I have written 5 books

Yes, now that I am fully retired, I have to fill my time with something useful. Besides reading I have also decided to write. What better way than to document my travels in a hard copy coffee-table version that most people enjoy browsing, and reading if they have the time. The books I have written are about my overland travels in a convoy of 4x4 vehicles: the first one being the "KL-London Rallyton" in 2005. Then in 2007 I did the Istanbul-Tehran trip as part of the 50th Anniversary Merdeka drive from London to KL; and in 2008 I did two trips -- one to Africa (Cape Town - Mombassa through 5 game parks and 7 countries) in January and another one to South America (Cuzco-Lima-Caracas-Cartegena through 4 countries) in December. I've also written a special "Mothers' Day with Love" dedicated to Mama & Bonda, my two loving wives. Some good stuff in it for the children to be aware of.

One more book is in the works documenting my experience in canal-living on the canals of Nottingham. I am also writing my Memoir, an autobiography that will document my life and times. A draft print has been done, but I need to revise it to a 200 page version (at least) because I have left out in the draft quite a lot of juicy stuff to keep the coffee-table book at 100 pages. This 200-page version will have more words.

I am 71 today

22 July 2010, my 71st birthday. No big deal, no dinners or birthday bash. My Rotary club did send me a card and sang "Happy Birthday" when I came for the weekly meeting on Monday 19 July. And today "My Memoir" also came from the Printers; 2 copies only, one for Ham and one for Mek. Letchme, my former PA from MABANUD days 1980 to MPAT days 1994 and my retirement days until now never failed to remember my birthday. This morning I received her SMS on it. All my sons wished me "Happy Birthday". Likewise Nani text me from Dubai. Only Ida is yet to call or text me. As we age we get quite sentimental. Small things like this mean a lot.

Normah got a cucu

On 17/12/2009, my niece Normah Ibrahim got a cucu. The baby girl was born in Kulim and weighed 3.65kg at birth. Her name is Raaesya Zahra, first daughter to Ku Marsilla and Raa Khimi (the father). It looks like that all my nieces and nephews from both sides, have cucus already. I am glad and envious. I am now going on 71, have six children, but not a single cucu. Both my girls are living and working overseas but not married. My four boys are still young for marriage, except Zaki who married last August 2009. Sometimes I feel embarrassed when attending my colleagues' childrens' wedding and the normal question asked, is "how many cucu do you have?" Hopefully, Zaki won't let me down.

I am from Segamat

My father, Ayob bin Abd Rahman was from Kg Gemereh, Segamat. But his father and ancestors were from Serkam, Melaka; as refugees from Aceh, being chased out by the Dutch then. They must have been some kind of freedom fighters, I think. But my father, after his travels to Pattani to seek religious education, came back to Segamat and settled in Kg Bumbun in the early 1900s and worked on the jungle land alienated to him by the Govt then. He was also the local Imam. He married my mother on 28 May 1918, and had his first daughter, Ramlah in July 1923. Then my sister Zainab came in 1927, followed by brother Ismail in 1928. I was born on 22 July 1939.
My father died on 24 Mar 1975 and was buried in Kg Lubuk Batu, in the same cemetery as Bendahara Tepok, the "founder" of Segamat way back in 1511. The site of Bendahara Tepok's landing is by the river now known as Sungai Segamat. There is a mosque there now and the cemetery is opposite the mosque. The cemetery is well kept, probably because of its historical significance.

King Ghaz

I was in the MAAU as Chairman of Disciplinary Committee when King Ghaz (Tan Sri Ghazali Shafie) was the president. I liked working for him. He acknowledged my recommendations to ban a couple of athletes for six months for disobeying their trainer's instruction not to go out of the Training Camp, because they were preparing for the SEA Games in 1972. But he used his prerogative and gave them a suspended sentence instead, so that they could still participate in the SEA Games. King Ghaz died recently on 24 Jan 2010 at the age of 88. Alfatihah.

Faritz had an accident

Faritz had an accident yesterday (Sun 21 Feb 2010 about 6:00 pm). It happened at the T-junction of Jalan 14 and Jalan 1 Taman TAR. It was drizzling after a heavy downpour earlier. He was turning right when a Korean lady in a Honda CRV came from the right and slammed into his driver door and hit his right front wheel area, causing his car to twist left and almost hit a tree. The Honda then careened into the big drain on the right of the footpath. Both were unhurt. Thank God. Police report made today morning at the Ampang Traffic Police station.

Timah recovering from operation

My niece Timah went for a mastectomy on 30 Sep 09 at Ipoh GH. All went well. She is now recovering at Yati's house.