Thomas Cup Season Comes Once Again

The Thomas Cup finals are starting soon. Now, now, I can hear you say, “So what?” or “Who cares?” but bear with me here.

As uncool as badminton is in Malaysia now, there are a lot of people who would like to see our boys lift that old silver cup. In the age EPL, Tiger Woods, Formula 1, DOTA, that old racket and shuttle game has been perceived to be relegated to a forgotten pastime played only by rural kids and pudgy old men.

But for those who can remember the fairytale of ’92 and the great battles in the 60’s through the 90’s, the magic of the Thomas Cup is alive.

Granted, our current boys can’t hold a candle to the legends like Eddy Choong and Wong Peng Soon but this is the best we have at the moment, and it is up to them to beat the likes of China, Indonesia and South Korea. Gone are the days when we could cruise into the final and play with our eternal foes Indonesia or the stately Danes, it says a lot about how the other countries have caught up with Malaysia these days.

When we were young, during the hot seasons, we’d be playing with frayed shuttlecocks on the lane of our housing estate, windy months made playing impossible. Later in secondary school, we’d play in rented badminton halls for as low as RM2.00 per hour. (Catholic High School charges, what, RM25 per hour now, don’t they, Patrick?)

If I can, I’ll watch Malaysia’s matches. Maybe, perhaps if the draught blows right, and the groundhog sees his own shadow, and Lee Chong Wei remembers to change the battery on his wristwatch, maybe, just maybe…

For some stuff I wrote about the team and victory of ’92, check these out…
Malaysia Lifts the Thomas Cup: The Story of ‘92 (Part 1)
Malaysia Lifts the Thomas Cup: The Story of ‘92 (Part 2)

Technorati Tags: Thomas Cup, Malaysia, Eddy Choong, Wong Peng Soon, Indonesia, Lee Chong Wei

Just Why Is Ikea So Popular..

I go to these show houses at those housing launches quite a lot. You know, every time a developer launches a new housing project, they build a nice, swanky show house fitted out with nice, clean furniture like those you see in interior decoration magazines.

Nine out of ten show houses will be fitted out in Ikea furniture.

I still can’t get Malaysians’ fascination with Ikea. Especially urban, upper-middle class, Malaysians of Chinese origin, and their fascination with Ikea. According to my friends who studied in London, there the Swedish furniture store is perceived more as an affordable market furniture. Over here, it ranks a little lower than those pseudo-Italian slash Malaysian designer stores like Fella Design and Lorenzo and Jojo Mamami.

(Side note: Has anyone noticed that series Alfa Romeo advertisements on local radio? It goes something like: “Learning Italian, lesson 10…” Very cute. Unfortunately, they don’t give a telephone number or website for me to look up when I want to buy my next Alfa Romeo Sunday car. I guess I’ll have to settle for a Ferrari, then… end of a really pointless side note.)

Ikea is nice. They have this attractive pine wood theme going on there, but its hardly affordable. Maybe it’s the exchange rate, or the perception of the owning of threadbare timber dining set designed by some Swedish dude with an unpronounceable name (“Schlossbirk”? “Bjorn Borg”? “Bjork”?) or the prestige of setting out your living room exactly like they did in the Ikea showroom (where they’ve neatly arranged everything to fit a 169sq.ft. small apartment living space, but your living room is nearer to 300sq.ft…), I dunno.

Maybe it’s because our local furniture dealers are not trying hard enough to compete with Ikea. Heck, sometimes I think they aren’t even trying at all. Look at those hundreds of ‘furniture malls’ or ‘kedai perabot Lian Soon’ sprouting out everywhere. It used to be Old Klang Road is the furniture centre of KL, but now there are even more in Puchong, Petaling Jaya and Sri Petaling (have you seen that Malaysia’s biggest chair thing next to the highway? Guess who sits there? Malaysia’s biggest bum? Okay, okay, back to the topic.)

Almost all of them are the same. The same catalogues, same suppliers, same look, samey samey same. Only like one out a dozen offers different choices from the rest, usually some garish golden dining set with half naked Greek goddesses and nymphs holding up globes or lightning bolts that poke you in the eye when you unknowingly bump into them.

Oh, well, maybe I’ll drop by Ikea instead. But just like everyone else, end up buying those ‘cheap’ stuff like the colourful plastic cups, doormats, sofa pillows, ice trays, placemats, etc.

