Monday 31 December 2012

Rangkuman 2012

Assalamualaikum dan salam sejahtera.

Pejam celik pejam celik, 2012 bakal melabuhkan tirai dalam masa beberapa jam lagi. Looking back at 2012, aku rasa banyak lagi perkara yang masih belum selesai yang sememangnya harus dibawa ke 2013. Banyak. Terlalu banyak. Antara azam tahun 2012 yang lalu:

1. Nak berhenti merokok - hampeh.
2. Nak start exercise, jogging, etc - kasut pun sampai hari ni tak beli2.
3. Nak kuruskan badan - mimpi la.
4. Nak stabilkan ekonomi diri - half cook cum work in progress.
5. Nak habiskan bayar kereta V6 - kereta pun kena curi.
6. Nak turunkan golf handicap - pergi range pun tak pernah.
7. Nak ambik lesen B full - moto pun tak beli lagi.
8. Nak ambik lesen PADI diving - cuti panjang tak approve.
9. Nak start belajar tajwid - In shaa Allah.. soon
10. Nak start small business (very small) - cuba, bangun, jatuh, belum bangun lagi.
And macam2 lagi la kalau nak senaraikan semua.

Setiap tahun bermacam azam yang aku pasang. Mungkin tak salah kalau aku kata yang ramai juga yang sama macam aku. Azam itu dan ini. Namun samada azam itu dapat direalisasikan atau tidak, banyak terpulang pada diri kita sendiri. Aku secara peribadi merasakan antara sebab mengapa ada azam yang tak dapat dijadikan realiti adalah kerana TERLALU BANYAK AZAM yang disenaraikan. Bila dah terlalu banyak, maka fokus pun akan lari. Pernah dengar 'yang dikejar tak dapat, yang dikendong berciciran' tak? Ha, itu lah masalahnya. dan kadang kadang, ada azam yang tak masuk akal yang kita secara rasional dan sedar tahu bahawa tidak mungkin azam itu dapat ditunaikan. Contoh? Jadi Angkasawan maybe. Boleh ke der?

Apapun, walau banyak azam yang masih tak kesampaian, aku ingin memanjatkan kesyukuran kepada Allah SWT. Atas kesihatan yang diberikan. Atas rezeki yang cukup. Atas Isteri yang penyayang. Atas anak anak yang dikasihi. Atas keluarga yang saling menyayangi. Atas rakan taulan yang budiman. Atas kerjaya yang memuaskan. Atas satu lagi ramadhan. Atas satu lagi syawal dan pelbagai lagi. Sesungguhnya betul lah yang nikmat Allah SWT tu kalau diambil air seluruh lautan didunia ni sebagai dakwat untuk menulisnya, nescaya tidak akan cukup. Terima kasih ya Allah. Aku hambaMu yang kerdil ini amat bersyukur atas nikmatMu.

Banyak juga kisah suka dan duka dalam 2012. Kisah suka tu banyak. Tak terkira rasanya. Tapi aku ingin untuk berkongsi kisah duka 2012 yang pada aku tak lain tak bukan pemergian kekandaku Mohd Fadzil @ Along ke rahmatullah. Aku ni adik beradik bukanlah ramai. 4 orang semuanya. Along, Aku, Nor dan Azli. Arwah Azli lebih dulu meninggalkan kami pada 1997 semasa dia berumur 17 tahun. Meninggal dunia kerana sakit tulang. Dari 1997, tinggal kami bertiga. Along pulak awal tahun ni sekitar bulan Mac was diagnosed with duedenom cancer (somewhere dekat perut). His health deteriorated since then dan akhirnya he passed away dalam bulan September. Within a short period of 6 months. He was 41 when he passed away. Apa yang mendukacitakan,  Along ni seorang yang cerewet pasal kesihatan dan pemakanan. Dia tak merokok, gym 2-3 times a week, makan jaga but end up was diagnozed with cancer. Rasa macam tak percaya yang dia dah tak ada. We were very close when we were small. Start renggang masa aku dapat masuk mrsm. And after that macam renggang all the way. Anyway, antara azam aku 2012 adalah nak rapat balik dengan dia. Namun, Allah dah ada perancangan lain. I was heartbroken when he passed away. Losing a dear brother. Kesalan paling besar aku adalah aku tak sempat mintak maaf kat dia sebab dulu aku pernah pecahkan botol gel rambut dia masa ada sekali kitorang gaduh masa kitorang kecik. Keluarga kitorang bukanlah macam keluarga sekarang yang senang senang. Belanja kena control. So, nak apa apa, kena menabung. Dia punya la simpan duit nak beli gel rambut tu almaklum la masa tu gel rambut ni masih baru dalam pasaran. So siapa yang pakai gel kira gempak la. Dia pulak, beli gel rambut tu, tapi tak pakai. Aku tanya kenapa? Dia kata, nak tunggu a very special occasion baru dia nak pakai. Setakat nak pegi sekolah ke, pegi pasar ke, tak payah nak pakai gel. Aku tak ingat gaduh pasal apa time tu. Cuma it was so heated, and I decided to hurt him peringkat maksima. Kalau tumbuk, kejap aje sakitnya kan. Kalau tendang, terajang, boleh elak elak lagi. So aku dengan tenang, ambik botol gel dia kat almari dan hempaskan atas lantai depan mata dia. Dia ni biasanya jenis lasak dan akan melawan balik. But not this time. He just cried while trying to salvage whatever left of the hair gel on the floor. Dan aku senyum puas hati. Ya Allah. besarnya dosa aku pada Along. Aku harap Along dah ampunkan aku. Atas segala dosa dosa yang pernah aku buat pada dia. Aku tentunya dah ampunkan segala dosa dia pada aku. Malah rasa aku, Along tak pernah sakitkan hati aku sebagaimana aku pernah sakitkan hati dia. Aku doakan setiap kali selepas sembahyang moga Allah cucuri rahmat pada roh Along dan ditempatkan dikalangan orang orang beriman dan beramal soleh. Air mata aku menitik sambil aku menaip.

