Living with Sarah

In conjunction with my company's 1st year of active business, we organized an small scale fund-raising to buy stuff for Rumah Anak Yatim Darul Izzah, Bangi. It was just some emails to friends and relatives. We managed to collect RM870. Thank you to all who contributed. So, yesterday Linda, my eldest sister and me (with Aliyah in tow because she ponteng sekolah hantar my hubby pegi airport early in the morning. He's got work in Trengganu) went to Carrefour Alamanda armed with the cash and 3 trolleys. Itu pun 3 trolleys actually tak cukup. Let's see, we bought food stuff like cooking oil, sugar, flour, potatoes, etc all in huge quantities. We also bought daily needs like soap, detergent, tooth brush, etc. By noon, just pushing the trolleys took so much effort as they were bursting with so many stuff. (Note to self: next time must bring extra body). I had to call help from Miqdam and his Ford Ranger because it's almost impossible to put everything into my car. We then went...

Orang tua-tua kata apa - pejam celik pejam celik dah setahun. How time flies. I started scouting around for an office in February last year. Signed the rent agreement in April. Mid-April I recruited Linda, my ATPN days friend (she was in CBN, I was Sri Aman, we both stayed at a hostel in Kg Pandan). Together we cleaned the dusty 3-bedroom office apartment, buy furniture and equipment. All using my savings. The week after we temporarily moved some stuff to my house - printer, fax machine, PC - because we couldn't get telephone line fast enough - no more lines available for Section 15. Our first seminar was planned and executed from the living room of my house. I would fetch Linda from the komuter station, have breakfast, then go back to my house and work. Then I would stop to cook a simple meal. We would eat lunch and watch Oprah. Then continue working till 5.30. Then I would send her to the station again. The seminar didn't materialize. But it was a good learning experience. Bo...

I don't know whether you get a mail titled: "Mereka Mula Mencabar" in your mailbox. It's actually a newspaper cutting of job advertisement by Metro Kajang - see tiny weeny image below. The sender circled one of the requirements ie "Those who are in the Muslim faith need not apply". Never mind the grammar. So, seperti biasa, without even reading the whole advert, people started to forward the email. With comments that can spark religious debates. And yang forward tu of course lah Melayu. Kenapa lah kita ni suka sangat melompat tanpa usul periksa. Dah tak ada kerja lagi ke kat office tu? Let's read in between the lines shall we, literally. The jobs (not all vacancies) that do not want Muslims to apply says: "... must have working experience in retail industry relating to meat products". Now, let's think logically: 1. Need experience in meat industry 2. Muslims must not apply See the connection here? Pandai... So, yang marah-marah sebab compan...

Here are some books I've been reading and re-reading these couple of months. I've re-read Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix in anticipation of the movie to be released next month. I've re-read Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince in anticipation of the final book, also to be released next month. I've pre-booked Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Yes, I love Harry Potter. J K Rowling is so brilliant. You read one book and you can relate something there to another book. And she planned the storyline so well. I've been stuck with The Master for months. Still got 1/4 to go. It's a story about the 19th century writer Henry James. God it's so boring reading about people of those days. Don't know when I will ever finish it. I read Danielle Steel's Five Days in Paris . I some how wanted to revisit novels I used to read in my early 20s. I actually rented the book. Problem is, I almost never return the books I rented, no matter how trashy they ar...

Bad things always happen to other people. And we always think that such things won't happen to us. How wrong we can be. Something happened to my hubby, and I pray he won't be scarred by it. After a lot of thought, I'm writing about it here because hubby decided to follow my advice not to press charges. Hari ni kita kena aniaya, tapi tak apa, itu pengajaran. Mungkin Allah nak uji kita, atau nak remind kita. And hopefully, janganlah jadi pada orang lain... Our car has been in workshop for the past 2 weeks. Since we know this guy - Ramin, a service supervisor with Volvo - ever since we bought the car and dah jadi kawan, he lent hubby his Wira for him to go to work. On Wednesday night, he called saying he's on his way to pick up something in the car. That was quite strange because he normally would call way in advance. So, when he came around 11pm, I went upstairs sebab malas nak change. I heard some noises and hubby called out saying he's going out to Putrajaya with Ra...

Why slow week? Because I'm broke. Really broke. That company didn't pay me for 2 months. I signed a 5K company cheque to pay for last month's 4-day training expenses. Now waiting for the agencies who came to pay up. As usual, it'll take at least 1 month for them to start processing the payments. So, I am totally broke. So, what do I do when I'm broke? Hibernate. When I hibernate I generate ideas. Great ideas (perasan). But the ideas are here on my laptop. I'm still thinking how to put them to work. I think that's the problem with our country. People with ideas and who can work don't get the slice of the pie. But people who can talk and have top guns as their friends get to eat the pie till they burp. And still they eat and eat. I've been talking with participants of our trainings and that's what I gathered. They buy expensive softwares that are useless. They engage vendors who can't complete projects. They pay consultants who can't even g...

1. We took Aliyah to the dentist last Saturday to extract her gigi kapak. Her front tooth has been loose for a month. It was a painful experience for her but that's what dentists are for. Now, she's left with one big front tooth. Comel la juga. Dia suka sebab dentist suruh makan ice cream 2. The many faces of Aliyah Berangan jadi princess... Gaya programmer pun ada... Baik punya tido... Mandi dalam bath tub hotel... Her drawings