kk cultural extravaganza....

I was lucky enough to be sponsored a seat for the Kota Kinabalu Cultural Extravaganza Show at UMS, and not just any ordinary seat, it was front row VVIP seats some more, courtesy of my aunt. It made all the difference to flash a RM200 ticket! Seven of us went, from L to R: grandma, Suzy, Sandra, Angeline, Aunt Jasmine and Emery Teeta..

The show opened with a medley of Malaysian Cultural dance, the Pangkulian Nabuluh, Ramatuo Rahaling and Igal-igal...

The international presentation started off with the Scottish dancers wearing sweat-shirts, checkered shirts and matching socks...

This group from Poland. It's difficult to imagine our dear JP2 doing the dance in costumes like this...

The Irish dancers with their big springy hair...


The Spanish Castanuelas, very sensual indeed... this couple did the tango I think, and another, the Salsa...


The flamenco...

A short break from international performances, presenting our Sabah's very own Adam with his pilak-pilak dancers...

The a gig from The City Shufflers -- I don't usually have good things to say about shufflers, I think they're very invasive people (in bars and pubs they always do the shuffle a foot too near to you, total annoyance), complete wannabes with not much things to do in life other than to shuffle real fast, wear out their soles and help a little bit in the local shoes industry.

But I have to say I was completely impressed with their performance that night, and completely taken over... Way to go City Shufflers (I may not like you in pubs and bars, but you guys rock on stage!)

These people are pretending to be spring-wound robots or string puppets or something like that...

And this guy was cool, he did the standing on one hand thing...


...and was turning around and around...

...and then he dropped to his head and still went round and round...

...with no sign of stopping he kept on going round, and then up to his hands again and did the stand still... totally cool...

Everyone was doing it, the Capoeira style stand-on-hand stance...


With his friends cheering him on...


Next a song from Marsha (also our very own) and Ajai.


The show continued with the Ukrainian Mazeppa acrobatic dancers doing somewhat a traditional form of street dance we just saw the City Shufflers did. They also had the dance-on-hand thingy, but their's wasn't so much a dance but like a "try to out-do me" show of acrobats.


The Maori War dancers Kahurangi started with a more sensual dance...


Then they did a dance, that supposedly helped them with their mosquito problems...


Another center of attention was this voluptuous guy doing some sleek sexy moves...

And of course, what's a Maori without his eyes terbeliak and friendly tongue sticking out...

The Safari Cats from Kenya...


I think the best international performance for the night was by Brasilian VIVA Brasil.


The Capoeira done in slowmo... nice...


And the favourite from the group, the Drums that looked like over-sized condensed milk-cans.

The finale by our local group, presenting kids in traditional costumes and stick-walking boys. They also did the all-time favourite gimmick -- shoot the balloon with a blow-pipe. H9 Sports Mode was able to capture the moment when the balloon burst... impressive!

Ei Sam, kau bah ni, kan?


Sabahan Warriors in their feathers, tree-bark vests and loin-cloths.



I took about 300+ pictures that night, but the winning shot is still this...

love for sale...

Ah, another year has passed and I've survived its dry course without anything romantic crossing my path. I can put it in a more positive light, saying that at least I know now how to make my life to be un-romantic (and hopefully this coming year I can avoid the things that I've learnt) Well that sounds pathetic, how come Edison can make it sound so positive when he said he found hundreds of ways a bulb won't light up?

Ayway, thinking back something a friend quoted, that all the Vintage Girls of our Times are already in severe shortage, if not completely gone by now, and it does not help at all to be married to the work with such demands that shivel away any remaining socializing opportunity that I might have... sigh...


I heard this song again over the radio yesterday, the rendition by Harry Connick Jr. This is going to be my theme song from now through Valentines... any takers?

LOVE FOR SALE
Cole Porter, The New Yorkers (1930)

When the only sound in the empty street,
Is the heavy tread of the heavy feet
That belong to a lonesome cop, I open shop...

When the moon so long has been gazing down
On the wayward ways of this wayward town.
That her smile becomes a smirk, I go to work....

Love for sale! Appetising young love for sale!
Love that's fresh and still unspoiled,
Love that's only slightly soiled, love for sale!

Who will buy? Who would like to sample my supply?
Who's prepared to pay the price,
For a trip to paradise? Love for sale...

Let the poets pipe of love in their childish way,
I know every type of love, better far than they.
If you want the thrill of love,
I've been through the mill of love;
Old love, new love, every love *but true love...

Love for sale...
Appetising young love for sale...
If you want to buy my wares, follow me and climb the stairs
Love for sale...
Love for sale...


*fortunately, I'm still not ready to ditch the idea of true love...

pictures courtesy of corbis

kk city day parade...

