a lot has happened since…

from the chaotic and often shambolic polical situations in my beloved malaysia, from the non-existant hobby of photography, from the failed weight-reduction programme, from the agony of arsenal not winning the 2007-2008 premiership and england not qualifying for the euro 2008, from the stress at work, from the inconsistencies of my golf and most importantly from the joy of seeing my daughter growing up.

as i said earlier, a lot has happened since. what i will do from now on is try and fill in the gaps – between my last entry to this blog to now, on my thoughts on what has happened since…

work wise, we have started our operations on the 19th of november 2007. the response has been better than expected (we thought we could reach this kind of sales figures only in our 3rd month of operations. with no marketing and advertising promotions done and some major technical problems with our website, i am encouraged by the sales we have garnered so far, i suppose christmas came a bit early for us.)

there were a couple of things that did not go as smoothly as what we had hoped for (our website is one major issue), but as we have prepared ourselves for the unexpected, i believed we have made the most out of our problems and issues. with the help of excellent team effort, we have managed to handle most if not all of the challenges that came and believe me when i say there were quite a few curve balls thrown at us in this short period of one month.

all in all, i am very pleased with the whole team at odyssey. we have a very dynamic and resourceful young team that is ready, willing and able to execute whatever tasks that is required. insya-allah, we will be able to achieve what we have set upon and more.

i was there to witness the spectacle. and what a match it was. the court was really quick hence advantage to the servers. there wasn’t many rallies but whenever there was one, it was quality of the highest order.

i brought my camera gears along and TRIED to take some actions. unfortunately, from where i was sitting and the lighting conditions, it was rather difficult to get decent shots. i was shooting at ISO 800-1600 with f2.8 L IS glasses to maintain a shutter speed of more than 1/400. it was difficult to say the least. the one below was at ISO 1600, f2.8 @ 1/400.

it was really as simple as this: croatia were the better team and deserved to win. handed a reprieve by israel on saturday, and requiring only a point against a team who had already qualified, england failed on a grand scale. slaven bilic’s side were not fundamentally better players but they were a thousand times better organised and they did not make brainless individual errors. of the england team only crouch was anything like acceptable. the rest – with an honourable exception for lampard’s penalty – were varying degrees of abject.

wayne bridge will never again play so badly as he did last night, a performance so woeful that it seemed inconceivable that he could do so many things wrong. steven gerrard was a shadow of the player he is. in the centre of defence sol campbell looked all of his 33 years and joleon lescott was by no means reassuring. you could go on.

how will mcclaren feel when he clears out his desk at soho square? that his players let him down after he picked a team that looked courageous and yet proved disastrous in the selection of carson. the first 14 minutes were no ordinary england cock-up; not your run-of-the-mill shambles – this was a full-blown catastrophe from the eighth minute when the 22-year-old keeper let in the first goal.

how do you respond to a mistake like that? true to form, england did exactly what they had done against russia last month when they conceded a first goal. they made a bad situation worse by conceding a second. it is ever thus with this team; something goes wrong, then, as night follows day, something else does too.

goal no. 2 for Croatia was another symphony of mistakes and indecision. eduardo was allowed to run virtually unchecked right to the edge of the area, the arsenal striker looked up and squeezed a ball between campbell and lescott to olic, who was onside thanks to bridge. olic jinked round the stranded carson to score.

sportingly, the fans waited until half-time to boo the players but they could have started a lot earlier. between the two croatia goals, england missed their one decent chance, wright-phillips shooting straight against pletikosa. beckham and defoe came on at half-time and it was the spurs man who had the immediate effect. simunic got a handful of defoe’s jersey in the area and the linesman signalled a foul.

it was a laughable penalty but up stepped lampard to score and the chase was on. on 65 minutes beckham’s cross was chested down by crouch and volleyed past pletikosa.

they were back from the dead, except there was another twist in the tale. carson had saved well from olic, bridge had conspired to hit his own bar then substitute petric struck the decisive goal. croatia kept forcing england back and on 77 minutes petric hit a low drive that beat carson.

