The First...

...of Many.

Today is mad redo1's birthday. As usual for birthdays people will associate the special day with receiving gifts from people who care. However, for this birthday mad redo1 wishes for something special, something that is totally out of his hands.

Today happens to be the day the result for the Ujian Penilaian Sekolah Rendah (UPSR) is announced. Khadijah a.k.a. AKS#1 sat for the test over a month ago. Perhaps it is true that Malaysia is a country with many tests for the youngsters to go through before reaching adulthood. Even now when you are an adult there are quite a substantial number of tests and examinations that you have to go through, especially in the government sector.

Thus the UPSR is the first of many for Khadijah to sit during the course of her life and as a parent mad redo1 wishes to see his first child to pass it with flying colours. If she does then it will be the perfect birthday gift for mad redo1 (for this year).

It has been raining since the last few days to the extent that the Meteorological Department has issued the 'Orange' alert for Terengganu and Kelantan. When mad redo1, Linda and the younger AKSes reach the school they are greeted with light drizzle. The head-master of the school has already started calling the students and announcing their results.

It is not a long wait for mad redo1 and Linda.

The heart begins to beat a little faster when Khadijah's name is called. Then the head-master announces "5A!" and the same heart jumps with joy. At the end of the announcement, there are 45 pupils on stage who have achieved 5As.

mad redo1 remembers when the result was announced for the 'Penilaian Darjah 5' test which he sat, there were just 11 who managed to obtain 5As. It was a shock to the system for him as he was predicting a 4As and a B but it was a good shock nonetheless.

As it turns out, Khadijah is part of bunch that put Terengganu at the top of the pile again in term of success in the UPSR.

The good news travels fast and Linda's brother Poppy announces that lunch is on him as  the way to celebrate. Furthermore it is also mad redo1's birthday. To add another joy to the day, Linda's mother receives the 'Ibu Mithali' award in the morning during a ceremony.

In a way it is a 'three in one' celebration for everybody.

The place to celebrate? The newly opened McDonald's 'Drive-Thru' Restaurant near Giant. Today is indeed a good day and mad redo1 hopes there will be more days like this in the future.

Of course this success is not possible without the hard work from all concerned, especially the teachers at SKPCT who poured everything in their efforts to ensure their charges would be able to do their best during their first major test. Thank you very much.

Heartiest congratulations Berg!  May there will be more success for you in the future.

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Driving Through...

...All Day, All Night!

Finally kT received another upgrade as a city when McDonald's opened its first 'drive thru' restaurant this week. First of all, congratulations to my former house-mate at ITM Dungun, Encik Azmi or better known as Mi-O on the successful opening of the restaurant, which certainly enhanced his reputation an astute businessman.

The AKSes, especially Nina have been counting down the days when it would be open. Firstly, the bunting saying the 'drive-thru' will be opened soon. A couple of days ago we saw the 'open now' bunting has been hanged on the lamp posts around town.

Thus, the pestering started.

Finally last night after doing a mini shopping at Sabasun Hyper-Market mad redo1 decided to drop by and tested the 'drive-thru' facility. Please take note that this was not by any mean our first visit to a drive thru, merely our first visit to the one in kT.

The whole process took less than five minutes. Perhaps due to the fact it was not a weekend and it was not during peak hour. Well, with the restaurant located around 1.5km from mad redo1's house and it opens for 24 hour (maybe the drive-thru only), the probability of him driving there in odd hours in the morning is quite high, really.

Whatever it is, I'm loving it!

...

Au Revoir...

...Ma Tortue Aimée.

The departure of Ken Worden from Terengganu as the Turtles Head Coach also meant the end of mad redo1's tenure at PBSNT. His hope of bringing some improvements to the association did not materialise despite giving 100% effort in almost every task.

However, it was clear from the beginning the relationship was not going to work out as mad redo1 was not given the level of trust by the President to carry out his duties as efficiently as possible. To be treated like a fool in front of the whole council was not the best way to say "Welcome" to someone who is willing to work his butts off for the sake of football in the state.

Perhaps it was a "Get lost!" message that I failed to get.

Nevertheless it has been a great ride, especially the opportunity to get a first hand experience on how NOT to run a football team. The near success of the Terengganu team in recent years were just mere facade to what really brewing on the inside.

For an association that seemingly has a good relationship with the government, PBSNT should have a good set-up as a football team playing in the top tier of Malaysian football. They should at least have their own training field that is not a subject to somebody else's prerogative to let them use it.

The arrival of T-Team on the scene certainly put certain people on the defensive. Now having won promotion to the Super League, it will be interesting to see how the first 'derby' match between these two sides will turn out.

Winning the Malaysia Cup in 2001 should have been a catalyst for football in Terengganu to enter a modern era, unfortunately it seemed to be heading to the opposite direction. Those who are in power could say that we have been consistently among the top of pile every season with the facilities that we got.

But, what if we have better facilities?

What if we have better planning?

Instead of finishing among the top, we could be the TOP team in the country.

Unfortunately this will reflect badly for the state of football in Malaysia. For a team like Terengganu to be consistently finishing among the top teams in the country with the kind of management and facilities they have, then many Malaysian football teams are also being badly managed by the so called 'football people'.

For mad redo1, his long term dream is to see Terengganu being the dominant team in Malaysian football but with a good management that will look at having their own training complex is the way to go instead of being a burden to the association.

In other words, people who really care about football instead of those who see football as a mere stepping stone to bigger things or just the only avenue left to be in an authoritive position.

...

Turtles Crack...

...under Pressure.

mad redo1's wish to make the trip to Bukit Jalil on 7-11 for the 2009 Malaysia Cup Final is dashed when Terengganu are knocked out at the semi-final stage, again.

This time the opponent is Negeri Sembilan who seemed to be on high gear throughout the Malaysia Cup campaign. Four meetings between the Turtles and the Deers during the tournament and in the end it reads 0-0-4 with 7 to 1 goal record.

With the season over, Terengganu will be looking for a new Head Coach for 2010 season with Ken Worden already indicating that he will not take up the option for a further year with Terengganu.

With the 2010 season kicking off sometime in January thus the time is right for Terengganu to really prepare for the new season with a thorough training programme that would enable the players to last the whole season playing ninety minutes football, instead of running out of steam with twenty minutes to go.

It does not matter how other teams are preparing for next season, the mind set of every team in 'Liga Malaysia' is the same must be thrown away. We must be the leader of the pack by having good footballers with good fitness level that could last the whole match.

More on mad redo1's mind, but those are for another day.

...