Manimal

Gaza is being assaulted again and again. Israelis rammed aid ships to prevent them from reaching (to help) the Paletinians. One look at the Israeli soldiers - young, boyish looking. All brainwashed by "orang2 terdahulu". Of being the chosen one (in other words, accusing God of being racist). Its ok if I screw you, but you can't screw me. Because we are the chosen one. Pure Shylock.

Never have I seen blatant approval of genocide, from the US, British & the enemies of Muslims, let alone the Israelis who lauched the attacks. Where blood was shed - women, children, civillians. And the world say, " we support Israel retaliation". What retaliation? Hamas (who is so damn stupid too) rockets create craters the size of flower pots. Israel's bombs create craters the size of buildings. 1 Israel guy died, 315 Muslims died. Don't tell me all these years of weapon building you can't aim at the correct buildings that there need to be collateral damage? Pure ethnic cleansing I'd say. Animals don't do this.

Egypt & Jordan closed their gates. What is this? The Saudis are ball-less. Infact the Muslims are in so deep a shit, these events will just be another statistic. Filthy stinking rich Mercedes cheuffered leaders whose people don't even know how to build a bicycle.

Conclusion: We have to equip ourselves with knowledge, translated into actions to at least be at par with the world. Then we have the respect we need to execute change.

Happy New Year

Its 1430 years after Rasulullah ensured that 9:20 was implemented.

9:20 Orang-orang yang beriman dan berhijrah serta berjihad di jalan Allah dengan harta, benda dan diri mereka, adalah lebih tinggi derajatnya di sisi Allah; dan itulah orang-orang yang mendapat kemenangan.

Me, a few small "faaizuun (kemenangan)" here and there. Nothing compares to you, my dear Rasulullah.

Today, we had an English lunch at Terry's & Kak Bib's. Roast Beef yang sangat kaw. I've never tasted any better than this.

Then we had early dinner with Dell & family. Mas & kids will be going away for good. Mas has exhausted her leave of absence & all possible tricks to stay longer. Anne is pretty sad .. no more friend to do this & that together. Sent them to LHR, thanks to Baha, checked in almost everything.

So long Mas, Syamil & Syida. See you guys in May (if I'm still here). And Salam Maal Hijrah.

Boxing Day at Cheshire Oak

Largest Christmas tree at the largest designer outlet in Europe. Gambar kantoi sket, biasalah .. iPhone punya camera bodoh vs other makers.

Pergh! Jauh mai peghabih duit. Saja, since we wanna spend xMas off day
at Diny's in Birm, C Oaks seems the natural choice, what with the 140+
outlets. 10.30 am to 5.40 pm. Rebeh poket Joe.

Kids got the bulk of the loot. TQ to Mr Dentease the designated driver for the day. Saja suruh kutu tunjuk skill lesen British.

Merry Keris Mas

Last week I received a (chain) mail advising against wishing friends "Selamat Hari Nata.. or Merry Christma..". Note that the email did not even finish the words. It's like in Harry Potter, "he whose name shall not be mentioned" kind of thing. A bit difficult for me coz most of my friends & those I do business with over here in this part of the world, are Christians - be it Catholic, Anglican, Methodist, Protestant, Mormon etc. Banyak ek? Well before you say anything Islam has pretty much the same thing - Sunni, Shiites, Ahmadiyah, Ismailis .. etc.

What is Christmas anyway? Well, in its current spirit, it is celebrating the birth of Jesus. For Christians - the birth of god/son of god .. whatever. For Muslims I suppose we can celebrate it too as Maulidurrasul. Isa is a messenger spreading the same thing right? Islam. Actually, come to think of it, we should celebrate it if we are among the believers. That's what one of the most recited doa in any of our functions says:

2:285 Rasul telah beriman kepada Al Quran yang diturunkan kepadanya dari Tuhannya, demikian pula orang-orang yang beriman. Semuanya beriman kepada Allah, malaikat-malaikat-Nya, kitab-kitab-Nya dan rasul-rasul-Nya. (Mereka mengatakan): "Kami tidak membeda-bedakan antara seseorangpun dari rasul-rasul-Nya", dan mereka mengatakan: "Kami dengar dan kami taat." (Mereka berdoa): "Ampunilah kami ya Tuhan kami dan kepada Engkaulah tempat kembali."

Anyway, digressing again. Christmas can be broken into 2 words: Christ & Mas.
Christ came from the Orthodox Greek Kristos which means Messiah or the Annointed One.
Mas came from Mass. So it basically means Messiah Mass or Perhimpunan Untuk Utusan. Pretty harmless I would say, language wise.

BTW, Jesus wasn't born on December 25th. God knows when.

