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Showing posts from 2007

New Year Wish to You

It's the last day of 2007. How time flies... It's been a great year. Full of ups and downs, stress and highs, happiness and sadness.. There were times I felt like giving up, doubt whether this is all worth it, when life seems like an endless marathon that leads nowhere but downhill... But I managed to go on with 2 important persons in my life - my comel Aliyah whose wet kisses wash all worries away and hubby whose warm firm hugs made all problems manageable. Aliyah will start school this Wednesday. My little baby is one step into the real world. As much as I worry and want to protect her, it's time to let her go. I know she'll make it, just that school just looks so huge for her little body to me. Anyway, here's a new year's wish from me. I pray the new year will bring you happiness and strength to face the challenges ahead. Face it with your loved ones around you. I believe it's going to be a turbulent year with all these political going-ons both locally an

Aliyah Potong Rambut

School's getting near, so I took Aliyah for a haircut the day before yesterday. She looks so cute. She doesn't like it of course. She likes her hair long. So every morning if I don't call her "comel", she would pout.

Teman Terulung

I ni bukan le peminat Anuar Zain, but this is exceptional. Besides the powerful voice, music is excellent. It also kind of describes my personal life right now - my marriage. At 7 years going to be 8 years come 30 January, we are now at our most stable stage in our relationship. Hubby's my best friend and trusted confidant. We enjoy each other's company and our love is as strong as always. As much as we are close, we also have our own personal space and time. In hubby's own words: "We are OK. Nothing else matters, only us". Teman Terulung Bila bertaut senyuman Mata berlirikan Memancarkan keluhuran Cerah kesederhanaan mu Seindah kejujuranmu Detik seia sejiwa Terungkap setia Tiada upaya sepi Maka kudup penantianku Hadirnya teman sejati Melangkah kita menjejak mimpi Bahgia berdiri dengan mu di sisi Harapan kita meniti hari Sentiasa seiring Paling agung teman terulung Tenunan emas sayap hidupku Tak ingin ku undur bertamu Bertakhta teguh Ke akhir waktu

Tipah Gone

Have been busy with this project that at first looked simple and fast enough but then got dragged. Dah agak dah actually. Sometimes I wonder why people can't use their common sense. You actually don't need professional certificate in project management to plan a project successfully. Use common sense. Example ya: we got this copy & paste job for an LMS project. I asked for guidelines (standards) ie font style, size, etc. The basics. They say will give. But in the end, they didn't give - but need the work completed within very short of time. So, they got everybody (including us - we got 4 books to copy & paste) to do the work. Bila dah submit mula lah - this heading should be this size la, this section should not be an image la, etc. Ko dah tengok dekat 20+ outcomes baru nak realise everybody did things differently? Here's what they should do if they use common sense - complete one book, submit to client. Bila client dah satisfied and sign off, then only get ever

Everybody Has the Option to Change Their Own Lives

I ni memanglah tak gemar nak touch on political happenings except when I'm angry at certain politicians yang buat kerja bodoh. However, the Hindraf gang is just too much. And I just can't understand what their problem is. I'm angry they are spreading all these accusations and trying to make Indians go against the Malays. I'm angry they are creating this unrest in our peaceful country. If you think you want to follow the spirits of the monks in Myanmar, go there for God's sake. Why break the peace that we currently enjoy? Why break the peace that you and your family currently enjoy? If you have problems take it up with your community leader. It's the leader that should be helping you. If you can't see eye to eye with them, then that's your problem. You can change your own destiny. If you think your people are marginalized, change your people's perception, attitude and knowledge. Don't change the people around you. You say your people are oppressed

Dah Naik Gaji Pun Lembab Lagi...

Kali ni nak cerita pasal orang Gomen. Gaji dah naik, service pun Pak Lah suruh naik. Overall, our experience with Govt agencies kira OK except for a few. Ni latest one yang menyakitkan hati and mengherankan hati. Sakit hati sebab tak da respect langsung kat orang lain punya payment/income. Heran pasal orang macam ni pun boleh diterima kerja. Patutnya dah lama kena buang pasal buat kerja tak pakai otak. Here's the story. This morning I asked Linda to contact this client of ours yang our work with them dah siap since early October. Katanya nak bayar end of this month. Bila call that department dah hantar all necessary documentation to finance. So, mintak lah contact orang finance. Our payment is divided into 2 even tho same job. And for some strange reason, the 2 payments are being processed by 2 different persons. So, Linda called the person handling the 1st payment - we found out everything dah siap last week, cheque dah prepare and he has passed it to the department handling posta

Aliyah's Concert & Graduation

Aliyah's concert and graduation day was held yesterday. She participated in Malay dance and Hindi dance. So cute dgn baju ala-ala I dream of genienya. I pulak yg rasa sedih. She went to that kindergarten for 2 years and we are in very good terms with the teachers - selalu terserempak makan kat kedai mamak. Come January, it'll be real school for her. Risaunya I... Malay dance. Naughty boy tau partner dia ni. Nama dia Adam. Aliyah mengadu, dia kata Adam kata Aliyah tak pandai dance and suruh jgn datang masa concert. School can be so stressful for kids... Ni baru tadika. Received her certificate from Gunes, the assistant principal. Make-up punyalah tebal. Hindi dance pulak. She really enjoyed herself in this one!

