It's not about Monday blues.

I'm not my usual self today. It's not because of Monday blues but something happened today that triggered this feeling. It is a feeling of guilt where I felt that I have let my parents down especially my father.

Last week, I received a call from my mom informing me that my dad was in hospital for his cancer treatment. When she called, I was busy with my work and informed her that I would call my dad. Unfortunately I forgot and on Friday my mom called again and said my dad was asking for me. Since I was surrounded by my kids who were demanding my attention, I informed her that I will definitely call my dad.

So I gave myself until this morning to call him. On the way to work, I called the fixed line and nobody's pickup the call. I called my mom's mobile and she answered the call. As usual, I will speak to my mom first asking about her health and how's thing before I speak to my dad. My dad has a hearing problem so I had to call his mobile where the volume was set higher.

When I said salam and hello, I can hear that he is very happy. As normal I will asked him about his health as he also has diabetes He said that his treatment has gone very well and his sugar level has improved. As we were talking, he casually informed me that he has doctor's appointment on 15th June and my eldest sister cannot send him as she has other engagement. He asked me whether I can send him on the 15th. I was stunt. Normally, if my eldest cannot send him, he will request one of my brother to send him but not this time. I informed him that I will check my calendar and Insyaallah I can make it. We talked until I reached my office.

As I walked to my office, it striked me that my dad miss me. I was closed to him before I got married and in fact he cried at my wedding. After the reading of Taaliq, I saw him sitting at a corner wiping his eyes. I have not seen him crying at my other sisters wedding.

My mom also said that my father has been asking about me lately and he been sharing his memories about me to my mom. Well my dad will be 80 years old this August and I'm not sure how long he will be with us. His requests, his sharing of his memories about me and his asking about me has really hit me hard. It made me realise that I have become an ungrateful daughter who only think about myself. I promise that I would not become like Si Tanggang.

Dear Abah, I promise to call you as frequent as I can and if you need me to be in Seremban, I will make time. Without you and mom, I would not be a successful person today. Thank you Abah and Mak.

I want my Prince and I want my Ogre too!

Friday night was our movie night. We do not have a regular movie night or day but when the mood strikes, we will hit the cinema. Since Friday was a holiday, we decided to take the kids to see movie but it was between Iron Man, Prince of Persia and Shrek.

Dear Sayang went to book the ticket but Iron Man show times doesn't suit us as the show starts at 7pm and it clashed with the Maghrib prayer. So DS called and asked that the other two options were POP and Shrek. So I asked the 3 boys whether they wanted POP or Shrek. All of them wanted to watch POP including me. The only person who wanted to watch Shrek was DS but majority rules so he bought POP's ticket for the 9.30pm show.

I was worried because the show starts at 9.30pm and it means bedtime for my little girl. So to make sure that they can watch the movies, I told them to take a nap. So I asked my two boys to go to their room and took my little girl with me. Thirty minutes later I was in the lala land but my little girl sneaked out from the room and joint her brothers playing. So the Ibu got a nice afternoon nap while her kids were playing in the other room.

Since I didn't tell them what movie we will be watching, the kids have been making an assumption that they will be watching Shrek. We had our dinner at Mines and head to the cinema at 9pm. The kids were all excited especially my little girl because to her, it means popcorn. So we bought 5 pack of popcorns and waters and went inside at 9.20pm. As normal, the sitting arrangement will be me at aisle, followed by my little girl, my DS, my 6years old, and 10years old and then my eldest son. As anticipated, my little girl made a trip to toilet twice and since it was already late night both she and Zaki were getting restless. They started playing at the aisle, walking along the aisle and lie down at the aisle and disturbed me. Luckily, I was able to focus and didn't miss much.

Well, overall the movie was good and I like it especially Jake Gyllenhaal. I like Jake Gyllenhaal! The movie pace was fast and interesting and it has element of romance which I like. The kids also agreed that the movies was good and they enjoyed it very much. They are also looking forward for their next movie outing. Since the school holiday is coming soon, I guess I will take them to watch my favorite Ogre.