the best team had won. and new wembley was christened in the old-fashioned way: with the broken reputation of an england manager.

to make matters worse, i was trying to “racun” my friend who just picked up photography with some of my lenses. so, on the very same day, i brought together my 70-200 f2.8L IS, 50 f1.2L and 24-70 f2.8L lenses for him to try it out together with the new 40D body. what a big mistake!!

we ended up not “playing” at all. in fact after our 14th hole we decided to stop. reason being:

a) it was deepavali day, the bunga raya course at saujana was filled to the brim. we had to wait with almost every shot. suffice to say it was rather excruciating to play in this very slow condition.

b) as mentioned earlier, i haven’t played in awhile, 4 pars after 14 holes is dismal. driving was appaling, iron play was no where to be seen, short game… what short game?

c) the photography equipment that i brought has completely taken away our attention and concentration from the actual golf game. everyone was more interested to “pose” for the camera – this has a roll over effect making our golf game even worse.

d) but the decision was made when one of us said, “let’s stop this carnage… and have a cigar and hot chocolate at the golfer’s terrace”. the funny thing is that i don’t smoke cigar… i don’t smoke at all.

anyways, after all that, below is a picture of mine taken using the 40D + 70-200 f2.8L IS combo at f3.2 and 1/640 and ISO 400. no photo shopping was done except some cropping.

fyi, it was hole number 5 on the front 9 on bunga raya – our 14th hole of the day. it is a par 3 – 179 yards to reach the blue pin. i had a 6-iron on me, made a solid contact but pushed it a touch to the right – missed the green and the ball was in the right bunker pin high. pitched my bunker shot to about 6 feet to the hole and missed the par putt. another bogey.

i was in london, brussels and stockholm from 20th to the 29th of october for busworld 2007 in brussels and a scania factory visit in stockholm. spent a couple of nights in london just for london’s sake. i have uploaded some of the pictures taken during my visit here.

i arrived in london on the 20th of october 2007 around 1900… just in time to watch my beloved england beaten by south africa in the rugby world cup finals. will not comment much on the game except that… IT WAS A FREAKIN’ TRY!!!

i was in stockholm when arsenal trashed slavia prague 7-0. did not watch the game as we were being feted by scania when the game kicked off but managed to watch the highlights. we were awesome. 3 wins out of 3 in the champions league and qualification is almost certain perhaps with a game to spare.

got back to london from brussels and stockholm just in time for the big game at anfield – if only it was at the emirates… i would have paid top dollar to get the tickets. the game was shown on sky and as we don’t have any cable tv at the apartment, i was watching the game via bbc teletext service on the tv… very sad. i finally ended up watching the game at a pub on highstreet kensington having to brave through london’s showery october.

1-1 in a game we completely dominated. gerrard scored with a thunderous freekick which could have been blocked if we had a better wall. aside from that, liverpool were very poor. when fabregas equalised on the 80th minute, i thought we were definitely going to win the game. the upright and an uncomposed finishing by bendtner meant that we have to share the spoils with liverpool. 2 points dropped.

tagged the biggest game so far this season,  arsenal and man. united played at the emirated last weekend (03.11.07). we were watching the game (at least the second half) at ancik’s house. it was quite fun as we have a couple of arsenal fans, a few man. united fans and one liverpool fan watching it as well.  

2-2. on the outset, it looked like 2 points dropped at home but it was us who got away with it with gallas equalising in the dying minute. even then, we have to thank the eagle-eyed linesman who somehow or rather managed to see the ball to have crossed the line during the build up of the goal (by the way, the ball was a yard in). gallas deflected a rooney attempt for man. united’s first goal in the last minute of the first half before fabregas finished a flowing move started by hleb to score in the very first mnute of the second half. we have a lot of the ball but there was no penetration. ronaldo scored a good goal on the 82nd minute after a great pass from saha to evra. as mentioned in my earlier posts, we would have lost this kind of game last season, but the NEW arsenal has more grit and determination. we kept going and never gave up to score the equaliser.