In the true festival mood, my sister and I set out to join in the fun (?fun) as people of all colours (literally) and backgrounds come over to celebrate the 8th Anniversary of KK City... Actually we went to put our new cameras to the test, my brand new H9 and her even newer, just out of the box W80...

Sumandaks-sumandaks with their takiding, feathers, ornamental beads and all... original.

Well, in the midst of a Cultural Extravaganza, I can't really say that I'm expecting to meet Snow White in all her splendor (with the out-of-bed look) and the Grimm flashing his boners... ewww...

The guy in white spots an "artist" tag (who is he?), but I guess the main attraction here are those with not much more than just their headgears and their loincloths on... I was afraid that the picture will be underexposed and not turn out well in B&W, but it's okay... The lady in the squid-bikini shows taste in her eye-wear...

Sticking the tongues out... translates as "hello, bbluuaahhh"

The stationary float, the ark with gigantic swordfish, a couple of turtles, a huge orang-utan and some other creatures...

Amongst those who participated was a team from my former school, spotting a comical stork. Can't say I'm too proud of them...

Sandra getting up-close and personal with a Maori guy impersonating Kenny G... or is it the other way round...

And of course, what better way to finish off a carnival other than burning thousands of tax-payers money in colourful combustions...

haircut...

I've put off cutting my hair long enough and am actually expecting to pay the Festival Rate, having come this close to Chinese New Year already, but to my pleasant surprise, my usual hairdressing saloon does not practice the price hike-up, common to other barbers...

Every time I go for a haircut there's always this feeling, that I might regret going at all... I had bad experiences with cuts that are too short, or too thin, or just not the way I like it, but this place I go to, in Sinsuran, so far has a clean record with me...

...so this is me after a few weeks since the last I got a cut...

...first she starts off with trimming the tip of my hair...

...then she proceeds to thin the sides and the back...

...then the shampoo, I always enjoy the head massage...

...after that, the clean up... I am quite particular about my stings to stand at an angle, so it cannot be too short that it stands straight up and it cannot too long that it flops down.. quite a pressurizing job... but she's okay...

...the after the hairdryer, some gel to help hold the hair at an angle...

...okay la for the Chinese New Year, it should grow into my look ina few days...

...I dont know if I can reproduce the Godzilla spikes at the back like she does it...

happy city day, oh KK, my KK...

aerial view of KK overlooking Sembulan area, spotting the State Mosque, Federal Building, SM Maktab Sabah (my sikul) and the Nostril Tunnel...

Today we celebrate Kota Kinabalu City day, as we had since 2002. Unfortunately whenever we talk about KK City or its Municipal Council DBKK, not much else comes to mind but this...

garbage truck

...or this...

clingfish also known as ikan MPKK, currently changed to ikan DBKK...

Anyway, Happy Birthday Oh KK, my KK...!

yesterday...

Came back from Labuan yesterday after spending 3 nights and about RM200 on chocolate, liquer and an Adidas bag. Walking around the town on the first night opened my eyes to the reality of Labuan's Entertainment Industry. We went scouting from karaoke to karaoke, and by night the whole place transformed. I could almost swear that I was in Manila, where everybody speaks Tagalog and Filipino style English. And the air was very sexual, with GROs dressed suggestively and always saying nice things to you in hoping that you'll pick one home.

The greatest regret I had that night was to leave my camera at home.

waiting at the Labuan International Airport

the day i went out photo hunting...

There's always excuses tp postpone whenever I wanted to go around photo-hunting, but now with a new added pressure from H9, I had to get off my lazy behind, sacrifice a much needed afternoon nap and go around... it also helps that Labuan is really a nice place to take pictures.

Sand ridges like this appears like dunes when taken in macro mode.

Tree trunks of different width adds sophistication to the picture, taken against the sea...

Almost bald...

It took a while to let this pooch stay curious enough to be still for a moment for a good shot, or else I'd have to turn on the extreme sports function, he keeps on blurring the shot...

Park benches at Labuan Water Sports Complex...

Driving around, on our way to Manikar to catch sunset...

Natural fencing...

The sunset...

In keeping with the theme of PATCH I've made all the pictures in black and white, but it definitely don't do justice to some of the beautiful sceneries, and the capability of H9 to capture colours...

For the colour version of these pictures, click here...

s.n.a.p...

the mistresses club

I recently added another one of these to my collection... blame it on impulsive buying but I think Duromine sometimes makes you do things you don't want to do... like buying another camera when you have already a T10, a Canon SLR, an old Canon A400 and a Sony Ericsson phone that also takes pictures.

