from west to east ... KK

on the 2nd week in Sabah, i had the opportunity to fly to Kota Kinabalu to attend a meeting. i was kind of excited to go to another new place even though it's just for a short time. as recommended by a friend, i stayed at Cititel Express Hotel, which i think is conveniently located near to the meeting place and right at the city center of KK. i chose perhaps the smallest room they have, a standard single room with single bed, which is probably the cutest room i've stayed in so far in Malaysia (coz i've experienced staying in small-sized cute rooms in several hotels in Japan before). it doesn't have a mini fridge and coffee/tea making facilities, however there's the hairdryer, shower stuff, nice tv...and what i like is the layout of the room, just fit for one person. Breakfast there is simply marvelous but if you don't want to spend RM12 (the room rate is not including breakfast) for breakfast, you have quite a plenty of choice outside of the hotel for cheap and also nice food.

Since I still have a few hours of daylight after checking in, I decided to stroll around the city.

Yep, as you can see, I walked around where my feet (...or as a friend said..bus no.11.. ;) ) would carry me, first to look for the place where the meeting would be held, then found a few city landmarks as I went along such as Padang Merdeka, the Istana Negeri (just the entrance hehe), Atkinson Clock Tower, Gaya Street (too bad I arrived on Sunday afternoon, just after the morning market closed) and the KK Esplanade. 

Atkinson Clock Tower, Signal Hill Road

Why is Atkinson Clock Tower significant? By reading a little, I found out that this tower was built in memory of the first District Officer of Jesselton (former name of Kota Kinabalu) in 1903 named Francis George Atkinson who died because of malaria at the age of 28. Perhaps the late Mr. Atkinson was quite popular back then? (I couldn't find any information about him.) Structure-wise, the clock tower is constructed using only wood and without nails. Formerly, it served as a lighthouse to aid the ships and it is also one of the few surviving pre-WWII structures that had survived the air raids during the the war. The clock is still working until today.

near the KK Esplanade

Upon arriving at KK Esplanade, I was greeted by the fresh cool evening breeze. It was so nice, there were lots of people hanging out but it wasn't crowded. At that moment, it seemed so nice to chill out there, at the wooden platform, overlooking the waters and small islands beyond. 

Walking down a bit south, from KK Esplanade I crossed through what seemed to be an array of markets. Later on I found out that area was of Central Market, the Sinsuran night market (is it the same to what they call Filipino market? i'm not so sure..) and handicraft market. Tempted, I "tapau"ed some roasted seafood and local kueh before walking back to the hotel. 

yumm..yumm..imagine me finishing off 10 squids in one seating

on the next night, my colleagues and i had dinner somewhere in an area called Austral Park, still in KK. a colleague took us to Pak Man Resipi restaurant where they claimed to have menus from all states in Malaysia. after spending quite some time choosing what to eat, we finally settled on two tom yum gongs, sweet and sour tenggiri and sinigang na isda. I didn't know what the hell is sinigang na isda other than that it is a kind of fish dish in some kind of broth, but when i tasted it, i thought macam singgang (nama pun lebih kurang). there's sour and tangy like taste, in short, like singgang lah. quite nice actually, all of the dishes.

so, that's all in my short visit to KK. i surely want to come here again and go to other places there in other times. till then...touch down again in Tawau to continue life...

lapar...

8.32 malam

tepu. kuyu. laporr...

lokasi: opis

dem !

dah nasib menumpang kete orang...kot tak dah lama balik rumah. jumaat ni kena jadi speaker. dah lama tak speaking-speaking. speaking malay je yob...dah nasib kena menunggu ni sempat la mendraf powerpoint. campak-campak bahan je dulu...masaknya susun aturnya kemudian. nak praktis lagi.. hadoih, sempat ke ni..macamana aku nak bercakap ni..tapi audien tak le sampai seratus pasang mata..silap-silap limaploh pun tak sampai..dan semuanya keje gomen...ok lah..citer pasal benda yg aku tau, bukannya pasal menatang SBPA tu...

