My troubled Monday...

I had a bad day today. Nothing to do with Monday at all. The day started very well, but as it progressed throughout the day, it slowly becomes worse. It was okay in the morning except that I had a sore throat, and my sinus is getting worse. But as usual, I just ignore it until I really cannot stands it anymore. 

While on the way to work, I received a call from the receptionist. There was a guy waiting for me at the lobby reporting for work. Damn! I totally forgot about the temp clerk that is joining us today. I asked him to wait at the lobby until I reached office. Luckily, the traffic was very good, and I only need less than thirty minutes to reach KL Sentral.

When I opened up my mail, there was a reminder that I need to submit the finance report by 1st June. I thought I knew what to do, but when I can't find the information needed, I started to panic. I gave up searching for information, and have to resort to the hard way of getting the information. Bugged the project manager for the status, and gave them until tomorrow afternoon to revert. Nice job right?.

As the day progress, I started to develop headache. After lunch, I made a quick detour to see a doctor, and told her that I have a sore throat, sinus and headache. Well, she checked my throat but didn’t see anything unusual. I was surprised because I have problem to swallow. She gave me medicine for my cold and Strepsil for throat. Duh! I can get Strepsil on my own.

After calling it a day, I went to Mid Valley. As I left KL Sentral, I saw my petrol already on the last bar, and the low fuel indicator light was lighted. “Hmmm," I said knowing that I will be in trouble if there's a traffic jam.

I parked my car at Garden and walked my way to Mid Valley. Upon entering the Mid Valley, I saw there is a huge promotion on Pirate of the Carribean. There was a pirate ship in the middle of Mid Valley. I also managed to catch their performance for a while before I hit the games store. Everything was well at Mid Valley until I wanted to pay my parking ticket. 

My ticket cannot be read. It showed faulty. I tried at few other machines, but it was till the same. I have to find the payment counter, but when I went one floor up, the counter was closed. The cleaner showed me the ticket counter. Huh! I have to walk about 200 meters across the parking lot to reach the counter. When I told the cashier, she said, “No problem. It can read here.” I was skeptical. 

When I reached the exit, there were long queues of cars. There was no traffic jam on the road, but there was one on the parking lot. When I saw that I was worried because my petrol really was low.

When I reached the ticket machine, I slot in my ticket. True to my prediction, it showed the card was faulty. I tried few times, but it was still the same. The cars behind me started to move to the next lane when they saw my hazard light on. I called for help, and the lady said they would send someone.

I switched off my engine and waited for the guard. Suddenly, the car in the next lane were also having a problem with his ticket. Now both lane had a problem. Other drivers were getting impatient and started to honk. Heh! What can I do? 

When the security guy came, I don’t know what magic he did, but both machines were okay. I was happy that finally I can go, but was still worried about my petrol. I was praying hard so that my car would not stop in the middle of the road.

Alhamdulillah, I reached the Esso station and quickly pumped in the petrol. I was very happy because the traffic was very smooth. But I didn’t realize that I have been driving without my headlights on. Do you know when did I realized it? I only realized it when I entered the lane to my house. Damn! Luckily nothing happened.

When I switched off the car engine off, I thought my trouble was over. It was not. One of the memory card that I bought was faulty and cannot be read or formatted at all. Aduh! I have to go to Mid Valley again tomorrow to change the card.

No matter what happened today, I know tomorrow will be a better day. Hehe.. think positive here, and  I know that I’m going to nail the first report tomorrow afternoon.

Sekian…Salam

It's a school holiday!

Yeay! The school holidays has started. I'm happy and so do my kids. Zara, who has problem going to school, kept asking me how many days will be the holiday. When I told her that it would be two weeks, she was very happy. Happy because no more me pestering her every morning to go to school.

I didn't plan anything for them except to be at home. I think this school holiday will be the most boring school holiday for them. Ahh...give them PSP and books, they will enjoy their holiday. Anyway Zaki requires at least 7 days to recover from his circumcision, and Syafiq needs to study for his exam SPM exam in October. The SPM is a Do or Die exam. Failed, you will go nowhere. So, no play-play for him!

I'm worried that since they are highly super active kids, they might drive their grandfather crazy during the school holiday. I really hope not. The school holiday also means, it will be less hectic for me. No rush to prepare breakfast, and getting them ready for school.

To celebrate my moment of relaxnes  (is there such a word here), here, is a song from Cliff Richards. ‘Summer Holiday’ that I dedicated to all school children and their parents. Enjoy!

Arabian Rice and Drinks

There’s a new restaurant in Bangi called MFC. FC stands for Fried Chicken and not Football club. I would let you know what M stands for later. Does it means Malay? Manchester? Melaka? Ah! Keep on guessing.!

The place was just open recently, and I was surprised to see the place was packed with people. Parking was difficult to get too.

