D-Day...

...in Kuala Terengganu.

Following the collapse of the roof structure at the RM300 million Sultan Mizan Zainal Abidin Stadium in Gong Badak, Terengganu football teams have no choice but to go back playing at the old Sultan Ismail Nasirudin Shah.

The stadium which has seen so many memories in the past, went into a small re-construction when the steel structure supporting part of the stands were removed for safety reasons. This reduced the capacity of the stadium from 20,000 to around 15,000.

The Football Association of Malaysia have provisionally approved the usage of Sultan Ismail Nasirudin Shah Stadium as the home ground for both Terengganu and T-Team during their Malaysian League campaign for this season and most probably next season too.

However, there have been a number of complaints in regards of the state of the pitch and also the flood-lights which according to certain quarters do not meet the required standards. In addition to that, the stadium pitch also has seen a number of non-football activities being held there.

There was the Search 'Di Awan Biru' concert and recently an equine event, The Sultan's Cup pre-launching ceremony was held there. The latter especially would take a heavy toll on the already bad pitch.

This has prompted the Kuala Terengganu City Council to carry out improvement works on the stadium by replacing the bulbs of the floodlights, patching up certain areas of the pitch and re-installing the security fences around the ground.

Whether these actions would satisfy FAM technical delegates will be known after their visit to the stadium on Sunday.

For the sake of football in Terengganu, mad redo1 hopes they will.

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Bekang...

...anybody?

It is another Terengganu delicacy which I remember having for the first time when I was eight years old in Pasir Panjang. It was during a school holiday and I was staying at a relative's house to prepare for a function. It was quite vague but I remember lining up before this old lady who had a reputation as the best bekang maker in town. If not, why the line was so long with people waiting patiently to get their hands on the bekang.

The bekang comes with two sauces, the sweet sauce and cream sauce. My preference is the former. The sweet sauce (above) is brown in colour, most probably due to the use of brown sugar while the cream sauce is white.

The bekang basically is made from rice flour and eggs. According to my mother, the bekang will taste perfect if the right mix of the two ingredients is achieved. However I found the current makers of bekang tend to hold back on the eggs which makes the bekang a bit less tasty.

Nowadays, the place is no longer there. The old lady most probably has long gone to meet the Maker. We can always look for the current version but it is not what it used to taste like. Then again, we always think that foods from yester-years taste better than their counterparts today.

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Surprised...

...I Was Not.

I was on my way to the office when calls and text messages started to come in on my handphone conveying the same message: SULTAN MIZAN STADIUM COLLAPSE!

When the first call came in I thought it was referring to current work being carried out at the Sultan Ismail Nasirudin Shah Stadium. However when more and more messages coming in then I decided it was best to check it out myself.

On the Sulltan Mahmud Bridge the wailing of the siren a police car more or less confirmed something bad had taken place. Perhaps it was still quite early as the traffic was smooth all the way to the Gong Badak Sports Complex.

As I approached the area I could see from a far the extent of the damage. The whole structure was still intact except for the roof which now has been reduced to an unrecognizable heap of steel and concrete. The crowd was getting bigger as news began the get around about the unfortunate event.

At the time the police line was still quite near to the stadium and the crowd was able to get quite close to the stadium. As I began to walk away after taking a few shots of the place, the Civil Defence Team personnel began to set up a new line to ensure the public would not be exposed to any danger.

The funny thing about the whole event was that it WAS NOT UNEXPECTED.

A year ago during the construction of the stadium the roof had collapsed once but it was not widely reported since there was no life lost and it would be a very bad publicity to the state which was about to host the SUKMA Games.

One interesting thing was an engineer who was involved in the construction of the Indoor Stadium advised me that if I have the choice, do not sit at the grandstand. It was something that immediately came to my mind upon seeing the extent of the damage.

This event certainly triggered a number events. As for mad redo1 it means a number of things that has to be done pronto in order to find a new home for the Turtles before the Super League resume on 16 June with a match against kL PLUS.

The best of luck to me then.

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An Evening...

...with the Kambengs!

It was not really out of the blue as Milla already texted me they (she and Mr Kambeng) will be holidaying in Terengganu.

Today she gave me a call when they were about to leave the island. We picked them up at the kT Bus Station. I was caught by surprise with the large number of people in town today, but there were quite a number of things going on actually.

The road in front of the Paya Keladi Business Centre leading up to Pasar Payang was closed and they opened stalls a-la 'upmarkets'. Over at the Sultan Mizan Zainal Abidin Stadium, a President Cup match involving T-Team was underway.

Of course, there would be the Search's 'Di Awan Biru' concert at the Sultan Ismail Nasiruddin Shah Stadium in the evening.

