely miss them after this and more so there will be no more picnic for me.

Life goes on....

I don't bother about how bad the economy is. If I can find a place to go picnic that is a quality of life.

First Birthday in Dubai

2008-11-27T21:12:00.013+08:00

Over excited !

On 21 NOVEMBER 2008 we celebrated the birthday of Muhammad Adrin. It was a very happy occasion for my wife and I and a new experience for both of us too. Because it was the FIRST birthday anniversary of our son ! and in addition to the happy note is that we celebrated it in Dubai !

Adrin woke up very early on his special day at 5.00 a.m. My wife and I tried to get him to sleep but he suddenly laughed and clapped his hands. Then we realised that it was his birthday and he was ready to celebrate. So after breakfast we went to the Mall of Emirates and bought him gifts and cake.

His idea was to touch the fire, not to blow it.

Confused on where has the fire gone

Adrin was waiting for his birthday gifts from this store

Last weekend, we went to visit Dragon Mart in International City. Dubai claimed that this is the biggest shopping mall with all Chinese products under one roof outside China. Well I can confirm that this shopping mall is VERY big and you can get all sorts of Chinese products from toys to forklift inside this mall.

This boy was having a good time loitering in front of the Dragon Mart

My wife like Dragon Mart very much simply because she can get the right size t-shirt for herself and she can bargain the price. My 2-cents advice when dealing with Chinese products... never ever buy their electronic goods. Or if you still want to buy, do not expect it to last long and covered with warranty (yeah I wrote like this but I bought a remote controlled fan from Dragon Mart..very cheap Dhs75 only). As long as it has no mechanical parts inside it, buying Chinese products may worth your money (make sure you got it cheap). As an example, we are still amazed with the fact that we could buy a 10 dirhams t-shirt in Dragon Mart. That was the cheapest bargain we ever got here in Dubai.

Couldn't resist the temptation

The store at the back was selling all kinds of neon lamps

This store provides a lot of towels to choose from

Adrin and his new winter jumper (part of his birthday gifts)

And for me, I like the only Chinese restaurant inside Dragon Mart by the name of Sun Tour Restaurant, obviously because they serve delicious foods that suits my taste budds.

Cheers...

Growing old is mandatory; growing up is optional

Life Has Never Been Happier

2008-11-20T19:34:00.005+08:00

What a wonderful time I have now that my wife and son are here in Dubai. Although they will be here for mere 47 days but I have never felt happier ! I feel fantastic !

I was really amazed when I first saw my son Adrin at the airport. He has grown up pretty fast and for a moment I felt awkward, as if I left him for about a year whereas as a matter of fact it has only been just a month. When I left Adrin for Dubai, he was still a baby, but now he is a toddler who can walk, dance, talk a little and play piano ! He even smell differently and I told my wife about the smell and that if I were a lion, I might attack and eat the cub, because of the unfamiliar smell. Hehe..

Another great news is that I have rented a car and started to drive in Dubai. What a great experience ! In Dubai the road system is right hand driving system, that is to drive at the right side of the road. For that matter, the steering wheel is located at the left side of the dashboard. I have been familiarising myself with the right hand driving method since the first day I took a taxi ride in Dubai. It was not really difficult at first, it just that I have to keep reminding myself to "drive on the right ..drive on the right !" and when I come to a roundabout, "go anti clockwise...anti clockwise !".

I am not sure who is wrong and who is right on the countries' decision either to drive on the left or on the right. But if you see the coloured map of the world below, perhaps you could make your own conclusion.

Red = Drive on the right side of the road
Blue = Drive on the left side of the road

Map from Wikipedia

So far I am getting familiar with the routes from International City to office and vice versa as well as to Dubai Festival City and vice versa. I plan to drive to the new side of Dubai this weekend, i.e areas along the Sheikh Zayed Road leading to Abu Dhabi. Hatta and Oman are another nice places to be visited and quite near from my house.

So I have my wife and kid, a car, cheap petrol, a nice weather, (it is getting colder now in Dubai) big road and vast dessert in front of me. It is time for a serious exploration and more great photos mates !

Until then....

I don't care how poor a man is; if he has family, he's rich

Dan Wilcox and Thad Mumford
American comedy writers

Picture Perfect

2008-11-09T20:01:00.005+08:00

Salammm, kifakkk...

It has been a week since I moved to International City, Dubai. I am getting used to its location, surrounding and most importantly the life in my home. Although generally speaking it feels lonely to be away from my wife and son. In order to avoid feeling bored, I cook, do laundry, clean the house and read books a lot. I also managed to change 2 lamp bulbs by myself but screwed up the third one...dang !

Last Friday, after Juma'ah prayer, I went to Dubai Festival City again, which is around 10 km from my house. This time I decided to check out the hypermarket situated next to Ikea. The hypermarket is call HYPER PANDA. I find the name a bit funny, thinking about the Panda joke my friends and I had in Dewangga Sakti.

