This is a true story and it happened yesterday (20/6), I’ve had a new experience in my line of work. I was working as always when suddenly one worker came running to me saying that there is a drunk tractor driver chasing other workers with a “parang”. I immediately called the security guard and believe it or not, he said he wouldn’t dare to go to a drunk running amok with a “parang”. I am quite angry at the time, because who will go and calm the person if the security doesn’t dare. What if somebody got hurt?

I am not that brave also, but I take a deep breath and “tawakal” to Allah. I asked three of my other workers and we went to the driver’s place. . There I saw him alone, no “parang” what so ever.

“Fuuh! lega!”. Immediately after he saw us, he get upset and start cursing. I asked all those with me to remain quiet and just stand by if he attacked or anything. I slowly approached him and I tried my best to maintain that innocent look of not knowing what happened. I asked him to start from the beginning. After a lot of cursing and incoherent words… he explained to me what’s the problem.

I guess his thought became more organized to properly explain to me and thus he started to calm down. I was agreeing with everything he said and promised him to settle his problem myself.

FYI – he is a contractual tractor driver taking the waste of the mill out. He is not employed by the mill but by nearby estates. And he was paid by amount of load he can do everyday. The more he can load out, the more money he get. To load the waste will require mill’s shovel, which was not available at the tme. That’s why he’s angry.

Of course in order for me to help him, I insist he must surrender the “parang”. Everything’s settled. When I walked back I can see him laughing, maybe because he think I will now do what ever he wants. Obviously I then called his manager and banned him from entering the mill compound ever again. Oh ya, no one’s was hurt fortunately.

Lesson learnt –

• My security need to sit down and come up with proper plan for all emergency. Luckily this is just a drunk case, where I can still reason with him. If it were a crazy person who just want to kill others, the workers will be all dead before police came.
• I need to sit down and come up with my proper plan for all emergency. The problem with emergency is that it usually happen when you lease expected and if you panic, things will only just get worse. Hm do you guys ever plan what to do in emergency? like your bus toppled or burglar inside the house? I think I should..

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There was a man at Bukit Kayu Hitam (The border of Thailand and Malaysia). We will call him Nasir (from “pasir”). He was seen to cross the border to and fro everyday riding a bicycle with two sacks of sands.

One day, a custom officer, who we will call Faisal (From “officer”), noticed Nasir carrying the sack from Thailand into Malaysia. He immediately stopped Nasir and asked him what’s inside the sack. Nasir said, “it’s just sand, sir.” Faisal did not believe him. Who would waste time carrying in sands like that. There must be rice or illegal things inside. Faisal then smashed the sacks of sands onto the road and found that Nasir was telling him the truth. There were just sands. Nasir then slowly gathered what remains from the sands and filled it back into the smashed sacks.

The next day, Faisal, the immigration officer, stopped him again, and did the same thing, expecting he might soon catch Nasir smuggling rice, or drugs into Malaysia. But there were nothing else inside the sacks but sands. Faisal started to feel sorry for the old man. And Nasir continued bringing the sacks into Malaysia everyday for 2 years straight. Of course Faisal did spot check from time to time but to no avail.

After the two years, Nasir had stopped crossing the border. And one day during breakfast Faisal met his old friend, Nasir at the coffee shop looking quite wealthy and very different from two years back. After a long chit chat, Faisal asked Nasir.. “Now tell me the truth, why do you brought in sands from Thailand to here? What do you actually do for a living?”

Nasir said : “I smuggled bicycle”

(Source – Forwarded joke rewritten from memory)

Lesson learnt

• We often see the world expecting everything will be familiar and easily understandable. We prefer not to challenge our mind looking from another perspective. For example, we look at a thin man with red eye, immediately we label him as a drug addict. He might just be Bill Gates trying out contact lense. Who knows? 🙂
• Next time, we see anything. traffic jam, beloved parents, even jokes like the above, maybe we can try looking it from another point of view.
• “Gajah depan mata tak nampak, Kuman seberang laut nampak pulak”

————— Personal Note ————————–
I don’t actually recall my first time riding a bicycle. But I remember exactly how my brother first learn to ride the bicycle. Our father forced him to learn, and in doing so, he injured himself falling. (Not to say injured, but fall down la :p). So one night, he actually took a knife to tear the bicycle tyre. I’m not so sure whether he succeeded or not, but the amazing thing is… the very next day was the day he finally able to ride the bicycle. 🙂 So guys, how did you learn to ride bicycle?

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Summary – How to avoid zero balance in your bank account by end of month
I don’t know about you, but when I first started working, I can’t seem to be able to save money. I received my paycheck, withdraw some to pay this, another some to pay that. By the time I reach the next paycheck, the balance in my account is zero.

Then I think to myself : “Of course la, just started working, obviously will spend a lot to establish myself. I’ll wait for my next increment and by then I must have extra money to be saved every end of month”

2 years passed by just like that, and with all the increments, revision and bonus, I still have zero balance at the end of the month. Now something is wrong!!

Later I learnt of a concept which is “Pay Yourself First“. Buying a new handphone is not considered paying yourself first ya :). Every month when I got my paycheck, I must take out some money and put it in another bank before anything else. And just forget about the money ever saved there.

I’ve already practised this for quite some time and guess what, my lifestyle seem to automatically adapt to my budget, rather than the other way around. Previously, I considered this an impossible thing to do and I may end up drawing the money out of the bank (Actually I really forget I got the money there eheh).

Well it’s very true what they say – “Lagi besar periuk, lagi besarlah keraknya”

————— Personal Note ————————–
A true confession from me. I am a shopaholic. Not in the common way, I don’t go to the mall buying everything I see, but almost everytime I will think of something to buy, how to spend money. laptop, ram, 320GB HD, domain name, car accesories, and many more. I don’t really need them. But it give me great pleasure when I am on a shopping spree. Luckily I still have some control on this. Anyone else out there the same with me?

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summary – Impossible things now may be possible tomorrow
What if suddenly we found a time machine and go back to see Hang Tuah. He then asked us how is the life in the 21st century. We may answer like this.

• We can chat with anybody from anywhere in the world (via internet)
• All information ever existed can be search in mere seconds (via internet)
• We can see what happen around the world the moment it happen (television)
• We can cook without fire (microwave)
• We can fly (aeroplane)
• We can travel around the world in less than 80 hours

Think about it, for us these are nothing new and very common. But to Hang Tuah, he must think that we are just bluffing him. There’s no way all that is even possible.

If we travel back even further, maybe to the caveman period, they may even think that we are supernatural being or even god with all these common technology.

That is why I always believe that in time we will understand the mystery of God’s creation that is now assumed to be unexplainable and spiritual. For example :

• Other dimension – where djin and satan resides
• Space travel at speed faster than light – israk mikraj
• ESP – extra sensory perception

Now if only there are people researching this.. hm

Note – Hang Tuah is a Malay legendary warrior back in the 1400

————— Personal Note ————————–
I am actually a big fan of Hang Tuah’s legend. I may not support him in some decision he made like the execution of his brother, Hang Jebat. I don’t even know whether he existed or not. But, in an indirect way I think he is still the main motivation for me to study silat during my study. I still remember, my colleague and I actually go to Kuala Terengganu four or five weeks before our final to participate in the training organized there 🙂

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