Club Information | |
Club Number | 00856876 |
Club Name | Seri Alam Toastmasters Club |
Club contact phone | 017 7151881 |
Club contact e-mail | |
Meeting Information | |
Meeting Day | 1st & 3rd Thursday |
Meeting Time | 7:00 pm |
Meeting Frequency | Twice a Month |
Meeting Place 1 | MMHE Seri Alam office |
Jalan Suria 2, Bandar Seri Alam, Masai | |
Meeting City | Johor Bahru |
State | Johor |
Zip | 81700 |
Officer Terms | Annual |
Advanced | No |
Club Type | Community Club |
Is your club | Open to all interested parties |
Charter Date | 12/01/2005 |
I just had to stop at the roadside en route to Plentong when I saw the sky that evening.
It was fantastic.
Subhanallah.
It’s been my favourite masjid in Johor Bahru since I first stepped into its courtyard. That was 19 years ago, when my cousin steered his van with us inside for our solat, en route to Singapore.
The architecture and finishing of the masjid is amazing, while being simple. The black small domes are distinctive, and I really like the brass fittings adorning its white doors and windows.
I would never miss the chance to go for solat Jumaat in this very place, and 3 weeks ago I did. The parking space is always crowded, so I went there quite early. Parked only at the sides of the entrance way, to ensure my easy way out after the solat. While it may seem that the masjid would be congested, it is actually not so. There’s ample space. Another thing I like about it is that there’s an array of water faucets for ablution along the covered pavement leading towards the side entrances. Seldom I have to queue for my turn.
These facts below I gathered from an information board erected on the masjid grounds:
No info on the sparkling chandelier, though.
Photo by Pasha Razak Photography
Heard this song this morning on the radio. Been more than 10 years since I last hear it. Some are good advice, the rest, up to you to judge.
It’s actually a newspaper article eventually turned into a song.
Original article (now lyrics) by Mary Schmich of Chicago Tribune.
The quite interesting history of the ‘song’ is here:
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Lyrics:
Ladies and gentlemen of the class of ’97:
Wear sunscreen.
If I could offer you only one tip for the future, sunscreen would be it. The long-term benefits of sunscreen have been proved by scientists, whereas the rest of my advice has no basis more reliable than my own meandering experience. I will dispense this advice now.
Enjoy the power and beauty of your youth. Oh, never mind. You will not understand the power and beauty of your youth until they've faded. But trust me, in 20 years, you'll look back at photos of yourself and recall in a way you can't grasp now how much possibility lay before you and how fabulous you really looked. You are not as fat as you imagine.
Don't worry about the future. Or worry, but know that worrying is as effective as trying to solve an algebra equation by chewing bubble gum. The real troubles in your life are apt to be things that never crossed your worried mind, the kind that blindside you at 4 p.m. on some idle Tuesday.
Do one thing every day that scares you.
Sing.
Don't be reckless with other people's hearts. Don't put up with people who are reckless with yours.
Floss.
Don't waste your time on jealousy. Sometimes you're ahead, sometimes you're behind. The race is long and, in the end, it's only with yourself.
Remember compliments you receive. Forget the insults. If you succeed in doing this, tell me how.
Keep your old love letters. Throw away your old bank statements.
Stretch.
Don't feel guilty if you don't know what you want to do with your life. The most interesting people I know didn't know at 22 what they wanted to do with their lives. Some of the most interesting 40-year-olds I know still don't.
Get plenty of calcium. Be kind to your knees. You'll miss them when they're gone.
Maybe you'll marry, maybe you won't. Maybe you'll have children, maybe you won't. Maybe you'll divorce at 40, maybe you'll dance the funky chicken on your 75th wedding anniversary. Whatever you do, don't congratulate yourself too much, or berate yourself either. Your choices are half chance. So are everybody else's.
Enjoy your body. Use it every way you can. Don't be afraid of it or of what other people think of it. It's the greatest instrument you'll ever own.
Dance, even if you have nowhere to do it but your living room.
Read the directions, even if you don't follow them.
Do not read beauty magazines. They will only make you feel ugly.
Get to know your parents. You never know when they'll be gone for good. Be nice to your siblings. They're your best link to your past and the people most likely to stick with you in the future.
Understand that friends come and go, but with a precious few you should hold on. Work hard to bridge the gaps in geography and lifestyle, because the older you get, the more you need the people who knew you when you were young.
Live in New York City once, but leave before it makes you hard. Live in Northern California once, but leave before it makes you soft.
Travel.
Accept certain inalienable truths: Prices will rise. Politicians will philander. You, too, will get old. And when you do, you'll fantasize that when you were young, prices were reasonable, politicians were noble and children respected their elders.
Respect your elders.
Don't expect anyone else to support you. Maybe you have a trust fund. Maybe you'll have a wealthy spouse. But you never know when either one might run out.
Don't mess too much with your hair or by the time you're 40 it will look 85.
Be careful whose advice you buy, but be patient with those who supply it. Advice is a form of nostalgia. Dispensing it is a way of fishing the past from the disposal, wiping it off, painting over the ugly parts and recycling it for more than it's worth.
But trust me on the sunscreen.
I brewed Twinings’ Lady Grey Tea this morning.
First, there’s the refreshing aroma. Perfect for rainy days, served hot with biscuit.
The taste – somewhat stronger than Earl Grey.
