DATUK AHMAD RIDHUAN

The last post on this blog was in July 2016, almost a decade ago.

Of course lots of things have changed during that time. For a start, mad redo1 is no more as he goes by the name The Ahmad Ridhuan these days. 

However the biggest change of all though is he has been bestowed the title "DATUK" in January this year.

Well, it was not the one awarded by the Sultan of Terengganu but it was when AKS01 safely delivered her first child with her husband, Najib Bahaman on the ninth, a baby girl who was a bit underweight, plucked from the womb via a Ceasarean procedure after the opening was not enough for normal delivery.

The initial nickname was Alexis before they officially named her Ayla Nadine which they said was derived from Turkish. Ayla means "halo of light around the moon" while there is no specific Turkish reference to Nadine, in Arabic it means "tender". So the combination could means Tender Light. 

She spent most of the first three months of her life with us in Kuala Terengganu with the roomie becoming the doting grandmother, tending her every need when she is able to while The Ahmad Ridhuan prefers the observer approach.

Well, Ayla Nadine is no longer with us in Kuala Terengganu as she is now in the Klang Valley as her parents need to go back to work after their maternity leave.

Would that mean more trips to the Klang Valley?

Arabian Music Memories... by an Englishman

While I was growing up in Kuala Terengganu, my mother was very strict about the time I should be back home from my afternoon activities.

Before the synchronisation of the time between the Peninsular of Malaysia with Sabah and Sarawak, the sun set around 6.30 which was the time I should be home.

While waiting for the Maghrib call of prayer, I would often listen to the radio which only had RTM on it and they would played a selection of songs with Arabian feel to it.

They were very soothing and I thought they were performed by some Arabian orchestras.

Until today that is.

It turned out the music that have been performed by Ron Goodwin and his concert orchestra. Perhaps almost the whole of relatively matured Malaysians would take the trip down memory upon listening to his performance.

The songs are labeled under "Music for an Arabian Night" and to my understanding they were originally composed by Lebanese musicians, The Rahbani Brothers.

To take a trip down memory lane just go to YouTube and key in "Ron Goodwin".

Enjoy.

We are Shopkeepers

One of the prominent name in the blogging world is Awang Goneng of 'Growing Up in Trengganu' which made it to print. I have two copies of it on my shelves, along with his later works 'A Map of Trengganu'.

All are collecting dust as I found time to go on a trip back in time through them quite scarce nowadays.

With his other half, Kak Teh of Choc-a-Bloc initiating the re-opening of Sentraal Station, I suddenly remember his words a few years back, commenting on the re-development of his beloved Kampong Tanjong:

"One day we will be just shopkeepers."

Day by day we in Kuala Terengganu are seeing his words becoming a reality.

The reclamation project which had begun in 2008 to transform Kuala Terengganu into it supposedly 'City by the Water' tagline has seen numerous commercial area been created.

A surau which used to be surrounded by houses now stands alone

I am not sure whether these commercial lots will be taken up anytime soon with the rental cost could rival those in the Klang Valley, which in turn will leave these buildings empty.

For me it is a huge loss for the government to demolish all the houses in Kampung Tanjong.

With the area was well known for making local handicraft such as brass making, it would make more sense if the government earmarked the area as a traditional Malay settlement.

The remains of the houses which will soon be cleared away

The Kampong Tanjong that we know before was a crammed area with houses built close to one another. Instead of demolishing them, the government should have retained some and convert them into homestays surrounding an area which could become a square where all sort of traditional activities can be carried out.

Cranes and all sorts of equipment cover the horizon

Tourists could begin their day walking through the settlement, experiencing life there with all sorts of traditional games being played by children and adult alike and then go through the Payang Market before ending their walk in Chinatown.

I really do not understand what goes on in the heads of those in powers, chasing modernity at the expense of traditional values.

It was a loss, a great loss for me seeing the chance to retain our heritage and culture and showcase them to the world was not taken up.

Shopkeepers.

That's who we are going to be.


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Duyong Art Festival

The Duyong Art Festival is currently being held at the Duyong Jetty for two days and will end tomorrow.

With the trip to Perak is scheduled for tomorrow, I decided to pay the fest a visit together with the roomie and the youngest offspring after visiting the goalkeeper at her hostel.

There were games for children, fishing competition, handicraft making demonstrations, art exhibitions, street musicians and of course vendors selling their wares but with a twist.

Unlike the usual fares that we saw almost at all other fests which emphasis on selling their online goods, the vendors at the Duyong Art Festival offer items more on the art side (then again, it is an ART festival).

The are artists painting on the jetty, the group Ganukelele promoting their passion for the musical instrument to the mass, the art of making coffee and of course vendors selling foods and drinks.