 Break sekejap.   

I"m back. Fuh, lega rasa bila dapat release apa yang terpendam dalam dada. Anyway, tengah mencongak apa program malam ni. New years eve. Maybe bawak family keluar dinner lepas tu jalan jalan tengok lampu. Takkan nak pegi Dataran kot. Cukup dengan ronda ronda bandaraya Shah Alam or Klang je. Paling tidak pun pusing dekat I-City kot kot ada bunga api ke apa. 

Rasanya itu je kot untuk rangkuman 2012. Semalam pun dah main golf untuk penutup tahun ni kat Glenmarie. A good outing sebab aku menang. Pagi tadi pun dah settle the last committee meeting for the year. So esok berehat satu hari. Lusa, kita mulakan 2013.

Salam hormat. Salam sayang. Salam mesra. Moga kita semua menjadi insan yang lebih baik lagi sempena tahun baru 2013 ini. Itu aje azam aku kot. 

Till then. Assalamualaikum.


Yesterday @ Glenmarie Golf & Country Club. Last game of 2012.

  

Tuesday 25 December 2012

Why Do I Play Golf?

People said, the older you get, the smaller balls you'll play. Previously I would take it with a pinch of salt. Nevertheless, as age and reality caught up with me, I'm starting to agree with the statement. I was a sportsman since my young age. I played soccer, hockey, sepak takraw and ping pong representing my primary school. During my mrsm days, I represented the college in soccer, hockey, ping pong and volleyball. It got more physical when  I entered UUM as I added rugby to the existing sports which I played. Plus my PALAPES / ROTU activities, can you blame me for weighing at about 70kg with a sexy 27 inch waistline at that time?

A cool 27 inch waistline. I"m on the right by the way.

Pics taken circa 1993/94

Hahaha. Well, those were the days when I could simply tell off some of the girls who were pursuing me to simply do some soul searching and reaffirming to them that the possibility for me and them to hook up was 'Sorry. In your dreams girl."

Marriage did change me to 'another' person. Gone were the normal sports and exercise routines. Replaced by none other than makan, tidor, lepak, baring, malas, kunyah, makan lagi, tidor lagi, ronda2, jalan2, tengok lampu and so on. Activities which invloved very minimal physical movement and will never make me sweat.

Whatever it is, I'm not blaming marriage for what I have become today (I do actually... hehehe), but going back to the original title of this posting, marriage did introduced me to a game called GOLF.

For those who do not play golf, they will simply say that "What is so great about golf??" Agreed. I once did ask the same question. "Why are people wasting their time to play golf?". Yeah. I asked that too before. Well, how should I answer this? Hmm. There are a lot of versions of how this could be answered. Let me just be honest with you guys. What thrilled me to play golf is :

"The ability to send a small white coloured ball ACCURATELY to a specific location in front of me using the available equipments with my own ABILITY and STRATEGY with the most minimum MARGIN OF ERROR".

Arghhh.. Nicely said huh. This is not copied from anywhere. This is truthfully from me. Golf is a strategy game. It's about beating your own self. If last time you parred the hole, then this time you need to make a birdie. How? Starategize. 

Golf is a great game.


You can learn it for free from your good friend.


You get to Dress Up to the occasion.




Meet up old friends.



Meet up again

Some new friends.