How Did They Even Got There

I dah lama tak beli newspaper - only The Star on Saturdays. I pun dah lama tak tengok news on TV - only the first 5 mins of TV3 news in case ada something big happened. Know why? Because rasa tak sanggup nak baca or tengok our ministers, politicians or anybody yang sewaktu dengannya making a fool of themselves. And I wonder and wonder what crazy action that made us the voters to vote these kind of people to lead the country. Since our ministers pun dah label blogs as unreliable, rubbish and reading blogs is a waste of time, I'm listing out a few that really irritate me since they don't value bloggers' opinions anyways. 1. The 3 stooges: even to name them is an insult to my page, but I'm sure you know who they are. Yang selalu main cakap tak pikir dulu, lepas tu terlepas cakap and the whole country will be in uproar, and then they call for a press conference and apologize. And a few weeks later, they said something stupid again and the cycle starts again. Come on, the pa

Pics of Aliyah's Birthday Party

Yea, yea... this is really late. The night before penat prepare party packs... Aliyah's birthday cake - yummy strawberry cake with fresh strawberries & peaches... Abang Ijam with Aliyah. Centre - my mom & my mother-in-law. Right - my eldest sister dengan muka laparnya... Birthday girl dengan crown nya... Our combined families saja dah dekat 30 orang... Pakcik & makcik pun sibuk nak bukak hadiah..

Buat Lawaklah Makcik Nih...

Lamaaaaa tak blog. Dok baca blog orang saja. Blog orang pun boring. Let's see what happened lately... Perhimpunan UMNO? Bosan gila tengok news dok tunjuk entah sapa2 berucap. Ada la 1-2 yg OK, the rest... entahla. There's one lady lawak gila. Tak sure puteri or wanita UMNO. She was talking about kebanjiran pekerja asing kat Malaysia. Pas tu she said those foreign workers buat kerja tak ada semangat kewarganegaraan. Pasal tu la buat ceiling, ceiling runtuh. Buat jambatan, jambatan tu runtuh. Haahaahaha... lawak gila. Ooo... pasal tu ke runtuh? Bukan runtuh pasal simen pasir tak cukup? Bukan sebab structure jambatan tak betul? Bijak sungguh makcik tu. Tahun depan boleh la panggil dia buat ucapan lagi ya.

NURIN Alert

I applaud the latest effort to track missing children called NURIN Alert (Nationwide Urgent Response Information Network). Hope the authorities will work together to come up with the policy, method, flow, etc and make it an effective mechanism. I can't believe we need to wait 24 hours before we can lodge missing children report to the police. Kalau memang case run away from home tak apa, but what if abduction and the children ended up dead? I'm sure we the public would like to help out. So, the mechanism must include everybody. The latest car theft cum child abduction was a good case study. I got an email at about 9.30am about the abduction along with useful info like type of car, plate number, etc. And the email was sent at about 9am. The child was found that morning itself. The email circulation was fast. So, if we the public can get such info on our cell phones and be on alert, that would be a great help to the search effort. I read there's a new case of child rape and m

Gambar Lepas Cabut Gigi

Aliyah has always kept her one big front tooth. Goyang nak cabut tapi kuat lagi. Last weekend, gigi dia terhantuk kat dahi Abah dia, terus loose. So, on Sunday morning, after promising ice cream, we went to the dentist to get her tooth extracted. Her many faces after losing that irritating front tooth. Dia kata dia comel lepas cabut gigi! Letak effect sikit guna my N80, hehee..

Astronaut, Cosmonaut, Space Tourist, Whatever

I promised myself not to write anything on this, but then I ni pelupa orangnya. So, before I started to believe all that I read in the newspapers, I'm just going to jot down my own thoughts. If you ask me about Malaysia's space programme where we successfully sent one of our people to space, the only image that came to my mind is - handsome sesangatnya lah Dr Sheikh ni. That's it. Experiment? What experiment? Now to think of it, I wonder if the choosing of him is simply a distraction. So that people, especially teen girls, women and makcik2, will be mesmerized and ogled over this almost perfect guy. Handsome, smart, tall, fair, nice hair, perfect face, nice teeth and smile, athletic, etc. And don't underestimate the power of women - if ada orang kutuk2 Dr Sheikh saja, sure kena one. Anyway, the moment he touched down, the press is full of congratulatory messages. Malaysia boleh la. We succeeded la. But one thing I dok wonder is - what is it that we succeeded? 1. We succ

Aliyah's 6th Birthday Party

[start membebel] What's wrong with Streamyx these few days? Kumpul bandwidth for Dr Sheikh ke? Actually dah letih deal with TM hotline. They will guide you through various steps and in the end bila problem cannot be solved, they will blame it on the modem - "modem rosak". Tu dah jadi SOP diaorg kot. Kejap ada connection, kejap tak ada, tu bukan modem problem Cik Abang ooiii, itu maknanya something wrong dgn port. Pegi la check. Diaorg ingat semua Streamyx users bodoh kot. Dulu sama jugak - diaorg kata modem problem. 2 weeks we all tak dapat Internet connection, on the very morning technician nak dtg ganti modem, ada pulak connection. But that technician changed the modem anyway (dah penat datang kan). So, the modem was not faulty after all. [end membebel] Anyway, nak cerita pasal Aliyah's birthday party. We've never threw a party for her before sebab birthday dia selalu bulan puasa. So, this year, birthday dia just after Raya - 19th October. So, we planned for a p

Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri, Maaf Zahir Batin

Ramadhan is ending, fast. Sedihnya. I love Ramadhan, but not Hari Raya. Sebab dah jadi macam routine bosan - the usuals every year. My little family will be going back to Melaka tomorrow morning. It's hubby's turn this year. We'll be coming back to my parents' place 2nd day of Hari Raya. So, Friday will be masak-masak till late evening. Penat weh... Anyway, I nak ucapkan Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri to everybody who reads this blog. Maaf zahir batin. Kalau ada terkasar bahasa or terkecil hati with my ramblings, minta maaf ya. And please, please drive safely and observe the speed limit unless you want to part with your pre-prepared duit raya. Saman mahal woo...

Meriah Nak Raya, Jgn Lupa Adik Nurin

I'm sure those with kids have completed their Raya preparations. So have we. Tapi I tengah sebak sekarang. I got an email of Adik Nurin's post mortem photos. Memang tak nak tengok, memang rasa nak delete terus. But then I opened it with niat nak jadikan pengajaran, jangan sampai lupa atau terleka. Sebak dada, mengalir air mata tengok gambar-gambar tu. Ya Allah, tergamak hati orang yang seksa dia buat macam tu? At one point I could almost see similar features of my own daughter. Jangan lupa kan Adik Nurin dan ramai lagi yang kids yang became victim to such abuse. Doakan semoga roh mereka dicucuri rahmat. Doakan agar the beasts will be caught soon. Jadikan kisah mereka pengajaran pada kita semua. Last night we went for dinner at Pizza Hut after berbuka. On the way back, I sat at the back with Aliyah in case dia tertidur as she's not been so well. We sat side by side fastening the seat belt, both if us having lozenges in our mouths (dua-dua sakit tekak) when she turned to me a

Cik Tipah Belakang Rumah

Belakang rumah I dah jadi home to a family of cats: mommy cat, her kitten Tipah, brother cat, sister cat and daddy cat. It started with mommy cat and the kitten being fed by me (leftovers) and Aliyah (cat food). The kitten has this tahi lalat kat tepi mulut macam Latifah Omar, so we call her "Tipah". Lama-lama, elder kids of mommy cat ie brother cat & sister cat pun datang to get a bite. And just recently, daddy cat pun sama menyibuk. Aliyah memang suka cats. So, this is one way of having pets without actually having them entirely. Just feeding them kat belakang rumah whenever I decide to open the back door. Nowadays, petang-petang when I prepare food for buka puasa, Aliyah will go to the back, feed and play with them. She just needs to observe one rule - the cats must not come inside the house. Okla, setakat masuk sampai dapur tu tak apa... The cats started to really hang around after hubby saved mommy cat's life. She was stuck on the roof of our neighbor at the back

Birthday Hubby, I Yang Dapat Hadiah!

It's hubby's birthday today. Pagi2 worked together with Aliyah to create a simple birthday wish. The day is still early, we'll be going out to buy stuff and I'll be buying him a gift. Rezeki murah sikit this week. Got payments and hubby dapat Raya bonus, which sipi2 kena kat I. Anyway, hubby bought me a new handphone for my birthday! This sleek, (slightly heavy), black N80. Yesterday we went Raya shopping for Aliyah at IOI Mall and he went missing for a while. Rupanya he checked out N70 phone kat kedai bawah. I was a bit reluctant at first. Trading in my phone for a new one quite a hassle because of data transfer. I am so dependable on that phone. If data in my calendar and contacts go missing, then that's it la. Not to mention bank account numbers and many, many more. (FYI, I don't even remember my hubby's phone no.) So, need to plan. Hubby mula2 macam merajuk la, ingat I tak nak his gift. Helloo... that phone against my old phone yg selalu jatuh bersepai,

Confession of a Husband

Yesterday morning I was on YM with my sister. She sent this Surah (can't remember what) and wrote - "Kalau tak nak husband kawin lagi satu, baca surah ni dan niat kat 'jim' biar dia tak kawin lain". She obviously found that from somewhere. So I replied, "Kalau dia nak kawin satu lagi, biar je lah. Tak kuasa..." Ye lah kan, kalau lah dah mampu sangat, go ahead. (But of course before I drill stuff into his head the things he'll be missing. Never mind.) Anyway, hubby and me are in the midst of changing our old battered Kancil to Viva. We even went for a test drive last weekend. Hubby's trying to save up on petrol consumption, especially with me yang bulan-bulan macam sabut - kadang timbul, kadang tenggelam ni. Before this, during our OK times, rajin lah pegi test drive nice big cars. Saja je - Camry, Citroen, Honda, etc. So, yesterday night, I was watching TV when hubby came, sat next to me and put his hands on my knees. He said, "I have a conf

Bilalah Setan Tu Nak Kena Tangkap...

