I Missed Two Events.

Could it be me when I was young?

Upon reflection I found that I missed another two events in 1968 that is worthy of mention. Infact its exclusion makes the write up fatally flawed. Adding the events in the previous post will only make you lose precious time as you may have to read up the whole post all over again.

Public caning was a rare happening in our school. During my five years at Sultan Ibrahim Secondary School Pasir Mas, I can only recall this one occasion when 3 of my classmates were caned in front of the school assembly. It is common for us to be caned in class but not in front of the full school assembly. It really reflected the severity of the offense for one to be so punished. It will of course leave an indelible mark on the mind of those so penalised. Since I was the one who was directly involved in their getting caned, it affected me too.I spent many months of fearful existence from being accosted in the street as a tit for tat by those being caned. Due to that I spent most of the time to the school fenced up compound as I was a hostelites living within the compound of the school. Fortunately the guys that were caned must have realized it was their mistake and their foolishness of being caught doing the wrong deed made them feel that I wasn't really the cause of their misery and shame.

It is the best kept secret as only myself and another two classmates who know of how the misdeed was brought to the attention of the teacher concerned. Now it is 40 years down the line, only the three of us know about it. Even the teacher doesn't know who actually saw them did it.

You must be wondering what the heck was the reason for the caning? I will not hold the suspense any longer as I too need to proceed with the other event to complete this blog.

Being a small school with a small library, we have this precious set of encyclopaedia called the Enclyclopaedia Brittainica. It was the only set and I cant really recall how many volumes there were in the set. They were definitely more than 10 thick volumes including the index. These encylopaedias was most sought after as a reference material. They were reference books and so they were never allowed to be borrowed. The library was being opened from 3.00 PM to 5.00 PM being operated by volunteer student librarians with me being the head librarian. The library occupies a class room and thus was quite crampy. During my tenure as the head librarian I had proposed a few suggestions to the library master on how to improve and maximise space in the library. One of them was to remove the doors to all the cabinets holding the book and as a measure for security, all the windows of the library be fitted with BRC (2 inch square wire mesh). When we received new paperbacks from United States Information Services (USIS), I suggested that they be covered with plastic covers to ensure longevity and to create space for them, more shelves were constructed on the walls without the need for additional cupboard which was the practice before then. All of these suggestions were accepted by the library master by the name of J N Anardhanan. The cupboards were arranged in such a way almost resembling a maze to improve space. It was at one such corners that these three students had used to tear off pages from the encyclopardia to take home to read.

Always remember that when you are doing something clandestine, the walls have eyes and ears. There were no hidden cameras or microphones then to do a soi lek (too bad if you don't know what I mean) but there were human eyes who could see. The trio were assuming that this person didn' t see what they were doing and even if he did, he wouldn't tell on them. That was their mistake. The information was passed on to another friend and through him to me as the head librarian. I had to do what I had to do and reported the 'crime' to the Library Master complete with the details of the time and names of the students involved.

It didn't take long for the Library Master to extract a confession from the trio and they returned the torn pages which was the absolute evidence necessary to nail them. Ah how I wish our police force are as effective as my Library Master when extracting confession from the real criminals.

The next school assembly was on a Sunday. It was held in the afternoon after classes were over as the afternoon session needs to be present too. Thus at the school assembly both the morning sessions and the afternoon sessions for the lower forms were present. The three guilty students were called to the front of the assembly and the Headmaster En. Yusoff Ghouse (the father of lawyer Marina Yusoff) read out the offense and announced they were to be punished with public caning. The whole assembly comprising of about 1300 students fell to a pin drop silence. Only the sound of passing cars along the road nearby was audible. The trio came prepared. When the first stroke was struck with the full might of a man's swing by the disciplinary teacher by the name of En. Nik Alwi, there was a hollow sound emanating from the strike. True to his suspicion, En. Nik Alwi pulled out an excercise bookfrom the inside of the student's short. The other two were compelled to remove their padding too before their punishment was meted out.