For the first time in my life I enjoyed my nasi lemak on the waters off Pulau Duyong, all two packs of it followed by a shot of latte. The youngest offspring meanwhile helped herself to the ice kepal which in the end had to be finished by me.

Enjoying the nasi lemak on the jetty

The art festival is a good way to promote Pulau Duyong especially with the Monsoon Cup is no longer going to be held here, showing the world that it is still remain relevant to the populace in it's own way.

More photos here

Subang Airport Shuttle Bus Service

Today I made my way to the Klang Valley again for the Goods & Services Tax (GST) Agent examination to be held at the Putra World Trade Centre.

If last week I took the bus, this time I chose to fly with Malindo Air. Despite the current weather it was a rather turbulence free flight and I arrived at the Subang Airport on time.

Unfortunately mate Nasser could not pick me up as scheduled thus a change of plan was necessary.

I decided to head for kL Sentral to have lunch there before checking in at the Plaza Hotel in Jalan Raja Laut.

Now there is the Airport Shuttle Bus service that will take travellers to two destinations, the LRT Station in Kelana Jaya (RM4) and the other one is to Pudu Sentral via Sunway Pyramid, Bangsar LRT Station, kL Sentral and the KTM Old Railway Station (RM10).

If you take the cab it will cost you around RM40 for a single trip to kL.

The journey to kL Sentral took around 30-45 minutes in smooth traffic.

The shuttle bus service is operated by Konsortium Transnasional Berhad (KTB) which also has Nice Executive Coach, Transnasional and Plusliner under it's stable.

Chonburi Revisited

How so many things could change within a year.

My first visit to Chonburi was almost exactly a year ago, covering the Asian Youth Trophy (ACT) 2013 match between the home side Chonburi FC against Frenz United B.

At the time I was still the editor of the Dunia Sukan magazine.

Last Sunday I found myself travelling to the tow 100 km southeast of Bangkok again for an assignment which almost mirrored the one that I carried out last year.

However this time, I was travelling for asiana.my which had been engaged by the ACT organiser as their official photographer for the tournament.

Air Asia was still the official airline for the tournament and I departed to Bangkok's Dong Meuang Airport with the rest of the media group and after an hour journey arrived at the Chon Inter, the same hotel that I stayed last year.

Then I found out that the senior side were playing that night against Thai Port Authority in a Thai Premier League match at their stadium. It was an opportunity that did not come all the time, to capture the actions in the best league in South East Asia.

With a little assistance received from the home side I managed to get by the pitch side.

It was a fast and thrilling match in which the home side needed to win in order to continue their challenge for the league title.

They managed to take the lead on the hour mark but the visitors levelled not long after, thanks largely to a mistake by the home side goalkeeper.

It was a pleasure for me to be able to cover a match in another league which gave me the insight on how much better the organisation of the match-day operation at the club than the one we encounter in most local matches.

The next day it was the match that I was assigned for with Harimau Muda C taking on the host Chonburi for a place in the final.

The Thai youngsters who were trailing 3-1 after their first leg defeat did not put much fight after the Malaysians scored their first goal of the night and went down 3-0 for the Young Tigers to go through on a 6-1 aggregate win.

The next day there were talks that we would have the time to go around Bangkok before catching the flight back home.

Unfortunately the hope went up in smoke when the driver pulled into a familiar looking building along the way to the airport, an IKEA store!

Well, taking the infamous Bangkok gridlock into account it was perhaps a good decision as we need to catch our flight back home soon after.

I had been to Thailand twice now but still to visit the country's capital, Bangkok.

The Day with the Elephants

It was our last day of our sojourn in the Klang Valley. Unlike our previous visit here, we decided to get out from the Valley early this time.

Why?

Mostly it was due to the elephants.

To be precise, the elephants of Kuala Gandah.

It has been our intention to visit the sanctuary for quite some time now and today was just as perfect as any other day to do so.

Thus we departed around 11.30 am and after a brief stop at Batu Caves for lunch there was no further stop.

At least that was the plan.

However as we approached Karak suddenly Cha vomited. Thus instead of going to the Lanchang interchange we exited at Karak to get the youngest AKS clean up.

After everything was cleaned up we were on our way again. I decided to take the old trunk road.

It certainly brought back memories of driving to and from the Klang Valley before the existence of the East Coast Highway.

The road to the sanctuary was quite winding and it could be quite dark during the night.

We reached the sanctuary at around 2.30 pm and after the formality of registering ourselves at the welcome centre we went to the pen.

Our timing was not good as the show by the elephants was ending by the time we reached the pen.

But the timing was right if we wanted to watch the elephants having their bath.

After the show the older elephants were brought to the area while for the bath, two younger ones were brought to the stream.

I was thinking of taking part in the bathing with the elephants but it seemed quite late when we arrived thus I did not register myself for it. By the way it cost RM30 per person to take part.