11 games – unbeaten in all competitions, top of the premier league with a game in hand, top in the group stages of the champions league, the second stringers are going great guns in the carling cup front… it seems that everything is going wonderfully well at arsenal. i would like to give a word of caution though… football is all about momentum…

i will update my photo gallery once i have sometime to download, sort, and ultimately upload the photos online.

we are off too stockholm next to visit scania’s factory and facilities. it will be quite interesting as one of the agenda of the visit is to test drive scania’s latest trucks and bus chassis on offer. am quite looking forward to drive the 420hp + 50hp 6×2 opticruise bus chassis. if it is as good as they say, we might just get it in our next order.

’til tomorrow.

p/s: sayang, i miss you like crazy… 

our host took us around the city and i got some photos up in my website’s photo gallery here. i will be continuously updating my photo gallery during this week long trip – after brussels, it will be stockholm – both of which i have never visited.

 i will end my trip going back to london. hopefully i will be able to meet up with some old friends, eat dim sum at royal china and get some shopping done.

about a year and a half ago, my brother and i embarked on our very own project. we were business consultants beforehand and have grown tired of advising clients on how to make more money or get out of trouble or set new directions or strategies (we still do it now albeit with a more selective set of clients). restructuring, corporate finance work, strategy, risk management, listing processes were part and parcel of our daily lives until we realised that we can’t be doing this for the rest of our lives. we will be burnt out before we would even know it.

to cut a long story short, we decided to build a business from the ground up using traditional business model but with new ideas and delivery methods. so after 18 months of hard work, ups and downs, highs and lows, we are happy to announce the arrival of ODYSSEY – a luxury coach service that plies the kuala lumpur-singapore route. i will not bombard everyone with information about the service as all the information can be found at www.odysseynow.com.my or www.odysseynow.com.sg. by the way, if you see any mistakes, or have ideas to improve the website and ultimately the service that we are going to provide, or you want to participate in our testing progammes, or you just want to know more, whatever, just drop me a line at wan.adlan@odysseynow.com.my

insya-allah, if everything goes well, the bookings will be open in a week’s time and our maiden journey will be sometime in early november.

it is almost every child’s dream to become an astronaut (yes, i had that same dream) – you could do a quick survey of 7 year olds now, 10 years ago, 20 years ago or 50 years from now – i can bet my last dollar that becoming an astronaut will get the highest vote. for years to come, his name will be etched in malaysian history books as the first malaysian in space and our sons and daughters, grand children will learn of his name.

i would also like to take this opportunity to congratulate my good friend, kapten haji faiz kamaludin who made it to the last four of the angkasawan programme - he was in russia for 2 months before the final selection were made. faiz, we are very proud of you. i truly believe any of the top 4 of the angkasawan programme could have been chosen today.

i don’t think it is the issue of infrastructure – both payment gateways and internet infrastructure - as i believe countries like korea (perhaps the most connected nation in the world with broadband penetration of over 90%), singapore and even our beloved malaysia are at the very least (if not better) on par with the likes australia or new zealand in terms what i mentioned earlier – payment gateways and internet infrastructure. is it because that people at apple decided that we asians are a bunch of music pirates?? or is it a strategic decision? if it is so, i believe they are making a big mistake as there are a huge market potential in selling songs to india, korea, singapore and the likes – more so than little australia and new zealand with a total population of not more than 30 million people. heck, in india alone you have more than 1 billion people.

what ever the reasons are, i personally hope that we will able to purchase songs from itunes in the immediate future… 

p/s : i am not sure when this will happen but when this happens, i will definitely be the first to get the “new” iphone – 3.5g or 4g iphone. i got the ipod touch – which in actual fact is an iphone without the the phone function – and am totally impressed with it. it has now become my defacto web-browsing machine at home. it used to be my nokia e90, but i find browsing with ipod touch a joy. i just love the zooming and unzooming function by just flicking your fingers.

the only downside to the iphone/ipod touch is the keyboard… i find the on-screen qwerty keyboard, whilst it looks nice, just doesn’t make the grade… too many miss types. i am not too sure how you could write emails or sms’s efficiently using this interface.

