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Erti Kemerdekaan 31 Ogos 1957

2011-08-31T09:23:00.000-07:00

My definition of merdeka before this was the usual standard stuff that I read in text book in school. TAR led a delegation to UK to negotiate bla bla bla. UMNO, MCA, MIC formed Alliance and won the election. TAR shouted "Merdeka!" 7 times at Stadium Merdeka on 31 August 1957. Never have I thought that whatever being written in school text books as untrue. Well, untrue would be too strong a word to describe it but certainly there's a whole lot of history that was not told. I didn't know those history until now. Watch the 2 clips below to know for yourself. The second clip is a short documentary about the fight for merdeka that started 10 years before 1957 and no, UMNO didn't start it *gasp*...

Sepuluh Tahun Sebelum Merdeka from fahmi reza on Vimeo.

#spanishrevolution

2011-08-05T04:28:00.000-07:00

Where do I begin? I think it's better to listen and watch the 2 parter videos below.

28 July 2011 : Malaysia vs Singapore World Cup 2012 Qualifying 2nd Round

2011-08-01T08:20:00.000-07:00

The atmosphere in a competitive Malaysia match will never be matched on those money grabbing tour matches by EPL teams which are attended mostly by glory hunters. The passion of supporting your own country team will not be diluted no matter the level of performance.

I have attended 3 competitive Malaysia matched before but the atmosphere of this match totally eclipsed anything that I have experienced before. Tickets put on sale on the first day were sold out 50 000 of them by around 3 pm. I skipped breakfast on the second day to go queue up early and got the tickets after 1 hour. Tickets were sold out by 11 am barely 1 hour after I got my tickets. Luckily I decided to skip breakfast else we would've been watching the match on TV.

Harimau Malaya mascot entertaining the supporters

We got off work early to eat early dinner at McD and proceeded to the stadium right after that. The atmosphere outside the stadium was carnival like, packed with supporters. A lot of stalls and people selling Harimau Malaya jerseys, scarves, flags, headbands, horns, vuvuzelas and all sorts of football related merchandise. There was a stall where supporters can get their faces painted with Harimau Malaya and Malaysia flag colours for a small fee.

We went into the stadium by around 6.30 pm and got pretty good seats in the middle of the third and upper most tier. Well, it was a bit far from the pitch but at least it was in the middle and can see the action well in both half. The crowd in the stadium started to grow larger and by 8.15 pm the stadium was full! This is the first time I've seen such a huge turnout!

Needless to say the noise level in the stadium was insane! We never stopped shouting various chants and rhythms. There was countless Mexican Waves going on before the match. Our team needed all the help and support that we can give to overcome 3-5 defeat in the first leg. The teams went onto the field and the national anthem for both countries was played.

I'm embarrassed to say that our supporters mentality need more maturing because almost the whole stadium booed when Singapore's anthem was played. Damn memalukan. Then Negaraku was played and I sang with all my heart together with my 90 000 brothers and sisters. It was simply spine tingling!

A giant Jalur Gemilang was brought out in the Ultra Malaya section during Negaraku

Harimau Malaya started the match poorly and Singapore almost scored in the early stages. It was up to the heroic of our superkeeper Khairul Fahmi Che Mat to save our asses. Our midfield was completely nullified by Singapore 4-2-3-1 formation where 2 deep defensive midfielders was helped by the Singapore no 11 Buncit closing down our 2 central midfielders. First half was all Singapore except for 1 chance for Malaysia which was saved by their goalkeeper.

Our superkeeper saving the day.

We started more brightly in the second half and scored through our ayam tambatan, Safee Sali. The noise level and atmosphere went up like crazy when the ball went into the goal! Indescribable in words, you have to be there to experience. I shouted and celebrated like crazy with the supporters behind me, jumping and high five each other.

The shot that went in. GOAL!!!!!!!!

We could sense that the second goal was coming. We were on the up and Singapore was rattled. But it wasn't to be. Our defence lost concentration and Singapore scored an easy goal; the keeper kick a long clearance, their giant striker flicked the ball to the unmarked winger and he scored past our superkeeper. The whole stadium went quiet. I held my head in disappointment.

