HOSPITAL@MY SECOND HOME

I am writing this blog from the hospital bed in Ampang Puteri Specialist Hospital. No! No! It's not me. It's my youngest who is sick and with all the new viruses flying around, you can't never be too sure.
The good doctor said it is due to her enlarged tonsil, but I am not about to take it easy.
I am a relatively healthy person. Was hospitalised for a day a long time ago for suspected dengue but insisted on going home the next day.
But my children are asthmatic and so does my wife. They are fast turning APSH as their second home. But the two older kids are all right now. My youngest and my wife are still going in and out of hospital.
Most of the time, I would be slogging in the office as they stay in the wards. I don't take leave unless it was so urgent.
But something happened early last year that made me relook at things closely. My father is a healthy 84 year-old man who moves around frequently on his motorcycle.
He mows the relatively big garden (kampung house) twice a month and sometimes helps his neighbours with the chore.
Early last year however, he met with an accident, knocking into a young cyclist on his way to the surau.
He broke his leg and suffered bruises all over and was admitted to the Malacca GH.
As a former policeman who took bullets from communists and involved in several gunfights, Bidin bin Manaf withstood the pain gallantly.
It was during the regime change at MM and I casually told the editors I wanted to take a day off to visit the old man.
But I was the main contributor to the new MM and was to write the front-page report with Darshini.
It was not easy to take a day off but I never expected to have my request rejected. After all, my father was in the hospital and my siblings reported that he was in a bad shape.
I was to take my family to Malacca GH and my children were all anxious about the visit.
The rejection was a bitter pill to swallow but I continued working the following days and was later told my father was discharged several days later.
I was then promised several days off after the launch of the new MM.
Again, I felt betrayed when the annual leave form I submitted almost immediately after I was given the assurance, was missing. No one in the MM remembered signing the form and someone was actually sent to the Human Resources Department to confirm it.
20 years in the MM and they thought I was lying about the annual leave request.
During the trying times, the call from NST CEO (then) came and after weighing the pros and cons, decided to make the big leap.
As for my father, he is still going strong and despite the bitter memory, still goes around on his Honda Cub and mowing the garden. Thank God for that...

REMEMBERING THE JB WONDERFUL TEAM

After a looong rest, I am back. This is prompted by changes at The Malay Mail and NST. Rocky, the man who introduced MM to Johor and Penang, is back at the helm and my instant thought was MM is going to rock again.
I still have copies of circulation reports I received every evening from the Johor circulation department.
They are faxed copies of the progress and are fading fast. But I am holding on to these documents to prove that Johoreans actually appreciate the tabloid and want it back.
The increase in circulation on a daily basis was evident. Stories from Sam Cheong on the Wong Ah Fook veteran prostitutes, the easily available blue movies from a certain shopping complex...
The whole team was wonderful. Harny, Baiyah, Ash, Neville, Amran the pixman. Our foes to be beaten were The Star and believe it or not...the Penang MM team, led by Muzli. I would tell the reporters to get front-pages worth the national level, and not just the Southern edition.
It was at first not easy to leave the family back in KL. And it was not an easy task convincing them to join me in JB. The kids finally relented but only for a year.
To keep us together, I made that promise. I could not have lasted another month without them and hence the promise, hoping that they would forget KL easily.
The older two kids were Ok. Perling Mall was a walking distance from home. School was a stone throw away and we adopted a stray dog which would send and pick my children from school daily.
Brownie was more a cat than a dog, and it was actually due to the food I gave him daily.
I fed him and another pussydog with cat food and they grew up, probably thinking they were actually cats.
Once in a while, I would take the kids to Danga Bay, supper at MSuites, the various shopping complexes in town.
Johor Zoo was our favourite. We visited the inmates almost weekly. My wife made friends with lots of friendly Johoreans and we thought it would be forever.
But then, rumours started circulating NST was going tabloid and wanted to take over the MM market in Johor.
During a casual phone conversation with Rocky one day, the cool editor joked that MM would have to go broadsheet if NST decided to go tabloid.
But we continued working hard.
The rumours somehow were forgotten as we opened another branch in Malacca. I was there. Sam was appointed staff correspondent and we stayed there for two days for the launch.
Until one day, Yushaimi had to be the bearer of the dreaded news.
MM in JB would have to be disbanded but those who opted to stay put would have to report to NST.
There was no need to go into details how we all, except for one, felt. But it was like someone putting a huge rock on your head.
We went home early that day. No mood. Told my wife who said it would not be easy to convince her employer to bring her back to KL.
Amran whose wife is in the circulation department and Baiyah whose hubby was BH bureau chief reluctantly stayed back.
Dreaded the thought of breaking the news to the kids but then I realised, my promise to them was going to come true. It was almost a year since the day we moved in.
Athira and Shahrul were actually dancing when I broke the news. They could not forget the old neighbourhood in Bukit Sentosa, Rawang, counting the days to one year.
As for me, there was no choice. I wanted to return to KL office as soon as possible.
No way I was going to NST.
I actually made the "one-year" promise to my mum. Looking back, it was a blessing in disguise. I would not have been able to stay by her side when she drew her last breath.
My kids are happy to be back in KL but would insist on an annual trip to JB.
Never thought I would someday work for NST. Thought it would be MM forever, but then....