Afiqq Blog

28 January 2008

Black Specs From Bt Timah Hill


me and my bro have conquered Toa Payoh! started our cycling at 1am and had to sleep in the toa Payoh Park because we were too tired. Reached back home at 10am.

thought of cycling using the bukit timah road but when we were at bukit batok, we terlajak ke boon lay way, so we just continue the journey following this long road that also covers clementi mrt all the way to queenstown mrt. we turn to holland road and reached orchard road. near the thai embassy, i was looking at a girl talking to a guard in the thai embassy not knowing there's a barrier. so i was on a shock after i hit the barrier but i didn't fall off my bike. i act cool and continue cycling.

then all the way we head near the Istana and made to a shortcut that lead us to a major road near little india mrt. we moved on to arab street and had a short nap near the bussorah street.

then we moved on, towards the ICA building and turn to balestier road and yeah! we reached whampoa drive. and then continue our journey to toa payoh. we stopped by a shop and bought ourselves breakfast. had our breakfast at toa payoh park. small park but very nice! it looked so 80s. got ponds with bridges some more! it was around 7am and we had to sleep because we've reached to a limit where we cannot sit on the bicycle anymore because our butt really hurts so bad.

after our short nap, we cycled to thomson road, then the mount pleasant road, i think, which is just beside the old police academy. then exit to whitley road and moved on to the long long road of bukit timah road to home.

next day i watched one of the best gig i've been so far. 'waking up the dead' gig at the arts house. i watched Anthelion, a death metal band from taiwan. very energetic. they looked scary too. but very showmanship.




the next day i went hiking with my friends at bukit timah hill and got a free black specs from my friend whom he found inside the forest near the cycling trail. Alhamdullillah. anyway i gave it to my dad cos he needed it most specially when riding his SingPost scooter on a hot day. it was his birthday that day too.

Jalan Ampas

my bro looking at the very nice sign.
navy blue ranglan shirt with polyfilm paper logo sponsored by SingPrint

The zinc gate with the number 8 written on it.
You can see the windows of the building behind.





it took me about 4hours plus just to cycling from bt panjang to toa payoh. that's alright for me, but what i really wanted to share with you all is Jalan Ampas.

i went to whampoa Drive to see my factory and i'm surprised that the gate is not close cos even late night, there's a few companies still on going work. so i decided to go to Jalan Ampas cos quite near there. when i went into the road, i saw a few condos and a few industrial factories. first i thought number 9B Jalan Ampas was the studio, cos it looked like the studio in the movie, "Seniman Bujang Lapok."

i was cursing towards it cos there were lorries inside, it has changed into a some kind of warehouse. but my bro saw this small very nice sign board that says Shaw Studio, and there it was, being covered by a gate made of zinc. its number 8 Jalan Ampas. i couldn't really see the building cos it was still very early morning and there were no lights in the building. but one thing for sure, i was saddened to see the building abandoned, covered with a zinc gate. very sad.

25 January 2008

Sambal Tumis Pahit

i was eating with my nenek when i wanted to try the sambal tumis. when i tasted it, i actually didn't wanna say that its not nice, but my nenek asked me is it not nice? too pahit? so i said yes lor. i told her i guess there's an ingredient that was too less. she did not agree.
she said that she herself do not know why its pahit. first she tried lessen the bawang putih, then she tried lessen the belacan, still taste very pahit. i suspect she forgot to add in the sugar.

19 January 2008

Marina Rabak Seh!


yesterday i watched Sinaran Hati at Suria. not bad actually. good show. but there's a problem. in fact 2 problems.
marina yusof sang Gurindam Jiwa. that song is a beautiful song, but was sung by a bad singer. sekali Elfi Ismail, whose the winner for Klasik Nusantara singing competition, muncul dengan bernyani together with her, alamak! rabak siol! elfi ismail is a great singer. but he sang gurindam jiwa with a bad female singer! not right!
then came the dondang sayang. alamak! marina's singing was very very bad! aiyoooo! i thought we got this female singaporean singer who got 3rd place in the klasik nusantara singing competition. she can sing those classic songs what... why her?
sorrylah not that i don't like marina, but she was a host, and i think she's good being a host, that's all.
she's certainly not my mum's favourite too cos while she was singing, my mum covered her face by covering her on the tv screen.

