the one about badrul and raya open house...

kengkawan press dan bloggers...

one thing that is special about raya kat kuala lumpur nih is the open house... yup, sampai sebulan ada open house... tak kiralah hari biasa atau hujung minggu, but usually weekends memang pack dengan jemputan... dari jemputan kawan-kawan masa sekolah, masa kolej, kawan sekerja hinggalah kawan dalam entertainment industry... usually i try to make time to attend all... tapi masa lah pulak kadang-kadang tak mengizinkan... nak dijadikan cerita pulak, diddy demam teruk last week and baru nak recover... so i tak force dia pergi mana-mana rumah terbuka lah... minggu nih jadual dia pulak dah start penuh so i really need him to rest as much as possible... so some of the open house invitation that was meant for him, tak dapatlah nak pergi... takkan lah pulak nak terhegeh-hegeh... so i pergilah yang kengkawan punya...

muka yang sama lepak sampai pukul 8malam...

so among others, i pergi sultanmuzaffar punya open house yang dia buat kat awani... two years ago dia pernah buat open house kat rumah dia but at that time diddy ada show and i kena bawak diddy for that show... for the whole of last year, itu jer yang dia ungkitkan... i lebih pentingkan show diddy daripada kawan-kawan... so this year, i pergi dengan penuh semangat... of course taknak menghampakan hati seorang kawan yang memang sangat-sangat cepat makan hati... muhahaha... honesty i memang tak menyesal langsung pergi walaupun hanya dihidangkan dengan mee/meehoon soto dengan sirap dan teh o... muhahahaa... *nko jangan ambik hati dengan aku sm... nanti aku spray baru tau...* anyway, memang tak menyesal sebab dapat lepak dengan kawan-kawan yang memang dah lama tak jumpa... kadang-kadang tuh jumpa lah jugak masa majlis buka puasa or something like that tapi memang jarang dapat lepak lama-lama sebab usually kawan-kawan yang ada semuanya pergi assignment or something like that...

bersambung di dome klcc...

i think i lepak kat sana dari pukul 3 petang sampailah pukul 8 malam... silih berganti orang-orang yang datang rumah terbuka sm, tapi i masih melepak kat sana berborak-borak dengan kawan-kawan yang memang jarang dapat berjumpa... bukan setakat teman-teman press, tapi jugak teman-teman bloggers macam redmummy and ajami... actually, it was my first time jugak melawat awani... so diaorang bawaklah pergi tour jalan-jalan kat dalam tuh... office diaorang quite cool... habis melepak kat awani, kita orang beralih tempat pergi dome klcc... sambung borak lagih... dari cerita kelakar hinggalah ke cerita hantu... macam-macam dibualkan... it was so fun because it was not about work or anything like that... insyaAllah kalau ada rezeki boleh buat lagih... i takda plan kot nak buat rumah terbuka this year... takda budgetlah... nantilah bila rezeki mengizinkan, i will do... raya haji kot...

the one about badrul and monday was the hardest day...

yup, monday was the hardest day for me, but before i go on talking about it, let me tell you about last week... hhmmm, before i go on talking about last week, let tell you about my thursday routine... every thursday is my 'couch-potato-day'... oh well, it was actually every day, but lets not talk about that... anyway, setiap hari khamis i akan masak and my best buddies like hafiz, jolyn and shonny akan makan sama-sama and watch tv together... we will watch friends from 8pm to 9pm and switch channel to axn to watch amazing race asia... of course i support malaysian team - ida and the heiress (ellisya says "papa, heiress tu orang pempuan yang banyak rambut ya...") and bernie and her brother... okay, lets not talk about amazing race asia, nanti jadi panjang lebar pulak... then at 10pm we will watch my favourite show - criminal minds... this is my routine... every thursday except kalau ada kerjalah... and thursday memang hari yang i will look forward to... best giler dapat makan sama-sama and watch tv together... kadang-kadang borak sampai lewat malam...

okay, last week was makan week, literally... makan, makan dan makan... is started with a group of friends decided to lepak sama-sama... awalnya it was seven of us... me, jolyn, shonny, hafiz, kel, alan and her wife joanna... so kita orang pergi makan brunch about 12noon kat fish head curry in bangsar... it was just by the road side tapi orang beratur ramai giler... we ordered two fish head curry, 14 pieces of fried chicken yang sedap sangat, two veges and some sotong goreng... memang sedap sangat and it was actually my first time makan kat situ... i tak pernah tau pun sebelum nih...

