zurich yodles

notes from the shadows of alps.

right now i'm quite worried of the weather actually. storm had hit the northern parts of europe, delaying flights and travel in cities as close as frankfurt and munich (which are only about 2 to 3 hours drive). vienna in austria faced warnings of storms hitting tonight. and just now in zurich, weather was windy. very windy. no snow, though. this year, like everybody else said, europe is relatively warm and temperature is above average. however according to the weather channel snow is predicted to be falling in zurich next tuesday. hopes are thin though and why am i starting to sound like cnn? *turns tv off*

for those who are geographically-challenged, zurich is in switzerland. for the wiser, it's the biggest city in switzerland, one of the biggest banking and financial capital in the world and it's not the capital of the neutral country because the capital is in bern. zurich is located in the german-speaking region of switzerland, french-speaking being cantons near france in geneva and luzern, italian in the south. the headquarters of FIFA is located here, among other organisations, including former sauber petronas research center. as it is the heartbeat switzerland anyway (biggest number of nightclubs in europe, they claim), be prepared to encounter alarming swiss efficiency which comes hand in hand with absolute punctuality, high hospitality and state-of-the-art amenities and perfect modes of transportation. and i did mention punctual, aite? damn it, i meant that by really really punctual. these guys make the best clocks in the world anyway. if you're to board a train at 17.17, make sure you catch it by 17.16, because if you come at 17.18, well, just say auf wiedersehen to the train baby. beats ktm hard time.

immigration is smooth as a whistle. CHOCOLATES, are deliciously mind-blowing. i could eat them everyday. simply saying, it's a heaven for chocolate lovers - even the chocolate sundae at mcdonald's is lovely. take that you strawberry freaks. cheese are the best so head for their dairy products fresh from the alps (though eating cheese to much can cause an uncomfortable feeling of, you know, muak-ness). people are clean-cut and beautiful, anywhere everywhere from limmatquai to the haupbahnhof. bahnofstrasse, the main shopping street is suprisingly, pleasantly reasonable and bearable while high-end retails still dominate parts of the street. prices drop like the temperature, for many stores are on their way to clear their holiday stuffs and make way for newer products - some go as far as 70%.

food ok, barang ok, pictures ok. basically, ok lah. no wonder people here are happy. zurich boasts itself as the best city with the best standards of life on the planet. however life surely looked simpler in this city owing to the fact that banking in zurich is, simply, big. unseen highly secured vaults storing accounts from all over the world are hidden by sleek rolex, patek philippe and omega stores; bankers roam the city everywhere and money just keeps flowing and flowing like the water of the zurichsee.

so far it's all good. maybe it's because it's switzerland, everything's neutral and you're dealing with a country that loves neutrality - it didn't participate in both world wars and only accepted the EU membership during recent years. our tourist guide went as far as saying that switzerland is not europe. i believe she was not being literal, though. with germany in the north, french in the west, east there's austria and italy in the south, how would you not be europe?

heard today; the swiss tourguide was having a chat with a tourist from florida:

"oh, i've been to florida before, but i find it flat," (pauses)

"there's no mountains."

currently knocking away reality before reality knocks me out. danke!

p/s: alles gute zum geburtstag fana suhaimi! sweet 18 :D

syukrishairi.

Hilton Zurich Airport, January 18, 11.08 PM. GMT+1

intricate scribblings, sort of

All the boys who the dance floor didn't love
And the girls who's lips couldn't move fast enough
Sing, until your lungs give out

i'm kind of sure i've heard the song before somewhere, but only until recently both fly and hitz started to play the song repetitively, making way for the song to be on the top of the charts whatsoever. i was like gila lah i love the freaking 'oh so intricate' beat and all but i didn't catch the dj saying the bands name! to the utmost ironic when the dj is on the way to say the bands name, i'll be like talking, smsing, not paying attention or the radio's stuck yadayada. but i did catch 'race', then i searched for the song at the top billboards, thinking that i may be a three days grace or rascal flatts song (which is, illogical). frustrated, i found nothing. asking eireen wasn't much a help either. instead we hooked up to a silly conversation of how the chi dimsum (one of the regular lepak place down at mall) is, according to her, facing bankruptcy and will shut down soon! there goes my favourite lobakko. but anyway, finally, of course, i got the bands' name lah. it's FALL OUT BOY damn it! padan lah suka! grr. all the addictive punk rock beat!! qayum disliked them, though, holding to the thought that punk rock is well, not original rock.

suke hati die ah. but whatever it is, i'm a leading man! and the lies i weave are OH SO INTRICATE! agagaga.