It was not the pain of the caning that made the punishment unbearable, it was the shame that made it hurt the most. To be caned infront of a school assembly is an experience one will not want to experience. It was a lesson well learn't by the other students.

When we grew into adulthood, what happened during the school days were presumed forgotten and we are the best of friends again. Two of the trio suffered a stroke and one recovered quite well. With a group of other classmates, we visited him on 29th October and he was in great mood though his left arm and leg were almost crippled.

After 40 years the secret remains a secret. It is the best kept secret. I wonder if the secret should remain a secret?

Another event that I missed mentioning was the 'Malam Seribu Bintang' (Night of A Thousand Stars). Our class of Form 5A was tasked with the making of the stage under the able stewardship of Mr. Mark Anthony the wood work teacher. It was a stage show staged over two nights.

It must have been En. Rahman Ali's brainchild as he wanted to showcase his student band called 'Kostrad Pelajar' with Suhaimi Hussin on lead, Fauzan Omar on rythm, Azmi Omar on bass, Mohamd Jusoh on drums and Aziz Awang Hamat as the lead singer as well as on tambourine. (If the name Fauzan Omar rings a bell, yes he is the famous artist/lecturer at UITM).

Cikgu Rahman Ali and his bandboys 'Kostrad Pelajar'

On the night of the show the band couldn't get the bass guitar which was supposed to be lent by the local band known as The Wheels. Che Gu Rahman was so incensed that he straight away bought a new guitar for RM180 which was a big sum of money back then.

A singing contest was also held and Shamsiah Abdullah walked away with the first prize after delivering the catchy song 'Luna Lunera' with the additional accompaniment of the bongo played by who else but Chegu Rahman Ali.

Shamsiah took the first prize by singing Luna Lunera.

The hostelite was given a slot to perform. We opted for the dance drama which we concocted ourselves after getting the idea from the film 'West Side Story'. The dance drama was titled The Fight In Golden Sand played to the accompaniment of For A Fistful of Dollars Since the idea came from me, of course I put myself in one of the main roles. The story revolved around two gamblers one of whom cheated the other which led to a gangfight. The fight between the gang leaders ensued. The gang leaders were played by Mahmud Awang Kechil(Datuk Dr) and Ashaari Haji Amin. The original line was supposed to end with Ashaari being killed by a stab of the knife. Unfortunately we were using real sharp knife and it nicked the thigh of Ashaari Amin and blood oozed out from the wound dripping to the floor. The audience was unaware that real knife was used until Mahmud dropped the knife and the sharp knife stuck upright with the tip embedded on the wooden floor. The show went on umimpeded but after the show, Ashaari was rushed to the clinic to have the wound sutured.

The next day we were allowed to perform on the express condition that no real knife ever be used. We bought a plastic knife for replacement. I can't remember who replaced Ashaari Amin for the second night, could it be the late Abbas Akbar?.

The school choir performed and it was a haunting song which I can't remember the title.

The school choir.

It was a night worth remembering. It was the pinnacle of our student life as many parents were in the audience. Me, I had my girlfriend in the audience.

My Schooldays 1967-1968

I have delayed writing this post due to my inability to find out the name of my form teacher during my fourth form in 1967. Non of us could remember with everybody saying it was more than forty years ago and some claiming senility as an excuse. What is wrong with us that we cant even recall who our form teacher was after benefiting from his/her guidance while in school?