the whole gang at starbucks...

habis makan we went to one-utama... lepak time... we played fuss-ball, snooker and of course bowling... then our mutual friends, jennifer thompson and william decided to join us... habis bowling we ronda kedai-kedai kat situ... of course going with some of them yang memang hardcore divers, dia orang mesti nak masuk kedai diving... and bila tengok jam mesti tengok jam yang boleh pakai untuk diving... and bila tengok barang-barang mesti yang nak bawak pergi diving... so jalan and jalan and jalan... dinner time was at this thai restaurant... memang seronok lah dapat makan dengan kawan-kawan... i strongly suggest you guys do it more often with your group of friends...

a few days later kudsia and her mom invited me to go for dinner with them and telawi street bistro *tsb*... okay, now i cannot get married to kudsia since her mom has officially adopted me as her son... muhahaha... it was nice to see her relax a little bit... i know it was very hard for everyone yang hilang their love ones tapi semuanya kuasa Tuhan... we had such a nice dinner... kudsia had something like green gooey bubur called paeya, her mom had chicken tikka and i had my usual fish and chips... we had such a nice dinner and conversation... i hope i can do this more often with them...

allan and preggy wife, joanna...

then it was rumah terbuka i-remaja with anak-anak tunas harapan... i went to pick diddy up around 3pm and mak diddy prepared some mee rebus for me... it was so delicious... mee rebus johor with daging inside the kuah... lengkap dengan bahan-bahan lain macam udang geragau goreng, bawang goreng, telur, taugeh and lain-lain... sedapnya!!! i makan sampai dua mangkuk... thank god diddy yang drive kereta lepas tuh sebab i memang dah tak boleh bukak mata... sampai kat tempat event awalnya i makan buah-buah jer sebab memang dah kenyang sesangat... but lepas diddy habis performed, i makan lagih... this time pulak dengan lemang, rendang daging, sate, nasi impit and other stuff... on the way back hantar diddy balik, i tidur dalam kereta... muhahaha...

on saturday, jolyn called ajak pergi makan lunch kat kedai kelantan near my house... this restaurant memang famous lah and i think kalau tak silap i dia ada cawangan kat awan besar, tapi lauk pauk kat awan besar tuh tak best dan tak asli macam near my house... macam-macam lauk pauk kelantan ada... but i always eat the same thing every time i pergi sana... mesti dua ketul ayam kampung goreng, sepinggan kecik lala masak lemak kuning, telur masin, paru goreng and sambal belacan... of course dia orang ada lauk pauk lain macam gulai kawah, ayam and ikan percik, daging goreng and macam-macam lauk pauk kelantan lainnya... they also have budu by request...

allan, joanna, jolyn and hafiz...

then cheng pulak decided nak belanja makan seafood during the weekend... we went to our usual place in port klang... jolyn brought her parents along, cheng, alice, shonny and hafiz... eight of us in two cars... memang havoc... macam-macam yang kita orang order... marmite crab, salted egg crab, mantis prawns, roti goreng, singapore beehoon, bamboo clams, vegetables and other stuff... plate after plate after plate... banyak giler... and kita orang semua purposely tak makan the whole day just to go seafood... muhahaha...

having said all that, apasal pulak monday was my hardest day? well, because starting monday, i decided to stop eating rice and minum air manis... i want to loose some weight... tak lama dulu masa diddy ada photoshoot together with aizat and dafi for harian metro, aizat told me that dia dapat kuruskan badan sebab tak makan nasi and tak minum fizzy drink... i memang tak minat soft drink so it was not a big deal for me tapi nasi?!? nasi memang susah lah for me... i nih nasi eater... hari-hari nak kena makan nasi... but i really need to buang some kilos... i know it will not be easy... macam aizat tuh lain sikit sebab kalau dia gemuk pun it was probably baby fat tapi i nih fat yang dah keras dan bertahun-tahun dah... mesti lah susah nak turun kot... muhahaha... i tabik giler dengan aizat sebab he can really do it... i boleh kira dengan jari kawan-kawan i yang mampu buat benda yang sama... selebihnya *including myself* hangat-hangat jer... tapi i tak kira, i decided to do it this time... really do it...

