Of love and melancholiness...

"I promise you...

I will cover the continents in search of you...

I will cross the deepest and widest oceans to come to your side...

I will never leave you...

You are mine now and forever..."

How sweet... But sometimes life is more complicated than that...

Do you think one's life is a reflection of one's favourite songs?

She's always on my mind

From the time I wake up

Till I close my eyes

She's everywhere I go

She's all I know

And though she's so far away

It just keeps getting stronger everyday

And even now she's gone

I'm still holding on

So tell me, where do I start

'Coz it's breakin' my heart

Don't wanna let her go

Maybe my love will come back someday

Only heaven knows

And maybe our hearts will find a way

But only heaven knows

And all I can do is hope & pray

'Coz heaven knows

My friends keep telling me

That if you really love her

You've gotta set her free

And if she returns in time

I'll know she's mine

But tell me, where do I start

'Coz it's breakin' my heart

Don't wanna let her go

Maybe my love will come back someday
Only heaven knows
And maybe our hearts will find a way
But only heaven knows
And all I can do is hope & pray

'Coz heaven knows

Why I live in despair

'Coz wide awake or dreamin',

I know she's never there

And all the time I act so brave,

I'm shakin' inside

Why does it hurt me so?

Maybe my love will come back someday
Only heaven knows
And maybe our hearts will find a way
But only heaven knows
And all I can do is hope & pray

Heaven knows

heaven knows

It's Daniel!

Daniel Lee was crowned Malaysian Idol II at Genting Highlands last night.

Before the finale on Friday night, this result might have been a near certainty. However, Nita put up a strong challenge in the finale that turned the tables.

But that belief proved to be unfounded when Daniel easily beat Nita by garnering 68% of the votes.

Both have very different styles; both have their own weaknesses. At the end of the day talent might not be the only factor in deciding the winner. Daniel has very strong fan base and has never been in the bottom three before, despite his poor diction in earlier rounds; the inconsistent Nita has had a few disastrous outings that has nearly caused her to be eliminated in the earlier rounds, not to mention the possible conspiracy between Faizull and Nita in Spectacular 7.

Both Johanna and myself are happy because both of our 'candidates' appeared in the final. I voted for Daniel in Spectacular 6 while she voted for Nita.

I was quite surprised that my mum who usually do not watch TV also throw her support for Daniel. She missed the whole season but managed to catch the final. She said Daniel has more flexible voice compared to Nita. Even my 13-year old brother had his favourite prior to the finale. I saw him expressing his disappointment in Farah's exit in his MSN status. My sister-in- law on the other hand was disgusted that Daniel won because she thinks that Daniel can't sing.

The Malaysian Idol competition is akin to the general election, but probably a more enjoyable experience as we get entertained by the contestants. Emotions can run high sometimes. But well, at the end of the day the organisers who are laughing to the bank has the last laugh.

Wedding Weekend

Last weekend had been the busiest wedding weekend I've ever had - 3 weddings, one which had 3 sessions.

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Ozairi & Nini

The first wedding is between my friends Ozairi and Nini. I first knew Ozzy in City University. He is my senior in BSc Actuarial Science.

Ozzy and Nini's Akad Nikah was held on Friday.



Friends and family of Ozzy, gathered at Masjid Wilayah around 7.30pm before setting off to Nini's house in Taman Duta. Those of us who are responsible for the hantaran were all wearing green baju Melayu as specified by Ozzy.

Upon arrival in Nini's family's bungalow, we entered the residence, led by Ozzy. The house was already full of guests who were going to bear witness to the Akad Nikah ceremony. The local Imam then read the lafaz nikah to Ozzy. Ozzy was then required to repeat the lafaz nikah with perfection. And he made it on the first go. Well done!

After the Imam completed the doa selamat, Ozzy proceed to the other side of the hall where he was united with Nini. That was when Ozzy put on the wedding ring on Nini's finger.

The night ended with majlis kenduri for all guests.



A luncheon was held at Nini's place the following day. Johanna and I missed the kompang as we arrived late.



The bersanding ceremony was held on Sunday night. I was surprised to see Yee Sian. She came back all the way from London. The ceremony was held with grandeur in Dewan Felda. Altogether there were 99 tables for the guests with the biggest guest being DYMM Sultan of Terengganu, whom Nini is related to. There was also a live band, with two singers belting out songs from different generations.


A lavish wedding indeed.

