7 months after their engagement, Ezbon and Leonie had their big day at St Mary’s Church, Topokon, Tuaran.

My son Ethan was the ringbearer

The wedding reception was held at Leonie’s house at Kg Toboh Baru, Tamparuli on the afternoon of the same day.

The days before that was a whirlwind of activities, including trying out wedding dresses at a bridal in Inaman 2 weeks before the wedding.

So with that, all 3 of us brothers are now married… There have been so many photos (thanks to all) – I counted 8 cameras in the church alone!

To Golib: remember what I said during the toasting!

Update 30th January 2011

As of today, a week later, it’s still not fixed. I think there’ll be some squirming when that piece of news is used as reference, and the truth revealed. It’d be like loyal customers of Hunter fans finding out that they’ve purchased a fake.

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On 23rd January 2011, Lee Chong Wei won the Proton Malaysia Open 2011 badminton tournament for the seventh time after defeating second seed Taufik Hidayat 8 and 17 in 37 minutes. Chong Wei’s nemesis, fifth seed Lin Dan had earlier conceded a walkover to compatriot Chen Long, the world junior champion. In the semis, Chong Wei crushed Chen 9 and 9 in 39 minutes.

It was his fourth successive Malaysia Open crown, having won it every year since 2008.

He also won it in 3 successive years: 2004-2006.

However, in 2007 he crashed out in the quarterfinals to Bao Chunlai, who went on to lose to Peter Gade in the final.

Therefore, what Bernama reported on the 23rd January 2011, timestamped 9.59pm is incorrect:

This is the second howler I spotted at Bernama’s website, the first being the infamous 18th November 2010 error that said Dato’ Sri Haji Mohd. Najib bin Tun Haji Abdul Razak is Malaysia’s deputy prime minister! He of course, at that material time, is definitely the incumbent Prime Minister of Malaysia.

Note: BERNAMA (Malaysian National News Agency) is an official news agency of the Malaysian government, under the purview of its Information, Culture and Communications Ministry.

The 12th Malaysian general election was held on 8th March 2008. Since then there has been an unprecedented number of by elections, or buy-elections as cynics call them, for these events usually involve allegedly personalized note cards being passed around along with financial goodie bags.

Between GE10 and GE12, there had been only 10 by elections, but since GE12, there had been at least 13, with 2 upcoming and a possible 16th in the works.

Former Election Commission (EC) chairman Tan Sri Abdul Rashid Rahman, who served with the commission for 27 years, said: “there had never been more than a dozen by-elections during a single term.”

The full list:

1st
Date: 26th August 2008
Constituency: Permatang Pauh
Category: Parliament
Cause: Resignation of incumbent, Datuk Seri Wan Azizah Wan Ismail (PKR)
Winner: Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim (PKR)

2nd
Date: 7th January 2009
Constituency: Kuala Terengganu
Category: Parliament
Cause: death of incumbent Razali Ismail (BN)
Winner: Mohd Abdul Wahid Endut (PAS)

joint 3rd – 5th
Date: 7th April 2009
Constituency: Bukit Selambau (Kedah)
Category: State
Cause: Resignation of incumbent V. Arumugam (PKR)
Winner: S Manikumar (PKR)

joint 3rd – 5th
Date: 7th April 2009
Constituency: Bukit Gantang (Perak)
Category: Parliament
Cause: Death of incumbent Roslan Shaharum (PAS)
Winner: Datuk Seri Mohammad Nizar Jamaluddin (PAS)

joint 3rd – 5th
Date: 7th April 2009
Constituency: Batang Ai (Sarawak)
Category: State
Cause: Death of incumbent Datuk Dublin Unting (BN)
Winner: Malcolm Mussen Lamoh (Parti Rakyat Sarawak)

6th
Date: 31st May 2009
Constituency: Penanti (Penang)
Category: State
Cause: Resignation of Mohammad Fairus Khairuddin (PKR)
Winner: Mansor Othman (PKR)

7th
Date: 14th July 2009
Constituency: Manek Urai (Kelantan)
Category: State
Cause: Death of incumbent Haji Ismail Yaacob (PAS)
Winner: Mohd Fauzi Abdullah (PAS)

8th
Date: 25th August 2009
Constituency: Permatang Pasir (Penang)
Category: State
Cause: Death of incumbent Datuk Mohd Hamdan Abdul Rahman (PAS)
Winner: Mohd Salleh Man (PAS)

9th
Date: 11th October 2009
Constituency: Bagan Pinang (Negri Sembilan)
Category: State
Cause: Death of incumbent Azman Mohammad Noor (BN)
Winner: Tan Sri Mohd. Isa Abdul Samad (BN)

10th
Date: 25th April 2010
Constituency: Hulu Selangor
Category: Parliament
Cause: death of incumbent Datuk Dr Zainal Abidin Ahmad (PKR)
Winner: P. Kamalanathan (BN)

