Living with Sarah

On Thursday, Sharul and Ija took Hajar and me to Istana Budaya for lunch. I conducted a training at their office we "fondly" call "Sentulwood". A place with no decent place to eat. Must drive out. At first I thought - amboi bawak tempat mahal nih. The restaurant felt exclusive, the ambiance very nice and the surrounding with big shady old trees looked straight out of postcards. Ija old us there are always, always photography shootings, and true to her words, we met this ridiculous looking "bride" wearing short ruffled wedding dress with some kind of 30's head gear wearing white boots up to her knees. Anyway, selected out food and at the cashier I was so surprised. I took rice with ikan sembilang masak cili api, some kerabu pucuk paku and terung sambal, plus my air suam totaled up to RM4! The others took ikan bakar and other assortments of lauk and only fetched around RM5 - RM6.50 plus drinks. So, very, truly cheap! And the food, excellent. My masak le...

Tak de mood nak blog lately. Actually tak de mood for anything. Besides the usuals, have been busy with my other side business - cupcakes. We got 12 dozens order last week for a party. And once a week, we open our little kitchen at the office to bake cupcakes to send to my daughter's school canteen. I must say, the income is actually not much. To me, baking is more of tension-reliever - taking a few hours break from my laptop, then me and Linda got it going with the cakes. And eating them of course! There are 3 of us in this little business - me, Linda and my niece Iqah. It's an honest and hard-working kind of job where we spend hours labouring in front of the oven. But then, I was in bed one night before going to sleep and calculated the profits. Know what, say we sell off like 150 cupcakes a week to the school (minus any side orders like we got for the party), after tolak modal, etc we actually just got about RM50 each. And what can I do with RM50? Aku isi minyak half tank j...

I think I heard this song in Bali. It's used for a telco commercial. Ok la, I'm a sucker for this kind of Indonesian songs. Their songs can be so sincere. Now Aliyah and me tengah suka dengar this song. To me, it actually describes my feelings for my daughter. She is so perfect, even in all her imperfections. And I can't imagine life without her. Sempurna - Andra & the Backbone Kau begitu sempurna Dimataku kau begitu indah Kau membuat diriku akan slalu memujimu Disetiap langkahku Kukan slalu memikirkan dirimu Tak bisa kubayangkan hidupku tanpa cintamu Janganlah kau tinggalkan diriku Takkan mampu menghadapi semua Hanya bersamamu ku akan bisa Kau adalah darahku Kau adalah jantungku Kau adalah hidupku Lengkapi diriku Oh sayangku, kau begitu Sempurna... Sempurna... Kau genggam tanganku Saat diriku lemah dan terjatuh Kau bisikkan kata dan hapus semua sesalku Janganlah kau tinggalkan diriku Takkan mampu menghadapi semua Hanya bersamamu ku akan bisa Kau adalah darahku Kau adal...

TV news is not interesting anymore. Go read blogs and forums. You get more reliable and close to accurate stories there including stuff that won't make it to the mainstream media such as statutory declarations and photos. Very interesting. Very thought provoking. At times, very disgusting. Here we are as rakyat jelata negara ini working our butts off cari rezeki halal that sums up in the end as simply meager income, then deboossshh... have to endure not only the direct impact of fuel hike, but also the aftermath yang makin hari makin snowball that in the end, your effort in earning that honest income rasa macam tak dihargai pun. Pasal apa? Pasal ditengah-tengah orang susah sekarang, ramai juga yang sangat senang. Dan yang senang-senang pulak, adalah orang yang dilantik untuk membela rakyat jelata yang melata kat negara ni. Dan bila dah senang, selalu pula lupa diri dan lupa Tuhan. Macam-macam benda pelik-pelik diaorang ni buat sampai bila muka orang patutnya sangat dihormati ni kel...

We had the "garage sale" yesterday at Section 15. Crowd turnout wasn't that good. Not enough promotion I think. Anyway, we managed to sell half of our cupcakes and surprisingly, the half sold actually dapat balik modal and got a bit of profit. Interesting... The other half of the cupcakes we actually give out as samples. Also managed to sell off 3 pairs of Aliyah's shoes - in very good condition and branded too - Kickers, Garfield and Adidas, and a few books. It was tiring but it was quite fun. Our stall. We sold cupcakes both with icing and without, the cotton baju kurung for kids, some old clothes of mine and Yatt's, my old magazines and books. Kasut Aliyah tinggal ni je! Our cupcakes - yang green tu coconut, yellow tu lemon and last ones chocolate.

I've become a little bit domestic lately. In a business-like manner that is. Dah letih lah buat training nih. Bukan apa, we know people want to attend, we know people need to attend, but people can't attend. There was a directive on the papers last week saying no more attending any meetings, trainings, etc at hotels. Only international events can be held at hotels. Sigh... Anyway, our baju kurung cotton for kids business is doing OK. By now, dah dapat jual dalam 8 pasang and terus dapat balik modal for the 1st phase. Interesting. I didn't really promote them. Now dah ada enough stock, we will begin to actively sell. Our first "selling activity" will be next Sunday. There will be a jumble sale at residences of Section 15 near our office. We'll be joining. I actually have never done this kind of thing before ie opening a stall and selling stuff. But then, at this age and at this stage in life, what the heck. I want to try stuff. So, we plan to sell our kids ba...

I had to go to Kuantan for a presentation last Monday. As the invitation was last minute, all other alternatives are out of the question except to drive there. The last trip there I went with my eldest sister. This time around, even though she volunteered to come along, I kesian lah pulak. And hubby, being hubby, applied for leave to drive me there. We borrowed my nephew's car - MyV - because our Latio windscreen crack la pulak. Kena mandi bunga la kereta tu! The presentation was good, even though at first I was warned that some ass will be kicked that day by the ICT Exco including mine. Some 40+ reps came from all departments and agencies. I came well-prepared - before I get any comments on our translation work, I give some facts first. One thing that I have learned these past few years of presenting to the powers that be is that - get to know the power that be's personality first. I had a little chat with a lady from the IT department about the Dato'. With butterflies and...