The practice was off track for a few years because my family was staying in different places… we didn’t celebrate our birthday together as often. I thought the tradition might have been broken, but when I found out that my brother and sister celebrate their kids’ birthday with chicken drumstick… I have a big grin on my face; the legend continues.

Forget about all the delicacies and gourmet… all I want for birthday for years to come is just a simple yet tasty chicken drumstick.

The fantasy kinda shattered when I took my first train journey to Kuala Lumpur from Ipoh (or Ipoh to KL, can’t remember correctly) when I was around 9 years old… and it took around 4 hours to reach the destination, as fast as a car could be.

I am still interested in trains though, and I always believe that a good train network is an important factor to build a modern country. I was more affirmed about the idea when I visited London for the first time 5-6 years ago, when I saw how good their Underground (sort of like our LRTs) system was.

Malaysia government do realize that the railways could make a difference, they have some projects on plan but too bad it’s never on top of their list… they preferred some other more extravaganza projects (like the recent Iskandar Project in Johor) rather than the basic infrastructures.

Speaking of TGV, I had the chance to see it when I visited Europe in 2005… and oh mine, it kinda brought back a bit of my childhood fantasies. The train was really fast, it’s like the Chipsmore advertisement… now you see it, now you don’t.

Btw, they broke their own speed record…

France’s high-speed TGV train broke the record for speed on a rail Tuesday in a much publicized test.

The train reached a maximum of 574.8 kilometers an hour, or 357 miles an hour, but fell just short of the record for all types of train.

That record is held by the magnetic levitation train of Japan, whose technology means it does not touch the rail. It reached a speed of 581 kilometers per hour in 2003.

But the Japanese technology is more costly, typically runs shorter distances and is less compatible with existing rail networks. [Source]

500+kmph is their maximum speed; from what I know they normally run at 280-320kmph.

I’ve graduated from my high school for more than 8 years, and the last time I actually visited the school was to get my STPM result, just about 8 years ago.

It’s odd, I have great memories of my high school years, it was fun, mostly… but I never bothered to pay the school a visit for all these years. Sometimes I did drove by the school when visiting my hometown, just to see if there are any difference with the school… but I was kinda ‘afraid’ to walk into the school.

I am not sure why… perhaps I know that it will remind me of a lot of wonderful memories that won’t repeat itself again. Sometimes people are not just trying to hide bad memories, but good memories as well, just to pretend that we are living the happiest moment in our life… that’s what I believe.

I am certain that I will revisit my school again some day… probably when I feel that my current life is so good that those wonderful memories in high school are not that worth remembering any more. Hope that the time will come really soon.

I don’t smoke; not that I would even if I never met this girl… but sometimes when I saw people smoking, I thought of her, and I know that I’m still keeping a simple promise that I made to myself long ago… and it feels good.

Not sure how she thinks about smoking these days… people change. Who knows, her current boyfriend might be quite a heavy smoker, that will be pretty ironic.

How he earned his first bucket of fortune was quite ‘legendary’. Fact is he is a good friend of a decently important politician (let’s call him Mr. VIP) and thus managed to know the development blueprint in a large city in Malaysia prior to the official announcement.

So Mr. Rich raised his funds here and there and bought huge chunk of wasteland with a cheap price; and when the development plan was announced you can imagine the rise of the value of his land, and he became rich.

There’s a price to pay for that, Mr. VIP off course won’t be tipping Mr. Rich simply because of their friendship, there are lots of other deals involved.

Mr. Rich could not simply stuffed money to Mr. VIP. What he did was to sort of becoming the guardian of Mr. VIP’s children, sending them to the best schools overseas, covering their living cost and further education etc.

As ‘courtesy’ Mr. Rich also sent Mr. VIP and spouse to visit their children, but on the way will visit some countries first, and you should probably understand now who was paying for that…

It’s not the end of story for Mr. Rich; he became even richer later on when a more influential person (let’s call his Mr. SVIP, Super VIP) knew of his deals with Mr. VIP and decided to have some fun as well.