We will be attending Ozzy's bertandang ceremony this weekend in Kuantan.

Nik's wedding

Nik is fellow BNM scholar. He shocked us by informing us he was getting married few weeks ago. All this while we weren't even aware that he has a girlfriend.





Shazrul, Jeffery, Wan, Sayf, Nadia Salim, Johanna and myself travel down south on Saturday evening to Ayer Keroh for Nik's bersanding ceremony.

Roselle & Kresten
Roselle is Johanna's cousin. She invited Johanna and myself over for a buffet lunch in Lake Club on Sunday afternoon. Also present were Uncle Peter and Auntie Siew Bee, Uncle Timothy and Auntie Cheng Lee, Uncle Henry and wife and Uncle Danny, and also their children - Caroline, Tamara, Nicole and the cute Deborah.

I've managed to take more than 400 photos combined for Ozzy and Nik's wedding with my new camera. Johanna is so sweet to buy the Canon Powershot S2 IS for me. Furthermore she has helped to take nearly half of the photos. Mmmm... my lovely Baby.

Malaysian Idol 2: Farah shown the exit

I missed MI2 the for whole weekend due to 3 weddings (5 sessions) from Friday night until Sunday night. I'm having a wedding overdose now.

Anyway, Farah is finally out of MI2, which leaves Daniel and Nita to slug it out in Genting this weekend.

According to NST, Farah was voted out despite a sterling rendition of Celine Dion’s All By Myself and a jazzy version of Fauziah Ahmad Daud’s Wajah Rahsia Hati.

RM5m retirement bash: Updates

The DG reported in the RM5m retirement bash has been identified as Tan Sri Abdul Halil Mutalib from the Custom and Excise Department.

The Star reported on Saturday that Tan Sri Abdul Hilil Mutalib is a victim of jealousy. He pointed fingers at his jealous colleagues and victims of his tough enforcement actions.

The Star further reported yesterday that a teary-eyed Tan Sri Abdul Halil Mutalib, made it clear that he will not attend any goodbye party even after the matter is sorted out.

Abdul Halil said he explained to Najib his side of the story, claiming that certain quarters were out to frame him.

The Star further reported today: In a dramatic turn of events, the beleaguered Customs and Excise Department chief now wants to lodge a police report against certain individuals and organisations that he alleged had created the RM5mil farewell parties controversy to ruin his image.

On the other hand, NST, which brought this controversy into attention on Thursday, had presented some 'evidence' on this RM5m bash, including itenary of events and budget requests.

A further report reveal that the Audit Department will audit expenses incurred by the Customs Department in holding functions to coincide with the retirement of the outgoing DG.

It is not for us to investigate the department. We will carry out normal
auditing on the spending incurred and whether procedures are followed. If
there are misappropriations, it will be referred to the relevant agencies
like the police or the Anti-Corruption Agency," a director of the department
said today.

Second Finance Minister Tan Sri Nor Mohamed Yakcop was also quoted saying that a team from the Finance Ministry is investigating whether procedures were followed in organising farewell parties for Tan Sri Abdul Halil Abdul Mutalib.

Blogger Mack Zulkifli of Brand New Malaysian had urged the public to write in to the Prime Minister on this matter. Let's hope the public will have a fair share of the truth soon. Having said that, how much have we learnt about the AP issue since the day it was brought up? Sigh.

RM5m farewell parties for government department DG?

This is really ridiculous!

It was reported in a daily today that retirement parties for a Director General of a government department are going to cost RM5 million cumulatively. How more wasteful can the tax payers' money be spent?

Villarreal 0 - 0 Man Utd

Sigh. Not again. Manchester United's boy wonder Wayne Rooney added another red card to his name in last night's Champions League game.

Rooney was dismissed by referee Kim Milton Nielsen in the 63rd minute for ironically applauding the official after being shown a yellow card - what an idiot! He just couldn't keep his head on! After so many hot tempered experiences that landed him with red cards, this lad hasn't learnt his lesson. He might have also caused United a valuable victory.

Other than Rooney's sent off, Heinze was stretchered out with a knee injury and is expected to be out for few weeks.

Things are really not going well for the devils. Now both Neville and Heinze are on the croc's list. We haven't been scoring enough either. The key person who made a difference this season is van der Sar. But we need to score more to make it count. Let's hope things will change soon.

Malaysian Idol Conspiracy?

