SeaDemon Says

The Internet’s been exceptionally slow today. Towards the end of this posting you will know why.

Where were you on Boxing Day of 2004?

Me, that morning, I woke up late…tennish I presume. The night before was my younger brother’s wedding reception at the Sheraton in Subang Jaya, and we had all stayed up until late. I didn’t feel the quake that morning. I got up, got ready, checked out of the hotel and went straight to Kajang for my maternal cousin’s wedding reception.

I had arrived home from Langkawi two days earlier, with colleagues from my former workplace. A friend of ours who works with a telco was to continue working on Rebak island through the Christmas weekend. I did not learn about the disaster until nightfall when another former colleague, Andy Lim sent me a text message saying a Tsunami had hit Langkawi and Penang islands. From that moment onwards, I flipped from one news channel to another, both local and international ones, to learn mor about the disaster. For the next two days, my former colleagues and I frantically tried to locate our friend who was supposed to be on Rebak island, as Rebak was one of the peripheral islands off Langkawi that was badly hit. Then he texted us saying he was on the mainland with his family when the waves hit Rebak. Thank God for common sense.

I watched the HBO movie on the Boxing Day Tsunami and how true to real it is. Two days after the Tsunami hit the west coast of Peninsular Malaysia, I was up north trying to gauge what was needed by those affected. The house I stayed in in Penang when I first got married was not spared, although it is still standing to this day. As those in Penang who were lost were mostly beach-goers, I shifted my atention to a fishing village in the Kuala Muda district in the state of Kedah. The HBO movie reminded me of that scene: confusion, chaos, people crying and wailing, destruction and what have you. There was no coordination between the various governmental and non-governmental orgnisations; agencies were jealously guarding whatever figures they had on casualties and victims; no one actually knew where to start. The State Assemblyman was very helpful, and I promised to get some help.

A week later, my NGO staff and I managed to muster aid in the form of goods donated by kind human beings: three truckloads plus my MPV. When agencies got to know of this convoy, each wanted the glory of being the agency resposible to distribute these aids. In the end, I managed to met the State Assemblyman who then directed us to the correct aid distribution center. There were many agencies that were not pleased with us but they can go and give the dog a bone for all I care.

Almost two years to the day, this nation’s readiness was again tested in the form of almost ten dead and some 80,000 odd victims being housed at relief centers due to the worst floods in three decades. I have not seen floods of this magnitude since standing on the hilltop of Bukit Peringgit in Melaka where my house was, looking at the “sea” beneath the hill. That was back in 1970/71, I think.

The problem is, every single agency head, political leader, NGO head etc, want mileage out of the misery of others; and disasters like this is the perfect opportunity for them to shine and be seen. And sadly, this is being done at the expense of the victims. Thus, there will never be coordination and economy of effort in disaster relief in this country as people will be too busy looking good for the cameras of the printed and electronic media.

And yesterday, there was a powerful earthquake that had hit Taiwan, but luckily the threat of an impending Tsunami has come and gone. However, cables damaged there is affecting communications in Malaysia, Singapore and elsewhere, according to a Taiwanese telco.

I shudder to think how the relevant agencies would react if they had to handle the floods and a Tsunami hitting the east coast of the Peninsular as well as the northern and western coast of Sabah.

We were brought up to think that Malaysia is virtually safe from unnatural disasters (there is nothing natural about earthquakes, Tsunamis, and hundreds of thousands dead in one go),but the recent earthquakes,the Boxing Day Tsunami, the recent typhoon that hovered off the East Coast, shows how vulnerable we are.

The weather and climate change every several thousand years. Maybe we have come to the end of that cycle.

This picture of Nisaa was taken as she turned 23 months old. Next month, she’ll turn two years old.

She’s a big girl now, she can form sentences, count from one to ten in both Malay and English, and whenever I do something absurd in front of her, she’d laugh and say, “Gila.”

Everywhere I take her people would come up to her and kiss her and tell me how much they love her curls and eyelashes.

And I love the way she calls out to me whenever she wakes up…always with a big smile.

This is Farhan on his 4th birthday. No, we did not celebrate his birthday, but I bought him a present.

First of all, let me wish my Christian friends a very Merry Christmas and may it be a joyful one for you and your family (families, if you have more than one house to go back to..hah!).

