Now that the event is over, it is nice to be able to sit down and have dinner together with my wife once again. After going through a 2 week rest and recovery mode, allow me to share a few photos from the event.

We adopted the “Airport Simulation – Experience KLIA” theme /concept. The whole idea is to give the perfect balance between something interesting to the public (the simulation) and wealth of information to those wanting info on our company, transformation, etc. A rather risky approach as it has never been done before but life would be boring without any risk!

Our booth, 1st stop – the check-in counters. Visitors to our booth were treated as if they are passengers at our airports and were given a pass ala Boarding Pass.

The crowd queuing for the boarding pass.

The Pass that can be used as a bookmark!

Airport trolley welcomed our visitors…

A visitor enjoying reading the info on our transformation.

Info and the model of Klia2

Security check. Quite a number of visitors posed with our security guys. Something you can’t do at real airports!

Security screening.

The VIPs on day 2 and 3. Tan Sri Dato’ Haji Muhyiddin Yassin And Tun Abdullah Haji Ahmad Badawi

“Departure Lounge”…

Eraman corner, our duty free arm….

Our HR corner was quite busy with enquiries on jobs and scholarship.

On day 2 and 3, I had some fun being a ‘deejay’ pushing away pulling crowd to our booth

With my slightly above ‘supermarket deejay standard’ skills, I was able to pull more crowd into our simulation.

I also gathered enough crowds for some giveaways and contest at our duty free corner.

It was a crazy non-stop action for the 3 days but that in a way justify all the hardwork being put into the preparation towards the event.

It’s a wrap!

I’ll end this post with some behind the scene pre-event photos……

Late night session with Corp Comm designing the posters for the clusters and booth panels. We are proud to be one of the GLCs that participated in all 5 clusters.

I would never miss a Malaysian football game. Watching live streaming over the Internet while doing work in office late at night

The graphic designer, booth designer, photographer…. Multitasking at its best.

Not only we had to coordinate the event, work on the contents and design, we were also the one printing and sticking posters all over the office late at night…. Fun!

Moving in day….. From KLIA to KLCC

Moving a 100kg machine is no joke!

Briefing to ambassadors, volunteers and cluster representatives.

I’m glad that the event went well despite the tight deadline. It’s so satisfying to read positive feedbacks from the public. I’m glad to have my life back after the 5 weeks sleepless stretch. Was it tiring? Of course. Was it stressful? VERY! Will i do it all over again? Hell yeah!

(photo from http://www.lfchistory.net)

It is however a totally different story when it comes to the Malaysian football team. I have been a loyal fan since the first game that I watched live in Stadium Merdeka back in 12th June 1991. It was the Malaysia vs England game where we lost 4-2 but it was just satisfying to see Matlan Marjan beating Chris Wood with 2 nice goals.

(photo from http://www.switchimageproject.com/)

Many years have passed and Malaysia football team has suffered a lot of humiliating lost but never a second that I lose hope towards the national team. I saw my friends saying bad things and turning their backs against the national team after many years of losing but I never give up hope and I know that the good era will return.

There were too many games that we lost but once in a while there would be something to celebrate. I remember how K Sambagamaran scored goals against Finland, Akmal Rizal scored a beautiful goal against China, and how our goalkeeper scored a goal all the way from the other end! There were many great moments!

True enough, the team bounced back and won Pestabola Merdeka in 2007 beating Myanmar 3-1 in final (photo below taken at the final in Shah Alam). And of course after that SEA Games Gold medal and the recent AFF win.

Nothing beat the sensational feeling being at the stadium cheering for the national team. Either it’s a friendly or a tournament, I always try my very best to be at the stadium.

The pride of wearing the national jersey, singing negaraku, waving jalur gemilang and singing the “inilah barisan kita..” song are just experience money can’t buy.

Now that the Malaysian fans are back (please la stay with the team this time, win or lose!), I would love to see a great comeback for future games. We have plenty of games both national and Olympic teams level so the team need each and every one of us to join and support the team.