SBPA..apa cerita ah..minggu depan meeting mesti boss akan explain la tu...

adoyai..sabar menunggu..kalau dah makan dan mandi, selesa nak buat keje balik, tapi kalo dah kena menunggu macam ni...terbuang masa xleh concentrate..

hujan pun dah berenti..

Budak Kelantan

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My brother lent me this dvd a long time ago but I only watched it just about 3 weeks ago. I haven't heard of this movie until then. Probably because I was not in the country at that time (the movie was produced in 2008). Anyway, I will write a little bit of the story in here.

From the title, it is unmistakable that the whole story revolves around Kelantanese people, with full Kelantanese dialect spoken by an all-Kelantanese cast. Perhaps I can only recognize Danny (X-Factor) and Bienda from the casts list, the rest I haven't heard before, and one of them might probably be an ex-primary schoolmate of mine. However, acting-wise, I'd say good and natural. 

The story is said to be based from a true story. It tells about 2 Kelantanese young man, Buchek and Jaha, best friends in their childhood reuniting in Kuala Lumpur (KL) after so many years separated. Buchek is a good, pious young man, just graduated from university and selling burgers in KL while looking for a better job. Jaha, on the other hand, is a 'graduate' from Henry Gurney School (a school for juvenile delinquents), living in KL selling drugs and pimping. The story starts with introductions of the two main characters in their own life, until they two meet by chance at Central Market, both unaware of each other activities. For old times sake, Jaha invited Buchek to hang out with him and stay the night at his house. From there, Buchek finally got the gist of Jaha's activities. As he tag along, Buchek experienced being beaten by some rival thugs, tasted cough syrup mixed with drug and saw Jaha picking on women. However, with all that, Jaha still respects Buchek and let him perform his daily prayers.

The climax of a-day-with-Jaha-experience for Buchek is when Jaha and his friend tries to kidnap a Chinese woman who's jogging alone. During the getaway, they have to stop the car as the petrol is running low. While both Jaha and his friend are out of the car, Buchek, who they entrusted to take care of the woman, let  the woman free. Friendship turned cold. At other time, Jaha tries sweet-talking a girl, not knowing that the girl is actually Che Nor, Buchek's girlfriend. Jaha, feeling guilty towards Che Nor and Buchek, wishes to apologize. Buchek, who values his friendship so much and wants to help Jaha to return to the right way, senses that Jaha has a heart with Che Nor. Supressing his own feelings, he tries to coax Che Nor to meet Jaha and to give a chance to Jaha to mend his mistakes but Che Nor (being a sensible woman, to me) adamantly refuse.

After an unfortunate event that leads Jaha into killing a man one night, Jaha is being tracked by the police. While riding away from the police, Jaha met with an accident and died. With Jaha's death, the story ends, (and so is Buchek and Che Nor's relationship, I guess). From the start until finish, the story goes along with Buchek's narration about life and relationships between people and people with its Creator.

In short, the story revolves around the good friendship between two people, who although each lives a different life, they still respect each other and value each other for old time sake. Jaha, who probably never finds true love or meet a woman with high principle such as Che Nor, is perturbed, intrigued or even touched by her, so much so, that it leads Buchek went as far as asking his own girlfriend to accept Jaha (kinda outrageous to me). Buchek, although witnessing his old friend's dark life, instead of shunning away from Jaha, he still tries to save him. From the story too, I think people like Jaha and his friends are a confused lot. As depicted in some scenes, they have no qualms ruining other people's life but they are like vigilantes when a sister of one of their own is disturbed by some thugs.

This story is a real life drama. A reality that is not supposedly related to Kelantanese people only. It's a global reality. Life is all about choosing....of which way to take, or to stay...or to get out of a wrong choice.

Ladies, I am more cautious of my surroundings after watching this movie.

Misteri Jalan Lama

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Sometimes I make a decision to watch a movie based on my 'trust'. It may be the trust on the director, the actors or the producer. Based on my trust to Afdlin Shauki's working mind, I went to watch Misteri Jalan Lama. Afdlin may have said that his latest movie has a sombre tone, different from his other movies, but it didn't make me leave the cinema feeling sombre. Instead, I left feeling entertained.

