Malaysian GP

Lately, the Formula 1 hadn't been catching my imagination. Maybe it was more to do with my age rather than anything else. I hardly knew the new faces, let alone learned about their driving styles. But this being the Malaysian Gp and all, I decided to take notice and was in front of the TV all afternoon explaining to Idlan what Formula 1 was all about. Of course we were sharing the macaroons while we were discussing it.

I also noticed that the stands were pretty empty compadre to the years gone past. Which is a worry as the GP used to be one of the crowning sporting event locally, at least when I was still in the UK. I was also perplexed with the fact that both the Malaysian Open Golf and the GP took place on the same weekend. Somebody may have messed up on the planning I thought ...... They didn't get the memo possibly.

The race turned out to be quite interesting, especially now in the closing few laps, I just saw teammates Vettel and Weber going at each other trying to snatch the lead. Imagine if there were contact between the two, one taking another out. The team meeting would be rather interesting ........

At ntv7 Today

It wasn't the first time that I was asked to appear on a live television talk show. The last time was about 2 years ago when I was still at the University. It was always at Angkasapuri, and almost always in Malay - I did do a radio interview in English before. So, when I was approached to appear on a show in English, I just jumped at the chance. And this time it was at ntv7, in a women late morning talk show, appropriately called Bella Confidential.

Despite the target audience and gender slant, the subject matter should appeal to everyone. It was concerning the option of stem cell transplant as treatment in lymphoma and leukaemia, my bread and butter subject.

The talk started off by introducing a couple of patients - one had seen me previously - both treated at Hospital Ampang. They unfortunately suffered a relapse after their initial treatment and were currently being prepared for transplant, but in one of the lady's case, she had yet to find a suitable donor. The patient did very well in sharing their experience, and I couldn't help but feel that even without the segments with the doctors, the audience would have caught the geez of the discussion.

Waiting before going on airGroup photo - a lady from KPJ, Scha, Vanessa, Alia, Kim Yen and myselfI was there with a colleague from Ampang Puteri, Kim Yen. She was my predecessor at UMMC, and we took turn in discussing the subject from the medical point of view. Although it only lasted about 10 minutes, I thought we managed to get the key points across to the audience. The pacing was OK, and the moderator allowed ample opportunity for us to maneuver the discussion. I was pretty pleased with it in the end. I remember my discussion at RTM being cut short before when the program had to show a live feed - about a Minister officiating some event in town. At the end of that, I just wondered why they invited me in the first place.

Here, things were more laid back. There were no set script, and as a result, the discussion flowed freely.

And another highlight of the morning was actually meeting Ramli Ibrahim, the famed Odissi dancer. He was bigger in person, very personable, and he was there to promote an even coming on in the next few weeks. He offered me some tickets for the events, but I was more interested in talking to him about other things. Fascinating guy.

A Touch of Local Football

It was a toss between watching Mania, or a glimpse of what Malaysian football had to offer. Sime Darby was playing Kelantan in the FA Cup Final tonight and the match was shown live on TV. Should I be rooting for Kelantan, or be a loyal servant of Sime Darby?

The match so far had been a drab affair. It was almost unfathomable how this bunch of "professionals" managed to get even the basics of trapping the ball and making 10 yard passes wrong. But what they managed to do right was copy their European counterpart at diving and feigning injuries. In the last 10 minutes alone, I had seen a few cynical challenges, and the majority were coming from the Sime Darby ranks.

Kelantan were clearly playing the more attractive football, but they were being frustrated by the Sime Darby defensive formation. And don't get me started with the crowds taking with them the laser devices. Malaysia clearly still have a long way to go Even to reach the heyday of Mokhtar Dahari ....... But we are getting there hopefully.

The Code was Broken

So, as expected, I had been watching some quality television tonight while my boys spent the evening at their room. Suffice to say that in the last hour, they had managed to create such mess.

Left to my own devices, I flipped through the TV channel, and stumbled into this. "Breaking the Magician's Code". This must have been the fifth time I had watched this. But it remained riveting each time. So, for some light entertainment, why not?

Good night, and have a great weekend.

Plans for Today

Breakfast was done. I went down first with my parents and Anita went down separately later as the boys were still asleep. It was almost 1 in the morning when they finally calmed down and fell to sleep. It looked like we probably had to order room service breakfast for them for tomorrow. I'm still not sure what time they would be up.

Plans for today? The wearer was rather gloomy. The plan to walk out with my camera had to be delayed. Depending on what time the boys getting up, we would decide them. Driving around to Batu Feringghi still felt like a great idea.

As for now, I had to content myself with watching morning talk shows on RTM. Keeping that up, I might start to puke. Why must everything start with the letter 1? 1Malaysia, 1Sekolah ...... Zzzzzzz