Life Of A Typical Malay - June 1999

Tuesday 1/6/1999

Woke up this morning feeling very tired indeed. I only had 4 hours of sleep; I don't really know why but I find it too difficult to bring myself to sleep these few days.

Spent the afternoon checking news on weather in coffee growing areas (Brazil), Tokyo Commodity Exchange and a few commodity-related websites.

Left for work a bit late today, after Isyak, instead of after Maghrib. Not many traders turned up tonight, market was a bit choppy. It closed lower than Monday, apparently cool air mass that reached Brazil this morning was not cold enough to cause frost. Wonder why people got panicky very easily last week that prices skyrocketed to 127.00. Didn't they do research before entering market?

Après le marché fermé, nous sommes (moi,Kumar et Dominic) allés chercher des boissons à l'Estana ensemble. Je suis parti tôt parce qu'ils ont voulu jouer le billard.

Wednesday 2/6/1999

Logged-on to the internet and checked my mail box only to find lots of junk mails, (beep), where did these people get my e-mail address from?. I do not really bother dengan junk mails mais aujourd'hui it was a bit something. Downloaded some messages from a few newsgroups and went out to Section 2 to buy lunch.

Managed to find The Star newspaper, hmmm,biasanya by midday semua suratkhabar dah habis but not today. Read almost all articles on that Anwar Ibrahim trials which have been going on for nearly a year now. Disgusting. All I can say is that the whole thing is being orchestrated. And it has been blown out of propotion. Big time. Lucky I did not vote for BN in the last general election.Oh,don't get me started....

My, I missed the boat again. I didn't expect the price to open low by nearly 3 points today. I knew it was coming down but it opened lower I had no time to take action. Price went further down during morning session (New York) but it retraced and ended higher a few minutes before closing. This is what they call "nervous market", bears and bulls are under pressure.

Thursday 3/6/1999

Tried to call Ida but could not get through, wanted to know the whereabout of Lan. Managed to speak to her later in the day, she asked me to call Pui. He gave me 2 passwords, 1 each for Jaring and TM Nuts....oppsss...TM Net. My Jaring account has been suspended I presumed because I could not log in after thousand times of trying. I knew this would happen. But not now. Please. Sampai hati Jaring menyeksa aku macam ni.

Cikgu Amin talipun this evening, sajalah sembang-sembang. Dia ni was and still is my "local hero". A former teacher of mine. He taught for a few months when I was 10 or eleven. He then left for a better offer. I met him again when I got back from Scotland, I could not recognize him masa tu, after more than 10 years,semua orang berubah. He was studying at UPM at that time and happened to stay a few houses away from my sister who was also a student there. We lost touch again after that.

Only in 1996 did we meet again. I was in Saudi Arabia when Akak The told me that Abang The's brother nak kawin dengan Cikgu Amin's sister. All of them were there at the wedding. Lepas Raya,aku dengan Cikgu Amin hari-hari talipun, satu hari sampai three or four times pasal dia nak tips to buy shares, I just happened to have a friend working at a good stock broking company. I don't play shares. Never. Je ne sais pas pourquoi mais je pense orang "main" shares ni orang kaya. Ich habe kein Geld.Ich weiss das, he made lots of money.....he really did. Tapi sejak economy downturn ni, er kauft nicht Anteile mehr. Ich nicht sogar frage ihn.

We chatted for nearly an hour, he asked me to find someone yang interested in buying a piece of his land in Raub.

Ich wendete gerade den Reste des Tages etwas Messwert tuend auf. Ziemlich viel aufgewendet von der Zeit, die versucht, aus DHTML darzustellen. Ich gab oben.

Wir aßen Nasi Goreng für dinner tonight. Halimah ist ein guter Koch nach allen.

Lan talipun, dia nak ikut aku balik kampung Sabtu ni, Pui nak kawin, so I asked him to be in Shah Alam tomorrow. Looks like aku kena balik rumah dululah after office, instead of terus balik Raub, lepas kerja. Tak apalah,at least aku boleh rihat sekejap, kalau tidak dah tentu mengantuk, nanti masa orang tengah sibuk khenduri, aku tidur pulak.

Friday 4/6/1999

I received a message on ICQ from someone who has become kind of "compulsive visitor" to my site. The message goes like this:....

For as open as you are on the net (web page) you are not really that in person. You tend to keep much of yourself very private. You tend to say things that people may think that they know you but really you didn't really say anything. You don't mind if people draw their own conclusions about you. You can put on a good front of being tough and even a jerk but inside you're not all that. Rather gentle and I think you have even been hurt real bad ...

You don't like people to get too close. You tend to shield yourself. Sad because you actually are a really wonderful person. I bet if we met in person you would not have been any where near as open with me. There is a sadness inside...that's why I say hurt. Not sure where it comes from. You have a great sense of humor. You have a strong intensity to your personality. A strong personality in general. Can easily intimidate people even if you don't always mean to. However you know it is a strength and do use it at times. It amuses you.

Aku tak nak cakap apa...
Saturday 5/6/1999
Aku tak tidur pun lepas balik kerja, serba salah, kalau tidur nanti terlambat pulak bangun. So I spent the rest of the morning surfing the net, packing and doing some reading. Left for Raub at about 7-00 am, stopped at Tras for breakfast.

Reached Ulu Gali at 9-30 am,tahlil already started by then. Went straight to bed and had a quick nap until about midday.

Ramai jugak orang yang datang khenduri Pui ni, sama ramai dengan yang balik. By 5 in the evening semuanya beres,pinggan mangkuk, kawah habis dicuci, khemah, bangsal dah hantar balik.

Since this afternoon I sensed something terribly funny. Aku tengok macam ada "komplot" pulak, semua ahli keluarga aku yang dah ada family asyik bersembang sambil gelak-gelak, pandang aku, lepas tu angguk-angguk kepala. Aku dah boleh agak dah, tapi kali ni aku rasa lain sikit, tambah-tambah pulak Ngah & Abang Ngah just got back from the UK,dia orang ni yang kind of berani sikit cakap dengan aku, yang lain tu aku buat macam tak tahu je, jadi dia orang taklah tanya banyak hal. Tapi Ngah dengan Abang Ngah ni selalu cornered aku, aku serba salah.

Memang sah, dia orang tanya bila aku nak kawin, aku dah ada calon ke belum, dia orang ada a few "candidates",siap dengan gambar sekali. I was taken aback and suddenly Rohaya's name being mentioned over and over again. Explained to Ngah the reason why I stopped calling/seeing R. It has been more than a year now. Managed to tell Ngah that deep in my heart I still have fond memories of R. But I failed to tell her that part of me still thinks that R doesn't like me. That simple.

Noor tiba-tiba pengsan masa sembahyang Maghrib, panik semua orang.Took her to Raub Hospital,"dia letih", kata Doktor tu.

Sunday 6/6/1999
Left for Shah Alam at 10-30 a.m, my car boot was packed with stuff. Nuar, Halimah, Irfan and Halimah's mum tumpang my car. Pui and Noor with Ida & Idris.

Spent the rest of the day doing absolutely nothing, well, apart from some readings.



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