So more insider deals coming in for Mr. Rich from Mr. SVIP… off course the COST will be much higher, but Mr. Rich become much richer.

So what is Mr. Rich doing now? He is moving all his assets and most of his business ventures overseas… Malaysia according to him got no future. Mind that he’s probably one of the many rich businessmen in Malaysia that’s moving their liquidity and assets overseas.

The moral of the story for Mr. Rich, you need to know nothing if you know a VIP.

[Image courtesy of Joyo.com]

The J-Drama is “Moero Attack,” not sure if it’s using the same title in Malaysia when it was showed last time; I remember the show was in translated in Malay.

Frankly I can’t recall much of the storyline or the face of the leading cast; but somehow I think of the TV series once in a while. Perhaps it’s the time when me and my 2 sister were doing the same thing, watching the TV, which didn’t happen too often because of the huge age gap and different of interest.

Back to Moero Attack, the drama was made much earlier before it was shown in Malaysia. The leading character was played by Araki Yumiko whom was around 20 years of age when the series was made; she’s around 46 by now.

The last public appearance Yumiko made should be an invitation from CCTV in 2004, where she was invited to visit China, where Moero Attack was quite a hit back then as well.

Some trivia… most of the actress were 150cm-160cm in heights, very much shorter than average volleyball players. When the drama was filmed, the net was actually lowered a couple of feets, and the volleyball court was smaller than standard size.

It’s Matthew Fox in the middle, well known now as Jack in “Lost.” Some will probably remember Neve Campell as well.

Funny thing is I used to watched Party of Five a lot, but couldn’t recall or relate Matthew Fox in Lost to P5. I think I probably watched the series because of Neve Campbell and Jennifer Love Hewitt who joined the series in season 2.

[image courtesy of sitcomsonline.com]

I am not sure what the ad want to present in the end, I wonder if it indicates that the couple was doing not enough, that we have to be more filial and learn to forgive.. whatever, the ad sure raise lots of thinking.

It’s perhaps managable to feed your old man, manage his pee and poo, for maybe a few months.. but how about years? Things like that are not as easy as it seem, and I don’t think many adults nowadays are prepared to take care of their alzheimer elders.

My grandma had alzheimer for the last 8-10 years of her life, and in late stages couldn’t handle anything at all.. couldn’t eat by herself and couldn’t handle washroom matters. Her brain was functioning like a 3 months old baby, and her body was functioning worse than that.

I’m always proud of my mum, she is a good mother, but she was a great daughter.. she took care of grandma very well. It’s not easy though, my mum had a few moments of nervous breakdown, especially when my grandma’s behavior started changing and became nasty.

I know I did enough as a grandchild during that period, but I’m not sure if I will be capable of taking care of my mother the way she took care of grandma if she gets alzheimer.

Having been through all the hazzles, my mum knows how difficult it is going to be, she already told us kids that if she gets alzheimer, just send her to a proper care center. I responded her that she’s going to stay with us regardless, we just have to make sure that we will be rich enough to hire a couple of maid and nurse.

That’s probably not the most touching answer I can give, but it sounds logical. If I am going to have kids I will suggest them the same idea if I get alzheimer.

Fact is my kids probably wouldn’t need to take care of me if I get alzheimer, chances are that I will choose to end my life while I still can, provided that there’s still no cure for the disease in future.

I see no point to burden my family for allowing myself to live a longer but meaningless life. Sounds pessimistic for a 27-year-old.. don’t take me as a role model ok?

When I studied in school, I normally used ‘Puasa’ because I found it hard to spell ‘Aidilfitri’. I am still uncertain about the spelling of Aidilfitri these days, have to check dictionary when typing it.. yada, shame on me.

Regardless, Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri, Selamat Hari Raya Puasa, Selamat Hari Raya!

Life goes on, haven’t seen her for years.. I feel a bit weird thinking back, feeling a bit stupid, a bit embarassment, a bit of regrets and perhaps a bit of everything.

There’s a proverb that says that.. people will rarely regret on things they did, but regret on what they didn’t. So true.

I wonder what will happen if I did ask her out, but guess I’ll never know.