Vocabulary

An Irish friend this weekend mentioned that when she was younger she met several members of the IRA, who were immediately recognisable, she noted for their 'coldness and arrogance'. These two characteristics I suspect, are what you need to make a terrorist. For while millions have grievances, often legitimate grievances, it takes a specific type to turn that grievance into a plan to execute in cold blood civilians on a large scale. The numbers, in fact, are very small, though their impact immense.

On the news the terms 'militant' and 'terrorist' have been used interchangeably. As George Szirtes points out,

People who deliberately focus on civilians are simply murderers. If they do so for a political purpose they are terrorists and murderers. Not militants. Not an army. They are murderers with a vastly inflated opinion of their own honour and righteousness. which also makes them hypocrites.

Mumbai Update 3

The Guardian has published the following account of Harry's son and girlfriend's ordeal in Mumbai. It is incredibly harrowing reading and even worse than I thought.

For Will Pike and his girlfriend, Kelly Doyle, a night in the Taj Mahal hotel was meant to be a treat to round off a two-week holiday in India.

Instead it ended with Will, 28, lying in a Mumbai hospital intensive care bed, his back broken in an attempt to escape the bullets and choking smoke by climbing down an improvised rope made from bedsheets, curtains and hotel towels.

They had checked in at 6pm after arriving from Goa, ventured out to the Leopold café - later to become the first place in the city to be attacked - then returned to their room intending to go down to the bar. As they got ready, the sound of explosions echoed up from the lobby: the terrorists were bursting into the hotel, throwing grenades and firing automatic weapons.

For five hours, the couple, from Camden in north London, cowered in their room, listening to the sound of approaching gunshots while the terrorists roamed the corridors, apparently firing at their fellow hostages.

read on

Mumbai update

Thanks to all readers who sent Harry their good wishes and thoughts, which he has read. The situation is as follows: his son and his son's girlfriend were on the final night of a two-week holiday in India. After a couple of weeks on the beach they decided to blow the budget on one night in a luxury hotel in Mumbai before flying out the following day. Unfortunately they chose the Taj Mahal.

After hearing gunshots in the hallway outside, they barricaded themselves in their room for seven hours until a fire on the floors above them and grenade in the next room compelled them to try to leave through a third floor window, using knotted bed linen. Unfortunately Harry's son fell and has multiple fractures. An operation on Thursday was successful but it will be a long road to recovery. Harry has now managed to get to Mumbai, arriving this morning.

On a personal level I am stunned at the minimal help offered by the Foreign Office, British Airways and his phone company (who had blocked calls to India and then said it would take 24 hours to unblock them). The practical support he has received has come through a network of friends who have been able to provide essential contacts in India, including doctors and Mumbai families.

kisah sang robot jadian.

ini kisah benar.buat main2.otak aku ligat berpusing.kerja melambak lagi.tp aku rasa aku dah tak boleh nak handle.setiap hari aku dihujani dengan bebanan kerja.bukan aku merungut.tapi aku pasti aku juga perlukan rehat macam orang lain.aku tak salahkan kerjaya yang aku pilih ini.aku bersyukur dengan rezeki yang aku dapat hingga ke hari ini.

aku seekor robot.aku samakan diri aku dengan robot.kerana apa? kerana setiap hari hidup aku amat terkawal.kurang bebas juga.pagi bangun tidur pukul 7.30 am, mandi bersiap hingga ke pukul 8.15 am.kemudian keluar dari rumah untuk menunggu teksi.sekitar 15 minit baru muncul teksi (itu pun kalau bertuah).sampai office dalam masa 5 minit.syukur tempat kerja tidak jauh dari rumah.sampai depan pintu office, swap tag (nanti dia kuar bunyik "tiiiitt").kemudian masuk office, duduk depan pc.on pc.on air cond.on lampu.lepas tu bukak file.lepas tu buat keje sampai pukul 10 am.kemudian turun makan for breakfast.naik jam 10.30 am.buat kerja lagi sampai pukul 1.00 pm turun lunch.aduihhh! penat menaip...hahaha~ pukul 2.00 pm tepat aku dh kena ada di tempat duduk mengadap kerja lagi sampai jam 6.00 pm.balik rumah.mandi.tidur.penat.