shonn, jen and william...

please don't tell me to go jogging or to do some exercise sebab i tak kan buat for the time being... i nak stop makan nasi and minum sweet drink dulu... the rest can come later... i want to take one step at the time and i don't expect the result to be in two weeks or two months... tapi i want to do it for me... for myself... not because orang lain suruh atau orang lain ajar or anything else... so on monday i cooked something 'healthy'... kononnya lah... i made hainanese chicken which translated as steam chicken, some braised vegetables with tofu and taugeh goreng ikan masin... and what better to start the diet but with friends... and of course jolyn and shonny were there to give me support *and eat dinner with me*... on tuesday pulak i buat steam fish with sayur goreng and on wednesday, yong tau fu soup...

now my fridge is packed with vegetables, fish, chicken and fruits... i just had fruit salad earlier and bergelas-gelas air sejuk... but i'm happy... i'm looking forward to sunday because that's the only day yang i boleh makan nasi *a little bit* and allowing myself to have two glass of teh o ais... i can't wait to the day kawan-kawan jumpa i and jerit "wahhh, badrul dah kurus!!!" hhhmmm... in my dream... muhahaha...

the one about badrul and happy belated birthday to diddy...

genggam...

actually i dah buat posting nih awal-awal tapi macam mana entah lupa pulak nak update kan blog... so diddy, sorry lah... lambat sikit wish happy birthday... tapi on the day itself i dah called to wish him... this is his third birthdays dengan f-tersix... cepat sungguh masa berlalu kan, diddy... walaupun yang pertama dulu tuh belum officially ada f-tersix tapi kita still celebrate ramai2 since it was his 21st birthday... kalau tak silap i, tiga kali celebrate his 21st birthday tuh... first sekali dengan gang dari akademi fantasia 4 kat bangsar... kemudian kat majlis buka puasa intrend dan kali ketiga bersama-sama family and friends kat heritage row... that was also the first time kita mainkan lagu 'saling terpesona'... last year pulak we celebrated his birthday kat bangsar jugak with family and some close friends... berbuka puasa dengan nasi padang... but this time around birthday diddy jatuh hari raya kelima... dia pulak masih lagih bercuti so memang takda perancangan apa-apa untuk celebrate birthday dia... takpalah, nanti kita celebrate kemudian...

dah tiga kali birthday, banyak giler perubahan yang i nampak... diddy sekarang dah makin selesa buat persembahan, dah makin confident and pr skills pun dah bertambah baik... sometimes, i pulak kena keep up dengan dia... sekarang nih i tengah belajar macam mana nak handle sound system... nak kena tau apa yang nak kena naik, apa yang nak kena turun... nasib baik ramai jugak kawan-kawan yang tolong ajarkan... oh lupa pulak, now diddy's fifth single dah main kat radio-radio... the titled is 'genggam'... lagu from audi mok and lirik oleh imran... this is another beautiful song from his album... as good as 'hilang' if not better... antara lagu yang i memang dengar tak jemu-jemu... i think setakat nih baru dua kali kot diddy buat persembahan nyanyi lagu 'genggam' nih because kita masih lagi promosikan lagu 'saat'... ramai giler yang suka lagu 'saat' especially with the new arrangement yang audi buatkan untuk lagu nih... insyaAllah lepas nih dia akan nyanyi lagu nih setiap masa... if you like this song, jangan lupa to request it kat mana-mana your favourite radio stations...

sekarang nih pun we are in the process of doing his second album... dah ada beberapa lagu tapi belum record mana-mana pun lagih... hari tuh we recorded one song tapi producer nya tak puas hati and ended up jadikan sebagai vocal guide sajer... kena record balik soon... hopefully by november he will be back in the studio... okaylah, need to get some rest... happy belated birthday diddy... hadiah tuntut nanti lah ya... tak tau nak beli apa... muhahaha...

the one about badrul and raya to remember...

my parents with their seven out of 15 grandchildren...