The quiet atmosphere didn't last long. A group of hardcore supporters, Ultra Malayas started to bring up the noise and bring encouragement to the team. We still had hope that we might score 2 more goals. Singapore defended well and we couldn't breach their defence. They had almost scored a few times on the counter attack but our superkeeper denied them each and every time!

Our superkeeper saving the day. Again.

We couldn't score again and the match ended 1-1 dashing our dreams to qualify for the 3rd round of World Cup qualifying for the first time in history. We stayed on and cheered the players who went around the stadium to applaud the supporters. I'm proud to say there was no supporters who jeered or booed our players. We knew they had given their best and were genuinely no match for the better skilled and physically bigger albeit imported Singaporean players.

The flare will burn out but our passion and spirit never will!

There is no shame in defeat. I will be in the stadium giving my full support for our next try for 2018 World Cup. In the meantime, there are the equally important qualifying matches for 2012 Olympics against Japan, Bahrain and Syria. Looks like there's going to be more brilliant football experience.

P.S. Photos are shameless taken from here. All photos taken by the my friend, a DSLR enthusiast .

Chemical leak scare in Enterprise 4, TPM

2011-08-01T06:33:00.000-07:00

Today is not a typical Monday which I normally go through feeling blue and uninspired at work. I arrived at office around 9.30 when I saw a huge crowd hanging out at the Enterprise 4 main entrance. A lot of the people were wearing face mask. To make things more dramatic, the stairs I normally take to go up my office was cordoned off together with the stairs to the level below and the door into LL5 area.

I called KJ to ask what the fuck is going on and he answered that maybe the North Korea minister is there for a visit hence the people gathering there. My first reaction was "What the fuck! North Korea minister come need to cordon off the place?" I hesitated to go up the stairs. I asked a dude who was standing around but he nonchalantly replied "Don't know".

KJ came down to kaypoh on what was going on and a polis bantuan saw us near the cordoned staircase. He explained that racun serangga issue at ground and first floor and second floor should be safe. I nonchalantly lifted the barrier tape and went up the stair, into my office and continue with my usual routine of email and breakfast.

An ex colleague called a few of us to warn us to get out of the building because of gas leak. Our admin called TPM to clarify and got the same response; pesticide problem but second floor safe. So all of us hung around some more. We then saw few fire engines arriving and we thought this must be damn serious and a few moment later an official announcement was made to evacuate the building. Luckily there is a emergency exit right in the office that leads out to the building.

We got out and saw there's a total of 3 fire engines and huge group of people already assembled opposite of Enterprise 4 and there we were so gaya, sambil lewa and selamba strolling out from the emergency exit. The firemen put on those full body hazard suit like you normally see in the movies. I knew it was a serious situation then.

The non Muslim gang went for a early lunch while the Muslim took the opportunity to go home and rest on the first day of fasting. A few of us went to watch Captain America in Sunway Pyramid after lunch. I got home and found out the seriousness of the situation. Come to think that we were so relaxed and fully trust the polis bantuan and building officials, it almost cost us our health!

The phrase "Biar lambat asalkan selamat" totally cannot be applied in these kind of situation!

Press coverage here.

P.S. Photos shamelessly stolen from colleagues.

Random memories from travel #1

2011-07-29T07:27:00.000-07:00

I stayed at this hostel called Hostel Beautiful 2 in Rome in 2009. There was this Bangladeshi dude who worked there. I'm not exactly sure what was his job was, maybe cover mountain, cover sea (Chinese proverb for doing everything). He also cooked an awesome meal of pasta and spaghetti. Anyways the point of this post is about something that he said.

He used to work in Malaysia, in Port Klang to be exact for a while. I can't remember the details, maybe 6 months, maybe 1 year. When he found out that we are from Malaysia, he was very happy and treated us more friendly than the rest of the guests. He also demonstrated his mastery of his language skills that he acquired while he was in Malaysia.

The 2 words that he spoke? "Cibai, Lanciao" We had a good laugh over that. I never thought that I would be hearing our infamous Hokkien swear words half way across the world from the mouth of a non Malaysian.