*untuk keesokkan hari nya korang cuma perlu ulang semula ayat2 kat atas tadi*

aku terkawal.aku tak menafikan yang kerja adalah untuk dapat habuan pada akhir bulan.tapi percaya tak kalau aku kata tak sampai dua minggu duit gaji aku akan habis.tolak itu, tolak ini.sewa rumah.etc.ini belum ada kereta lagi.belum berkahwin lagi.belum ada anak.tensi! :(

aku sebenarnya pun tak tau mcm mana nak buat dengan life aku ni.apa yang aku perlu lakukan ek? tak sama dengan zaman belajar.duit abes je "troot..troot..mummy boleh ke masuk duit belanja minggu ni?".tapi zaman tu dah abes.zaman minta famili tanggung makan minum.5 tahun belajar tak guna kalau masih makan duit famili.tensi! aku ni dah ada perasaan malu.malu yang menggunung kalau ttba minta duit famili.kalau terpaksa pun minta tolong abang kakak je.

so adakah sekarang ni aku berpura2 gembira? 

(kenapa dalam kepala aku ni mcm banyak soalan nak keluarkan? aneh.)

aku tak pura2.so far aku happy.

happy dengan life aku.kerja aku.kawan2 aku.cuma entah la.mungkin ini adalah kerana otak aku perlukan rehat.

aku penat.aku letih.

aku mati.

aku seekor robot.

p.s: aku kena pegi bercuti.no question.fullstop.tq!

kepada 'dia' yang berkenaan!

what's wrong with you???

ingat lu sorang ke yang bagus sangat!!!

meluat arh!!! ;(

kalau rasa diri tu dah bagus...jgn nak campur hal orang lain.

buat hal sendiri! 

stupid!! 

shikabane hime

went out to orchard aft sch ytd wif Fion, Ice, Karen and Victoria. walked ard and everythin. they decided to do air brush tattoo at one of de parlour at far east. LOL. i didn't do cuz in my opinoin, it's lame. :X:X i won't say my frens cuz it's thier opinion rite? no hard feelings. diff ppl diff thinkin XD (unless it's sponsored or at some event) but de stars look real nice. =D saw Hiso on de escalater hahaa bought my fave candy. fed neko when i got back home.

cravings. small kids ice cream. yumyum~ watched shikabane hime... but it starts licensing everywhere when i'm halfway thru episode 2!!!! DL for me someone! =((( yea.

will be going out later to meet up with de same bunch. and.. tis come sun is our 5 yr anniversary. heh. *rolls away*

The Thoughtful Dresser: The Book

Publication is late February. You can pre-order now


I hope to have further information about a US edition soon

Mumbai: alert

Thoughtful Dresser contributor Harry Fenton's son and girlfriend were staying in the Taj Mahal hotel in Mumbai during the ongoing terrorist attacks. His son has been seriously injured. Harry is going to Mumbai later today. Any helpful information will be gratefully received

UPDATE I had always been under the impression that if you were in this situation you rang the Foreign Office number the BBC gave out and everything kicked in, including BA sorting out your flights. As I have now discovered, you ring the number, and someone gives you another number which no-one answers. You're on your own.

UPDATE Thanks to all readers who have sent their messages to Harry which he's read and which are greatly appreciated. Things have been ironed out now and he'll be on his way to Mumbai in a few hours. We should have more to report in a day or two.

.sukan baik untuk kesihatan.

Ini team futsal saya.

masa tu semua gila filem 'Gol & Gincu'.hihi

tapi sekarang...jarang sangat bersua muka.

malah ada yang dah berkahwin pun.. :)

masing2 sibuk dengan hal sendiri2.begitu juga saya.

cuma alangkah indahnya kalau saya dapat putar semula masa saya dgn kawan2 saya ni.

:(

BYU-UTAH GAME

As you can imagine, the game wasn't so fun to watch. But Amber and Kevin came over to watch it with us and that was so fun. Amber taught us this "game" to play with pictures, so I thought I'd post them too. There are none of me, cause I really couldn't do it.

Salmon for the girls, brauts for the guys.

Kev's not bad, but just wait...

Now Amber, she just looks cute trying :)

This is what most of Amber's attempts turn out. It was hard not to laugh!

Pete was definitely the best. Big mouth, what can I say?

Can't help but laugh!

The big men's creche on Regent Street

Egged on at the weekend by my sister and nephew who were laughing at my Iron Age iPod Nano, I went and bought an iPod Touch (at John Lewis, of course, home of middle-class, middle-aged electronics).

I am absolutely thrilled to bits with this piece of kit, but could not set up my main email account on it so I took in to the Apple store on Regent Store. It only took two tech support guys an hour and twenty minutes to set up my email during which I had plenty of time to observe that I was standing in a vast men's creche. All along Regent Street and Oxford Street women were shopping, having dropped their men off at a place where there were lots of toys to play with and play-leaders who would teach them how to use them.