I blame it on the lure of the H9 that sings like a siren, lulling me to a night of insomnia just thinking about its state of the art technology in a Hybrid Camera that includes 8.1 Megs resolution, 15x optical zoom lens (31-465mm eff) 3.0" LCD with EVF, ISO up to 3200, max 1/4000s shutter speed, Aperture up to 2.7, a free battery, an upgradeable memory stick to 2G and oh... the viewfinder is a tilting one some more.

new mistress

No, I blame it on the Duromine... even the insomnia the night before was caused by Duromine...

flying again...

This week I'm invited to a function in Labuan to give HIV/AIDS input for an awareness function run by the Department of Health in Labuan... I'd say any reason to come to Labuan to stock up on booze is a good excuse to come over, hehe... That and I'm also dying to try out my new H9.

Landing at Labuan International Airport, the plane's shadow cast on the ground...

cute cute cute...

feeding time...

seeing the world in black and white...

...as life pass through us, at a speed we have no control over.

I'll be approaching 30 very soon... And although I have the least concern about looks and wrinkles when it comes to aging, but I kept bombarding my conscience with ideation of legacy and personal significance. It has been almost 3 decades now, what have I done that is truly significant, that changed the world in the very least?

I don't know why I am soooo obsessed by this thought... is this what a person with Messiah Complex will go through when he is detached from ministerial work?

And people say that life begins at 30? I don't know...

for the love of the country...

Since the Government started the National Service Programme in 2003, selected youths all across the country has been concentrated at a number of camps for a period of 3 months. They have to go through a number of modules that targeted development in specific areas including physical fitness, nation building, character building, community service and others. Last year, the Ministry of Health, together with the PM's Office devised another module to be incorporated into the programme... the HIV/AIDS Module for PLKN... and this is where I come into the picture.

The Module is supposed to be run at district level, but since one of the district were not prepared to run it in given time, I volunteered to sit in and see for myself one of these places, dreaded by SPM school leavers all over the country.

I suppose as a security reason, and also probably to avoid conscripts (or Wira & Wirawati as they're addressed in the Camps) from escaping, the camps are usually located in the remotest of places, and for this particular Camp I visited was about 8 km away from the main road passing through jungles and rivers.

As we reached the place, the car can go only as far as the river bank on the other side of the camp, and to go to the other side, we had to use a wobbly suspension bridge, and most definitely not the romantic type portrayed by the song Jambatan Tamparuli.

Posing for a good shot was quite a feat, as the bridge keeps on swinging, even if you try very hard to stay still.

And the greeting on the wall is the first thing we noticed once we entered the camp compound.

Thinking as an adult who did not have to go through this myself, I thought that the programme is actually fun, though I wouldn't like the idea of being confined away for 3 months of my life. The closest thing I had as a youngster tho this was a 4D3N Science Camp in Kundasang.

i like...

I can easily name a few other people who'd also like to sling this around, just because of the word on it...

You know who you are! ;-P

the one about my early education...

Evidence of my early education... my sister went through the junks that re-emerged during our yearly spring cleaning before Chinese New Year and found an English workbook that belonged to me when I was in Standard 6 (that was in 1991!) I got an A! And the date shows that it was my birthday also! What a lovely gift...

But this I don't really understand... for the essay I got Q.Good. What's a Q.Good? Quite Good? Quintessentially Good? Which teacher gives Q.Good as a remark?

EXISTENTIAL LONELINESS IS THE LONELINESS THAT EVERY HUMAN BEING EXPERIENCE, BECAUSE IT IS MEANT TO POINT THEM TO COMMUNION WITH GOD AS THEIR ULTIMATE DESIRE...

the dreaded phonecall...

After a full day trying to rest the killer-butterflies in my stomach, contemplating on the various better ways to die, other than being decapitated by my Director, the morning came when I had to face it...

The morning started normal, letters to open, queries to answer via fax, apparently only 2 person in my whole office read the article that was published yesterday. They were teasing me for being famous now, but that's the last thing I needed to hear actually. Like the calm before a storm, I hated waiting for the Director to call me in to see her.

The storm came finally at 9am, the Director's PA called me to tell that the Boss wants to see me. at that exact moment I saw my life, all the good times I had since childhood and the sweet memories in service, the nice people that I've met, the things undone in life, the people I still wanted to see, the things I still wanted to say, all flashed before me. Putting down the telephone I walked slowly back to my little cubicle, smiling blankly to my colleagues. If they were to remember me at all, remember my smiling face, I thought.

I have to go through a corridor from the lift to the Director's Office. I have been on this corridor many many times before but it never felt that long before yesterday. I guess that must be how those people who are sentenced to death must feel, walking that final stretch corridor before they're put to death.

