Global Community Day

Bukit Merah LakeTown
teh tarik fellas.

the treasures..

shila's family was the 4th car to arrive.

This year's treasure hunt was combined with community work in conjunction with the Global Community Day. The hunt ends in the serene town of Taiping at Hotel Legenda. After submitting our answer sheet and treasures, we proceed to the Bukit Larut Orang cacat center. Initially, there were only 10 of us but later the number grew to about 150 staff. Despite the intermittent downpour, the team continued earnestly to mow the lawn, paint and clean the area.

chopsticks technique...


Guna mowing in the rain


the art of high rolling

There was a freak accident. While painting, a volunteer accidentally stepped on the window awning, ripping a hole and falling right through it. In the haste of calling 999, 3 ambulances arrive at the scene. He was fortunate to only suffer a broken shoulder bone with no spinal injuries.

We checked into the Bukit Merah Laketown Resort Apartment and I must say the place has developed quite extensively since my last visit 3 years ago. Large swimming pool, friendly and well-trained staff. The buffet dinner started off rather impressively with the aroma of the smoking BBQ crabs and party looking beer but to my disappointment both vanished before I can lay my hands on them. As usual my 2 good friends came to the rescue: Din and Newton had earlier managed to secure a piece of crab and a can of beer to pacify my aroused appetite.

In the prize presentation, our team “Teh Tarik Gang” took the 5th position in the Open Category and was awarded Isetan vouchers. Thanks to my team members: Din and Riza for putting on a strong thinking cap.

newton and his 2 sons

the champion "Crouching Women Hidden Cucumber"

Next morning just about sunrise, I took a jog around the neighborhood enjoying the scenic bungalows that overlooked the calm lake. Some distance away, a black Toyota Altis flashed its headlights; it was Newton on the wheel looking for a petrol station. Later, we caught up for a buddies chat on the breakfast table.

Global Community Day is a day to remember that there are indeed less fortunate people out there in this world. Any small contribution will mean a lot to them. It’s the little things that move people.

IOI Community Run

Thanks to Jamie for helping with the registration despite his busy schedule. Most of us join this run partly because of the enticing Travel package lucky draw.

Picked up my brother, Kenny and sped on the LDP towards Puchong. Come to think of it, driving to races is a good excuse to speed since traffic is low. If ever the police were to stop me, I would innocently display my bib and say that I was rushing- perfect alibi. Midway, Mee Peng complained of stomachache (PM1 ailment?) and we had to make an emergency pit stop near the Motorola Bridge Mobil station.

7:20a.m, 10 minutes to go, I floored the Renault towards Bandar Puteri. Luckily, the place was not jammed up and I easily found parking next to a coffee shop. We jogged to the starting line, a good warm-up.

Prior to this run, I postulated Mee Peng could achieve a sub-40 timing judging from her 7km Putrajaya and Rat Race pace. She does not like me telling her what she can attain. I got chided for being analytical and raising the expectation.

My fastest 5.3km was 33 minutes back in 2004 achieved in the wee hours: 3:20 a.m! I last race 5.6km in the JP Morgan Run 2004 clocking 37mins. 5km distance is for the fast and furious.

All 3 of us were doing the 5.5km route. I wore the light Mizuno Precision 5. I thought the route would be rather flat but it turned out to be otherwise. The first 2/3rds were uphill.

There was this slim Indian man probably in his late 50s which I have in numerous other races trailed or ended almost the same timing. I finished just ahead of him by merely a few steps in the NB 15km run but in Putrajaya half he was ahead by a hundred meters. Today we are racing a short 5kms. Never underestimate a senior veteran runner. The old man was flying. I had no answer to his tenacious pace.

I kept up with a fellow runner C107 and later C019 with the intention of overtaking them in the final last hundred meters but today is not my day.
Both finished strongly and very much ahead. I wish to thank them for pushing me to the limits as I crossed the finishing line with a personal best of 29:55 mins.
The Pacemaker gang: Ronnie, Justin, Dinesh, Rachel, Jamie and the rest gathered for a traditional group photo. While I was talking to them, I kept an eye on Kenny and Mee Peng's finishing.

