2013. New Year Ramblings.

Just went back from PKNS. Went there to celebrate new year by eating something fancy. So end up at KFC, tried the Percik Nasi Ayam. You know the 2 ketul ayam, 1 mankuk sup dan kuah percik. Quite okay la. Sitting and eating alone, had lots of time to observe other people.

This one's soup is bad. Mine is better.

The table in front of me was occupied by a single mum and her 2 children. She looks young, barely 30 maybe. Wore young people casual clothing. You know the seluar track, baju tshir and cardigan, tudung. Quite garang to her children.

Table beside me got 2 arab men with 2 children (a boy and a girl). They only ordered two sets of burger. The burgers went to the children, the 2 men just sipping the drinks a little bit. They talked happily. Cannot understand a word. 

After dinner I went jalan2 inside the mall. Went to the Syabab bookstore. Or more precise, islamic bookstore. You can find every kind of islamic books there. From simplistic islamic novels to the kitab2 arab apa tah. They even sell Sahih Bukhari, Sahih Muslim, Sahih Nisa. All full set. If i'm not wrong, the full set for Sahih Bukhari is RM4400. Sahih Muslim is RM2k something. Around those prices la. At least, thousands. Kitab2 Fiqah of course available too. 

What am I writing now? Haha.

In another 2 hours we gonna enter 2013.

Looking back at 2012, what had i done? A lot. Some very good, some okay2. Some very bad. 

Last year objectives? Some were finished, some are still dangling in front of me. And one of it is a very big objective, dancing in front of me. Mocking me. 

Damn.

Thought gonna go to Dataran Putrajaya to watch Sambutan Tahun Baru there. Want to see Hujan perform live. Long time since me join a gig you know. Miss those sing-along session and headbangings. Well, cannot go. Don't have transport to go and, this wednesday got exam. 

 

 Never got the chance to watch them live

Not to forget at the same time at Shah Alam got sambutan tahun baru islamik style. With nasyeed, ustaz2, ustazah, some artists-'born again muslim' and of course ustaz kesayangan umat melayu- Ustaz Azhar Idrus. Quite sure la the next days there will be posts mocking the government-tahun baru event at putrajaya. Itu event maksiat, kerajaan sajikan maksiat, bla3. Even the penceramah2 there tonight might say those things first on the stage, haha.

 

He looks like Serj Tankian. Don't know him? Go die now.

Don't know why but I don't feel anything special tonight. Maybe got exams kot, and still some more to cover.

Nevermind la, Happy New Year everyone.

Goodbye 2012, welcome 2013.

Restoran Melayu

Selaku student di UKM ni, saya kerap sekali untuk keluar dan makan di restoran2 kat luar. Be it fast foods or mapley or common restaurants, almost semua penah try dah. Kekerapan tertinggi? Of course mapley. Itu the best dan the most affordable one. RM3.30 can get u one plate of nasi lemak telur dadar and teh o ais. Murah woi!

Kalau restoran melayu, ada beberapa la kat sini yang sedap. Tapi....tapi.... there's always a tapi.

Restoran melayu ni...ada beberapa cliche yang saya rasa kamu semua pasti pernah alaminya sendiri. Saya amik contoh satu restoran melayu kat simpang empat jalan straight nak ke putrajaya tu (lupa nama jalan, haha).

Restoran dah besar. Orang pun ramai. Tapi...

1. Bumbung bocor. Kalau waktu hujan, ada 3,4 meja tak boleh duduk. Sebab air hujan menitis dari atas. Setengah orang kata 'ala rilek la ayaq hujan ja pun'. Ya rilek. Rilek la walaupun atas bumbung tu dan siling tu mungkin ada tikus-cicak-sampah-debu-taik cicak. Rilek je.

2. Tempat cuci tangan tak ada sabun cuci tangan. Even sabun ketul la paling leceh dan save cost- pun tak ada. Ruang basuh tangan punya besar, tapi sabun satu pun takdak. Dah tegur boss kedai ni (perempuan tua pangkat nenek), dia  macam terkejut (not sure honest ke tak) and the next time i went there sabun liquid dah ada. Tapi tu hal tahun lepas. Tahun ni, tak pernah ada. Dah habis, TAK RETI2 NAK REFILL.

3. Meja kotor. Bila ramai orang, pinggan dan cawan lambat gila diangkat. Kadang2 dah angkat, tapi tak lap meja tu. Tak cukup dengan tu, ada juga kotor debu dan habuk hitam. Especially meja2 belakang yang jarang orang duduk. Serius kotor. Sekali lap dengan tisu, HITAM TERUS. Lap dengan 6 TISU, MASIH HITAM.