16 January 2008

Prata Kosong Tiga, Makan! Kasi Kuah Dalcha.

i've been seeing and eating prata for the past few days now. first was at Bt Gombak's Alif restaurant where the prata makers are malays. i ordered prata bawang (prata with onions) 3 pieces with kuah dalcha. cos kuah curry boring already lah. when i ask for the bill, the price was $4.20 together with my teh halia gajah. fuuh! i was a little stunned cos $4.20 can buy a meal of one rice, one vegetable and one big fried chicken at the Malay stall selling Nasi Padang at Fork n Spoon at toa payoh!

and i tell you, prata bawang taste like prata kosong. the bawang just makes it more crunchier in the mouth. its like tasteless minced meat toppings. but, the kuah dalcha very nice. fuuuh, power! oh and my friend ordered prata banana, fuuh! sedap! but i don't know the price ah, suspect more than $1.

anyway, yesterday was more upsetting. i went to eat prata kosong at al-ameen at woodlands there. i ask for kuah dalcha along with it. but they gave me curry ayam. ok, never mind. i just kept quiet. so i started eating. alamak, upset lah the curry ayam. its like they add too much water in the curry. the prata was not hot, it felt like its been kept for many hours. hard to peel, rasa muak, cos i suspect they recook it.

i called this Prata Jawa. i still remember my nenek used to make prata when i was little. she used a big dulang to spread out the dough. after i got into primary school, she stopped making prata. upset.

one piece of prata kosong for $1.50
how, wanna try? go to Bugis Junction's Food Junction. the maker doesn't look indian. but the way he make the prata very cool, he can actually threw the already spreading dough to the back, in midair, then he catches it and put it flat on the table. he did that a number of times. so i think i must try this one.

14 January 2008

Airport Girls

yesterday i was shaking my head because of food, favourite one, sambal.
you see my grandma made nasi lemak with the kangkong and the fried fish including the sambal. but the problem with the sambal was that it tasted like as if its still not cook well yet. i could still taste like the chilli were still fresh and not cooked yet.
my grandma's cooking has always been the best but lately, her cooking were either too less salty or too fast her cooking.

i went to Victory, in front of the masjid sultan, you know the 2 storey restaurant famous for murtabak, together with Zam Zam of course. at first when we walk past Zam Zam, we were asked to come in and go to the 2nd storey. so me and my family all go up, all can't wait to eat. but when i went up, i saw all the tables were full. i ask my family to go down, my mum were at half of the 2nd storey already struggling. alamak, bingit seh. they got CCTV on the 1st storey, they could have check the CCTV and told us 2nd storey is full! so we went to Victory, beside Zam Zam instead.

the daging murtabak we ordered were not hot. but the sardine murtabak were very hot. in fact our sardine murtabak came very late while the daging murtabak came quite early.

that friday, i go lepak with my friend whose working at the airport, you know the girls sitting in the counters of various airlines, i called them the airport girls. anyway, these girls you know lah, many of them all minah rep. so my friend, whose certainly not a minah rep, talked about a few of these girls who had their boyfriends fetch them to work and after work, almost everyday. even if their shift starts at 5am, their boy sanggup turun beb. but of course all these guys got motobikes lah.
my friend tried to nasihat pompuan2 ni not to susahkan lakinya cos they're also working, surely its troublesome for him to go down awal pagi just to fetch his girl.
then another thing about these minah rep airport is that they like to talk to their boy in the handphone during work, during break, in the toilet, anytime. padahal boleh bebual lepas kerja. and then some of them, fighting with their boy in the phone. pastu boring, bingit sendiri. but the worst part was they became slack or do mistakes in their work. pasal gaduh dgn matair, kerja dengan pekerja2 jadi mangsa pulak. kesian.

09 January 2008

Menakutkan

yesterday at the factory, 2 guys wearing like a business people came.

and so my manager said hi. then one of the guy ask, "where are all these staffs come from?"

manager said, "oh, all of them from malaysia..."

the guy said, "oh so your shirts you get from malaysia?"

i was like.... eeerrrr. so i answered, "oh you mean the stuffs here come from where? i thought you all from ICA!" hehheeheheehehehe

and so we told them that the shirts most of it from china. cos they wanna know if we got supplies from thailand or not. dunno why.

06 January 2008

Hari Nikah Saturday

watsup watsup.
met an old friend at my cousin's wedding. she's one of my friend in malay culture group in jurong town cc back in 1998. tak sangka pulak she's my cousin's classmate at ite bt batok. when i was talking about how she's doing and what shes doing now, suddenly she talked about the old times.
she told me that i was thinner last time, i like to wear jersey and jeans with slippers, and the 'best' part, her friend, which i used to go out with her before, now had a boyfriend. Chissss.... baru nak mintak nombor dia ke email ke apa kan.
aiyah... no camera lah. if not can take pictures of my cousins and cousins peh cousins. you know, usually saturday they will nikah, then sunday they will standing. the nikah part on saturday was an eye opener. got to see some chicks on kebayas and baju kurungs.
~`~`~ siapa bilang gadis melayu tak menawan~`~`~

03 January 2008

Resolution 2008

What i want in 2008

january - go to pulau ubin
february - go and eat at sakura buffet
march - watch a foreign movie at midnight
april - celebrate my birthday at seoul garden
may - learn how to play chinese chess
june - picnic at the botanic gardens
july - buy a cheap PC monitor
august - build a new CPU
september - learn how to drive a car
october - try to memorize Hiragana letterings
november - make my own cake
december - go to esplanade and watch fireworks on new year's eve.

my resolution for 2008

i want to save money. i want to make sure that i got some savings in my banks.

oklah why not june 2008, i must make sure i got $1000 in my bank.

so that's the only resolution i want for this year. hopefully i can fulfill it. actually i want to get a girl and i wanna lose weight as my resolutions but those are something i can do any year i want. in fact its a boring resolution.

