Dato' Latt - Ketua Bahagian Kuala Kedah

TERMUDA: Latt Shariman Abdullah, 40, kelmarin menjadi Ketua Bahagian termuda di Kedah apabila memenangi jawatan Ketua Bahagian Umno Kuala Kedah.Latt Shariman, kini bertugas sebagai Pegawai Tugas-Tugas Khas Timbalan Perdana Menteri Najib Razak, menewaskan Timbalan Ketua Bahagian Hashim Jasin. Ketua Bahagian dahulu Syed Razak Syed Zain Barakbah tidak mendapat cukup pencalonan untuk mempertahankan jawatan beliau.

Dato' Latt is my buddy from school. Great guy. Will go to illogical length to help people. After school we were quite active for old boys dinner/concert. I think at least 3 times I acted in sketches with him. Twice I was Tun Ghaffar Baba (Encik at that time) and he was DSAI. That was fun .. so much so that people who don't remember my name, simply call me "Ghafur".

Dato' Latt was the guy who persuaded me to go to UK for the 1st time in 1993 (FX was RM3.87:£1.00 !!). He even gave soft loan for half the ticket price, which was only RM1,600 return. Murah kan? We stayed near Baker Street station that time. Kalau tak, memang tak merasalah jadi tourist.

Congratz bro!

BTW, it snowed just now. Hmmm .. it's still October. Camana January nanti???

In Others' Shoes

Today's the first time I go to work in a car. Dell drove (I couldn't), coz Anne & the gang ada Rombongan Cik Kiah to Queen Anne & Stoke. Left around 0615 & reached office close to 0700. Took Earl's Court/Embankment route, missed turning near Queen Victoria St & had to take a slightly longer route. Actually, we took the car coz we had to bring the extra office carpet from previous renovation which is now parked in my garage.

Duh, forgot that I had an appointment with Dr Galton at 0900. Brilliant! Had to take the train back to Egham. The best doctor at Grove Medical Centre so far.

Anyway, got back to the office. Suffered some anxiety. Am starting to get immuned with the non-stop markets fall. Left around 1715. It's already dark by then.

Heck! Now I can emphatise with drivers in London. Most times I am a pedestrian. Today, we saw/avoided:
1. Pedestrian selamba kodok crossed roads while talking on the phone.
2. Pedestrians testing their luck crossing roads at non-designated crossings/middle of the road.
3. So many cyclists hogging the left lane of the streets.
4. Cyclists with dark clothing & no light on their bikes.
5. Small streets, sharing with psyco cabs & bus drivers.
6. Dark streets - dah la tengah twilight.
7. Bus lanes, although it was already dark - all the CCTV still berkuat kuasa. Thanks to the new time.
8. Idiotic drivers who flashed light at traffic light as if we were so slow moving, although the light just turned green 0.01 second ago.
9. Jam at M25 Junction 14, nasib baik ada ramp T5 - boleh cut queue via that ramp.
10. Stingy drivers - kemut tak kasi masuk lane. Nak kena lepuk tuh..

Next time, no peak hour driving for me. I believe Dell had the same feeling.

BNM Open House

After a terrible heart-stopping day at the office. Left for Bank Negara's open house at Berkeley Square .. quite easy to park at around 1815. Parkings were ample around the square.

Good food, from Makan Cafe I heard. Dannial undecided.

Asset managers & bankers, mengumpat Hank Paulson kot?

Asaraf + wife & Mazlan

Before leaving, saw these signs .. immediately reminded of this:

6:116 Dan jika kamu menuruti kebanyakan orang-orang yang di muka bumi ini, nescaya mereka akan menyesatkan mu dari jalan Allah. Mereka tidak lain hanyalah mengikuti persangkaan belaka, dan mereka tidak lain hanyalah berdusta.

Two Little Three Little Indians

Markets tanked again today.
*&%£@/,.# arrrghhhh!!!!

It was autumn, and the Red Indians asked their New Chief if the winter was going to be cold or mild. Since he was a Red Indian chief in a modern society, he couldn't tell what the weather was going to be.

Nevertheless, to be on the safe side, he replied to his Tribe that the winter was indeed going to be cold and that the members of the village should collect wood to be prepared.

But also being a practical leader, after several days he got an idea. He went to the phone booth, called the National Weather Service and asked 'Is the coming winter going to be cold?'

'It looks like this winter is going to be quite cold indeed,' the weather man responded.

So the Chief went back to his people and told them to collect even more wood. A week later, he called the National Weather Service again. 'Is it going to be a very cold winter?'

'Yes,' the man at National Weather Service again replied, 'It's definitely going to be a very cold winter.'

The Chief again went back to his people and ordered them to collect every scrap of wood they could find. Two weeks later, he called the National Weather Service again. 'Are you absolutely sure that the winter is going to be very cold?'