HYPER PANDA is just like Carrefour and Tesco hypermarkets. The only difference is, it doesn't have its own packaged products, like Tesco Cola etc.. But to me, this hypermarket is very convenient to look for and shop for groceries. I tried to look for a Panda mascot, but nowhere to be seen.

Outside HYPER PANDA, are the lines of branded clothes and jewellery boutiques typical of shopping malls in Dubai. There are a few brand outlets which attract me such as Fred Perry and Marlboro Classic. I think my brother Apogee will like the collection in Fred Perry. The price of a polo shirt is AED320.00. But the shirt cutting and fabric are what I like the most, fitted to body, casual but yet rugged and street. Anybody interested?

Around 5.00 pm i walked out from the mall area to the canal walk besides the mall. The canal walk is lined between alfresco style dining area and a man-made canal. I enjoyed the desert breeze and people atmosphere here, including the Arab chics hehe...

Lalalala...

Enjoying creek breeze from the marina

Man made canal

I like bean bags !

It was then I got struck by a very scenic view that looked exactly like in a post card. I managed to snap a few pictures which are to me simply Picture Perfect !...subhanallah

View of Burj Al Arab from canal walk

Sunset at 5.15p.m

Marina and boats in Dubai Festival City

Maghrib time

On Saturday, I went out to meet Aidid, a Malaysian who has been in Dubai for almost 3 years. He is a famous blogger amongst the bloggers community in Dubai. We had a good kopitiam time in Burjuman Shopping Centre. I really thanked him for taking half a day spending time to show me places in Al Karama (Kg. Keramat?) especially a restaurant called Singapore Deli, which is run by a Singaporean and they sell Nasi Lemak ! The price is AED23.oo. For an hour in that restaurant, I felt like hanging around in Taman Melati, Gombak.

If I have car, I will come here every Friday for Malaysian foods !

Besides Aidid, I have met a few Malaysians before who have been very friendly and hospitable to me. Some of them have related to me their stories of struggle and experience in Dubai and I salute them for their bravery and survival. And one of them gave me a bottle of black soy ketchup Cap Kipas Udang. A very treasured item in Dubai. Guard it with your soul !!

Later guys,...

"The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes
but in having new eyes"

Marcel Proust
French Novelist and Author
(1871 - 1922)

Baiti Jannati (My House is My Heaven)

2008-11-02T15:09:00.006+08:00

Yess, I finally settled in my own rented house in Dubai. Now I can take a deep relief breath to think that I have a place to call home in this expensive hot desert country. It was not an easy and smooth process though, considering the initial plan was to move in on 23 October but it got delayed until yesterday.

The one thing I hate and come to learn now is that dealing with people in this country, I have got to have Plan A, B and C, otherwise I will feel very frustrated. A promise here, means agreement subject to if-I-dont-have-other-plan-on-that-time changes. I can tell you of all the promises that were given to me, none of them has been kept. And people here are generally hospitable and they do not like to give negative answer or bad news to guests or clients, so their response to my request or query is certainly in a positive tone. If I ask "how long more should I wait for you?"..the standard answer would be "in another 15 minutes, inshallah". But the real time is another 1 hour. If I ask "are you coming?"..the standard answer is "yes I am on the way, you wait" but he probably is already on the way to a different direction other than to me. And as I said they will not give me bad news, so they never call to explain that they got a problem or other matter and will be late for me or not coming at all. I just have to understand (when I call them again) that the delay or cancellation was, of course, unintended and inevitable. Everything is "insha'allah".

OK, enough about complaining.

The overall good feeling which I have about my studio flat is that it is actually bigger compared to the video images I checked in the Youtube. The interior design is neat and modern with central air-condition, hot and cold water supply, kitchen cabinet, built in wardrobe, bath tub and a balcony ! The flat is fully furnished with 2-seaters sofa, washing machine, cooking stove with oven, refrigerator, TV, dvd player, double bed, dressing table, dining table, side table, vacuum machine, iron, cutleries and to make up the delay, my landlord paid for cleaning and maintenance service until April 2009. And he did't say "inshallah I will pay" but he said "I have paid". So...you know...

The King's bed and couch

I ordered this Lebanese meal as dinner by home delivery at 12.30 in the morning !

The wardrobe to the Land of Narnia

In order to pimp my crib, I went to Dubai Festival City, a shopping complex as big as the Curve shopping area in Mutiara Damansara. And being lazy and in a hurry, I went to shop for bed sheet, pillow, dining wares etc at the Ikea store, a one stop centre for me, of which setting and prices are not much different from our own Ikea store in Mutiara Damansara. The only difference is that their food court offer more food selection than that ping pong-sized meatball in Ikea Mutiara Damasara's food court.

