If a football team is rubbish, you indicate they’re so rubbish that they’re unheard of. For example, ‘Arsenal? Pekak team ah.’

If a football play takes bribe, he ‘keylong.’

When someone is lame, he is a slengek. Or kental (not kentel or poyo).

If someone is eksyen, dia ‘step.’

When men are chit chatting aimlessly not saying anything of significance, they ‘bebual konek.’

When a group of ppl wanna chill out, they ‘lek one corner.’ Sometimes ‘dekat bawah block. Void deck ah.’

Ah I got some tambahan for the Sgpore lingo tweets I did earlier. Bedek means tipu. Lincah w/c KL has but they actlly use it day to day.

Instead of ordering your drink w/ the mamak, it’s ‘mama.’ Without the ‘k’.

Instead of wtv or ‘aku tak kisah’ they say ‘sebarang’ or ‘sembarang.’

Other terms tht they use, KL also knows except they still use it. Old school. Like borak or temberang for lie, sepatu (shoe), kocek (pocket)

When telling their friend ‘call me if anything,’ they say ‘eh ape ape nanti picit eh.’ Picit bcz u picit the button of ur phone 2 call.

Bodek btw does not mean the same as KL, which is to suck up. Bodek in Sgpore means the mans thing. The tht one la. His tht one. U know? Pantat also does not mean the same in KL, where it means the womans thing. The tht one. U know? In Sgpore it means ass. Bontot. Unisex.

It’s not ‘aku cakap kau, aku tak mau’. It is ‘aku bilang kau, aku tak mau.’ Bilang is to say, not just count as in ‘bilangan’ in KL.

In KL we say sial. In Sgpore it is ‘siol’ or ‘sia.’ But due to slang, and also internet, some use ‘siak’ then ‘zark.’ Both rooted fr ‘sia.’

It is ‘anting-anting’ still. Not ‘subang’ for earrings (all types).

Some still say ‘motokar.’ Not kereta. Ranjang. Not katil.

This is 1 tht I often use w/c I blame granaunts for. That is, instead of mungkin, it is ‘barangkali.’

A muscle man, is an Abang Body. Also known sometimes as Abang Ketiak. Cause of how their arms are like, outward?

‘Etc etc’ is ‘gedebak gedebuk.’

Murtabak Singapore is Murtabak.

When u say ‘karipap’ in Sgpore, you’re referring to what KL knows as ‘karipap Sgpore.’ What KL knows as ‘karipap’, Sgpore says ‘epok-epok.’

In Sgpore, it’s not ‘syok’. It is ‘shiok.’ Or more aptly, ‘shiok seh.’

Pepatah tends to be quite popular among older folks when it comes to making jabs at one another. ..

Recently uncle playing cards complained, ‘tak shiok main ni terup,saiz kecik.’ Granaunt said ‘orang tak reti joget, salahkan lantai senget.’

To those following tweets re Sgpore BM slang/lingo. My familiarity comes fr d amount of time spent here since lama. Like..Zaman Jahiliyyah.

Scrambler motorbikes are popular in Sgpore. KTM the bike maker is a popular brand. If u own a KTM n go to a popular hangout joint, u …. Are certain to pick up a chick. Therefore, bikes by KTM, is also known as Kenderaan Tumpang Minah. (Minah is female for Mats)…Obviously. But more importantly, they’re jst Mats here. Not Mat Rempit.

Rabak, to mean drastic. Teruk, not necessarily in the negative sense of the word. Like ‘that’s just bad man.’

Earlier today, I tweeted:

Jst left old furniture shop. In love, did not spend, but hv their email & pics of wht I like. Oh dear..http://lockerz.com/s/159887637

The last time I went on a furniture spree, Jakarta 2009, it caused some damage and no regrets. The same has been the case for the last few outings I’ve had with the shops.

But there are a few realities some must come to face. And the new one I had was, to run away.

By that I mean, not to stay another night in Penang, because if I did, I’d pay this store another visit to confirm purchase of the items I’m interested in.

When I started looking at this, I knew I was getting carried away. So..the wise thing to do was to continue letting that happen.

Aren’t they lovely? Note how the legs are angled, and that there’s only three.

I actually came looking for this. And got excited seeing all the other stuff.

And then I enquired about the price for this gorgeous heavy peranakan beauty. That snapped me back to life and marked my exit.

Khor Antiques, Beach Road, Penang. Near Chulia Street.

That said, here it is for your perusal as I don’t subscribe to this notion of keeping the good things a secret. In essence, no good has ever come out of such selfish behaviour.

- http://zainhd.com/2011/11/furni-loving/

I was in Iceland last July and was quite impressed by their brand of humor, or more accurately, the quirkiness of their advertisements. I remember taking an amount of photographs before being scolded by the immigration officer for boarding the flight at the eleventh hour. What happened to those photos is something I’ll explain later, but above is a video from tourism that I imagine will draw in some numbers.

Note how some people in the video are wearing only single layer clothing, which I trust was done to debunk the impression that it’s all cold, all year round everywhere there.

