HAPPY 20 YEARS OF BLOGGING TO ME!!

I was clicking on the blogs which i linked to my page. None are active anymore!! Haha Wow.. Most of them sort of stopped circa 20-teens which I suppose was because of the twitter and facebook effect whcih took social media to a different level.

Then I checked .. eh my first post: 

https://mafeitz.blogspot.com/2004/08/hello-start.html

Wooo.. This blog is 20 years old!! Which is coincidentally almost as old as Qayyum. Allahu Akbar. I can't believe it has been that long! Of course the last few years were not the best of my blogposts but I do try to keep em alive. It is a part of me, reference and all the things I felt in the past 20 years. Subhanallah.  

Memang tak sangka betul it has been that long. Congrats to myself for keeping it alive and to continue as long as I can. Hopefully blogspot remains lah as the archives will not be lost unless they shut down. Don't really know how I can archive it myself because there is too much of my history in here. 

2004 to 2024... Wah.. May mafeitz.blogspot continues to live.😀 

Kinabalu August 2024

I've not been on a mountain trip since Acon in 2020. I was thinking about going for trips but unfortunately the timing was not right and perhaps its not my climbing group trip. I guess Deeno and Pak Am needs to recover after the Denali tragedy that happened. 

This trip was planned with my Chief Anaesthetist BossKhoo since early the year of 2024. But writing it down now, its a bit sad because perhaps that was the last time I met Wak. He has passed away late last year due to diabetic complications. He was our contact person there where he would settle all things for you on Sabah trip. The last was duing Covid 2020 with him when i climbed Kinabalu then. He was a good friend whom I met many years ago during our Gunung Hitam trip. Wak a native Sabahan was a very reliable person. When we met him in August 2024, he was just being discharged from hsopital after being ill. I did not expect later on the complications came back and we would not be seeing him again.  

It had to be a Wak trip because during one of the shortcuts he claimed, we actually rammed down a big old drain! It was really a scene when we had to call people arounf that area to help pull the car out. But Wak was pretty cool about it as I was worried if we could not be in Kundasang on time that evening. Such memories with Wak will remain as classics. 

I did not do enough training for this trip. However I do maintain my level basic of fitness because the important thing was not to get cramped or injured. I learnt from my last trip that I have to protect my knees because it gave me well whilst descending and few months after! Haha 

 

We took the Sutra lodge hence it was very comfortable with the dinner and breakfast before the climb. I did not get much sleep because it always give me the jitters doing this climbing especiallu you know when you are not 100% ready for it.  

 

The weather did not look it was clearing in the early morning. It was drizzling but it did stop. The clouds were dark and I was hoping as per my previous climbs it would be ok. However it turns out to be the wettest climb to Laban Rata I have ever done. It started to rain heavily 1/2 hour into the trek. It went superly cats and dogs! Visibility was bad and I was so cold! Gila.. the step up was like going through a continuous waterfall. That wasthe story of the next 4.5hours up! memang lencun lah tak ingat !!  

 

 The rain sort of stopped when we arrived at Laban Rata mid afternoon. Best gile mandi air panas and get yourself fresh at the lodge. Khoo arrived earlier than me as he went up faster. As I've mentioned before ,I was not that fit for this trip and just good enough to survive the hike up.

 

Later that night, rain started again and it was much heavier than before. Before lights out, I was hoping that it would stop as that would gurantee a very clear path to the summit. I was all hyped up to summit! Unfortunately when we woke up at 1am the rain was still really heavy. We proceeded to get ourselves ready but it did not look good. The ranger called us all down and would give time up to 330am before deciding we could do the summit attack or not.

 

At 3am he called us back and had to inform the bad news. According to their scouts, the condition after Layang2 was treachorous and dangerous. Hence he had to call it off! Aduhh.. It was so disappointing that we could not go up at the time. The rain was super heavy I have to say as I;ve never experienced such rain in Kinabalu like this before.  