Were these men shopping No! Shopping is a girl's activity, they were . . . well, what were they doing? I believe Harry has been known to frequent the Apple store, so perhaps he can tell us.

lirin love puppies

my fave puppy slept de moment i lay it on my lap.

2nd song on my playlist. by Uverworld de lastest gandum song. nice!

puppy cuties

Fion's neighbour's puppies are ADORABLE!!!!!! the sweetest lil dears on earth!

they just started walkin.. omg so cute. played with them for a long time wif Ice, Karen and Victoria. they wlf stumble about and when u carry them and look into thier eyes..... ohhh such pretty eyes XD!!

went Fion's bf hse to study. loan sharks got her bf hse. threw paint and lock thier gate LOL!! they drew "O$P$ ....." hahahaa. but it's thier previous tenant. so studied under a void deck to wait for de lock to open. aft dat we went up, played MJ woo!! i love mahjong. XD~ played poker too. went home but not before playin wif de puppies again ^^~ those puppies really made my day haha~

audition day

pocky strawberry yucks. choc better! all of us aft audition. Tama, Mizu, Zean kor, Suki, Farhana, Chibi and Muffin. left for taka to have pepper lunch =D (heard dat we did de best among all de other audition ppl. i hope it's true XD)

bought 160gb harddisk for $90 each wif 3 yr warrenty(CHEAP SHIT! =D). yay~! thks mother for sponsor. and... our xmas tree. will upload when i take de lighted up version. tis yr's theme is shiny gold. ^_^ my fave heart ornament. hahaa.

cam whore :)

ye.

saya dan kawan2 seopis saya sgt gile bergambar.

maaf la.

tapi saya dan kawan2 saya ni tak dapat nak mengawal nafsu untuk bergambar sakan.

owh.. :p

Happy Turkey Day

I had planned to write more and of course read more but the last few days have gotten away from me.

So to all my Bloggy friends have a Happy and Safe Thanksgiving, I will catch up to all of you next week and I look forward to all of your Thanksgiving stories!

JUst FoR HiM....

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU MY DEAR HUBBY,EN. SHAMSUL!!!!

ni adalah present yg aku beli kt kedai... kecik je tp byk makna!!!!!

today aku n nina are making cupcakes...just utk makan sndiri and present for my hubby!!! quite fun and interesting bila together making decoration for da cake.. mcm2 rupa and corak!!! nk tergelak pun ada gak bila tgk decoration yg tersilap sbbnye bila dh salah buat ape lg kitorang pun ngappppp masuk mulut. hehehe..

ni lah dia hasil keje yg dpt diselamatkn setelah beberapa cupcakes yg telah di design selamat masuk ke dlm mulut nina n yang plus mikail!!!!

this year birthday hubby aku,just bg cake je,nothing special sbb yg 'special' skali dh dpt before his birthday!!!hahaha...x yah tanye arrr ape dia,sendiri mau ingat lahhh... 

rasa seronok plak bila dpt uat sumthing special utk org yg kita sayang!!!  rasa diri ni lebih dihargai selalu.. THANKS SAYANG FOR EVERYTHING!!!

until here....outtttt.....

Harry Buys an Iron

Well, of course I already had one. But whilst recently struggling to get a sharp crease on a shirt sleeve it occurred to me that maybe the iron I was using was really not very good. Like the majority of our household appliances I fondly imagined that it was bought , my memory unreliably suggested, in a vague period called ‘a couple of years ago’. Which of course was wildly inaccurate. So maybe the iron was underperforming because of old age ( though why that should be the case I can’t imagine)

This domestic reverie prompted a recollection of a conversation I once had in Milan. I was in the company of a stylish ( well, obviously) creative director ( advertising not fashion).
Older than me, and with a degree of gravitas and that ‘not quite beard’ look that is quite difficult to carry off. A charming and quite taciturn chap.
I had worked with him for a while, so we knew each other.
Which is the kind of qualification I need to make before I say that I, a man, dared to ask him, a man, about clothes. ( This is an unusual conversational area for older males to venture into).
How, I asked , do Italian men always manage to look so stylish and well turned out? I went on: Italian men seem to gravitate toward what I see as being classic, almost anglo clothes. Tweed jackets ( which indeed Paolo was wearing) and nothing faddish . Understated and stylish, but managing to make the average Brit wearing similar clothes appear scruffy by comparison.
We were in a very recherché enoteca. As a solo visitor I would not even have noticed this tiny establishment. A small dark wood panelled room filled with wine bottles. A few stools. And rammed with Italian bourgeoisie quaffing a glass of wine at the end of the working day. Stylish to a man ( and woman).
His answer was very simple. We buy, he said , good quality clothes. Not many. Each season a new jacket , a coat, or trousers. That are well made, and fit. And then , he said, (rather pointedly I felt), we look after them. He admitted that he didn’t have an enormous wardrobe , but everything in it was immaculate.

