HEALTH ISSUES : JUST A LITTLE BIT MORE

Those who followed the now defunct Nasi Lemak And Nescafe Tarik would remember that I am in the process of loosing weight.

A little bit of background story for those who dont have any idea what in the world I am writing about.

I have been trying to loose weight for the past 8 months, from November 2008, where at that time I stood heavy at 104 kg. I have high cholesterols, was diagnosed as at borderline diabetes and confirmed had gout. My doctor warned me that I need to change my lifestyles or risked facing a shitload of sickness in the coming years. I started to take medicine to control and reduce the high cholesterol level.

I took heed of his advices and started to exercise regularly. Twice a day, no breaks, rain or shine.

An ideal weight for me (1.77cm tall, 40 years old) should be around 75kg - 80 kg. And so that becomes my target.

My current weight now is at 80.7 kg.

Just a little bit more to go.

And of course, as in any good health related products promotions and advertisements (the obligatory before and after pics), I'll post it in this blog, very, very soon.

WARRIOR

In my schooldays, the most popular choice of school shoes were a pair of Warrior.

If you don't have any idea what Warrior is (or was, for that matter), its the most favourite school shoes in in the whole of Malaysia in the 80's. High cut or low cut, it came in 3 different colours, which were dark blue, black and white. It cheap, and cost just RM 13.00.

Warrior shoes were very comfortable to wear, and it matched whatever pants you put on, regardless if its a denim, slacks and the standard green school pants (or in our case white school pants). We wore Warrior to almost any event, and used it playing almost every games.

Bazaar Bulat, was the place to buy it, since we could easily haggled the price down. RM 1.00 or RM 2.00 less than the original price was a very big deal for us then since with that kind of money could buy us a 65 cents movie ticket. Although, with that price the seats allocated were in the very front row of the cinema hall, and watching the movie in a straight upwards sitting positions from such a short distance usually left us with a strained and stiff neck.

Warrior were not worn only by schoolboys, girls loved it too. While eating out in Taman Kanak-kanak (a favourite place to hang out and makan in Ipoh) and, those girls from MGS or Raja Perempuan with their long baju kurung school uniform would show off their Warriors, sometimes exposing just enough to reveal their red or pink shoe laces. Being boys, we were left wondering of course, if there was more to that.

Some of my more creative friends, patched leathers to their Warrior shoes, to make it more cool and unique. Some replaced their Warrior white shoe laces with other colours to give it a stand out look.

If my memories serves me right, Warrior, fade out of the school shoes scene during the early 90's.

I am not sure what happened. I know I still wore a pair of Warrior when I was in college in the early 90's.

Surfing the web, I found that Warrior shoes are still alive and kicking, albeit with a different look and design.

For those who wish to re live their glory years, the website add is as follows.

http://www.warriorshoes.com/

I am sure it'll brings back memories, where perhaps, Warrior was THE shoes you wore on your first real date with a girl. I know I was.

And the girl too.

INTERLAKEN AND JUNGFRAUJOCH, SWITZERLAND

My family and I with a friend of mine with his family and another friend from Bern went for an outing at Interlaken and Jungfrau, Switzerland.

A bit of information about these places, courtesy of Wikipedia (what else?);

INTERLAKEN

Interlaken is located between Lake Brienz to the east and and Lake Thun to the west in the area called Bödeli. The town takes its name from its geographical position between the lakes (in Latin inter lacus).

JUNGFRAU

Jungfrau (German "maiden/virgin") is one of the main summits in the Bernese Alps, situated between the cantons of Valais and Berne.

JUNGFRAUJOCH

Jungfraujoch railway station which at an elevation of 3,454 metres is the highest railway station in Europe. The Jungfraujoch is often called `The Top Of Europe' in tourist literature.

THE JOURNEY

It took about 2 and half hours drive from Geneva to Interlaken. Arrived at the Interlaken railway station at around 11.30 am. Its a small, beautiful and charming town with lots of traditional Swiss houses in the many villages scattered around it.

Our main aim were to go to Jungfraujoch, where the highest railway station in whole of Europe is located. I noticed a lot of Japanese and Arab tourists at the station.

Before I forget, Interlaken is in the German part of Switzerland and so they speaks German there. And nope, I cant speak German. All I know and remember about German language is `Achtung, Achtung, Americana!' which I picked up watching Combat tv series while growing up. Yes, thats right, the starring Rick Jackson and Vic Morrow thing.

We had with us our standard staple of of traveling food, which was bihun goreng and our friends brought seperiuk nasik putih plus ikan tenggiri masin, and lauk pauk yang sewaktu dengannya (cili api included). You read it right. Nasik seperiuk. (Dengan periuk, periuk sekali!). Well, the thing with that is, its difficult to find halal food, and after all, its just like going to a picnic. The only thing different is, this will be on top of a snow covered mountain rather than the usual beach, sun and sand. Like my current boss said, "Dah Melayu, campak kat mana pun style Melayu jugak".