The entrance

The Master Chef's kitchen
(but soon will be taken over by the Queen herself !)

Before dipping myself in a hot steamy bath tub..ahhh !

I guess one of the Malay's trait is that Malay is a natural hommie. By this what I mean is, a typical Malay always emphasize on a comfortable and nicely decorated house. You can observe it when you visit another Malay house during Hari Raya. Same goes to me, my immediate mission is to make my new flat as comfortable as heaven whenever I call for it from work or elsewhere. It is also to impress my wife and kid when they come visit me in the middle of November..hehehe. You will see honey.

Tonight I plan to go home on time (if my driver stick to his inshaallah promise) and do groceries so that I can cook at home.

I like to wish myself "Welcome Home..yeah !"

"Cleanliness and order are not matters of instinct; they are matters of education, and like most great things, you must cultivate a taste for them"

Benjamin Disraeli
(British politician, 1804-1881)

Underground Bands in Dubai

2008-10-26T20:43:00.005+08:00

I have pretty much settled in with my office condition. I know how to describe its location, the staff, the bosses, cool lunch places (but still looking for cooler ones) and style of work. I have also obtained my Residence Visa which entitle me for UAE bank accounts, property rental & purchase and UAE driving licence.

I am officially a resident of UAE

The one thing which is pending, is my crib. But I hope I will move to my flat by this Thursday or Friday as I have been informed by the landlord last night. Otherwise there will be a big hole in my pocket !

I quite like the location of my new hotel. Everything is within a walking distance, so I can save money from the exorbitant taxi fares and get to exercise by walking a lot. There is a mosque just in front of the hotel, a Carrefour, the Creekfront, kebab stalls and last but not least Karachi Darbar Restaurant, which is a famous Pakistani restaurant, recommended by my friend Qamjat before I come to Dubai. I ate mutton briyani accompanied by chicken chilli and man.....I cried in happiness (because it was so delicious).

Mutton Briyani & Chicken Chilli

Ok enough about mutton and coming back to the main topic, yesterday I spent half the day browsing books in Magrudy which is a local bookshop chain in UAE. After purchased a new novel by John Grisham - The Appeal, I headed off to Starbuck (no choice, no kopitiam here). Whilst having my coffee, it strucked me on how long I have not been enjoying my music. Yes I do listen to and watch a lot of music videos in Dubai MTV but those are not my type of music. My music means the underground metal music and Malay traditional folk songs.

So I headed off to Virgin music store and approched one of the staff. I asked him whether there was any underground metal albums from the UAE. I wasn't expecting anything as I was just fishing information. But to my surprise, the dreadlock staff showed me a CD by a band called BILOCATE. I listened to its first track and WOW....they play dark death metal in the style range of Vital Remains and My Dying Bride. The vocal growl and the double bass kick really raised my hairs. The band is actually a Jordanian death metal band but their singer and frontman, works in Dubai. So I bought the CD. For further information you can check them out in their BILOCATE website and Dubai TimeOut magazine and metal underground.com website. You can listen some of their tracks in Bilocate Youtube.

I asked the dreadlock staff again whether there was any venue in Dubai which holds metal gig. The dreadlock staff called his long-haired mat salleh colleague and the mat salleh informed me about a place called Touch Club where every Wednesday night they hold event called Blacklist, which feature local underground bands. They gave me the club's address and I think it is not far from my hotel.

I also found out another local underground act in Dubai which is called NERVECELL, who was said to be the veteran of death metal scene in the UAE. Checkout their Nervecell website. I will visit their merchandiser next week in Mazaya Shopping Centre (I have been to this place for dinner last week but did not notice a music store). You can see their video footage in Nervecell Youtubes .

I have also read that every year there is a Dubai DesertRock Festival and amongst the bands that have played last years were Sepultura (2005), Megadeth (2006), In Flames (2007), Iron Maiden (2007), Prodigy (2007), Korn (2008) and many others. Coming soon is Opeth in March 2009.

Damn, I am digging more about this ! If you guys know anything about underground scene in this region, please drop me a line. I feel aliveeeee....

"Forever Underground"

Album by Vital Remains
(1997)

Homeless

2008-10-23T16:23:00.002+08:00

Whoa...by today it has been almost 2 weeks I am in Dubai. By tomorrow I will break my personal record of staying more than 2 weeks in a foreign country. Before this, the longest I have ever stayed in a foreign country was 2 weeks, once in Mecca/Medina (1996) and another in Chengdu (2007). So you could imagine how much I miss keluargaku, rumahku, keretaku, pekanku and kawan-kawanku...huuuuuuu..

There is a little bit of a problem with my arrangement for rental flat. I am supposed to move to a studio flat in International City by tomorrow, but suddenly I received a text from the landlord saying that his renovation is not finished and therefore he can only deliver the flat to me on next Wednesday. Although I am prepared to face anything during this time, but the thought of not having a confirmed place to sleep tomorrow night is really scary !