Actually what happened was our first form teacher in form four, a Puan Rahmah Ariffin had to be retired on medical ground. Her place was taken over by another teacher which non of us could recall for sure. It was also due to the short duration before school ends for the year that the other teacher took over. The teacher who took over didn't have much time with us to leave much impression on us as even the best brain in the class the likes of Major (R) Chong Chow Kar(Civil Engineer), Zainal Abidin Hussein(Electrical Engineer), Lim Siong Peek, Azmy Omar, Ibrahim Hussein, Ab. Rahman Ismail (Graduate Teachers), Napsah Mahmud (Administrator), Ghani Senik (Food Technologist), Ashaari Amin (Reseacher) and most others that I called can't remember. Can't blame them as like me, all of them are approaching 60 in one or two years time. Above all they may have overworked their brain so much that most of the remaining cells in their grey matter are useless already. Well even my own brain which is rarely used can't recall so no big deal OK?
Anyway Puan Rahmah Ariffin left a big impression on me. I am truly indebted to this lady. She was instrumental in getting me a Federal Minor scholarship which I received during the second half of the year in 1967. That scholarship entails me to a RM20.00 monthly allowance for the rest of my schooling days till end of 1968. It was timely as after my half brother got married and has his own family to look after he ceased to provide me with the same amount monthly.

I can still visualize the day when Puan Rahmah came to me in class with a form to apply for a scholarship which I had to fill in immediately, get it signed by my father and certified by the Penggawa (Headman) of my mukim (area). That task was no small feat for me. For one my father was living some 10 miles away in my village and it will mean a bus fare of 50 sen return. A big amount of money then.

Somehow I managed to return home only to find that father was miles away tending to the family's rubber small holding. The place was unknown to me and he will only be back by nightfall and by then the Penggawa's office would be closed. Though the Penggawa was related to me, he refused to sign it before my father put his thumb print first, saying that signing blind wasn't the right thing to do. I had to wait for my father to come back that night and get the Penggawa to witness my father's signature the next day.

My dad had to leave for the rubber small holding before daylight so I had to get his thumb print that night. It would be interesting to note how ingenious we were then as there was no inkpad whatsoever for my father to ink his thumb with. Since I had once seen other people inking their thumb using a piece of daun sireh (arecapiper) applied with a thin layer of cooking oil and exposing the oiled surface to the soot of the kerosine lamp, I decided to do the same. Presto, we had a perfect thumb print of my father's right thumb and it was countersigned by the Penggawa the next day. He testified that my father's income was no more than RM70.00 per month. I still believed that we were not far off from that figure then as the rubber small holding was still young and untappable. We lived a subsistence life by eating the rice from our own plot of padi land and on vegetables that mother planted. Our family's cash income came from the sale of 'tembakau darat' a form of local tobacco for use with palm leaf ciggarettes.
I came late to school the next day to submit the duly completed scholarship application form as my mum had to find RM3.00 to pay for my fare back to Pasir Mas and the extra will be some pocket money.
Puan Rahmah believed my explanation of why I was late.

Out of the forty pupils in my class, I was the only one given the form. How did she picked me out to be the lucky pupil? My guess was my earlier meeting with the Senior School Assistant, En. Ab.Rahman Ali to decline my appointment to the school prefect board. (En. Rahman Ali later became the Kelantan State Education Director before being transfered to Negeri Sembilan and later promoted to the post of Director of one of the departments in the Ministry of Education). I cited the inability to buy a pair of white pants which was the uniform for prefects then. En. Rahman assured me that he will look into my problem. Later he sent me to Kuan Sin Tailor in town to have my uniform measured and tailored. The two white trousers cost a total of RM40.00, a big sum by my standard.

The tailor shop remains the same till today when I went to photograpgh it.


Mr. Eng Fook Seng is now 66 years old so he must be 25 years old when he did my trousers. He said the same trousers would cost RM60.00 if he were to do it now. My neighbour Abang Lah who is his regular customer came to the shop while I was there.

It was not long after that Puan Rahmah suffered a mental disorder and she was retired on that ground. Our class was without a form teacher for quite a while. Some of us said that a Peace Corp volunteer by the name of Mr. Gerald Bax who took over from her while Ashaari Amin was later steadfast in his belief that it was our Mr. Loo Hock Guan that took over. Till this day nobody can say for sure who was our form teacher after Puan Rahmah.
Since in 1967, the teacher's union had a boycot of all extra curricular activities, there was no production of the school magazine for that year on which we could have fallen on as record.