Ticket to Jungfraujoch cost a whopping CHF 181.80 return. I was hesitant at first to buy the tickets since its too expensive but then I figured that this is the only way I would get to a mountain summit in my life without physically climbing it. With that in mind, I bought the damn expensive tickets (two tickets, one for me and one for my love one. Total CHF 363.60 @ RM 1,192.65) and parted with my valuable Swiss Franc. The sentence DO NOT CONVERT TO RM, DO NOT CONVERT TO RM kept on playing on and on in me head. The good news was that children with family rides for free. And that really saved me a lot, considering I was travelling with 3 children.

We had to switch train 3 times, at Wengen, Lauterbrunnen and Kleine Scheidegg stations.

The journey to the top took about 2 hours with fantastic views along the route.

Jungfraubahn (the train name) connects the final leg of the railway line from Kleine Scheidegg to Jungfraujoch.

The trains here use the cog system to allow trains to operate on steep terrain.


It started to snow when we arrived at Kleine Scheidegg railway station. Yey!, for the snowfall in the middle of summer!. The children were jumping with joy.

From that last station, the railway lines entered the mountain and popped out near the summit of the Jungfrau mountain through a long 7.3 km tunnel.




We reached the top at the end of tunnel.

There were restaurants and souvenir shops. I smiled when I saw the sign of a Bollywood themed restaurant featured prominently near the entrance, greeting tourists. The long tentacles of Bollywood reached far and wide, even in the Alps.

Now, I considered myself as a fit 40 year old. I mean I jog for an hour in the morning and another hour in the evening, everyday without fail, but let me tell you that being at 3,454 metres on the top of a cold and snow covered mountain made me breathless. Climbing short stairs was really difficult and I had to do it slowly, one step at a time, gasping, and it really felt like there was not enough air entering my lungs. I guessed this is what they called altitude sickness. I felt lightheaded and giddy. All the children and others in my group felt the same and I noticed some of them, their faces became pale and their lips turned blue for lack of oxygen.

After a short while, a very light lunch and the mandatory photo shoot, and after a quick souvenir hunting, we decided we had enough of the thin cold air and went down from the summit, catching the earliest train we could get.

We all recovered from the altitude sickness immediately when we arrived back in Kleine Scheidegg railway station.

We reached Interlaken, with periuk and all, a little tired but satisfied. Views along the train route were wonderfully beautiful, but deep ddown we know that not a lot of people achieved what we did, . We ate nasik and ikan tenggiri masin with cili api on a all year round snow covered mountain top, 3,741 metres high, Top of Europe.

How many people can brag about that anyway ? Hehe.

LIFE BEGINS AT 40.....

Or so they say.

I say its debatable. I am of the opinion that its more of a shrewd phrase invented by those who wanted deny the fact that they are actually entering their final lapse of life.

Lets face it, being a 40 year old means that we have lived for almost 3 1/4 of our life. It also means that, if we dont have what we want by the age of 40, theres only a little time left to achieve our dreams. That is, provided that we are not struck down by stroke or heart attacks or any other illness for that matter, which is a very common occurrence if we dont give a shit about our health.

Being in the forties should also mean that we are wise enough to make good decisions and be more mature in handling our everyday challenges, with 4 decades of life experiences in our bags to rely on.

A forty year old should be able to give intelligent counsel and advice to those in need (Friends, relatives, nieces and nephews included). Forty year olds are after all, the next in line to replace those wise old men before us, elders of their own generations.

Lets life begins at whatever suitable age we are comfortable with.

And with that, HAPPY 40TH BIRTHDAY TO ME!

Note: Akula celebrated his 40th year yesterday and accepts only cash for presents.

TECHNOLOGICALLY OR SOCIALLY DIFFERENT

You would think that its very easy to find computer parts in a city like Geneva. I, however found out that its not easy.

My PC's graphic card has gone kaput. I was really surprised when I found out that its very hard to find a worthy replacement here. At least the one that match my specification. And forget about fixing your PC's. The repair cost is so high that it would be far better if you buy a new one.

I also found out that the mobile phone technology here is not as advanced as what we have in Malaysia.

Well, except for Iphone, (which I am using one right now). Its cost much cheaper compared to what Maxis offered back home.

I guess maybe its because;

1. Malaysia is far more advanced technologically
2. We are a nation of handphone crazy people
3. Handphones are not the `thing' in Switzerland

4. Swiss loves to talk with the real thing, face to face instead of relying on a string of SMSs and MMSs to communicate

Back to the PC parts thing.

I finally have to resort to ordering it online. The bad thing about online shopping is that you may never get exactly what you want. And if the sellers delivered the wrong thing you will be burdened by endless problems of having to return it and to get those online company to send you the right order. This is what I missed most about Malaysia, where PC parts are readily available in every shape and form (original or not!). If all else fails, I can always depend on Low Yatt Plaza to provide what I am looking for.

Living in a city lacking in what I am used to have easy access to is sort of annoying to say the least.

Don't get me wrong, its not that Geneva is not a great city to live.

Its just different.

For me at least.

WHINERS

Like I said, I really hate whiners.

Why some people are stuck in this childish behavior really puzzled me.

Perhaps, in their childhood past, they always got what they want since their parents could not stand all the whining and crumbled to their demands? And perhaps since nobody had a good sense to discipline them since then, they carried this spoiled brat and cry baby shit all their life until they themselves becomes a grown up?

To complain is one thing, but to whine and bitch endlessly?

Mak nenek pun give up!