Me Vs Him

I wonder how many of you have the same character as your spouse. For me, I'm the totally opposite of my husband. Let me list down some of the differences between me and my husband.

- My husband is a planner. He plans all his activities. Me, I am a totally opposite. I do what I want to do and change as it goes.

- He reads the manual before installing any equipment. I take one look at the equipment and starts figuring it out. Encounter problem, read troubleshooting guide.

- He keeps his thing in order. Me, the messier the better. You can check my office table.

- He reads magazines. I love romance books.

- He loves action movies. I love mushy mushy movies.

- He will takes hours to decide what to buy. Me, oh I like that and just grab it . Am I a compulsive buyer?

- He is a morning person. I'm a night person. I can stay up until 2 in the morning but don't expect me to be up at 6.30 the next morning

- He will prepare checklist what to bring when traveling. Me, okay last minute will throw what I think I need to bring. That's why he will prepare the list for me. Love him for that.

- He watch documentary channel. I watch sports channel.

- He drives within the speed limit. I fly on the road.

- He said no eating or drinking in the car. Me, you hungry kids? Okay let stop at McDonald and we can eat in the car but make sure you don't spill the drink.

- He dress smartly. I dress ruggedly.

Oh.. the list can go on and on and on but I think this is enough. I guess live will be dull if both of us have the same character. What about you?

What's mine is mine and what's yours is mine too

I came from a state that practice Adat Perpatih. Most people outside Negeri Sembilan are worried about this custom as we are the only state that practice matrelineal system where women are considered highly in the society.

Some people from outside the state are worried that when their son marrys a Negeri Sembilan girl, they will lose their wealth to us. But they don't understand that when their son marrys one of us, their son is being taken care off.

Let take my parent as an example. When my great-grandmother passed away, she left all her properties to her 3 grand daugthers. My great grandmother informed her grandchildren which properties belong to them and my great grand mother left the family home to my mom. My mom also inherit the family paddy field.

Meanwhile my father, who is from the neighboring kampung, did not get any property from his mother coz the law said that all properties will be inherit by the female members only. So what do you think he do? Tackle some rich lady to be his wife? Nope he didn't do that. What he did was he applied for a job with British Army and he got it. So he has a steady montly income eventhough he doesn't have a property.

So when my father married my mom, he didn't has anything with him except his job and his clothes. But he was accepted and loved by my great grandmother. He was made as head of the family and he is expected to take care of my mom and her properties and treat my mom properties as his.Yeah he did that but he has his job too. So most of the time, he left it to my mom to take care of the house and the paddy field but if my mom needs any money to fix the house, he will willingly give his money to my mom. In fact he renovated the house to make it bigger.

My dad is also smart. He doesn't rely on my mom properties alone. The current house that we grew up was bought by him using his own money. So what happened to our family home in Tanjong Ipoh? Well it is still there. It has been empty for quite sometimes and now my mom let her younger sister, who is a divorcee, to stay there. Did my father has any say on this eventhough he helped to repair and maintain the house. No he has no say at all just because it is not his house.

So can I say that "Whatever mine is mine, Whatever yours is mine and whatever mine is not yours" and indirectly I can translate that whatever money I earn is mine, whatever money he earns is mine too and whatever money I earn, he cannot touch. Oooohhh I love this.

Wow! What a day!

Yesterday, I was kind of feeling a little bit low. I had a very bad cough and cold and basically has no mood to work. However my day was made better by my twitter friends. I was with three different tweeting groups - 1) discussing about books and authors, 2) about life and weather in general -3) no specific subjects.

Whatever being discussed at that time, I found it very interesting. No only I participate actively in the discussion, I also followed some wacky conversation by others and there were also a lot of comment on LOST. Well, frankly speaking, I never watch LOST.

In the afternoon, I received a comment from someone saying that I looked cute and happy. Wow! It really make me happy. Anyway I am always happy but not sure about cute. I believe if you are happy, anything surrounding you will be happy too. Yes, law of attraction.

Then I received text message on my phone. Someone of age 25 wanted to go out with me. Hmmm..that's not good and I wonder how he got my number because only my friends and family have my number. Nobody else have my number. Being sensible person, I declined.

