A Dash of Everything

Salam fellow friends. My apologies for not writing in a while. Been pre-occupied with a lot of upcoming events as well as my new office. Yup! My new office is almost done. The cubicle, partition and chosing furniture is done. Today, is the last round of painting to do as me and my boys will give it a final layer of paint. I am really excited about it. Will post pictures of the office once is all made up. Gotta say a big shout out to my staff of Suara Rasa namely Acul, Ohm & Naim for helping out. Could've not done it with out u guyz...alamak almost forgot to thank my bro Trex for the fine finishing & areas that only he could reached - the advantages of having a taller brother!!

Hari Raya is almost around the corner. Wifey hasn't really been a fan of Hari Raya especially when we beraya in JB. I feel for her and I understand what she is feeling. Don't really blame her though. I know its hard for her, my S-I-L and my M-I-L to go through Hari Raya without feeling the void. So, I try my very best to ensure that she's happy on Hari Raya. Thank God for the kids I guess she has learn that she needs to shift her energy to the kids. So my bet is for this year mcm biasa after semayang Hari Raya we'll probably go to Mahmodiah & visit my F-I-L 's grave , then off to Kak Antien's house & spend almost half the day there. We'll chit chat..almost everybody from my wifey's family will be there. I would probably stuff my belly till it exploded. You see, before this, my wifey's grandma used to stay with us so in their family tree she is considered the O-tai of the pack so on Hari Raya everyone will be there. I can still remember when grandma was still around we couldn't even get out from the house..& I mean the 1st Hari Raya we really do not get to go anywhere. Now, that she has left us to be with Allah. Kak Antein's house has always been a favourite with relatives as one of the reason being is she serves..yummy food since Tok Dad is also not around. Glad that Nikki is out of the hospital, for the second time. Nikki, our prayers are always with you..

I also do think of Ayah especially when I was just getting to get to know him better. Before he passed on, we were clicking quite well and I really regret not been given more time to get to know him better. He is a great man with a really good heart. He has taught me quite a bit about life and appreciating your family. Ayah, I just want to know that I am doing my best to keep the family going and looking after Mak as best as I could. I believe on the saying that "only The Good Die Young". So, part of me I am glad that he is at better place, where a man of his good nature deserves to be.


Now, as promised I'll fill you in on my hometown Beranang. Who says that life in the Kampung is "cheap"? Well that statement cannot be applied for life at Beranang. I have to admit that I love to go back there to experience the serene and calm surroundings that you don't really get when you are in town. I love spending time ZZzzzzZZZzzzz there. Total relaxation.

Why do I say that it isn't that cheap to live in my Kampung? I guess that can be applied to other kampungs but not mine. My dad has been complaining that things in Beranang are expensive. We also realize that but didn't think too much of it coz if sometimes we need to buy some marketing stuff for Mak, we'll do it in TESCO, Econ Save or Jusco all of it about a max of 20 mins drive to get there. Didn't really think there was a vast difference untill we experienced it first hand while buying for berbuka at Beranang's Ramadhan Bazaar .

Ya Allah, everything was so expensive compared to JB where we can still buy kuih for 4 for RM1 or the common 3 For RM1. This is Beranang a small kampung. I can still accept it if it was in KL or some big city but this is beyond reasonable for Beranang. You would think that everything is cheap since it is to cater to all the Makciks and Pakciks, but NOT!! The kuihs are all sold at RM 2 for 5 pieces. The sizes of the kuihs are much smaller compared to the ones in JB and the best part that I cannot reconcile in my brain is that not only it is RM 2 for 5 pieces but they actually cut a piece of squared kuih (the common size sold nationwide) into two - check out the pc above, sorry hlf of the portion missing, it went into my tummy before Soraya decided to take a pic of it. So basically the picture is half kuih short for RM2 for kuih in Beranang). So, what is a piece in JB or for that matter any where I could think of, is 2 pieces in Beranang. My Soraya and I went on and on complaining even to the kuih sellers that it is so ridiculously expensive. To make matters worst, tak la sedap mana and mahal melampau!!

However, the sate at Beranang Cafe is something that you must have if you are here. Very juicy, succulent and delicious. It is 50 sen a piece but its really nice so we don't really complain as I think that is the universal price for Sate now. The Roti Canai here is our favourite too..well my Soraya & Alief actually craves the roti canai everytime we would balik kg. Typical kampung roti canai. Make sure you try it if you happen to pass Beranang, They usually start selling at about 5 pm till late night. While we were there, My Soraya managed to drag me out of the house at 2am to have the Roti Canai for Sahur, which she was really looking foward to having even before we arrived.

I am sure that some of you did recieve this email that was meant to be a joke as it shows that this joint coined its name from the famous coffee joint, Starbucks. Everyone says that it is in either Kelantan or Terengganu but today, I'll state my claim that it is situated at my kampung, Beranang. But there is something peculiar about Setarbak Kopi is that it isn't really a coffee joint and right up till now, we don't really know their main nature of business coz it is never opened. If it is, there will only be a small portion ...something is definitely going down in there. (look at the pic above).

Psst : We think that it is doing some "funny" business, but no one knows that for sure anf the regular O-Tai is just not telling..hmm we'll further investigate and let u know ok ;-).

I went riding with my fellow Motorheads last Saturday for berbuka at Umbai. Only eight of us were there...let see there was me, Sham, Awie, Fendi on his new ride, a Road King he just bought from Azman.., Arman, Brader Amir, whom I just met & Azmi. So, there we were at Petronas Skudai around 4.15pm hoping that others will come but after a while & a few phone calls it was only the seven of us that would be going on the berbuka ride. Ooops make it six,..Azmi only rode with us till Ayer Hitam cause he was going to spend the weekend with his family in Kluang, furthermore was his daughter, Dini's birthday.

It was great having the wind up in your face again & blasting down the highway to Umbai. This ride actually is a must for me during Ramadhan..I mean eventhough with being the month of Puasa it doesn't mean we can't go out for rides. Some say that its a bit too far to go there for buka puasa but as the old saying goes "its not the destination, but the journey". We arrived in Umbai at around 6.30pm. The place was packed with people who wanted a taste of fresh seafood with a reasonable price. This the only place that you would eat nasi lemak with a variety of seafoods. As we were there eating our way two fellow Melaka Harley bikers Zaini & one other guy (whom I forgot his name on his sportster) came & joined us. After a while we decided to head out to Melaka town to check out the scenes there on a Saturday night. We came to a spot where we had our drinks or "ngeteh" & after a while it was time to go home.

We were off to Ayer Keroh & made our exit there to JB. We reached JB around 1 am & Alhamdullilah on this trip, no mishap happened as all of us came back home in one piece. By the way I managed to tapow the nasi lemak ( 5 bungkus actually ) to share it with the Harfy bunch.I also managed to treat my staff for Suara Rasa's Ramadhan ritual; berbuka treat - SEAFOOD GALORE last Friday at Gelang Patah. This has been a ritual eversince I had my company to make a point to break fast all with my Suara Rasa clan together with my first born Alief who had 2 plates full. Enjoyed the session. We had good food and good company.

Selamat Hari Raya, Maaf Zahir & Batin To All My Brothers and Sisters especially fellow bikers all over the world!!