- http://zainhd.com/2011/03/quirky-iceland-jungle-drum/

With President Ali Abdullah Saleh in Aden, Yemen Dec '01

A lot of Asians, get annoyed with foreigners categorize us as one, when the region is both too vast and too diverse. Similarly with South East Asians, and then Malaysians – who are very aware that by the regions within the country alone, we can be quite diverse, let alone on other aspects. But the same has been the case for us towards the other parts of the world. A case in point is the Arab world (a chunk of which is in Asia).

I’ve been to the Middle East now maybe 8 times and still trying to understand the cultural demographics and political dynamics. But even with something closer to the surface than that, there are stark differences. So even if you have come across a sufficient number of them either in or out of their land, it’s not a representation of the mass, and perhaps an inaccurate generalization, albeit sometimes necessary.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lqJDuZIcQ34

Besides being in frequent contact with people there, online and offline, my last visit to that side of the world was to Yemen in last December. And it further highlighted the point in my view, that overall things there need a shakeup, and one that I had no hope for until Tunisia. The above video (lyrics here) is a lighter note of things, and below is an email I received recently from a man I had dinner with in KL last year. I vividly remember after him looking at me carefully and asking where I’m from, he replied, ana min Tunis (I am from Tunisia).

I’m not at liberty to share his name nor the nature of how I met him, but he is one that is very familiar with the political climate (public and underground), among other things, of that spot on the globe we call the Arab world. I share this email here to put out to you that what happened was very real, and it started along time ago. More importantly, it involves our brother and sister human beings.

‘Everything is ok for my family in Tunisia and I’m really proud of being Tunisian, one of the sons of a great people. Our martyrs, including my eldest brother killed in the 1961 war against France, were not dead for nothing and the honour of our dear  country belongs to them. The struggle against despotism, in all its forms, will guarantee to the Arab peoples the dignity they deserve and the bell is tolling for the dictators and their lackeys.’

I just got this via email. Cape Town, 27 April. Dar es Salaam, 24 May. Cairo, 21 June. Going past Capricorn, Equator and Cancer latitude lines. Going, I am least likely.

- http://zainhd.com/2011/01/trans-africa-expedition/

Happy New Year. I am now at home. Landed Subang Airport early this morning and have literally since then, every hour been working, until now closing in on midnight. That said, the last ten days with family was lovely as love.

- http://zainhd.com/2011/01/back-in-business-with-love/

I’m in Singapore now for a wedding and instead of leaving for KL tomorrow, due to various relatives making their case to me as to why I should stay on, I have decided to do just that, till 2nd Jan. I was in Jakarta on 23rd Dec (also for a wedding) and flew out here on 26th morning. While waiting for my flight, I had published a blog post at Soekarno-Hatta from the iPod Touch but I don’t see it here.

Since we’re on the topic of mobility, there are options and thoughts in:

• February to go to Yemen with an uncle or Australia (coincidentally) his son,
• April would be Israel but no, not on the convoy bicycle ride that departs from London in March for Gaza,
• May to visit an English teacher in Peru and accompany her to the next posting, Ecuador, 
• June for either UK or US for summer school, if all things and around it lead to that,
• July for a wedding in Italy assuming the schedule then is as sunny as Florence.

Like many times during the day, these are just (or perhaps more than just) ideas. So happens they are travel related, and of course let’s not get too excited and straighten our curls. Meanwhile, if you’re in town, do check out Rihlah: Arabs in Southeast Asia Exhibition at the Singapore National Library, which focuses on Yemen, especially the valley of Hadhramawt (where I mainly was two weeks ago). It’s been extended to 31st Dec.

-  http://zainhd.com/2010/12/the-new-year-plan/

I’m now in the city that was once a great port and liking it so far. One that when I was small, at the mention of its name I thought it was a country. Not due to the fact or exaggeration, but from ignorance. I leave for Sana’a, high altitude capital in the north of Yemen in a few hours.

Earlier yesterday before I arrived here, I was in Shibam, one of the oldest cities in the world. The view of it from outside the city, resembles that of the New York City skyline from the East River. Ironically, walking its streets, reminded me of La Paz.

- http://zainhd.com/2010/12/aden/

In a few hours time, I leave Tareem, Hadramawt. After my 9 week plus trip in May-July 2010, I was not planning to travel, and still don’t want to, but did not want to let go of the chance tagging on to this Yemen trip, one that I’ve been wanting for years to make.

Half of the people I meet here, have at one point or the other, came if not slept in my family’s home and would like to return that hospitality. That general gesture probably does not do justice to the remarkable standard of respect and mannerism this place carries.

We drive out of Tareem, a village in the valley of Hadramawt, to Shibam, then Seyoun to fly to Aden. Tomorrow night fly to Sana’a, then Doha to KL. Sometime after, I will begin uploading pictures although out of all trips, this would be most difficult, far-fetching for anyone to experience what I did here.

*Above is a picture taken of four kids who hitch-hiked on our pickup truck briefly while we were driving to the tomb of Prophet Hud. I pick this photo over others as to choose one that depicts the valley best, was tricky. So a moment that on some level describe what fun I had here.

- http://zainhd.com/2010/12/living-the-valley/