Most of you, especially the men, and including me, would find that it is really troublesome to carry more that one handphone especially if the handphone that we have is a big as a soap bar. For the ladies that carry handbags to all over the place, this might not be such a big problem.

Anyway, why do I ask? Do you know that having an extra handphone might get you out of some big troubles and might even save your life?

No, I am not going to tell you to keep on those heavy, bulky spare handphone with you so that you can throw at dogs that suddenly find you as attractive as some fresh, raw, juicy steak. But, I am going to tell you about a true story reported in the NST yesterday.

The news is about a woman who was abducted near her home by four men. She was walking home at 9pm and suddenly four men in a Proton Saga bundled her into the car. They then forced her at knife-point to hand over her jeweleries, handphone and wallet.

They even forced her to reveal her ATM number and withdrew some money from her account. When her mother called, they asked her to inform the mother that she was out with some friends. Then she was taken for a joy ride.

She pleaded to the abducters to let her go to the toilet and they let her. Once inside, she took out another handphone (I wonder where she hid this other phone), that the abducters did not know about and called the police.

Police arrived minutes later and the abductors took off upon seeing the approaching police car.

Now, that’s how a second handphone could get you out of trouble. Imagine what would happen to her next if she did not manage to alert the police…

It is not safe anymore out there. Avoid walking or driving alone at night, especially for the ladies and if you can, keep a spare handphone, just in case.

You can read the original news at ‘Hello police, save me, I’m in the toilet’

Every year September 16^th marks two historical events in Malaysia. The first one is the formation of Malaysia in 1963 from Malaya, which gained independence from the British in 1957. I personally call this the birthday of Malaysia. So, happy 45^th birthday Malaysia!

The second event that is being celebrated here is the Hari Angkatan Tentera Malaysia or the Malaysian Armed Forces day. Today is their 75^th anniversary. It is a day that we should give our gratitude to those who risk their lives to protect the country.

However, this year there was two additional events that are worth mentioning here. The first one is the fall of two giant financial firms, Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch that have caused stock markets to go down globally and Malaysia is included adding more bad news to the current ailing economy.

I am no expert in this global financial stuffs but to let two strangers with funny names such as Lehman and Lynch to bring down your economy is somewhat ridiculous…

Last but not least, while other Malaysians are bracing for the effect of the current global financial crisis and other not so happy events, the leader of the opposition party,  Anwar Ibrahim and his supporters who are bent to topple the government have miserably failed today.

As such he has now given a new date to take over the government and that is like me giving a new date to start my exercise. Now, if you know how hard it is to become the Prime Minister of Malaysia, then you will know how hard it is to start my fitness plan…

If Anwar has not given up then there is still hope for me…

*Pic: Tugu Negara, literally the “National Monument” in Malay, is a sculpture that commemorates those who died in Malaysia’s struggle for freedom, principally against the Japanese occupation during World War II and the Malayan Emergency , which lasted from 1948 until 1960. It is located in the Federal capital, Kuala Lumpur.