I remember buying a pair of ready made black pant and a tailor made shirt from the first RM120 backdated scholarship. It was so much money for someone who dont even have RM5.00 to his name. For the first time in my life I made a purchase of a pair of 'Obermain' leather shoes from Golok which cost me RM12.00.Those clothes enable me to once again go out to town to meet my friends. I ceased to go out to town when a friend chided me for wearing the white school pants whenever I went out. Well that was all that I have got. Any outing activities organized by my class was off limit to me.

Form four was then considered as a honeymoon year as we will only be facing the School Certificate of Examination and the Malaysian Certificate of Examination in form five. These exams are really the same exam as the former can only be achieved if you obtain a pass in the English subject.
Some of the teachers who taught us then were Mr. Loo Hock Guan who taught us English, Puan Zaharah Zohdan who taught us Arts, Mr. Pang Chok Chu who taught us physics, Mr. Toh Kin Woon (Datuk Dr) taught us biology and chemistry, Mr. Mark Anthony taught us woodworking while Mr. Anandan took care of those who opt for metalwork. Mr. Thanda taught us English literature and till this day, I can still remember the story of The Hunchback of Notre Dame. Can't recall much about the rest of the teachers.
With the boycot by the teachers, 1967 was an uneventful year.

Yours truly is standing second from right. The other male prefect standing on the left is the late Rahim Jusoh who passed away recently due to colon cancer. He is survived by 3 wives and a number of children. You see we don't have a teacher in our class photograph.

The Prefect board of 1967 with the the late Mr. Yusoff Ghouse in the dark suit while the Senior Assistant En. Rahman Ali flanked the head boy Shaari Yahya fourth from right. Can you spot your's truly? He is standing behind Datuk Mustapha Muhamad the present Agriculture Minister, that is if you can recognize him.

1968 was the evenful year. With the teacher's Union problem resolved with the Ministry of Education, extra curricular activities seemed to be carried out with a vengeance. School societies were so active that every nook and corner of the school was used for activities. Even the school canteen, hostel's dining room and shade trees was not spared. The school had a double session then and without a hall, the teachers were at their wits end trying to hold activities for the societies they were in charge of.

The Class of 68 with our teachers. The form teacher was Miss Wong An Yin later Mrs. Foo Say Ghee but she remains Miss Wong to us.
Sitting: En. Ismail Mat (BM), Ustaz Nawi (Ugama) Mr. Thanda, Mr. Gerald Bax (Peace Corp) Miss Wong Ann Yin (Geography), the class monitor Mahmud Awang Kechik (Datuk Dr) Mr Pang Chok Chu (Physics) Chegu Shukri, Mr. Loo Hock Guan (English and English Literature). Yours truly is standing behind Mr. Thanda. Not in the picture is Mr. Toh Kin Woon (Datuk Dr.) who taught us Biology and Chemistry.
1968 was a significant year as this year the sixth form Malay Medium classes was started. This year the baton of the headboy was passed to the sixth form student by the name Ismail Yusoff (Dato').

The Prefect Board of 1968 with the School Board of Directors and the Honourable Minister of Education, the late Tun Khir Johari. Yours truly is the first from left in the middle row.

The late Mr. Yusoff Ghouse was our Head Master then and he was a man who made the teachers payback what they missed doing in 1967. To cap the year we had the sports day and the School Exhibiton day. The exhibition day's opening ceremony was done by the Honourable Education Minister himself. Can you guess who? The Minister was a close friend of our Head Master and hailed from Penang. He was the late En. Khir Johari (Tun).


