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Showing posts from May, 2014

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After spending almost 5 days at kampung KJ, today we went back home. Hubby datang malam tadi and spent the night. As always, pagi dihidangkan dengan breakfast yang selalunya awesome. Hari ni nasi lemak sotong dan paru. Yummms! Fridays we open at 2.30pm. So, lepas kemas apa yang patut (banyak lagi yang patut-patut belum kemas), went to the shop. Update accounts yang dah 4 hari tak buat. Catalog new stock yang masuk plus letak price tag. Then... for the first time in quite some time I had nothing to do. Click sana, click sini... tak ada juga. Kalau ada pun kena tunggu my admin staff masuk next week. Mula-mula rasa macam best kan? Baru setengah jam dah bosan gila. So, buka beberapa files lama dan cuba-cuba menulis. Hah! Cita-cita nak tulis novel okeh :). Dah tulis 2-3 buku sebelum ni agak "ilmiah". Mana tau kan... Sebenarnya tengah agak anxiety menunggu closure to that project yang baru nak masuk jarum. I really don't know how the ending will be. Minggu ni decline to mee

Taking Short Break

I finished stationing myself for 2 days at client's office. As expected - nothing much accomplished. The English version of the report is (hoped) to be finalised tomorrow. Spent Monday going through half of the BM report. Today, spent an hour, with another officer (the one yesterday had to go some where else), then this new officer got another meeting, replaced by another officer who doesn't look like he knows what he's doing. I finally advised him - let's just wait for the final version tomorrow, then I'll go one round of review (again). He looked so glad to be taken of the impromptu task. Pity him la actually. How la to finish the report if everybody cannot focus. But this report is much, much better than the one I did half way last year. Come to think of it, it was around the same time! Still can't shake off the "phobia" of that report. Anyway, tomorrow will be a day off from work. I promised to work on the report from home. Well, I didn't pro

Lama Tak Attend Training

Sejak I started my own company, most of the times, I/my team yang bagi training. Semalam attend training after many, many years. Penat ek? By 3pm, nak menggelungsur ke bawah meja. Anyway, very informative session. Rasa pandai sikit :). It was pre launch of new products by SRAM and Selle SMP. Besides talks, ada showcase of products.  The crowd consists of bike shop owners (and mechanics). Hubby pointed to a few and told of their history - ada yang started from kedai papan kecik buruk sekarang dah jadi kedai besar. Inspiring story. Usaha tangga kejayaan!  Brompton folding bikes. Very expensive folding bikes!  Team Merida bikes yang specifications sama macam being used for races.  Saddle Selle SMP yang baru launch. There are medical and scientific reasons for the hollow area in the middle.  Mechanic Mysa Bike catching a few winks during lunch break.  Wakil Mysa Bike. Nice goodie bags we got! These titanium bike frames sahaja dah boleh beli kereta sebijik... 

Hari Cashier Sedunia!

Hari ni I full-time jadi cashier dan salesperson di kedai. Aliyah telah selamat dibawa pulang ke kampung di KJ oleh Mak Longnya. Sebabnya, esok Hubby and I kena attend SRAM training. Hah! Tiba-tiba akak jadi mekanik basikal meh? Sebabnya Chot tak dapat nak pergi. So akak lah kena pergi. Semoga tak ada quiz dan sebarang hands-on training. Isnin dan Selasa kena station kat client's office di PJ untuk review this annual report dengan printer. Paling penting - spec jangan tinggal. Kalau tak sia-sia saja. Itulah sebab Aliyah terpaksa dihantar ke KJ. Esok mak bapaknya tak ada. Minggu depan maknya duduk KJ. Jadi, cuti persekolahan bagi Aliyah telah bermula! Tadi Mak Longnya SMS - wah, mereka berdua tengah tengok Ustaz Kazim di Oasis. Bagus anak aku... Kat rumah tak pernah pun tengok. Rupanya mereka berdua bergelak ketawa dengan lawak Ustaz. Gitu kisahnya... So, here I am. Sedang edit manuscript iBook untuk dihantar ke "pihak berkenaan" untuk direview dan mendapatkan kelulu

Matlamat Kita Berbeza

Bila dah mula nak berproject balik ni rasa macam "alien". Betul. Mungkin I ni alien di dalam industri ni. Or business as a whole for that matter. Mungkin bila dah matured ni, my focus in life has shifted. Especially these last couple of years. Orang kata kalau by age of 40 one doesn't change, then you might not change forever. Alhamdulillah, I think I have changed. That's why whatever work that I do, akan sedaya-upaya selitkan element "buat baik". Simple stuff. Kadang-kadang tengok ada budak datang nak beli tube basikal, tengok dia bayar duit seringgit-seringgit, dalam hati kata mesti dia simpan duit belanja sekolah dia ni. Jadinya, instead of kena bayar RM15, kadang-kadang RM10 pun dah cukup. Janji ada untung sikit. Mungkin sikit sangat tapi hati rasa lapang. So, bila dah 3-4 kali bermeeting untuk project yang baru nak masuk jarum ni, memang rasa yang I ni alien. Sebab? Matlamat mungkin tak jive. I'm not going to elaborate. Sangat sensitive. Sekaran