I quickly checked whether I can extend my stay for a week with the current hotel and the hotel says yes, but the rate almost made me fainted - AED480 per night ! I checked with my company whether they can pay for the extension period but unfortunately, it is not within the company policy. I can't say much because the other 3 new lawyers also live elsewhere after the 2 weeks hotel stay sponsored by the company.

So, I frantically looked for another budget hotels around my office. Technically there is no budget hotel in Dubai, because the rate is surprisingly high even for a 2 stars hotel. All rates start from AED250 onwards. Luckily I managed to book a room in New Peninsula Hotel, Bur Dubai, which is quite close to my office and located in a city centre.

Hey but this is just a booking without paying anything yet...So my fate is still uncertain. Where will I sleep tomorrow???? My god...I am homeless !

"People who are homeless are not social inadequate. They are people without homes."

Sheila McKechnie,
Scottish activist, 1948 - 2004

Visit to Bur Dubai

2008-10-19T12:31:00.011+08:00

Last Friday (official off day in UAE) I visited a town called Bur Dubai, an old town in Dubai. I was informed that Bur Dubai is the 'real' and original Dubai. It was just a 15 minutes taxi ride from my hotel in Safa Park and the cost was AED21.00. My first destination was Burjuman Shopping Centre. This shopping centre reminds me of Bangsar Shopping Centre but inside it are full of luxurious brands like Loius Vutton, Saks Fifth Avenue, Prada etc. I spent just 15 minutes roaming the ground and first floors then went out for Friday prayer. After all it served no purpose just to see the price tags and 'gulp' ..

A structure of windtower. An architecturial style of Old Dubai

After the Friday prayer I asked the direction to go to Khor Dubai or Dubai Creek. I walked about 2 kilometres strolling along the various shops owned by mostly Pakistanis and Indians. I thought, are they the faces of old Dubai? Suddenly I saw a structure of an old fortress and to my delight it was the Dubai Museum. So I jumped into a queue of tourists leading to the entrance of the museum. The entrance fee was only AED3.00, very cheap according to Dubai standard.

The tourists were from Spain, all grandfathers and grandmothers

The walls were made from river mud, seashells and clay

A short canon. I doubt it could cause any harm to anything except if you stuffed your butt in front of it

A traditional windtower

Inside the fort

The tour in Dubai Museum was very educational to me. Now I know that Dubai has been the melting port for traders and merchants of the world for centuries, and the foreigners (mostly Pakistanis and Indians) have been the faces of Dubai.

After Dubai Museum, I continued walking towards my original destination i.e the Dubai Creek. The scene of the creek illuminated by sun shine and traditional boats called Abra was breathtaking and spectacular. Besides the Abras there were also yachts and water buses. I pity a water bus when it tried so hard to sail against the creek's current. It was so painfully slow that I finished my whole tea meal in 1 hour but the water bus was still in my sight. I enjoyed the view of peoples embarking and disembarking the Abras whilst having my sips of Turkish coffee and hummus with bread. Very Arabic..hehe. My wife called and I have to shout in order to talk to her in the phone as the whole place was noisy filled with the roaring sound of the Abra's engines.

What a peaceful view for coffee and shisha !

The Abras' engines were very noisy but lively

Passengers disembarking from Abra

Taking my own picture

The Creekfront before Maghrib time

Three Emiratis on an Abra

When can I own one?

After I performed Maghrib prayer at the mosque nearby, I continued strolling along the Creekfront until I reached the city centre. Man, I really love the sound and smell of a river. It was a relaxing walk in the evening amidst the busy life of an old trading city. Whilst walking, I imagined myself to be a merchant from the Far East had I come to Dubai a century ago. But what would be my trade? Hmm maybe ...hehe nevermind.

Passengers on Abra

After dinner I went to the Burjuman Shopping Centre again for taxi. This time I got no choice than to queue for almost an hour just to get a taxi home. I cannot wait to get my UAE driving licence soon.

"What makes a river so restful to people is that it doesn't have any doubt - it is sure to get where it is going, and it doesn't want to go anywhere else"

Hal Boyle,

American writer 1911- 1974

My First Work Meeting in Dubai

2008-10-15T13:02:00.003+08:00

Hahaha I think for the first few months from now, my idea of blogging is always to share about my first of everything in Dubai....so please put up with the cliche title.

Yesterday I was called by my boss to join him for a meeting with clients in Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC). It was a dream come true as I have been reading quite a lot about the DIFC and felt grateful to have finally attended a meeting in such a great place. The nature of work in Dubai is international. The professionals in banking and finance sector also comes from diverse nationalities. Yesterday I represented clients from Bahrain and met up with DIFC and Dubai Financial Service Authority (DFSA) regulators from the UK, UAE and Malaysia. Oh yes, there are a lot of Malaysians in the banking and finance industry in Dubai. I feel proud to be a Malaysian because we are internationally known as experts in Islamic finance in Dubai. I have bumped into a few of them in cafes around my office and some were my clients back in Kuala Lumpur.

