MME 2008

Firstly, Happy Independence Day for all Malaysians! Merdeka!


And for the 9th year, we had the Merdeka Millenium Endurance Race at Sepang last night. Being a motorsport fan, made my way there last night to watch the closing stages of the race, with a friend, Fahrein. Since the race was scheduled to end at 11:45PM, so we just planned to reach there at about 9:00PM. No rush.


When we get there, well the crowd is not exactly F1-crowded. But quite a number of enthusiasts were there. Some even with their families along. Great to see that.


What a visual feast on the track! Quite a number of race prepped Porsches are taking part this time. And a few beautiful Aston Martins. Not to mention the various Honda Integra DC5s, Civic FD2Rs, a lone Mitsu Evo 9. And then the ubiqutous Honda EGs, EKs, Satrias, etc.. It was quite a race as well.


When I reached there, the cars had already spent more than 9 hours pounding around the track. And these guys were not exactly taking it lightly! They were at the absolute limit laps after laps after laps! It's really amusing to see each and every car's brake discs to glow into bright red circle at the end of the back straight, at every single lap. That just show how hard these guys were pushing, themselves and the car. I thought only F1 cars have those glowing brakes, but I was wrong.


And then, the aural excitement. I'm not sure of others, but the sound of properly tuned race engines are just like music to my ears. We had the muted scream of highly tuned 4 cylinder N/A engines. Then the deep burble of the Holden and Ford V8s. That was really amusing, adn different. Then the angry bark of the Aston Martin V8 and then the loud scream of the Porsche flat six. Amazing. But the winner in the aural dept to my ears is the high pitch wail of the BMW Z4Ms of the Petronas Syntium team. Sheer pleasure. Sounded almost like an F1 engine. I kid you not! All these cannot be differentiated by watching on TV. As they all sounded the same when recorded. That's why it's still better to be there.


The race eventually was won by Porsche Club Singapore, racing the Porsche 997 RSR. Beating last year's champion, Kencana Petroleum team, also running Porsche 997 RSR. In fact all podium finisher in the Open class were running Porsche RSRs. These were just other-worldly fast around the circuit. Made all the other cars look slow. Including the Aston Martins and the Holden/Ford. Their only match I think was the Z4Ms, but not quite.


But also kudos to team Proton R3 who won Class B with their Satria Neo. A surprise to us, and I believe to many others. In fact, all podium for Class B was won by Proton runners! Amazing.


Next year, it'll be a 24 hours race instead. Can't wait till next year.





Not sure if you can hear this, but here it is anyway. Passing at the front straight.

After the race

The winner

Burp...

Org Malaysia ni generally kuat makan... semalam kitorang ada buffet kat the legend, managers kat floor kitorang belanja. hari ni pulak, buffet lagi kat le meriden. vendor & agency pulak belanja makan sbb projek dah closing & berjaya. eso kpulak ada pot-luck pulak kat ofis ni ha... ish...

dah la malaysian food ni kebanyakan very oily & byk lemak. susah la... tak makan nanti org kecik ati plak...

adeh... terpaksa la training kuat sikit 2-3 hari ni, before start puasa.

advise: try la control makan. it'll make wonders. mula² susah, dah lama jadik best makan sikit je. aku pun jenis kuat makan jugak, tapi bila try control, boleh je.

Redang

Last weekend aku gi Pulau Redang lagi. 3rd time since 2005. Aku suka giler Redang, practically aku suka pantai lah... suka main air hehehe masa first time pegi, terus jatuh cinta... pemandangan kat sana, mmg seriously, sapa tak penah pegi mmg takkan percaya cantik mcm tu...

this time aku dok kat redang kalong resort. ok la resort tu. cuma yg slack sikit, pantai dia time air surut petang tak boleh mandi sbb batu byk... tapi still, redang being redang, mmg lawa la...

and kali ni gi snorkeling tanpa pakai life jacket at all... tapi pakai fins la, which aku beli masa sale kat jusco midvalley je hehehe pakai fins boleh jugak aku try-try skin dive sekali... hehehe

ni kat taman laut redang ngan apau, organizer trip ni. cuba teka berapa umur dia?

ni tgh terjun drpd atas bot... hehehe takde keje...

posing sket...

santai jalan² pegi laguna redang...

in all, mmg puas hati lah... sapa yg tak penah pegi, mmg kene pegi at least sekali. tak pegi rugi siots...

Hari ni

1. Ish, risau la plak
Sakit dada/rusuk kiri tak baik betul lagi since futsal last week. Still sakit lagi sikit. Semalam member aku kata, dia ada kawan yg meninggal sbb sakit mcm ni. Sbb sama jugak. Berlaga masa main bola. Ish....

Tadi gi jumpa doktor, check paru² OK. Just muscle strain. Alhamdulillah. Tapi kene byk rest and 'No futsal'

2. Malaysia vs China
Liu Xiang (110m hurdles) tarik diri sbb injured. Rakyat China menangis sbb dia je lah harapan utk emas track and field. Tapi diorang still support dia utk next game.

Lee Chong Wei (badminton) dpt pingat PERAK, rakyat malaysia kutuk dia kata tak pandai main & tak bersungguh. Ko main tgk lawan Lin Dan boleh menang ke tak. Apa laaa..

3. Bedul
Hari tu Inul, skrg Acril Lavigne pulak. Konsert dah kene cancel. Alasan tak sesuai dgn budaya kita, especially konsert tu 2 hari lagi nak merdeka. Apa la bedul sgt? Avril apa la yg teruk nya? Tak seksi pun. Lagu pun OK, takde unsur seks or setan pun. Takkan la just sbb dia pakai celak then nak cop dia pengaruh tak baik?

