Happy Birthday mad redo1!

Today mad redo1 turned 42.

However the room-mate was away in the south, attending a workshop.

It was a surprise when the AKSes brought out the birthday cake when we were having a late supper at Katana with Poppy last night.

The next day of course the four of us were hungry and without anything on the stove we decided to go out. mad redo1 headed to the Muara Cafe at the Felda Residence.

As usual, he ordered his favourite: the Hong Kong style Yee Mee. A simple birthday lunch.

Afterwards it was time to cut the cake and of course to the forefront was Lisa. Nevertheless, it was a good birthday do surrounded by loved ones and remembered by the one far away but remained close at heart.

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Wet Weekend in Gambang

It was a wet weekend for mad redo1, Linda and the AKSes as they spent their time at the Bukit Gambang Resort City - Waterpark Resort. It has been a while since they last went for a holiday.

This time they were joined by Poppy, Bu'Ain with the baby Qai and Atuk and Nenek. Cik Oni joined the party later when he arrived from kL via bus. After the good experience while staying at Ryo's homestay the last time around, they decided to stay there once again.

Unfortunately during the journey there, Che Mat's air-conditioner went bust and later found out that the compressor had ran it course. More RM flying away it seemed.

Nevertheless, after a good night sleep everybody was in the mood for fun in the water. 

The entry was smooth and they rented a gazebo nearby the pool to put all their things. As usual, Lisa was quite apprehensive before entering the pool but once in the water it would be very hard to get her out from it.

They tried all the rides from the tame to the extreme. Though after a couple of rides the thrill diminished and it was quite tame for mad redo1. After that it was the race on the water slides. With his weight exceeding the 80kg mark, mad redo1 had to sign an exemption form but his weight turned out to be his advantage over the AKSes.

Despite giving the much lighter duo ten seconds head-start, in the end mad redo1 with all the 95 kilos of weight on him always passed them near the finish line. It was so much fun flying through the air after going through the slide's dips.

mad redo1 must have gone up at least ten times to ride the slide but the AKSes beat him with more than thirty rides between the two of them.

The youngest AKS enjoyed here time immensely on the kiddy slide which had her laughing all the way down. In fact it was Linda who screamed louder than her daughter.

It was quite late when we got out from the park. After checking out from the homestay the party moved to another homestay in Balok so it would be nearer to Kuantan. 

For dinner, they went for the famous Ana 'Ikan Bakar' in the Tanjung Lumpur area. However due to mis-communication it was the outlet that mad redo1 wished to have his meal at. But still, he managed to enjoy the steamed fish specially ordered for him.

At this juncture BuGie and her family arrived and joined everybody for the rest of the meal. The hubby Azlie would be making his way to kL for the Malaysia Cup final between the Armed Forces and Kelantan.

After dinner they proceeded to the homestay in Balok to rest their tired limbs.

The next day was spent at the East Coast Mall way mad redo1, Linda and the AKSes had their lunch at Black Canyon Coffee outlet. While they did not disappoint with their Asian cuisine mad redo1 felt they could do better with their western fare which he did not think worth the amount they paid for.

Still, it did not ruin the wonderful weekend they had and the journey back to kT was without any untoward incident, event without the air-conditioner it was still quite comfortable.

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Team AG:eing Champions!

On Saturday mad redo1 travelled with the Team AG:eing to Perhentian Island to take part in the Heritage Bay Cup - Perhentian Challenge in conjunction with the Perhentian Island Challenge competition.

They arrived at the Kuala Besut Jetty at 9am after departing from kT an hour an a half earlier, with brief stop at Abu's house for breakfast. The journey from the jetty to the island took an hour.

Upon arrival the familiar face of David Mills greeted the competitors and after a brief rest teams were down at the beach for the boat draw. This time Team AG:eing drew the TM boat with Nurul Ain as their coach.

After a brief photosession they were off to the sea with the windy condition giving the team the challenge to work efficiently on the boat. After just over an hour of tacking and jiving under the sun it was time for lunch which was served at Bubu, a restaurant located on the Perhentian Kecil Island.

Then it was time to play.

This time the team donned their orange and black strip for the first time and everyone looked smart. It was a three race competition on a leeward and windward course with three other teams: Piranha, ABMT and the favourite Ri-Yaz Heritage Sailing Team.

