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Showing posts from August, 2012

Balik Bandar...

Aliyah and I are spending our long weekend at my Kak Long's place. This is the case of "balik bandar". But then Aliyah is a bit bored sebab Abang Ijam and Kak Zura tak balik this week sebab ada wedding. Kalau diaorang ada memang lah kecoh. We spent half the day at IKEA and the other half at Giant Mall. Esok Aliyah dah plan nak pergi Paradigm pulak. Penat merayau shopping malls ni... This kind of rendezvous always have one important thing in mind - food. After the long window shopping activity, we finally had lunch at 3pm at Jemari, Kelana Jaya. The tomyam is sooo delicious... Serious.

Thick Face Black Heart

Once, years ago, I was advised to read the book "Thick Face, Black Heart" by two of my ex-bosses. I read only 1/4 of it because I don't think I can ever be thick faced and black hearted. Perhaps if I were to read the book again today, I might be able to appreciate and relate. But then, at times, one has got to be that way. I really hate people who are selfish and not trustworthy. I especially hate those who do not honour their promises. That is simply "kurang ajar" especially kalau buat pada orang yang lebih tua. This person promised to remove his things from the back room of our office - and did not honour his promise 4 times. The new tenant (who already paid 1+1 rental) waited and called every day to move his stuff in and to install telephone line. But this stubborn person simply took his own sweet time and didn't even bother to reply our calls and sms or even inform us when he really was going to move out. The least he could do was to just sms and set a

Post-Hari Raya Holidays

By now most have started working that the holidays are over. Invitation open house pun dah bermula. Neighbourhood-wise, semalam bertandang ke rumah Abang Khalid depan rumah, siap dia ajak semua sekali termasuk my Kak Long's family. Food sangatlah awesomenya - satay, nasi dagang, mee kari, soto... Hari ni puasa dok teringat-teringat lagi nih! This year I don't plan to invite neighbours over. Kawasan dapur akan ditutup untuk kerja-kerja penyelenggaraan. Tengah dok pikir, kalau orang nak datang rumah macam mana yek? Maybe can do one session lepas siap kot.  Now that I'm back at the office - tengah nak full force bekerja especially memfollow-up potential projects. We got one translation job on the last Friday before cuti Hari Raya. Alhamdulillah... minggu ni baru nak start buat. At the moment, tengah menunggu someone to move out all his stuff so that I can get new tenant to occupy the room. Pelik betul lah. Opportunity nak dapat duit pun susah nak cooperate. Kalau ikut hati

A PD Pictorial

 We got a nice ground level spacious room that opens to the garden.   I didn't prepare for the vacation. We didn't bring goggles, floats, etc. Here at the beach, Aliyah played the sandcastle destroyer. She flattened up this sandcastle left behind by some kids. Being in PD is like stepping into a time capsule dated the early 90s. Nothing much change except for more scores of hotels. The town's Pizza Hut joint, for example, maintains this old deco.  A swing by the beach...  Catching the sunset. Subhanallah... so beautiful... This is what I call doing "an Enida" :)  Beautiful rainy morning on our 3rd day... Muka tak puas hati sebab tak dapat mandi pool...   The sea was rough that morning after the rain... Last swim before heading back.

Back After the Long Holidays

We are finally back home. Alhamdulillah... semua OK. Kucing-kucing pun OK. We had a good Hari Raya celebration followed by an awesome vacation. Hari Raya was celebrated in Melaka. We went back on Saturday afternoon just in time for me to continue with Daging Masak Bali. Rendang Ayam and Itik were already cooked by SILs. Dah lama tak jumpa Rendang Itik kat rumah Melaka ni... I think ever since my FIL passed away. I don't really eat itik but the gravy was so yummy. Makan lah sikit-sikit... itu pun terus pening. Hubby's favourite. Nasib baik my SILs tak tunggu I balik untuk masak itik. Adusss... akak korang ni mana reti masak itik. First Hari Raya was spent visiting. The weather was so so hot. By the time we went back, it was pass afternoon and everybody terbongkang sebab penat and kenyang. Second Hari Raya was spent cooking - soto ayam and lontong. It was our turn to receive visitors. My SILs memang rajin memasak. Sedap pulak tu... Our vacation started on the 3rd of Hari Ra

Salam Aidilfitri & Maaf Zahir Batin

Here's a very warm wish of Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri dan Maaf Zahir Batin. Semoga apa juga kebaikan yang dilakukan semasa bulan Ramadhan akan berterusan. Insyaallah... It's a few minutes to the last day of Ramadhan. My heart is heavy. Sedih sebab Ramadhan dah hampir meninggalkan kita. It's been such a peaceful and generous month, in many, many ways. A couple of days ago, Hubby expressed his thanks to me - "terima kasih sebab sebulan awak bersusah payah sediakan makanan berbuka dan bersahur untuk kita semua". Terus hilang rasa penat... :). We'll be going back to Melaka tomorrow morning, insyaallah after Subuh. Semoga perjalanan kami selamat. I have not prepared a single thing. Baju belum gosok, bags belum pack. The washing machine is running. And I have one last batch of "kuih sarang semut yang telah ditransform menjadi kuih semprit" in the oven. Ini kes melayan kehendak Aliyah yang nak sangat buat kuih raya. We'll be there for 3 days and

Ramadhan Dah Sampai Hujung...

