The Reading Culture

a scene in a malaysian komuter.....

Now compare with the one below taken during my visit to Perth, Australia a year ago.....

A scene you rarely see here in Malaysia....rarely is still in my opinion an overstatement

So, tell me...why then is malaysia still considered a third world country...we have basically the same infrastructure, the same tall buildings, in fact we have two of the world famous megastructures, the smart tunnel and the Petronas twin tower....its us peeps..its us...there are many that our community lacks but let me point out one of the many that will be mentioned later...we dont read enough!

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The truth is i was not much of a reader until form 3..yes, believe it or not... My dad is not much of a reader himself but he knows of its importance and have been spending thousands in encouraging us to do so by 'forcing' us into reading programmes and at home reading modules (Hook on Phonic and Learn to Read..just to name a few) but to no avail...sometimes he comes home screaming for we will never do it willingly...we were kids with mind full of the present and never of the future...

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i never really cared about my English, i was among the worst in my primary and was an average in my lower secondary thanks to my tuitions with Puan Christine...i know this post is not about english...just follow me... well, i think its during form 2 that Harry Potter's first movie came out... the book i heard was a hit but well...not being a reader i have no interest in picking up one..not until i watched the movie with my dad and sis and later stumbled upon discounted HP books at MPH... my dad bought all the 4 books(there were only 4 at that time) and i was so engrossed with the book that i finished all 4 in 2 weeks (to me that was an accomplishment)...

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Soon after that Lord of the Rings first movie came out and as always, a person who always fantasies of another magical world was charmed and i bought the complete set of the books plus The Hobbit...its a much harder read but enjoyable all the same... and something unexpected happened...

It was during a meeting with our English teacher on our PMR trial english paper...he opened the meeting with

'i was extremely shocked by the exam result, only one, unexpected student manage to reach 80'

Then he continued reading each essay's author and their marks with no specific order...

'Hielmi Syaiful-Nizam bin Shamsuddin...81!'

I was speechless...well...everyone was...i am the person who was in grade B english class from form 1 till 2 and was promoted to grade A in form 3 after my mom came to school demanding for it because i managed to get an A eventhough its a borderline during my form 2 final exam... to even get pass 70 is a dream for me for an english essay especially marked by En Zahir....

'so Hielmi, where was this writing skills all this while? what's changed? what did you do? ' after passing out all the other papers...

suddenly some of my classmates said together...

'Its the Lord of the Rings...' and one continued 'He's been reading it since it came out'

and En Zahir replied with a big grin... 'Then i guess you all should get one or borrow from him' and left the room...

It might just be a trial exam but that was when i begin to understand the reason for my dad's actions and why 'Iqra!' was chosen to be the first.....

First Diving Experience

This is a late entry for my 1st dive. I posted awhile ago of my scuba courses... all the theory modules and confined water was completed in 4 days. I was on my 1 week holiday and its the only time for me to take the course. It was a pity for my dad who was working and at the same time need to rush with me. After all that all i need was to be done with the open water dives to close the deal of getting my certification.

Tenggol island off Dungun, Terengganu was the place i chosed, from the 9th to the 12th of july 2009. Unfortunately my dad cant make it due to work. It is the only free time i know of and thus i went on my own.

My journey started on the 8th where i need to reach Dungun and overnight there since its an early lift the next day to Tenggol. Thanks to my iphone, i manage to use its google map and did not sway off the course. I was one of the earliest there and eventhough i need to share my room, my roomate reached too late, well lets just say he needs to rent his own room since i was already in slumberland.

I met all the other divers during breakfast at a kopitiam in Dungun. Icebreaking starts there and it is during this time i met my buddy, Alfian. Divers have a buddy system in which none can go diving alone. Since my dad can't come i will have a complete stranger to be my buddy. Also known as Pian, he is part of the company 9bio. Along with him is the intelligent biologist Murni, the hyper lawyer Laura, the petite Adlin and dad pakcik Zul, Kak Izam and hubby Anuar and last but not least the lovely couple Meor and Munira. the 10 of us form the Open Water Course students during this trip.

Our OWC group... L2R: me, pian, lin, nuar, munira, meor

The one hour ride to the island is hell boring but halfway through while playing with my iphone, the boatman called me and showed some distant ripples and said 'sharks'. I was like'huh?' my first thought is that the boatman must be mistaken, it could be dolphins or jacketfish but as we go nearer i see multiple fins circling the ripples, some leaps and as i went to the bow of the boat i've got to agree with the boatman. Then i saw three fins from the side of the boats speeding towards the ripples and join the feast. They are so fast the fins splits the water. Awesome sight to behold.