Oh, and the same person has previously sent me pics of Mahmoud Ahmedinejad, the President of the Islamic Republic of Iran showing him in humbling poses (partly to compare him with Pak Lah). Well, just check out what this role model wrote (look at the 1st line) in his blog.

I know I'm pretty merry today. Spending an off day with family. Ciao.

OxStreet on Xmas Eve

Buat bodoh today pakai jeans. Its gonna be half day & not gonna trade anyway. Only British, French & Dutch markets were opened. By 2pm dah terpacak kat Tottenham Court Road. Had lunch with Dell, Mas & Anne at the restaurant at the corner of TCR ntah apa nama tah. Had mixed donno what (ada lamb shish, kebab & chicken) + chicken doner. Not bad, sedap juga .. so boleh pegi lagi. Damage for 4 pax around £32. OK lah.

Then rendek2 tengok orang berpusu2. But this is so much less vs last year especially since this year sale signs are everywhere. Up to 50% off etc. Then imagine on this 26th boxing day pulak (some shops 27th). How much more are they gonna slash?

I bet in January everything will dry up. By March some companies will be stretched. April we'll hear administration, liquidation & all that jazz. Imminent, Zavvi having problem. As for currency, £1 is now RM5.09 when I left office. Man .. this currency is £**<€d!! Imagine from £1 = RM7.13 at one point to now. That's bloody 29% devaluation. May be now its time for Malaysian companies to buy up British assets. Tunggu sikit lagi, houses might fall another 30%.

Anyway, ended up buying 1 shirt from Gap for £9 something (I bet its gonna be cheaper tomorrow, then may be I go and return it and repurchase it at lower price .. ha haa haaa [ketawa jin afrit]). Cun juga cuma tak de riak (the term riak means bila orang tengok orang tau tu brand apa - may be the logo at the pocket, strip on the side, engraved buttons etc). Although sometimes its brilliant not to have any "riak" especially when you bought stuff from Primark, which I do quite a lot for myself, baju £3, sweater £5 .. murah siot. Ye lah, coz nak kasi wife pakai MNG, Morgan, Uniqlo .. anakanda pakai Monsoon, Gap, Osh Kosh. Heh heh, suami cum bapak mithali. Woo hooo!

Yeayy! The books arrived.

2 days are what it takes for the books to arrive. Bought via Amazon
marketplace. 1 p each with P&P £2.75 ea. Hardcovers! Bloody good deal
I would say. Tah bila nak baca ntah la.

Red Handed

I think I'm gonna add another label, K .. short for knowledge. For anything that's like info or sewaktu dengannya.

Today I dropped by the National Gallery for a quick dart through those precious artworks with Gavin - a fund manager turned tourist guide. While admiring one of the art, can't remember which artist but it was showing his house & garden with vast land going into the horizon. In the picture there was a poacher (illegal hunter) with a gun eyeing some ducks.

Now, the knowledge that I got today is the figure of speech "caught red handed".
This comes from the fact that a person is proven a poacher when he is caught with his hand red (bloodied) from the shot animal.

Eid Mubarak

Solat Raya at the Youth Centre at Egham, an indoor basketball to be precise. Should've gone to M'sian Hall coz Dr Asri was delivering the khutbah. May be next time, perhaps in Birm. Plus my feet are still killing me.

Dell & Mas, Terry & Kak Bib, Sam & Linda singgah around 11.00 am. Had nasi impit, lemang, rendang, kari ayam w/o santan, laksa Johor .. meriah!

This is the time of the year to think of the needy and the less fortunate.

Citigroup, AIG, Lehman Brothers, General Motors...

- David Letterman-

Eid Mubarak Everyone

SocGen Conference

Dissapeared for a few days to attend SocGen Premium Review conference at La
Bourse, Paris with Dell. Anne tetiba muncul one day after .. tak sempat nak ngorat .. hmmmph.

Conference was pretty good with Economist quite bullish vs the Global Strategist dubbing what's going on as the Great Experiment. I suppose .. ok, its gonna get bad, perhaps the real economy gets really shitty .. then the stock market recovers 9 months in advance. Perhaps something like the Asian Crisis, this time the Global Crisis!

Took Friday off .. rendek2. Managed to squeeze a trip to Musee d'Orsay .. worth it! Then ronda2 Champs Elysee .. layan LV. Pergh! Harga maut, but no doubt product memang baguih.

Saturday went to the Louvre, kononnya nak complete the previous tour. Arggh! Its soo huge .. tak habis2. And my feet felt like burning. And the audioguide that we rented was crappy. There're so little paintings/sculptures with numbers (to key in in the audio thing & listen to explanations on the item).

Some pics from the wintry, drizzly trip. Nevertheless, enjoyable .. especially since Eurostar return was to cheap at £59. To be cont..