There were allegations that Faizull was a victim of conspiracy in last week's Malaysian Idol, due to this article - Peserta Malaysian Idol minum arak which caused 8TV to introduce the irregular elimination format.

The article did not pinpoint who is the participant, but part of the article read '...berkampung di pusat hiburan'. No prizes for guessing who to be associated with the word kampung.

Furthermore, one would wonder what does Roslan Aziz mean when he said "Faizull, saya rasa awak dah boleh meninggalkan pertandingan ini kerana orang Melayu cakap macam awak dah melanggar tembok."

According to some, Nita had the least votes on Sunday night. 8TV then decided to announce the lowest two (Faizull and Nita) in order to create a last minute vote surge for Nita to ensure that Faizull is eliminated. A little bird informed that Nita's votes surged rapidly within that few minutes, while based on some forum entries elsewhere, many Faizull's fans complained that they could not vote for Faizull (failed to get through the line) throughout that duration.

So, is there a conspiracy? If it is true then Malaysian Idol is really a farce.

Having said that, let me clarify that I'm no big fan of MI. Personally I do not care who will win. I'm only interested in observing the voting trends as a way of understanding human behaviour - how the trends are influenced by factors such as talent, appearance, personality, popularity, race, religion and social background.

Malaysian Idol Spectacular 7

Finally Faizull is out...

I wonder why the bottom 2 was announced before the voting closed. Two thoughts came to my mind: -

• Nita was trailling Faizul and some 'forces' wanted Nita to stay
• 8TV is not satisfied with the amount of votes it has gathered for this week. They want more $$$.

For me Faizull can be a great rock singer one day. He has really good voice for rock. Having said that, he is probably the least versatile singer among the finalists. I'm sure he'll be getting a recording contract soon.

Now the top 3. From the beginning of MI2 I've already sensed that none of the singers really have the x-factor to become a true MI that can pose a serious challenge at the world stage. Whoever wins, it's just going to show that they are the most popular, but not the best singer or performer. Well, that's real life isn't it?

Something amusing: -

What if Daniel becomes the 2nd MI? Then we'll have a Jac Daniel MI... He he...

Man Utd lost valuable points

I was elated when I first saw Middlesbrough 2-1 Arsenal on the BBC website. But my joy was short lived when I found out that MU only managed to draw in the Manchester derby and Chelsea notched 3 points from Sunderland.

Van der Sar finally let in one goal, it could have been two if not for his brilliant save in the dying minutes to deny former devil Andy Cole, who thought he had nailed it.

2 points lost. Hope Chelsea will slip up soon. Otherwise it's going to be difficult to catch up. Sigh.

MiTV anyone?

Finally, after 9 months of delay, MiTV will be live from tomorrow onwards. The paid TV service will initially be broadcasted in the Klang Valley, with a full rollout across Malaysia in the next few quarters.

A statement issued at MiTV's launch yesterday said the decoder, which is called an Interactive Multimedia Terminal Setop Box (STB), is priced at RM1,188. This does not include the cost of installing an ultra-high frequency (UHF) antenna if the subscriber does not have one. I wonder how MiTV justifies itself with this huge price tag on its decoder when ASTRO subscribers could get an ASTRO decoder for a mere RM199. The high entry cost will probably deter many from signing up, especially those from the lower income group.

The monthly subscription for the service, which will be on a prepaid basis, is RM68. MiTV is waiving four months’ subscription for those who sign up before Dec 31. Hmm... Why not MiTV charge RM999 for the decoder and give one or two month less of subscription? This seems to be a more marketable offer to me. High initial start up cost could put off many potential subscribers.

I've managed to take a brief look at the MiTV website.

To my shock, I was welcomed by this message upon accessing http://www.mitv.com.my.

Announcement: The MiTV website is experiencing high congestion due to the very high numbers of visitors accessing the site. As a result the page loads may be slow. We sincerely apologise for this inconvenience. Please try the alternative mirror pages below to access the site.

C'mon MiTV. Don't tell me you only have the bandwidth to accomodate 10 persons at one time. Web hosting is so cheap nowadays that you could afford big bandwith at very low cost. I seriously hope this does not reflect on the service that MiTV is planning to provide. Probably there won't be enough bandwidth to accomodate all the subscribers as well, as MiTV only anticipated 1,000.