Yours truly dressed to kill in his tailor made shirt, Obermain shoes (made in Thailand) bought with the scholarship money, white school pants (made by Kuan Sin Tailor and paid by the Parent Teachers Association fund) posing with his close friend Azmy Omar in front of the old main market. On the site of the old market is the Bangunan Serakai Mas built after the old market was gutted down by fire.
The final event of the year was the inter house debate. The final was between the Yellow House represented by Chong Chow Kar (Major Retired), Rohani Ibrahim (Dr) and another debator whom nobody could remember.
Yours truly was the proposer representing the Blue House and seconded by Alexander Chan and another third speaker which nobody can confirm but I vaguely remember a soft spoken Wee Mek Chu who could be the third speaker.
Mr. Loo Hock Guan the English teacher chaired the debate.
What about the topic? I would say the topic is pretty sensitive by today's standard.
"Houses Of Worships Are A Waste of Money". Would any teacher dare to suggest such a topic for students to debates nowadays? Well the debate went well and the students came in full force to witness the great debate. They stood there till the result came out.
Forty years later I called Major(R) Chong Chow Kar who led the oppositon team and asked him if he remembers anything about the debate. He said he can't remember much.He even enquired as to which team won the debate. He forgot that the team led by him won the debate.
1968 was memorable in that I met my future life partner. She was a newcomer to my school when she joined the form four class at Sultan Ibrahim School. She ramains my partner till this day after we got married in 1973 when I was 23 and she was 21.

Celebrating Aidilfitri - My Family's Way

This post is long overdue since Aidilfitri was celebrated on 1st Syawal which fell on 1st October 2008. Nevertheless the need to share with you all how we celebrated Aidilfitri within our family. Many non Moslems would want to know how we do it as most people would only envision us feasting on all the good food served during the celebration.
Personally I would consider the celebration to have begun on Hari Membuat Ketupat (Ketupat Making Day) which is a day before. In our case it was on Tuesday 30th September 2008. It was really fun teaching the children how to do this traditional delicacy.

Even Balqis helped in by keeping us entertained while making the ketupat.
Since this was the last day of fasting, the nightly Terawih prayers ceased and tonight we did the Takbir (recital of praises to Allah) after the Isyak prayers.
First Day
The morning of the Raya started with the Subuh prayers. Upon returning home we took our bath and prepared for the Idulfitri prayers which will be done at 8.30 AM at our small surau. I prefer to do it at the small surau because I know most of the people in the congregations since they are mostly my neighbours. I could have gone to the mosque with an even bigger congregation but only very few of them will be known to me.
One thing that never failed to amaze me, more people will come out to pray for this prayer which is a sunat (one will be rewarded with pahala if one were to do it) even though they didn't do the five daily prayers which is a wajib (one will be penalised if one even misses it).

Here we are on our way to the surau. Azini has to look after Balqis so she couldn't make it while Lokman chose to go to the mosque.

When we reached the surau, they were already doing the Takbir and so we just joined them. The ladies were segregated and prayed in the back section of the congregation.

When the prayers were done, which is actually a short one and led by Ustaz Zawawi Zakaria, a graduate from Azhar University of Egypt. He later delivered the sermons. The sermon is an important part of the prayers. The Imam exhort us through it to be good muslims. Since it was a prepared text from Majlis Ugama Islam Kelantan, it didn't miss taking a swipe at the Federal Government over it's policy on youth development. Even the Jom Heboh and Akademi Fantasia on TV was mentioned as a form of bad influence. Well it is up to us individually to digest the sermon.

The best part of a Raya prayers is when we salam with each and every individual congregation who were present. It is the opportunity to reestablish broken ties among us.

Immediately after the Raya prayers we headed directly to one of the neighbour's place. We have to do it early otherwise we would miss it again for the umpteenth time.
We returned home and now it was our turn to ask for forgiveness among the family. Well of course we had to start the ball rolling. The children followed.



The family photograph was taken. Since only son Azuan and daughter Azini came home with their spouses, it wasn't really a big family.


We waited for our relatives from Kota Bharu to come to the house before we moved on to visit my mother inlaw and the rest of the siblings in the vicinty of the motehrs place. Since both of my parents have passed away, it was less hectic as we didn't have to travel a long distance on the first day of Raya.
The family of my sister inlaw from Kota Bharu came quite early.

This is the first arrival. Mohd Quoyum aspires to be a Mufti. He had manage to commit to memory the Surrah Yasin while still at a young age. By now he has added a few more surrah.
They were the first to sample our servings.
My house was at a dead end road, so parking was quite a problem.