i guess it was not the same to celebrate raya without my grandmother... no traveling back to kampung kat rumah grandma yang penuh dengan pokok rambutan... dah lama i tak balik pun... tapi i remember clearly the whole layout of her house... and kita orang masih lagih pakai air telaga, tapi sekarang it was pumped masuk paip lah... tak payah pakai timba lagih though sometimes i sajer jer guna nak rasa kenangan silam... my arwah grandma akan buat sendiri nasi impit, bukan beli yang dah ready made macam sekarang nih... she will lenyek the nasi lembik, letak dalam periuk, alas dengan daun pisang, tindih dengan lesung... it was elaborate i tell you... and she will make kuah kacang with bits and pieces of daging inside it... she will also make sambal ikan... and of course ketupat pulut daun palas... she will make it special for my mom yang suka ketupat pulut manis so all of us ada dua choices ketupat pulut... we were not big on lemang so we hardly makan lemang on hari raya except kalau ada orang bawak balik kampung or jiran tetangga yang bagi... i miss all of it so much...

but on the other hand, this year was one of the raya to remember... adik beradik hampir semua berkumpul... on the first day of raya my mom buat nasi dagang... my sister bought some lemang so i cooked daging goreng to eat with it... of course ada sate yang one of my sisters order plus some sate daging yang my dad buat, kuah kacang my second last sister buatkan tapi instead of letak pieces of daging, she put pieces of chicken, and of course nasi impit segera... still... it was a great occasion... ramai jugak saudara mara especially my cousins yang datang rumah... meriah jugak... i can see how happy my parents were tengok muka cucu-cucu semua... there were seven grandchildren out of fifteen yang ada kat rumah... and my parents dah ada cicit dah sekarang... memang riuh rendah...

i helped to cook some food as well... rasa macam buat catering pulak bila masak banyak-banyak... i've made kung pao chicken *my mom's favourite now* fried udang, goreng loh see fun and other stuff... banyak jugak kuih muih raya yang i dapat from hot fm, shaliza, hezz and my friend cheng... happy jugaklah sebab tahun nih i tak order satu kuih pun... budget sikit... of course walaupun ikat perut, duit raya yang i bagi to my parents and anak-anak saudara semua tetap sama... takpalah, raya bukan setiap bulan... sekali setahun... nanti kalau tak cukup duit, pinjamlah dengan my parents... muhahaha... this year pun at least i bergeraklah jugak... takdalah duduk kat rumah my parents kejap than terus balik... this year sempat jugak melawat my cousin's house and other friends yang jemput beraya... tuh pun lepas raya pertama and kedua...

anyway, itulah serba sedikit cerita my raya... i'm sure all of you yang balik kampung having more fun and lebih meriah...

the one about badrul and the perfect plan...

avillion port dickson...

it was three days before hari raya... and it was shonny's birthday... for those who doesn't know siapa shonny, he's one of my best friends and my business partner in f-tersix sdn bhd... anyway, pening jugak kepala because it was his 40th birthday and i don't know what to get him... thank god i have jolyn and hafiz... jolyn suggested a get away... short get away since dah dekat nak hari raya... so she made all the arrangement for the four of us to celebrate shonny's birthday at avillion port dickson... bila i dengar harga bilik for one night, macam kecut perut pun ada... muhahaha... tapi thank god hari jumaat before tuh i dapat my cheque from hot fm untuk radiopera *thank you guys!* so we decided to leave on saturday afternoon and balik hari ahad...

on friday before nak bertolak tuh, i meronda-ronda kat midvalley and a few other places trying to look for the birthday present... i memang tak tahu nak beli apa and hoping that i will get some ideas... jangan kan idea, bayangan pun tak nampak apa... again i called jolyn... after some discussion, then i realised cd player in shonny's car dah rosak and dia takda masa nak hantar repair... check with hafiz and he suggested that we go and check it out before leaving to port dickson... dia buat arrangement dengan housemate dia, bashir so shonny can leave his car at hafiz's place... after that bashir akan bawak kereta shonny to the shop untuk pasangkan...

on the day kita orang nak ke port dickson, we stopped by at brothers... hafiz buat excuse that dia nak beli some dvd player for his car and jolyn suggested to shonny to look for a new cd player... since dia tak tahu that we want to buy him his birthday present, dia of course tengok yang practical *read: murah* tapi we managed to try a few players... kelakar giler because all of us were trying to look at the sparkle in his eyes to determine yang mana satu dia suka... at last, kita jumpa this cool sony player that ada bluetooth... at the same time it can also play mp3, and you can plug-in usb plus i-pod... bagus jugak sebab hafiz kenal dengan taukeh kedai tuh so dia awal-awal dah buat plan for bashir to come the next day pasang terus kat kereta shonny... cool giler plan nih!!!