709 Bersih 2.0 part 2

2011-07-17T10:11:00.000-07:00

I woke up early on the day of the rally feeling anxious, worried and thought of chickening out again. I tried to ignore those feeling and started packing my bag with a packet of salt, a bottle of water and a yellow shirt hidden behind another t-shirt as to avoid detection. I wrote down all the lawyers phone numbers provided by Bersih, just in case if got arrested. Knowing the government very well, it is better to be prepared.

Met up with 3 friends at the spanking new Tasik Selatan bus terminal. SMS and calls started to come in reporting the situation in downtown KL. Arrests had been made just because of wearing yellow t-shirt. Passengers in the LRT had their bags checked by the police. We decided to ditch our yellow shirts, not wanting to risk it and thinking that it's better to arrive there rather than being arrested before even stepping into the city. News started to come in about the LRT stations being closed and presence of police at the entrances. We began to feel the tension.

We alighted at Plaza Rakyat station, no police spotted. Then we walked to a lane off Petaling Street where to our amazement 2 eatery shops were operating and enjoying business serving food and drinks to the rally goers. We met up with 4 other people we know.

I'm in the Lennon Imagine t-shirt.

We hung around that area for about 1 hour and started to walk to the main street of Petaling Street. Out of no where, there was a never ending stream of people marching down Petaling Street, shouting and chanting "Hidup Bersih! Hidup Rakyat! Reformasi!". I shouted along with them with all my heart.

I totally disagree with those who said that shouting "Reformasi" means supporting Anwar's PKR. For me "Reformasi" mean the reform of the electoral process. It reminds me when Donald Trump tried to trademark the phrase "You're fired!" just because he used it on The Apprentice. Stupid! Shouting "Reformasi kepada SPR dan electoral process!" is just ridiculous. The last I checked, neither Anwar nor PKR tried to trademark "Reformasi".

I must admit that there were nasty chants about Najib, Rosmah, C4 and submarines. I just kept quiet, giggled and chuckled because although nasty, it was funny. Never ONCE did I hear any party names : PAS, PKR, DAP or Pakatan Rakyat or slogan related to a political party being shouted.

Tears welled up in my eyes well before the first tear gas was fired from what I saw at the march. Thousands of Malaysians from across the board, people with different ethnicity, religions, ages, political ideologies and economic status were marching side by side. I'm proud to say that I marched with them. To see so many people there despite the road blocks, threats and arrests was just too overwhelming.

I saw a few East Malaysians with their traditional headgear in the crowd whom people can't stop posing and taking pictures with them. I saw a lot of yuppies who sacrifice their Saturday of sitting at Starbucks sipping their mocha and surfing Facebook to go down to the ground and march. I saw a lot of middle aged uncles, aunties, pak ciks and mak ciks. I saw youngsters, most probably college students. I saw a lot of women, young and young at heart. I saw people from all over Malaysia, I'm confident that all the states of Malaysia are represented. I saw UNITY for a good cause. We want a free and clean election!

We marched towards Stadium Merdeka for about 10 minutes when we stopped. The crowd was so huge that we couldn't possibly know what was happening at the front. We later found out that we stopped because we encountered a blockade by police and FRU. The crowd was so huge that I swear it took a good 5 minutes to get the order to u-turn from the front of the march to the back. We started to march back to where we came from and to Dataran Maybank.

There was already a huge crowd at Dataran Maybank. The 4 of us stood at a shop opposite Maybank building. More groups of marchers keep on arriving. Loud cheers can be heard each time a group arrives. A leader started to make a speech but we were to far away to hear what he was saying.

We started to run when we heard people at the crowd shouting "Lari!". Yes, I admit we're quiet chicken shit compared to those brave souls who were at the front line. We ran quite far before returning when we thought it was a false alarm. We ran for the second time when we really saw the water cannon and tear gas hitting the main crowd. We separated from the main crowd and retreated towards the Plaza Rakyat LRT entrance.