I think selagi that beast who killed Nurin is still out there, I will be carrying this heavy thingy on my chest. Every time after solat, al-Fatihah for adik Nurin and I pray and I pray for the killer to be captured. Please dear God, please give our police force (yg after my painful experience, taklah so respectable sangat, but whatever...) the leads and brains and evidence and strength and help to catch the *&%^ @# beast. He must be captured now before Nurin's story becomes history. Before other children become victims. And now I am extra, extra careful. I'm always holding Aliyah's hands when we go out. Try not to leave her out of sight. And I can see other parents taking the same extra precautions. Even though, there are still those who take things lightly. Linda said this morning she came across a little girl of my daughter's age coming back alone from the shops across a road near her apartment. She was obviously sent by her mother perhaps because she was carrying

Most Considerate Little Girl

I always think my daughter is the most considerate little girl in the whole wide world. If she wants anything but we couldn't buy - cannot afford or tunggu gaji Abah or whatever - she never ever throw tantrum melalak guling-guling atas lantai. Never. She would listen to our reasons and she would say OK. Sometimes she argues giving her own reasons but she would accept our final decision. We went for Raya shopping at Alamanda yesterday, for Aliyah of course. This year we decided, with Aliyah's consent, that there is no need to buy new baju kurung for her because last year's are still in very, very good condition having only worn not more than 3 times. We'll only be buying for her a dress, a pair of shoes, jeans and T shirts. First stop, Reject Shop because saw some nice girls T Shirts there dulu. We bought her 1 pink T Shirt that costs RM16.90. Next, Bata sebab I saw a newspaper advertisement this nice Bubblegummers shoes yg looked lebih kurang macam the one she wanted at

Still About Nurin...

She's finally laid to rest today. The parents have accepted the fate that the body is of their beloved daughter. I can't really sleep last night. These thoughts about her kept coming to my mind. How was she treated the whole time she was taken? Image her being so afraid being held captive at a foreign place. Imagine her crying for her mother and father hoping they would come to save her. Image her screaming and brutally assaulted by strangers with blood coming out of her mouth. Was she kicked? Was she punched? Imagine her in pain because she was not given her medication. Imagine her being hungry and thirsty not being fed. Imagine her sleeping on a cold cement floor, whispering for help. Imagine all that happening to our children... Kita ni, malam-malam check on our children while they sleep, selimutkan dia kalau sejuk. Pasang ubat nyamuk takut anak kita kena gigit. Luka sikit cepat-cepat balutkan. Demam sikit cepat-cepat hantar klinik, ubatkan. Kalau dia demam teruk, siap doa s

It's My Birthday Today, But...

Yup, it's my birthday today. It started perfectly. A (annual) midnight birthday wish from hubby. And well wishes SMS kept coming starting sahur time. This morning I got news from Linda that that company will pay, partially that is, the project that ended last December. (Kalau impose interest, sah-sah dah double). I checked my account and found I got July salary from that company. Alhamdulillah pasal dah broke. Hubby said he'll treat me to a nice dinner tonight. But then, read news about the missing girl - Nurin. The police confirmed the dead body they found in the sports bag is her based on DNA tests. Now that the dead girl has a name, and the name is the 8 year old who's been widely reported missing, I just... I close my eyes and I still see the dead face. And I just can't imagine the torture and suffering she went through the whole time she was kidnapped. It's been a month she went missing. It must have been hell for her, with her sickness, brutal treatment, sexua

Birthday "Bash" for My Father

We had an unplanned birthday bash for my father yesterday. My eldest sister with her family came back - my father sembelih 3 ayam kampung+hutan which belonged to my brother-in-law. So, he came to cook ayam masak lemak cili api. My eldest brother Angah & family came for their usual weekend buka puasa. Then my little family joined the crowd. We went and bought a cake from Secret Recipe - White Chocolate & Macademia Nut cake, nicely decorated wishing my father happy 72nd birthday. I called Miqdam to join the crowd and he happily said yes especially after hearing about the cake. So, buka time was a chaos with like almost 20 people crowding the meals. My father cut the cake and right after people seemed to forget about laksa or mee kari or murtabak. Everybody attacked the cake. Delicious. After Maghrib, Wani, who berpuasa dengan penuh cabaran sekali, at one point actually geram sangat with the cake, decided to simply cut the cake on her own and scooped it with her hands. Dah tinggal

Aliyah and Her Atok

Time: 1st day of Ramadhan Location: My parents' place Time: Petang My Father: Gigi Sarah yang kat depan goyang tu bila nak cabut? Me: Dentist kata kalau tak ada gigi baru tumbuh, biar dulu pun tak apa. Aliyah: Kenapa nak kena cabut? My Father: Gigi sekarang tu namanya gigi susu. Gigi tu sementara saja. Bila dah cabut, ganti dengan gigi kekal. Gigi kekal kuat. Aliyah: Gigi Atok gigi kekal? My Father, sambil tunjuk gigi dia: Ye la, tengok ni. Dah tua pun gigi kuat lagi. Ini lah gigi kekal. Aliyah, went near her Atok and commanded: Atok, bukak mulut. My Father: Kenapa pulak? Aliyah, dengan tone yang bossy sekali: Bukak mulut, nak check gigi. My Father opened his mouth. Aliyah: Gigi Atok semua gigi kekal kan? My Father: Ye lah Aliyah: Apasal kat situ, situ dengan situ tak da gigi? My Father dengan tone (cucu aku ni kenapa la suka tanya soalan cepumas?): Atok ni dah tua. Gigi kekal pun dah tercabut! Aliyah: Heheheheee...

