Subang Jaya Is Officially A City Today!

Yes, just saw the news. And although I'm not a Selangor native, I have a very soft spot for Subang Jaya. After my SPM, my first job was at Toys R Us, Subang Parade. I remember the first time I walked into Parade. Wahhh, such a nice, big mall. Got water fountains, Parkson and Grandy's (or was it White Castle?). 

Then I got into uni and the Matriculation Centre was at... SS15 Subang! Ended up two semesters there. (altho one semester I squatted at the KPP Suny/Buffalo hostels with my friends.)

I actually had the time of my life lah. Parade was always THE lepak place, especially after Solat Jumaat. Played video games at the shop houses. And of course makan and lepak at the famous stalls. Was when I discovered all the Kelantan/Thai type food. Never heard of Nasi Goreng Pattaya, Telur Bistik etc before coming to KL.

And yes, also lepaked at the stalls with one nasi goreng cina and sirap to watch wrestling for 3 hours straight!

To go to KL, we had to take the Sri Jaya bus. No 252 if I'm not mistaken, and we usually got off at Kotaraya. Lupa harga ticket tho.

And decades later, Subang Jaya is still our regular go-to place. Less hectic to buy groceries and have a nice meal at Parade/Empire. USJ too has some cool places, although some have closed down in recent times. 

Congrats, Bandaraya Subang Jaya!

Food, Glorious Food!: Nasi Bamboo Sungai Klah

NASI BAMBOO SUNGAI KLAH lived up to expectations! Big crowd today (as usual), but they have a good self service system going, so you'll get your food hassle-free. And most importantly, semua sedap. Alhamdulillah. The nasi buluh itself is a winner. Good stuff from the grill station too: kambing salai buluh perindu, ikan tilapia, ayam panggang, semua 👍👍 Air per jug murah. We also had the keledek and pisang goreng. Panas and so good. So overall, highly recommended 😊

Ol' Skool Writers, What Say You?

 

I just read this on RollingStone.com :

"Ziggy Marley is a global music royal with a deep Rolodex."

A couple of things. Pretty sure most of the younger generation don't even know what a rolodex is. And really, do people even use it anymore?

But most of us would know what the expression means. Even if not literally. So you can say that the sentence works. 

Which brings me to something I've been thinking about. If you've been writing for a long time, you're used to old school idioms, metaphors and expressions. So, is it time to evolve and update our own writing, or maybe it depends on the platform and audience?

I mean, when I read "Lagu yang sering bermain di corong radio", I'll be like, who has radios with corongs anymore? Or even, "Lagu yang menjadi siulan ramai". Really? People might share the songs on TikTok, but whistle? But still, we know what they mean lah. 

When I wrote the lyrics to "Lihatlah" for Yazmin Aziz, I began with "Malam tu aku terima nota suara". Cos I highly doubt people breakup via airmail or the public phone anymore. (Hey, at least I try to sound young 😕 )

So, what say you guys? Should we be dropping these words and expressions that have nothing to do with real life anymore, or do we keep them cos you know, we're incorrigibly old school...

Champions Stuff Incoming!

 

Just some #champions stuff I ordered from the Liverpool website 😁😁

Take A Moment To Reflect

A new month and the world is recovering. Best time to do some self-auditing. What is different now compared to 3 months ago? Are we kinder? More empathetic? More thankful of what we have? Or it's Business As Usual as per the pre-covid days? We live in a world where we need to APPLY to perform some of our prayers and the mosques are still closed at certain times. Let's ponder over what that truly means.

If we have less of everything now, imagine those who didn't have anything to begin with. How are they coping? Or does it mean we just have to be more selfish since we're getting less of the world's abundance? Think about our lowest points during this period. What were we praying for? Protection from the disease and death? To go out to buy bread? To see our loved ones? To keep our jobs? And what are we praying for now? So much to think about. And thank Allah that He actually stopped everything to make us sit and ponder, before it's simply too late.