When I reached home, my kids were so concerned when they saw me coming home early than usual. My cute little girl asked, "Ibu demam ya?" and put her hand on my forehead. "Betul la Ibu demam," she said and asked me to rest.

Wow that really made my day!

Sports - Bring back the old way!

Today I attended Zara and Zaki sport's day. It was just a small gathering for these kids to show their talent in sport but those who got excited were not those kids but their parents. It seems the parents are more kiasu than their kids. That's they way it is now in our society.

When I was young, sport day is a big thing to us. Everybody will be involved whether they took part in the event or just as a supporter. Days before the sport day, there will be selection by the teacher. Everybody will be asked to attend the tryout and once you are chosen, you were expected to turn up for training. I guess I spent most of my time on the field rather in the class but when you were young, you only know how to enjoy.

So for those who are not involved in the event, you are expected to contribute your time to decorate the houses because the most beautifully decorated house will win a prize. Well the houses were know as BLUE HOUSE, YELLOW HOUSE, GREEN HOUSE and RED HOUSE. There no such thing as WIRA, SAGA, HANG TUAH, etc. Simple and easy to remember.

So based on your house theme, you will decorate accordingly but most of the time, people will go to the jungle to pick ferns and wild flowers to decorate their houses. Hoops, manila cards and crepe paper will be used to decorate too. Hmm...what a memory!

There will also be marched past where participants will march infront of the people and dignitaries. There were also prize to be won for march past. The judges will judge how well you march as a team and not base on the fancy dress that your team worn during the march past. I guess that's why we were much better in sport thirty years ago compare to today. We focus on team work and togetherness, we learn to sacrifice our time just to make sure we success. I didn't see the same spirit this day.

If Malaysia wants to success again in sport whether it is track and field, hockey or football, we need to bring the joy back to the school. Change the school system a bit. Have a balance between academic and sport as the current school system focus more on academic until there is less time for the kids to enjoy sport. We also need to have proper field and court. Let's the kids know that 200m is half of the track and not one circle. Teachers also need to have proper training for the sport. In fact the whole sport thing need to be studied to ensure we are back on track.

I really hope we can bring back the glory of the old days where our badminton team rules the world, our football the best in the region, the hockey team are among the best in the world and our track team are among the best in the region. Let's bring back the glory oh Malaysian!

Cry No More

That's the title of the book by Linda Howard. This book has left a deep impression on me cause I can connect with the character. It is about a mother losing her new born baby through abduction and sold by syndicate to childless couple. As a mother, I can relate to her pain on losing your child.

I didn't buy this book. I borrowed it from my friend. We always shared and swapped our books and if I want to read anything from Linda Howard, JR Ward, Judith McNaught, she will be the person I will go to but now, she has moved to Australia, I will miss this and her too.

Okay back to the book. I read this book 6 years ago but I can still remember most of it. How she continued to look for her lost son, how supportive of her ex-husband, her reaction when she found her lost son but didn't approach the boy. And the most touching scene when years later, the long lost son came to visit her. When I think about this scene, it bring tears to my eye. In fact, when I was reading this book, I was crying most of the time. My Sayang asked me why I'm crying and I just showed him the book. He just shook his head.

Besides Cry No More, I have few other books that I can still remember very clearly. Like Susan Elizabeth Phillips Nobody Baby but Mine and This Heart of Mine. When I read Nobody Baby but Mine, I was travelling back from Seattle and I finished the book before I reached KL. Again, I cried when I read this book.

Other books are like LaVern Spencer's Hummingbird and Vows, Nora Roberts' Valley of Silence, Carnal Innocence and Sea Swept, and Susan Wiggs' Snowfall at Lakeshore. Most of these books are contemporary except for LaVern Spencer.

I can re-read these books many times and every time I read them, it will leave me with the same feeling. I hope I will found few more books in my TBR list that cause the same reaction from me. I will let you know, if any.

Old songs, me and memories

Has it happened to you that when you heard a song, it brings back old memories. Well I have few songs that do that to me like Blue Bayou or Desperado by Linda Ronstadt. Every time, I heard these songs, whether I'm driving or doing my work, it automatically bring back good old memories when I was in still in school and staying in my kampung.

