Time flies. It’s that time of the year again.

And time to remind ourselves and those around us not to overindulge this coming May, and in fact any other time.

Daily Express, 21 April 2009, lad loses his life for rousing a fellow drunk.

It’s always sad to read about lives of people too young to be needing hair loss products being snuffed out needlessly.

Update 20 April 2011

The NST reported on the 19th that it was not one person, but 16 Sabahans friends between 30 and 50 years of age.

The Toto afficionados had pooled money on System 9 with the numbers 2, 3, 8, 19, 23, 27, 28, 31 and 56, of which 6 of those came up.

In addition to the snowball jackpot of RM47.84 million, they also won an additional RM127,744 because they’d bet on System 9, hence the total winnings is RM47.97 million.

Another source said all of them are Chinese males, and that they’d played System 9 for 5 straight draws, an investment of RM2,000+. So, depending on each person’s contributions, someone got around RM4 million, and someone got the smallest sum of around RM1 million. All of them have gone to Kuala Lumpur to collect the winnings cheque.

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18 April 2011

At the end of September 2010 it was someone in Selangor who won RM47.82 million.

Looking at the results of the 3413/10 draw, it’s exactly RM47,826,929.41.

On Saturday, 16th April 2011, at the Sports Toto outlet of No.5, Ground Floor, Beverly Hill Plaza, Jln Swamp, Penampang, for draw number 3511/11, someone bought Supreme Toto 6/58 numbers 8, 19, 23, 28, 31 and 56.

That won the jackpot of RM47,842,053.30.

S/he’s is the only winner.

Thus the record was broken by RM15,123, give or take a few cents.

As for the identity of the winner, the name “Supiring” has been bandied about.

State elections date: 16 April
Nominations date: 6 April
Dissolution date: 21 March
Order: 10
Last state elections year: 2006
Number of seats: 71

Before dissolution:
Barisan Nasional: 63 seats (PPBB: 35, SUPP: 12, PRS: 8, SPDP: 8)
Opposition: 8 (PR: 7 [DAP: 6, PKR: 1], PCM: 1)

Results:
BN: 55 (PPBB: 35 out of 35, SUPP: 6 out of 19, PRS: 8 out of 9, SPDP: 6 out of 8) [372,379 votes] i.e. lost 8 seats
DAP: 12 out of 15 [134,847 votes]
SNAP: 0 out of 26 [15,663 votes]
PAS: 0 out of 5 [9,719 votes]
PKR: 3 out of 49 seats contested [117,100 votes]
Independent: 1 out of 41

The 15 seats by the opposition front equaled the previous best showing from them. Largest number of seats won in Sarawak in DAP’s history.

BN’s popular/total votes received dropped from 62.93% to 55.24%. Hence, BN won 55 seats from 55% of votes, while PR won 15 seats from around 45%. But this is a first past the post (FPTP) system.

In his final press conference before the polls, opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim was quoted to have said that Pakatan Rakyat can deny BN the two-thirds majority viz. by getting more than the minimum 24 seats for that to happen. As for Pakatan taking over the state government, Anwar was “cautiously optimistic.”

Fellow opposition members PKR and SNAP faced each other in several seats due to failure to reach a compromise. From what I have seen, SNAP did worse than PKR in those seats. Even their combined votes would not have been enough to defeat BN candidates.

Must have used up countless color ink cartridges printing all those posters, brochures, pamphlets etc.

Notable results:

N63 Piasau: Ling Sie Kiong (DAP) defeated Datuk Patinggi Tan Sri Dr George Chan Ho Nam (BN-SUPP), the Deputy Chief Minister and SUPP President. Ling received 5,998 votes to Dr George’s 4,408. In 2006, Dr George won by a majority of 3,918.

N51 Balingian: Chief Minister and PPBB president Tan Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud won with a majority of 5,154, which is a slight reduction from 2006′s 5,726.

My brother was invited to an all-expenses paid weekend to watch the FIA Formula One World Championship’s Petronas Malaysia Grand Prix at Sepang International Circuit last weekend.

He said he’ll be at the grandstand, for he’s in possession of a 4-figure priced ticket.

It seemed to be a perfect way to spend a Sunday afternoon, sipping beers (although not cheap at RM18 per can), people (read: girls) watching and being close to the action on the best seats.

But after a while, our SMS exchanges changed in tone – he said it’s far too loud and the smell of burning tyres overpowering. Finally, he said being there once is enough; no need to be a next time.