My son, Mohamed Amirul Farhan was born on Christmas day, 4 years ago, as the call for Isya’ prayer was being done at the nearby mosque. Finally then, a son for me.

When he was in his mother’s tummy I used to “talk” to him..almost every morning before going off to work, and at night before I go to sleep. Everytime I spoke to him, he’d respond with a kick. I had a name for him: TUING, from the sound TOING of something bouncing, due to his kicking from inside the mother’s tummy. So one day when I was in Krungthep Mahanakorn, my wife, in the late trimester, SMSed me telling me that the baby hadn’t move since the previous night. I immediately gave her a call, and told her to put the mobile phone on her tummy and count to 30. When she commenced the count, I spoke to TUING, asked the baby what was wrong and told it not to make the mother worry. I also told it that i would be back home the day after and we’d have our normal chats together. It was my first trip abroad since my wife carried him. About a minute after the call, my wife SMSed me telling me that the baby was actively kicking.

Magic? No..it’s called “fatherly love.” And I always believe it has to begin pre-natal.

So Farhan will be 4 tomorrow. My prayers are for God to keep him safe and out of harm’s way, and prosper and nurture him to be a loving and sensible man. I also pray that he remembers the sacrifices his parents had to make to bring him up.

Happy birthday, son. I hope to enjoy seeing many more years of you growing up.

It’s 32 days now since my last dive. And since then, I’ve been plagued by cold, flu, sore throat and mild fever, not necesarily in that order, but it’s been coming on and off. The funny thing is whenever I go diving, I feel fine. The moment I enter KL and its surrounding areas, I’d fall ill. Perhaps it is due to the fresh air at the islands versus polluted and dusty air here in the Klang valley.

If things go well, next week I’ll be playing golf with my usual kaki‘s again. We were playing almost every weekend in 2003. It’s usually the five of us: Shaking Lee, Daddy In The City, TNB CEO lookalike, Walking Vibrator, and I. TNB CEO lookalike would of course leave after the first three of nine holes (depending on where we were playing) as he would have to rush home to take the wife to buy flowers in Sungai Buloh. The usual gang would be the other four. The last real game we played together was at Monterez on December 31st, 2003. After that Walking Vibrator and I were most of the time stationed in Langkawi, while Shaking Lee and Daddy In The City would be hurrying to ship unfinished products to Langkawi for Walking Vibrator and I to pass to the client, Penjejak Awan, who was then working for another company. For the record, Penjejak Awan was offered VSS in the same year, joined us to market unfinished products, almost got Bangladeshi PR, then left to rejoin the company he originally worked for. I’m sure if there is another round of VSS, he will take up the offer, get the money, and rejoin the company a couple of years later. TNB CEO lookalike’s classmate’s wife did that too. Working for the same organisation Penjejak Awan did (albeit different subsidiaries), took up the VSS offer, stayed home for about a year, and now rejoins as a contract worker in the same company, earning slightly higher.

So the unfinished project took up most of our time and there was only once in between when we went to the driving range together to whack balls…not that we weren’t already doing the same then in the office: banging balls.

My last game of golf was with Chalky26, also in 2004…early April to be exact, at the Palm Springs in Port Dickson. We were at the 4th or 5th hole when I received an emergency call and had to forgo the game to attend to that emergency.

My golf balls, set and shoes have been picking up dust. The balls have been serious object of contentions between my younger son and daughter, and reason for the destruction of one of the coffee tables.

Time to hit the fairway again, and hopefully, a few other golfers each time I tee-off.

I went through my pilot logbook. The last flight I did was on the 26th August 2000. Over 6 years ago. It was from Sempang (Sungai besi airport) to R236 training area, in a Cessna 172.

I’ve flown the Bulldog B100, Pilatus PC-7, Cessna 172, Storch Experimental Aircraft, Zodiac Experimental Aircraft, RV-6 Experimental Aircraft, and the Buckeye (seen in James Bond’s “The World Is Not Enough”). I didn’t fly that much in 2000; I only clocked 17 hours and 36 minutes. The longest haul in 2000 was from Sempang-Ipoh-Sitiawan-Ipoh, second longest was Sempang-Ipoh and Sempang-Subang. Shortest flight with a destination was Sempang-Subang-Sempang to refuel the aircraft at Subang airport.