September Birthdays

September is the birthday month for like 1/4 of my family. Popular month. There must be something interesting happening in December... Anyway, here's the list of September babies (and in-laws) in my family: 9 Sept: Azah, my sister-in-law 10 Sept: Izzat, my nephew 13 Sept: My mother 14 Sept: My brother Azli (Happy Birthday!!!) 17 Sept: My father 20 Sept: Me and my eldest brother Suhaimi (yes, we share birthday and we are 12 years apart) 30 Sept: My hubby (and yes, I am 10 days older than him) Yesterday was my mother's birthday. Budget pun tak berapa ada, so I bought her a birthday cake saja. Went to her place and told my daughter and Wana that it's Wan's birthday. Dua ekor budak kecik tu terus lari pegi dapur and wished my mother Happy Birthday. Terharu my mother :). I gave her the cake, wished her, kissed and hugged her. She's 69 and so frail now. But it feels so good to kiss and hug her. When I wanted to go home, she came over and kissed me. Sedih I...

Selamat Berpuasa

Ramadhan datang lagi... Just nak wish everybody Selamat Berpuasa, selamat beribadat. It'll be a quiet month. I'll be finishing those translation work hopefully sign off before Raya. Duit pun dah kurang, payment tak masuk... Hmmm... duduk office saja lah. Minta maaf kalau ada salah silap, terkasar bahasa, etc. Some links on ibadah puasa: Fadhilat Ramadhan Indahnya Ramadhan My little company will be doing another round of collection for anak yatim, this time around will be for Nur Hikmah , insyaallah. But we won't be doing for Ramadhan though. Ours will be collection for school stuff for school year 2008. There'll be a lot to buy ie school uniforms, shoes, bags, stationery, books, etc. Even though the Budget made education [so-called] affordable to all, it is still expansive for unfortunate people. I'll keep you posted on that when we start the campaign soon.

Be a Doer not a Whiner

This morning while waiting for Aliyah's bus, I cleaned up our mailbox of junk mails and all those plumbing and renovation call cards and also those unstoppable skim cepat kaya flyers. One of the many flyers was this PAS cawangan Serdang Merdeka edition newsletter. I ni bukan lah nak write about anti-PAS vs pro-Government stories. It's just that what I read in that newsletter really pissed me off. There was this list of items written under the title "Merdeka kah kita?" (or something like that). So, adalah this long list of negative happenings / situations in the country. Among those which made it to the list were: - ada 250,000 kes murtad (apakah yang kerajaan lakukan?) - rakyat merempat di negara sendiri - orang politik semakin kaya, rakyat semakin miskin - and many, many more which I already forgot My first question when I read that was - ko tanya kerajaan buat apa, tapi ko sendiri ada ke buat apa-apa? I really don't understand these people. They only whine and

Exactly How a Mommy Feels

I now have all Grey's Anatomy season 1 and season 2 episodes. Since I started watching the series quite late, I spent the last couple of weeks watching 1-2 episodes per day. Memang lah best. I love Bailey. She is simply - a Nazi. My favourite part is when she got pregnant and the Chief kept on tailing her about her residency. Finally she got really fed-up and said: "You blind moron! Can't you see I am pregnant! Men!". And then she said something about how men just drains one up even from inside a woman's womb. And she said this to her own boss! She's good. Even McDreamy said: "The Chief don't scare me. But Bailey scare me!", when he operated on Bailey's husband. Anyway, just want to share one particular episode that sums up a mother's feeling in totality. It's about this woman with a teenage girl who's got lung cancer. She's dying but she put up a strong face in front of her daughter pretending she's not so sick. Alex the

Selamat Sambut Hari Merdeka

It's the eve of Merdeka. Unlike thousands of other Malaysians who throng the streets to celebrate the occasion, my little family stays quietly at home. I was in KL for a meeting and went back with hubby. At 5.15 sharp we left EPF and thank God tak jam sangat. We were thinking of watching the fireworks at Putrajaya again - it's the Japanese team's turn sure best - but then it rained and I'm pretty sure that nice picnic spot must be wet and puddled. Years ago when I was very young -Form 4 - I was part of my school's team to do formation during Merdeka celebration. That was the last few years before Dataran Merdeka was transformed like it is now. Dulu it was a just simple field. It was really fun. All Form 4 students at my hostel actually performed coincidently though we all came from different schools. The KL students from CBN and BBGS did the logo formation (Linda, my good friend/staff included). They were the ones who did the Malaysian flag, the year's logo, etc

Langkawi Trip: Day 3

Final day. After breakfast, pool time till 10.30. After that kemas-kemas and checked out. Before driving off to the airport, Aliyah said her bye-byes to her fish friends. We received warm goodbye from the guy from the car rent company. Memang baik-baik orang Langkawi ni... In the departure hall, we queued up behind a Mat Salleh family from Ireland. The rest of the passengers dok melepak-lepak duduk, but we wanted to ensure we get a seat together. Ni nak cerita pasal orang Arab (again!). There are quite a few Arabs there, but none of them bothered to line up. So, ingatkan express boarders. I noticed an Arab couple sitting in the next lane - at the MAS seats. Ingatkan naik MAS. When asked to queue up, barulah orang started to stand in line. Since we all memang dah berbaris, so orang-orang lain tu line up behind us lah kan. Some of the Arabs went to the express boarders line and then got asked to queue up in our line. Ko ingat line express tu pendek pasal nak bagi ko special privilege? Bi

Awesome Fireworks!