It started to rain and we decided to take shelter under the covered walkway with a small group estimated to be around 30 to 40 people, a relatively small group. Out of a sudden, I heard 2-3 loud sound of "Boom! Boom!" and saw tear gas canisters landed in front of us. As the gas started to drift towards us, we started to run to our left trying to get away from the gas. 2 of my friends were in front leaving me and another running behind them.

As I was running behind them, I saw another canister landing right in front of them. It was so near that they could have just bend down and pick it up. The 2 of them had no choice but to run forward into the gas that was just coming out. I saw them disappeared into the cloud of tear gas. For a split moment, I decided it would be stupid to go into that cloud of tear gas. It would've been too damaging to run into that cloud and not appear at the other side without major eyes and nose problems.

I turned around and shouted "U-turn!" to those who had followed us. We started running back to where we came from. It's not like we made a good choice to u-turn because the gas from the first round had already fully engulfed the place. So there was no escape! The feeling of being hit by tear gas is no fun! Your skin especially around the eyes and nose stings like hell. You can't open your eyes because it stings so much and tears flow uncontrollably. I covered my nose with a wet towel, closed my left eye and just used my right eye to see where I was running.

I ate some salt that I had prepared and shared it with others, There was a lot of first timers as they don't know what to do with the salt. The salt really helps with the irritation of the throat. 2 of us retreated deep into the Plaza Rakyat walkway trying to establish contact with our 2 separated friends. We made contact and they were safe and had gathered at Petaling Street. We decided that we would go and join them.

This is where the real excitement comes in. As we walked with a small group of about 20 people across the Ancasa Hotel's lobby, I saw the people in front of us u-turned and started to run. I saw police chasing behind them. I turned around and started to run. As I was running, I managed to glance to my left and saw a police had caught up with a fellow comrade. At that moment, I was ready to be grabbed by my shoulder and arrested. I just hope that the police would not beat me up. It must've been my lucky day as I managed to escape. I found that later that it wasn't too bad being arrested as there was a RM 25 buffet and those arrested wasn't treat too badly.

As I ran across the parking, I saw 2 parked van and I thought that it was a good idea to go between the van to escape the police. As I reached there, I saw a group of Muslim ladies, a few women and a lot of young ladies with their tudung and jubah were already hiding there. I stood in front of them for a good 10 seconds, my mind wanting to say "Jangan takut" but my mouth couldn't move. As I stood there, I was thinking that if the police manage to catch up, then let me be the one that they arrest and leave those poor ladies alone.

9 July 2011 must've been my luckiest day. I turned around and saw the all the police chasing us had begun to retreat, bringing along those who were arrested. I proceeded to run to Plaza Rakyat LRT and meet up with my friend. He said he had a similar close call with the police. It started to rain heavily and we took shelter there.

Made contact with the other 2 friends at Petaling Street and they decided to come to find us when the situation calms down a bit. They came to meet up with us after some time, sorry I don't know the timeline as I wasn't paying attention to time. When the rain stopped, we didn't know what to do. Separated from the main rally group, we had no idea what was happening. If the LRT was open, we would've just gone back but it wasn't. We loitered around the side of Puduraya, worried that if we had ventured out and encountered police or FRU, the 4 of us would be easy catch.

We hung around till about 5 waiting fruitlessly for the LRT to open. We decided to walk to KL Station KTM to catch the KTM home. Along the way, I saw police still patrolling around but not the large number. The KTM was packed with marchers who were ready to go home after a long, tiring but worthwhile day. We bumped into the dude who took the first photo in this post. He told us about his epic story and how his group managed to march to Stadium Merdeka despite the multiple rounds of teargas and chemical water cannon that they had to endure.

I will readily admit that we were quiet chicken compared to those brave people at the main battlefield of Puduraya and Tung Shin Hospital. 709 is a historic day for Malaysia and I'm sure that all of us felt proud just to be there on that day even it was just on the sidelines.

Hidup Bersih! Hidup Rakyat!

P.S : Photos shamelessly stolen from here and here.
P.P.S : I'll be sharing more thought, articles and public photos from 709 in my future post. So stay tuned if you're interested.