The first race saw everyone clicked into their roles with the constant wind helped the race to get off on a flying start. Nurul was spot on with the timing and after two laps Team AG:eing crossed the finish line in first place with Piranha in close second.

The second race was another close one but this time Piranha managed to edge Team AG:eing into second place. Thus it was the third race that would decide the winner and everybody was fired up. They only needed to finish in front of the Piranha to emerge as champions for the first time.

The start was again a good call by Nurul and Team AG:eing shot into the lead and everybody was determined not to lose it this time around. It was like an eternity going to the finish line as it felt like the opponents were faster than us.

But their luck held on and it was Team AG:eing who were crowned as champions. Certainly the trip to Perhentian was one to cherish.

CAMPEONE!

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Up The Panoramic Hill

One of the latest attraction in Kuala Terengganu is the Panoramic Park or Taman Panorama in Bahasa Malaysia. It is a medium climb with the gradient around 5% at most stretch even though one could feel it begin to feel steeper as they ascended.

The local council had built a few structures at the top of the track. These structures when climbed upon would give the climber a panoramic view of Kuala Terengganu, hence the name of the place.

Linda has long bugged mad redo1 to go there thus to make her happy, mad redo1 donned his sneakers and they set off for the hill together with the AKSes and Poppy who decided to join the activity as well.

No vehicles are allowed onto the track thus giving the visitors a sense of safety as they would not be in any danger of being knocked down.

It did not take too long for mad redo1 to arrive at the top, especially when he was in a race with Nina. Of course he could no longer match Nina's agility especially with Lisa on his back.

Linda and the AKS#1 took their own sweet time to reach the top, but both of them made it up alright. After a few snaps here and there, they began to descend but made a stop at the playground as the inner-child in the respective adult bodies longed to get out.

They made it safely down after spending quite sometime playing at the playground. Linda certainly looking forward to climb the hill again in the near future seeing it as the most do-able thing for her as a form of exercise.


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Driving Down South

The last time mad redo1 was in Johor was back in 2009. That was when he travelled down south with the Terengganu President's Cup team for the final of that competition in Pasir Gudang against Johor FC.

On that occasion he travelled by bus.

Last weekend saw he travelled down south again. However this time he drove for the first time to the Darul Takzim land. The destination was Tanjung Leman in the Mersing District to cover the third leg of the 2012 Malaysian Match Racing Circuit (MMRC).

It was a smooth drive even though mad redo1 had to make a couple of stops before leaving the Darul Iman land due to drowsiness. He used the Route 3 that took him through Pekan, Nenasi, Rompin before arriving at Mersing, a town that looked familiar but completely differed after his last visit in 1982.

There was no time to stop thus mad redo1 drove on through the small town of Jemaluang which again was not the same place as he had in his memory. More grey cells had died it seemed.

Not far from Jemaluang mad redo1 arrived at a familiar looking place just before Maghrib. It was indeed the same place the bus that carried the Terengganu contingent had stopped for lunch on their way back from Pasir Gudang back in 2009.

However, it was still another 25km drive from there and after confirming with Rahyu of T-Best that nobody would be at the chalet at the time mad redo1 decided to have his dinner first. 

Afterward he continued his journey through the narrow road and after driving through the dark with the beam almost constantly ON, mad redo1 arrived at the chalet compound. Unfortunately the guys he was supposed to share the chalet with was not around as they were still at the media centre.

Eventually they came back. These guys were from the webnews portal: KL Pos while another one was the official photographer for the event, a company called Desiran Image.

For the next few days mad redo1 spent his time at the media centre and also on the water. The first day which he missed saw just a few action as there was no wind but with the arrival of mad redo1 it began to pick up and by the final day it was a gutsy 7 to 9 knots.

After three days of racing on the water, the Royal Malaysian Navy Match Racing Team 1 won the event. The skipper, Masyuri Rahmat denied his nemesis, Jeremy Koo from making three wins in a row to keep the answer of who is going to represent Malaysia in the Monsoon Cup hanging until the last leg in Pulau Duyong.

It was a good trip to the south and certainly the hospitality from the organizer was top-class. As always.

