Salam. Apa khabar. Hi!

Sekali sekali perlu menulis perkara yang terlintas di minda
There are times you must write what crossed the mind

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

27th Ramadhan 1430


Today is the 27th day of fasting in Ramadhan this year. How are others doing with their Ramadhan eh? My prayers for all Muslims; May this Ramadhan be a successful one for us and accepted by Almighty Allah, ameen. Eid Mubarak to all. Muslims should be more cautious this Eid due to the swine flu or AH1N1 pandemic, do take preventive measures. Wassalam.

Thursday, August 27, 2009

I have been away for quite some time. This blogger is not so dedicated to blogging eh? So sorry to followers or visitors although there seems to be none at present. The fact is writing needs a lot of commitment to be successful, of which this person do not care so much.
Anyway if no readers out there say anything I do not have to worry. Nobody cries or shouts so no worry on my part.
maybe I ll be back some time from now with something more interesting. At the moment I can only wonder what is going on in the constituency of Pasir Panjang in Pulau Pinang where the ruling government lost to the opposition in a by election held there on 25th August 2009, only two days ago. Prior to the by-election the constituency was abuzz with activities and campaigning. I wonder what is going on now.

Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Finally made the visit to Simpang Bekoh, Asahan to check out the Tunas Mekar participant now attached to a homestay project. Tunas Mekar is a Malaysian government initiative to create more entrepreneurs among university graduates. It is an apprentice program for local graduates. So the graduate I supervise is doing fine but still needs to learn many tricks of management since enterpreneurship entails management, finance, etc, etc, etc.
now that its done, the report too has also been submitted, whew its a relief after its done.

Monday, July 27, 2009

Sunday, 26. July, thank you its Sunday. A late breakfast, a trip to the tailor and shops for my daughter, Lunch at home and the trip to Klang to send my daughter back to her boarding school. My son left earlier by bus.

Monday, 27 July. It's back to classes and I meet the happy faces of teenagers I teach. They are always lively and seldom have much worry to show.
Saturday, 25 July. Took my children to the immigration office to apply for passports. Then took them for lunch since mama had to attend a program in her school. Later that evening we went to Jusco to get some items and look around at the offer prices. Then we had dinner at the estuary of Sungai Duyong, this place is popular for its barbequed fish. This time there was a que to choose the fish, but it was worth the wait since the operator has a very efficient team to satisfy customers. We came home satisfied.
Friday, 24 July. I attended a special meeting calledd by the director, Meeting ended at a quarte past noon. Had a quick lunch and was on my way to fetch my daughter from her school in Klang.
The trip was delayed since i had not done scheduled lubrication service for my car and it wa past due by a thousand kms. Had the car done and went off to fetch her. On the way back we picked up my son from his college, he sprained his ankle and walked with crutches.

Friday, July 24, 2009

H1N1

The day started with a meeting called by my Director. Scheduled to start at 9 am iI started from home at a quarter past eight, initially planned to be on the dot of eight. This time the meeting is at the city campus of UiTM Melaka, and as a common Malaysian I made it ten minutes late, five of which was wasted to look for a parking lot and another five to walk from the car to city campus building. The meeting did not start off since there were new developments going on, other campuses were closing one after the other; Trengganu, Perak and Pulau Pinang, maybe others too plus non UiTM like teacher institutes.
Datuk director was held up by his involvement in discussions with other directors and Tan Sri VC on their Blackberries (I guess). When he entered the auditorium at half past ten he was still on the phone, at times texting and reading incoming texts. The meeting wasn't actually a meeting, no minutes and more of a briefing on Influenza A H1N1. The main issue was some had written to the editor of New Straits Times under the pseudonym of a writer from Penang, and Datuk director was very unhappy.
The meeting or briefing ended at a quarter past noon and I rushed down, got a quick lunch a and drove off with the intention to fetch my girl from her school in Klang, 150 kms or thereabouts away. I did not rush immediately since the car felt unfit for speeds.

Saturday, July 18, 2009

Weddinng reception in Bangi


A friend of many many years ago, gave a wedding reception and I was there and met schooltime buddies.
Seated are the newlyweds.
Standing from left Zahari the host, Alim and wife, Azmey with wife and daughter, Juwara and wife or Mazlan and wife?

Wednesday, June 17, 2009






Almost a year passed without really being aware of many thing that took place, unless I write. so, I am writing again.



Last week academicians (aka people) of UiTM went for their annual appreciation programme which is lnown as Kursus Penilaian Tahap Kecekapan Pensyarah UiTM. Unluckily but by choice nevertheless this blogger(?) attended the eight days of torture.



Signs of unhappiness was displayed as early as during registration;



"This plcae is very far lah!"



"The campus is beautiful but students without transport will have a hard time walking from college to class.

















Below are earlier posts in another site written a year ago(almost)

Night Drive
August 1, 2008 by spinang
Sunday 6th July 2008
My mother-in-law was down with fever since Tuesday. We took her to a doctor on Wednesday and she got the medication.
Her condition did not improve over the next 4 days. On Sunday my sister in law went to check on her and she took her to the clinic again. Mom was referred to a hospital for a thorough check.
My wife and sister in law decided to send her to the Batu Pahat hospital where her son is a specialist.