The "talk" with the Boss was a humbling experience. Humbling because she didn't spare me by hiding her words with subtleties, she went on to remind me that I am a nobody to come out in the newspaper, doing press releases like that. Plus of course the fact that according to a circular in public service, a government servant is not allowed to talk to the press without a prior approval from the director. Okay for that, I am guilty as charged. Just that I've not seen Noves as a representative of the press, but a friend who got some info over coffee in Starbucks.

The Boss also reminds me that if I cannot, or rather "don't like" to follow the rules, I can always quit Govenrnmrent Service. Twice she made that point. And she also gave me the option of joining the private sector, emphasizing that in the private sector, I can say anything I want to the press.

As a whole, I am just glad to not have disclipinary action taken against me for an un-authorised press conference, while the whole day before I was worried sick that she was going to get me to verify some figures and Ministry policies that could have been a bigger scandal, but she overlooked those.

So, yeah, I learned my lesson in this, but at least Nove's happy that her maiden newspaper publication was out...

oh no, i might get screwed for this...

First and foremost, I'd like to thank Noves for wanting to do a write-up on our "night-work" and a little bit on the current situation of HIV infection in the state. It would do much to help create further awareness to the public about the disease and hopefully, will help reduce the sticky stigma that is placed on our little friend, the condom...

Now, a little bit about the article, due to some technological mismatch, the proof-read version of the story did not get through and there were some... hmm... somethings in there that I wouldn't exactly say it that way.

I have a notorious curse upon me, that I usually leave a place in pretty ugly conditions, like when I left for Lahad Datu, I just had a break-up at that time and I left the youth ministry with a sour taste in the mouth. And when I left Lahad Datu to come back to KK, things there were done halfway, projects were abandoned and some people were mad at me for leaving at such a short notice. Also an ugly sight.

And now, when I am about to be transferred down to the clinic, I have this article to explain to the Boss... not just the local boss perhaps, the National Big Shot is coming tomorrow and I may have to deal with him too.. sigh... a perfect sign to herald my unfortunate exit from AIDS Unit...

Sigh... oh me, why me...

the one about a wedding and sexual health...

Today I gave a talk to a bunch of adolescents from Jabatan Belia dan Sukan about HIV, AIDS and reproductive health. It's not that I've not done it before, this easily is becoming a second nature to me... Not sure if that will up my points in the stock-market (kasi naik saham)...

The day started early because my talk was sceduled at 8am and the office driver will come at 6am. Although it has been rainy for the past few days, the mountain decided to greet our coming with a fair whether... and it will only do justice for the mountain to post its picture in colour...

Can you believe some people live in places with this kind of background?

Came down in the afternoon, and pretty much slept the whole afternoon off after taking Actifed for my runny nose...


I have a friend, Ben who gets married today, and I'd really wish to attend his wedding in KL, but if it wasn't for the reshuffling, I'd be in KL now. He probably won't find his way to this blog, but I just want to wish him all the best in his new chapter of life. I'd really love to attend your wedding, Ben! Sorry I can't be there...

Otherwise, I am still caught in preparation for Dato' Hassan's visit next week (The Big Big Shot of Disease Control in Ministry of Health - and he's known for his merciless sarcasm)... I'm still holding on to the post, and still hoping that I don't have to come down to Clinic since I really love what I am doing right now...

work out? Hell yes, I'm working out...

the one about death and legacy, again...

It probably isn't the healthiest thing to do, but I've started this year with pretty morbid reflections, like how life is so short and all... Today at work I had yet another chance to think about how short life can be...

We organised a course for the local undertakers in handling of bodies with infectious diseases (which in this case, HIV) and we had a chance to do a short practical at the hospital morgue. We of course did not use a real HIV body (it is a policy to have as few people as possible in handling infectious cases) so we asked for a young fresh body.

The guy who post-humusly sacrificed his body for the benefit of others, was a 25 years old chap, apparently died of a congestive cardiac failure, with no known heart disease prior to his death. He is also an illegal immigrant, waiting to be deported back to his country, and so happened that he had to die while in detention.

Is his family waiting for him to come back? Does he have a family at all? Since his was one of the unclaimed bodies, there probably isn't much chance of him having a proper funeral. He may have people missing him, but none of his friends and families will know he's gone for good.

We know his name from the records, but what was he like when he was alive? What was his temperament? What was he good at? What is his favourite food? Did he like jazz? What is his legacy? Did he leave any?

Well, at least he contributed something today.

the one about life...

I've got nothing nice to say about life right now...

the one about my feeling right now...

I can't believe I am still upset about the issue of being transferred down to the clinic in the middle of my term in AIDS Unit... I have made plans for the year and not to mention the half-way discussions with various agencies on programmes and strategies for 2008... My whole weekend was ruined by the news... I think I am getting depressed...