The Joe's story - 100510

Had a longer chat with Joe. He called around 9.45pm. He told me bout his daily activities at the detention center. Nothing I heard was hard, he said macam dalam movies lah. Lepas makan, kena tidur, then ada inspection, masing-masing kena ada di katil, petang main game. Ada yang main basketball, ada yang lepak je sembang-sembang. Joe kata dia tak main apa-apa. Hehehe.

Aku dah sampaikan well wishes semua orang kat dia telling him our concerns and that everyone is praying for him.

Now, he's waiting for the court hearing on 20th May. After that, most probably the process of deportation to Malaysia will take place. According to what he heard, he could be in Malaysia by July. So, kita sama-sama berdoalah agar takde apa complication dan Joe boleh deported as soon as possible.

Ceria je suara dia, gelak-gelak. He told me he called delinn earlier pastu makcik tu tanya tak sedih ke. Joe cakap, kalau nak ikut sedih, memang lah. Hari-hari dia nangis. And I told him it's true but crying won't take him anywhere. We also agreed that when he was detained, walaupun bukan dalam keadaan yang terbaik, it was fated that way, that he's coming back in such way.

Aku cakap jugak, kalau nak tunggu dia fully prepared to come home, entah bila agaknya, which he agrees. Dan daripada yang aku dengar, he's mentally prepared this time to come home. Again, let's pray for the process to be as smooth as it can.

Apa lagi ek? Oh... aku tanya was it hard for him there? Dia kata it's a new experience for him. And he's documenting everything which he hope to blog about it later. The worst part, according to him, was when he was first detained, siap kena gari kaki dan tangan tu. I bet it was damn hard even if it happened in front of us pun sure boleh drop to tears.

So, itu je lah update for now. Let's pray hard for him, for his safety and his safe return to Malaysia.

123th to 129th: Boring week

The week is as boring and as dull as the city I spent the week in. Mana lagi kalau bukan JB yang membosankan. Nothing interesting happened, hari-hari pergi balik kerja, dua hari pergi balik gym, pergi balik Jusco Taman Universiti, lari kat kawasan rumah macam orang nak gila. Good thing about takde benda yang happening ni is that aku boleh concentrate dengan training aku for next week's 15km dan June's 21km. Last week aku dapat buat total 50+km, baca kat sini kalau nak tau citer lanjut.

Aku balik dari KL ke JB hari Isnin tu lepas meeting petang di KL Sentral. Itu pun boss aku kata, I can stay for another day in KL. Tapi disebabkan Selasa tu aku ada meeting lain di JB dan aku dah pack barang-barang aku like phone chargers, etc., so aku malas lah nak stay for another night in Shah Alam, nak unpacak then repack balik semua tu kan. It didn't mean aku looking forward nak balik JB but it's just that aku tak kuasa nak re-do things in Shah Alam.

The rest of the week takde apa berlaku. Pergi kerja pun setakat nak clock in and clock out, setakat tunjuk muka kat bos je. Sampai aku tak tahu dah nak buat apa kat ofis. On Thursday ke macam tu, member aku message, she couldn't accompany me to the dinner show with Jamal on Saturday. Atuk dia passed away last weekend dan ada kenduri tahlil. Obviously lah kan, takkan nak pergi entertainment show in place of tahlil kan?

Being aku, yang malas nak cari replacement ni, aku terfikir jugak lah biar aku pergi sorang je malam tu. Satu tiket lagi tu, member aku kata she doesn't mind to 'burn' it tapi sayang je lah sebab tak pakai. And she was trying to find someone to replace her. Tapi ye lah kan, takkan lah senang-senang nak temankan aku, bukannya semua orang kenal aku and most importantly 'understand' me, kan?

So, on Friday noon, I decided to let go my ticket too. Sebab lebih senang nak cari a couple to replace than someone to accompany aku. The two tickets that worth RM400 tu I gave away for RM100 je, tu pun more as a commitment fee sebab tau lah manusia ni, bila bagi tiket free, kalau ada problem sikit macam hari hujan pun dah boleh bagi alasan tak pergi.

Aku dengar the show was a blitz. Hmmm... takpe lah aku tak rasa ralat sangat pun sebab aku takde lah tergila-gila nak tengok show Jamal ni. Oh ye, just heard from the little bird that Double Trouble will be held in JB on 5th June 2010. Too bad, I'll be in Penang that weekend, so aku tak boleh nak repeat dan takde lah ralat sangat sebab aku dah gi yang kat KL hari tu. Mintak-mintak hujan laaa selebat-lebatnya ataupun concert postponed. Ekekekeke....