709 Bersih 2.0 part 1

2011-07-12T08:02:00.000-07:00

The first time I heard of Bersih was 4 years back from Su Ann's blog post about her participation in the march to Istana Negara. To be honest, back then I was pretty ignorant about the political and civil movement scene in the country. I only found out after the Bersih rally was well over. If I remember correctly, there wasn't much publicity about Bersih back then, mostly through blogs and website I presume. Facebook and Twitter if they already exists, weren't as popular as today. Pak Lah also didn't go all out by arresting activists and demonizing Bersih in the media.

A detailed intro to Bersih here. In short, it is a coalition of NGOs where the objective was "to push for a thorough reform of the electoral process in Malaysia." 8 points of Bersih:

Clean the electoral roll
Reform postal ballot
Use of indelible ink
Minimum 21 days campaign period
Free and fair access to media
Strengthen public institutions
Stop corruption
Stop dirty politics

A rally was planned to be held on 9 July 2011to march from various parts of Kuala Lumpur to Istana Negara and pass the memorandum to the Yang Di-Pertuan Agong. This rally would be named Bersih 2.0. My opinion is that part of the objective of this rally is to raise the awareness that the rakyat has the right to a fair and clean election.

I got to know about Bersih 2.0 around 1 month before the planned rally. At first, I didn't plan to go but would be providing moral support, "my body not there but my spirit is with them" kind of support. Then the government started their hard clampdown by arresting 30 Parti Sosialist Malaysia (PSM) members for distributing their campaign brochure. The charge? For trying to revive communism. The evidence? Brochures with pictures resembling Chin Peng and Che Guevara. Who the fuck believes in communism today? China and Vietnam are also just a communist country by name. Heck even the president of Cuba, the country that Che fought for, admitted that the communist system failed and his country will need a major reform.

PSM fights for the rights and struggles of urban and rural poor in Malaysia. More here. Shortly after the 30 members were release, 6 of them were rearrested immediately this time under the Emergency Ordinance, which is used to fight communist terrorists in the 60s and 70s and doesn't need the suspects to be charged in court! This is clearly intimidation from the government telling us that they're willing to manipulate any laws and violate human rights just to keep their position in power. The more I read about PSM and their members abuse in the hands of the police, the more determined I am to go to the rally. How can I just do nothing while those selfless people who fight for the poor and under privileged to be abused.

The intimidation continued with Bersih labelled illegal and any material related to it as illegal including yellow t-shirts! Yellow being the official colour of Bersih 2.0. About 200 more people were arrested just by possessing Bersih pamphlets, brochures and t-shirts. Bersih office was forcefully searched without warrant, materials confiscated. Lies are being aired in the news on public tv and radio; printed in all the national newspaper. Why, you may ask. Because they're all owned and control by the government or the political parties in the government. Lies like racial issues, thinly veiled threats like warning the people to stock up on food in case of violence breakout and indirectly using the May 13 racial riot incident as threat. There was 2 other groups that planned to counter rally and use violence on that same day. The PM even endorse a silat group to be the third line of defense again threatening violence.

As the tension rose, Yang di-Pertuan Agong Sultan Mizan Zainal Abidin, Malaysia's Constitution Monarch stepped up to defuse the tension, very rare as the Agong rarely involve in politics. The Agong wishes both sides to compromise. The PM offered any stadium then promptly denied access and permit to Stadium Merdeka. Bersih insisted the rally will go one at Stadium Merdeka with or without permit (There is a law that required a permit to be approved by police for assembly).

I have to admit that by this point, I was intimidated by the threats and thought about chickening out. I asked a friend whom had agreed to go with me whether we should back out. He replied that he will go if I go. Two other friends also didn't confirm whether they are going to join the rally. It wasn't until Friday night, with frantic planning that 4 of us decided to go ahead. My mum called me that night asking me to stock up some instant noodles and not to go out to KL. All I said was "Yes. Yes. Yes". Blatant lies I know but I did so because I didn't want her to worry.

