This. Not so much surprising as it is just eye-rollingly backward. I'd even venture to use a big word like "anachronistic" just to show off, except that, well, when we see so many decisions similar to this with regards to Islam and Malaysian women, that word just doesn't quite fit anymore, does it?
The Syariah High Court here ordered Manohara Odelio Pinot to be loyal and pay back RM1,112,250 owed to her husband, Tengku Muhammad Fakhry Sultan Ismail Petra, the Tengku Temenggong of Kelantan.
"The plaintiff was a perfect husband and the question of torture does not arise. As such, the defendant has no reason to act in such a manner," he said.
Missing from the judgment is an expectation that the wife get dinner ready by the time the husband gets back from a hard day's work of being royalty. Also:
Asked whether he was hopeful that Manohara would be loyal to him, Tengku Muhammad Fakhry replied; "Certainly".
Sorry, ladies, he's taken!
Baloo and Shere Khan chillin' out. (Those are their actual names, and this is an actual zoo.)
So I accidentally locked myself out of my room this morning. No problem, I thought as I took the elevator down to the lobby. I'll just show them some ID and they'll get me a new key. But previous experiences here started making me a little dubious about how smoothly it would really go. How much of a fuss would they put up to make sure that I'm who I'm saying I am and that I wasn't trying to sneak into someone else's room?
"Hi, I'm from Room ***, I locked myself out."
"No problem, here you go."
Now I'm not entirely sure if I should be pleased with the quick, painless service, or worried that the front desk just gave me a hotel room key without checking to find out who I was. I suppose they could have seen me around before, but still!
Okay, maybe I'm complaining way too much. But next time, I'm not leaving my 20-carat diamond collection behind anymore.
It is seven minutes to 10pm. I had gotten back from work less than an hour ago. Okay, had dinner with some co-workers, but still. Was tired, a little fried, very much looking forward to a nice hot shower. I mean, missing cup noodles aside, surely the hotel couldn't screw that up, right?
I opened the bathroom door and found myself staring at an empty towel rack.
Guys, at some point you've got to at least pretend to try, you know?
...would like to know where his fucking money is, asshole.
It's 12.39am and I'm tired and I have work in the morning, but I don't wanna sleep. Outside my window hundreds of cars are zipping back and forth in the Federal Highway. I see skyscrapers in the distance, their lights still turned on. There's another life happening right this very minute while everyone else is sleeping. I want to reach out and touch it, let myself get sucked into that other world.
But it's 12.43am and I'm still here typing/rambling away, with nothing but cold Kenny Rogers leftovers, a glass of Coke and hot instant cup noodles to keep me company, The Killers blaring in the background. I'm tired and vaguely annoyed but not sure at what and that's annoying me even more.
12.46am. It's almost like I'm waiting/expecting/hoping something to change, but all that's happening are my fingers tapping away on elegantly-designed Vaio keyboards and Brandon Flowers screaming away. I'm getting more and more annoyed, and I don't know why.
"I don't wanna be kept, I don't wanna be caged, I don't wanna be damned, oh hell"
It is 12.50am. I'm still in the same exact position I was 11 minutes ago. Everything's the same, and nothing's changed.
Shit.
Ahh, KL. Back here for more work stuff; we've set production time for our magazine at two weeks, and hopefully we can cut it to one by the next ish.
I can actually see myself living here. I never thought of myself as a KL person, but there seems to be so much more life here. Penang is so blek these days, with highrises popping up at the least appropriate places. At least you expect highrises in KL. The people I work with are smart and friendly, and traveling around the city is so much easier with a GPS it almost feels like cheating. Though one time I followed the GPS's route from Tropicana to Solaris Mont Kiara, and I found myself in the North-South Highway, looking at a helpful signboard telling me which direction Sungai Buloh was.
Cons of permanently moving to KL (if that ever happens, which hardly seems likely at this stage) is of course leaving friends and family behind. Yeah, you can make new friends, but starting over from scratch has never been easy, at least for me, and I'm pretty shit at meeting new people. Which... would pretty much be the same scenario if I ever move back to Melbourne, come to think of it. Goddamnit.
Pros of temporarily working in KL: Company puts you up in a hotel, albeit a cheap one, and you're working more or less unsupervised, not in a dusty cubicle all day while dealing with endless meetings and office politics. There's a bit more pressure with that lack of supervision, but it's also very freeing.
Cons: the hotel I'm staying at is THE WORST GODDAMN HOTEL IN KL. I mean, there are at least two lamps that aren't working due to power socket failure, a front desk and room service centre that take forever to pick up the damn phone, and housekeeping is, arggh. I'm still too pissed off to be coherent. I found one of my brand new books a little mashed. Oh, and one day I bought some instant cup noodles for supper, left them in the hotel in a plastic bag by the corner, and when I came back later that night from work THEY WERE GONE.
Motherfucker. I have half a mind to fill in their customer review questionnaire. You know, the one that they'll just ignore in the end.
Had dinner with Zai and his wife Ulfah last week. I think it was the first time I'd seen them in person since... shit, their wedding a couple of years ago. Their daughter was born around this time last year. They looked like they hadn't slept in years. Suckers. Kidding, lovely people.
KL. Sigh. Decisions, decisions...
