Hawaii Five-O

A good TV show is one that is so popular that it lives on in syndication, watched by different generations over different decades. It pervades into our pop-culture, and easily recognizable. Like Happy Days. Or Chips. Or X-Files. Or the Simpsons.

One step above is a show that is has all of the above qualities, plus a memorable theme song. A song that is people remember forever, pay tribute to it, cover it and parody it.

Like Hawaii Five-O.

Who can forget the catchy intro music?

I watched it as a very very young kid (probably pre-school) on SBC5 (what is now known as Singapore’s TCS5), my dad and brother were fans of the show, so the whole family followed. I remember waiting for 10pm waiting for it to start (I believe it was on a Tuesday night). If you watch the clip of the intro below, you’ll notice the first scene show crashing waves. Back then there was a Pepsi ad with an almost similar scene, so each time the Pepsi ad came on, we’d become excited but then it turns to disappointment… (at least until the actual show starts)

Honestly i was much too young to remember much of the show, except Jack Lord uttering the famous line “Book ‘em, Dano” (then I’d go ‘who’s Dano?!’) until i caught back with it a few years ago when Astro started re-running the series.

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Was reminded of the song last Sunday at my daughter’s kindy graduation concert when another class used it as a soundtrack. It’s amazing how excited some parents can get at the sight of their kids shaking their bums in unison to music.

What Is It With ‘Pan Mee’ Restaurants These Days?!

No seriously, what is it with ‘Pan Mee’ restaurants sprouting up everywhere recently?

And how has it become like a pseudo-gourmet meal?

(sori ah, lilian, i curi your foto. too lazy to take my own)

Years ago ‘pan mee’ was just a dish you get at the hawker stall, the same place we get our chicken rice or wantan mee. Now they have specialized restaurants serving pan mee with 1,288 different varieties like dried chilli, spicy, spinach or Emperor noodles. Around my office there are no less than 5 restaurants dedicated to this dish, really, how much of it can you eat in a week.

OK rant over. Now can someone tell me where to find awesome wantan mee in PJ/Puchong?

Story of The Malaysian 100 Meters Sprint Record

With all the interested in the 100m world record held by Usain Bolt (9.58s) recently, does anyone know what the Malaysian record is and who holds it? Anyone? Without googling it?

Before we get to that, let me tell you what the record was back when i was a kid in the 80’s. Back then everyone in school knew the record was held by the legendary Dr. M. Jegathesan (now Datuk). I can’t remember his time, but he still holds the 200m record until today, set 41 years ago in the Mexico Olympics back in ‘68. Back when i was a kid, the older generation and my teachers spoke of ‘The Flying Doctor’ in legendary terms, he was the first Malaysian to reach 2 semifinals in an Olympic event.

During the years when i was in school, the fastest Malaysian was this guy called Abdul Rahman Koyakutty. I can’t really remember much about him (except that he had an extravagant pre-race ritual while on the starting line). But you have to remember during the mid-80’s we had lots of sporting greats like Nordin Jadi, M. Kumaresan, Josephine Mary, G. Shanti, Nurul Huda Abdullah, Rabuan Pit and M. Ramachandran. Of course these were the days before weekly live EPL games on Astro, so all we had was RTM2.

Some 12 years ago in the late 90’s talk of Dr. Jega’s record in danger of being broken resurfaced when two young sprinters emerged, Watson Nyambek and Azmi Ibrahim. I wasn’t really following athletics by then, but one of them obviously did better than the other who sort of fizzled out despite the hype.

And so coming back to the earlier question, what’s the current national record? It’s 10.30s held by Watson Nyambek. Yep, the Flying Dayak did manage to break the record. It’s nice to know Malaysian men can still run faster than American women… (Florence Griffith Joyner’s world record is 10.49s) but of course being Asians we’re disadvantaged genetically when it comes to running.

Will we see the record broken again soon? Who knows.