We moved on to my mother in law's place.

Azuan paying respect to the maternal grandmother.

Fatthiyah's cousin is married to a Syrian who teaches Arabic at the International Islamic University Campus in Kelantan.
Haleeza reads my blogs and requested that I put her picture in it.

We went next door to the siter's place.

This is Siti (in red) with Ijjah and Yaya. Siti is a big biker and recently traded off her Honda CBR 600 to upgrade to a bigger CBR 1000. What can you say when someone loves the big bike so much.

The family photograph. Yours truly is behind the camera.

Then off we go to the brother in law's place for yummy mee curry.

The uncle's place was the last place in the vicinity of the mother in law's place before we proceeded to the house of Lokman's parent. Here is one picture for the album.

By the time we reached my sister's place (below), there wasn't anymore room in our stomach for another bite.

The visit to Ijjah's parents house was a mere courtesy call. There is no way for us to eat anything.

My daughter in law's parents was the last place to visit for the day before we head home for some rest.

Second Day

The second day of Raya we played host for the reciprocal visits from my other half's siblings. They stopped by on their way to visit the eldest sister in Kota Bharu.

We followed them to Kota Bharu. On the return trek, we wanted to proceed to Tanah Merah where my half brother resides. We had to call off the idea as the jam towards Tanah Merah started building up from across the river on the other side of Pasir Mas.

That night we played host to my son's parent in law's family who came visiting. My sister's family came too.

The Third Day

The third day of Raya was spent attending Datuk Sukimi's open house in Wakaf Baru.

Datuk Sukimi posing with one of his guests, The Kelantan Chief Director of Education. Datuk Sukimi's open house was the place to feast as you have ample choice to choose from with the different food stations.

My son Azuan and his mum being showed how to enjoy Mee Hongkong with the help of his mum's cousin Wani.

We left Datuk Sukimi's place to visit Lokman's sisters place who was having an open house in her new house. A heavy downpour washed away an otherwise great day.

Fourth Day.

I had set up a mini gathering of Kelantan bloggers at Hayaki Kopitiam in Desa Cemerlang. It was the miniest of mini gathering when only Che Jaafar Che Musa was the other blogger that turned up. Another blogger Raktamrittika wanted to attend but he got stuck in the jam and reached Hayaki at 12.00 noon after we were long gone. I could have stayed on till noon if my daughter had not borrowed my laptop for her class in Keningau.

Che Jaafar aka cjcm of KL Traveller in front of Hayaki Kopitiam. This outlet has expanded with another shop being opened up on the side where we stood.

Fifth Day

I received a call from a blogger who wanted to visit my place. It was a nice surprise indeed to receive Aida Rahim aka pb with her husband and family.

Pb and her family. Thank you for visiting me.

So my friends, that is about it. I wont bore you to death with the minute details.

ELVIZA'S TAG - MY TAKE

WRITER'S WRITUAL
It was the full moon last night. So you can guess how many days ago that we celebrated the first day of Raya. Thus I may have to defer forever the posting of my blog for Hari Raya Idulfitri. My problem with the post is I can't access my external hard disk via this personal computer due to it's antiquity. So I have no pictures to illustrate my Raya post. No pictures means no post.
Meantime I would like to tackle this tag by Elviza which out of fatherly love for her, I promised to do it after Raya. It is important that I take care of this eloquent lawyer lest I get sued for something due to my blogging activities and I may need the services of a lawyer. Who knows she may just defend me for free or allow me a hefty discount or at least a deferred payment hahahaha.
I have read the pieces done by the others that Elviza had tagged except for Mat Salo. My guess is Mat Salo may find the convenience not to do the tag due to his lack of internet access on the marshy land of Kalimantan. Of all of them, it was Mat Cendana's piece that made me chicken out from doing this tag. It was so good that I begged to be excused from doing the tag in my comment on Mat Cendana's blog. The minute I read his masterpiece I alerted Elviza of the post by Mat Cendana and Elviza shot back with this SMS:
"Morning Pak. Thanks. And no, you are not excused from doing the tag
:-p". So here I am doing the tag for fear that someday I may need the services of a lawyer. With her in good favour I can always fall upon to come to my defence. I wonder if Elviza is a lawyer who defend people or a lawyer who specializes in Sales and Purchase Agreements?
Now let us get serious and let me start working on the tag itself so that I can get it done before my grand daughter wakes up.