Sekejap sangat rasanya. Ramadhan dah sampai penghujung. It's Malam 27 already today. Kalau kat rumah my parents sure dah pasang pelita ni... sigh... It's been a wonderful month. As we sat down for buka puasa yesterday, Hubby looked at the food and said - " thought we'd never be able to afford nice food for buka puasa this year ...". And yet, alhamdulillah, we managed to. Simple and nice food. Rezeki datang dari Allah swt. Susah macam mana pun, alhamdulillah, Allah bagi kesenangan dan kemudahan in many, many ways. What I learned Ramadhan this year? The power of doa. Subhanallah... My good friend Yatt always reminds me - " doa, minta pada Allah, insyaallah Allah bagi, kadang-kadang kita masih kurang berdoa ...". For me, memang kurang berdoa sebab malu. Malu dengan Allah sebab nak minta macam-macam pertolongan tapi diri sendiri masih tak bagus lagi. Tapi, putting my shame aside, I prayed and asked, prayed and asked... And this 2nd half of the month has be

You Give, You Get Back

This is one of Ramadhan's miracles. As I read the message on FB, I took a few moments with my eyes closed to marvel the greatness of Allah swt. Alhamdulillah. It was such a simple simple simple thing that we do but the reward was almost immediate. Our friend Mize ordered baju kurung from us for her two daughters. She told us her daughters' sizes are a bit odd, so she will measure them herself and send us the measurements. We received the measurements and proceeded to buy the materials and got the baju kurung sewn. The materials selected were a little bit expensive. The baju kurung were delivered last weekend. Yesterday, I got to know from Linda that apparently our friend got the measurements wrong. The baju are both too short for her kids. (In her words - macam baju kurung Kedah!). It was not our fault because we followed her measurements but still we apologised. She was very nice about it saying it was her fault not ours. However, we really felt so bad about it. After ou

Sesi Iftar with Siblings

We had one iftar session with my siblings at my place on Saturday. Alhamdulillah, it was a good meet before everybody will "disperse" for Hari Raya. Food was abundant and delicious (nasi beryani Haji Tapah - assortment of kambing, daging and ayam goreng rempah) and cheap too! Even towkey Izzkin Spa - Ekin and Ejat - managed to be there. (Zurra dah pesan pada Ekin - cancel all customer appointments!). Dicelah-celah nasi beryani, bubur biji nangka and cucur udang, terselit pancake specially made by Aliyah. I watched Jamie Oliver's Christmas special last year and took the simplest pancake recipe ever which Aliyah can make on her own without anybody's help. Siap dengan maple syrup sekali. Yummy, I must say. Alhamdulillah my kitchen is quite big to accommodate big crowd. Buffet style. Hamparkan tikar. Cukup untuk semua duduk. Even got space for the guys to solat Maghrib jemaah. That was the idea when we renovated the house last time - big kitchen (no wet or dry kitchen

Jangan Main Mercun

Seriously. Jangan main. A few days ago, about 9.30pm, I was at my laptop when I heard loud sounds of kids playing mercun. Memang dah a few days bunyi bising sangat near our house. Hubby said kat surau pun memang bising sampai Imam tahfiz pun tergagap baca surah sebab mercun aim betul-betul dekat kawasan Imam. I thought - bila dah macam ni punya impact dah kategori haram dah main mercun ni. Then I realised that the sounds have turned into bunyi macam bunga api yang selalu orang pasang atas jalan tu - bunyi letup-letup kecik tapi kuat jugak. Apasal lah lama sangat tak stop bunyi ni? Bila I jengah kat pintu, nampak bukit kat tepi rumah lalang dan pokok dah terbakar. Astaghfirullah... Neighbours semua dah keluar. Api besar lah juga. Since our house is the nearest, kelam kabut bukak pagar tepi dan hulur hose air. Dan ada "hikmah"nya ada neighbour yang tak pegi terawih, so they brought pails and started to douse the fire. Sambil menghulur hose tu, tangan sebelah I dok telefon 9

Less Weight on My Shoulders

Ramadhan has been good thus far. Alhamdulillah... Bayang-bayang new project ada but not confirmed. Yang tu kena bersabar dan berdoa. Our baju kurung side business doing quite well sampai today my sister kata might have to stop new orders especially those we need to courier. Takut tak sempat sampai. Hope can squeeze in a few more. We have a few yang tengah tunggu confirmation. This frenzy actually lasts for about 4-5 weeks in a year. Other months, it is almost stagnant. But the short frenzy does give quite good income, even though not as much as those who actually have baju kurung in stock and have their own shop or kiosk. We simply offer materials to be sewn into baju kurung. If there's a buyer, then only we get the material. We only have a small quantity of stock which we placed at Izzkin. Tapi alhamdulillah, rezeki juga. Semoga berkat usaha both Linda and me. Today saw this flow of cash coming in from our rental income. We had this 2 brothers who came to view our workstations a