phhheeeewww!! what a big sigh of relief. we almost lost it today. i think complacency coupled with some comical decisions by the linesman played their part in this amusing and interesting encounter with sunderland. a year ago we would have buckled and lost points on this kind of game but the grit and tenacity of these young crop of players showed again today – just as it showed during the fulham and west ham game.

we played scintillating football in the first 20 minutes, 2 goals up with 2 legitimate goals disallowed in that many minutes. we could have been 4 or 5 goals up by then. sunderland must have thought that it was going to be one of those days, but to their credit, they fought on. they got a goal back out of nothing and then equalised in the first few minutes in the second half. i think, we became complacent and lost focus and at this level, teams will punish you and sunderland almost did.

van persie scored a scorcher of a free-kick – nobody could have saved it. senderos added a comical second and the winning goal was set-up by walcott and finished expertly by man-of-match, van persie – this guy oozes with class, he looks more and more a bergkamp incarnation.

at the end of the day it was a good lesson for us maturing, because again we still found the resources which showed that there is something in the team which is really strong. may this continue….

 p/s: watched the liverpool vs. spurs game, liverpool could have won it in the first half, but at the end, they were lucky to get a point out of the game. this bodes well for arsenal when we visit anfield end of this month.

got myself the new ipod touch a couple of days back. it is a replacement for my ipod nano that now sits nicely in my wife’s handbag – you see, my wife lost her ipod video when we were vacationing in london in april this year.

“i need the ipod for my gym session” she quipped. i did offer to get her a new one but she refused, saying that the ipod nano suites her usage better and more importantly, she wanted the iphone for the replacement (instead of a nano or a video) of which i intend to get it for her once it is officially launched in malaysia.   

since she took the ipod nano off me more than 4 months ago, i have to make do with cds’ and radio while driving – with my new toy, those days are over….

Heroic stuff by Chelsea with Drogba scoring goal of the month. More heroic stuff by Celtic with AC Milan keeper Dida exposed as the most despicable cheat in the Champions League.

Complacency by Werder Bremen, who had just won 8-1 in the Bundesliga and faced  Olympiacos, who had never won in 31away games in Europe. The Greeks beat the Germans 3-1 !!!!

I watched the Valencia-Chelsea game. I was told. “Liverpool were clueless, Sissoko was awful, Torres and Crouch never got a pass all night.” Marseilles won with a very good goal by Valbuena, whose shot went into the top corner off the underside.

On a pulsating night at Parkhead, AC Milan’s old men, who are jogging in Serie A, were deservedly punished by a belligerent Celtic side who beat the European Champions 2-1.

Ref Markus Merk gave Milan a soft penalty and Kaka equalised. But Scott McDonald slotted the winner in the last minute. When that goal was scored, Parkhead was rocking and a fan stupidly got onto the pitch and trundled past keeper Dida and patted him on the neck.The fan wasn’t tall enough to pat him on the cheek. Dida chased the impertinent supporter for three yards and then collapsed holding his face. He was taken off on a stretcher ! Yes ! Dida was carried of on a stretcher holding an icepack to his face!

What a tart ! What a cheat ! He is corrupt ! He’s been in Italy too long. Milan should sack him for gross misconduct.He was badly at fault for both goals. He should be banned by Uefa for the rest of this season. And Celtic should be fined for allowing a fan to run on the pitch after a goal had been scored.

At the Mestalla, David Villa scored  a razor-sharp goal for Valencia after Paulo Ferreira’s clearance rebounded off Essien to put him clear of John Terry.

Malouda then played a sweet one-two with his mate Drogba and crossed low into the six yard box for Joe Cole to equalise. Then Cole released Drogba on the left with a fabulous 40-yard pass and Drog exploded away from Albiol, his marker, and took one right-foot touch into the box, and as Hildebrand went to cover the middle of the goal, the striker swept the ball inside the near post with his left foot .What a goal ! What is more thrilling than a powerhouse centre forward going towards the goal at high speed with only one thing on his mind? On Monday Morientes said Drogba is the best centre forward in the world. Morientes knows what it takes to do what Drogba does. Carvalho, restored to defence, was superb, as was Makelele. Say what you like about Chelsea, and I often do, they are two great, tough footballers. After 33 goals last season, Drogba is still producing.