Kenny finished 35:05. Mee Peng astonishingly clocked 35:50 in 22nd position. I did not expect her to run below 7min/km pace. Her Timex stopwatch hung again! I foresee this already and had the contingency plan of leaving my Nike stopwatch running on “Lap” mode to clock both of them.

Wave Technology - Rider 8 and Precision 5

The 10 lucky draw prizes was an anti-climax. The MC announced at least 6-7 names for the Grand Prize but nobody went up the stage to claim the prize. Majority of the runners have left the venue.


True colours won the day.

I am appalled with the MC for addressing the crowd and stage events mostly in Mandarin. This is a public event where there are non-Chinese listeners/runners. The race is called “Community” but it is not spoken in that context.
I hope the organizers would embrace the Bangsa Malaysia spirit next year by using English or Bahasa as the core medium of communication.

Mum turns 70 today. Mum is apprehensive of all her birthdays especially when it involves a cake since dad passed away 7 years ago. The reason? My dad died of stroke the following day after we celebrated his 70th birthday. From her smile, it appears she had expunged her superstitious belief. She loved the delicious fruit flan cake. It was a smile I have not captured for a long time.

Happy Birthday Mum!

Bizarre Incident

I bought 8 vouchers from one of the Penang hotels located at Batu Ferringi in the recent Matta Fair. My wife’s uncle said he cannot drive long distance and requested I drive his Naza Citra to Penang. Though the Korean engine was a tad rough but the overall ride was good. I suspect the manufacturer origin of this car, KIA sought European engineers to tune its suspension. I had the same feel when I test drove the new 1.4L KIA Rio, a highly under-rated car. The Koreans are coming!

After spending more than a hundred ringgit eating the overpriced char kway teow, chee cheong fun, asam laksa, hokkien mee (prawn mee), oysters and mee jawa at Lorong Selamat, we finally checked into the hotel.

On the 2nd night, sister-in-law (S-I-L) wanted to check out the pasar malam activities towards the end of Tg. Bungah road. I left all of them to wander the pasar malam while I went to an open building area that sold thousands of DVDs. Called Mee Peng on the handphone to inform her of the availability of Korean movie series.

Later she came with her 18-year-old cousin. Not long I received a rather frantic call from my S-I-L asking me where was my wife. I calmly replied she is with me. Not suspecting anything amiss, I continued with my browsing. Within minutes, all of them came to the big DVD shop including my S-I-L’s husband. The moment I saw him, I showed him the 4-in-1 “Faces of Death” dvd (the cover pictured skulls) and asked if he had seen this documentary before.

After we had made our purchase and about to leave, my wife turned to me and asked a strange question “Do you know what happened?”. I replied “Hugh???”.

The story unfolds:

Apparently, earlier S-I-L’s husband received a call from a man’s voice purportedly called from my wife’s handphone claiming that both she and the cousin were accosted and held in captivity!(?). S-I-L’s husband sounded the alarm to the uncle whose daughter was with my wife, and the rest of the family members. They were in deep shock and ran to the dvd shop after hearing I was there.
Fortunately, when they found nothing of that sort happened everybody was puzzled whose voice did he hear on the handphone?

I withheld information…

Prior to this Penang trip, I spoke to one my most trusted friends about the hotel vouchers. My friend wanted to tell me something about the hotel but his wife stopped him from continuing since I have already finalized the hotel bookings. I suspected it had to do with something supernatural. My friend reassured me and said, “You just go and have a good trip”. I did not want to relay this to my wife then.

Once I was back in KL, I called my friend again to ascertain what was the mystery that he was withholding from me. He told me the Hotel that we stayed was once an area occupied by the Japanese Army to conduct executions. It was rumored the “Swimming Pool” is haunted.

My S-I-L’s husband was the only adult amongst the 9 of us who went into the Swimming Pool the evening before the incident.

Chilling revelation or pure coincident?