The description on the box:
“A fragrant, bright and light black tea infused with orange, lemon and bergamot flavours”
Yup, that’s right. Perhaps the stronger citrus aroma is from the orange and lemon. Earl Grey contains only bergamot.
I like this one.
She said Health department staff would also be sent to the schools of the student''s siblings -- Sekolah Menengah Datuk Jaafar and Sekolah Menengah Infant Jesus Convent -- because the two attended school yesterday.
"We will check the two schools to prevent any spread of the virus," she added.
Last night Naza and I were shopping for groceries, and we were looking for teabags. Usually we go for Lipton, but last night she wanted to have those 'top shelves' kind of tea. Tesco (being British) stocks quite a good array of tea selection, including their house brand. We narrowed down three brands - Dilmah, Ahmad Tea and Twinings. So many different kinds of tea. We took home Twinings, for we could have assortment of teas in a box.
And sure enough, she gave me a piece. Quite nice. Very comfortable. Unlike the usual thin, low quality type. I like the color too.
self-portrait, 2009
United was beaten 2-0 in the UEFA Champions League final in Rome this week.Manchester United is the biggest football club
These past few days I suddenly had the urge of listening back to Counting Crows. Can't really say my favourite band, but I do like their songs. Out of their eight albums, I only have two.Okay, and also a few CD singles, mainly from their second album Recovering The Satellites (1996).
After dinner just now, I decided to have an hour round of cycling around Seri Alam, for it has been more than a week without cycling. That decision was overthrown by the sudden thought of listening to CC on the stereo at home.
Popped in the August CD into the DVD player. What awful audio coming out of my floorstanding speakers! I made a quick check, and found the source of that poor audio quality. The left speaker's tweeter unit is not working. No treble coming out of it. Hence, the song doesn't come out right, losing it's balance on the high freq audio output.
Well, to think of it, my poor stereo system (we call them 'separates' in the UK, short of Hi Fi Separates) is neglected since a few years ago. Not really being looked at, a far cry from my student days - the time when I acquired the set. Used to check for dust and corrosion monthly (or weekly, depending on my mood). The funny thing was, the separates hype for me sort of ended some time after I came to Johor and started working here. A classic case of lack of environment filled with enthusiasts, diminishing the flame. Seems that I'm alone in the separates world over here.
It was very different while I was in Manchester (and it seems at that time, among friends across Britain). My peers are proud owners of separates. Wealthy people (like Shell and Petronas scholars) own high end systems, while those with not so deep pockets like me own entry to mid level systems. But yes, most of us would have our own separates. So a house with 3 or four students would have 3 or 4 different sets of separates.
Wherever we go and whenever we chat, there would always be an exchange of separates component models being discussed. Usually a blend of long alphanumeric codes decipherable only to the avid students of What Hi Fi (okay, other Hi Fi mags too) and Hi Fi store frequenters. Yeah, I can still remember a few: SL-PG 580A, CD-63SE MkIII KI Signature (that's a Marantz sweet CD Player - drool...), 733i, AE109, Alpha 7, Coda7, Talk4.1.
Back to my problem with the stereo. I have another pair of speakers, bookshelf type that I have not used since my days in KL with Technip. Took them down from the shelf, dusted a bit and propped on top of the floorstanders. Plugged the speaker cable leads into the speaker lugs. Hey presto, Adam Duritz and his band's music plays oh so beatifully coming out from the small speakers.
The intention initially was to have it set up as surround home theater. With Naza always changing the layout of furniture in the house (used to, but not anymore now), it would be a problem to set up the rear speakers in the living room. Anyway, I have only a Dolby Surround amp. The rear speakers would only give mono quality audio output. Nowadays the minimal norm would be Dolby Digital 5.1 which would give independent audio for each speakers for that realism. The center speaker's tweeter dome was poked by Marsya when she was smaller and experimenting his hand-eye co-ordination skills. With that collectively, I settled for only stereo setup for video and audio.
---------------
Choosing other old CDs to play, I picked up Gary Moore's Ballads & Blues CD. And, found inside the jewel case the SRAM and Rock Shox small stickers that I've been looking for all these while. Woohoo!
...yeap, there's always something related with cycling, my world nowadays.
Even if you don't enjoy reading books, once in a while you'd buy a copy or two of magazines to kill time while waiting for someone, school books for your children, yada yada yada...
I like Vincent Van Gogh's paintings, although not all of them.
I could only TT at about 45 words per minute (WPM) at accuracy above 90%. However, throw in symbols in the sentences or words to be typed, my accuracy (or speed) would drop a lot.
I received these photos from my cousin Liza 2 days ago. The exact date of the photo taken is July 19th last year. It's from her elder sister Lin's (Kak Long) camera, who is technologically challenged :)
Ayah, Ibu, me, Kak Lang, Kak Long
Of Nubhan, I didn't quite notice how lanky he is. Upon seeing the photo, well, he's a lot taller than I am, and a lot slimmer than I remember when he's younger. And little did I know of his hidden talent, for he's a quiet guy all the while.
This morning I took a photo of the project so far, and it is showing very much progress since my last entry about this. The white daisies are starting to show up between the spots of green & khakis.
Photo taken on 3rd October 2007.
Michael Crichton's 'The Great Train Robbery'.
9:50 pm last night Ayah called me and relayed a very surprising news.
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