Life Of A Typical Malay - June 1999
Monday 7/6/1999
While "cleaning up" my room today I found a CD titled The Very Best Of The Pogues, must be Lan's. I quickly played the song Fairytale Of New York, a duet with Kristy McColl. This song was a huge Christmas success in the UK. I still remember parts of the lyric, listening to it brought back lots of sweet memories. I kept playing the song and singing to its catchy tune. Yea, it's one of those songs where you don't have to have a great voice to sing it out loud. I really had a blast, I even sang the song while driving to and from work today.
The lyric goes like this:
It was Christmas Eve
Babe in the drunk tank
An old man said to me,
Won't see another one
And then he sang a song
The Rare Old Mountain Dew
And I turned my face away
And dreamed about you
Got on a lucky one
Came in eighteen to one
I've got a feeling
This year's for me and you
So happy Christmas
I love you baby
I can see a better time
When all our dreams come true
They've got cars
Big as bars
They've got rivers of gold
But the wind goes right through you
It's no place for the old
When you first took my hand
On a cold Christmas Eve
You promised me
Broadway was waiting for me
You were handsome
You were pretty
Queen of New York City
When the band finished playing
They howled out for more
Sinatra was swinging
All the drunks they were singing
We kissed on the corner
Then danced through the night
The boys of the NYPD choir
Were singing 'Galway Bay'
And the bells were ringing
Out for Christmas day
You're a bum
You're a punk
You're an old slut on junk
Living there almost dead on a drip
In that bed
You maggot
You cheap lousy faggot
Happy Christmas your arse
I pray God
It's our last
I could have been someone
So could anyone
You took my dreams from me when
I first found you
I kept them with me babe
I put them with my own
Can't make it all alone
I've built my dreams around you
Lan must be proud (?) of me....hahahaha. I never liked his taste of music but that doesn't mean I do not listen to New Order, or in this case, The Pogues. I can't stand Robert Smith and Morrisey but I listen to The Beautiful South. Infact, True Faith (New Order) made it to my all-time favourite songs.
Tuesday 8/6/1999
Ariffin called a few times this morning but every time I called him back he was not home. Mah (Tanjung Malim) also called on my handphone, told her that I had already banked-in her profit for last month. She wanted to know my bank account number, she promised to top up her investment by end of this week. Went to Maybank to pay some bills, the queue was so long I had to come back after lunch time. Wanted to send my car for service but both Shell and BP centres were closed.
Only Kumar and Dominic turned up tonight. Other traders from Tim's group traded inside his room, so basically the main trading hall was so quiet. I was connected to the internet almost all the time but there were no signs whatsoever tentang cuaca di Brazil. Price went down again, it tumbled at mid-session by 5 points. Left quite early, about midnight. To Standard Chartered Bank to pay my credit card bill. Then to Citibank to withdraw some money.
Wednesday 9/6/1999
Zack is back at the office, he's now a Division Manager (wonder what that means...). I don't mind, as long as he doesn't interfere with my account. Now it looks like the office will be kind of "lively" again, with Zack bringing in about 6 new investors. Tony was no where to be found. He was the one who sacked Zack. Kumar told me to be careful, "don't be too nice to people,especially here",he said.
The market was basically stagnant with only 1.5 points gap. Left before market closing time, had supper with Dominic and Kumar at Estana.
Thursday 10/6/1999
Agnes called the moment aku nak cuba tidur. She asked me to give Sara a call, she wanted to speak to me. Tried a few times but she was out. Managed to get hold of her right after lunch time. She wanted to borrow a few hundred. Gosh, do I look like a Citibank? She was telling a few stories when I quickly stopped her by saying, "Sara, don't make promises, I'll give you some money and you make the effort to pay me back. I'm tired of listening to promises.
Chris called when I was at the office, asking for the price. Told him about market reports and stuff but he replied, "to hell with reports, you can't move if you read too many reports". Terasa hati aku.
Rang Rohaya up at about 10-30 pm, I hardly recognised her voice. Promised to call her back tomorrow, she was kind of busy.
Closing price was slightly up, a very cautious trading, said the report.
Friday 11/6/1999
Woke up just before Friday Prayer, had to rush to ITM Islamic Centre. Spent the rest of the afternoon on-line, Tokyo Market ended low but London Market showed signs of going up.
It poured just before Asar, called Rohaya, janji nak jumpa kat KL esok.Took a quick nap until 6-30 pm.
Azila was at the office today, closing his account. Sorang lagi kawan aku hilang. Went out with him,Dominic and Kumar, kind of our last meals together. Both Dominic and Kumar went to play snooker, leaving me, Cindy and Zul until closing time. Price went a bit higher about 20 mins before closing, it was too late to do any transaction we just looked at the screen wondering why.
Saturday 12/6/1999
A few people rang me up while I was sleeping I could not remember who they were except for Raymond and Rohaya.
Left for KL after Zohor, traffic was not that bad, reached Restoran Seri Melayu at 3-15. Rohaya arrived about 15 minutes later. Had to go somewhere else, the restaurant was closed for I don't know what reason. Setahu aku, Restoran Seri Melayu buka sampai malam. Went to Restoran Rasa Utara, Bukit Bintang Plaza instead. The food was craps, I had mi kari and she had some kind of laksa. Somehow I managed to tell her the reason why I did not "make the effort" to call. I was a bit defensive at times. I nearly fell off the chair when I told her; "Look,how can I forget you? You know so much of my secrets, you know what my weaknesses are, you can even blackmail me". Pathetic betullah aku ni...
To the National Mosque to say my Asar after sending her to the car. Then to Bukit Bintang Plaza again for some shopping while waiting for Raymond to call. Was so happy to see latest issue of .net magazine I canceled my plan of having my hair cut. Lepak dalam kereta kat belakang Wisma Genesis sambil baca .net, sedar-sedar dah Maghrib.
Waited for Raymond at Regent Hotel, he wanted to have dinner but I was not hungry. Went to Wisma Cosway for drinks. We talked commodity and stuff but towards the end we chatted about life. He kept on saying,"Zainal, I think you are one weird guy, a mystery man. I'm so honoured to be your friend". I got kind of pissed off and replied, "Heck,I don't know what you're talking about, that weird and mystery things. You sound very gayish". We both laughed.
Nuar called a few times, tanya aku kat mana, dia takut aku tak balik rumah pasal esok dia nak pinjam kereta nak hantar mak mertua dia balik Johor. Reached Shah Alam at about midnight, didn't log on to the internet, jadi bodoh kejap aku malam ni, aku ni complicated sangat ke sampai ramai orang tak paham aku. As far as I know,aku ni just a simple kampung guy. Maybe because I lead a very sheltered life and am very good at hiding my feelings. Oh well...
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