4. Pelayan emo nak mampus. Ambik order macam nak gaduh saja. Tapi ini terhad pada sorang dua dari semua pelayan situ. Still, sangan emo ok.

5. Perabot (meja makan, kerusi) buruk dan senget-benget. Kerusi tu dah nak hitam dah. Meja melengkung2 tersenget2. Tak tukar2. Okay ada 5,6 meja baru design macam meja2 sesuai kat food court kat Mines. Tapi itu saja. Imagine, 6 meja moden and the rest (belas2 rasanya) are buruk2 punya. Serius pelik.

6. Kucing merata2. Ini klasik. Kalau restoran melayu memang banyak kucing. Untuk cat lovers tak apa la, diorang memang suka. Tapi yang cat haters? Atau just nak makan saja? Kacau woi bila tengah makan tiba2 kucing mai gosok2 kat kaki. Lagi power, lompat naik atas paha.

7. Boss. Ini pun problem. Entah kenapa saya tak berkenan dengan boss kedai ni. Duduk kat kaunter, duduk situ saja. Tak gerak2 dah. Sambil sembang2 dengan pelayan yang ada. Pastu tengok tv. Okay dia uzur kot. Dimaafkan lah.

Well...banyak tu. 7 points untuk satu restoran ni. Biarpun sampai 7th heaven dia punya problem, tapi saya tetap makan di situ. Why? Sebab masakan dia adalah the best dan paling sedap secara all rounder. Sesungguhnya rasa masakan tu penentu segalanya. Sedap, maka berbondonglah customer datang.

This all makes sense for mapley. Eventhough diorang tu takda la sedap sangat foods yg disediakan, tapi penuh selalu. Selain dari harga murah, the key is customer service. Sekali datang dalam 10 orang. Sorang anne datang. Amik order (kadang2 tak pakai kertas, just hafal saja) dan the next 5 minutes datang air untuk semua dulu. Next 10 minutes sampai semua jenis makanan yang diorder. Roti kosong, roti sardin, nasi lemak, kuey tiow kungfu, nasi goreng mamak, nasi putih ayam goreng kuah kari. All settle in 15 minutes. Dan tak lupa, anne2 sana tak emo. Dan selalunya mesra even though BM tahu sikit2 saja.

Tak semua restoran melayu teruk macam ni. Ada yang bersih, kemas, ceria, pelayan bagus, boss pun rajin. Yang bagus kita puji, yang buruk kita buat pengajaran. Nanti kalau2 bukak restoran jangan pandang remeh pada hal kecik macam tadi. Benda2 kecik ni yang boleh tarik atau halau pelanggan. 

Sekali satu group pelanggan datang dan suka akan restoran tu, dia akan heboh2kan pada kawan2 dia, family dia dan kat FB juga. Dari seorang, akan bertambah 4,5 orang mungkin. Dari 4,5 orang tu akan multiply jadi 30 maybe.

Kalau tak sedap atau kualiti restoran tu teruk? Dia akan heboh kat FB mungkin. Dia pastinya akan warning kawan2, family yang nak pergi makan di restoran tu supaya jangan pergi. And that's how you lose potential customers and money. Be aware ok.

Mistake.

We tend to have groups of friends. We take one simple example- a student in a university. Normally he will have groups of friends. Group A is football group. Group B is gamelan group. Group C is asrama group. Group D is coursemates group. Understandably he will have 'group preference'. What does it means? It means that he will more likely spend more time with one (or two) of those groups. The reasons are personal- those groups may be more funnier, or more hang-outs activity, or more serious and future-benefits, or whatsoever.

But in times of happiness and enjoyment, one tends to do mistakes. No matter how boring, how unproductive, how rubbish the group is he should never leaves the group. Be it intentionally or unintentional. Unintentional? How it could happen?

Well...he get immersed in one group for too much time and he started to turn down other groups activities invitations. Let me give you one simple example. 

Abu suka/rapat dengan group main bola dia. Almost hari2 Abu akan lepak dengan group main bola dia. Pergi makan, pergi karok, pergi tengok wayang, selalunya dengan group bola dia. Then occasionally seminggu dua tiga kali group gamelan dia akan ajak keluar makan, ajak lepak tengok bola. Tapi memandangkan at the same time group bola dia memang ada plan nak keluar, maka Abu tolak ajakan group gamelan tu. 