Tuesday 8th July 2008
Posted in Family matters No Comments »
The Causeway Walk
July 2, 2008 by spinang
On 29th June 2008 we put up at the Puteri Pan Pacific in JB because we will visit 2 places one in Singapore the other in JB.
On 30th June 2008 we started to be ready early because we should be in Singapore for an appointment with the Zakat Unit at Islamic Religious Council of Singapore at 9.30 a.m. So we walked, it took less than ten minutes from the hotel to the taxi stand which caters for travellers to Singapore.
At the taxi stand we were given the first surprise of the day. It’s a Monday morning and taxis were not taking people to Singapore on that particular Monday because of a massive congestion at the causeway. The jammed condition occurs every day because people commute to work between JB and Singapore.
The normal case is Malaysians working in Singapore but there are a few of the reverse.
So we were caught with the masses going back to work after the weekend. This is the classic case of insufficient factors considered before doing an action. We did not consider the possibility of taxi drivers not leaving for Singapore.
We had to be in Singapore because we had planned with the Islamic religious Council for a briefing at 9.45 a.m.
Fearing that worst we decided to walk from JB to Woodlands in Singapore.

Sometimes, that cars will take you faster cannot be true. So the eight of us walked along the causweway. We walked ahead of the cars inching their way into the island republic on the causeway.
The walk was about twenty minutes only, the queue at the Singapore Immigrations’ checkpoint in Woodlands another fifteen minutes and the queue for the taxis another five minutes.
Most importantly we made it on time.
Tags: Add new tagPosted in Experience No Comments »
The bus ride
July 2, 2008 by spinang
last weekend my fellow colleagues who are also on the Ikaz committee and yours sincerely went to Johor Baru.
We took the express bus from Melaka to Johor Baru (JB).
On the bus the writer did not try to recall when he last took the express bus for a trip but when starting to write this he started recalling. It was way back in the 1990’s when he was a student reading for his first degree. Well the busses have changed, so have the roads and the government policy for express busses in Malaysia.
On the trip to JB the bus has one level for passengers and seating arrangement has one seat on the left and two seats on the right of the ailse. the bus is more comfortable now because such an arrangement allows for bigger seats for each passanger. Those days there were two seat on each side of the ailse and a passenger will have to squeeze if the body is abundant horizontally, now you can choose the seat on the left of the ailse if you are one of such physique.
the air conditioning in this particular bus, is better, but the writer found it uncomfortable since it was raining on the way to JB but the trip back felt better because it was a fine sunny late afternoon on Tuesday. The return trip was on a different type of bus, it has upper and lower decks, the Former has three seats in row but the lower deck has only two row of seats with the ailse in the middle, so each passenger gets a window view and a bigger seat of course. The ride too was also more relaxed and comfortable.
Well the main point here is the comfort level in express busses has increased a few notches since 1990’s.
Posted in Experience No Comments »
Why ’spinang’
June 27, 2008 by spinang
Spinang is the name of a place at Segamat, in the southern state of Johore in Malaysia. It it not related to my choice of spinang for my name at this blog. Spinang to this writer is the cobination of sireh and pinang. where sireh is the betel plant whose leaves are chewed traditionally with tobacco, a dash of lime, pinang, gambier and other spices. Normally pinang or areca nut is taken together with betel leaves; when chewed giving a saffron juice which gives a somewhat similar effect such as when smoking, probably.
Being a Southeast Asian, sireh and pinang are familiar to me, and I choose to use the name spinang in this blog. Can’t I?
Posted in Uncategorized No Comments »
My first time at blogging
June 27, 2008 by spinang
This is the first time I am writing here. The idea came to me about an hour ago. “Why don’t I blog, many have done it”
So here goes, the first thing I want to share is about today.
Its the last day of a five day stretch for 25 of my colleagues undertaking a translation course. They say its fun during the first few days. Thats because the facilitator, one Dr. Wan Amiza, is a lively, cheerful and dedicated person. Today they are doing serious translation, commisioned jobs, so their faces carry serious first time translators profoundity, most of them, the rest are old hands or happy though unlucky ones who do not look too worried doing translation jobs. They are reading English and writing to Malay. Good luck to them all.
Ini adlah kali pertama saya menulis blog. Ide untuk menulis in timbul kira-kira sejam yang lalu. ” Ramai orang lain yang dah menulis di blog, aku pun patut menulis.”
Jadi inilah permulaannya, pertama sekali saya ingin berkongsi mengenai hari ini.
Hari ini adalah hari terakhir bagi 25 orang rakan sekarjaku yang menghadiri kursus penterjemahan selama 5 hari. Pada hari-hari permulaan kursus mereka kata seronok berkursus. Itu mungkin kerana penatar kursus, yang bernama Dr. Wan Amiza, adalah seorang yang aktif, ceria dan bersungguh-sungguh.
Hari in mereka membuat penterjemahan sebenar, kerja penterjemahan berbayar, kebanyakkan mereka mempamerkan muka-muka poyo penterjemah kali pertama yang bersungguh-sungguh. Yang berbaki sedikit lagi, bersahaja menterjemah kerana mereka dah biasa atau mereka memang jenis tak kisah. Mereka membaca bahan Bahasa Inggeris dan menulis semula ke Bahasa Melayu. Selamat maju jaya kesemuanya.