Ripples...cause? shark feast...

After arriving, few forms were filled, briefing by Robin, the caretaker of the dive centre, and by our instructors. There werre 4 instructors present, Lesly, Soo, Hari and Roland. We stayed in a very basic dorm as most of the time was spent either in the sea or by the beach. The one taking care of my group of 6 was Lesly.

Our gears all set for our 1st dive...

I'm not gonna make this entry long explaining wat i saw in each dive. I'll just mention those that are of the highlights. The first 5 dives was for the certification thus we did it in a controlled environment, Turtle Point, not too many corals(reducing the risk of us amateurs destroying those precious sea jewels) giving ample space to practice our buoyancy. Our instructor, Lesly was satisfied by the end of it and while resting before our 6th dive, a boat reaches the shore and Paul (manager of the resort) shouted 'Whale shark and two manta's at Teluk Rajawali'....my instructor immediately got up to his feet..'Get ready boys' ...ohhh..am i hearing right??... i mean... we have heard bout the sightings of whale shark and mantas from day one but as OW students we dont expect to actually go and search for them. The advance divers and some leisure divers manage to see it and everytime they return i can see joy filled expressions on each faces. No time to question my instructors judgement...haha

Me during a photoshoot...top: far R...btm :centre

So we head over to the place pumped with determination and upon descending i saw multiple jellyfishes around. I know their sting cells can be nasty and quickly cover my hands with my long sleeve rash guard, keeping an eye on the surrounding and kept my distances from those jellyfishes. After 5 metres down i realized i can't see the bottom, panicked i look at the depth gauge and make sure i dont exceed depth for us Open Water Diver which is 18 metres. the visiblity here is also low since its already evening. Our only guide to keep orientated is to look at the corals on the wall. We followed Lesly a good 20 minutes just observing the walls filled with corals and fishes... then the visibility reduced as i noticed the water is filled with planktons... some actually stung me..bugger!.. suddenly Lesly gave an instruction to stay put anchored to any reacheable boulder corals. After two minutes or so the sound of Lesly's tank clanked repeatedly by his metal rod took us all by surprise... then he pointed up and that was when i witnessed the much talk about gentle giant.... elegance!! awesomenes!!... i cant take my eyes of it and it leaves us after around 10 seconds... i cant describe the feeling... see the video in my facebook account for yourself... something so beautiful could only be the works of someone with Power, unsurmountable power.

The majestic creature...(courtesy of Paul, TIBR and En Izham, 9Bio)

We also manage to see manta twice during out last dive. The first time we saw it from a distant.... all i manage to see is its shiloutte..then it suddenly shoots off...after around ten minutes while observing the other fishes the manta came back swimming right below me. The way it flaps its fins is so mesmerizing...we encounter the endangered green turtle three times!!! these sea creatures are so carefree i really envy them... i was really amazed with the trust they give to us humans... giving us the opportunity to come near... a trust we humans sometimes take for granted..

Manta!..... (courtesy of En. Izham, 9Bio)

Some of the other funderwater crwatures i saw were blue spotted fantail stingray, anglefishes, batfishes, butterfly fishes, bumphead parrotfish and other parrotfishes, fire red grouper, orange margined triggerfish, schools of blue lined snappers, sea cucumbers of various species, giant clams, nudibranches, chrismas tree worms, tube worms and many more.

The batfish lingers around us for so long..sure its confused thinking 'what the hell is these creatures swimming so badly in the water?'

Lesly, my open water instructor...

One of the best experience would be when we actually drift dive... we took advantage of the currents to move and energy is only needed to maintain balance... so cool!!!

Soo, my theory and confined water instructer....

We were really lucky and this trip will surely not be my last dive...the trip was completed with a group picture and a stop at 2 kopitiams...haha...one in dungun and another is at the famous Hai Peng in Kemaman...

Kopitiam in Dungun

Its the whole group!!!

Departures

I have never been so excited as to tell how good some movies are (ok....maybe there are plenty of times) but this movie left me seated in the cinema for well 5 minutes after it ended....the impact it has is just surreal.. i went to the movie with a real good friend, who by the way was tired after work and the movie was scheduled at 11 pm... he did give a hint of wanting to go back and just watch movies at his home mainly because we stuffed ourselves with chilli's amazing quesadillas and bottomless juices but too long have i waited for this international movie to be screened here in malaysia...

The movie is called departures... having read a bit of the review i know its about life and death...a movie with real deep meaning...but for my friend he thought it to be a movie set in an airport or some sort...just like how the lead in the movie got it wrong...for my friend... it came as a surprise and to my delight he loved it too.