Rancangan Langkawi trip tergendala sebentar. Just came back home from watching Fireworks Festival at Putrajaya. Awesome! Amazing! Mesmerizing! Or as in Aliyah's own words - "sakitlah jantung Aliyah". After my tuition class, I sat at my parents' place talking with the clan. Miqdam my nephew was also there. He got a call from a friend about the fireworks display. So we talked about it for a while and he suddenly said, "Jom Ateh kita pegi tengok!". He said he knows the exact place with good view where we could watch the display. OK lah. Called hubby who was at the driving range and we agreed to meet up after Maghrib. We went in 2 cars, Miqdam with Iqah, Azah and the 2 kids, and Aliyah joined them. On the way we stopped to buy burgers. When we reached there, there were already thousands of cars along the road to the PCC Putrajaya. Miqdam led us to the road next to a polo field. Many, many cars were already parked but we managed to get a space to park and nice sp

Langkawi Trip: Day 2

After breakfast, Aliyah and I took a walk to the nearby fishing village about 200m away. There we found that the island hopping fees is cheaper than at the hotel. As much as I want to go on boat, we had already plans for the day to go to GeoPark for cable car ride and our rented car was on its way. So 3D/2N is not enough actually. We drove to GeoPark at around 11am. Nice place. Besides the cable car, there are other attractions like rabbit and deer and elephants. Horse riding village is just next door. The queue for cable car ride was long since it's the school holidays. Locals get discounts by producing MyKad. Anyway, here's when our trip got a little bit nasty. We were queuing up in the long line. Behind us was an Arab couple probably on honeymoon. Not far in front of us was a Chinese family bringing along 2 blind men, maybe their relatives. There's one staff going up and down the line and suddenly came and led the Arab couple to the front. After a few minutes we saw them

Langkawi Trip: Pictures!

Pictorial entry... Aliyah at the boardwalk on the way to hit the pool She's the only kid in the adults pool Giving her fish friends bread Her fish friends. Dunno what the name is Cable car view from below Aliyah & hubby in cable car. It rained in the morning, so quite foggy outside Busy bagi rabbits makan at the GeoPark Dinner at the boardwalk. Nice ambiance

Langkawi Trip: Day 1

The day started early. I woke Aliyah, just whispering "Wake up, mandi. We are going to Langkawi". I went to get her towels and by the time I looked back, she's already taken off her clothes. Sepantas kilat. Kalau kejut bangun sekolah punya lah susah. My father came to send us to LCCT. After breakfast of roti canai, off we went. Surprisingly, checking in was a breeze. We had more than 1 hour to spare so we wondered around the small terminal. Serious, got nothing much to do or see there, let alone place to sit. So we took turns sitting on the trolley. In the departure hall we had a pleasant surprise. Ran into Cik Mat Khusairi, an old friend / boss from my NST days. What a coincidence - same 30 sen tickets, same flight to the same destination, same little family of 3 with one little girl, staying at the same place - walking distance to each other's hotel, same length of holidays... I think he's stalking me. (Cik Mat, you jgn stalk I OK). I've never flew with Air

Song: Back Where I Was

Another nice song. From Grey's Anatomy Season 2 episode "Into You Like a Train". This is the song played when the 2 passengers of train accident got impaled by a pole. They could only save one - the black guy named Tom while Bonnie, the girl with more extensive injuries, had the pole removed non-surgically from her stomch and later died. So, so, so sad when she asked McDreamy to tell her fiance her last words. Later, Bailey and McDreamy were in the elevator with McDreamy having this awful look. Bailey stopped the elevator, McDreamy turned and cried. After a few minutes, Bailey asked whether he's OK. He composed himself, with his eyes red and puffy and said "Yes". Bailey pushed back the button and then they went separate ways. Sedih, sedih... Back Where I Was by The Hereafter it was summertime we had too much time we got ourselves in trouble we went to the beach then we crashed our car then we crashed another and when it hit me i could not think i decided i s

Off to Langkawi for Holidays

My little family and me will be off to Langkawi tomorrow for a holiday. Remember the 30 sen tickets I managed to grab months ago? The time has finally come. It'll be Aliyah's first experience flying. And our first experience with AirAsia. I really hope things will be OK. I've asked hubby to run and grab seats. We'll be there from Monday till Wednesday. We're supposed to stay at Aseania. Saw the photos of its pool on their website and know Aliyah will love it. Hubby booked at Matta Fair. But then 1 month ago, the travel agent said they couldn't get us the hotel. After much arguing, we finally agreed to Langkasuka Beach. Looks cool too with nice white sandy beach. A better hotel I was told. Then, a few days ago, they called hubby saying that hotel too is fully-booked. What the *&@#... But then they said they will put us at Awana Porto Malai with the same charge as Aseania, and I instantaneously said OK. I mean, that's one hotel you know will not disappoint