I can still remember lying on the floor next to the record player (yeah! this is the era when there is no walkman, CD or iPod) with my school book next to me listening to the songs. I also remember clearly the laundry hanging outside my house, the rambutan tree in front of the house, the mangosteen tree next to it and the pictures hanging on the wall. Whenever I remember this, I feel very calm and relax. Not sure why I have this feeling.

Another song that will bring me back good and happy memory is "Knock Three Times". This song reminds me of the time when me and my cousins performed to our great-grandmother pretending that we are rock stars and we were only 5 years old at that time. I also can't remember how do I know this song. Must be from my older brothers.

"Stairways To Heaven" is another song that bring back good memories. This time, we were in the living room after dinner at our home in Port Dickson. My brother, Zahir, myself and my sister,Amy, will pretend to be the Led Zeppelin band members. We will choose who we want to be, and normally I will be the drummer, and my sister Jimmy Page, the guitraist and my brother Robert Plant. It reminds me how close we were once before we have our own families and I have to thank my brother because of him, I become a hardcore rock and blues music fan.

"Sara" by Starship is another song that bring me back to US.. Everytime, I heard Sara on radio, it reminds me of my time in Eau Claire, Wisconsin where I'm sitting in the living room with my physic book open and watching MTV. Sometimes, when I heard this song, I will tell my children of my 2 and half years experience in US as a student. Not to brag but just to inspire them to excel in their study so that they can study abroad like their ibu.

Do I have any song that bring back bad memories? Yes, I do. Hujan by the late Sudirman is the only song that bring back bad memory. It reminds me of my fight with my boyfriend. When the DJ was playing the song, I was sitting alone in my room thinking about the fight and outside was raining. We broke off not long after that. Sometimes when I heard this song, I wonder what happened to him.

Do you have any songs that bring back the good or bad memories?

Oh! I can't wait..

Villa Seroja - before renovation

I'm so looking forward to move to my new house in Bangi. The initial plan was to move in March during the school break but the house is not ready. From March to April and now May, I have no confidence the house will be ready by June either. So I can only hope it will be ready before Ramadhan and we can celebrate our Eid Mubarak at the new house. Hmm... my office mates have different agenda when they asked me when will I move to my new house. Well, I know what they are waiting for. Yeah! they are waiting for an invitation to my open house/house warming party.

Below - Current house in Saujana Impian

Even though I'm looking forward to move to my new house, it also mean that I'll be leaving Saujana Impian, my current house and neighbors. I have been staying here for 12 years. When we first moved, there was no shops, no clinics or supermarket in our neighborhood. But today, it will just take me 5 minutes walk to reach 7-Eleven or other sundry shops, clinics and restaurants. The primary and secondary schools are also within walking distance. Tesco and Giants are only 1 km away from my house. So why am I moving to a new place?

Below- view from my current house

Well, I need a bigger place. My kids are growing up and they are very active. They need bigger space to play and to release their energy. Currently they spend most of their time in the living room where they play all sort of games from badminton, football, wrestling and other silly games that kids play. Sometimes they get very creative and they will start using whatever in the living room as their toys. Because of this, my living room is empty. I only have my sofa and tv there. No other things can be found in my living room. My current kitchen is also small and I didn't enjoy cooking in my kitchen.

So after years of living in this environment,it can be very depressing. I need new enviroment, new challenge. So I hope that I will find joy in making my new house as homely as possible and my kids will have more space to play and get creative. Oh! I can't wait.

Around Malaysia - Kota Kinabalu, Sabah

The last time I went to Kota Kinabalu, it was 8 years ago for business trip. Last December, I took my family to Kota Kinabalu for vacation and it was 4 days 3 nights trips. We stayed at Le Meridian Hotel,which is located in the middle of the town, and was given a room with sea view. The view was fantastic especially in the morning when the sunrise.

We took the 2.30pm flight from KL and reached KK at 5pm. By the time we checked in the hotel it was almost 6pm. The hotel staff was very helpful and I'm very grateful that they were able to accomodate our request to upgrade to bigger room that can fit all of us.

