Seen any good Movies lately

In my view, Vantage Point has got to be one of the best movies I have ever seen this year. The movie tells a story of what has transpired to the attempt of assination on the US president. Rather then running the story sequentially, the director and editor has chosen to tell the story in various view points edited in a short story method. I can see and hear many people in the theater giving hugh sigh as they may not be used to viewing the story in this manner as it looks repetitive, i however thot its a refreshing approach of story telling.

Its packed with non stop action and the twist and spin on the plot is very interesting. I would definitely recommend people to see this movie.

Other notable movies worth mentioning are Jumper (though I am not such fan of Hayden Christensen) has very interesting special effects but more of X-Men kinda feel to the story. Not much of a story line and i would only rate it average by my books. Within the same week, I also saw Meet the Spartans, which is spoof of the movie 300. Having some serious actor in this movie make the take very comediac and interesting. Thats enough movies for the week - 3 in total.

A friend of mine who saw CJ7 rated it quite high and is worth mentioning.

Lonely Malaysian - Bah Magoh/Long Sheridan

I am very touched by some of my friends initiatives in exploring Malaysia in its true sense. Every year,he takes time off to visit the interior of Sarawak to bring some of these people hope and where possible gifts. I am also amazed at the pluckiness of another friend of mine and this particular girl that has managed to transit from a Triathlete into what I feel is photojournalist. This post is dedicated these friends.

It is amazing that in our endeavour to achieve a state of developed country, there are still people who lived below the poverty line. Are we forgeting these people?Who are looking into the affairs of these Penans. ?

More of these images on the following links http://www.flickr.com/photos/fayeosman/ and http://www.pbase.com/tanboonen/long_seridan_to_ulu_magoh

I hope she doesn't mind me saying this, but i think this girl is very plucky and brave to have roughed it out in places where even the trekker had thought it risky, took a lot of tumble and with the desmise of her shoes, had to survive on slippers for most of the trekking. Salute!!!

Sunday Ride - Guthrie

Lotsa starters, but some of us finished early to see LTDL.

CyclingNews - CNY Holiday

7th February 2008
When you have 4 days of holiday break, you then looked out for some interesting rides. Well, the first ride for me was to Frasers on Thursday. It was a day of riding and support car driving for the whole of the day. How the event unfold was as follows:-

Got out of the house to meetup with Weina and Jaja at the Shell petrol station at 0645 am and convoyed with them to Kuala Kubu. We reached KKB at 0745 and preped ourselves while waiting for the rest. Soon, Fadzil(CK) and his friend Jamil came along. We were also joined by AJ (Mr Malakoff), Zamani (ex LeTua rider) and Razak. All six of us left earlier at about 0840 , leaving Zamani and Razak to catch up later.

Zamani caught up with me at the dam and we decided to cycle together until he found me to slow and decided to start sprinting to catchup with AJ. By the 16th kilometer, Razak had caught up with me and was pushing of to the front to catchup with AJ and Jamil who must have been about 1-2 kilometers ahead. Decided to wait at the 25th Kilometer mark near the waterfall for the girls and we reached GAP about 2 hours after start.

We decided to climb up to Frasers using the blocked road as Zamani assured us that it was passable by bike and we pushed off up the 15% gradient and only managed about 5km until we had to turn back as there was a huge sinkhole. After refueling at GAP, we decided to go down to KKB for our birthday lunch feast with CK and we reached KKB at 1255. What was memorable to me was how fast the crosswind and headwind that I nearly flew off with the bike going downhill near the dam.

Knowingly, we decided to wait for the Tria boys and girls who has decided to start from Hospital Orang Asli and shud be passing KKB by about 1-2pm as we had anticipated. There were some casualties from their ride and i decided to give one of them a lift back to HOA as he had a twisted knee tendon. We left at about 3 pm. Curiousity brought me to investigate the Hulu Yam route and upon seeing it, i thought I better stay around near HOA just in case my services was called upon as a support car driver.