Two brothers of different personalities undertake a journey back to their hometown for their father's burial. However, in the middle of their journey, they meet with an unexpected accident (not a car accident, ya). Lost, or so they seem, they try to resume their journey despite encountering mysterious people and creatures beyond their (and our) understanding. But finally, we will come to understand the story. It's quite a straight-forward one, actually. Indra and Ilya are the brothers grimm. However, Indra has been estranged from his family for a long time. When their father passed away because of a car accident which happened mysteriously, Indra received a letter previously written by his father to drive Ilya back to their village. Prior to the accident, his father left Ilya a birthday present (which is supposedly to be on the next day, he will be 25), and the present being a strange looking locket. When Ilya hold the locket, it shines and made Ilya sees some kind of vision that he cannot understand. And so, the journey. Indra is portrayed as an ex-car racer turned loser who's always in trouble due to his gambling habits. Ilya is the hope of the family and he helps his father's company to grow and succeed. However, Ilya has several health problems and he also cannot drive. That's why they have to go back together. An unfortunate event caused them to lost their car and they have to continue on foot. In the middle of the forest, scary things happen as well as encounters with two different kinds of ghostly creatures. They seem to be waiting for them, but each with different intentions. What are those creatures? How are they related to the brothers? What is the secret behind the locket...and their father's instruction? We would know it at the end of the movie. But we would have guessed it as the story goes on. We would wonder, does this person actually knows more than what he seems to show?

The story? Quite straight-forward as I have said before and understandable. The actors? Great, the two male leads are not disappointing. The dialogues? Nice and at some point, can make you laugh. Yup, some scenes that are meant to be scary, they do scare me. There are elements of surprise. And some dialogues that are meant to be funny, they do made me laugh. However, I'm kinda intrigued by the scenes at the climax of the story. There is a war. There is suspense. However, I couldn't stand the costume. It made me laugh. Oh, Afdlin...are the costumes meant to make us laugh? Because I did. Personally, I think he could make the costume better and nicer, I think the scenes there deserve more serious tone and perhaps induce some jaw-dropping moments from the audience.

But anyway, a good and entertaining movie. An mystery-fantasy tale of two brothers. 

Alamak...Toyol!

kakiwayang.com

Desas-desus mengatakan filem ni best! Asalnya aku langsung tak berminat nak tengok cerita ni, boleh terpengaruh pula nak tengok. Lagipun dapat tengok secara percuma, apa salahnya...kalau betul-betul best, aku tak akan teragak-agak untuk tengok sekali lagi walaupun berbayar. (Tapi teragak-agak jugak le kot kalau takde bajet..heheh).

Namun...secara keseluruhannya, filem ni biasa-biasa je. Alamak...Toyol! adalah bergenre komedi tetapi bagi aku, bolehlah gelak sikit-sikit tapi tak sampai pecah panggung perut. Pengalaman menontonnya..hmm, agak menghiburkan tetapi adakalanya aku rasa tak sabar nak tunggu ceritanya habis. Macam bosan sikit. OK, itu secara keseluruhan. Seterusnya .... 

