As Suanie Sees It

One of the favourite essay topics that various people love to throw around is the question, “what makes Malaysians Malaysians?” Feel free to include your own variation of the question, but I guess it still tickles people’s fancies to try define nationalism or patriotism; generally a Malaysian identity. I don’t know what good can come out of attempts at answering, but if there are prizes to be won at the end of the day, hey by all means go for it.

For some reason I have been thinking about this almost the whole day, brought on by an incident that Mr. Tall related to me some time back. Apparently there was a tourism do at the Dataran Merdeka a few months ago, quite a massive event and he decided to check it out. He was more than pissed off when some Datuk or the other from the (now-ex) Ministry of Tourism showed up more than a couple of hours late to officiate the damn thing. A couple thousand people were already waiting at the square, not to mention the various diplomats who were invited to the event and had showed up on time!

Now, all Malaysians know that those VIPs never arrive when they are supposed to, and along the way we’d grudgingly accepted this to be part and parcel of life (if you have to deal with YB Datuk Datin sekalian). Now, I know very well that I am not to blame for the Datuk’s tardiness. But when Mr. Tall related the story to me, I felt damn embarrassed and ashamed to be a Malaysian. My goodness, putting those couple thousand people on hold! And all those dignitaries from Japan and such, how would they think of us now??

Best part was, it was an event in conjunction with Visit Malaysia, Celebrating 50 Years of Nationhood. Am I over reacting or is this truly what the fuck?

Once I attended an event where we could only eat at 9 p.m. Why? Because the VIP Datuk decided to arrive much later than he was supposed to lah. Worse than a Chinese wedding dinner, I tell you.

A few years ago, two lovely people got married. For some reasons, a very important dude was invited to the wedding. The bride and groom waited and waited and waited, tapi the guy tak tunjuk muka. Finally they couldn’t wait anymore and went back to their wedding celebration. Later it was found out that the VIP arrived a while later, found no one waiting to greet him and so turned around and went off.

I mean, seriously? All those blue and white police men and women halting traffic just to let your black tinted chauffeured rides to zip in and out of everywhere and you can’t even be on time?

Those in Barisan Nasional and Barisan Rakyat (I’m including the latter just in case), sedar diri sikit lah. Dahlah gaji all paid by the people and companies, then some insist on making the people and companies wait till the cows come home. Where got such a good deal one? So what makes Malaysians Malaysians? My answer tonight is, our willingness to take it both front and back.

p/s: Guess the song in the title. No cheating.

I just upgraded my Nokia N95 to the new firmware. It is teh great and I really recommend everyone with the phone to upgrade, pronto. However it is essential that you backup everything before you attempt anything, else you’d be crying and I can’t help you with that.

Gallery seems to load a tad faster, which is a plus because previously it was kind of draggy. With the Flash Lite 3, Nuffnang ads now load on my N95 (where previously it was just a box with a ‘x’ in the middle) and YouTube videos are far more easily accessible. I went to YouTube on the web explorer, searched for ‘dead terrorist’ and was terrifyingly rewarded.

On the applications side: I also re-installed Gmail app and it loads a HECK lot faster now. As it is a function that I use frequently, I am rather happy about that. As I also use Bloove as a web update for my contacts and messages, I had to change the ID as per new firmware, but it’s ok. Another application that I always use is Twibble as a means to update my Twitter on the go. They have a new version so I had to update mine and it seems better.

Hmm… what else… Oh I also updated my Nokia Maps to v.2.0 beta. Looks cooler, all I have to do now is learn how to use it properly Also am looking at ShoZu and wondering if I really need it.

Seems that there’s a new version of the PC Suite, but I read elsewhere that it kinda sucks so I am not touching that one yet.

Suanie’s wish list for Nokia N95:

- syncing for calendars other than M. Outlook and Lotus Notes. Mozilla’s Sunbird, anyone?
- auto-charge phone when connected via cable to laptop
- Nokia Video Manager not to crash on me most of the time
- WinLive app to work via Downloads. It’s not working for me, I don’t know why
- longer battery life. What? It’s a wish list, right?
- loudspeaker enabled as soon as the number is dialed (added at 8 p.m.)

Now I am going to look for more themes.

p/s: I think I have about a week’s more use of the N95. After that I will be the proud owner of the N82. Heheh, details to come.

My mom has a macular hole in one of her eyes. She is scheduled for a vitrectomy in a couple of hours at the UH. She and my dad have taken over my room because she prefers the bathroom access (in no way am I complaining); she’s probably going to be stuck there most of the time as the recovery process requires her to lie face-down most of the time. Ryan will be so sad with limited access to his popo.