As if making my wish come true, the call came at about 4:55 pm to pickup another casualty near Batu Dam, and upon sending him back to his car, some of the riders had reached the last checkpoint (HOA) at about 1805pm. We sat down discussing the ride and later all of us left HOA at almost 1845pm tired and knackered.

9th February 2008
Feeling sadistic and wanting more of the endorphin rush, decided to follow the Fadzil(CK) and geng to undertake the Broga Classic ride so as to answer some the debate posed by Ariff and May Senn. Having decided on the last minute, which as at 0550 am, i rushed out of bed and packed my bike and stuff leaving the house at 0620 while reaching Batu 18 at about 0700 just about to see Jaja unpacking her bike and getting ready. We were joined shortly by CK, Radzi and AJ (they are old Putra Boys). Meeting Shazly at the bridge, we pushed off toward Tekala where we rendevoused with the Tria/IronMan participants (Adzim, Ariff, Maysenn, Laif, Dicky, Bacin, Adeline, Ihshal, Chan, Zamani and Zabil)

We pushed of for Semenyih and was crusing at about 30km/hr and hit Broga for refueling. At we entered Lenggeng, Jaja and Radzi had a puncture and Ariff, May Senn CK and Zamani stayed back to make sure everything is OK. The rest of us pushed off to Bukit Tangga and we arrived at Klawang Petronas at 1200. While coming down Bukit Tangga at about 70km/hr, there was a hugh gust of wind that nearly make my hugh body mass fly of the road. That was hell of a scary moment.

Leaving Klawang Petronas, the guys set off at quite a pace that I decided to drop back and cycle alone at my own pace to Peres by the time we reached the foothills of the Peres climb. I suddenly realized that its quite a scary moment as my energy was sapped and there was no handphone coverage. Will I be left alone, how will the guys reached me, how will I contact them.? Your mind really plays tricks on you when one is knackered. About 6km before the peak of Peres, I metup with Sazly, Laif, Ihshal and Adeline who waved me down by the side of the road to enjoy a cool shower underneath a small waterfall. It was the most glorious sight that I have ever seen - the people and the cool water.

I think, much to my comrades relief that I made it, they pushed off back to Peres leaving me to enjoy my shower. Ariff, CK, May Senn and Jaja arrived about 15 minutes later and we pushed of together back to Peres. Not knowing, whether I will make it back, I did pass my car keys to Adeline (who is ever so kind) to come and pick me up when she has reached Batu 18.

Ariff, May Senn, Jaja and me pushed off back to Peres 5 minutes later and we arrived to the peak at about 1505 pm. I rushed down to Batu 18, and ironically met Adeline at the foothill of Peres. Took her back to her car where we call it a day and i bid my thanks to her.

Conclusion: Broga Classic is tougher then reverse to me (especially for that day) because of the tired set of legs having to endure about 90km of ride (which include tackling the 2 hills after Lenggeng into Klawang) and further tackling the 470m ascent in the final hours of the day, when your leg is well spent. I would look for kinder weather to tackle that loop again. But more then 200km for that holiday - it is a holiday well spent.

Fast Service Wedding

This week alone, within a space of two days, i went to two wedding of contrasting atmosphere. One was held in their house and a neighbours compound, while the other was held in a grand hall with much granduier.

Organizing and managing wedding has now become an expensive and complicated affairs. What use to be done in a community, is now managed by Wedding planners. What use to cost wedding organizer (be it the bride of groom's parent) RM7 per head now cost RM1000 a table. How does one cope up with this escalating cost and complication of the event and expectation. A friend who i met during this event, sighed and remarked to me ," I guess you are here to also observe and learn from the event as we both have daughters that are of marrying age" to which I nodded.

I was thinking to myself, "Why can't we just have a wedding at McDonalds, they have an event room, they have menu to fulfill most of the taste of the invited guess (from fish fillet to beef). They will provide the event room for free!!". "I guess, it will look awkward with the Ronald McDonald reading the "Doa" then, i suppose". Must ask my daughter when time comes, at least its an option.