Living with Sarah

I love this pic. Friends since 1984. We grew up together. All of us, at one point, might drifted apart for a while. But we always get back together. Insyaallah another trip is coming in 2 weeks time. I'm still contemplating. Tak sure schedule sebenarnya. But I'll miss a whole lot of I don't join these girls! 3D wall mural katanya :)

Penat balik from Morib belum hilang dah kena start kerja :(. Semalam had to attend a meeting in KL. Malas betul kalau meeting start 2.30pm. Sure habis lambat. But then, one thing I like about my current engagement is that I am not what I call a principal team member. I support. I do mainly documentation and reports.  So, yesterday, I merely support while my partner for the meeting struggled to present the system walk through (a lot of functionalities still not working!), explained the rationale behind certain interfaces, got grilled when certain functionalities were not developed based on requirement (understanding concepts is very subjective!), while I sat, took notes, nodded where appropriate, and chipped in where necessary. When the (garang) project manager asked to commit a date for the next walk through, I was so glad I am not the one in the position to answer. Been through that, done that... Fuhh! I wish for more of such engagements :).  I love having th...

Once you have this crazy idea that your life will be filled with adventure. That every day, your heart will skip a beat at even the smallest of adventure. Then you realise even the smallest of adventure doesn't exist anymore. And then hope becomes a dream. But even dream can be achieved. You think. Until you lose that twinkle in your eye. And you dream no more. Why bother, you say. Why bother? And life as you know it becomes a mundane journey. And you care not. It's been sucked away that you care not. Seek it elsewhere you think. Seek it elsewhere. For you care not anymore.

Our adventure... Melangut tunggu Ude dengan harapan dia menang lucky draw... The runner and the pompom girls Lighthouse Bukit Jugra Aliyah tengah suka pose macam ni! At Istana Bandar. Macam-macam perangai. Ni buat mural Potong cake. Red velvet baked by Jay. Sedap gila! Beautiful sunset... Photoshoot majalah Mangga :) Sampai hati diaorang nak crop off I sebab tak ikut lompat macam ni :( Nice place tau. Rasa nak pergi lagi. Macam kumpulan rock buat photoshoot hari raya ;). Ini rumah Mak Jay. Still very traditional. Such an experience for Aliyah. Bukan senang nak ambil gambar kat rumah kampung. Tengah hujan pulak tu.

Our JJCMM2 went for a short break to celebrate Ude's birthday. Very near. Morib saja. Coincide dengan Ude's participation in Morib Run. Walaupun dekat, sekejap, dan expectation rendah, it turned out to be awesome and full of adventure. As always dengan geng-geng yang pelbagai perangai tetapi ngam bila bersama :). Aliyah pun ikut. Last minute she insisted. And she laughed and laughed along with us. At one point, she was so full after a meal and she said her stomach hurt. From the food and the laughter! The getaway started early Sunday morning. Hubby sent us to meet with Ies in Dengkil, and less than one hour later, we arrived in Morib and met up with Jay. Baru nak duduk-duduk ambik gambar, Ude pun sampai. 5km run only :). Lepas tu melangut tunggu lucky draw yang turned out to be not so lucky. Then, breakfast at Dataran Morib. After breakfast, the adventure began. Mula-mula naik Bukit Jugra. Drive up walaupun sebelum ni konon-konon nak hike up. Met up with Shake yang nak jo...

Alhamdulillah, this project arrangement has so far been quite satisfactory. Once or twice a week of travelling to KL for meetings, the rest of the days are spent working from home. Today, since dah berjaya siapkan ToC for UAT script last night, way ahead of today's 2.30pm meeting, sempat jahit felt kepala teddy bear :). Tengah kumpul-kumpul untuk hantar ke Izzkin. Bukan nak buat duit sangat, just nak dapat balik modal beli barang. Stress therapy yang agak fun. Senyumannya agak awkward :). Next time kena kasi senyum lebih sikit.

I've been wanting to get this book for quite some time. Tapi selalu tak jadi sebab I read that it was not a finished book by Tolkien. Some parts of the book was written by his son to fill the gaps. But then, with The LOTR trilogy being shown on Warner for the past months, and then re-watching The Hobbit 3 extended version, I guess getting the copy is a must :). The Silmarillion. Beli pun sebab jalan-jalan kat MPH ada discount :)

It's been a so-so week. Nothing much happened. Mainly work. The school holidays is coming to an end. We have started getting Aliyah's school stuff - uniform, shoes, just now books... Know what? Everything is so expensive these days. Alhamdulillah we can still afford to buy things for Aliyah, but how about people who are poor? For Aliyah alone, we spent almost RM350. I can't even imagine how other people fare :( Anyway... for us memang terasa boleh bernafas sikit because Hubby finally got paid for his work. After 4 months! Alhamdulillah... hari-hari doa semoga Allah bagi kekuatan mental dan fizikal untuk dia cari nafkah for us :). This is my new favourite lightning-speed breakfast :). Setelah bertahun-tahun our microwave rosak, we finally bought a new one. Itu pun lepas pikir yang Aliyah is old enough to operate one and it's the easiest, fastest and safest way to make a decent meal. So, sekarang selalu buat "meals in mug" :). Like that scrambled eggs. P...