Pic by Al Abrar Group

The Gate, famous building in DIFC.
I had a meeting inside this building.

Today is my 4th day at work. I just got a message to attend another meeting in DIFC. Luckily it is only a walking distance from my office to DIFC, otherwise the thought of waiting for taxi will kill my excitement to visit DIFC again. In Dubai, owning a car is very important. If you rely on taxis then you will have to suffer the long wait under the dessert sunshine or wind and the behaviour of the taxi drivers. The taxi fare is also exepensive ! But the ride is luxury and comfortable because the smallest taxi cars here are Toyota Camry.

So let me prepare myself for the next meeting and send this post first...

Ohh you are from Malaysia !
Malaysian is nice people...

everybody I met

First Day in the Office

2008-10-12T21:07:00.004+08:00

I woke up early around 5.00 a.m and suddenly got the mood to exercise. I thought of going to the hotel gymnasium but later decided to do push up and stationary run in my room. After shower and prayer, I dressed up (to kill) and rehearsed my smile and introductory line in front of the mirror - "Hi my name is Syamsulfaiz from Kuala Lumpur. I come to report to work".

I arrived at the office at 7.00 a.m and the office was still closed. At 8.00 a.m I checked again and met the receptionist. I was greeted by the HR manager and a few secretaries. They were all beautiful Arab ladies. They ushered me to my new room which I share with other 2 lawyers. My room have a wall sized window facing Sheikh Zayed Road and the sea ! The two partners who interviewed me, came in to shake hand. They were very friendly and good looking. Then a new partner from Canada also came in to my room. He also arrived for the first day same like me. He told me that he used to stay in Bangsar for 3 years. I also met a Malaysian lawyer who has been in Dubai for 3 years. I think I have seen him before in a seminar in Kuala Lumpur. Later we went for teh tarik session but in Starbuck Coffee. A very nice fellow.

"Hi my name is Syamsulfaiz from Kuala Lumpur"

My new battle station.

I noticed all the male lawyers coming to the office in full suit. So this is a new office culture that I must quickly adapt. Luckily I also wore my new suit. Also not to forget, all the office boys were wearing bow tie and vest. They look like hotel butlers, smart and sharp. My office also have Public Relation Officers (PROs), who I guess, are in charge of public relations with lawyers, clients and authorities. They were very friendly to me. All the personnel in the office are of diverse nationalities. I have met Australian, Lebanese, Jordanian, Indian, Egyptian, Canadian and Malaysian.

It was dark outside around 6.00p.m. If it is clear you can see the Persian Gulf

I asked to join my room mate lawyer for lunch. We went to the nearest grocery store and bought lunch packs. Then we ate lunch on one of the benches near Dubai International Financial Centre. Very quick lunch and delicious food. The cost was AED10 but my new friend bought it for me. He is a very kind fellow. I was the only guy wearing a full suit at that time and felt awkward. It was in a middle of the day, hot but I wasn't sweating. Don't want to jatuh standard ok !

After lunch the HR manager briefed me on the next steps for my residence visa and labour card application. Tomorrow I will have to attend a medical check up. They have fixed an appointment for me in a private hospital near Jumeirah. The cost will be AED650. I wanted to go out and buy a new mobile sim card, but one of the PROs volunteered to do it for me and he promised to get a nice number for me.

Feeling bored at my place doing nothing, I went to see a partner in my department and borrowed a few law textbooks from him. He told me they were not many English textbooks but if I can read Arabic then I can read more law books as they were written in Arabic. Refreshing my practice of reading and speaking Arabic will be a good move in Dubai.

A very improtant reading material for my line of work.

The sun sets early in Dubai like in Sarawak. It was around 6.00p.m (10.00 p.m in Malaysia) and already it was dark outside. So I just wait for 6.30pm where people leave the office to home. I looked around to see how busy their works were, but couldn't see them because all lawyers sit in their own room. I noticed a lot of Mat Salleh coming in and out for meeting with lawyers here.

So I just wait and send this entry first...

"Welcome aboard !"

Office colleagues

First 12 Hours in Dubai

2008-10-11T17:01:00.005+08:00

After the stupid incident on 9th October, I finally boarded my aeroplane early and flew to Dubai. The flight journey took 7 hours during which time I hardly could sleep because the stewardesses were hard to be ignored and they kept giving me foods !

