When I am smilin'......

I love this song so much. First heard in Adam Sandler's " Anger Management".

When you're smilin' When you're smilin'

The whole world smiles with you.

And when you're laughin' When you're laughin'

The sun comes shinin' through.

When you're cryin',

You bring on the rain, So, stop you're sighin',

Won't you be happy again!

When you're smiling, Keep on smilin'

And the whole world smiles with you.

I was jogging (yeah!) as usual yesterday when I got a phone message from Kementerian Kesenian people asking me to call them back on Monday. In fact they were trying to reach me at the office yesterday evening (around 6.30 pm) and I was already halfway climbing up the "Tamarind Springs" slope in Taman TAR. Luckily my colleague picked up the phone and relayed the message to me.

Hahaha.. Alhamdulillah. Apparently my appeal letter to Dato' Rais Yatim I'd sent few weeks ago seemed to take effects on the officials who must be frantically trying to find answers for the blunder. The officer in charge musti dah kena "bambu" for not going thru my application thoroughly. And now finally, they asked me to provide the 'budget breakdown' and also the detailed syllabus for the course. I hope it is a 'good sign' when they started to ask these infos from me.

But then, budget breakdown tu OKlah but detailed syllabus? Ayoyo.. come on, asking a world's leading teachers of physical comedy like Avner for a detailed syllabus? You must be joking! But then fair enough, I wrote to him last night ( came back to office just for that) and this morning ( Yes, I went back to sleep and come back this morning. :) ) I got the expected reply from him.

Sure enough he wrote,

Dear Iskandar,

Thank you for writing. There is no official syllabus for the Eccentric Performing workshop.

It is a professional level course, but has no academic standing per se.

We we meet for two 3-hour classes every day for over sixty hour of class work.

In addition we meet in the evenings for presentation of assignments and critique of student's work.

Below are two handouts that summarize the principles of what is taught.I hope this helps. Unfortunately I am on tour and will not be able to fax these documents.

You can find additional material and bigraphies on both Julie and myself at the Barn site, www.celebrationbarn.com, as well as at my site, http://www.avnerTHEeccentric.com.

I must advise you that the workshop is nearly full, so please submit your application as soon as possible so we can hold a spot for you.

Please do not hesitate to write if you have any further questions.

With best regards,

Avner Eisenberg

I am bit worried on the last lines. The workshop is nearly full and I am still 'ding-dong'ing with ministry officials.

Kalau nak bagi, bagi ajelah kan?

It's 5 o'clock!!!

It's 5 o'clock! Sorry I can't blog anything now. I am off for my jogging session.
Info for atenah, I lost 5 kg after 1 month ++ stint.

ada di sini

I am still alive.hehehe...

been busy with ups and down of my life for the past few weeks.

downs :

my grant application to go to USA to study under Avner the Eccentric this august 05 under that skim latihan penggiat seni, kementerian kesenian kebudayaan dan warisan malaysia was rejected. I can always accept the decision made by the board but the reason they gave was really crap - that they only can consider short courses under 6 months period. But then , my course is going to be only for 2 weeks!

anyway, i am going to write an appeal to the honourable minister himself. To me it is quite simple; if you don't ask, the answer will always be NO! mana tau rezeki ada kan. if not padan muka depa (board members) for not reading my application! hahaha!

Ups:

clowning

I will be clowning in few hospitals in June - July 05. Phewww! my budget paper for the visits was approved last week. I will be in Kota Kinabalu in late June - clowning at the Hospital Queen Elizabeth. I will then proceed to HUSM Kubang Kerian in early July and PPUM in mid July. Been reading book by Caroline Simonds and Bernie Warren, The Clown Doctor Chronicles, and will incorporate some of the interesting approach she described in the book during the visits.

my juggling improving. now I can do two styles. Yippee!

microcredit

my 2 pages proposal paper on microcredit program was "well received" by the old man last week. "well received' means it won't be returned with the remarks "Redo!". Instead he commented, " Good efforts!" and gave his additional inputs.

It will be developed further with the helps of Amanah Ikhtiar Malaysia, Insha Allah. It means a lot to me. if you remember my posting on "about a mother", this program will help her to stand on her own feet by giving her small loan to start off her self-employment project. Hopefully, when it is going to be launched next year (2006) , around 100 cancer patients/survivors/families can be helped through this wonderful program.

reading

I was in Langkawi recently staying at the "ibu mertuaku" house (hahaha....). We just finished our cancer road tour in Kangar and she invited us to spend our weekends at her place in Langkawi. Nice place really. It was so peaceful and quiet. And what I enjoyed most was the nice collection of books in the house. There, I got a chance to devour the stacks of Journals of Malaysian Branch of Royal Asiatic Society (JMBRAS) belongs to her judge-husband. And reading The Undeclared War by James, H & Sheil-Small, D. , Leo Cooper Ltd, 1971 , I came across some information on the Squadron 845 stationed in Naga Gaat during the confrontation. It confirmed the facts that 3 crashes happened in the early months 1965 in which one in March that killed my late uncle, Pvte. Abdul Hamid Mohamed. At least now I know how life is like at that forward base of Squadron 845 during the confrontation.

what's next?

I don't dwell so much on the downs. Fair enough, if I can't go to study clowning this year, next year will give me more time to raise the necessary funds for the trip. I believe in niat. Kalau niat yang baik, Insya Allah it will be easier to achieve.

bayar bills

I was at the Citibank Jalan Ampang just now.

Long queues.

It was due to some people who took a little bit longer time to pay not just for 1 card but more.(more cards=more debts=miskin)

As a trained engineer, I was trained to look for solutions for the problems and being a clown I can't help to craft zany ideas. Here are some of the ideas playing in my minds while I was waiting for my turn. Please add in. (By the way I have only 1 card!)

Problem: Long queues at credit card cash payment machines.

Possible solutions:

1. Just like TESCO or other hypermarkets, create Express Lane for customer with 1 card or less!

2. bring that picnic foldable seat along to be used while waiting for your turn.

3. play your mobile phone games.

4. bring along your knitting kit.

5. ....