Biking Always a Challenge

Semangat nak bangun dan bersiap pun dah kira challenge, inikan pulak biking. Malas memanjang. Yesterday did an 18-km cycle from our shop to Nilai Impian and back. This time around is a huge challenge sebab Hubby lalu route yang berbukit (instead of the safe one we usually take). 3 things on my mind while biking yesterday: 1) Riding up hills can release whatever psychological pressure inside your chest. You ride up the hill dengan mencungap-cungap and cursing (why oh why did I wake up early to torture myself to death?). And all these negative thoughts will come out. I hate this, I hate that, I hate my spouse who rides next to me forcing me not to use the easy gears, I hate not having this and that. Negative thoughts keep coming out and replaced with positive ones. I am not going to give up, I will cycle and cycle up this hill, I will not let this small stupid hill laugh at me, I will continue cycling, just a few meters more, I will not stop and show any weaknesses, I can do this, I h

3 Different Hats

Career wise, I'm wearing at least 3 different hats every day... 1) First thing this morning - siapkan accounts for the shop. Update monthly sales, expenses, stock purchase for April. Siap print for the 2 bosses to study. Data is there but I can't pinpoint why certain months sales are up and certain months sales are down. I guess we have to look out of the box (or shop for that matter) ie customers' behaviour. Early of the year maybe dapat bonus so sales naik. Lepas tu turun sikit. Then naik sikit - perhaps yang private sector tu start dapat bonus. Last month turun sikit, maybe stagnant a bit as regular customers have gotten all that they need and they come for bike service. Hence my suggestion to the 2 bosses that we need to embark on marketing efforts to expand the reach. Nak kena buat paper gak nih! 2) Linda & I have started working on our yearly project: Baju Kurung Cotton for Kids (and Mommies). Semalam dah mula dapatkan stok kain. Today I just uploaded 18 new

3 Things Last Weekend

1) Aliyah and I spent the weekend at my Kak Long's place. Lama tak balik kampung :). Aliyah pun asyik terperuk kat rumah. So, it was girls day out - as usual pegi Paradigm. We had the most hearty lunch at Serai. Delicious. Kenyang sampai esok paginya sebab both my sister and I had to finish up Aliyah's choc ice cream yang sangat chocolaty and creamy and filling. Sesak nafas. 2) Hubby fetched both of us yesterday. After lunch of Nasi Kandar, then on the way back singgah pulak A&W PJ (Aliyah suddenly wanted fries and coney dog after having them at KL Book Fair). The joint has improved a little bit compared to very run down place the last time I went there last year I think. Membaham curly fries dan huge rootbeer float dalam kereta. Sampai rumah, weather was quite nice, we decided to go cycling. Kayuh tak sampai 1km hujan mula menitik. Patah balik ke kedai. Tunggu sekejap. Then, cycled again. Niat di hati menggunung tinggi nak cuba track MCP. Baru 15 minit dah surrender. Men

Meeting Lagi

Alhamdulillah my vertigo stopped yesterday. Rasa legaaaa... sangat. So, pagi dengan rasa refreshed walaupun dizzy bersemangat bekerja. Pagi-pagi morning dah dapat call dari potential project owner tu bagitau ada meeting jam 2 kat KL. Adusss... gagahkan jugalah pergi naik train. Sambil tu doa janganlah vertigo datang balik. Walaupun lambat sikit sampai, the meeting was very good. Masa ni memang rasa I miss that kind of work life. The past few days I buat proposal project ni sebenarnya rasa agak skeptical. Seriously. Bukan apa, dah penat berproposal dan berpresentation, tapi last year was not a good year. Letih je. Sebab tu sejak bulan December last year I berazam untuk focus on the grant project and the bike shop. Cukup la tu. Masa meeting tengok project owner dan partners begitu bersemangat memberi idea. I looked around and told myself - maybe this is for real. Insyaallah, semoga Allah kurniakan rezeki ni.

Kerenah Customer... Sabarlah Hati...

Bila dah berdiri the other side of the counter, memang at times agak pening dengan kerenah customers. Sejak mula buat business Baju Kurung Cotton for Kids many, many years ago customer behaviour memang colourful. Yang paling stressful doing online business is ignorance. Kadang-kadang harga dah terpacak punya besar, boleh lagi comment "PM price pls". Seriously! Some people really need to learn how to read! Just this week I encountered one difficult-to-say customer. Nak marah, memang I marah. Tapi rasanya dia memang tak berapa bijak kot. So, I maafkan... It started early in the morning, I ni dah la tak sihat kan... Dapat one WhatsApp message: Customer X: Akak niaga lagi tak? I read and asked myself - ni sapa pulak ni. Dalam kepala fikir entah-entah customer baju kurung. Or entah-entah customer cupcake dulu-dulu (maklumla, macam-macam business pernah buat). Customer X: Akak bukak kedai lagi tak? Another message came in. Fikir lagi... bukak kedai lagi ke tak? Bike shop

3 Things These Days

1) I have known other people getting it but never thought I would get it one day. I am having vertigo. Ya Allah... seksanya. It started at 3am last Wednesday. Bangun nak ke toilet tapi bilik berpusing-pusing. Pagi terus ke klinik. Nasihat doktor - see what position is best either baring or duduk. No driving until it goes away. Seriously not the best feeling. Nauseous rasa sebab pening. Now dah belajar sikit macam mana nak handle. Must not move abruptly, must not bend, try to maintain straight head position. My friend Iteq, who is a doctor, is also having it now. Alhamdulillah boleh minta advise. Ya Allah, sembuhkanlah... (kerja sangat banyak ni...) 2) Aliyah is, at this very moment, with her friend at Pesta Buku PWTC. Ada one mom as chaperon. Risau juga fikirkan orang ramai. Insyaallah semoga dia OK. Bila fikir balik, when I was 13 - macam-macam dah experience. Tinggal asrama, buat semua benda sendiri... Setakat pegi pesta buku or any such events yang orang beribu-ribu datang, OK je.