I landed in Dubai International Airport at 0300 hours (this time I knew it was 3.00 am in the morning, thank you..). I had a smooth check out with the immigration. There were a lot of peoples in the airport that night. Some of them come to Dubai as their destination and some as transit airport. I noticed a lot of the immigration officers are young and they wore dishdasha and Arab's headgear. I think they are UAE nationals i.e the Emiratis. I can say Emiratis are quite an elite group of peoples in their own country because they are only 20% of the UAE population. The rest are expatriates like me.

I called the hotel driver and he told me he was already waiting outside the entrace gate. He drove me to hotel Holiday Inn Express in Safa Park. Apparently it is a new hotel, just 4 months old. The receptionist was nice and helpful and my room was clean and set in a contemporary design. I looked at my watch after settling down in my room and it showed 5.00 am. Still very early, so I went to sleep.

Hotel driver and taxi that took me to hotel

My bed.
The widow is facing Sheikh Zayed Road

I woke up, prayed, showered and went to hotel lounge for breakfast. I called my recruitment agent to fix a meeting with him. Around 9.00 a.m I reccee the way from hotel to Al Attar Business Tower, the building where my office is located. It was a short ride of 10 minutes and costs me AED11.00. After I surveyed the office I strolled along Sheikh Zayed Road by foot. There were many shops and boutiques in each building. There were many coffee shops too including Starbuck. This place really attracts peoples with moneys to spend.

My office building. The office is at 18th floor

In front of my office building. View to the west.
The metro line is still under construction

In front of my office building. View to the east.

Emirates Towers, behind my office

Dusit Dubai, at the end of Sheikh Zayed Road

Burj Dubai, 800 meters tall ! still under construction

Around 11.00 am I took a taxi to the Mall of Emirates, one of the biggest malls in Dubai and it has a Ski Dubai where people ski in man-made snow slopes. One thing I noticed about Dubai is that they use their cash to make their life very convenient. The bus stops are air-conditioned. The musolla is big like a mosque and the water for ablution is made warm. In the mall the management put on azan on loud speaker through out the mall, so it is very easy to get reminded to perform solat.

The view inside Ski Dubai, whilst eating my lunch

Main entrance

Ohh yeah...about the food, so far all the food I tasted were delicious. But a little bit pricey. I had fried soba mee for lunch and sechuan fried rice for dinner. Very delicious !

Sobayaki, AED37

The malls contain a lot of shops and boutiques for clothes, jewelleries, IT accessories and a lot more. I went to Borders to look for local law textbooks but they were in Arabic. I went to Virgin music store browsing the local production. I will buy them later. In Dubai, most peoples wear designer clothes and accessories because those branded items are quite affordable. I checked the price and I thought with Dubai salary, inshallah, I can afford them. I think it is useful to follow this trend in order to look apart and understand the culture in Dubai. There was one boutique from the USA called FIT, it covered so large an area and even has pedestrian conveyors on it s floor for people to save their energy from walking. Another convenience sponsored by cash !

Heaven !

I got a running nose that day.

Om Kalthoum of Egypt, the oldtimers sure know..

Yamaha 5 strings bass guitar for AED1950.

Long way to shop

???

My agent canceled his appointment with me due to other business. Whilst I was queuing for a taxi, a superbly long Hummer arrived at the hotel entrance. The Hummer is too long that it took 5 minutes for it to clear a corner after picking up its passengers. It caused a brief traffic jam in front of the mall. So I went back to the hotel at 11.00 pm. By that time it was 3.00 a.m in Kuala Lumpur. No wonder I felt so sleepy.

Stretched Hummer.

To be continued..

"Welcome to Dubai, Muhammed"

Mohammed, the hotel receptionist

When I get Stupid...I get it all out

2008-10-10T12:34:00.005+08:00

I was in KLIA last night ready to board my flight to Dubai. I was exhausted from the hectic day sorting final matters with Inland Revenue Board, Wisma Putra, UAE Embassy and Immigration. I came home late but luckily my lovely wife helped packed my bags. I was frustrated with my Ubuntu computer cannot connect with my new Celcom usb modem. As a result I can only check my emails using my handphone.

I had a feeling that I wasn't ready to fly last night. But it was just a feeling and went ahead to check in for my flight.

I wasn't ready

Then...a problem. I was alerted by the MAS officer that my passport validity was less than 6 months. By Immigration law I must renew my passport first. My knee shook a bit. I showed them my Dubai working visa and finally they checked me in. I should have renewed my passport when I was in immigration office before. What a stupid I was!

Adrin wasn't in good mood

Checked in done. I felt relieved.

My flight was at 2359 and boarding time was 2329. I looked at my watch and it was 10.55pm. 'Still got time', I thought. So I went to talk to my family and friends. I thank them all for coming.

Later the clock has showed 11.40pm but still I didnt make a move to board. Why ?...because for some reason I mistaken my flight to be at 12.59 a.m. So still got time right? What a stupid I was !