Group gamelan tu akan ajak untuk sekali. Then minggu depan ajak lagi. Then 2 minggu kedepan ajak lagi. Then bulan depan ajak lagi. Then tak ajak dah. Forever.

Can't blame group gamelan for not ajak-ing Abu again. Why waste energy (and money) to ajak him again if past record showing he 99% doesn't care about them?

And thus Abu had lost one of his 4 groups that he used to have.

Jadi pengajaran di sini, hendaklah kita menjaga silaturrahim antara kita dan rakan2 kita. Jangan dibiarkan lama tak contact. Yang penting sekali, jangan terlalu kerap menolak pelawaan kawan2 kita yang ikhlas nak bersama/bersosial/berukhwah dengan kita, biar sesibuk mana pun. Kerana sekali mereka makan hati, sekali mereka fed-up dengan kita, susah sudah untuk kita kembali.

And losing friends is not a good thing. You may suffer, when the time comes.

You may ask, why I take the pain to write this? 

Because I myself had done this mistake and I have no desire to enjoy seeing my friends doing this mistake.

Big Bad Wolf 2012 (He's Back!)

Book fair paling ridiculous dalam dunia sudah kembali. Big Bad Wolf is back! 

 

This time, venue dia adalah Mines International Convention Center a.k.a MIECC. Where is it? Okay just go to Mines shopping complex, there you'll surely see it.  The event started from 7th December to 23rd December. This time a bit longer than the previous one. Why? Because they got 3 millions books to sell. 3 millions. 3000000 books. That much yaw.

Upgrading from last year event, they created the Mission 63. Sales open from 6.30am on 7th December till 9pm of 9th December. Senang cerita, kedai depa open 24 jam untuk 3 hari. Gila baq hang.

And so as a big fans of books and BBW, my friends and I had planned to be the early birds for their opening sale. We managed to arrived at 650am and...bitch please. Hundreds of people were already inside. Gila betul. Make me wonder, "these uncles/aunties/abang2/akak2/lengchai2/lenglui2/macha2 ni semua tak pergi kerja ka?" Haha.

 

 Tanpa segan silunya

First day, first hour

This edition's books collections are more or less the same as previous one. The genres are aplenty. from 

1. Romance
2. Best sellers
3. Sci-fiction
4. Novels (adult/young)
5. Self help
6. Biography
7. Music
8. Art
9. History
10. New Age/ Religion
11. Reference
12. Games

Serius tak ingat dah. banyak lagi ada.

Personally for me, I am very satisfied with the books on sale. I found  books that interest me, books that i never thought could exist in the world, books that 'homagad tak sangka buku ni ada jual kat sini!'. There were some complains/feedback from the customers saying that this year's sale is not as 'exotic' as last year punya in terms of best sellers and series collections maybe. One of my friend said that there are not much of full-set book series as before. Well...maybe true. All I can say is...I found lots of Robert Ludlum's books there! Any tables that i take a look around the fiction area i will see his books! See I can even remember his full name! Why? Are his books so good? But I don't want to go there again like last time. Need to conserve my money.

About the event management...bravo to the pack (they the staff call themselve the wolf pack). Last year they didn't provide any foodcourt. No resting area after hours of standing around browsing books and paying them at the counters. No playground for children. No merchandises (caps/shirts/buttons) on sale. This time they improved A LOT. They really reflect and improved from last year. Hen hao! One complain! I don't think Mines/MIECC is a good venue considering the road to get there. Imagine, the only jalan nak masuk MIECC tu adalah one-lane road. Super duper extra combo jammed. Yes it is very public transport friendly but...sangat jammed ma... Honestly I prefer MAEPS halls, just like last year. No jammed traffic, no pusing2 cari parking and very spacious.

Oh one very important advice to all of you who planned to go there later. If you found a book that you really are interested with, just GRAB IT FIRST. Bawak sampai ke hujung, then do some screenings to pick the best. Again, kalau jumpa yang betul2 syok punya buku, BELI TERUS. Don't be like me. First day I found this one history books about battles throughout the world. It tells story about battles even from the B.C till the latest one (Iraqi Freedom). Oh what make it so special? The book stated the overall story, each sides preparations, the strength, the weakness and most importantly the step by step tactical flow of the battle. Very2 interesting. But sayangnya saya pada masa tu 'alamak rm20 la...nanti la beli lain bila datang lagi. Ni ada bertimbun2 ni, takkan habis punya'. Second day I went searching for it and it cannot be found. Anymore. Sedih. Rugi.