To be continued...Part 2

Good times, bad times 2010

2011-01-03T05:22:00.000-08:00

Highlights/Lowlights for 2010

January

2010 started off with a bang. Greenday live in Singapore. Best. Concert. Ever. Went to Singapore Zoo in the same trip. World class zoo.

February

Solo trip to Singapore. For a gig again. This time it's Florence + The Machine and The XX. Florence is so damn cute.

March

Placebo live in KL! Went with colleagues. Had a rocking time. Now I'm a converted Placebo fan.

April

Stereophonics in KL. Again with colleagues. So-so gig. The ending with Dakota was the highlight.

May

Erm, can't remember anything significant happening in May.

June

Start of the World Cup in South Africa. Start of a nightmare. Donated a whole month of pay to the bookie. Never again.
Retrenchment in the company. Almost half of the office gone in 1 morning without warning. A very painful experience. Much worse for the victims no doubt, having to be supervised and escorted out the office immediately. A scant consolation was that the company did pay a good compensation and all of them got employed quite soon. So all is well now.

July

Erm...World Cup finish, Spain are the new world champion.
Spent time at the hospital. Dad had surgery to remove tumor in the intestine. He's all fine now, the doctor managed to remove all the tumor.

August

Crazy busy month at work. Disaster month for our project as clients' complaint that the software was unstable reached the CEO. My manager in KL got summoned to Brisbane and got a earful from the upper management. Thus, began a month of OT to fix the software. Work till late night around 10-11 for almost the whole month. In the end the effort paid off. More about this later.

September

Work. Work. Work.

October

Went to South Africa for work. To implement the software that we fixed for the last two months. Had a great time working with the consultants. Finally got to see the software being used by actual users. A few issues but overall it went well.
It wasn't all just work in South Africa. Managed to go to safari in Kruger National Park and see wild animals roaming free in the wild. Saw a leopard, elephants, rhinos and etc. Awesome!
Took a 1 week leave and went to Cape Town after the work in Johannesburg was done. Awesome. The whole South Africa trip deserves a blog entry of its own. Let's see whether I'll have the mood to write it.

November

Boring November

December

Went to see Malaysia vs Vietnam in the AFF Suzuki Cup semi final at the National Stadium. Cheered with 45000 Malaysian supporters and we won 2-0! Malaysia went on to win the Cup!!! Great end to the year.

2009

2009-12-31T02:46:00.000-08:00

Here's the annual obligatory wrap up post.

January

Short Penang trip with haifong. Our host decided to go some town in Northern Thai to erm sembahyang. Oh ya, went to get a reading of my life from a fortune teller/feng shui/life energy master. Quite interesting and accurate.

February

Hermit life. Saving $ for impending Europe trip.

March

See February.

April

Oasis!!!

May

Europe!!!!! This reminds me, I've got to write down all my thoughts and memories before I get too old and forget them.

June - August

Hermit life. Totally broke from that Europe trip.

September

SeptSocial. Read more about it here.

Cameron Highlands trip with the family.

October

Hermit life. See June-August.

November

Penang trip again. This time a more productive trip. Got leng lui guide to bring us to makan a lot of good food. Went clubbing/pub to gawk at hot chicks. Penang punya leng lui boleh fight KL one! Went up Penang Hill. Some photos if you can access them. If not, tough luck.

All American Rejects

December

Christmas eve party at A Famosa villa in Melaka. Extra special night because I helped executed a suprise marriage proposal! This night is so special, I'm going to write a whole post on it when I'm in the mood.

Bottomless pit

2009-12-29T04:04:00.000-08:00

Some people say when you hit rock bottom, the only way is up. But the wiseass bakau asks what if it is a bottomless pit and you keep on falling indefinitely. As always, that fucker has a good point.

4 flights and 4 train rides

2009-07-03T20:27:00.000-07:00

12 May 09 - 28 May 09. 16 days. 4 countries. 6 cities. 4 flights. 4 train rides. Adventure of a lifetime. And big hole in the wallet.

Highlights -

Stamford Bridge!

The Beatles! Liverpool. Abbey Road.

Paris! Oh so beautiful city. Eiffel Tower. Cute chicks. Cute guys.