We wemt down early in the morning after breakfast with a broken heart. It was all clear and good view of Kinabalu that morning. It was just not our luck that day. Dapat sijil hitam putih je lah. hahaha 

Last day with PERDANA ASEAN 101

My trusted steed.. since the day Qayyum was born! It was older than him 😆 If you browse back my earlier blog you will find that I got this car on the week he was born. We needed a better car and it was just fortunate that Abang Fathul ( who was then a Proton dealer) offered a good price for a V6 Perdana car.

 https://mafeitz.blogspot.com/2005/12/pimp-my-ride-malaysia.html 

It was a trusted steed and survived all the years. When I bought my F30 in 2015, I gave this to Papa for his daily use. Memang kena lanyak lah by everybody Mutee and Meng. How many times I had to settle the summons and the car went for a few overhauls for the damage. Alhamdulillah it was still in one piece.

Later when Qayyum joined PASUM, I thought of handing this car back to him. I could have bought a new car but I thought he would learn more about cars with this old Perdana. It was n a really bad condition when he first got it (haha memang tak terjaga langsung in Taman Tun) So we had to go back to square one to get this car back into its groove. I spent quite a lot to recond this car into a safe one! It was not safe wei when driving it the first time after taking it over from Papa. The reason I spent that much because I thought that it would be Qayyum's ride till forever!! Little did I know.... 

Qayyum had his bit of lessons meeting mechanics, workshops, breakdown towing haha I gather it was a really good experience for him to learn about taking care of a car. THis V6 had a good engine and certainly was an excellent steed. Aircond dia still menggigil weh hahaha   

And when he accepted the offer to study in Bristol, I decided to sell off the car. The thought of passing it down to Qaisya was there; but... dont think she can handle this piece of art 😛 Qayyum managed to sort it out with CARSOME (Yup.. told him u settle it) and we ended up with Deficit la with the amount I spent to repair it! Should have sold it to the mechanic whilst repairing it as he offered a really good price! 

And there we were, saying our farewell to the car who was as old as Qayyum himself..😀 

SPM Result 2025- Qaisya 9As!! Straight!!

  

Super proud of you MYRA DURRATUN QAISYA. Who would have thought but you certainly deserved it as I saw how you really put your mind and effort towards it all year round. Well done and Of course I have to post this to be one of my 2025 highlights :)

Straight As!!! Alhamdulillah. The beginning of your life  my dearest daughter :)  

The Gaza Mission Parrt Deux : Preamble

When IOF launched their continuous attack and bombardment on Gaza 7th October 2023, Nobody would have thought the siege would continue till today. It has been 384 days since Israel announced to the world ," We are annihilating the Palestinians in front of your eyes". To be honest, I cannot see any end of this except the end of Gaza and Palestine from the map of the world. It is such evil that is ongoing and the world continues to just witness the cruelty and insanity happen.

Gaza has always been my ultimate goal - to enter. As you can see from my posting 10 years ago, the mission with AP did not materialised and since 2014 - no medical team from Malaysia had entered Gaza for humanitarian relief. The heartache from 2014 remained as a scar and the what have nots that I did not achieve. 

Mercy Malaysia toyed with this idea since November 2023, but I was sceptical as I knew it was almost impossible for Malaysians to enter Gaza. I joined MSF with the thought that I would be able to enter the holy land with an established NGO. MSF did not expect my entrance to be denied as well - and when sought after the reasoning for rejection  it was the passport. FYI Malaysia is one of the really few countries who blatantly print in our passport that WE DO NOT RECOGNIZE THE STATE OF ISRAEL. There are a number of countries who do not, but not all are brave enough to have it PRINTED clearly on the first page to show our solidarity in not recognizing the illegal occupation. 

I was updated regularly by Prof Shalimar and the possibilities of going to Gaza- in the beginning no details were given except that of whether I am willing to commit to this mission. Mercy Malaysia was recently recognized as a WHO field hospital type 1 - an accreditation they went through in the past few years starting off before Covid. I have to admit I am guilty of not having to help them directly then despite being a part of their EMT initiative for so long. And it is through this ticket that MM was involved in various meetings with WHO-UN regarding providing medical relief in Gaza. 

It was definitely a "race" - The Malaysian Government had to streamline all the NGOs who supports palestine under the OPS IHSAN initiative. It was in a way a good thing to do as coordination is upmost important to ensure that we can streamline the funds properly rather than repeatedly doing the same thing. One thing that the government was not keen for direct intervention by NGOs into Gaza. Wisma Putra issued few memos stating clearly this in forbiding NGOs to enter Gaza. Well obviously, what is still happening is the danger and high risk conflict situation until now. There is no UN nor any neutral forces in Gaza - just plain one way attack by the Israel towards Gazans. Obviously, its a very dangerous place to be in the world right now.