(Regards to my pal Lina, who works for Ikea somewhere in the forests of Stockholm. I wonder if she still reads this blog from that third world country…)

Technorati Tags: Ikea, Fella Design, Lorenzo, Stockholm

Top Ten Problems You Didn’t Face Ten Years Ago

Top Ten Problems You Didn’t Face Ten Years Ago

The title kinda says it all, doesn’t it? Don’t get me wrong, i love the new millenium and the tech and gadgets, but things were a little different back then…

• You can’t figure out how to connect your plasma TV, hi-fi set, Astro decoder, DVD player, VCR (“I still use it ma…”) together. Either you get sound without picture or picture without…

• You just lost your handphone and together with it, your all important phone book, and videos of you and your…

• “Sorry la Joe, this year, I can’t make the trip up to Lake Pedu to go fishing with the guys. You know, a little financial problem la, some more toll price so expensive, some more petrol now RM1.92 per litre la… you know la…”

• Your PS2 laser is out of alignment, it cost as much to get it repaired as it would to buy a new one, but your mom won’t buy you another one, and PS3 is not due to be out for a few months… dang, dang, dang…!

• Your infernal ISP is traffic-shaping your IP address due to your Bittorent downloading.

• You missed the turning off to your house from the LDP, so you had to travel exactly 3.8km to the next interchange and back. Your girlfriend has the cheek to call it a ‘joyride’.

• ”Actually ah, the price of the magazine has gone down to USD12.50 recently you know, but with the exchange rate at RM3.62, and plus shipping and handling ah, RM60 should cover it for one month…”

• Yahoo! Mail keeps sending messages from your favourite anime forum to the spam box.

• You’ve just found out that ‘hotchick37‘, the 6′ 2″ Swedish model you’ve been flirting with online for the past 3 months is your father in the next room.

• ”I don’t care if it’s freaking free for life, or you’re giving me a vibrating pillow, I DON’T WANT YOUR CREDIT CARD!!!”

It’s Secretaries’ Week Again

I understand Secretaries’ Week is coming soon. I don’t know exactly when, but judging from the ads on the radio and on the papers, I’m thinking its pretty soon.

(Side note: You guys might want to read something I wrote last year. Captivating stuff, you’ve got to read it. Anyways, for the record, I keep getting these incoming clicks to that article from people searching for ‘sexy secretaries’ using Google and other search engines. Every week, without fail, I kid you not. I have no idea why. End of side note).

I have just gotten over my mild shock of reading about ‘Easter Buffet Lunch’ offered by some KL hotels last weekend (“Come celebrate the Crucifixion and Resurrection of Jesus Christ in a Totaling Unrelated All-You-Can-Eat Feast of International Cuisine, All For a Unbelievably Cheap RM85++ per pax!”), now the barrage Secretaries’ Day luncheon ads about Anita Sarawak / Anuar Zain / Camelia / The Famous Kong Brothers.

Anyways, I won’t be going into the whole commercialized circus it has become, I’m just curious what kind of bosses are the ones that actually go with their secretaries to these expensive luncheons and show. I’m thinking those bosses who send their Girl Fridays to these shows are either high powered CEO’s with Superwoman handle-it-all Secretary that can do everything under the sun, or sleazy bosses trying to hit on their sexy secretaries behind their wives’ backs. But I could be wrong. I’ve worked for many, many bosses over the years, (some of them were good, some eat live bats for breakfast), but none of them send their staff for any Secretaries’ Week luncheons. Not even the good ones.

So who actually are the ones going to these things?

Last week when I asked my colleague who, incidentally is a secretary, if her boss is sending her to one of these shows. Her reply? “Hah! DREAM ON…!”

Technorati Tags: Secretaries’, Anuar Zain, Secretary, sexy secretaries

Top Ten Signs You Haven’t Used The Internet for A Very Long Time

Hmmm… this top ten list didn’t turn out as well as i thought it would. Can’t remember many things from the old days of surfing…

Top Ten Signs You Haven’t Used The Internet for A Very Long Time

• You get excited when you find a new version of your favourite browser, the hot new programme called Netscape.

• You think that the joke, “WWW stands for World Wide Wait” sounds very apt and funny.

• Your modem is one of those US Robotics look-alikes with a row of 9 red blinking lights.

• Your website is hosted on either angelfire or tripod.

• You’ve never heard of Viagra, Vioxx or Cialis.

• You think that hotmail is so cool.

• “Try using AskJeeves to search. Either that, or you can try Lycos or Altavista. They’re the most popular search engines…”

• When you enter an URL address, you insist on starting with http://www…

• You think that a ‘blog’ is some kind of green caterpillar in your garden that eats leaves.

• Your main Jaring e-mail address has the word ‘pop’ somewhere in it.

Technorati Tags: Netscape, US Robotics, angelfire, tripod, hotmail, AskJeeves, Lycos, Altavista

Anyone Remember The Alleycats?