We saw them walking and promply picked them up. Without any specific place to go we just drove around to the Batu Buruk Beach where, you can guess it; there were more people there. So we just proceeded to the Tengku Tengah Zaharah Mosque or more famously known as the 'Masjid Terapung'.

After a few snaps, our stomach began to growl for dinner. To make it more convenient we decided to have it somewhere near to the airport. Of course it would not be the usual 'tom yam' place which sprouted all over town.

Instead we took them to a place where they have this 'Air Buah Gelas Besar' (fruit juice in large glass) in Seberang Takir. But before reaching the place mad redo1 decided to make a detour to Pulau Duyong and we snapped a few shots at the Ri-Yaz Heritage Resort & Spa.

 

Only after then we proceeded to the 'makan' place where Milla had a plate of Nasi Minyak while Mr Kambeng had a bowl of 'laksam'. Of course in between there were quite a substantial number of 'keropok' passing through our esofargus.

With Milla's low tolerance to hot food she had to decline from trying eating more delicacies though in reality it should not be the case as Terengganu food is not known for being hot.

Mr Kambeng was quite good with children and that was the case when he entertained Nina in wrapping the hot 'keropok'. As Yoda would say: "A good father he will become."

Then after filling our stomach to the fullest (well, that was the case for mad redo1 at least) we finally made the move to the airport which was just five minutes away.

Hopefully they had a good holiday over here and meeting us would not diminish the experience. Come again in the future, you all!


...

A Cry...

...for No Reason, Not!

The other night mad redo1 had supper with a friend at Pak Wan Kopitiam in Gong Badak. We were so engrossed in our conversation that we totally lost the track of time. It was the sound of 'Nightline' coming on air that mad redo1 realised it was already midnight.

After parting our ways mad redo1 went to pick up Linda and the AKSes at her mother's house. We were about to enter the car when a neighbour who was on his way home passed us by and said 'Hi'. Of course we returned the greeting, at least I did as everybody else was already sleepy.

We arrived at home safe and sound.

Linda was looking forward to a good night sleep when suddenly AKS#3 began to wail. It was not a situation that we could not handle. Or so we thought. Despite feeding and cuddling her, AKS#3 simply refused to stop crying.

The next thought was she was suffering from stomach ache and Linda rubbed the usual ointment that we used. It worked and for a short while were relieved. Suddenly we heard the sound of her passing wind followed by the liquid sound of she relieving herself.

We took the necessary actions and suddenly when we tried to put a fresh diaper on, AKS#3 began to cry again, and this time at the top of her lungs complete with her body flailing about. It went on for a while despite our best intention to make her quiet.

"This is all your fault!"

Suddenly Linda said to me in an accusing manner.

"Why is it my fault?"

"Because you greeted Pak A*** just now..."

I could not believe what I heard. Of course there were rumours around the village about the old man that said 'Hi' to us has some sort of 'companion' with him. How true the rumours, so far could not be proven.

But now it could be a contributing factor to the non-stop wailing of AKS#3.

I went out of the room to clear my head. After a while Linda came out with a sheepish grin and AKS#3 had stopped crying. I could not help from noticing the baby's naked butts. They were quite red in colour.

It turned out that Khalisa Shukriah was suffering from a case of rash on her butts. We had a good laugh about it with Linda getting her face red for so quick in her diagnose of the situation.

It had nothing to do with a certain someone and his 'companion'. If it is true he has one.

It makes you think, right?


...

Abandoned Baby...

...Not Here!

Have we become a cruel society?

Or,

we have always been cruel all this time but due to the advancement in technologies, the coverage by media is wider than before thus we are being fed with so many news of cruelty in our society.

Bohsia, bohjan.
Mat Motor, Mat Rempit,
Unwanted pregnancies and abandoned babies.

More and more social problems for us and the next generations to face.

I sincerely hope that I would not come across any abandoned baby and I certainly pray that I would never become a person that would have the heart to abandon anybody, let alone a helpless baby.

So, AKS#3 above was certainly not abandoned but merely mad redo1's effort to make sure she is getting enough exposure to the sun...

...

Lets Bludaa...

...Everybody!

Ever since Awang Goneng mentioned the name 'Blu-daa' in his account of 'Growing Up in Trengganu' the traditional 'paun' has been making some sort of comeback, and a successful one too. Now it is quite easily available at markets such as Chabang Tiga and Pasar Payang though I have yet to see it on the shelves of Giants.

mad redo1 has his fair share of 'blu-daa' since and I must say, it is quite fulfilling (who won't after consuming ten of them!)

So, why don't you have one too... the next time you find yourself in Terengganu.


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