So that was the difference! My thoughts immediately turned to my wardrobe. With many less than immaculate items that had seen better days. But which I was still inclined to pull out and wear because of some undisciplined notion that they still passed muster.
Well, the wardrobe remains full of sentimentally preserved schmatte. But I do make more of an effort to have the right creases in my shirts nowadays .

High school musical

the night before the rihanna concert in singapore, i stood in front of my full-length mirror at home, held a picture of rihanna in my mind, and decided that my concert attire of wide-legged pants and tiny tee was just too 1999. after all, glamor si rihanna diba?

still i could not get over the niggling thought that i just might need to be ready to run from a riot/be crushed by the masses/get sticky and sweaty/jump over barricades/elbow crowds... in short, i could not completely dispel my years of watching concerts in manila. naman! sinabayan ko lahat ng jologs na tumalon from the general admission section to the php700 section in the bon jovi concert of 199...3? 4? and i had to trudge out in the mud, in the pouring rain, after the concert was stopped after two or three songs.

still, the next day, i dressed up my utilitarian basics of jeans, tank top and chocolate brown flats with a vintage rose necklace and lace bolero. at buti na lang! dahil pagdating ko sa singapore indoor stadium, para akong pumasok sa embassy na prom na ewan! girls were dressed to club, in little glittery miniskirts, backless tops and stilettos, and guys in this oddly justin timberlake fedora-vest-and-tie uniform. when i entered the stadium i saw why.


ang ayos diba? why can i see clearly defined rows and spaces between the seats? where's the pandemonium? the frenzied excitement? the jologs?

by some stroke of luck (probably because we came early, and they didn't sell out the venue), our seats were upgraded. an usher simply took our tickets, scratched out the seat numbers and scribbled down new ones. so we ended up here. much, much closer to the stage than we had paid to sit. my sister wasn't as lucky.


when i sat down, i found myself sitting with a pair of white giggly tween girls... and their mother. i looked around to find parents everywhere. i swear i saw more parents than i have ever seen at any kind of parent gathering at my high school. pashminas, pleated pants and floral silk blouses are the last things i would have expected to see at a rihanna concert. hello, it's singapore, moms and dads! this is the last place where you need to be chaperoning your kids to a concert!

and yes the tween level was off the scale. this is why i used the word "prom", above. if you've never heard seven thousand tween girls singing "umbrella", i can send you my recording. as i scanned the audience, i murmured to marlon, "why do i have a feeling that when the audience starts screaming, it will be extremely high pitched?"

and kids. my god. like five-to-seven year olds. i couldn't explain it, except maybe if all the moms had actually bought the tickets for their kids, thinking rihanna's last name was montana.

"eeew, so many parents," i whispered to marlon. "shush," he cautioned. "to these kids we probably look like parents too."


so the lights dimmed and the lambs tweens began screaming kasi umapir na ang lola n'yo.


winner sana ang hydraulic-assisted entrance from the ceiling. sana nga lang gumagana yung mike niya. sound crew = epic fail.


as soon as she got down from her post, she went to the side of the stage and made very big angry gestures to some invisible cowering p.a.'s. her anger couldn't have been more obvious than if she'd spelled out "what the f*ck?!" with her butt.

anyway, she got a new mike, apologized, and went on with the rest of the show -- which was, from what i hear, the same set she did in manila except without chris brown. the outfit was the same as the manila outfit too, except she kept her pants on in singapore. oh, and she wore flat boots, which i thought was nice.

i liked her makeup too -- the silver eyeliner on the lower lids. and for a black girl, she had surprisingly white kilikili.


as for the music -- it was good. perfect for the people who like their live concerts to sound exactly like the cd, or else they feel ripped off. i like a bit more variation in a live performance, like alicia keys when she came over for singfest. even if she did do this weird mariachi-ish arrangement for one of her slow songs, talagang nag-effort si bakla. you just knew she was going home completely hoarse.

si rihanna parang hindi masyadong nagpagod. pero sige lang. she did change into a skimpier, rocker burlesque kind of outfit for her last few songs. so that's something.


the concert ended after 45 minutes. which was a bit of a letdown for me -- not to mention for my sister, who drove three hours from KL.

so we went out after and had black pepper crab at jumbo, which was fun, as all the kiddies went home with their mommies and daddies.