Ringkasan jalan cerita

Pak Umar nak bela toyol supaya dia boleh cepat kaya. Dia beli toyol yang paling murah je dan rupanya tak berbaloi. Disebabkan perjanjian yang telah dipersetujui, Pak Umar tak dapat 'refund' balik toyol tersebut, maka terpaksalah Pak Umar cari pengganti. Fakhrul dan Kudin pula adalah 2 orang pencuri dan peragut yang tidak kompeten dan sentiasa bernasib malang. Suatu hari mereka terjumpa dengan Pak Umar dan dipendekkan cerita mereka mengambil Toyol untuk kepentingan mereka. Dan selepas itu bermulalah episod-episod malang seterusnya bagi Fakhrul dan Kudin bersama toyol mereka yang tidak pandai mencuri itu. Dalam kes yang lain. Farah adalah pembantu kepada Daniel di sebuah syarikat. Suatu hari Farah dapat tahu rahsia hitam Daniel dan cuba untuk membongkarnya tetapi tidak berjaya. Sebaliknya, tindakannya itu meletakkan nyawanya di dalam bahaya kerana konco-konco Daniel memburu Farah untuk membunuhnya. Dalam satu insiden, Fakhrul, Kudin, Toyol dan Farah bertemu. Fakhrul dan Kudin ingin memulangkan Toyol kepada Pak Umar lalu mereka semua mencarinya. Setelah berjumpa, dan berjaya memaksa Pak Umar untuk menerima Toyol kembali, Farah telah diculik oleh si konco-konco. Terus tak jadi pindah. Akhirnya mereka bersatu untuk menyelamatkan Farah. Berjaya atau tidak usaha mereka itu, dan akhirnya milik siapakah toyol itu, boleh tengoklah filemnya.

Jalan cerita, boleh tahan. Pelaksanaan jalan cerita, hmmmmm.

Lakonan

Lakonan adik Toyol boleh dipujilah sebab walaupun dia tak ada dialog pun, gaya dan mimik mukanya berjaya menyampaikan karakter. Lakonan aktor-aktor lain secara individu sebenarnya ok juga. Tetapi entah kenapa tidak ada yang berkesan di hati. Aku berkata sedemikian sebab mungkin aku mengharapkan cerita itu sangat kelakar tetapi hasilnya taklah kelakar sangat. Mungkin juga kerana tiada 'punchline' yang betul-betul berkesan. Mungkin juga kerana elemen-elemen lawak yang ditunjukkan dah ketinggalan zaman.

Apapun, filem ini adalah filem komedi ringan yang 'nonsense', dan kesannya bergantung kepada tahap ke'sensitif'an anda terhadap lawak jenaka. Tiada mesej yang jelas di dalam cerita melainkan sekadar untuk dijadikan sebab, jangan bela toyol kerana ia menyusahkan anda je.

Sekurang-kurangnya, solekan adik Toyol tu boleh dipuji...

Last but not least. the ewww parts...(takde pun takpe lahh) :
a. Adik Toyol menghisap puting Fakhrul
b. Aksi 18SX di rumah Farah, apabila Farah terkejut tengok toyol di depan mata...

...mengenangkan Toyol tu dilakonkan oleh seorang kanak-kanak, aku jadi tak sanggup kadang-kadang nak tengok scenes tersebut..(walaupun point (b) tu takdelah budak tu betul2 tengok ye tak...)

Please...please...i wish for something that could make me go "Wow, this is so funny, yet so brilliant!!".

Lord Edgware Dies

agathachristie.com

Title : Lord Edgware Dies

Author : Agatha Christie

Publisher : Harper, 2007 (The Agatha Christie Signature Edition)

Pages : 351

Genre : Mystery, Detective Story

Bought at : MPH Subang Parade

Price : RM39.90 (Value Buy-double books)
First published by Collins, 1933

From back-cover synopsis:

When Lord Edgware is found murdered the police are baffled. His estranged actress wife was seen to visit him just before his death and Poirot himself heard her brag of her plan to 'get rid' of him. But how could his estranged wife Jane have stabbed Lord Edgware to death in his library at exactly the same time she was seen dining with friends? It's a case that almost proves to be too much for the great Hercule Poirot.

Method of murder, stabbed to death. Motivation, prospect of marriage to a more powerful and richer man. The tricks? Yup, once we learned of the two existence at the same time but at different places, and digested the story-line from the introduction, we would've arrived at the possible tricks executed. Only we wouldn't have known who's who and how it's actually done until the moment of truth. But sadly, so many deaths in this story, more than the usual two murders in average for Dame Christie's stories. And also, we learned that there is a kind of abnormality in a person, that he/she cannot distinguish the right from wrong, and can only think of one singular thing at a time, unable to process the mind with moral values. That kind of person can commit a crime without remorse as long as he/she can get whatever he/she wants the most at the time. The story is told as narrations by Captain Hastings which are very interesting, especially at the part where he told us about his views about Hercule Poirot idiosyncrasies. As expected, an enjoyable read as always. Love it!  

of gangsters and ghosts...