01 January 2008

A Summary of 2007

Lets recapped my life for the year 2007. these are all based in writings from my blog.

january 07:
i made a resolution.
repair bass guitar
buy a bicycle
buy 1GB Ram
treat family pizza hut
find job in newspapers and check for ITE courses

february 07:
bought a bicycle and had my night cycling from home to Sentosa.
Singapore won the ASEAN football championship after beating thailand with an overall score of 3-2.

march 07:
my friends got my pink ICs already when i still got a long way to go.
also i didn't get to watch the Gema Puisi Artistik cos i was working. NYP got second.

april 07:
i ate MacD's fillet-o-fish for the first time for a long time (cos mcSpicy was more worth it to be eaten) and i realised the fish burger is now being put in a box and not being wrapped by the burger wrapper but... its burger size got smaller! bodoh!
another resolution i made cos i celebrated my birthday this month. the resolution was titled GOAL '24. what the hell! hahaha!

after ns, get a job, fast.
get my band to move forward.
get my bass guitar repaired.
upgrade myself in IT and networking.
get a girlfriend.
live a healthy lifestyle.

also this month, i got the Perfect Attendance Award for not having medical leave or MC for one year in my National Service in SCDF.

may 07:
went to Seoul Garden for the first time, finally!
my 3 months NS leave had started.
i also got my reservist training and i was trained to handle bomb shelters.

june 07:
i wrote my very first resume by copying Izzam's resume. thanks man.
i sign up for eBay and tried to sell a music CD. no one wanted to buy.

july 07:
got my bass guitar repaired! and i bought an amplifier for it too! yelah, kata nak move the band forward kan...
went to Secret Recipe for the first time. didn't enjoyed it cos its too expensive and the taste is just like hawker centre quality.

this month was a really fast one actually for me. i ORD, the next day i went for an interview and got a part time job as a graphic designer in a t-shirt printing company. i didn't have a design diploma.
cycling from home and conquered Woodlands including the kranji war memorial. great place.
after a week my part time job became full time. Alhamdullillah!

august 07:
night cycling from home and conquered mount faber, tanjong pagar KTM station and orchard road. i realised i took only 1.5hours to go back to bukit panjang from orchard road by cycling.

for the first time, i applied a temporary passport at ICA building cos i had to go malacca and my new passport still got a long way to finish it. it cost $15 and its a one time trip only.

september 07:
went to genting for the first time for a very long time! went to their casino first time too! ride a go-kart for the first time! and i went there during fasting month, for the first time! oh yeah, went to a 5 star hotel in KL for the first time!

october 07:
hari raya aidilfitri! my working colleagues including my boss came to my house on the first day of raya. they love my ayam masak merah and my sambal goreng.

went to watch Megadeth live at fort canning park! gerek kedemak! kena moshed by the white people. toes got banged by them too! after the concert my mp3 player was being injected with megadeth songs, till now!

jalan raya with the budak2 MCG yg lama. one of the most different jalan raya ever. cos the usual couples were not couples anymore and their ex were not invited even though they were our MCG friends too. kesian ah... the maaf session i was drenched with tears.

november 07:
i watched a malay theatre at Esplanade for the first time! i made t-shirt for MCG and they ordered it! yeah! Layar Andayu 08 don't forget to order with me again.
i ride a coach to KL by myself. and of course travelling with my MCG friends, all first time!

december 07:
went for dating 2 times, hehhe.
went to KL again but this time its a real business trip.
for the first time ever, i went out during new year's eve to esplanade and watched the most spectacular fireworks ever seen in my life. and i even got to see banglas dancing.

and so thats what happen to my life in 2007. oh yeah, about the resolution:

2007 New Year Resolution
repair bass guitar -DONE-
buy a bicycle -DONE-
buy 1GB Ram -HALF DONE- (cos i bought 512MB Ram instead) for you who dunno wat Ram, its for speed up the PC.)
treat family pizza hut -NOT DONE-
find job in newspapers and check for ITE courses -DONE-

Birthday Resolution
after ns, get a job, fast. -DONE-
get my band to move forward. -DEAD-
get my bass guitar repaired. -DONE-
upgrade myself in IT and networking. -HALF DONE- (wanted to work as IT Specialist. instead i got another kind of job)
get a girlfriend. -NOT DONE, YET- (must think positive...must think positive...do not say that "i'll stay bujang forever")
live a healthy lifestyle. -STILL TRYING-

so hello 2008!