I sometimes crave for light readings. OK la, I don't despise chick-lit. Ada juga yang I baca :). But I don't go for the shopping therapy stories. Yang cerita pasal cooking and baking appeal to me. Like Sophie's Bakery for the Broken Hearted. That was a good one. Malam semalam we were at IOI City Mall. Sementara menunggu Hubby siap discussion dengan my current boss (we might be working together for this project I'm doing now), Aliyah and I went to Borders. Rasa terbuka terus minda tengok English books. I was at MPH Alamanda the other day and I was nauseated by the rows and rows of Malay novels dengan tajuk Suamiku Itu, Suamiku Ini. Please lah... Bila lah this craze over "lompong" literature will end? MPH Alamanda dah jadi macam Malay novel hub. English books adalah 3-4 rows. Anyway,I had this list of books I wanted to buy. Ada yang jumpa tapi bila baca back cover rasa macam - not at this point of time. I want something light I can read on the train. Even th...

I've been wanting to try Korean food for quite some time tapi tak da geng yang nak join. Hubby and Aliyah tak berapa minat. Selalu tengok cerita What Shall We Eat Today. Nampak yummy sangat-sangat. Finally Jay ajak makan Seoul Garden IOI Mall last Saturday. Temankan dia last minute shopping sebelum terbang ke Turki untuk berholiday dengan office mates. Punyalah best company outing pergi Istanbul! Verdictnya? Hmm... maybe Japanese more for my tekak. OK lah. But I think dah agak customised for Malaysian taste kot. But for sure, Aliyah memang tak berapa minat. So, we'll stick to her sushi and udon for now :)  Dah kosong baru teringat nak snap gambar! Gambar orang yang makan tak diambil. Gambar food saja. Yang ada Jay, Ies, Aliyah and me.

My daughter can be very cheeky and funny at times. Despite those pouts of a teenager, she can be an absolute delight :) (at times!) She was out with friends at IOI City Mall on Wednesday and when I reached there to fetch her, she was nowhere to be seen, despite sending a message that she'd be waiting near Sephora. I called like a hundred times but she didn't pick up. Must be busy talking with her friends. I sent 2 messages within minutes telling her where I was. When I finally found her, I gave her a little bit of my piece of mind that she should have checked her phone, and be where she said she would be. 2 hours later when we were home, she finally replied to my message. And we were sitting just across one another! Yesterday, I rushed home from my meeting. When I got home, I stretched out on the sofa across Aliyah and sent her a message similar to what she sent me previously :)

I have started my new project middle of November. The project office is in Bangsar South. However, the client has offices all over the country so depending on the system currently being studied, the team will need to go to the respective system owners. Since I just started, I have been to only 2 offices - the project office and one of client's office in Jln Raja Laut. Alhamdulillah the places are accessible via train so that's my main method of traveling. Siap beli new walking shoes yang walaupun sedikit pricey will keep my feet comfy. My first deadline was yesterday. Document 1/4 siap sebab tunggu other team members bagi process flow and other data. Lepas meeting on Monday, terus balik dan rehat untuk ganti tenaga Ahad lepas yang tak dapat diganti. Lepas tu terus work on the document sampai jam 2 pagi. Lepas Subuh sambung balik. Alhamdulillah siap ngam-ngam sebelum pegi uruskan my mother. Lepas tu sambung balik lepas dapat updates and finally emailed the document at 10.50am....

Our little JJCMM2 led a donation drive initiative for our ATPN88 batch. Someone shared Raja Shamri's call for flood kit donation. As usual, kalau dalam group yang ramai hanya akan ada comments like; "Jom buat", "Jom, jom" and nothing gets done. So, our friend Ude suggested we take up the task and we all agreed. Geng JJCMM2 kan mostly either entrepreneur, work from home, or free-lance. Boleh lah commit masa. I created a banner since I was forced to volunteer myself as the treasurer. We did a 14-day campaign and alhamdulillah by Saturday last week, we managed to collect RM1,800. Our initiative - to create flood kit for ladies. We planned the "rewang" activity last Sunday. Sempat pergi KL dulu jumpa our friend Ikin aka Toncet for breakfast before heading to Subang to buy the stuff and later on to Jay's house. The day sounded simple but the actual effort was tiring and crazy. I said to myself - nak cari pahala sebenarnya bukan senang. Mesti ada caba...