It was led by David Arumugam, with his Afro bigger than that guy from Boney M. Then there was his brother Loga, who was pretty much a thinner version of David, with a slightly smaller Afro (but still bigger than then-Malaysian striker Zainal Abidin Hassan’s). I never understood what Loga did in the band, the only thing I ever saw him do was sing back-up and occasionally play the tambourine. Then there were a few Chinese dudes with short names like Ah Hock and Ah Sin or something like that. I believe the aforementioned Ah Hock played bass.

Alleycats were old pros on the pub circuit, in their Penang hometown and in KL. Back in the 70’s and 80’s they had dozens of Bahasa Malaysia albums, with evergreen songs like ‘Sampaikan Salam Cintaku’, ‘Kerana’, ‘Sekuntum Mawar Merah’, and many more. Every time David Arumugam finished a song, he will shout his trademark ‘Terima kaSIH!”. Every time, without fail. There was one time I was at my Malay friend’s wedding kenduri, this wedding singer belted an old Alleycats ballad ‘ditujukan khas buat pengantin’, and he ended with the exact same ‘Terima kaSIH!”, to which the crowd cheered vociferously.

When I was growing up, my neighbour a funky Chinese dude, was their biggest fan. He had cassettes of every single album they produced, and his obsession rubbed off a little on me.

One time many about 9 years ago, me and my pal Dave were out very late in town, when we heard that the Alleycats were rumoured to be playing in PJ Hilton. We rushed there, only to be disappointed to find out that it wasn’t true. We stayed anyway to hear this so-so covers band with two lead singers, one pretty Indian girl and a fat Malay guy. Can’t remember the name of the band…

Alleycats are still around, no doubt it, although they are no longer headlining HMI on Saturdays, but still powering the pubs across the nation. In the age of indie bands like Love Me Butch and Gerhana Ska Cinta, Alleycats inhabit a different world of Malaysian music, pandering to a different generation of Malaysian – Malays, Chinese, Indians and everyone else. Along with old guns like Kenny, Remy and Martin, Francessca Peters and the ilk.

I googled to see if they had a homepage, but didn’t find much, but found this interesting blog entry regarding them (and even gives Ah Hock’s full name!)

Hey, does anyone remember Man Bai and Gersang? Perhaps another day, then…

Technorati Tags: Alleycats

Bun Is In The Oven

A friend of mine is pregnant, and the baby is due next week. I just saw her gobbled down a slice of rich chocolate cake and a slice of cheesecake the other day. I’ve two children (I didn’t give birth to them, my wife did), so I know pregnancies pretty well. One thing I know is that when you are pregnant (and especially if you’re Chinese or Malay), everybody will have lots of ‘useful’ advice to give you. Especially those dry old aunties who think they’re qualified gynecologists or dieticians.

Let me compile a list of stuff I’ve heard over the years about pregnancies.

• Pregnant women love looking at young children. I’ve noticed this a lot, too. Every time they see an adorable, angelic kid, they have this glazed look in their eyes, tilt their head to the left a bit, and slowly touch their stomach. I’ve also noticed this does NOT happen when they see a screaming, hell-raising kid.

• You’re suppose to put on 10 to 13kg only during pregnancy. Doctors always say this. Unfortunately, 99% of women I know put on a WHOLE lot more than 10kg. And this extra weight is a bitch to lose. Unless you join one of those ultra-expensive slimming centres with those ‘Before’ and ‘After’ pics, promising you ‘I was 175lbs after the birth of my 7th child, now I’m 120lbs! No pills! No injections! No starvation! But pay through your nose, more than cost of delivery in C-section!’

• Don’t watch scary movies, or go to the circus / zoo and see the monkeys. This one I can never understand. Old women believe if you do so, your child will come out looking like whatever you saw. Like that movie the Elephant Man. Well, I dunno if its true, but if it is, expecting mothers should spend more time looking at pictures of Johnny Depp and / or Angelina Jolie. Hah.

• Don’t go out at night. I dunno. Scared of ghost izzit? Scared of mosquito bites izzit? Or bats?

• When the pelvic bones opening reaches 10mm, then only the doctor comes. Anything before that, he’ll still be in his room checking his mail.

• Pregnant women eat a lot of folic acid pills. What food they CRAVE for is another story.

• Pregnancies last for 9 months or 40 weeks, calculated from your last menstruation, divided into 3 trimesters. Most children also know this, since their mothers always say, “Don’t answer back to me! I carried you for 9 MONTHS and spent 13 HOURS in LABOUR to deliver you!!!”

• Don’t get me started on the mood swings.

• Pregnant women pee a lot. Okay, this one 100% true. If your wife is pregnant and you plan to go somewhere on foot, like shopping, you need to plan your journey so that you pass a toilet (of a reasonable level of cleanliness) every half hour or so.

