October 11, 2007

Hari Raya Is Not For Me

Kampung scene from Abah's blog

Someone sent me an e-mail and asked for my forgiveness. I told that person that all is forgiven. She wanted to leave me so I let her leave. She is now happy, things are good for her now, and I am very happy for her. I told her not to think about it so much but just remember that she had made me happy once. It is only fair that she is now happier, and that makes me happy too. She will be spending this Hari Raya happily at her in-laws’ place somewhere up North.

So Hari Raya is in two days time.

I will only see all my children tomorrow night, on the eve of Hari Raya. I will not be celebrating Hari Raya with them. On the first day, I am going to go to the mosque, then come back home and sleep, wake up around lunchtime, and go to Forelorn Soldier‘s house and also maybe to Bakawali‘s. Feed myself with as much cholesterol, fat, uric acid, sodium. See what that does to my BP as I have been off medication since sahur this morning.

As it is right now, I can feel neckache, stiffness of the shoulders and my scalp feels warm. Two months of betablockers and ACEs have not done much for me. Taking more will only give me toxicity and organ failures. So it’s better for me to die of one cause only and not as a direct result of what was supposed to help me.

Then come the night of the first Hari Raya I will be going diving. I will pack clothes for a week and just rotate if I plan to stay longer. Extended stay during the monsoon would be good. Incommunicado.

After all, I only celebrate Ramadhan. Hari Raya is only for kids and suicide drivers.

October 11, 2007

Angkasa – Two

Expedition 16's Energia rocket firing as the towers retract - NASA Image
Expedition 16’s Energia rocket firing as the towers retract

In 32 hours, Expedition 16’s Soyuz TMA-11 spacecraft will dock with the ISS. Right now they are orbiting Earth, chasing the ISS to align with it. Docking procedures should take about an hour or so.

I’m sure Dr SMS would have lots of photos taken by now.

If only I have RM80 million now.

I need to find a Sugar Granny.

October 11, 2007

Angkasa – One

Malaysia’s first Angkasawan, Dr Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor, has blasted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 9.22pm Malaysian time last night, and is now in orbit on the way to the International Space Station. He, alongside fellow Expedition 16 crew members, Peggy Whitson (Expedition Commander) and Yuri Malenchenko (Flight Engineer), are now inside a Soyuz TMA-11 spacecraft.

They are due to dock at the ISS’s Zarya module at 10.52pm Malaysian time this Friday.

The current members of Expedition 15, have prepared the Zvedza module for Dr Sheikh Muszaphar to conduct experiments over nine days.

Expedition 16 blasts off from Baikonur Cosmodrome – NASA image

I envy the guy. I still remember watching our black and white television of the lunar landing back in 1969, and the subsequent Apollo 12 mission. I took an interest in spaceflights. I remember the final mission to the moon of the Apollo 17. I remember the fiery re-entry of the US Space Station “Skylab” where most of the remnants crashed onto Australian soil near Kalgoorlie and Esperance in Western Australia, 2 days after my 13th birthday in 1979. Then the first space shuttle flight by the Space Shuttle Columbia in 1981.

Now, Sheikh Muszaphar is up there. Some 300km away from Earth. Whatever his role may be up there, let us hope one day in the near future, a Malaysian Angkasawan will actually fly into space in a Malaysian-built vehicle.

Let us hope this is not a one-off thing.

Peggy and Yuri
Peggy Whitson (right) and Yuri Malenchenko during the climb to orbit in the Soyuz TMA-11 – NASA Image