This Time I 'Unskirted' Her

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 !

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

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....

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

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

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

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.