Rome! Historical centuries old buildings. Ice cream.

Venice! Canals. Rivers. Sea.

Amsterdam! Red light district. Pot. Red windows. Cute Dutch chicks.

London! Karl Marx's tomb. Tower Bridge. Nice big parks. Gardens.

4 train rides and 4 flights later...

2009-05-28T11:28:00.001-07:00

Awake at 2.30 am, suffering from jet lag but too lazy to blog.

One hell of a match

2009-04-15T06:15:00.000-07:00

4-4! I've just finished watching the highlights again and it still gives me goose bumps. Watching it live was even worse, almost had a heart attack at least three times. I'm talking about the epic 4-4 draw between Chelsea and Liverpool in the Champions League. I've been supporting Chelsea for 13 years now and I've seen my share of great matches and this one ranks right up among the best.

Comeback after comeback after comeback! First it was Liverpool going into halftime 2-0 up. Chelsea was shit. Cech conceding that Aurelio goal was horrible. He's not the same keeper after getting that head injury, have made so many mistakes.

Then it was Chelsea's turn. 2 goals in 6 minutes thanks to Reina's own mistake and that fucking awesome freekick from Alex. It was quite near to the keeper in the center but he had no chance because it was so damn powerful. Then Lampard scored to make 3-2.

Then the most heart attack inducing moments - conceding twice in 3 minutes! Fuck! From leading3-2 to trailing 3-4. Another goal for Liverpool means we're out on the away rules. Lampard came to the rescue again to tie it 4-4 but Cech again almost gave another goal away. Luckily got Essien to clear off the line.

Epic! Gonna be watching the highlights again and again for a very long time. Classic!

The band that changed my life

2009-04-07T07:04:00.000-07:00

Before I got into this whole Rock n Roll thing, I used to listen to really sissy stuff. I hate to admit it but it's true. You can't blame me though. The only exposure I had to music were cds and cassettes that my aunt have - Michael Learns To Rock, Kenny G, Celine Dion wtf! ... I'm stopping here, I cringe when I think back and also from whatever music videos that tv is showing and believe me tv didn't show a lot of rock music (this was the time when there was no Astro, no Channel V or MTV). I think the first ever cd I bought was 911, I know, I know - WTF! Again I cannot be blame, I was young, stupid and haven't discovered rock and roll, ok?

Anyways, all that changed when on a sunny afternoon, ~~I'm walking to the sound of my favorite tune~~ I stumbled upon a cd with a nice cover on a table in a friend's room, brought it home...

I've never heard of Oasis before this. After the first listen, I was converted, converted into MFR I am today! And the rest is history...discovered everything from The Beatles (from what the critics say about Oasis stealing from them), later Britpop acts - Travis, Coldplay, grunge - Nirvana, hard rock - Foo Fighters, legendary bands - Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, indie - Rilo Kiley, The Submarines to post rock - Explosions In The Sky, Mogwai, Sigur Ros.

On 5/4/2009, 12 years on from that sunny afternoon, I finally saw Oasis live! I missed the first time they were in Singapore 3 years ago because I had just graduated and was fucking broke. But I wasn't going to miss this one for anything in the world. On to the gig, it was fucking awesome. Highlights :-

Being crushed like a bug. I had a good spot right in front of Noel but had to get out of the crazy situation! Fuck, ended up at the side, still good enough view though. Oasis rocked so it didn't matter much anyway.
Noel calling the crowd who booed Scotland flag "fucking idiots" cause his missus is Scottish LOL!
Singing along to classic after classic songs! Rock and Roll Star! Cigaretts and Alchohol! Slide Away! Morning Glory! Wonderwall! Champagne Supernova!
Liam posing like a fucking arrogant MFR!
Falling Down sounds fucking AWESOME live!!! ROCK gila babi!!! The album version isn't anywhere near the live performance. For a second, I thought they're gonna burst into a Mogwai/Explosions-esque distortion assault after a instrument interval...the drums, guitars and bass was just building up and building up then Noel started singing. Haha, anti-climatic lah. It was still good though. I wonder if there's a video in youtube.
And this ..........