(for those still not getting it, it's fall out boy's new single 'this ain't a scene')

3 to 4 hours before i have to leave for the airport for my adelaide flight, i was still laughing and joking at sacc's secret recipe, celebrating shauqi's birthday and simply chilling the time out with zahira, syafiq j, afif, jijah, siah and all of them, laughing without the awareness that i'm not yet packed my stuffs. i know, crazy enough. i still had the time to have a haircut, and merayau, and bumped into awin and boroi and ain, then borak borak some more. i thought mom's going to membebel when i got home, but suprisingly, she didn't. so i packed, and i succeeded before 6 pm. how jolly.

i'm still not packing anything now. mom's going to kill me. where's my passport? and why am i blogging? damn it i'm hungry lah :(

anyway, mahfuz got the chance to meet saiful nang (among others) and even went snapping around the petaling street with the rest of the candidsyndrome photographers! what a lucky guy, still, i feel annoyed and envious. haha. so enthusiastic, he asked me to follow him capturing fireworks down at the eye on malaysia at titiwangsa. like yeah, right. i'm a dumbo in shutter speeds and aperture, really. standing next to mahfuz, i'll be like a very miniature amateur. haha. enough said, mate.

good thing he invited all of us to ranting down at shah alam walk for a decent lepak session though (decent lah sangat) sunday night. shazwan drove, while us L-holders athari and i sit at the back, haziq at the front. then there's encik rashaad, mahfuz of course, ibrahim, and an unknown friend. then gazi with his wounded knees joined us, together with meme, edzmir and mad. i got this teh tarik in this one very big mug. taktau asal, they're out of mugs lah kot. those who shisha-ed shisha la (GAGA). laughed hysterically man, and everything was out. toss!

terima kasih kepade kedai baju cap GAP di 1 utama, for some reasons. ngeheh :D

i didn't install that rayman game yet. syafiq cakap kelakar, but it's nowhere to be found now. it's about rabbits basically. i wanted to buy warcraft but uzair said it would be quite challenging to be played alone. hence, the CC sessions they're enganging.

by the way, i actually went to the pameran teknologi something something islam down at klcc. full of budak sekolah (budak skolah agame especially) though, as it is highly educational. its like a 3D buku sejarah and agama combined together. but kudos for the effort, though the pameran really needs more competent facilitators to, well, facilitate with the infos and all (one faci even didn't know what's 'parit' in english, god, it's trench for clarity's sake!). and be prepared to encounter nerds, saying 'oh aku tau ape konsep benda ni' and 'oh aku tau cmane bende ni berfungsi' making your bulu roma meremang for good and felt sick all of a sudden. also i think the exhibition really needs a clearer visitor flow, because people are scattered everywhere and the exhibits are also scattered eveywhere. dumb visitors like me doesn't know where to start. good thing was i met (the 'who i'd like to meet' scoreboard!) hafiz and ridzuan, old friends which is not so old now because they also went to rahman for driving. then all of a sudden i bumped into sabrina and nasehah, but without qurratul! lovely. then again, the exhibition could make you wonder about how great our religion's civilisation is (more correctly, was) , plus it's free, plus for those who is jobless, it's beneficial.