'Absolutely,' The Man replied. 'It's going to be one of the coldest winters ever.'

'How can you be so sure?' the Chief asked.

The weatherman replied, 'The Red Indians are collecting wood like Crazy.'

Now, that is how Stock Markets work!!!

Top Shelf

Went to Top Shelf at Whitecross Street Market (its a stall selling cheap books & slightly outdated magazines, named it as such because .. ermm, well you can just check out any book/mag stores .. see what mags you can find on their top shelves). Picked up some mags for the analysts clan in KL.

The street is one of London's oldest street markets,dating back to mediavel times. At this market you can fantastic local and regional food - Portugese, Albanian, Indian, Thai, Arabic .. macam2 lah. Settled for falafel wrapped up in kinda pita bread for lunch. Sedap jugak.
Had the most amazing experience while eating at Golden Lane's Park. The doves were all over the place, circling our feet for crumbs. All of a sudden every single one of them flew away together, I mean away from the ground of the park! Kisahnya there was a police car siren. I thought only man yg cuak dgn police. Burung pun?

Rewang

Saw this car yesterday when I took Faez & Ita to Staines. Pretty apt for there was a queue for parking & everybody was me-lilau looking for one. Went to Mas & Dell's later makan-makan. Lontong, lemang & nasi tomato ... sedaaaap!

Feel like stress level is high. Just a hunch. May be I should get that high blood pressure monitor from Lloyd's. And not to forget, start exercise balik. Puasa & raya punya hal .. lama nar pause nih.

Fall Season

It's autumn in New York. Leaves are falling...
Also bonds, stocks, banks...
- David Letterman

On leave today. Tapi hatiku tak tenang. Damn you Yankee banks!!!

Bush Bailout

The past several days, President Bush has been speaking out about the Wall Street bailout, and today a reporter asked him what he planned to do about AIG.

Bush got upset and said, "Why does everyone always spell in front of me?"

- Conan O'Brien

Lockets

Have sore throat? Like me at the moment. It's hell. Don't go for Strepsils. Go for Lockets. It's so much stronger.

And what if you have hiccups? According to our Colombian cleaner, Calixto - chew sugar. Yes, sugar .. sucre, you get what I mean. Forget standing on your head. Try sugar .. it works!

Po in Rantau Panjang

Markets in Europe made a spectacular drop again yesterday, mostly dropping more than 7% with France & Ireland falling close to 10%. So today, I am feeling rather depressed. And this overdose of rendang & kuah nasi himpit is not helping either.

Anyway, saw this in NST site. Nice architecture. Reminds me of Po a.k.a. Kung Fu Panda jumping around trying to reach the Dragon Scroll. Ahh .. I need to exercise. I'm tired .. yawn...

Open Houses - Non-Stop Eating!

Raya .. incomplete without open houses.

1st Weekend.

At Gumok's/Zakiah's

At Jai's/Mazza's

At Our's

Eid Mubarak

'twas just after 1500 on Sept 29. The US indices started to fall .. quite badly. As usual, the European follow suit. Weren't in no mood to do anything. Had a suspicion that tomorrow will be Eid for London & yg sewaktu dengannya. I say yang sewaktu dengannya coz definitely some will raya on 29th Sept, some on 1st Oct and maybe a few on 2nd Oct. Really ironic for a religion which emphasize Tauhid as such an important concept. No need to ulas .. I did it before here.

Gedebak-gedebuk, managed to complete our cooking etc. This year we are all Boy Scouts (coz their motto is "Be Prepared"). Managed to leave for Birm around 2245 & reached there just after midnight. Rumah baru wooo...!! Along the way, got texts asking me to check out news. Oh my god! S&P 500 just fell 9%!!!!

Eid

I was quite early mengerah the kids to shower etc. Coz solat will be at 0945. First time solat raya this late! Despite that, we were still late - masbuq into the 2nd rakaat. Biasak la .. nak mengatur 7 adults & 8 kids.

Open house at Sis' .. Whoaaa!! I think about 200 came! Memang Birm ramai Melayu!!

Raya Photos in Birmingham - Quinton Road

Songkok ketat sket. Songkok shrink ke, aku dah besar kepala sket?

Nat - standard ~ mesti x nak pandang camera

Hah, duit raya Mar mana? ..

Eh, you pakai perfume Sarah Jessica Parker ke? I like ..

Aiman missing & budak baju kuning tu plak tersesat masuk.

Gotcha! Everybody in.

Briyani, khuzi kambing, laksa Johor, nasi impit, rendang ..

Khuzi Diny - terangkat siol!

Laksa Johor - kick giller!!

Nasib BIL & Kak Yah - basuh pinggan lah kamu yea