Other things he mentioned:

- You need to buy (no renting) special headsets costing RM100 that protects your ears from the almighty racket and to listen to live commentaries. You buy them from who else but scantily clad girls lining the way from the main entrance to the grandstand.
- Every F1 ticket holder is given ear plugs but these won’t be good enough noise filters.
- The best seats are between block N2.07 to N2.09 (Diamond category) – nearest to the where the pit babes/race queens, cars and drivers make their entrance.
- Diamond category seats, for the weekend, costs RM1,000+, inclusive of free lunch and high tea, also free bus to/from KLCC to Sepang.
- you’ll have to walk about 1km from the parking lot to your seats. Don’t bother to bring in food – all bags are checked and no outside food is allowed in. There are plenty of foodstalls inside the circuit. Grandstand ticket holders are given food coupons for western food.
- the race starts 4pm and ends 5.30pm. It’s recommended to hop on the bus from KLCC at 11.30am because then you’ll be able to see 2 pre-races i.e. the Malaysian super series race & Asian super series race.
- after the race, even with the many people making their way out, effective traffic control systems enables you to reach KLCC in 1-2 hours.

So perhaps F1 is not everybody’s cup of tea.

Still, I pictured him at the afterparty rubbing shoulders with the drivers. Alas, that was only for VVIPs…

On 10th April around 9.20pm, as my 2 kids and I were on our way out of the Megalong Cineplex after watching Mars Needs Moms 3D, we encountered a commotion near the lift of the 4th floor, on the corridor separating the games room and the karaoke place.

There were 2 teenage girls there, crying and sometimes getting hysterical, being comforted by their friends as they were being led out of the karaoke place and into the games room.

I thought it was the usual loafing-kids-fighting case, but then someone from the group, on seeing me carrying my 3-year-old daughter, told me that the place is “not good for kids” and we better scram, that the 2 girls saw an “orang halus” (a ghost) inside one of the karaoke rooms.

Well, I thought it’s rather odd that ghosts would invade a noisy room full of kids singing out of tune. I thought they preferred to strike at lone targets in quiet places!

I was still processing that when I heard more screaming from the karaoke room, causing the guys and staff alike scampering in.

That’s when I thought it’s probably a good idea that we make our way downstairs to the waiting car for home.

So next time you’re at Donggongon, Penampang, that’s something different to look out for other than hydroxatone scams being peddled.

Any relation to the mall’s first suicide case on 13th September 2010?

My parents being Abba fans, I got a liberal dose of Abba right from the seventies. When this album came out about 30 years ago, I was hooked from the first listen. Until today.

Perhaps for majority of “hip” music fans, Abba was decidedly uncool. In fact, I remember that 20 years ago I was laughed at by some of my British friends for being in possession of the CD.

Perhaps it’s their image, but I think that when it comes to writing and producing pop music, Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus were right there at the top. I’d even go so far as to say that Super Trouper is one of the greatest pop albums ever recorded. Every single song here is a total classic – even the unheralded ones like Me And I, Andante Andante and The Piper. This could very well be Abba’s finest hour, and indeed, all of pop.

The fact that songs of such quality went unheralded in Super Trouper – in a lesser band they would surely have been singles – I think this showed how world class Abba’s talents were.

That’s it – I’ve loaded the thumbdrive with more than 50 of the best Abba songs – it’s gonna be Abba all the way in the car at least for this week.

Faro Illop AG, a Swiss-American company specializing in commissioning ultra-secure bunkers has expressed interest in constructing a vault built into Malaysia’s highest mountain, to be used by government and commercial entities.

A spokesman for the company recently revealed that the company had been involved as a subcontractor to world-renowned vaults such as the Svalbard Global Seed Vault in Norway, Granite Mountain in the US and the now-infamous Bahnhof Pionen data centre in Sweden which hosts the whistleblower website Wikileaks.

The interior of Bahnhof Pionen before it was converted in a data centre; previously it was a civil defence center built into the White Mountains in Stockholm to protect critical government functions from nuclear strikes.

As such, he said, the company is now confident in venturing out on its own to offer its expertise, initially focusing on developing countries, as these countries, with their growing affluence, have now found themselves in need of such facilities, yet couldn’t quite afford to engage the services of more established engineering companies with expertise in such a specialized area.

While the idea of drilling several hundred metres of solid rock deep into Kinabalu National Park – Malaysia’s first UNESCO World Heritage Site – might horrify environmentalists, the spokesman assured that construction would have minimal effect on the surroundings, while the finished product would blend perfectly with the park.

The entrance to the completed project could look like Granite Mountain’s (below), which is a mass of solid rock, more specifically quartz monzonite. It goes 600 feet deep into the mountain.

The spokesman hinted that access road to the entrance could go through the park, and added that the proposed site is perfect because of the geological stability of Crocker Range, which is located outside the Pacific Ring of Fire. In addition, it is located several thousand feet above sea level, thus eliminating any possibility of any flood or tsunami hitting the area. Of course it would be totally impossible to be broken into by criminals, unlike ordinary vaults.

The spokesman added that this venture would make perfect economic sense, in a way that
easy personal loans are sought after by the masses. Services it provides could be made available to any government body like the Archives Department or even the Agriculture Department, private entities like banks to store their gold bars and even wealthy individuals looking for the most secure place to store their valuables.