I am flying out of Khartoum today!

It has been some time since the last time I got busy with the keyboard (besides work and chatting to Luke in the evening). Phewww... I can call it a day today. Well I have come to the end of it. I am not sure the end of what, but it feels that I am touching the finishing line really. Tonight, I am off back to Dublin and then I will take a flight back home to be with family and friends.

+ Suka la tu, nak balik ke Malaysia! Nanti saya serve seadanya dalam perjalanan dari London ke Kuala Lumpur nanti ye.

I am completely knackered now. This whole thing of the project, has taken many twists/turns, and the fact that it is in this very city of Khartoum, it makes the whole experience a bit, hmmm... what’s the word... 'tensed'. Tensed is not adequately accurate but I will abuse it anyway. So I have the reasons to feel ecstatic about going to the airport tonight and looking forward to more than 24 hrs of travel, before I get back in kampong! Angah and Abg Jeff and of course, Nurul, my niece, will pick me up! :)

+ I have told my sis to tell my mom that I want to eat Gulai Lomak Daging Salai this Saturday. And on Sunday, I want to eat Gulai Tempoyak Ikan Patin. It looks like my mak will be busy for the next two weeks. This time around, I will be not-so-nice - I will simply ask. I will get the menu lined up for her to cook for me. I will try to be in kampong as much as poss.

So many things have taken place between the last entry and now. One of the many is definitely the GE12 in Malaysia. Of course, there wasn’t a blink when I followed the results on Malaysiakini.com (thanks for making it free for a few days). I felt, I wanted a change and I don’t know what that really was. After 5 states won by opposition later, I realised, the one change I wanted all this time is for opposition to prove their worth. Walk the talk. I am glad they won the hard-earned victory last Sunday! I won’t want to talk so much about the election, never was I a political pundit within those days prior to the poll day. Anyway, that’s said there is a sense of relief for I smell some change in the air, and for all those opposition leaders, MPs etc. would prove the governing coalition wrong.

+ Kancil - my sis bought another car; a used Kancil. She said that she won't use it and the Kancil will wait for me everytime I am back in Malaysia. I can use the Kancil when I am in Malaysia. Well, thanks so much, so sweet of my sis; Faiz and her husband Carlos. I will be so 'segan' to use it. But she said, she will 'marah' me if I don't use it. Thanks again. I think I should get myself one.

I don’t even know what I want to call this, but main personal key take away that I realised was – how biased local media (TV stations, newspapers alike) can be in Malaysia. Not only they failed to report the election in all fairness, but they are a bunch of air-heads. What can we expect? With much due respect, they need the right people who can really comment and relate it is to previous experience and predict what shall happen to Malaysia, instead of having some airheads who used to be working as _________(fill in the blank), who used her/his connection with that Datok or whatever to be in the industry. It was a great shame that I had to turn to mediums like Aljazeera to know more about my own country. This has to change.


On the work front – they call my days critical now, since I need to finish my module and send it across as the final final final. Heck it, I don’t care. I will put my 110%, but when the clock strikes 5:00pm today, I am off to the airport. I don’t care. I do care about the quality (as always) but, how much more can I do? I know I will get it done and I won’t stress myself so much.

Oh, I got into a fight (verbal) with Matt the other day (this was witnessed by the rest). He had to cancel his flight because he was asked to present to the Board (12 Mar was his birthday). Pity him. The verbal fight started when he was so stressed out, as he needed to be in Dubai for his birthday. The CMO came to the room and said "Zul can do the presentation". Matt followed up on it and asked me whether I wanted to do it – of course I said "No". I am not a sucker for presenting to this Board and that Board, on top of that, this is NOT the company I belong to anyway (I don't need to impress anyone!). But I had to make a stand in the sense that – why did it take to be the CMO to realise that I could do the presentation as well when I was there all along, listening to this whole fiasco about someone needed to present and suddenly, the whole world collapsed in-front of you. I was there witnessing the whole event. As it was, I had too much on my plate already anyway. And, I would not be simply taking a job of presenting something that is not originally my work and it would definitely take time for me to digest. So upon hearing Matt say "Zul, you decide whether you want to present it or not. Let’s spend 5 mins, and give me your decision". I said "I can give it to you now. No. I won’t do it. Stick to whatever you have planned!"

The whole room became quiet. When Maria and Fred left, Matt said "sorry" to me. I just nodded and grunted.