Since the hotel is in the town center, food is not a problem , if you are not choosy. But in our case,my Sayang is little bit particular about food and we end up eating MacDonald that night.

Next day (Day1), we went to Tuaran to visit my husband's relative but before that the kids wanted to go for swimming. So I let them enjoyed their time in the pool while I enjoyed my quite time in the room alone, reading while my Sayang went out to buy something. Since Tauran is 45mins away from KK, we hired a taxi to take us to Tauran and my dear Sayang only booked it for one way trip.

We reached Tauran around oneish and as our Malay customary, my husband's auntie has prepared something for lunch. We stayed there until 4pm and and by the time we left,it was about to rain. Since the taxi has left, we have no choice but to take a public transport. Oh boy, the last time I took a bus was 15 years ago. So we waited at the roadside and instead of bus, there was a minivan. For 8 seater van, they converted it to fit in around 14 people. Well we have no choice so we climbed in and as expected,the inside was bad. The seat was hard, the floor was dirty and the van itself was old. I prayed that we reached our destination safely.

Next we need to get another transport back to KK. There was no taxis around at the station so we have to take another minivan but this one is slightly better than the previous one and the time taken to reach KK was also longer. It was raining heavily throughout the journey and when we reached KK Town, we need to take another bus back to hotel. This time, it was a big and new bus but crowded. You can just imagine how it was when all the windows were closed, with full load of people.

The following day, we decided to go to Mount Kinabalu (the highest mountain in South East Asia) for a day trip. Well, it took us 2 hours plus to reach the base of Mount Kinabalu. The weather was cold and the scenery was beautiful. Throughout the journey, I can see a lot of churches compare to KL.

We didn't stay that long at the base of Mount Kinabalu. Some people went for jungle trekking and if you are fit, you can also climb up to the peak. From Mount Kinabalu, we went to Hotspring which only a few miles away from the base of Mount Kinabalu. As we went downhill, the temperature also get hotter. There were lot of people swimming there but we only stayed for less than an hour coz it was too crowded for my liking.

The following day, we just spent our time in KK town itself and let the kids spent their time in the pool. We also went to the Fillipinos Market where they sell sea foods like dried anchovies, dried salted fish, fish crackers and others such as pearls, T-shirts and some souvenirs.

It was fun and very relaxing vacation and the kids also know when to leave their parents alone.

Help! I'm clueless...

"Zai, I need you to back me up in the next two weeks," said CL.

"Me? Backing you up? You trust me managing your budget?," I said

He laughed but he has no choice. So he piled up my in-box with all his tracking files.

"Do you have access to this module?" asked CL.

"Hmmm guess so but I forgot my password. SJ what's my password ah?" as I turned and look at SJ.

"It's arzaiXXX," said SJ

So I had 30 minutes briefing and handover to do SAP and budget for the next two weeks. I said to myself, this going to be disaster. It is as good as me going in doing operation on someone. I have no idea about finance at all.

I hate finance. I suffered for 3 months last year when they asked me to manage the division budget while waiting for CL to join. The day he stepped in and said hello, I dumped the whole thing on him and never bother to look at it again until today. I was hoping Madam CIO will not asked any financial related information from me in the next two weeks, otherwise, I will die standing.

And today I also received an email from my "Surrogate Boss" on what sort of training I need.

"Wow!", I whispered to CL. "Look after one year now only they asked us?"

So I replied him back and said (1) I need training on Service Level Management - Advanced training on how to improved and managed SLA. (2) Please send me to conference on SLM. (3) Send me to site visits to other Telcos (outside Malaysia). (4) Send me to contract management training and seminar.

He further sent me email, please elaborate how this can be achieved. I replied, (1) send me to oversea training or conference where I can meet other people from this industries and (2) sign me up for Diploma in Law classes. I'm just trying my luck here. Who knows that they will send me to oversea to attend all these conferences.

You see, I'm alway an IT person. Give me anything technical, I will ace it. Give me contract, I will stare it and give me finance, hmm...I will screw it bad, beyond help.