The drive back to kT was another smooth one with no untoward incident at all. mad redo1 did a brief drive-through the towns of Mersing and Pekan with a brief stop at Nenasi to have nasi puteh for lunch before continuing the journey back home.

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Second for Team AG:eing

After a number of postponements finally the September edition of the Heritage Bay Cup was held today. Team AG:eing was supposed to compete alongside The AG:eing Ladies but due the postponements a number of the latter's team members were unable to come.

Thus the original Team AG:eing was divided into AG:eing 1 and 2 respectively. Three other teams in the mix were Pink Piranhas, Giat Mara and Mixed Glory Sailing Team (MGST).

AG:eing 1 was drawn with Rezaki as the coach on the Ministry of Sports boat while AG:eing 2 had Nurul Ain and the Ri-Yaz Heritage boat. mad redo1 combined with Linda for the first time since 2010 with Abu, Khairi and Nazmi making up the rest of the team.

There were only three races for this and the MGST with Hazwan Hazim as the coach romped to victory in each one of them. AG:eing 1 finished in second place after coming third, second and fourth for a total of nine points.

The rest were tied on eleven points but Pink Piranhas edged AG:eing 2 and Giat Mara into joint fourth place on count-backs. However, MGST were no match for Ri-Yaz Heritage Sailing Team who convincingly beat them in the final.

For Team AG:eing, coming second in the table was a very result that they welcomed very much as it was their best finish since beginning competing in the series back in 2010.

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Of Crabs and Maggi

It was supposed to be a reunion with a member of the 1987 batch, Zulkarnain who came back for a holiday in Terengganu. Thus I made the arrangement to meet up in Dungun, at the same time meeting with the likes of Asmadi, Shauddin, Tajuri, Ezzudin and Sabri.

The chosen place was the infamous Maggi Ketam Bistro located at Teluk Lipat.

Asmadi was already waiting there and with a bowl of the maggi ketam safely down in his stomach for good measure. Of course Linda and the AKSes were excited with the prospect of having the delicious meal down their throats too.

After the order was made we sat down and wait, both for the food and friends to arrive. Shauddin arrived a short while later while Tajuri and Ezzudin could not make it.

Sabri dropped by for just a while as he had to go to work. There was enough time though for a photo of us together.

The food duly arrived and we consumed it wholeheartedly. The maggi ketam certainly lived up to its reputation. I would certainly recommend it to others to try.

In the end, Zulkarnain did not show up but the maggi ketam made the trip to Dungun really worthwhile.

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AG:eing in The Storm

Team AG:eing once again competed in the May edition of the Heritage Bay Cup. The team mix changed once again due to a number of reasons but the core were there.

This time around mad redo1 was joined by the original members; Enal Judin and Eskay while Khairi together with his wife competed for the first time. Missing from the line up were Hilmi and Abu Hasmadi while Nizam Kulat opted to compete with a new team: KBK. The trade saw two KBK members coming in board in Fuad and Pozi.

As usual, mad redo1 took his role as the 'bowman' though with David Mills as our coach, our chance of winning looked slim from start as he was known to be a safety first coach and would push the boat too far in order to avoid any collisions.

Then again, that was his main duty; to ensure the boats under his responsibility would not suffer any damage during competitions or demonstrations.

This edition however, saw us sailing under an extreme condition when all of the sudden the sky opened up with all the dogs and cats coming out from its belly and then throwing a few thunder and lightning every now and then for good measure.

David called it off for the sake of everyone's safety after Race 1 but when the weather improved after a while, we went out onto the water again. This time cladded in the rainjacket which really made us warm and comfortable.

Perhaps the team was too comfortable in the jackets that we forgot that there was a race to win. But once again we did not do too well but the standard objective of Team AG:eing when competing of not to finish last was achieved at the expense of KBK.

It was another fun experience on the water, something that make it worthwhile and making us yearning to return in the future editions of the competition.

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Welcome The Heritagio

mad redo1 has to say good-bye to the Nike Tiempo that had served him well for the last two years. A birthday gift from the roomey, the pair now are beyond repair and will take their place on the shelves for the retired footwear.

Step in the adidas Heritagio.

Another pair of white futsal shoes with the traditional three stripes in blue and red. It did not cost me much, just over a hundred at the Al-Ikhsan store on Jalan Isaac.

Looking forward to more sessions with The Heritagio!


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