beautiful sunset...

another shot...

we arrived at avillion around 3pm... one thing i tak berapa nak faham, for such a luxurious place, they don't have enough parking lot... we have to park the car across the road... pelik kan... do you know how much the published rate for water chalet? it's rm850 per night... giler!!! but of course we get better rate than that, so we booked one water chalet for each person... tempat dia memang lawa giler... seriously, kalau i can afford it, i booked a few nights... tapi nak buat macam mana, budget tak mengizinkan...

beautiful adult pool...

peacock merata-merata dekat swimming pool...

the funniest thing was, we decided to do everything... so letak jer bag, we changed to our sport attire and pergi main tennis... tengah panas nih... memang nak separuh pengsan... tapi we had such a wonderful time... habis jer main tennis, we took lots and lots of pictures of the sunset... then we decided to berendam dalam kolam... one thing great about this place, they have a separate pool for kids and adult... so we can actually rest tanpa bunyi bising budak-budak main air... lama jugaklah kita orang berendam dalam air... since dah dekat nak berbuka, we decided to order some drinks and minum kat tepi kolam jer... kita orang plan nak pergi makan seafood lepas tuh, so we took our sweet time in the pool... lagih best, the adult pool open 24hours... best kan...

the king size postal bed...

lepas berbuka dengan air, balik bilik kita orang bersiap nak keluar makan seafood... i managed to snap some photos inside my room... memang bestlah... bilik air besar giler and macam open-air jugak... dia ada opening and you can actually see the sea water... kat dalam bilik ada huge king-size bed and also day-bed for you to rest siang hari... memang seronok... lagih best i don't have to share the room with anyone... muhahahaha...

window view from the room to the bathroom...

shower...

bath-tub...

we went to eat seafood kat luar... not that great lah and the only one yang i memang suka was crab with salted egg... yang nih first time i try and i love it very much... tapi biasalah kan, tak boleh makan banyak-banyak... i think we ordered mantis prawn, claypot tofu, crabs and veges... tuh jer... tapi lepas habis makan we had the most delicious aiskrim potong... memang best... i had perisa nangka and they actually put pieces of jackfruit in the icecream... since the night was still early, we decided to take a drive with hafiz's brand new lancer... memang class...

birthday cake...

balik avillion, we still have about an hour to kill before the clock strike midnight to celebrate shonny's birthday so we decided to play some games yang ada kat situh... we ended up playing dart, congkak and carom... kelakar sebab everyone was so competitive... jolyn has made an arrangement prior to our check-in to have a cake at midnight so everything went out really smooth... memang perfect plan habis... we had our cakes and chit-chat... bila semua dah letih we went back to our room... then we order some food for sahur...

day-bed...

so deliciously beautiful...

i woke up at 7am sebab hujan lebat giler... i bukak semua blinds and the view was so breath-taking... tried to get some sleep but instead i had a nightmare *morning-mare?!?* apa lagih kalau bukan tsunami... giler menakutkan sebab bunyi ombak and hujan lebat macam jadi real background sound to my mimpi ngeri... thank god lepas i terjaga, hujan dah berhenti so i decided to go out kat veranda... i saw jolyn dah bangun and also at her veranda... so kita borak-borak and again i snap some pictures...

spa...

our next activities? kita orang pergi pet some animals yang ada kat situh... rabbits and lain-lain... mula-mula tuh ingat nak pergi naik kayak or something, tapi i pulak tengah surut and those water activities only starts at 4pm... so kitaorang pun balik berendam kat swimming pool... for two hours berendam sampai tangan and kaki dah kecut... muhahaha... balik bilik i managed to take a short nap... lepas tuh kita semua packed and balik ke kuala lumpur... imagine, hafiz drove his car so fast we reached his house from port dickson in 30 minutes... muhahaha...

morning view...

it was priceless to see shonny's face when he saw the new cd player for his car... thanks to jolyn, hafiz and bashir, it was a perfect plan... now, i need to find a present for diddy... hmmmmm... should i call my enforcement team again?