Around the World-Gold Coast Australia

It's supposed to be a fun and relaxing trip but it didn't happened that way. Here are the 10 reasons why I didn't enjoyed my vacation in Australia.


1. When you travel with 3 boys under the age of 12, and the youngest was 13 months old, it meant that I will be busy taking care of them instead of enjoying my vacation.


2. Three days before we fly off, I found out that I was eight weeks pregnant. I was lucky that I do not have morning sickness but I was tired the whole time in Gold Coast.




3. We accidentally left Zaki shoes in the car and he travelled all the way to Gold Coast wearing socks only.

• 4. We have very early morning flight and need to be at the airport by 6am, and getting these boys to be up at 4am was very challenging.

5. Zaki threw his pacifier during the flight to Gold Coast and he was cranky throughout the flight. With no extra pacifier to soothe him, you can just imagine how I felt.

6. We were the last group to disembark from the plane as we were busy searching for Zaki's pacifier.

7. We reached Brisbane at 8pm and the weather was cold as it was winter in Australia. Tired, hungry and with small kids, we were taken to a Chinese restaurant for dinner. Since I'm very particular about food, I only ate very little.


8. Our camera battery ran-out when we at Universal Studio and I have to use my P901i phone camera to snap the photo.

9. Can't enjoy all the rides because of my condition.


10. Didn't get to shop as much as I like.


When we reached home, I told my husband that until our kids are big enough and independent, there will be no travelling overseas. If we want to travel overseas, it will be only the two of us or me alone. You know what was his responsed? Urgh and I assume that he agreed with my suggestion. So I'm planning my next vacation without him and kids. Do you think I will make it? Let's see.

Nasib baik boleh control!!!

Today I want to rant in Malay coz I haven't write in Malay for so long. Pagi tadi mood aku baik. Dengar lagu best kat 105.7 yang mana lagu lagu favorite aku main pagi tadi. Seperti biasa pagi-pagi lagi aku akan access Facebook and Twitter sambil membaca email. Multitasking. Sambil access FB, tweet ,download lagu dengar lagu mood aku okay dan semuanya berjalan lancar. Kerja tak juga aku buat lagi sebab seperti biasa otak aku kurang function waktu pagi.

Lunch aku keluar ngan Yati pergi makan kat Zen. Kali ini kami makan Fish and Chip and ntah macam mana aku minum teh kali ini. Selalunya aku minum kopi. Lepas makan, seperti biasalah mengantuk dan tempat duduk aku ni menjadi port orang berborak tapi aku tak da mood nak masuk campur. Aku pun surf internet nak cari information pasal buku Power Play by Nancy Warren tapi network guys kat sini block the website. Bengong ke dia orang ni aku tak taulah coz website macam tu boleh di block. So mood aku masa tu biasa ajelah sampailah aku masuk meeting dengan Ini Barang Mahal.

Issue yang dah di escalate ke atas dan aku dah dapatkan apa yang dia nak tapi dia orang tak buat apa. Sapa tak geram.

"Oh! I'm still waiting for them to give me the names", katanya.

Aku sergah dia. "I have given this to you three weeks ago and you have not done anything on it? Why are you sitting on it? Haven't your escalate to your boss if no cooperation given by others"?

Dia jawab, "Yes I did escalated and asked help from my boss but I still did not get all the 20 names"

Dengan geram aku tanya lagi, "What about those 7 seats at level 14. You guys asked for it and we have given to you 3 months ago and until today you claimed you have not enough seat to assign to your team? This is your issue and you need to manage it. I will escalate this to my management" Pucat muka dia.

Kesian aku tengok budak tu. She almost cry tapi aku geram sebab tak ada progress. Dah lama aku tak mengamuk dalam meeting. Nasib baik boss dia tak masuk meeting sekali. Kalau tak memang aku lanyak sekali. Jangan main-main ngan Zai! Nasib baik aku marah sekejap. Setengah jam kemudian marah aku reda. Budak yang nak update aku pasal status on proposal tu pun nampak takut aje. Yalah dah lama tak update aku. Nasib baik aku dah cool kalau tak dia pun kena sembur. Hah!