anyhow,

i want to express this out again - kek yussy sedap! buy it haha. available in sizes S, M and L. i recommend S la for beginners. my parents loved it, even my opah loved it. even sedap-er than than cake athari and qayum bought for eireen when we celebrated her birthday earlier! :D but yusra, my mum said the cake would be much more lovelier if you make the outer layer of the cake fancier. that is, some deco to spice things up. but you've passed the tastebuds of my favourite chef, sister! haha. she'll send the cake to your houses, but if you want to go to her house to pick your cake up, than it's fine also la. but i must assure you that you won't regret it. even if you don't believe in the idea of carrots being inside cakes. wait for her cheesecake, people! :D

gergh, this just makes me hungrier. i want to masak some telur and makan them with the nasi goreng. shiok or not? ok, then pack. til then, take care blokes and senioritas! i'll be watching you, muahaha. joining bella and azim in europe. hehe. off! :)

www.mahfuz89.fotopages.com
www.myspace.com/yussyhadalittlelamb
www.myspace.com/falloutboy
www.saifulnang.fotopages.com

level up

i just noticed that i didn't update the blog for a relatively quite long time. i got that right, right? haha. not quite sure why. must be the laziness. anyway i've an array of things to be written, or to babble about, or in a more formal way update, but didn't get the chance to do so, like

i) the tiring but suprisingly interesting trip to bukit cherakah with mahfuz (knowing that it is bukit cerakah anyway)
ii) YUSSY'S CAKE business (hint: not bad! rockstars actually bake nowadays!)
iii) night at the museum review (and maybe tentang bulan and v for vendetta review lol)
iv) form two pictures aqeela gave me yesterday. boy, it was speechlessly shocking! i'm thinking of making comparisons. you know, dulu and sekarang changes type of pictures. and put it here. we've came a very very long way, man.
v) among others (this includes numerous lepak sessions during last week that are just too typical to be posted in a public blog)

orchids at bukit cerakah

and i actually DID NOT make a full post about
i) the memorable, f-adventurous langkawi trip (it was only a one-picture with some sentences post)
ii) the gathering, no extensive pictures with words whatsoever, just some little portions in between somewhere in some posts.
iii) adelaide, yes, but not the whole part of it.

however some of the pictures from these are accessible through friendster. photobucket, anyway, is limitlessly slow. no pictures in flickr, though.

currently,

i) i'm not ready with any winter apparels yet. but i guess it'll be ok kot. i've entered the climate house at bukit cerakah on thursday with mahfuz at a temperature between -2° and -7°C wearing only ONE layer of a freaking t-shirt, jeans, underwear, and a pair of selipar. so i should be surviving this coming trip. i WISH. fine, i'll be ready with those stupid parkas and long johns.
ii) got my L license, but didn't inform rahman about any driving practices yet. in other words, i didn't started anything with the actual latihan memandu with the driving school. the procrastinating spirit is back and alive again.
iii) somebody from limkokwing called and informed me that i'll be getting a rebate of RM 2000 if i register before (or on) this sunday. i had a chronic sakit perut that time, and i said i'd call later. i haven't, yet.
iv) want to hangout with saudari namie. swensen's :(

four seasons climate house, bukit cerakah

atikah is leaving for bali in a short while at 4.40 PM. as soon as she touched down in KL next tuesday, i'll be leaving for zurich for good, haha. just to jot things down, sarah & azli got the offer to do their medic studies in russia. HOT eh? seriously. congrats to both. aidil's entering taylor's on the 17th, but under the petronas programme la. this guy is sengal because he didn't told me he went to langkawi sometime during this week. haha. kidding lah mat. takut org mintak souvenir aa tu. agaga. :D

by the way i welcome new readers! leave your traces aite :D

12 days in 2007, still counting, with so many things to be accomplished. have great days ahead of you normal people, maniacs and extra maniacs! :)

sunsets

takes little time to upload. be patient!