MM organized a 2-3 day short course/orientation just before 2024 to those who had given their names to volunteer for Gaza mission. It was held in MM HQ in KL. I only to managed to attend the first night but had to go back to hospital the next day for emergency work! It was during this course that we were STRONGLY advised by the army to NOT GO TO GAZA because of its high risk security situation. Since then I was not sure of what will be the outcome of this proposed mission.

However, (I can still remember clearly that day), I received a sudden phone call by Pak Azam on FT day (1st February). It was a public holiday and we were at no 10 for lunch! It was the usual gathering by wifey/s family for makan-makan. My heart raced when I saw Pak Azam.s name on the screen. I knew he was in Cairo because I followed up MM FB closely since the start of the Gaza War.

Pak Azam asked if I can commit myself for this mission as there seems to be a way for MM team to enter Gaza. Without hesitation I said Yes. I said Yes count me in. I made the decision just like that because it was 10 years in the making. It was not a decision made in the haste of time - I have visioned to do this one day and I will not find any excuse to the team offering me the ticket to go to Gaza. 

The Gaza Mission Part Deux

Apologies again for the sudden silence after initially barging through with multiple posts within a short time. I have now garnered enough strength and time to now jot this down. A trip which was dreamt 10 years ago realized in 2024. It was with the unfortunate event affecting our brothers and sisters in Gaza that this time around somehow I was given the rezq to enter the blessed state.

Yes the genocide which is still ongoing for 8 months now. You wonder how could something like this happen in the current "modern and civilized" mentality that we proudly proclaim. It is obvious how we are duped and in the end, it is the fate and behaviour of mankind. For generations till eternity. Its all mentioned clearly in Quran about humanity in general. 

I will definitely write more on the experience. Slowly per post of the act, the movement, the emotions. It was overwhelming. It was sad to leave the place when it was due and one wishes one could do more. We still don/t know what will be the endgame to this massacre - but rest assured we do know where all of this events are heading to.

Gamuda Splashworld for MdQs!

MDQs are hydrophilic kids- Anything related to water they will be superly keen and with this waterpark near to our home- it was a definite must! This trip was planned during the December school holidays. We had Elly, Doya and Renee with their kids to come as well. It was a very enjoyable whole day affair.

Initially I was worried that it would rain all day as that week the weather forecast was gloomy. It rained heavily all week and we were hoping for the best. It even rained like ribut the day before.

Alhamdulillah, the weather was good to us all day. The place was bare so being too hot might be an issue. We were blessed that the mendung was nice and only few spells of hot sun upon us. The early disappointment was the unavailability of the cabana- as it was fully booked due to a company having their retreat that Saturday.

As expected MDQs kept disappearing and enjoyed themselves with rides. They are bigger now hence they will go all over to attend the rides. Being swimmers, I was confident to let them go and enjoy themselves. Eusoff was enjoying it too ( I hope!) It was amazing that all family members did enjoy themselves😊

3-3 draw with Korea full team

Malaysia 3- Korea 3

The match may not have any bearing to the Asia Cup as we were already out from advancing, but it was the best match of the prem rounds.

It was the game we saw what we can really do. The spirit was extra special and we persevered from the word go. Players did their best and its all what we fan wants. And to draw with the ranked 23rd in the world is an absolute dream. Ball for ball. Until the very last minute.

Truly amazing- courage and determination was shown with full commitment from all the players. 

We will come back Harimau Malaya!!

The hard real truth Asia Cup 2024

We just had our first match yesterday. I stayed up to watch this game as I reckon it should not be missed. The hype around the team was good a d I guess everybody would have loved a fairy tale story for our Harimau Malaya.Hari ni oncall koyak!! Mengantuk gile😆😆

Unfortunately we lost 4-0. The media in a way is starting to bash them and coach KPG. He did play a weird formation yesterday - the gamble did not pay off as expected. Honestly, we were unlucky to concede the first 2 goals. The first was a long rsnge curved show which was world class. Gile top corner. I dont think any goalkeeper could have saved that one. Another was a soft penalty conceded.. and via VAR. According to our asian standard, takde nye penalty but yeah it was a bitter moment to bite.

Physically we did try to challenge then but what was obvious was the speed of the Jordanians. Hence the continuing struggle against middle east team is still there. 