Newer friends.

Big Tournaments

Suka2 game

Psycho your friends during their tee off.

Wonder where the ball went

Crack stupid golf jokes.


Literally an 'old' friend.


Sharing buggy with your sworn nemesis.


Mingle with your enemies.

Enjoying the view.



Gossiping in between holes.

Some side business.
 
Eat big dinners afterwards.

Win prizes.

Celebrate birthdays.

Win lucky draws.


Even luckier if you got to take photo with the popular emcee.

Well I think the pictures above could give all of you a glimpse of what GOLF is all about. I never regret taking it up. Never ever will. Ever fancy for a round of golf??? Do call me :)

Till then.. do take care.      

Wednesday 19 December 2012

Treasure Hunt - Kelana Jaya to Gambang

My company via our Sports Club recently held the inaugural Treasure Hunt from Kelana Jaya to Bukit Gambang, Kuantan. Pertama kali dalam sejarah. I'm actually not sure to say whether aku ni terel ke tidak in treasure hunt. Seumur hidup penah la join sekali in year 1998 when I was with SME Bank, treasure hunt KL to Pangkor. 

At the starting point with Shahrizal

So ini ada lah percubaan kali kedua. Since our team (myself, Shahrizal & Azman) ni dah kira agak veteran (late 30's), we kind of decided to just enjoy the trip to Gambang without thinking so much about the hunt. How wrong we were. 1st checkpoint was Dataran Prima area. 7 questions to solve and we managed to get all of them within a short period. Suddenly we were thinking, "hey.. we can do this. Kacanglah!!". And off we go to the 2nd checkpoint ie Karak. The 3rd was in Temerloh followed by Mentakab. We finally arrived in Gambang at 4pm with another 1 challenge to complete. Needless to say, we completed the challenge with flying colors.



Bukit Gambang - Arabian Resort
 After maghrib, dinner was served followed by the  treasure hunt answers and prize presentation to the winners. Dinner was fantastic. The food was great.



Laparrr...
  Prize presentation after dinner.
I won best slogan - "It's gonna be so much fun. Great minds will combine. Hunting for treasure while having fun with pleasure".

We thought we did quite well overall. Being conservative, we were anticipating to be placed at least within the top 10 bracket. Suprise suprise. we won 2nd Place!!!

 
Azman, Shah & Me.

What a fantastic feeling. It's well worth the effort, the sweat, journey, sunburns etc.
  


On top of the undisclose cash money that we won, together with the champion and the 3rd placed team, we are now going 1 step further by virtue of representing our company to the Association of Development Financial Institution Malaysia treasure hunt to be held 22-23 Dec 2012.

Thas about it for the night. The next morning we took an early breakfast around 7.30am. After breakfast, we packed and slowly drive back to KL via the old trunk roand. Why the old trunk road instead of the LPT Highway??

DURIANS!!!!!!
  
Marcia & Zahid


Fresh kampung durians @ Maran.

Natang susoh nok buke dughiang ni.

Hamid - The Master of Durian.

After eating the durians 'CGC Style' plus tapau some of the mangosteen, we continue our slow drive back. And how else would we end the fantastic journey?

LUNCH @ IKAN PATIN @ TEMERLOH.

Happy faces.

Succulent ikan patin tempoyak, sambal sotong, jantung pisang, taugeh, and various ulams. It's heaven.

Well guys, that's about it. It was really an enjoyable journey. Looking forward for the ADFIM treasure hunt later this weekend.

Till then, tata....

I'm Back

Assalamualaikum.

It's been a while. Actually, it had benn more than 1 month since my last posting. Well, blame it on the end of the year dash. Semua nak cepat. Semua nak siap. Semua nak settle. Handling a department with 40 people under me also did not help my cause. Loan recommendations, annual review, sales & marketing budget, year end appraisal, interviews, domestic inquiries, you name it.




Part of my crew - The boys - ramadhan 2011
 

Anyway, work is work and there are no two ways about it. They said that all work and no play will make Jack a dull boy. Luckily, I work smart and managed to avoid the 'dull' tag. And my crew cheerfulness did helped. Melayan pelbagai ragam ni biasalah. Ada yang ok, ada yang tak. Tak boleh balun sama rentak. You can't treat everyone the same. Ada yang kena tegas, ada yang kena lembut, ada yang kena dipujuk. You can ask around, to all Bosses, what is the most difficult challenge in their daily job? The answer is Managing People. Itulah yang paling sukar. Syukur masih diberikan kekuatan olehNya untuk menguruskan subordinat dengan baik.

That's it kot.

See you later.


Myself with parts of the boys crew - taken during ramadhan 2012


Part of the girls crew.