Okaylah! Enough about my outburst in the meeting today. It made me feel sorry for the girl. Oh I also have good news. Tomorrow HR is arranging for HINI vaccination and it is free. Isn't it a good news eventhough I gonna get prick by a needle tomorrow? But on the brighter side the pain will be short term but I will get protected from the HINI Virus. Yeah!

Facebook and Twitter Equals to Cyber Friends

Facebook, Myspace and Twitter have created big impact to so many people at so many levels. Some people use it for business, some use it to promote their products, some use it for social networking and some use it to stalk others. I never been a fan of Myspace but I have no problem accepting Facebook and Twitter. Not sure why I'm not interested in Myspace even though my sister has been telling me the good thing about it (that is before she converted to Facebook). For me, Facebook and Twitter are the tools that I use to reconnect with my old friends and also to follow others that I admire.

I used Facebook mainly to get connected with my friends and to follow some of my favorite authors such as Susan Elizabeth Phillips, Eloisa James, and few others. Facebook also allows me to create a photo album that I can share with my family and friends. Not only I have local friends in Facebooks, I also have international friends from India,Turky, UK, Australia and US. Where do I get these international friends? Some are my friends that I know personally but some are Farmville and CafeWorld friends. I don't know them but they request to be added just because they wanted to be my FV or CW neighbours. I told my office mate that my facebook homepage is updated 24x7 where daytimes mostly will be updated by my local friends, evening will be by those from Europe and nightime will be from US.

Since my homepage will be full of updates from Farmville and Cafeworld, I normally use my iPhone to filter updates. This is very handy tools and sometimes when I woke in the middle of the night and cannot go back to sleep, I just reached my iphone and launch the FB apps and starts reading the updates. Mostly the night updates will be from those authors that I follow.

If Facebook is where I get connected with my friends, I use twitter mainly to follow writers. I like to follow them cause they are witty, informative and they are willing to share information on their profession and their life as an authors. It is also fun to follow their tweets and I found out that sometimes it really help me to get through the dull and mundane job that I have here. Since most of these people live in US, most of their tweeting will be happening at night. However I can still follow their tweets in the morning before they say goodnite.

Since most of my local friends have not embrace the world of twitter yet, therefore I'm pretty safe if I want to rant about them especially about my bosses. I can't do that on Facebook because they are listed as my friends and if I rant against them, they will know. The one person that I can confirm which is not listed as my friend on Facebook or following me on Twitter is my dear hubby. So he never knows what I update on Facebook or Twitter.

First family gathering of the year

We had a family gathering last Saturday night and it was held at my parents’ house in Seremban. It was a gathering of 4 generations with the youngest in the family is my grand-niece, a 4-months old Elisandra or known as Sandra. Everybody was there except my youngest sister and her husband who were away in Penang, my nephew and my niece who has prior engagement, both my sisters-in-law where one was in New Zealand on vacation and the other one has family commitment.

My sister, my niece and my grandniece

Our last family gathering was in August last year for our fathes 79-years old birthday. It was held at my sister place in Pantai Hill Park during the fasting month. After the breaking of fast and Maghrib prayer, we had a special prayer for our father. The prayer was lead by my father-in-law and the followed by cake cutting. We presented him with a digital frame and loaded all our pictures in there. He was very happy because everybody was around to celebrate his birthday.

For last Saturday gathering, it started with Maghrib prayer, which was lead by my brother-in-law and followed by special prayer for our family. It was a proud night for me too when my eldest son was asked to Qamat, which he never done before, and he aced it.

We had Nasi Briyani with Chicken Kurma, Rendang Daging and Acar mentah, but for me, I just like the plain rice, Cendawan masak lemak cili api (Mushroom cooked with cocunut milk and chilli), ikan masin(salted fish)and acar mentah. It was heaven but I didn't eat a lot as I have to control my diet. For the dessert, we have tapai ubi (fermented tapioca) and watermelon as dessert.

Since this is the first family gathering for the year, I anticipate that there will be more gathering and the next one will be at my new house in Villa Seroja, Bangi.

Lunch - Where are we going?