While looking for some ideas to write I copied these questions from Theta's Writers Writual.

(1) Where are you?
In front of my PC which is in my house doing my Writer's Writual. Should your mind be wondering where on earth I am located, it is at the following coordinates:
6 degrees 02 minutes 55.42 seconds North
102 degrees 10 minutes 10.55 seconds East.
Just set your GPS to that reading and you will be able to reach my house in Mekasar, Pasir Mas, Kelantan.

(2) What are you writing with?
I am not writing but I am tapping with my two fingers on my keyboard. Should I ever need to write I will just grab anything that will leave an impression on any surface. A ball point pen will do to write on my palms. Usually it will be washed off after some sweating or after washing my hands before I manage to copy the thing to a more permanent surface.

I can't use expensive pens be it fountain pens or ball point pens due to my forgetful nature. Some people borrowed my pens and conveniently forget to return them.
Anyway I do jot down notes in five notebooks. Yes there are five of them because I keep forgetting where I left them all the time. I bought a new notebook when I went to see Dr. Bates for my blog about The Last Great Doctors of Kota Bharu. I definitely won't let him see me with my Buku Latihan which my grand daughter gave me with the numerous stickers on it.
Moleskin? Just heard about it for the first time in my life in Elviza's blog.

(3) What is the oddest object in front of you?
It would be easier to answer if you have asked me the question of what is the oldest object in front of the object opposite me. My 58th birthday came by two days ago. No other object is older than that.
Anyway the PC is the oldest object. I presume the NEC MultiSync 75 CRT monitor is an even older component as it was bought second hand and it has been with me for the last 6 years. The setting for its brightness is at its highest so I can't be making further adjustment on that score.

(4) What are you listening to?
The sound of the fan keeping my head cool is the only sound around. The sound of the traffic from the road is insulated by the many rows of houses so I can't hear them.

(5) Is there anyone else in the room?
Yes, my grand daughter Balqis is sleeping on the floor beside me. She seems comfortable there though I wish she had slept in the bedroom. Lifting her to place her in the bedroom is out of the question as any slight movement will wake her up and I won't be able to finish this tag.

(6) What time of the day is it?
It is 12.30 PM now. I have been working on this tag since Balqis fell asleep at 10.30 AM. She is bound to wake up anytime soon.

(7) What do you look at when you are looking for inspiration?
I look at nothing as I tend to close my eyes when searching for inspiration. So I can't say I am looking for inspirations.

(8) What is guaranteed to remove your concentration?
The sound of glass or china objects falling on the tiled floor in the kitchen when Balqis is not sleeping and she will be exploring the kitchen on her own while I am deeply intoxicated with writing a blog. If that happens, another fury will occur when the owner of the kitchen returns home from school to find an item missing. By then I would have thrown the broken object away but she will still notice the missing item.
Another distraction will be Balqis insistence that she gets her turn to use the keyboard.

Ah what a relief to have this tag done. I will do my Raya post next if Balqis is going to sleep the way she did today in the days to come. That is if anybody is still interested in reading about my Raya do.

GATHERING 2008

The second gathering for ex students of Sultan Ibrahim School Pasir Mas Kelantan (Class of 68) will be held as follows:

Date : Saturday 27th December 2008
Time : 1.30 PM
Venue : Dewan Sekolah Menenggah Sultan Ibrahim Satu
Pasir Mas.
Attendance is free.
For any enquiries please call Mohamad Zawawi +6019 9125647
email zawi_ahmad@yahoo.com
All students from that class are welcome.
For more information please go to http://sis68.blogspot.com/ or click on Gathering2008 on My Corner at the top of my sidebar.