Record-wise, my longest haul flight was Alor Setar-Sempang. Second longest would be either Butterworth-Sempang, or Butterworth-Subang (vice versa), or Johor Bahru-Sempang. Those were done in the 1990s.

5 days after my last flight was my last skydive. That was done over Dataran Merdeka in conjunction with the Merdeka day parade.

2001 – I was busy windsurfing, fishing and jet-skiing, and did my third and last Malaysian record.

2002 – I was busy with the Indera Kayangan, Ketari and Anak Bukit by-elections.

2003 – I was back into golf after a 12-year sabbatical.

2004 – I was busy doing stupid things for the company, or was it doing things for the stupid company?

2005 – I was back scuba diving after a 10-year break.

Scuba is still the best and most relaxing thing to do.

I was watching Astro’s Channel 8 (Prima) and “Freshie’s High School”, a Thai series, had just finished being aired. Then they showed Mai Charoenpura’s music video, followed by Peacemaker’s “Ngao.” I sat up and sang the song softly. This is one song that has a story of its own.

It was late January of 2004. My colleague, Muaazam, and I, were in Krungthep (Bangkok to the rest) to see our partner, Pathiparn, there. As Pathiparn had to entertain clients from South Korea (golf and dinner), he promised to call us as soon as he’d finish. So Muaazam and I had dinner at this North Indian restaurant just off Sukhumvit soi 8, and before we could finish, Pathiparn called asking us to meet him at the car park adjacent to the Tesco’s at On-Nut sky train station. So we rushed to meet Pathiparn there. So we rushed to the Nana BTS station, passed Asoke, Phrom Pong, Ekkamai, and Phrakanong (where Nang Nak lived) stations before reaching the terminal at On-Nut. Pathiparn was there. We were supposed to have a discussion. So Pathiparn asked us to get into his car and off we went, towards Sukhumvit 24. A left turn there and a few minutes later, we were at Club Orbit. So I said to Pathiparn that we were supposed to have a discussion. He turned and said, “Khun Rahmat, everytime you are in Bangkok you are always working. Tonight is after office hours. Tomorrow we will discuss.”

Okay…fine. In we went. Apparently the bouncers and receptionists there know Pathiparn well. The live band was excellent and we sat at the bar. Club Orbit’s a bit like Coyote Ugly..but the gentlemen’s version. Beautiful girls, well-dressed albeit sexily, were dancing on the bar top. I glanced and saw Muaazam enjoying the view.

“You okay bro?” I asked. Muaazam just said, “I don’t know which one to take back to meet my mom!” Yup, the girls were real stunners. But you can see but no touch. The “butterflies” were equally good-looking. These are girls who hop from client to client. In the end Pathiparn told the girls that we are Malaysians…so they never left us. The girls who attended to me were Ice (on the bar top), and Jo (the butterfly).

In between the live band’s sets, they played some nice songs, one was by Ten Teerapak called “Nab Neung” or “Count One” in English, and then Peacemaker’s “Ngao” or “Loneliness.” So as I slow-danced with Jo, I asked her whose song it is, and she told me who the singers were. To cut a long story short, we left Club Orbit at 4am Malaysian time. I didn’t think we would have made it back to the hotel with Pathiparn, by then dubbed “Partyman” by Muaazam and I, being totally wasted and was at the wheel. We met Pathiparn later (around 11am), as promised, and settled our work, then headed out to Siam Square to buy Ten Teerapak’s and Peacemaker’s CD.

Two months later, I was back in Krungthep on business, and had dinner at Yok Yor across the Chao Phraya river from Saphan Thaksin…and the one-man show there sang “Ngao.” When Muaazam and I were stationed for four months in Langkawi, we’d listen to Peacemaker and “Ngao” again and again.

Even during business trips to Southern Thailand with Naddy Nad and Chalky26 later that year, I’d sing the song at karaoke lounges.

The group Peacemaker has since broken up, but Muaazam went back to Krungthep with his girlfriend (taking ice to the North Pole) to buy that particular CD.

And I still hum the song whenever I feel lonely…

It’s high time I go back to Meuang Thai.