Beautiful.Mind.Life

I was walking to the escalator after headed out from the train in KLCC, when I saw an old Chinese man struggling hard to lift his bag and get onto the moving stairs. I wasn’t in the mood of helping anyone as I was damn late for a meeting, but he looked so pitiful I couldn’t help it. I approached him and asked his permission to give a helping hand.

“No!” Filled with a tone of fear, he uttered. He was struggling seconds ago, yet suddenly he gained his muscle strength to grab his bag and hugged it tightly to his chest with both of his ancient arms. And so he left, lightning quick.

Do I look like a greedy thief? Or does he has a million ringgit cash in his bag?

I don’t really care, you old fart. Manners should come first. You could’ve just say “It’s ok, I’m fine” with a smoother tone, and I would’ve replied with a warm morning smile instead of swearing silently, wishing it will only be disaster throughout your Friday.

Oh, I’m so freakin’ late!

The previous teambuilding was rough, and my running shoes worn out badly. My bad, should have use a trail shoes instead of a pair of running shoes.

A bit about my running shoes. I bought it (well, my wife bought it for me actually) about three years ago. The design is undoubtedly horrible, but the cushioning was extremely excellent. It took the load of almost 100kgs, thumping and jumping and running and yet, the cushion stayed like new. It even has a Nike+ mount, where you can attach a transmitter (sold separately) and connect the wireless receiver to your iPod and it will track your running distance, average calorie burn and many more (Sadly, I had a Classic 160GB iPod. It only works with iPod Nano 3rd gen above, iPod Touch and iPhone). I must say that this pair of Nike Air Pegasus 10+ Bowerman Series (10+ is obsolete, so the link will take you to 26+, similar though) were one of my best buy, ever. Served me well, never disappoint me in any possible way. I sprained my ankle once on that shoes, but that was not because of the shoes itself. The stupid pothole should take that credit.

But now, my best running buddy is completely destroyed.

Thank you, babe.

Now, as my department’s Biggest Loser contest starts today, I obviously need a new pair of running shoes. Nike Lunarelite+ and Asics Gel Kayano 16 were the pairs in my mind, as they offer best cushioning without compromising stability. But these pairs are hard to find in Kemaman, so I opted for similar option, Mizuno Wave Elixir 4. I was skeptical with Mizuno’s comfort and performance, but when I tried it on, it was far from bad. In fact, the “hugging” feeling on my foot was far better than the previous Nike I had. Of course, it’s cushion isn’t as good as the previous, but should be good enough. It costs RM419.00, but after a 20% + 10% discount (I got an additional discount as a World Of Sports member), it actually costs lesser than the Air Pegasus I bought three years ago at RM399.00.

Hope this won’t disappoint me, at least for the first 2 years. It’s an award winner in runnersworld.com, one of the biggest runners community online. Should be good, I guess. Haven’t really tested it yet, but will do, soon. I’ll update on that.

Notice Imran’s hand. You’ll get yours, soon.

A team will never be a team, until you’re involved in a teambuilding activity. At least, that’s what I always believe in.

My department managed to arrange a teambuilding activity and got it approved happily by the boss, thanks to the brilliant proposal which was made by the team ourselves. It was crazy, as we were short in time, and everything had to be done at the very last minute. But still, it was a great success, which made us believe even more that a teamwork will surely produce the results.

We started on Friday, having left from Kemaman at about 10oo hours and reached the magnificent Bukit Gambang Resort City around 1100 hours. Straight away, the instructors (Active Academy people) started the program with ice-breaking session. We were not ice at that time as we’re already getting along well with each other, but we had fun.

It’s still in my mind. “Tan & Hisham menang hadiah dari Proton. 4 tayar Dunlop, 10 minyak pelincir, 5 pasang speaker, 2 lampu hiasan dan wang tunai RM28888.00″. Haha.

After the quick ice-breaking session, we had lunch, which was pretty good. Then, we checked into our rooms, had a good rest and part of us went for Friday prayer. Surprisingly, there were suddenly many ‘musaffirs’. =)

The room was ok, though I still think that at almost RM400 (apartment for 4), it’s actually quite pricey. Oh well, shouldn’t be too demanding, should I? It’s completely free after all. Kompeni tanggung…

That weird looking uncooked mushrooms. I do not know whether it was for serving or not.

At about 3 o’clock in the evening, we were asked by the instructors to get ourselves back into the classroom. We were divided into 3 pre-created teams of 7, and had assignments of creating our own flag, team name as well as a war cry. I was in the third team, and we did a pretty good job in fulfilling the tasks, but I had to give credit to Team 2, with a brilliantly, unexpected war cry. Hilarious, guys!

Team 2 (top left), preparing their ritual war cry, based on the funny “Brrrrrrrr…” ads by Coca-cola. Perfect 10!

That wrapped up our classroom session. We had tea break, and proceeded to the Active Academy yard, for jungle trekking. We enjoyed ourselves so much with the trekking, abseiling, obstacles challenges and flying fox, though none of these activities have ever been my favorite.

Seriously, guys, it was energy consuming!

Ever seen a flying turtle? Here’s your chance! =D

None of these were easy enough for us, especially for Team 1.

And with the flying fox, we ended our day. Exhausted, but fun. Sweaty,but with smiles. No boss, no employee, just a group of friends having good times together. Can’t get any better than that, can we?

At night, we had poolside BBQ  dinner. I really thought that we gonna burn chicken and meat and fishes ’til they turned completely black, but to my surprise, there was already a cook to take care of that. A slight fun part was missing, but it was still ok. We had great dinner, and started our wet activities at about 2100 hours. Have you ever heard of a game called ‘Banana & Potato Polo’? Bet you haven’t, and will never at all. An impressively vulgar game that shouldn’t be played if you’re in a group with females around. The instructor asked for team leaders to do this, so I had no option but to go on with it, and felt stupid right after finishing it. Hahaha. Enjoy the pictures!

Notice the boss’ plate (bottom right). Bape ekor ayam tumbang tu, bang?

I just realized that you can actually see this one particular guy who likes to show more skin than the rest. Our own DEIC. Hahahahaha…..

This is the nasty game I was talking about! Dare not to explain further on how to play this, or this blog will be rated for adults. =) Enough with the images of bananas between the legs.

To be continued…

For a stupid reason, I lost my Blackberry Storm.

In the middle of personal financial crisis, this is the last thing I’d expect to happen.

Now I’m in a grave need of a new phone. Surely, a Blackberry. Possibly, the new Bold II. Unfortunately, I’m broke.

Arghhhhhhhh!

This is weird. I thought it came to park himself on it or having a nap. I chased it away several times, but it kept coming back, which made me think that probably, it’s having lunch on my breakfast.

Rezeki kau la hari ni, abang nyamuk. I know that it’s a male, because female feeds on blood.