So at 11.45pm I slowly walked to immigration counter for boarding. As expected, my passport was declined by the autogate. It took me 5 minutes to explain.

Then suddenly I heard my name being called to board. I thought why so early? So I embarked the aerotrain to gate C1. I almost fell to my knees when a MAS lady told me "Sir, your aeroplane took off already ! what happened to you??". Only at that point in time I realised I had mistaken 2359 to be 12.59. What a stupid I was !

Today I have received my new ticket and renewed my passport. Luckily I only need to pay penalty of RM350 for the new ticket. My flight will be tonight at 11.59pm. SO I MUST BOARD AT 11.00PM !

I just cannot forget my wife first response to me about all these. She just whispered to me ..PALOIII..in a lovely tone (means STUPID in Melanau).

What an experience !...So anybody want to send me off AGAIN tonight?...Wahahahahahaha...!

"PALOI !"

My Wife

Smokey the Cat

2008-09-28T12:43:00.011+08:00

I am posting this entry from my mother in laws house in Oya, Sarawak using Celcom Vodafone USB modem. What a wonder of broadband technology ! because if you have ever come to Oya you will never imagine that you can have internet access here. So another point is that Oya is not that remote now and you can always check your email and post a blog from Oya.

In my preparation to move to Dubai, my wife and I had made another difficult decision for both of us. We have a cat which we love so much and which we treat like our child. His name is Smokey and he is a domestic long hair (DLH) cat. DLH is a generic category for non-pure breed Persian cat. I learnt that if I don't have a proper breeding certificate, I must not call my cat a Persian cat. That is the standard in the cat breeding industry. Well....enough about that.

Smokey

To ease the burden of my wife in raising Adrin alone for a couple of months, we decided to surrender Smokey to my wife's niece who we affectionately called Adik Umik (in Melanau means a little sister). We selected Adik Umik because she is well known for her passion and love for cats. She should be the right candidate to take care of Smokey after this.

But Adik Umik is in Oya, Sarawak. So I have to transport Smokey by air to Sarawak. At first I thought I just bring Smokey with us when we come to Sarawak for Hari Raya. After all Sarawak is just another state in Malaysia like Selangor, Perak and Pahang. But it is not as easy as I thought. Apparently exporting a cat to Sarawak requires import and export permit from the Department of Animal Services. It is almost like the procedure for exporting a cat to a foreign country.

Below is the list of procedures for exporting a cat to Sarawak:-

1) An Import Permit must be obtained from Department of Animal Services Sarawak. The cost is RM5.00. So Adik Umik's father have to get this done first;
2) A copy of Import Permit must be faxed to Kuala Lumpur for the application of Export Permit from Department of Animal Services Kuala Lumpur;
3) For the application of Export Permit, Smokey must obtain a Health Certificate from a qualified veterinar. The cost is around RM150.00 depending on Smokey's health conditions;
4) Once Health Certificate and a copy of Import Permit are obtained, Smokey must be brought to Department of Animal Services Kuala Lumpur for inspection. If Smokey passed, Export Permit will be issued. The cost is RM31.00;
5) After Export Permit is obtained, purchase flight ticket from Malaysia Airlines. AirAsia do not allow transportation of animal in its services. Malaysia Airlines also need to know the dimension of the cage before they can issue ticket. The cost of airfare is RM15.00 per kg of the cat and cage;
6) Smokey can be transported with human company (hand carry) or by cargo. If by cargo then upon arrival Smokey will be greeted by a designated recipient in Sibu (Adik Umik's father) and veterinary officers. After custom clearance, Smokey will be deported to Bintulu Quarantine Centre;
7) Quarantine of animal from Kuala Lumpur may take up to 6 months. But if Smokey's condition is satisfactorily he can be released after 2 weeks. The Quarantine Centre will call Adik Umik to come and collect Smokey from the centre.

I briefed the procedures above to Adik Umik's father and expected him to be surprised and declined to take Smokey. But to my surprise he just replied "Ok..". HUh....He really loves his daughter that much ! And I am more convinced to have selected the right people.

Adik Umik

As every cat owner knows, nobody owns a cat
Ellen Perry Berkeley
Cat Writer and Specialist

Last Show with Dewangga Sakti

2008-09-22T15:36:00.004+08:00

I never imagined this day will arrive. Last Saturday was my last performance with Dewangga Sakti. My feeling?...I was very sad to leave behind Dewangga Sakti life for Dubai. Even when my bandmates asked for my last speech during Iftar, I just said "I will come back !". I just don't want to say goodbye, in fact so far I have never said goodbye to any of my friends because I like to think I will see them around again. It is not because I do not want to accept the fact or what, but I have long held this view that in this century no matter where you go, you are just a phone call away, a blog away or a YM or facebook away...hehehe if you get what I mean. That is the wonder of the world wide web which is to me the greatest wonder ever in this world. So you never really go far away from your friends except you just cannot hang around in person.