Thus we watched the two young elephants taking their bath and the public who had registered to bath with them in the stream.

It looked like a lot of fun. Thus I am determined to come back and do just that in the future.

After a while we decided to go back to the pen where an older elephant was being fed by the visitors.

The sugar cane cost RM3 and we had fun feeding the elephant.

So that was about it, the day we visited the Kuala Gandah Elephants Sanctuary.

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A Doggy Issue

Ever since Maznah Mohamad Yusof's video of her celebrating Aidil-Fitri with her three dogs, there has been numerous views about her, about dogs and their standing in Islam.

I would not dare to volunteer my opinion because I am not really knowledgeable on these matter.

However, from a few short researches on YouTube (The one by Ustaz Azhar Idrus is the easiest to understand) and reading a number of materials on the net, I came to these conclusions.

Dogs are not forbidden in Islam. A muslim can touch them without having to cleanse oneself using six parts of water and one part of earth EXCEPT when they are wet or one comes into contact with their saliva.

Muslims are encouraged to keep them for the following functions:
1) Shepherd dogs
2) Guard dogs to farm/orchard
3) Hunting dogs
4) Security dogs to property

Muslims can keep dogs as pet. However, by doing so they will lose their 'pahala' (rewards for carrying out God's command) by one qirath for each day they allow dogs in their home.

Thus it would not take too much intelligence to figure out which action one should take in this matter.

In Malaysia, especially to most Muslims, dogs are a sensitive issue.

Those Muslims who keep dogs as pets should be more sensitive to this and not add fuel to the fire. Keep your dogs and care for them but do not flaunt them in front of others who do not share your idea.


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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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15 Years...

...of Living Together

Last night mad redo1 and his roomey celebrated their 15 years together.

The usual cliche "How time flies" is applicable here, considering it seems just like yesterday (another cliche) that he just said his aqad to end his single roving days.


As everything in life, the fifteen years are not without ups and downs. For that mad redo1 is very thankful to have found someone that complement his life while he tries his best to ensure the favour is returned.

There are quite a number of things we share our passion and one of them is cooking. Thus we decided the best way to celebrate the 15 years is to cook our own dinner instead of having someone else do it for us.


Furthermore, it is much better to have food prepared in the name of love and for someone you loved, while feeling the love in the food prepared by the love of your life.


Thus for our 15 years celebration dinner, mad redo1 cooked the fish and chicken: pan-frying the salmon to (his term of) perfection while the marinated chicken breasts were grilled (though in reality they were pan-fried too).


The roomey meanwhile prepared the pasta and the #2 AKS lent a hand by preparing the salad in thousand islands dressing.


It was a simple dinner, shared in joy and happiness marking a very important landmark in our life as a family.


To the next fifteen years... and beyond!


Note: mad redo1 apologizes for the quality of the photos, he left the big guns at his office thus used the phone camera and the deploy the AKS to snap these moments.


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Shredded to Sleep

It is always a favourite past-time of mad redo1 watching his off-springs while they are sleeping. Each with their own way of inducing themselves to sleep.

However with the third AKS, she differed from her older sisters. The latter would have their own 'bantal busuk' or 'blankie' to accompany them. With the second AKS it was the edge of the 'bantal busuk' that became her favourite spot, twisting and kneading and before you know it, she was fast asleep.


Lisa on the other hand prefers the soft tissues which she would shred apart to small pieces before finally settling for one which she would knead and twist until she too enter the land of dreams.

Life is so fascinating, if you bother to look at these little things.


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Fourth Spot...

...for the AG:eing

Team AG:eing returned to the waters off Pulau Duyong as they competed in the Heritage Bay Cup for the second time (though the core of the team did compete as Team Omega in March this year). The initial objective was not to finish last as we did the first time around.

It was a good sign when mad redo1 drew the Ri-Yaz Heritage boat that came with tactician, Nik Ashraf Qaedi who helped Hazwan Hazim Dermawan to the final of the recent Malaysian Match Racing Championship.

After a brief training session the team took a break for Friday prayers and later assembled at the marina for the qualifying rounds. Unfortunately, Mat Ming could not make it back due to a death in his family.

Then it was off to the waters and after a few tacks and jives the race was on.

After two rounds of the course, Team AG:eing came in fifth in the first race but put a strong performance in the second race and found themselves finishing second behind a team called Pink Piranhas.


Perhaps we got carried away with that performance and suffered a lapse of concentration which cost us a good start to Race 3. We recovered but only managed to finish seventh. Everybody then got serious and the last two races saw us finishing fifth and third respectively.

When the results came out and there we were, at fourth which elated us to no end. We are hoping to get a better placing or better yet get our hands on the trophy for real in future editions which would give our aging body a big boost.

Congratulations everybody!


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