Itu je lah cerita aku last week. Tak best kan?

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To geng #rebanamaya, probably you've heard what happened to Joe, kan? from nekrock's update in Dendam Perantau. This morning, around 7.30am I was awakened by a call from US and guess what? It was Joe who called from the detention center in Buffalo. Dapat cakap dengan dia dalam 8 minit macam tu. He sounded ok, ceria as usual, macam waktu-waktu lain dia call kita lah.

Cuma bila aku cakap glad that he's ok. Dia cakap, "Ok kau kata?" and I could not explain what I meant by "Ok" and I could sense some worriness in his voice especially to what will happen on 20th May and upon his arrival in Malaysia nanti. Banyak benda aku nak tanya tapi tak tertanya, contoh "Do you eat well?", "Do you sleep well?" <-- macam mak-mak pulak tanya, no thanks to the Dear John book yang aku baru habis baca, yang quite bosan dan terlebih jiwang laa.. ehh melalut lak.

Tak tertanya or tak sempat nak tanya since he was also rushing to tell me everything that had happened and what did nekrock write in his blog. Tapi Joe being Joe kan, that put smile on my face, dia tanya, "apsal suara kau lain ha? aku ingat siapa tadi..." aku cakap lah, "aku baru bangun (tido) je ni..." dan dia boleh cakap something like, "patutlah suara kampung habis..." Siot je!

In the end, he said he will call again (I hope he will) dan lepas tu dia kata, "ehh.. ok lah nanti aku call lagi. Aku nak kena gi jadi imam ni..." hehehehe... So, to some extent we know lah how's he doing there. Anyway, dia kirim salam kat geng-geng kita.

POW: Salahuddin Bakery

Lambat sikit update POW minggu ni sebab busy lah asyik makan, minom, makan, minom je hari ni. Anyway, tak nak tulis banyak-banyak, korang tengok je lah gambar ni.

This ain't a normal bakery shop yang korang biasa jumpa kat shopping malls like lavender ke le bohemia ke scisson or whatever lah kan. Tapi ni memang traditional bakery shop which I'm not sure when it was first opened tapi looking at the shop, I can say it is older than me (just assume umur aku 25 gitu. ekekekek). You can find various types of breads in this shop, aku suka karipap bakar lah yang tiga segi tu. Dapppp....

The location in along the famous (I don't exactly know for what) Jalan Dhoby, just opposite the I.T Roo Cafe (yang famous dengan chicken chop tu). So, after having your chicken chop meal at I.T Roo Cafe, why not hop to Salahuddin Bakery to tapau macam-macam variety of breads.

Konsert tarik nyawa

Terkejut aku bila Sempoii komen dalam entry bawah pasal ni. Dan bila aku baca Harian Metro, memang terkejut sehh, siap ada sorang mati lepas leher dia hampir putus. Kalau Konsert DT2 pun tragis sebab ramai yang pengsan, ini lagi lah tragis, bukan setakat tragis lagi, memang babis!


Bahaya dowh kalau pergi konsert ni, I can't believe they actually brought in like two sacks full of weapons - parang, kerambit, etc. Gila aaa... and to those yang terbabit dengan insiden ni, shame on you or better still FUCK YOU! Dan to authorities yang involved with the organization of this concert (aku rasa ni Konsert Ungu), please do something.

Jangan senang-senang je nak kasi permit untuk artis (especially dari negara terbabit) untuk buat konsert kat sini. After all, setakat 6,000 je pun penonton yang datang tengok. Tak payah laaa nak buat lagi. Tu pun beli 2 tiket, dapat 1 free. Dan kepada radio swasta Era FM yang dok promote gila konsert ni, berpada-pada lah lain kali. Taik dia terpalit jugak kan?

Better lah promote show artis tempatan. Tak kisahlah walaupun Sinar FM jadi official radio untuk Konsert DT2, apa salahnya Era FM promote sekali? Ini tidak, sikit pun takde mentioned. Boo!!! In the end, DT2 attracted 20,000 fans kat venue yang 20 kali lagi kecik daripada Std Bukit Jalil.

And to the fans, boikot je konsert dari seberang. Tak kira lah artis tu KaDe ke, Wa-liao Band ke Opeck ke sapa ke... BOIKOT!!!

116th to 122nd: Rockers + Pink = Double Trouble

Another week - nothing interesting except the just concluded weekend. Will save that for later.