The movie is 10 years in the making, most of the time in which the director tries to understand the ways of casketing and funeral ceremonies. It revolves around a wonderful yet not a successful cellist and after his orchestra was dissolved he returns to his hometown with his cheerful yet broken hearted wife... with no job prospect, an advertisement that offers a job handling 'departures' caught his interest thinking its a travel angency... he got the job just by promising to work hard and only then did he found out that the advertisement was misprinted...it is actually a job handling the departed.

His journey starts off rocky and gradually the job grew on him...but the perception of others gave him a hard time especially that of his wife...an event changes all that and he got the respect he deserve. The story of his father that ran away from home when he was small only to be reunited by his passing is a scene that left me shedding tears full of deep emotion (and i'm well proud of it!).

Its a movie from japan and have won an Oscar for the Best Foreign Language Film 2009... go watch if slow, deep meaningful movie's your thing.

PADI.......

Padi as in Professional Association of Diving Instructors...not the plant where we get our staple food rice...ok thats a bad one...btw, i'm back from One Utama with my dad to register for a diving course with PADI...and since i'm back for a week, we are going to get the PADI Open Water Diving course.... from the picture above there's alot to go through including a 260 page book and it must be done before our first class... which is like in another two days ...but i don't mind really...seriously...give me a 260 page diving book over any Surgery, Kumar and Clark or worse...Textbook of Nelson...haha

Ponder this...

I'm in love with this song sang by an aussie Sam Sparro... it took me awhile to understand the lyrics....

Black and Gold- Sam Sparro

the fish swam out of the ocean
and grew legs and they started walking

and the apes climbed down from the trees

and grew tall and they started talking

and the stars fell out of the sky

and my tears rolled into the ocean

now i'm looking for a reason why

you even set my world into motion

'cause if you're not really here
then the stars don't even matter

now i'm filled to the top with fear

but it's all just a bunch of matter

'cause if you're not really here

then i don't want to be either

i wanna be next to you

black and gold

black and gold

black and gold

i looked up into the grey sky

and see a thousand eyes staring back

and all around these golden beacons

i see nothing but black

i feel a way of something beyond them

i don't see what i can feel

if vision is the only validation

then most of my life isn't real

'cause if you're not really here

then the stars don't even matter

now i'm filled to the top with fear

but it's all just a bunch of matter

'cause if you're not really here

then i don't want to be either

i wanna be next to you

black and gold

black and gold

black and gold

hmmm updates??? haha

Its been awhile since my last post...not that i do not have anything to post really...was really tight up with stuff...

well i have my dream ipone for nearly 2 months now...the phone's great!!! i got the white one coz its the limited one...duhh..obvious choice..i didn't purchase any app though...many good ones are free so i'll just download those for the time being...my only complain is the battery life...need to charge daily...and not to forget the unstable maxis line here in Kuantan...frustrating!

my iphone 3G baby!! first page, and there's 5 more!

sleek white piece of love....

And i got my drum set at last!!! thanks to my dad that believe in my inner musician?? haha... love the set...its electronic though...can't have the peace and quit of kuantan polluted with the 'awesomeness' of cimee's drum play....haha..still have a lot to practice and to recap all those classes i invested when i was in matriculation in PJ...

music in the background of knowledge (i really dunno what to write here..haha)

And i bought two really cool adidas shoes too!!! at super discounted price but still making quite a large void in my wallet... i'm such a shoe whore...i nearly starve myself due to my depleted monthly allowance...and after lots of begging, my mom gave my june's allowance a week early..pheww...not gonna shop this month or i'll sure die...cross fingers

its the Porsche Design S2!!! read the gold plate!!

Fought for this last piece....and its worth it!

Dad booked our scuba diving lesson for my upcoming hols and i'm super super excited... can't wait!!!

well...exam is in two weeks and well ...seriously..i think i really need to study coz i dunno shit bout surgery!!!

Paeds in a nut?shell

Paeds has ended....joy to the world!...well at least for me....i really do not see myself as a paediatrician...ever! as much as i like to play with kids...i really hate them when they throw in a tantrum and when i mean hate i do mean it...the kind u just wanna smack them....there is no way you can console them rationally and bribing them with sweets and candies is the only way....sign n symptoms of future politicians maybe?

However times in Temerloh was enjoyable....we had plans for every single week while we were there...these are some of the pics

temorloh bandar ikan patin......at a patin stall for lunch

A wave before the elephant takes the plunge into the water

Gunung Senyum at the background. Collection of caves we conquered

Camp at Berkelah....waterfall...

not London....Genting...and its a restaurant not a bus..notice the menu?

BBQ nite to conclude our stay in Temerloh