Good night for centre forwards. Ruud van Nistelrooy got two at Lazio but Pandev equalised twice.

In the Group Stage, always remember that it’s seeded. The top teams are seeded, so the competition is loaded in their favour. The big clubs just have to perform to their seeding . Arsenal, Chelsea and Manchester United did that.

Liverpool didn’t do that. They lost at Anfield to a side that’s fifth bottom of the French league. Rafa is resting players in September so they won’t be tired in February. He is managing the season while losing the match. Rotation is fear. Rotation is bollocks. Rotation is nullification. Rotation is picking your team round the other guy’s team. That is stupid. Rafa Benitez is killing football. He admitted it could be the worst performance since he’s been in charge.

Celtic have a passionate team playing for passionate fans. Liverpool have passionate fans who don’t know what they’re watching. Clearly, Liverpool need Gordon Strachan to make them British again. Rafa has wasted many millions on journeymen.

did not watch the game but managed to catch the highlights during sahur this morning. very happy with the results. a good win, top of the group and looking at qualifications with two games to spare if other results go our way. c’mon you arse!! next game sunderland at the emirates…

ANALYSIS
By AZMI SHAROM

The government has to set up a Royal Commission with the necessary powers to thoroughly investigate the entire judiciary, as there is a desperate need to clean house and to do so comprehensively. 

ON WEDNESDAY at our administrative capital, there was a gathering of lawyers, united in their calls for justice. I was there at Putrajaya and I must say I have never seen a better dressed “demo” in my life. 

By my count, there were 1,200 lawyers and a smattering of civil society folk gathered at the Palace of Justice. Some of them had to walk five to six kilometres to get there because the police had stopped the buses ferrying them into Putrajaya.  

It was a totally pointless show of power which served only to strengthen the resolve of those who were stopped, as well as those who knew that their colleagues were being subjected to some silly high-handedness. 

A bunch of lawyers dressed to the nines, intent on walking as a peaceful group from the Palace of Justice to the Prime Minister’s Department to deliver a memorandum. This is what these people came to Putrajaya for.  

This was what the police tried to stop, a simple, non-violent expression of a democratic right. 

But then, perhaps I am being naive. One never knows, these crazy radical lawyer types might have Molotov cocktails hidden under their bibs and one can only imagine the kind of damage they can do with their bundles of documents tied up in pink ribbons. 

Be that as it may, the police could not stop the “Walk for Justice” and the call for a Royal Commission to look into the state of the judiciary. Our judiciary has not been in the pink of health, especially since the sacking of Tun Salleh Abbas as Lord President in 1988.  

Since then the impartiality, the independence and the basic honesty of the judiciary have been questioned time and time again. 

Two major concerns are the method by which judges are appointed and related to this, the vital question as to whether the judiciary is truly free from executive interference. These are fears that strike to the heart of a democratic system.  

Without the checks and balances that having three separate branches of government – the executive, the legislature and the judiciary – provides, one cannot say that there is a true democracy.  

And one cannot say with any certainty that the law will protect the citizens from any sort of despotic behaviour. 

This sad lack of faith in the judicial system (which is the penultimate defender of democracy and the citizenry) has been with us for nearly 20 years.  

There has been much talk, but this time the lawyers decided that a physical show of their disapproval was needed. Why did this happen? 

Well, the straw that broke the barristers’ back is the infamous videotape showing a senior lawyer on the phone with, apparently, a senior judge. This lawyer can be seen and heard discussing how he was trying to broker the appointment of said judge to the highest judicial post in the country.  

Suddenly what has been the subject of talk and whispers has taken solid form, to be viewed again and again on our own computer screens.  

The appointment of judges has been reduced to tawdry politicking and power play involving politicians and wealthy businessmen. It was too much to bear. And the legal fraternity had to take to the streets or lose its own credibility. 

Their demand is simple. The government has to set up a Royal Commission with the necessary powers to thoroughly investigate the entire judiciary. There is a desperate need to clean house and to do so comprehensively. Sure, since the video came out, the government has set up a three-man panel to look into the matter. 