We have 2 more games- tougher games. Against higher ranking teams - Bahrain and the mighty south korea. Please bros.. play your best! Takut jadi whipping boys of Asia Cup 2024.

2024.. Bring it on😊

My first post for the new year! I’ve been occupied with more CABGs that came about celebrating 2024 haha. 

Semoga tahun baharu 2024 membawa kesejahteraan kepada semua from the Mafeitzs😆 

P/S Whatever Langkah there maybe😆

Jalan2 Korea Selatan Part 3

There was one thing that we had to do, which was to visit the Gyeongbok Palace. The cool and unique thing is they encourage us to come donning hanboks (traditional dress) where with it your admission will be free. It was like a traditional cosplay ish thing haha but I thought it waa cool to play dress up and take lots of pictures with it. Only then it occured to me why when my friends posted pics of their visit to the korean palaces, all will dress up.

The hanbok shops are readily available near to the palace grounds. In total there are 5 palaces which are interconnected to each other. Got some tips from vlogs on where to rent the hanboks but again if you are bot sure which shop, just follow the flow of hanbok wearers from different nationalities walking to and fro.

After dressing up, we walked down to the main gate. We were lucky we managed to catch the changing of guard ceremony. In the itenary we were told that its as 2pm but that day it went on at 1pm. I guess this a the highlight of any palace visit.

And yes we took tonnes of pictures and we lost track of the time. And we were only on our first palace!! Haha We were to attend the President’s dinner which I almost thought about skipping. But after googling the venue, weh.. cant miss this event. Not easy to get access to Aston House. 

And I share with all of you some of our hanbok pictures at the Royal Gyeongbok Palace!!

The year 22-23 gone report

Ok here goes.

Whats new in my life currently? I'll just list down what happened over this period. But if you are a detailed reader of this blog, you'll realize how in have post before over the years; I expressed issues regarding some unhappiness that I've felt - and of course it was something that we cope along with life.

1. I am divorced with my ex-wife for the obvious reasons of prolonged shiqaq.

2. I am married to my wife now.

3. I have a new baby. 6th! (A miracle really) 

4. Qayyum is done with his SPM. Alhamdulillah with Excellent results! 

5. MDQ1-5 embraced the separation better than what I expected.

6. Trying to cope with the arrangements and my busy like hell work.

Haha.. senang buat summary. All this was very PnC and I did not really share with even my close friends. The separation and divorce did not really come as a surprise but the marriage yes.. because my parents did not even know about it until when the time I did tell them haha gile scorpio. Lejen stuff..

There are many insights I would like to share but I have to be fair as well so the story does not seem biased. Honestly, though me and my ex-wife is not aligned anymore, I truly appreciated the times we were together. It was real and I have no regrets as I consider it as how my life went. 

Those who are blessed and lucky may have their marriage a lifetime. Unfortunately mine was not. But I am blessed that I have found another partner who has her own attractive criterias which fits me. I am thankful she embraced my my kids and vice versa. And as how i call it a miracle my new baby 1 because my wife is not that young but Allah is great.

                                                               Introducing Eusoff

                                                             Introducing my wife Eka

                                                            My full family picture

TIVA not the first choice for GA!

The UKM organizers invited me to their Symposium yesterday not for a normal talk but for a debate! Haha I've not done this for a long time and it was refreshing to be the debater again. We've been organizing this debate session for our Regional Anaesthesia symposiums since 2017 - and incorporated as a must for our NRAS. Usually I'll be involved as the moderator or behind the scenes, not to sure why but perhaps because I dont think anybody would want to debate with me haha This time around Pak Dan was kind enough to be the panel - but of course since this is a TIVA symposium, I had the heavier task to go against the tide.

The whole fraternity is against inhalationals nowadays for a better world? Haha How do you defend that? But I must say I was glad I went to Vincent Chan's talk in Korea Anaesthesia recently and it gave me the insight of how to argue my case. I'm sure everybody was surprised to discover how the carbon footprint can be higher for RAs rather than GAs.

It was a very enjoyable session - I do love these debates and at the same time laughing at myself whilst at it. Kudos to the organizers all of course to my sparing partner of the day.

2-3 cats running together,

Thank you again MR CHairperson sir.. :) 

                                                All smiles at the end of the session!