• During confinement, you can’t eat… whoa. This one I can go on for a few pages…

Top Ten Secrets To Be Revealed in the New Superman Movie

There’s going to be a new Superman movie out soon, I believe its called ‘Superman Returns’. I dunno, unlike all the salivating fanboys out there, I’m not really excited about it, despite the hype that has been dominating the media of late. Maybe its that in its absence, too many other superhero movies and comic book franchises have taken its place, or I’m just reminded of the cheesiness of the 80’s movies… But anyway, here’s ten secrets that may or may not be revealed in the latest instalment…

Top Ten Secrets To Be Revealed in the New Superman Movie

• Superman has been spending the last 12 years working part time at the international airport scanning luggage with his X-ray vision. Times have been bad, but a superhero has to earn a living.

• Green Kryptonite makes him weak. Blue Kryptonite makes him horny.

• He always says he’s cool about it, but deep down inside, he’s bitterly jealous about how hip and popular Batman is.

• He had a small bit part in The Fellowship of the Rings as Orc #532 in the Isengard battlescene.

• After all these years, he still gets upset whenever anyone mentions ‘Superman IV’.

• He once had to reject this whole batch of name cards from the printers because they misspelled his name as U S P E R M A N.

• What’s Superman’s favourite hobby? Shoplifting!

• Little known fact – Nokia handphone signals disrupts his concentration when he’s flying at low altitudes.

• Although he’ll never admit it openly, Superman has watched ‘The Incredibles’ a record 7 times. And owns the collector’s DVD.

• His underwear isn’t actually red. It’s all the blood rushing out due to his excitement. Okay, I know, it’s a disgusting joke.

Technorati Tags: Superman Returns, Kryptonite, Superman

Top Ten Things I Get Asked

The other I was reading my mail, my 5-year old daughter was reading over shoulder, and asked me this,

“Daddy, what’s G-O-O-G-L-E?”

What to answer? The Microsoft of the new millennium? The Internet juggernaut that is taking over almost every aspect of the online experience? The start-up by two guys that have change the way we read mail, search the Internet, write blogs and earn revenue? I dunno. I didn’t really want to go into all that with her, besides, in less than a minute her favourite show was going to come on TV and have her immediate attention anyway. So I answered: “It’s just a company name.”

“What’s wrong with that lady’s voice?”
When she saw this crossing-dressing guy in women’s clothes and heavy. He was actually at the fast-food joint taking our order, my daughter heard the deep male’s voice coming from the ‘lady’.

“Daddy, what did you do as a kid?”
She asked me this the other day. I can’t remember exactly what I replied, but it had something to do with no Astro (just two pathetic channels to watch, one of which I never tuned in to), listening to the radio, getting screamed at by my parents a lot (“your grandparents”) and playing outside a lot.

“Daddy, tonight got the Friends show ah?”
I feel sorry for her, we used to watch it every night for as long as she can remember, now the reruns are no longer on, she gets puzzled why I’m watching Seinfeld instead…

“Daddy, why your car got funny smell one?”
She seldom sits in my old junk car. What smell? The musky odour of corroding metal or leaky fuel?

“How many pairs of shoes do you have, Daddy?”
Three. I always have 3 pairs. One for work, one for casual, one for sports. Not counting by football boots.

“Which Kung Kung / Poh Poh?”
She’d ask this when we mention one of them to her, to which we’d reply the one in ____ (fill in name of town). My daughter is fortunate all four of her grandparents are in the pink of health. Yes, including the one that always screamed at me when I was young.

“Daddy, why we always have no money one ah?”
I’m not joking, she always asks this question, usually towards the end of the month. Very perceptive kid.

“Daddy, how was your work today?”
She asks me this almost everyday when I come home. Makes being a slave-to-the-grind lackey worthwhile.

Brief Respite

Today’s Good Friday. And I’m at work, looking forward to tonight.

Yesterday was Maundy Thursday, tomorrow is Holy Saturday.

And then after that, it’s Easter. It’s the most important day for Christians, don’t believe what the media tells you about Christmas. (Head over to Lil’s blog, she’ll tell you more about the Holy Week)

Anyways, its not going to be all holiday for me these next few days. Tonight’s the SG, tomorrow night is our last practice for the huge play (well, at least I think it’s huge…) and on Sunday, our Young Adults are staging 2 shows of the play to the people.

I hope its well received.

***

On a side note, yesterday was my good friend Shah’s birthday. He’s been my good pal since Primary One in school, but some years ago we had a misunderstanding and even though we’ve made up since, things haven’t been the same since. I guess since coming to the city and moving in different circles, we’ve drifted very far apart.

I sent him a text message, good to hear that he’s doing well, and still keeping the faith.

Neeways, Happy Birthday, Shah.