Anyway, bila crowd sangat besar, maka macam2 lah yang boleh kita tengok. Habit paling buruk yang customer2 ni tunjuk adalah lempar buku. Okay here's how they do it. Take one family la. A father, mother and 3 children. Mother grabbed 3 books, and saw another 2 books that interest her. She picked the books, flipped them for 2,3 seconds then throw it away. Yes, throw. Like saying "ehm this book macam best..let me see. *after flipping the pages* hm don't want la. this book is shit *throw it onto the table*" Bila dah throw, the books will fall to other books. If by any chance, they will fall down to the floor along with some untouched books on the tables. Lepas tu atas lantai takda sekor pun nak angkat. Then come another customer, dia pun nampak buku tu atas lantai, so dia pun buat taktik tak mau buku-lempaq saja atas meja. 

Memalukan. See, mostly yang buat perangai lempaq buku-tinggal buku atas lantai bawah escalator ni selalunya makcik2/pakcik2. Sorry to say but that's what i had been seeing. They just feel big and boss enough to arrogantly throw away any books they don't feel like buying, You know..the 'customer is always right' mentality. Always right my ass. Aiyo susah sangat ka auntie kalau nak jalan 30 meter pergi letak balik buku2 yang tak mau beli tu? What, cannot remember the table? How about put it in the right genre section. Just put it properly in the same genre one regardless of exact original table. What? So far away cannot afford to do? O orang dah buat event baik punya murah dan banyak buku you still got the arrogant feeling of not wanting to move and help a bit? Shame on you la, read so much books but got no ethics and morals. Stupid.

As if a heap of trash

From their (big bad wolf books) facebook page, you can see clearly some complaints that were put forward by the customers. Most are good criticism but some are just plain ignorant and kiasu. Some people if possible just want to lie on a bed with magical power that moves it while he lies and browsing those books and never want to waste enerygy beratur untuk bayar buku2 dia nak beli. Ini orang ar...sakit hati wo baca. Hahahaha.

Anyway enough of my ramblings. 

Overall, this event is a must go for any book lovers. Even the non-book lovers should go. Every book averagely is RM8 only, super bargain I must say. There are some Malay novels too but they are a bit outdated and old. The crews are very polite and helping, never miss a smile when dealing with customers. Those of you who planned to go, bring along your trolleys-baggage-kereta sorong. Or at least beg sekolah tu. You gonna need them. I saw various types of customer's buy. From 3 books to 5-6 boxes. Gila la wei. Ada yang sekali beli spend sampai thousands. Hundreds. Very ridiculous, but true. Wear the most comfortable attire. No need for sexy2 ketat2 daring2 punya clothes. No guys gonna peek at you at all. All their eyes were fixed to the books on the tables.

Well, below are some of the pictures of the event and the books.

 Bahagian masakan. Plenty of it.

 Interested to buy but...pass it.

 9gag army mesti kenal pose ini.

 Saja je letak sebelah2 kan?

 My books. Ok banyak ini saja. Cukup. No more books, I swear.

For the closing. Thousands and thousands (perhaps millions?) of people had flocked to this event. Surely that can debunk the once famous perception which say that Malaysians only read 2 books per year? Atau adakah mereka2 yang datang beli berpuluh2 (some of them-hundreds) buku ini cumalah trend follower?

 "Oh semua orang pergi beli buku la. Aku pun nak beli jugak la"

I still have untouched books from previous BBW sale, got no time to read all 20-30 books I bought before.

It doesn't matter as long as I keep on reading it bit by bit, page by page. Do it.

MAHA 2012

Last month start dari 23 Nov sampai 2 Dis ada event yang aku super suka. MAHA 2012. Malaysian Agriculture, Holticulture and Agrotourism International Show. Tempat? Macam biasa kat MAEPS Serdang. Lagi senang, dalam area UPM.

Event ni best sebab apa?

1) Ada bahagian jualan IKS (industri kecil sederhana). Macam2 produk ada dijual. Dari minuman, kuih, kerepek, kek, kepok lekor, nuggets, aiskrim, bla3, bla3~

2) Ada bahagian expo jualan barang dari international team. Iran, Korea, Jepun, Palestine, Indon pun ada. 