And yes for those fans or Liverpool, Arsenal, Chelsea, they will be our opponents. They are better teams but we have to fight. Please don’t let our own stadium being filled by the opponent’s jersey. The least you can do is to wear Malaysian jersey along with Chelsea/Liverpool/Arsenal headgear.

Together let’s colour our stadium yellow and black (or kedai mamak for away games)! Harimau Malaya Boleh!

Dulu, Kini dan Selamanya!

Share this on
Share

For the sake of self improvement, here are just some of my resolutions, aspirations, ambitions and plans that I have in mind:

a) Career

To do what I’ve been doing for the 12 months better and just rock on the corporate ladder

b) Family

To settle down at our new place by 1st quarter of 2011 (Almost done!)

c) Travel

To travel / visit a new place at least once a month!

d) Aviation

- To attend at least one air show
- To fly at least once a month! (Die-die must fly!)
- To treat my other half on a joyride around KL
- To continue blogging about interesting aviation stuff
- To be part of as many aviation special events as possible (inaugural flights, etc)
- To fly MASWings’s Twin Otter!
- To redeem all those Enrich points before it gets expired!

e) Blogging

- To give AzuanZahdi.com a new look (Done!)
- To blog at least 3 posts a week
- Shorter but more frequent blog posts
- Write more local content on Shah Alam
- Increase visitors to 1,000 per day

That’s it…. Same old me trying to achieve same old resolutions

p/s: What do you think of the new look of my blog?

China played well and was a better team, no doubt about it.

But one thing that in a BIG way influenced the results was the amount of cards. 3 RED CARDS and 7 YELLOW CARDS. And the surprising part was that all the cards were for Malaysia!

And it was all thanks to the stupidity of Benjamin William the referee from Australia. Sure the Malaysian boys deserved some of the cards, maybe 1 red card for kicking the ball out on purpose and few yellows for harsh tackles. But to get Red Carded for protesting referee’s decision is just pure stupidity.

I’m not an expert in refereeing but I swear that I’ve seen captain of teams protesting on behalf of the team in many EPL and World Cup games. No matter how bad the protest was (foul language etc) the Captain does not deserve a straight Red Card!

So here you go… Some screenshots of the stupidest referee ever! I hope the Malaysian team goes all the way in filing an official protest to FIFA.

Ben Williams, maybe you should just stick to your full time teaching job and referee high school football games instead where you can give as many cards as you like! So much for a Fair Game policy! Good Day Mate!

I salute the Malaysian team not for their performance, not for their tough defensive approach but for having a high sportsman spirit for still willing to shake Ben William’s hand after the game. Well done tigers!

p/s: what do you guys think? All is fair in football?

I hope to be able to edit some of last weekend photos this week. Till then enjoy these random photos!

What’s your favorite color?

Malaysia Airlines ‘smarties’ seats. Either you love it or you totally hate it!

My favourite seat.

Alhamduilillah, my wife and I are one step closer towards being the proud owner of a small property here in good old Shah Alam. Definitely the biggest investment I have ever made. A long-term commitment that I finally have enough guts to make!

It’s a long, expensive and tiring journey but I’m all excited and definitely will share my good and bad stories in this journey to step into “mi casa”.

Stay tune…

If you have been following me on Facebook you might already know that for the last 5 days I have been struggling to keep AzuanZahdi.com alive. My trusted “Made in Malaysia” host has decided to bring the website down due to over usage of their server’s memory. I was frustrated for 2 reasons:

a) They brought AzuanZahdi.com down and did not even send out any notification or even warning! They simply took it offline and kept quiet. It was me who contacted them asking what has happened to the site.

b) The customer service was slow. I’ve been a loyal customer with the host and has been with them for a few years. Yet the respond was slow. One e-mail per day, no phone calls, no regular updates whatsoever.

After 3 days being offline, the Malaysian hosting company managed to bring back the site and i spent the whole weekend working to simplify the processes underneath AzuanZahdi.com. No more fancy plugins like Google Friends Connect etc.

Moving forward, I’ve purchased a new, more reliable (and more expensive) shared server in the US. The US staff spent the whole weekend transferring all my files and database on my behalf and it’s all FREE (part of the hosting package)!