I got Ryan a cheapo badminton racquet last week. It cost RM 2.50 and it made him tremendously happy. As I got home late that day, I placed the racquet on the dining table. The next day my mom told me that when Ryan saw the racquet, he screamed, “AH YI BUY FOR ME, AH YI BUY FOR ME!” Heheh. ‘Cos a couple of days ago he was looking at the neighbours playing badminton in envy, and I promised to get him a racquet, and he wanted a red colour one, and he got it. My sister calls it the RM 2.50 wonder.

So I’d been relegated to the room downstairs. Yesterday night I was a bit bored, so with my trusty Nokia N95, I took a video of what I call “The Great Milo Experiment”. Not sure how it is going to turn out, or if there will be follow-ups; it depends on whether I could be arsed to learn video editing.

Dad took a week’s off from work to come up here to be with Mom. Ever since he got here, he has been on my case about my weight. Very slyly inserting random comments such as, “heart diseases are related to the size of your waist”, “so-and-so got a skinny boyfriend and now she has lost a lot of weight”, “wouldn’t it be good to have long walks…” Kthxbai.

Brother-in-law leaving for teh Americas in a week. I’m a thinking how to sneakily convince him to collect my possible purchases at ThinkGeek since they do not deliver to neither Malaysia nor Singapore. But then they don’t accept Malaysian / Singaporean credit cards either BASTARDS!

So yesterday was Mom’s last big cook-out in the kitchen before her surgery today. Everyone came over, it was fun.

Me and KY got invited to the Sunburst Music Festival 2008 by the lovely folks at Tuborg. It was held on the 15th March (same date as the Nuffnang birthday party, and that was why we had to rush off after the party) at the Bukit Kiara Equestrian club (same venue as the Live ‘n Loud ‘07 fest), quite a blast

The night before was a closed-door party at the Ritz Carlton. Siao Ling from Tuborg who did the inviting advised me to wear something… nice. Maybe something dressy? Well that eliminates 3/4 of my wardrobe, the remaining quarter being stuff that no longer fits. Ah well.

At the entrance of Ritz Carlton stood Kevin all by his fine-looking, lonesome self. Upstairs, Siao Ling introduced us to Justin, and we pretty much hung out that way till the end of the event. So anti-social, right… heheh. Don’t know, I still feel damn shy to approach strangers and introduce myself and strike up a conversation. I know lah, it’s a matter of saying hi the first time, then launch into small talk of what do you do, o ryl sounds interesting tell me more, o ryl wow amazingness. Sometimes you just don’t feel like it lah

KY and Suanie

There were lots of interesting food being served, but we had our dinner before going to the event so had to skip on all that. There was Haagen-Dazz and Tuborg going for nothing, and performances by Najwa, Yuna and Reza Salleh, all amazingly talented performers.

Reza Salleh is rather hot. I like talented men boys

The event was rather interesting. Of course I didn’t know who the celebrities were (except for George Clinton and The Roots and the main singer of Pop Shuvit) but it was fun guessing

Tall Justin and Suanie, both from Batu Pahat, wahey!

I was scheduled to join the ‘Meet George Clinton’ session before his performance, but it was held during the afternoon and I really could not be arsed to leave the sanctuary of my home Sorry Siao Ling, heheh. Anyway me and KY reached the SMF at nearly 11.30 p.m. John Legend was singing. We met up with May who was with her two male bodyguards

Suanie, May, KY. Photo stolen from May.

Apparently they bumped Search to the end of the programme (because it was delayed due to the rain earlier, and apparently international artists couldn’t give a shit about waiting), so Incubus took to the stage after John Legend.

Incubus on stage. Since you can’t really see it, you’ll just have to believe me. Photo stolen from KY

As I was rather tired from the Nuffnang party, I excused myself to chill out at one of the big tents in the middle of the field while KY and May etc jostled with the crowd. After a few songs, Siao Ling contacted us, and brought us to one of the Tuborg beer gardens for some free beer lovin’.

Can you say w00t?

Unfortunately I was too tired for beer (yes, it happens) and just talked with Siao Ling and Chui Hoon (her boss). A while later, Justin showed up with a friend, obviously stoked from his meeting with Incubus members.

Chui Hoon, KY, Suanie, Justin and Siao Ling. Photo from Tuborg

We left soon after, snacked at the 24-hour KFC before heading for home. Damn tiring, but damn happy

Thanks for the invites and company