Pic: After a show in MHI in July 2008. Wahyun was absent.

But Dewangga Sakti life is all about engaging music passion together in person. We always do it the old style way. We hang out, we talk, we jam and we create music. So by being far away, I will no longer be able to do all that. Some people suggest I can compose music or jam online but that is not the way we do it in Dewangga Sakti. Most of the times we need to talk, argue and crack joke before we can get the mood to create music. It is a slow and inefficient process but very human process.

I wish I could have everything but that is not the reality. I chose to move out from my comfort zone so this is what it entails. I hope I will get something meaningful and worthwhile out of this experience.

Yesterday I also joined Iftar by IIUM Adventure & Recreational Club ("ARC"). I was invited as the ARC club alumni and as a member of Latepackers club. I passionately call these two clubs as "kelab budak-budak gunung", because that is the main activity of the clubs, mountain climbing. Mountain climbing is one of my past time hobbies besides music. I have climbed Mount Yong Belar, Mount Chamah, Mount Ulu Sepat, Mount Korbu and Mount Gayong. These mountains are in the group of 7 mountains above 7000 feet in West Malaysia. The other 2 mountains are Mount Yong Yap and Mount Tahan which I have not hiked yet. I have also climbed other small mountains like Mount Datuk, Mount Bunga Buah, Bukit Taboh and Mount Nuang. So in ARC those who managed to climb all the 7 mountains will be certified by the club as Achiever. I got 2 mountains more which I plan to climb in the future. Of course the ultimate mountain is Mount Kinabalu. In ARC we like to climb the 7 mountains first because they are the toughest compared to Mount Kinabalu (my American friend hiked Kinabalu during weekend and came to work on Monday ! sounds easy?). But with my departure that plan has to be postponed infinitely.

I have been upholding the club's motto all this while..yeah !

I managed to see some old friends during the ARC Iftar. It was good to see them happy with wives and cute kids. Some of them have started facebooking and blogging, so I will definitely see them a lot after this in my Facebook and blog.

Pic:
Lanun, Enche', Joko, Atuk, Kak Bad, Kak Mie, Nyamoque and a few seniors whose names escape me..

Kalau ada sumur di ladang
Boleh hamba menumpang mandi
Kalau ada umur yang panjang
Boleh kita berjumpa lagi

Malay pantun

Food..Fasting..Food..Fasting..Food

2008-09-11T00:44:00.007+08:00

RAMADHAN MUBARAK...! This is my first blog posting during a holy month of Ramadhan. Although this is the month when I as a Muslim observe fasting from dawn till dusk but my mind normally think about food more during this month. So getting less food will result thinking more about food.

So on the first day of Ramadhan me and my family gathered for our first Iftar (fasting break !) at my parents' house in Tanjung Malim. This gathering a la reunion dinner was very important to me as nothing beat my Emak's signature dishes as a ground breaking Iftar for the month. However this year Emak decided to go simple compare to the previous years. So we had sweet sour fish, mixed veggies, tomyam (by my wife), umai (by my wife), chili prawns, curry puff and home-made rambutan jelly.

First Day Iftar

On the third day my wife and I decided to have Iftar at Roadhouse Grill restaurant in Jalan Ampang. To my surprise it was on my wife because she said she wanted to make up for my birthday dinner which we missed in last April. Yes last April we couldn't celebrate my birthday because we decided to save every extra cents that we have for Adrin's pram and 2 car seats. So the theme of the restaurant was the wild west frontier or cowboy style. True to the theme when they served bread and butter, I asked for butter knife but the waiter replied "sorry sir we don't have butter knife, you can use your steak knife...cowboy style". Oh I see..

Cowboy dishes

Then 2 days ago we tried a new restaurant in Taman Melati called Memori Corner. The restaurant's wall is full with Sudin's pictures by cartoonist Lat (if I am not mistaken). It brings back memory of chilhood games in kampung like batu seremban, ketinting, main guli and enjit-enjit semut. But what really brought back my memory was when I saw some hand-made wooden rifles hanged on the restaurant's wall. Wow..I used to make my own wooden rifle when I was a kid. I wonder whether kids in kampung nowadays know how to make it...DIY ! Or maybe they just buy a plastic one in supermarket. I looked at Adrin and thought ...this boy will never get the chance, what a shame. As for the food...yes this post is about food, we had mee rebus and curry mee which the menu claims to be the restaurant's signature dishes. The foods were delicious !

Memori Corner

OK..what shall we have for Iftar tomorrow...

Come, Come again!
Whatever you are…
Whether you are disbeliever,
idolater or fireworshipper.
You have broken your vows
of repentance a hundred times
this is not the gate of despair,
this is the gate of hope.
Come, come again…

Jalaludin Rumi, Poet