Malaysia finally won the men’s double title in the All England Super Series badminton tournament after 25 years. Our pair, Koo Kien Keat-Tan Boon Heong beat Chinese pair Fu Haifeng-Cai Yun 21-15, 21-18 in the final. The last time a Malaysian pair won the men’s double title was in 1982 where Sidek brothers, Razif-Jalani Sidek won.

Four years ago, Malaysian singles player Hafiz Hashim won the mens’ single title after a 37-year wait. However, he has since lost form and have not been performing well since the All England victory in 2003.

The upgrading from 4 lanes to 6 lanes of the Rawang - Slim River and Senawang - Ayer Keroh stretches of the North-South Expressway (NSE) is expected to be completed by September or October this year, which is hoped that will reduce the congestion on the expressway during weekends and major festivals. I personally hope that it will be completed in time for the balik kampung exodus for Hari Raya Aidilfitri, which is expected to fall on 13 October. The NSE has in recent years seen severe congestion during the Chinese New Year and Hari Raya Aidilfitri festivities.

On another matter, I really hope the government will get the construction of the recently approved West Coast Expressway (WCE) linking Taiping and Banting to start as soon as possible. It is said that the stretch in Selangor will take 3 years to construct while the Perak stretch 4 years. I hope both stretches will be constructed simultaneously, instead of separately in order to complete the expressway in 4 years instead of 7 years. This is important as we do not know how many years can the smooth drive on the upgraded NSE last given that number of vehicles increases tremendously in recent years.

With the WCE, many vehicles which currently ply the NSE will be able to use the WCE, hence dispersing much of the traffic on the NSE to the WCE. For example, a traveller from Taiping or Penang to the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) may use the WCE from Taiping to Banting and continue the journey to the airport. A traveller from Teluk Intan to the Klang Valley can use the WCE from Teluk Intan to Klang, and then use any of the other expressways to various destinations in the Klang Valley such as the New Klang Valley Expressway (NKVE), Federal Highway Route 2 and Shah Alam Expressway (KESAS) instead of driving to Bidor to join the NSE.

Since mid-2005, when Microsoft Network (MSN) released MSN Messenger version 7.0, it introduced the wink feature where a user can send a wink to another person which is actually a Flash-based animation. Initially, only a few winks were made available but later on more and more were introduced, and one of them that caught my attention is the Pig wink.

Of so many winks, I send the pig the most, and well, as usual while some really find it amusing, some even find it annoying. However, many of those who find this pig wink annoying, they are the ones who always tease me for not eating pork, which I find it very annoying too. Well, that’s life, the you can annoy me but I cannot annoy you thingy.

The government finally approved the construction of the West Coast Expressway (WCE), a 216km-long expressway linking Taiping, Perak to Banting, Selangor. Construction is expected to begin soon and is expected to be completed in about 7 years. It is also learnt that the process of land acquisition for the construction of the expressway has been completed.

The authorities should now plan ahead for the expressway to be extended down south to Johor Bahru, connecting the coastal towns such as Port Dickson, Melaka, Muar, Batu Pahat and Pontian. This is essential to reduce the congestion on the North-South Expressway, especially during festive season like the recent Chinese New Year celebrations.

Today is Chap Goh Mei (元宵节）, the last day of this year’s Chinese New Year celebrations. Wishing everyone a Happy Chap Goh Mei.

Chinese New Year will fall again on Thursday, 7 February 2008.