11th
Date: 16th May 2010
Constituency: Sibu
Category: Parliament
Cause: death of incumbent Robert Lau Hoi Chew (BN)
Winner: Richard Wong Ho Leng (DAP)

joint 12th-13th
Date: 4th November 2010
Constituency: Galas
Category: State
Cause: Death of incumbent Chek Hasim bin Sulaima (PAS)
Winner: Abdul Aziz Yusof (BN)

joint 12th-13th
Date: 4th November 2010
Constituency: Batu Sapi
Category: Parliament
Cause: Death of incumbent Datuk Edmund Chong (BN/PBS)
Winner: Datin Linda Tsen Thau Lin (BN/PBS)

14th
Date: 30th January 2011
Constituency: Tenang (Johor)
Category: State
Cause: Death of incumbent Datuk Sulaiman Taha (BN)
Winner: Mohd Azahar Ibrahim (BN), increased majority
By-election score: PR 8-6 BN

15th
Date: 6th March 2011
Constituency: Merlimau (Melaka)
Category: State
Cause: Death of incumbent Datuk Mohamad Hidhir Abu Hassan (BN)
Winner: Roslan Ahmad (BN), increased majority

16th
Date: 6th March 2011
Constituency: Kerdau (Pahang)
Category: State
Cause: Death of incumbent Datuk Zaharuddin Abu Kassim (BN) on 12th February 2011
Winner: Syed Ibrahim Syed Ahmad (BN), increased majority
By-election score: PR 8-8 BN

possible 17th
Date: [yet to be decided by the EC]
Constituency: Port Klang (Selangor)
Category: State
Cause: On 19th January 2011 Selangor Speaker Datuk Teng Chang Khim declared the seat vacant because incumbent Badrul Hisham Abdullah has been absent from assembly sittings for 6 months.
Winner: [by election yet to be held]

I got an Aowa microwave-grill-oven several years ago, and didn’t use it (kept it in its original box in a store room) until I moved into my new house recently. When I finally turned it on, it worked once, then failed. When I brought it to an electrician friend to fix, he shocked me by saying I should not bother to fix it and should throw it away instead, because it contains asbestos.

When I went to his shop, he showed me where the asbestos fibres are located inside the unit (some yellowish, some orangish in colour).

Read the rest of this entry »

Update 17 January 2011

According to Nancy Poh, the face is smooth to the touch, unlike what one would expect on touching tree bark.

sceneryful has done a short interview with apparently the first person who noticed the image, and uploaded it on youtube on 15th January 2011:

In it the boy basically said he first saw it on the 10th of January, at 11pm as he went to a toilet located outside the house. He then noticed a pair of “luminous” eyes, turned around, and that’s when he noticed the face. He did not tell anybody about it until the next night.

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14 January 2011

A dead (?) “tarap” (also known as “terap”) tree located at the back of one Toyo/Tuming’s house at Kg Gomilong, Telibong, across the road from Kg Telibong’s Shell Station has on it an apparent face of Jesus Christ in tears.

Apparently was first noticed on 11th January 2011, and only visible at night.

It’s attracting a growing number of visitors.

Photo credit: John Andrew Sipail

Closeup views:

Read the rest of this entry »

It was reported by The Star on 10th January 2011 that Canadian teen idol Justin Bieber, 16 will be coming to Stadium Merdeka (or is it Stadium Bukit Jalil?). Of course, for his “Beliebers,” that’s a dream come true, a not-to-be-missed-at-any-cost show.

It went on to say that ticket sales would start 15th January 2011 at Bangsar Village 2, Kuala Lumpur.

Ticket prices range from almost RM100 to almost RM500.

He could very well break the following Malaysian records:
- fastest concert tickets to sell out
- largest gathering of under-15s in one venue
- loudest mass screaming ever heard
- a concert where you can’t hear any music at all, just primal screaming, like the Beatles in the 60s
- the most amount of weight lost by a concert-goer in one concert due to all that bouncing around, sure saves time from looking for a safe diet pill?

Apart from Malaysia, he’ll be performing in Indonesia on the 23rd April and the Philippines on the 10th May. Apparently he’ll not be performing in Singapore or Thailand.

Tanita Tikaram is the daughter of a Malaysian mother Fatimah Rohani and an Indo-Fijian father Pramod Tikaram.

She started singing in nightclubs in her teens, and released her debut album Ancient Heart in September 1988 when she was 19. It was a hit, reaching no.3 at the UK album charts and no. 59 in the US, and led to a world tour.

The first single, which she wrote herself, was “Good Tradition” and was released in 1988. Initially it generated little impact, almost no media attention and hence little airplay. However, a few weeks later, it started climbing up the charts, peaking at no. 10 at the UK Singles Chart in August 1988. It was also a top 10 hit in several European countries.

The song, to this day, remains her highest charting single ever.

In the music video, I think she’s displaying a typically British dress sense, no prom dresses here; totally the opposite of what Lady Gaga would wear.