They Actually Intercept Radio Frequency

I was in the Smart Tunnel yesterday morning on the way to KL for our Time Management training when something funny happened. I was listening to a song on the radio when suddenly the song just stopped and the voice of a man loomed over. The man gave a full salam "Assalamualaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh...". I was so shocked. The voice sounded like the "Penyimpan Mohor Besar" guy with sad, slow and solemn note like he's announcing the start of bulan puasa. I switched station and found all stations carry the same voice. My first reaction was - "Oh my God, someone died. Someone must have died but who?". The "Penyimpan Mohor Besar" proceeded with salam sejahtera greeting and all the while my heart was beating like I've run a mile. "Please don't announce a death", I said to myself. This must be real bad as all radio stations carry the same thing. Then, the "Penyimpan Mohor Besar" said - "laluan ke Jalan Tun Razak

Crazy About Grey's Anatomy

I've not been updating this blog. Because I've been busy for the past week downloading Grey Anatomy episodes. I'm crazy about the show. I've missed so many because I only started watching the show at the end of season 2. All the while I thought it was another ER. One night I watched one episode and that's it I'm hooked. Now I'm trying to download all season 1 and the first half of season 2. Amazing, amazing story. It's one of the few shows that one can sit down, watch this crazy bunch of doctors and interns and actually laugh and cry with them. And the individual characters are developed brilliantly. Of course having McDreamy around really helps... And the way he looks at Meredith, oh my... That's the kind of look a woman would want from a man - the look that promises that the man will care and love the woman no matter what happens. Anyway, I've been a having a blast of a week. Some positive vibes are around. I'm constantly on my toes. Even

Cinta

I just read Cinta won the best film for Malaysia Film Festival. While it might not be the best movie around, it's actually quite good. I watched it several times on Astro Showcase a few months ago. It's nice that finally Malaysia produced a movie of my liking, even though the director is not a Malaysian. So is the screenplay writer I think. If I were given a chance to produce a movie, I would come up with a movie that : 1. has several stories, inter-related and not-related at all, at one time - like Cinta, Love Actually or the Korean movie I like so much Sad Movie, or 2. has a lot of things going on but everything happen in one day like Oscar - that's one of the funniest movie I've ever watched. That would be a real challenge. Anyway, back to "cinta", real love is unconditional. Of the 5 or so stories in the movie, the best is the love story between the old couple - Rahim Razali and Fatimah Abu Bakar. So sincere. And based on companionship. I remember years ag

Rain, Rain

It rains daily these past few days. My laundry basket is full to the brim. But isn't the rain just great? I love the rain. My favorite smell is the smell of grass after the rain. So refreshing, so clean. Rain cleanses the earth. Of a lot of things - smoke, dust, sin... But at times I tend to forget - alamak, hujan! Thought of my laundry getting wet. Or if I'm in KL, the potential crawling traffic jam. Patutnya kena cakap Alhamdulillah. Allah turunkan hujan dengan rahmat. Semoga I tak lupa. But the best phrase must be my mother's - hujan? Bersoraklah pokok.

From C to B

Remember the English tuition classes I give to my niece, her friend and Aliyah? I usually conduct the classes either on Saturday or Sunday morning. Depends. So far I've only done 3-4 classes. Anyway, 2 weeks ago the kids had their monthly test. Here're their results - Wani my niece maintained her B. Scrutinized her test paper and found some silly mistakes. Others are quite difficult for her level ie having to reconstruct jumbled up sentences. OK lah tu for a start considering sekolah tadika dulu Malay medium. If she can just focus, she can get better grades. Shahirah pula, from her normal C, she got a B. That's nice. Heard from Azah her mother was so happy. I'm so happy for these kids. And I do enjoy the classes. Tapi hari ni class cancel. Teacher ada bad headache.

Some People...

We had 3 days training at our usual place from Monday till today. One drawback about organizing a public training is that you can get heart attack at the 11th hour. We always set our minimum number of paying participants - enough to cover all costs and get some profit. Usually it's 8 - that's good enough. Last week, the number who registered was 12. Nice. On Friday 4.30pm, 6 of them canceled! Each within 15 minutes from each other! Reasons being - tak dapat kelulusan, some HR guy went for long leave and another 4 got some urgent stuff to do (nasib baik that 4 requested for on-site training). Sakit jantung weh... So that leaves us with only 6. Since it's already late, we had to continue. OK la, cover cost, but minimal profit. But then, on Monday we got a surprise. 2 extra participants showed up, with LO some more. Apparently, their training staff forgot to register with us. Alhamdulillah... nasib baik. I actually wanted to tell this story about a driver I tailed this morning

Song: I Believe In You

I tengah tersangatlah sukanya dengan lagu ni. Amazing song. Kalau dengar you heart just soars. Kalau dah Il Divo nyanyi dengan Celine Dion, tak powerful tak tau lah kan. Just the lyrics here... I Believe In You Lonely the path you have chosen A restless road, no turning back One day you will find your light again Don't you know Don't let go be strong Follow your heart Let your love lead through the darkness Back to a place you once knew I believe I believe I believe in you Follow your dreams Be yourself an angel of kindness There's nothing that you cannot do I believe I believe I believe in you Tout seul tu t'en iras tout seul Coeur ouvert à l'univers Poursuis ta quête Sans regarder derrière N'attends pas Que le jour se lève Suis ton étoile Vas jusqu'où ton rêve t'emporte Un jour tu le toucheras Si tu crois Si tu crois Si tu crois en toi Suis ta lumière N'éteins pas la flamme que tu portes Au fond de toi souviens toi Que je crois Que je crois Que je