Arrived from Ipoh around 6.30am on Monday morning, took a nap until 9.30am and arrived in office around 10.45am. Well, the new policy for traveling in Smokey Grey allows us to arrive in JB by 11am on Monday morning. Cool huh? Yeah cool and spells disaster for the company. Hmm like I give shit!

As usual, ran quite a lot considering I just finished a race on Sunday. Still feel bit of strain on my foot. But I have to run since I ate quiet unhealthily last week with mee kari, briyani kambing, maggi goreng at night. Hmmm... and guess what, I've registered for a 25km run in September, about two weekends after raya.

It sounds scary to me since I will only run 21km in June and it is two weeks after raya! and ramadhan month before that which I don't think I'll run much or probably no run for me at all. Reading the qualifying time of 3hr and 30mins just made me more nervous, can I run for 3.5hrs non stop? There's also 12km category but thinking that by September, 12km would be piece of cake to me, I opted for a longer distance. Anyway, I'll take that as a challenge!

Friday - public holiday, being replacement to Agong's birthday on Saturday. Did lots of routine chores and activities - dental checkup, get the baju melayu and batik for my brother's wedding tailored, went to see my cobbler to get my shoe buckles replaced, bla bla bla...

Early in the week, I also realized that I'll only have two weekends to spare in JB although my last day working in JB would be on the 28th June. In the next two months, I'd be spending my weekends in KL (3 weekends, 2 for races), 1 weekend each in Ipoh and Penang (for my brother's wedding) and 1 in Terengganu. So, not much time left to enjoy JB. And I had to start loading my stuff in JB to bring back to Shah Alam for good. :-)

Talking about leaving JB, it was quite saddening as somebody would be leaving JB earlier than me. Mamux is going back to Indo. It was supposed to be in July but something happened back home, the mother isn't well, so it has to come earlier. Too bad! I hope I get to see Mamux if I visit East Java next time.

Saturday morning, geng rebanamaya organized a get together yet again but we did it different style this time. It was a breakfast picnic, we called it PINKNIK as the theme is pink. If you happened to be in the Lake Garden on Saturday morning and saw a bunch of noisy (not nosy) people wearing pink having breakfast by the lake, that's us. Had fun, as usual with geng rebanamaya, but no pictures uploaded yet by the two rebanamaya's pro-photographers.

Oh ya, after the picnic, we were too lazy and too heavy to make our way to the car park (which involves climbing up like thousands of stairs!!), we decided to ride the train. Alaaa train yang bawak jalan pusing-pusing macam kat theme park, zoo negara tu. So, penuhlah satu train tu dengan geng rebanamaya je. When the train made a sharp turn, satu train menjerit. Macam budak-budak darjah 2 pergi melawat zoo negara, tak senonoh! Heheheh... But it was still fun per...

That night, it was the best event for the week. The Double Trouble: Wings Search concert. Went there with my two best buddies, Des and Zam, who as sporting as ever rocking all the way throughout the concert. Heard from the local newspapers that 20,000 people turned up that night. The venue was rather small and as it's a closed arena, it was really hot and we sweated everything including our underwear.

Some people couldn't stay long in the arena and it was crammed and hot and they made early exit. But me, Zam and Des stayed put, banging our head, rocking til the last song. Awie was superb, Amy was was tip top (waaaayyyyyyyy better than his show in Istana Budaya last month).

I saw no less than 7 people, all of them female, pengsan and had to be carried out from the arena. Ni yang aku malas nak bawak awek gi tengok konsert rock, tau. Some people said, the DT 1 was better but I had so much of fun and if they're going to perform in JB, I'll definitely make it a repeat, if it doesn't clash with my earlier planned activities.

Here's a photo of me with Zam. Cantek tak baju aku? Thought wanna wear John Lennon's t-shirt I bought earlier in JB, but while buying DT t-shirts for Zam and Des, I saw this Shiroi Neko's t-shirt and didn't have to decide longer to buy and wear it that night. Tapi haruslah aku tak pakai baju ni kat kampung kan, mau kena bakar dengan pak-mak aku kot. Hehehe...


This is a link to one of the videos I managed to capture. Lupa bawak balik kamera, so record pakai BlackBerry je. This is a medley of Gadisku and Taman Rashidah Utama. Quite classy laa sebab Awie nyanyi lagu Gadisku. Click here.

Dan ini semua keratan akhbar pasal DT ni. Saje je letak sini, sebagai rujukan anak cucu cicit kita nanti yang mungkin tak kenal Wings atau Search. Ataupun entah-entah Konsert DT masuk dalam buku teks Sejarah 25 tahun lagi, I can proudly tell my cucu that "Atuk was there!" Ekekekek....