the waves that hide the sand

phuket - february 2007

the granddad i never had

my granddad, passed away at a considerably young age, even before my dad being the eldest got married. nonetheless, deep in our heart, we all know that he will be a really great grandfather had he been still around. memories of us, the grandchildren, playing around and being pampered by him will always remain a fantasy to us.

his voice we had never heard
his flesh we had never touched
his warmth we had never felt
his frozen smiles in black & white
are all we had to see

the grandad we never had.

remembering you always...

wedding photographer wannabe

earlier this month, i had the chance to be a wedding photographer. it was at my girlfriends's best friends wedding. initially, mooi & sern wanted to come, but ffk-ed. kns. anyway, it was a good experience for me as it was my first time operating a dslr, with only a few hours of crash course by mooi the night before the dinner night.

the pictures were quite warm. i took off the flash after a while because i do not know the right angle to bounce the flash for nicer pictures.

the most expensive franchise ever?

not sure if i read it right or understood it wrongly, but if you read this news, on the third paragraph, starbucks executive director says that on average they invest approximately about rm700 mil to rm800 mil on each outlets.

"On average, Berjaya Starbucks Coffee invests approximately RM700mil to RM800mil in each of its outlets, depending on the size and location, he said. "

this must be the costliest franchise ever in the world i guess. even krispy kremes can't beat that!

starbucks just opened its 100th outlets in malaysia. let's say averagely, they invest about rm750 mil on each outlets...

rm750 000 000 x 100 = rm75 000 000 000

hmm....

few days ago, the star reported that malaysian richest man, robert kuok, according to malaysian business magazine, has an estimated wealth of rm58.11 billion. looks like berjaya starbucks has spent more on their outlets than the total wealth of robert kuok. O_o

let me take you for a ride...

8888

captured this on mooi's blog. i am the #8888 viewer of his blog. could this be my lucky number? wait, let me check today got sports toto or not. hehe...

safin loses another five setters

baghdatis wins five set thriller - that is one of the australian open news today. not surprisingly, safin was not even seeded for this grand slam. and since michael chang, no players losses has actually caused me to lose sleep. lol.

it's probably because of age and lesser playing, i have not followed the tennis tournaments as closely as before. my favorite player up until now is still michael chang, even though he had retired. a taiwanese born in america to a taiwanese couple who migrated to the united states, michael chang is an icon for asians for all the successes he achieved in a sports mostly dominated by the europeans.

i was a little bit devastated when he failed to beat pete sampras in the final of the 1996 us open. had he done so, he probably would have became the world number 1 player! what a shame the second grand slam never arrived. :( nevertheless, he was and will always be a great player to me.

after chang sort of retired, i begin to follow the development of another player that i've also liked a lot. though i won't get too sad whenever he loses. kafelnikov is another player that i love to watch playing. until now, i still never managed to learn how he hit his half-swing-double-backhand.

however, i did manage to watch kafelnikov play in the australian open 1999. his is the only match that i watched from start to finish in melbourne park. the rest, i just hop around the courts hoping to watch more players play. lol. it's not as if they have tennis tournaments with big name players here in malaysia. even if they do, the price to the exhibition match held recently is exorbitant and i just felt it's not worth it. worst of all, it's only an exhibition match which means the level of competitiveness will be very much reduced.

i think kafelnikov is the only player that actually rejected sponsorship. in the first part of his career, he was sponsored by diadora. and then he rejected all types of sponsorship stating that he hate having to attend photoshoot and doing promotions for the sponsors. hmm... aren't sponsorships is where sportsmen earned the most? his decision is a little bit weird though and he said he wanted to be left alone. but is this the reason for his divorce? not sure if he had marry again.

when safin broke into the scene, i like him because i felt he plays with fire in his eyes. you can see the anger in his eyes when he plays. and best of all, he slams his racquets! bad temper, but that's what making the game more exciting. though he has been doing quite alright, but i think for a player of his calibre and potential, his consistency is a big letdown. i think he has a few grand slam titles to his name, the most famous one being the 2000 us open title where he defeated pete sampras in the final.

for the past few years, safin has been virtually off the radar. and he had never won a five setter coming back losing the first two set. well... after losing the second set to baghdatis, i didn't continue to watch as i had expected him to lose, from the way he plays with a lot of unforced errors. winning the third and fourth set is a surprise though, but losing the final set, what a shame...