3) Ada bahagian jualan barang2 eksotik macam tongkat2 ali, akar kayu, madu raw, minyak aneh aku tak tau apa nama.

4) Ada bahagian expo dari government department punya agriculture macam RISDA, Perikanan, Pertanian, and macam2 lagi.

5) Ada bermacam2 food court. Yang paling awesome, satu foodcourt mega yang himpun semua makanan dari seluruh Malaysia.

6) Ada bahagian pameran ikan2. Ada tulang ikan paus paling besar di dunia (if i'm not wrong)

7) Ada satu bahagian tu macam Mini Malaysia punya chalet. Setiap negeri ada rumah pertunjukan masing2. Sangat cantik.

8) Ada pertunjukan haiwan2 veterinar dan penternakan. Meaning there are lembu, kerbau, kambing, rusa, kancil, arnab, ayam, kuda. 

9) Ada food court yang super awesome design dia kat area veterinar. Macam kat america zaman koboi.

10) Ada banyak makanan berasaskan kambing. KAMBING GOLEK, KAMBING BAKAR, BURGER KAMBING, LAMB CHOP. 

11) Ada banyak buah-buahan dijual.

Disebabkan oleh MAHA, aku baru sedar dan bukak mata bahawa sesungguhnya produk makanan IKS ni adalah SEDAP sebenarnya. Sangat SEDAP. Creative pun ada. Mak aku ada beli maggi segera yang dijual kat sana, dan ia memang SEDAP. Kek lapis aku tibai sampai 3, dan memang SEDAP. Sos 3 perisa keluaran Sudee pun aku beli dan ia memang SEDAP. Hairan aku kenapa aku boleh tak perasan brand2 ni kat supermarket. Ke memang diorang tak penetrate supermarket besar lagi? And thanks to this event, they can promote and jual sikit2 produk mereka. A little bit appreciation from me to the Government on behalf of my Malay sentimental.

One special candy that i bought from an Iranian there, sangat cantik woi! Dia punya crystallization dia sangat awesome! No wonder banyak student kimia kat UKM ni dari Iran.

Untuk bahagian haiwan, aku masih lagi kagum dan ternganga mulut bila tengok lembu2 dan kambing2 kat sana. Besaq dan gemuk2 baq hang... Dan of course, food court sana memang cantik gila, Dan banyak KAMBING FOODS i tell you.

Overall, aku pergi event kali ni sebanyak 3 kali. 2 dengan kawan2, sekali dengan family (my mum sanggup naik bas datang dari Kedah tu. Semangat). Memang berbaloi, cuma parking tu seksa sikit la. Sikit je. And boleh perasan improvement yang diorang buat banding yang previous punya event. Lebih organized, dan lebih besar. Tahniah untuk team MAHA (dan government). Terima kasih abah dan mak, din and kak mas.

Untuk yang tak pernah pergi (dan anda berada sekitar Selangor) maka anda layak dan patut untuk merasa rugi. Rugi. Rugi. Rugi.

Here are some of the pictures.

 Memang sesak. Tapi macam manapun still ada parking.

 Free tester memang banyak. Dan diorang cari kita ok. Bukan kita yang pergi kat diorang.

 Pintu depan untuk khemah yang jual produk IKS.

 Menanti Hazal siap solat.

 

 "Sajian Makanan Popular Malaysia". Very big i tell u.

 Depan sign board rumah Negeri Sembilan. Ni saja yang sempat bergambar.

Jambatan penghubung kat tengah2 Maeps. Wann berlaku comel di belakang itu.

Peta besar MAEPS. Seluruh area tu ada event. Gila. Dan aku rasa MAEPS lagi besar dari UKM.

 The view at tasik area rumah2 negeri. Very cantik actually.

 Second time visiting. With more friends.

 The magnificient Paytakh Candy. Iranian made. Sangat cantik woi.

 Ada awek ngorat Waida kat sini. Kami cuma melakon semula gaya mengorat dia.

 Syana yang layak untuk jadi model untuk advertising haiwan2. Very brave.

 Not sure wheter they are rusa-pelanduk-kancil.

 Ini adalah foodcourt pasang siap. Very elegant and stylish.

Menanti siapnya chicken grill dan lamb chop.

 Ini adalah sebahagian dari Lamb Shank yang arip beli. Memang raw dan rare.

 Waida dan Waida.

First time aku pegang arnab. Sangat fluffy woi.

In the future kalau ada lagi, dan aku memang berkesempatan masa dan jarak, insyaallah akan pergi lagi.