But their ambit is merely to determine the legitimacy of the video recording. Let them do their work, by all means, but really that is only the tip of the iceberg.  

We need a Royal Commission to determine the legitimacy of the entire judiciary, and we need it now. 

Let’s just take a look at how low the legal system has sunk. The judge who was supposed to be at the other end of the videotaped phone conversation, in true Bart Simpson style, told the de facto Minister of Law that it wasn’t him. The Minister then told this to the press.  

My question is: “So what”? Does that mean the next time someone is accused of murder or corruption, all he needs to say is “I didn’t do it”? 

Who cares what the judge said. If the video is not a fake (and it looks mighty authentic to me, no Tian Chua Photoshop trickery here), the suspects must be cross-examined.  

And to top it off, the Minister tried to deflect the situation by saying that an opposition political party released the videotape and therefore there had to be a political agenda.  

I’m sorry YB, but I don’t care who came up and delivered the video. If it is true, it shows that we need major changes in our judiciary and no political blame shifting is going to alter that. 

Two things struck me during Wednesday’s “Walk for Justice”. First, the demand for a Royal Commission is more than reasonable, it is necessary.  

Secondly, standing there in Putrajaya, first in the scorching sun and then the chilling rain, I could not have been prouder. Amongst the crowd were ex-students who came up and said hello. 

To think that my colleagues and I had played a small role in the development of these men and women, who are willing to make their stand, means we must have done something right. 

To look around and feel part of a larger group of people who work in the legal field and who appreciate justice; well it was a good time to be a law teacher.  

But it is not over yet. Now we, all of us citizens, must keep on pressing, so the work to clean up our judiciary, to rescue it from the quagmire of mistrust, will continue until we can once more rest easy in the belief that in Malaysia, justice can and will be done.  

Dr Azmi Sharom is an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Law, University of Malaya  

robin van persie’s winner in the early stages seems scant reward with hindsight. that same vision understands why west ham think they could have got something from the game but curbishley admitted that arsenal were the better team. were it not for green (again) and the woodwork, the margin of victory could have been more. the goal itself encapsulated all of the improvements. clear passing from the defence / midfield by toure, adebayor held the ball well on the right hand side of the box, waited for hleb in support who delivered a superb cross which removed the goalkeeper from the equation and rvp got above the defence well to put the ball into the net. green may feel he might have done better to prevent that but it would be too hard on himself to say that; the bottom corner at the foot of a post is probably the best place to put the ball.

several players put in performances worthy of note. sagna at the back, had another solid game. his defensive positioning is pretty much spot on but he is deceptively fast when caught out. flamini again justified his inclusion in the middle although gilberto’s re-appearance towards the end might suggest that he is coming back into contention for a starting spot, perhaps the eye of the manager is on liverpool for that one. the last one who deserves praise is diaby; playing out of position in a tough derby is not easy but he is showing a commendable adaptation to the role.

the injury to hleb is a blow in many respects; he was shaping up to have a good game before noble scythed him down. i do not care if it was accidental, it was worthy of, and deserved, a straight red. following on from cole last weekend at old trafford, it seems to me to highlight the inconsistencies of refereeing with dangerous play purely punished by a yellow. drogba should not be complaining about his second yellow, more praying to his god for thanks that he did not get a straight red. adebayor it seems has a knock rather than a hamstring injury and is expected to be fit for tuesday. with eduardo out, his presence will be important.

rvp is coming in for some stick for his performance by some. i’m baffled by it. returning after two games out, scoring and like the rest of the team, working hard for the win is it seems not good enough any longer. flair, verve and panache are required every game according to some. a reality check might be the better option for those who deem any victory without those three in abundance, to be unworthy. a title challenge is built on wins such as yesterday more often than those achieved over derby. a lot more games this season will require solid performances. and let us not forget, a solid arsenal performance is still more entertaining to watch than seventeen or eighteen of the rest of the division playing flat out attacking football.

footnote: i was watching the last 20 minutes with my daughter, raihana.