Books: Harry Potter 7 - Finished It

Just finished the book today. Yup, taking my time. It's really hard to say goodbye. After years and 7 books, it finally ended. No more. The closest I can think of was the end of "Friends". Was right about Snape. Was right that all the while he's been protecting Harry. And in the end, he's so much more of a man than the rest put together. Fred died. Ever since the twins did the fireworks stunt and how funny and crazy there are in the movies, Fred and George have been in my list of favorites. It's so sad reading how George knelt at Fred's body presumely weeping. Would George still be as reckless, funny and crazy as before? No one knows. But they were inseparable it's hard to imagine one of them gone. Percy came back. If not because of Fred's death, it would've been such a wonderful ending to the Weasley family. And he has good sense of humor! I think he would team up with George and run the Weasley store. What happened to Umbridge at the end? Har

Books: Harry Potter 7 - Got It!

Got it! Got it! Went to get my copy yesterday at 10.30am at MPH Alamanda. Sampai naik angin with Aliyah because she was so slow. The book store was very quiet with no queue at all. So I asked the cashier whether there are actually people who came to get the book. She said there were a lot but they came early morning. Saw a girl sitting in a chair cross legged reading the book at the bookstore. I think the parents went shopping and she wanted to be left alone with the book. Hubby said there's a kid reading the book at the British Open golf championship amidst the spectators. The commentators remarked Harry Potter is on the course. I'm half way through. But I peeked the ending. Spoiler Warning: the boy who lived, lived! But quite a number of characters died including one I really like - a Weasley brother. I'm not reading the book as much as I wanted to. I have just completed this document deadline today. Just sent over. And I need to prepare for tomorrow's training. So, t

Books: Countdown to Harry Potter 7 - Tomorrow!

It's tomorrow! MPH Bookstores around Klang Valley will open at 7am tomorrow. Can't wait, can't wait! The Internet is full of stories of leaks. At least 2 online stores have been slapped with lawsuits. Some 1,000 people out there have read the Book 7 due to the mistake in delivery. A few books have appeared on eBay selling at $250. One video on YouTube showed the book cover and some pages that looked like the actual text. But don't know whether real one or not. Another video has a narration of the supposedly Book 7 storyline, with the guy citing exact pages. But the story is so ridiculous I think it's just a joke. Mayhem. Over a fantasy book. I think I'll go over to MPH Alamanda tomorrow to collect my book at 10am. Must not be seen too eager. But then Alamanda is not One Utama or KLCC, so I don't expect too see a long queue. And like the last book, I would read it so slowly, don't want to finish the book too fast. Sayang. The last time Fairuza got her boo

Movie: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

I just came home from watching Harry Potter 5 with Aliyah. We wanted to watch it last weekend but couldn't get the tickets. As usual, hubby said you two go ahead first lah, so Aliyah and I went to watch it after school. Just like the previous Harry Potter movies - things are so, so rushed. Some scenes contain combination of 2-3 stories while some important stories were not there. As a result, we get a choppy movie. Of course I can't expect everything in the book to be there. Still it was good. Professor Umbridge was excellent. I tried to imagine her while reading the book but couldn't get any character close enough. The irritating girlish giggles and her "hum, hum" were so good one can't help but to hate her. Luna Lovegood was good too. But I had imagined some one crazier than that with even crazier clothes. One scene really had an impact on me - the scene when Bellatrix killed Sirius with the killing curse. I had imagined the arch and Sirius falling into it w

Books: Countdown to Harry Potter 7

2 days to go! I think Snape will be the hero in the end. He's been hated for the past 6 books, but there's so much to him actually than people realize. I think he was secretly in love with Lily, Harry's mother. So when he revealed the prophecy to Voldermort which in turn made that evil guy kill both Harry's parents, he felt so guilty and vowed to destroy the dark lord. I think la...

Makan-makan: UNIKEB UKM Bangi

I'm starting new category - Makan-makan. Once in a while you actually find a gem of an eating place. So, I nak share places yang foodnya sedap (ikut tekak I lah). Today, Linda and I had lunch at this Restoran Kampung at UNIKEB, UKM Bangi. Their main attraction - ikan bakar with air asam, sos sambal and cili api with kicap. Memang sedap, macam-macam jenis ikan bakar sampai ikan talapia bakar pun ada. I tak pernah jumpa tempat lain, ikan lain tu banyak lah. I actually tak makan ikan tu, Linda yang suka. Other lauk yang sedap there are kerabu mangga (with lots of cili api slices) and kerabu perut. Yang lain lauk kampung biasa which are also very the sedap like ikan kering masak lemak cili api with nenas, ikan sembilang goreng garing cili, and many, many more. This place memang kena sangat dengan my tastebuds because I love cili api and the food here are like swimming in them. Today I had rice with ikan sembilang goreng cili, kerabu mangga, terung goreng cili with a bit of kuah masak l