And then, kat MTV lagi byk yg lagi la dahsyat drpd Avril tu. And then dulu, PCD & Gwen boleh pulak lepas buat konsert kat sini? Lagi la seksi diorang tu.

Lepas ni takde la artis laur nak dtg lagi dah. Asyik kene cancel je. So nanti nak tgk siapa? Mawi yg perasan best tu? Or the AF artist-wannabees?

If u ask me, aku rasa ni semua sbb politik je ni. Govt nak tunjuk diorang ni 'Islamic' sbb yg komplen tu Pemuda PAS. Kan UMNO tgh discuss dgn PAS nak merge. So nak tunjuk baik la ni. Bullsh*t lah semua ni. Nanti malam merdeka, make sure jgn ada apa² konsert langsung ye. Sbb tu semua pengaruh tak baik tu!

Bedul, bedul, bedul

Ish.. tak paham bahasa ke?

Tgh hari tadi kat gym.

X: Jom main squash
Aku: Tak nak la. Tgh hari aku nak berlari treadmill la

X: Ala tak payah la berlari, main squash je
Aku: Tak nak la. Aku kene training berlari

X: Ala jom la. Petang karang, kita main badminton pulak (ayat nak pancing bagi aku belasah dia main badminton)
Aku: Tak nak la. Petang karang la kita main squash

X: Aku Isnin & Selasa kene balik awal la. Tak sempat
Aku: OK, hari lain la. (Dalam hati) WTF!!!??? Tadi beria-ia offer aku main badminton petang karang

Aku boleh hormat alasan ko, kenapa tak boleh hormat alasan aku? Respect others first if you want to be respected.

Aku ada personal target and goals. Nak make sure boleh tercapai, kene la disiplin & prepare. Lain la kalau takde apa² target, boleh la tangkap muat je...

Long weekend drive

My journey last weekend, KL -> Teluk Intan -> Sg. Petani -> Kepala Batas -> Teluk Intan -> KL. Went to visit a few uncles in the North.

KL -> Bidor was uneventful. Just boring highway drive, with a short stop at Behrang. The drive from Bidor to KL on the way to Teluk Intan was superb. Late night around 12AM, very few cars. Nice road with bends connected by decent straights. Reminded me of the journey I did in 2006 on the way to Powerman Lumut.

But the journey from Teluk Intan -> Taiping was not so nice. Took the road on my uncle's recommendation. He said the road was OK and nice. But it turned out to be full of potholes, nasty cambers and very undulating with a few jumps at places. And had to navigate through other traffic with constant rowing of the gears to keep the engine on the boil ready for overtaking. It was quite tiring. And not so nice a ride when I have my mom and my grandmother at the back seat. Pity them as that must've been quite uncomfortable to them. It was uncomfortable even to me. Remind me not to fully trust other people's judgement when it comes to driving or anything related with cars.

Then it was highway driving all the way to Sg. Petani. On the way back to KL, had to make a stop over at Teluk Intan again to drop my grandmother there. So again, enjoyed the Bidor - Teluk Intan route.

Then it was highway all the way to KL.

When I reached home, 95L of Shell RON97 later, this was what I see on the odometer:

900.9km in total. Not too shabby for a weekend right? hehehe

Michael Phelps. The greatest Olympian?

This is not going to be another article to wax lyrical praises on the guy, there's already many floating around on the net, the print media, TV, etc.. but rather to give a different perspective of his achievement of being titled the Greatest Olympian ever.

As of 12 August, he has won 3 gold medals at Beijing Olympics, making a total of 10 gold medals from all his Olympics appearances. And for that he has been coveted as the Greatest Olympian ever. But wait a minute. I don't think so. "Why?" you may ask? Maybe some just say I'm just envious of this guy's anchievement. Nope. What I envy about him is his nicely toned body, and not much else.

You see all of his golds are from one sport only, swimming. That got me thinking, so what's the fuss? Compare that with something like football. There's only ONE bloody gold medal offered for football compared to the SEVERAL HUNDREDS being offered for swimming. And these guys have to play and win SEVERAL matches before they can win the gold. Why not have football played over 30 minutes instead of the normal 90? And another variant played over 10 minutes, or 120 minutes, or 300 minutes or anything in between. And then also throw in a variant for match played in half sized field, double size, quarter size. Then also variants for number of players, instead of normal 11 players, also have 9-a-side, 7-a-side, 20-a-side. And better still a creative combination of the above.

You may say, "Why would we want to that?" I would ask, "Why not?" That's what being done for swimming (and track athletics for that matter). 50m free style, then 100m, then 200m. Then 50m butterfly, 100m, 200m, 400m, etc.. Then we have 50m going backwards, 100m, 200, 1000m, etc.. Then they even have medley events with combination of the above! Of course there's a lot of golds to be won!

As i said, they're all practically, swimming. So when he does weighttraining in the gym for his shoulders, upper arms and back, he'll improve for all styles. Free-style, butterfly, back-stroke, whatever. Same when he's working on his stamina and cardio. It'll improve all. I admit, there's a difference in techniques and skills between the various styles, but not totally different. Not like between swimming and fencing kind of different.

So unless, he won his golds in swimming, another one in boxing, another one for shooting, another for track running, another in gymnastics, badminton, tennis, etc.. etc.. I would only call him "The greatest Olympic swimmer ever!", no doubt about that. But to go as far to call him the greatest Olympian ever, I don't think so. Not until a day when someone wins like 10 gold medals from 10 different sports. Not just 'variants' of the same sport.

OK flame me for that.