Shah Alam from Macaque Hill (say, Bukit Beruk); October 29, 2006

Adelaide at Glenelg Beach; December 25, 2006

Kedah, train moving towards Alor Setar; December 18, 2006

Langkawi at Pantai Cenang, December 17, 2006.

try to freeze time and you'll turn cold. enjoy it without rushing, you'll feel warm at heart.

bumpy rides

i love limkokwing. no, i can't. it's exorbitantly expensive damn it. but nooo the course looks interesting. taylor's cheaper. taylor looks good. but no, wait, limkokwing has better-looking goody bags! plus they come with nice car stickers! but taylor's cheaper damn it!

aaaaaaa.

but either way the edufair was suprisingly great. it HELPED a lot. i'm really glad i came. very. if it's not for tqa, fateen, azim amer & siah, i wouldn't be there. even kuvindran joined us too! seriously unexpected. kuvin was a very very very longlost friend. literally. we virtually lost him until we met him today, all looking good whatsoever. to add some extra points to 'who i'd like to meet' scoreboard, adibah nor mokles bumped into us too at the komuter! apparently, she's on the way to meet her balak at the klcc, she went to the edufair a day earlier with najah. SO I SEEE. haha. then at the convention centre, all of a sudden i bumped (again, literally) into shahmir and ammar near the taylor's booth. ammar looked drowsy as always, and shahmir got this 'look, i'm a gentleman now and i'm a chick magnet' look. blah lah kau. haha.

best booth was doctorjob. stick to that. doc-tor-job. and nothing other. okay. let's think clean here. they provided magazines, catalogues, leaflets etc etc about career, courses and stuffs; and actually explained them. and i must say, they provided hell of good explanations. plus the red plasticbags are nice. i actually asked one person a pathetic 'where did you got this bag' question, rather desperately because everybody was like carrying it around. when i found the booth, then, oh patutlah. so, good thing.

second, limkokwing. there's no third. haha. oh goodness.

when my (read: our) perut growled, i tried the kueyteow at little penang cafe, the one adjacent to studio R near kinokuniya. very nice! but i think madam kwan's better kot. because little penang's prawns at times tasted a little bit too fresh. but it's still good to be hit if your tastebuds are crazy about kueyteow and stuffs. you know, taugeh, kerang, eggs in it and all that. so if you're at klcc, gerak madam kwan's first, then little penang cafe, then at this particular penang restaurant down at signature, then at this restaurant down near isetan facing the park. i know, i know, not helping much. just makan lah.

still don't have the chance to try that haunted kueyteow near fam in kelana jaya, though. sigh.

but taylor's good jugak what. HA.

anyway, on january 6, 2007, i managed to stay at home for 24 hours for the first time ever since i set my pencils down during my last spm paper!! toss for that one!! woohoo! what an achievement. i'm so proud, i watched dvd all day! haha. spring cleaning my room in the night because mama was bising with the (for me, bearable) untidiness.

then next day first thing in the morning i set off for kl, giving no way for another passive day. how jolly. i'm vacant tomorrow. anyone? anyone?! wait, i should practice driving. speaking of which, i drove ayah's volvo the other day. conclusion: dead. manual is all about the fucking clutch. the very very very annoying clutch. plus that volvo's heavy, and i messed with the wrong car at first. but in the end smooth jugak whaaaat haha. so far nothing and nobody have been hit. cemerlang ah tu.

koklimwing. wingkoklim. limkokwing. grr.

anyway utm booth sucks. i asked, in pure malay, for the requirements needed in order to be able to pursue your studies in so-called diploma senibina (architecture lah tu). i was replied with a nonchalant 'tak tahu' 'tak sure lah' answer. she called her colleague, not suprisingly the guy replied with the same answer. 'kita kena tanye dr nazri', or at least i think it was nazri. or dr naztsure. like come on, wake up wake up!! i was asking a simple question didn't i?

but kudos to the star, because the whole thing is proven helpful, especially for helpless chaps like me. really. haha. and i bought a good switzerland guidebook! yay, excited excited haha. batak gila. but usually, people, it's worth doing your homework. tour guides sometimes are unoriginal. explore by yourself, then you'd feel rocked. i said, usually la. haha. *grins*

athari kate je nak johari malam ni gagaga.

liyana z messaged all the way from sabah. die kirim salam semua ye. 'best' katenye (followed by this ancient emoticon ---> -_-). wonder what that means. shut up dude, your turn's coming. geesh. haha. see ya!

many happy returns! much love :D

figure out a title for this one

limkokwing, anyone? haha.

lagenda is totally kicked out at its ass. it's fcknglegendary now.

anyway.