This week I’ll be doing some fine tuning before the GRAND MOVE to the new server. Only after this week i’ll decide whether to remain loyal to my Malaysian Host or shift to a more customer-friendly US-based host. 1 week of trial

I’ve made some tweaks to speed up loading and improve comments system. Please give your comments

Anyhow I’ve scheduled some activities and travels in May and June (including a fun trip to China!) so just bear with me for another boring month of April.

Lately, I have been spending very little time with my DSL-r. After 2 weeks being in the dry box, I brought my camera out for some quality clicks polishing up my skills. Being a “Guy with Camera” rather than a “Photographer”, I always push myself to improve in taking better photos for my blogging purposes.

It was a BBQ weekend with Jiji’s cousins at her uncle’s house in Shah Alam. Good food, good venue, good laughter, good time, good company and it were up to me to deliver the good photos. A chance for me to practice my photography and eating skills, say no more!

The Venue.

The Charcoal. In my opinion, BBQ is best with charcoal and not electric grill.

The preparation.

Ready for the grill.

The chef preparing the grill

Chicken first to go.

5 minutes later, looking good.

Ready to eat.

Lamb.

Close-up of the juicy lamb shoulder.

Cuttlefish and prawns.

The end product.

Yummy. My favorite dish.

Fish. – Ikan Pari / Ray?

Slow but worth the wait.

The cousins going after the fish.

Good food! The happy faces.

The dessert prepared by my other half. Caramel pudding with peaches.

The end.

“sila lapkan air liur anda”

Last weekend, I managed to drag myself out from bed at 7:00am (I know it sounds so impressive for a Saturday!).

For what I call Brisk Walking @ Taman Tasik Shah Alam.

Fresh Air

A good way to chit chat and catch up with each other after a long week.

Tai Chi corner – after a long week in the office being tai-chied work towards my direction, it’s nice to go through the real tai-chi exercise.

Nice Views

If only people don’t litter around the lake!

Having the camera does provide me the motivation and distraction from the fact that I am exercising instead of sleeping at home.

Although the actual motivation was the promise made by my other half that I can choose anything for breakfast after the 30-minutes walk.

I chose McDonalds breakfast.

Sausage McMuffin

McEgg thingy..

Taste was quite good but I was shocked to learn that 2 value meals (drinks switched to iced milo) cost me RM17!

RM17 for simple breakfast…. Expensive la! I can buy 17 packs of Nasi Lemak or prepare something similar at home for half the price!

I somehow think McDonalds are smart with their pricing, they do have some value-for-money meals but in general I think they have quietly raised the prices over the years and it is now quite costly! I remember when I was in high school a Big Mac Meal costs me RM4.99! What do you guys think?

JB was as always fun; A combination of family, friends, food. You can’t go wrong with that 3F recipe. I was not in photography mood but did take out my camera to capture this special meal.

Introducing Nasi Briyani Kambing Johor Style (My mother-in-law’s delicious secret recipe) served in Dulang.

No we did not run out of plates! It’s just a nice simple tradition of togetherness.

Traditionally, dulang or a big serving tray is used at a kenduri or feast. Kenduri is a form of serving food to anyone and usually accompanied with doa selamat, thanking the Almighty for his abundance on occasions such as the fulfillment of the of a newborn, birthdays, weddings & remembering the deceased.

In our case, there was no specific reason, just a more fun way to have a makan-makan amongst family members.

The briyani rice ready to be served.

The delicious Nasi Briyani scooped into the Dulang.

The main dish, lamb briyani! Good stuff.

Simple but delicious! All set.

Around 3-5 pax per dulang/tray seated in a small circle.

Seating on the floor, this is a good way to socialize and catch-up over a great meal.

My strategy is always, eat first, talk later. After all, if you get distracted, your neighbors will start ‘stealing’ the rice from your ‘unchartered area’.

The good thing is even if you don’t eat that much, you always feel full. Maybe it’s the psychological factor seeing a lot of rice in your tray.

Come to think of it, I had always enjoyed eating in dulang. I am already thinking that once I have my own house, if I ever do a kenduri it has to be in dulang! That would be fun to keep this tradition alive…and of course save on having to wash so many plates