I clicked on one of the mirror site in order to access. To my horror the website looks so amateurish. The quality of the graphics is really low, as though the web designer only have a lousy graphic software to work with. Next I tried to find my way around the website. Not much of info on the site really, not enough to attract me as a subscriber. MiTV currently offers 39 channels. It will increase the number of channels to 50 soon. This compared to more than 100 channels offered by ASTRO. I also noticed that there are no dedicated sports channels! This will certainly put off a significant number of football and F1 fans! Furthermore, many of the channels offered definitely do not ring a bell in me.

MiTV also offers other services on top of paid TV, namely Mail Zone, Chat Zone, Fun Zone, World Wide Web and Web Garden. To be frank I can't be bothered to check out these services as I would prefer to do everything online through my PC.

In the months leading up to the launch of MiTV, many had speculated that MiTV will pose a threat to ASTRO. But after my brief assessment of MiTV, I doubt that MiTV will stand a chance against ASTRO. There might be some who will get MiTV in addition to ASTRO, but definitely not switching from ASTRO to MiTV!

Anyway, these are only my comments based on the information I could gather from the press and MiTV website. First impression is important, isn't it? Hopefully the real MiTV is better than this. We will find out in months to come. All the best Tan Sri Vincent Tan!

This weekend in summary

I won't be blogging as frequently for the next two weeks. Twice in a year (April and September) I will escape work for one or two weeks. You would probably think 'Wow, that's great!'. The truth is, I am preparing for my exams.

Anyway, just to release a bit of stress, I would like to sum up some of my thoughts for this weekend.

Hurricane Katrina

Because of Katrina, the first place I zoomed in at using Google Earth was New Orleans. I was curious about the unique geographical feature of this city - lying in a basin below sea level between Lake Pontchartrain and Mississippi River.

It has been a sad week for the Americans. The whole city was totally wiped out by the hurricane. 80% of the city is still submerged in flood water due to the unique geographical feature.

The catastrophe reminds us that the force of Nature is so powerful that even the most advanced nation on Earth is equally as vulnerable.

What has happened since Katrina left is disturbing - rapes, looting, murders, suicides. Despite being one of the most civilised nation, Katrina had managed to bring out the ugly side of human race.

Rotting bodies are lying at the place where they fell, the stench filling the air. Babies are delivered in filthy conditions. Human faeces are everywhere. There is neither clean water supply nor electricity. Traumatised citizens are accidentally killed by troops due to misunderstanding. Such is the scene in the aftermath of Katrina.

Some say the chaos in Katrina's aftermath has exposed deep divisions in both the city and US society.

Images from the stricken city of New Orleans show that many of those suffering in its streets and shelters are mainly black and poor.

The plight of those stranded amid the filth and the dead has highlighted a side of the city most tourists did not see - one in which two-thirds of its residents are black and more than a quarter live in poverty.

Anger is mounting among African-American leaders that this section was left behind when others fled.

Black members of Congress have also criticised the pace of relief efforts.
Some say the response was slow because those most affected are poor.

"George Bush doesn't care about black people," rapper Kanye West told viewers of an NBC benefit concert for hurricane victims.

I guess Katrina has shown us that Americans are no better than the citizens in the poor Asian countries hit by the tsunami not long ago. It's a sad but true fact.

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Poor Kimi

Even though I'm a Ferrari supporter, I was disappointed that Kimi Raikkonen did not manage to win in Monza today. He had been outstanding during the race, and could have won it if not for the tyre problem which forced him to make an additional pit stop. This unfortunate event also mean that Fernando Alonso has strengthened his lead in the drivers' Championship, and it will take a miracle for him not to land the title.

As for team Scuderia, we've thrown in the towel long ago. Hopefully Bridgestone will improve next year so that we can wrest back the title.

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Malaysian Idol: Goodbye Ash!

For the first time I voted - for Daniel. My wife voted for Nita. She did really well in Big Spender, but not in the other song. As for Daniel, he really connects well with the audience. He has also proven that he is a versatile singer. The only minus side is that he is probably too boyish looking to be a Malaysian Idol. Both my wife and I did what most Malaysians did as Daniel and Nita managed to garner the most votes this week.

I was quite worried for Farah tonight, since she has been in the bottom 3 for the last few weeks despite performing better than some others.

Faizull? Too one dimensional. Good voice for rock songs but too kampung in every other areas. But the kampung people kept on voting for him!

But in the end, it was Ash who got the boot. Goodbye Ash. Your improvement might have come a bit too late.