It always a problem when it comes to lunch for me and my lunch partners, Bee Poh and Yati. When the three of us are together, sushi is out as I don't like sushi and Subway and Swiss Oven are out as Bee Poh doesn't like sandwiches. So what are the options or our regular hangout at Sooka Sentral?

Our favourite hangout is at Chilli Expresso. This place is a favourite hangout for the local and expatriates. The place is always pack and if we want to eat there we have to leave a little bit early before 12.30pm. Chilli Expresso serves Western and Asian foods and they have Durian Cake for dessert which is very good. Normally I will have Nasi Ulam with fried chicken or Mee Mamak or Mee Hoon if I'm really hungry. If not, I will have Pizza or Chicken or Beef Pie or Mango Jacima Salad. My favourite drink is Ice Cappuccino.

Second favourite hangout is at Zen. Normally when we are at Zen, we will have soup, salads or fish and chips. Their food is average but they have varieties of cakes for desserts. Coffee at Zen is not as good as at Chilli Expresso but their limau kasturi drink is good.

If these two restaurants are full, the next options is Kelantan Delight where it servers an authentic Kelantanese food. We normally eat Nasi Kerabu, Nasi Dagang or Nasi kukus when we are there. Their teh tarik and kop tarik are serves slightly different than other places and we normally will end of lunch with either a glass of teh tarik or kopi tarik.

If we wanted to have Indian food for lunch, there is Kabul restaurant next to Kelantan's Delight. Normally we will have Chicken Tandoori with Garlic Nan and a glass of Teh Masala. Killiney's Kopitiam is another place that we will go if we wanted Malaysian food. It serves Chicken Curry, Mee Siam, Mee Ladna and Curry Mee. Normally I will order Chicken Curry with Teh Cham. Since it serves Malaysian food, you will find that the place is always pack and if we want to go to Killiney, we have to leave office at 12pm sharp or after 1.30pm. I guess it is popular not only they serves Malaysian food but also because the food is much cheaper compare to the other restaurants.

However, if Yati or Bee Poh are not around, I will normally packed my lunch from the food court and my favourite food from the food court is Nasi Kukus. The rice is pack with three different kind of curry, chicken curry, fish curry and pecheri nenas pineapple curry) and I have the option of having fried chicken or dried cuttlefish sambal together with the rice. This will only cost me RM6.00 and it is the cheapest among the other places.

So how much do you think it cost us to have lunch at this places? On average, it is around RM 20.00 and in a week it will cost me RM100.00 and you know how much for a month. Hmmm I should start pack lunch from home. At least I can control my diet. What do you think?

Time to change....

Happy Labour Day! Since it falls on Saturday, it doesn't make any different to me. I didn't get any extra day off if compare to my friends in the blue team. Well, they are still half green and half blue and I guess it will takes years to totally remove their green DNA.

Well, it's already one year one month since we completed the outsourcing. It was one hell of a project. I was asked to be PM for the project when the previous PM left. WoW! Instead of having one month of handover, I only have two days of handover for such a big project. Initially, I was under a lot of stress as there were so many things I need to know and responded to. I work late hours just to catch up on the projects, sacrifies my time with family and friends, forego my Raya holidays, but at the end, I made it. I can proudly say that I beat the odd. Nobody believes that I can pull it through. This was acknowledged by my counterpart from the blue team.

By completion of the outsourcing project, it means ISD lost most of the people. I feel sorry for my friends, especially my best friend,TBP, and my ex-staff because it means the end of their career with the green team and the beginning of their career with the blue team. From 170 people in the division, 37 were selected to stay behind. The rest were given an option to join the blue team or transferred to other division.

It also meant a new role for me. From Operation to Contract Management. From action lady to supporting lady and this is killing me. I don't really enjoy doing my new role. I just told my "Surrogate Boss" that the new role is "very very exciting" and I will give one more year before I made my move. He was shocked. I told him to get my boss in otherwise I will say goodbye. Just to give him pressure so that the management will expedite the search for "The ONE". While they search for the candidate, I'll better start updating my resume. Anybody looking for IT Consultant with Vendor and Outsourcing Management experience? I'm available with the right incentive.