YOU MAY NOT BELIEVE THIS

This is a filler post before I post my lengthy post on Hari Raya Idulfitri of which I need to retrieve some pictures from my external Hard Disk which my antiquated PC has failed to read.
This post is about a phenomenon which is hard to explain unless a physicist study it and give a scientific explanation on how it happens. It is something beyond laymen like us to explain.
Before my trip to Keningau to fetch my daughter, a neighbour of mine in Pasir Mas who was working in Sabah told me about the existence of this phenomenon along the Papar to Keningau stretch of road over the Crocker Range. He confidently told me that at a certain spot along the highway there is a point whereby the earth gravity has an opposite effect. Instead of being pulled down you will be pushed up. This is evident in the case of a car when stopping at the spot and switching the engine off, the car will go up the gradient upon the release of the handbrake while in neutral. Since he was so serious about it I felt compelled to try it out. He couldn't give me the specific spot but asked me to find out from taxi drivers or other plying the route.
On the 29th of June 2008 when I went to Keningau with my son in law to fetch my daughter Azini, we were on the lookout for the spot. There was nothing to indicate the spot so we missed it. On the return trek, we asked around at a petrol station in Keningau. They confirmed the existence of such a place but couldn't give any exact location beside telling us the approximate kilometer from Keningau Town. They asked us to lookout for a tyre being left on the roadside as a marking. We also checked with another blogger who happened to be a friend of my daughter Azini. She confirmed it too and said she and her husband Mukhsin had experienced it but can't say for sure the exact location. The return trip was a futile exercise in trying to locate the spot. Being a rainy day it was difficult to find anyone to ask for help.
It was after returning to Kelantan that Janna made a comment in my blog that she has found the exact spot and has marked it. That is a good news.

Yesterday 5th October 2008, my daughter Azini called from Keningau with her voice full of excitement. She told me she has found the spot and experienced the anti gravity when her car with Lokman at the wheel free wheeled up the slope. The location is 32 km from Keningau and or 44 km from Papar. Can you believe that?
This is the location. Look at the slope.

Azini said she could feel herself being pushed backward.

Thats Lokman trying it out.

It has been said that the phenomena happens to plastic materials too such as a plastic water bottle will also roll upward when placed on the ground.
On the day that Lokman tried it out, there was traffic at that time and being a narrow point, he could not experiment much and will be trying it out again on his return trip today. Hopefully he will have more to share with us.
This is really something which the tourism people in Sabah must exploit to bring tourists to far flung Keningau. This phenomena alone should be enough to bring tourists to look at this spot. The vista view from the top of the Crocker range is another attraction. On a good clear day, one should be able to see the South Chuna Sea and Mount Kinabalu at the other end of Sabah. The state government should find a way to widen this section of the road so that people can stop and experience this phenomenon safely. Don't you think this is good enough reason to visit Keningau?
zabs gave me this link in his comment which goes to prove that the above is not the only spot on earth with that characteristic. So you dont have to go far to experience it, just over to Sabah and go to Keningau.
Read more here or visit this address: http://www.nasca.org.uk/Strange_relics_/antigravity/antigravity

Sarapan Pagi Bersama Kelantan Bloggers

Sebagai perkenalan pertama satu perjumpaan kecil akan diadakan sambil bersarapan pagi di tempat, masa dan tarikh berikut:

Tempat: Hayaki Kopitiam Jalan Kebun Sultan
Desa Cemerlang

Masa : 9.30 Pagi - 11.30 Pagi

Tarikh : Sabtu 4 hb Oktober 2008

Semua yang berminat sila hadirkan diri ditempat diatas diantara masa tersebut. Ini adalah titik permulaan untuk merangka gathering yang lebih besar. Semoga mendapat sambutan.
Sila bawa notebook masing-masing kerana tempat tersebut ada wifi.

Selamat berkenalan

Pak Zawi
HP 019 9125647