Quite recently, I managed to watch 3 local movies for free. And this post is just dedicated for my thoughts on those movies. The movies are KL Gangster, Bini-Biniku Gangster, Hantu Bonceng. Hua haa....these movies are totally not belonging to my favourite genres but I believe that sometimes we have to get out of our genres, out of our usual environment to have a wider view. Or we can say to open our eyes too. Huaa..so serious tones even talking about movies, eh? So here are some of my opinions about the films. I can say that none of them made me went ga ga over them, but anyway, quite entertaining.

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KL Gangster (KLG) and Bini-Biniku Gangster (My Wives Are Gangsters; BBG), both have gangster elements in them, but in different moods. When KLG is all seriously brutal and violent, BBG turned the gangsters community into a loving family affair with polygamy issues, a comedy. But nonetheless, both are okay to be missed. I'm not saying that they are not at all good, my...making movies is not easy business, eh? Lots of creative work involved, but...ok, both directors are far from being veterans, so I should say, let these movies be their experimental lab work and hope for better stories in the future.

In KLG, Malek is a retired gangster formerly from King's clan, after serving time in prison due to being stabbed in the back (figuratively) by King's stepson, Shark who is very ambitious (and a whole lot brutal too). Malek wished to clean his name, do honest job and ask forgiveness from his mother whilst trying to reunite his family. But it turns out that the gangster community is not very easy to run away from, especially when his younger brother, Jai becoming more and more ruthless and plays the gangster game too far by joining Shark's crew. After Shark gone too far as to terrorize his mother and killed his best friend, Fadil...Malek lost his cool and went on for revenge on Shark and beat up Jai. From his narrations at the end of the film, Malek finally went in prison again but satisfied that his score's settled. I think all the actors played their characters quite well except for the lifeless puppets of King's lady companions. I think the director didn't give them much attention but anyway just put them there because gangster bosses should have lovely girls on their side at all times. The film is dominated by male characters, featuring the hardship of life, gangsterism,.....and probably, trying to show that gangsters have compassion as well? That's where I think is lacking. All there is in the movie is fighting, fighting, and heartless fighting. (And King is like a lame gangster leader). Lack of character development, as well as the story line goes.

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In BBG, I think this one is purely just for entertainment. Just good for some laughs (well, not enough a hearty laugh though for me...). Manja and Herry are happily married and quite well-to-do couple. Herry works at a private company, and Manja maintains a flower shop. However, Manja is more than that, she's actually a leader in a gangster group. Unable to be pregnant, Manja allows Herry to take Reanna, his assistant, as his second wife but little does she know that Reanna is actually the younger sister of Min Siam, another gangster leader, the arch enemy of Manja's group. There's a sinister plot going on as Reanna wants to avenge her brother, being incapacitated in a fight, thanks to Manja. After that both ladies keep on hating and fighting each other behind Herry's back, and being nice and friendly in front of him, while living in the same house. One day, Herry went missing and both wives are starting to have what seems like the ultimate fight when suddenly a mysterious fighter came and broke their fights. In the end, the mysterious fighter is actually Herry and he is actually the son of another group leader and all the things that happened to them, including all marriages are actually part of his plans together with the other senior leaders of the other groups because the old guys have all gone mellow and tired of having rivalries. Duh!

You don't have to take this movie seriously because it is not, it's a comedy. But I just managed a few polite laughs, thanks to the relationship portrayal among all of the characters...all except Mat Saja. Mat Saja is an assistant in Herry's office, I'm not quite sure what's the purpose of his character, if he exists to add more funny flavour to the story, nope, he didn't make me feel fun. To say that he is the bad guy, also nope, although he did do some not-so-nice things because of envy. His character quite annoys me, but maybe that is his purpose in the movie. Whatever. Acting? No challenging roles. Biasa-biasa je.

