My interesting Thursday...

Things would have been easy if my Perodua Kancil can talk, tell me this or that needs to be fixed or changed. But my Kancil isn't BumbleBee, as much as I ain't mechanic. My Kancil, having served me for almost 14 years, is just too old for a standard of economy class vehicle, therefore too old to work always fine. I know that.

Last Thursday could probably one of my unlucky days. My 14 year old remote stopped working for the first time. I never thought my remote was the culprit since the LED light was still flashing fine whenever I hit the open/close button. My Magic School Bus Gang (Malay: geng bas sekolah) - Aswad, Kayrol and Hazwan witnessed how I broke into my car, which by default had triggered the car alarm to sound out loud. This is what perhaps, most people are referring to as 'too stupid to be smart', eh?

In this entry, I just want to thank those helping hands, who dropped by to help me especially Suhaimy Wahap, Nik Azmi, Zahid Omar, Shamz, my geng bas sekolah, etc. (sorry if I left some names unmentioned). May Allah bless you and give you rewards. It is so true that at my workplace, there are so many helping hands, no doubt about that. I'm just so happy to be part of the community.

I love my Kancil as what it is. No turbo, no skirting, no sporty spoiler, no nothing. But my remote really needs overhaulin'...

Tariq - My first Mandarin-proficient Arab friend...

Tariq

Tariq As-Sabbah (طارق الصباح) is my close friend and brother of Palestinian origin. He finished his Master's Degree in IT from USM in 2005. I met his parents in September last year when they came to Malaysia for a week vacation.

Tariq, who is now proficient in spoken and written Chinese (Mandarin), will be leaving Malaysia today to pursue his business dream in China.

Tariq picked up his Chinese language skills when he came back to Malaysia somewhere middle last year. I never thought he's that serious, but he was. What impressed me was he's a native Arab speaker, and I couldn't find any connection between Arabic and Mandarin, as far as these two languages are concern. I myself am not able to speak Mandarin or other Chinese dialects, even though I have Chinese blood in me and live in surrounding Chinese community.

Tariq, thanks for driving my Kancil back to Taiping. Driving in heavy rain with dysfunctional aircond probably one of your worse experiences, but you passed the test. So i do believe you will sail through the upcoming challenges. InshaAllah.

You know Tariq, I'm really proud of you. What I can see is that you have a clear vision and optimistic. I pray for your success. Do keep in touch...