mom as we were in the dapur, "tau tak.., mrsm mane yg pmr die paling hebat tahun ni"
knowing her rhythmic cynical words, i replied, without hesitation, "pasir salak,"
"ha, kan? tu laaa"

i didn't remember what i replied actually. but i'm pretty sure that i was exhausted with this pathetic and annoying side of reality. i mean, it was my choice, my decision to not be a budak asrama, an mrsm student, a studyfreako, or whatever, though i have the very chance to do so. i didn't regret it, but the second people brag and snort about it makes me want to puke badly (at them, especially). definitely, i don't know what will happen if i go to pasir salak and study there, probably taking haziq together with me and joining aizat and dzarief. one sure thing is, we'll never study lk and we'll become a bio student. a bio student *echo*. the good is, i'll get the chance to play rugby. but that's not about it lah kan.

i just love it when people respect me, or at least my decisions, the way they (or/and their decisions) want to be respected. everybody deserves that.

just printed a copy of the gambar gathering (the pic is similar to the one below but much much, er, kind of a better portrait) at the mall. 8R sized, RM10. but i didn't like what the kedai did with the printing. they actually cropped the picture. so, EK. reject. searching for another kedai to make 28 copies of the picture so every each of the peeps in the pic can simpan the gambar. any good suggestions of good kedai gambar, people?

off to bengkel teori 3 jam tomorrow. selamat!

(currently thinking for a way to post useful posts in the future)

dropping loads

well, here's a simple quote for today: it's not about what you do, it's about how you do it. yeah yeah. it's like this la, it's not about reading the post, it's about how you read the post. i mean, that's how to relate it in a way lah kan. kan? oooo crap. haha.

i woke up late to a breakfast session. lambat in a sense la, i still made it to d.e anyway. :D the whole thing (kind of) started at 8.30am, i arrived at 10 something. talking about making an appearance. :P so anyway i was suprised to see qayum there, melangut cam ape between imanul and nabila. bet he was bored. haha. sat at hanisah's seat - she left early - between faiz and hanan. in front of me was amir, then there's shwada, SYAZA! malina, sarah, azlyn, syazana, nadia and sheila. borak with qayum mostly about useless stuffs of course. i mean other people were talking about exhausting topics (i.e the advanced level of lepas sekolah life) so we did what we usually do best - merapu. then i got up to sheila, mainly about architecture stuffs, i mean, the course and all that. she'd do a good mentor. HEHE

so anyway, I'M TALLER THAN SHWADA! yeaaahhppp hahaha :D

then qayum sent me to the mall, then he sent nabila balik rumah, bcs nabila had to go back to matriks melaka in the afternoon - with tasha! haha. jeng jeng. he em. so, anyway. menyinggah at tqa's kedai, of course. then walked home. sumpah dah lame x jalan balik rumah - from mall! tau, pathetic gila. dependant sgt kat kereta. HAISH.

in the afternoon i went ice-skating with ab, dira & fana. but i think i wasn't skating - i was walking all the time. haha. sengal je. fobia tergolek dulu kot. at least this time kaki tak sakit. wahaha. met syafiq j - the bodyguard - 's sister, syafiqa with her friend amirah. and i have to say, they're gooood. peh. showoffs. :D

in the petang petang i test drived myvi again. this time ramai gila orang dkt parking stadium. mule2 cuak gak takut langgar kerete org ke hape ke. then lame2 ok ok je. :D dah steady dah kot. haha. bleh ar bwk auto. kalau nak practice pakai manual kena pakai volvo ayah - MATI! that kereta kebal equivalent. tapi sure cool kalau cam bleh bwk that volvo around. rase vintage!

then in the night i followed ayah to check up on our old house in section 19 (area ghazi HAHA yeah rite). but the whole time i borak with capek b je, about stuffs and all, by the time ktrg belum abis conversation ayah has stopped checking. hm capek has alll the things to talk lah. haih.

lapar.. :(

to readers yg masih di bangku sekolah (no pun intended) - go to sleep now!! esok sekolah! hua hua.

ok is rosliyah the sekolah's new pengetua? i mean, if she is, well..AT LAST kan? haha. off! XD