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Alright, third movie is Hantu Bonceng (Pillion Rider Ghost; HB). Scary comedy, yup there's a ghost but it's more comedy than scary. However, there's an element of mystery that need to be answered, and yes, I got the answer at the end of the movie. Quite a simple story but I'd say in smooth line. Almost every part of the story are told in light-and-easy way but the story's real and there's a message. Amran is a delivery boy who always take part in illegal races. One night, Amran won the race and claimed his prize, an unassuming innocent village girl (definitely she's not a smart one, why on earth is she there?). While she is riding pillion on his bike, Amran rides home but shortly after that encountered with an accident with a truck. He survived but the girl died. Since then, Amran is constantly disturbed by the girl's ghost and it affected his life. In another situation, due to his playboy-racer lifestyle, Amran is always in a difficult relationship with his girlfriend, Halimatun, a nurse at a hospital where Amran always end up to after racing accidents. Amran also has a great buddy, Kunyit. Due to the case, Amran, Kunyit and Halimatun bond together to solve it. Things turned a different way when they discovered that the dead girl actually has a living twin sister who looks exactly the same. Amran gets the sister's forgiveness and tries to help her when everything seems to be out of hand. With the help of his buddies and girfriend, Amran is saved and the mystery involving the sister is solved. It turns out that instead of really forgiving Amran, the sister actually plans a scheme to revenge him.

There are positive elements in HB where Amran and Kunyit repent for their sins, and in all its naturalness, they are challenged in their effort to change. So, even though I won't care to watch this movie repeatedly, for me it's better than the other two movies here, for comparison purpose. Better in the aspect of story line and messages in the story. And for the funny part, yep...it's funny. However, for the title's sake of Hantu Bonceng, the ghost is never seen riding pillion anywhere in the movie! Heh... Just my humble thoughts.

The Adventures of Tintin

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A trip to the cinema is usually a planned trip because I am choosy when it comes to enjoying movies. So, when a free invitation to a movie suddenly came up and there's no 'now showing' movie in my wishlist at the moment, I just chose movies that's really close to my taste. Hence, The Adventures of Tintin (TAOT) was selected.

I watched TAOT without reading any previews or reviews or any pre-existing knowledge whatsoever of it, except for having a little guess because the name's quite familiar and so it is probably an adapted work from a novel or some other works of art. Indeed it was, but from a comic book. After watching, I read up for some information and TAOT is actually "a series of classic comic books created by Belgian artiste Georges Rémi (1907-1983) who wrote under the pen name Hergé" (source: Wikipedia). Yup, his comics joined the famous books, novels and literature of long publication lines and globally famous.

The movie is a performance capture 3D film....which means, it's not real, but really close to real. All actions done by the actors are captured, animated and digitized in 3D. The story is about the journey of Tintin, a young journalist in unraveling the mystery of the unicorn sailing ships that is related to history or legend of its maker, Sir Francis Haddock. At first I thought this is only a kid's movie but WHEW!, with gunshots, fast-paced action sequence, unstoppable grinding of teeth (okay, that one is exaggerated), fight scenes and the seriousness of the story line....but no messy bloodbath, and there's some humour and funny moments and FUN! ....so, okay..it's for everybody.

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Tintin saw a unique three-masted sailing ship model at an open market one day and bought it with a good price, but suddenly found himself becoming a target to mysterious people who's actually wanting the ship for themselves. What's the story behind the model ship? What's the secrets behind (or in) it and who are the people who are also looking for the ship? The adventure of young Tintin and his clever dog made them crossed the sea and the air, and took them to race with the cunning foe, in finding the answers of the puzzles the ship maker left them. Good to watch!

ray of sunshine

sometimes...even when we are surrounded with people,

occupied with things,

so full with everyday tasks that made you breathless,

....

just a moment, a split-second moment

you feel lonely

a stab of feeling

like a prick of a needle

*******

you are like a ray of morning sun

shines softly

soothing warmth

touches me

makes the flowers bloom

and my feelings too

yet you are unreachable

i pray for a stronger heart...

mysterious.secrets.silence