“The food must be good,” I said to my husband. 
“Yeah, if you listened to Zaki, we would be eating here,” he said.

The rest of us had our dinner at JM Brayani. We had Chicken (fried with spices) Brayani and Beef Brayani, and my hubby tried the Mushroom fritters while I order Tauhu Bakar with peanut sauce. Yummy!

Since parking was full, my hubby dropped me first with Zaki. When I entered the place, there were long queues at all counters. I looked around, and most of the table were fully occupied.

As I was waiting for my turns, I looked at the menu. They had pizza, fried chicken, chicken burger and they also have Arabian rice. I had never tried the Arabian rice before, so it went into my ‘Must Try List’.

I also looked at the drinks they offered, it standards soft drink, Pepsi, Mountain Dew, and other brands, but what interest me was the drinks call Barbican. It is a non alcoholic drinks, and its has few flavors like pineapple, apple, peach, malt and orange. “Hmmm…I must try that,” I said to Zaki, and when Syafiq came in, I asked him to queue and ordered the food.

“Get me the Barbican too. Pineapple,” I told him.
“Ibu, that is not halal,” he said.
“No. It is. It just a fruit juice,” I told him.

He was quite reluctant to buy it, but then I convince him that the drinks is not alcoholic drink. When he brought the food, Amir and Zaki looked at the bottle.

“That is an alcoholic drink,” said Amir looking at the bottle.
“No. It’s not,” I said.
“But look at the bottle,” he pointed.
“Don’t worry boys. It said non-alcoholic drink,” I pointed to them.

They looked relieved. Ah! My dear boys! Hope you will continue to observe what you eat and drink. I am so glad at the very young age they know the difference between halal and non halal.

When I pour the drink, all of them wanted to try. I let them taste it, and they like it. Before we go, Zaki and Amir commented that the chicken burger is better than McDonald.

“Really?” I asked.
“Yes,” said both of them as we walked out from the restaurant.

Oh ya! Before I forgot, the full name of the place is Muzdalfa Fried Chicken. So, if you happen to be in Bangi, and you want to try it, you can find it at Seksyen 8, Bandar Baru Bangi.

Okay…Selamat Malam…Salam.

I can't wait for school holidays

I am really looking forward to the next two weeks. It is a school holiday, and I’m not going anywhere. I will be taking two days off to stay at home with the kids. 

I'm always looking forward to school holiday. First, there is no rush in the morning. On a usual school’s days, Syafiq left the house by 6.50am, and he has no transport to go to school. Every morning my hubby will send him and then come back again to get ready to work.

When he leaves the house early, it means that I have to get up early too to prepare for breakfast. Since I’m not a morning person, this is very challenging. There were times that I was too tired that I doze off on the sofa.

Secondly, the traffic will be less. Most people are going for holiday; therefore, the road will be less crowded. Will there be no traffic jam? I don't know, but let's pray no jam. Oh yeah! There will be plenty parking lot available too.

Thirdly, I will have time to myself. On school’s night, I normally sit down with them to go through their homework and revision. Sometimes when I reached home late and tired, they would be waiting for me. When I asked them to go and asked their dad, they would reply, “Ayah don’t know.” 

Fourthly, Zaki has decided to 'bersunat' (circumcision). Yup every Muslim boy has to go through this. Some did it a very tender age, and some waited until they were thirteen or fourteen years old. I’m glad he decided to do it now. Actually, he has been asking for this since last year, but I have no confidence about it.

I already booked the appointment at Ampang Putri Specialist Hospital for him this coming Wednesday. Not sure how he will react when he has to be warded for half-day, but for one thing, he wouldn't feel the pain because I have asked for the full GA to be given to him. He would be totally knocked out and wouldn't remember anything or what has been done.

The only thing I’m worried is that he might change his mind last minute, but let’s pray that he will stick to his decision. And he also said, “Ibu, I don’t need anything special from you except give me RM10.”

“Really? RM10 is enough?” I asked.
“Yes,” he replied. To him, he can get two PSP games with RM10. 

Okay, I gotta go now. They kids are calling. Salam.

I cherished our childhood memory

I have a new grand nephew, my third grand nephew. He was born yesterday. My Bang Ngah will be the happiest man because finally he has a grandson he can dote on. To Ita and Najib, congratulation, and to Naemah, now you have a little brother to play with.

Today is also my sister birthday. She is two years younger than me. She is totally opposite of me in terms of character. I’m the quite one whereas she's the talker in the family. She can really talk, and that’s why she’s a good sales manager.

I still remembered when we just moved to Port Dickson. I was ten, and she was eight. On our first day of school in Port Dickson, my dad asked us to take the army truck to go home from school. Yeah! We were an army brat. It was a privilege to go to school on truck. We boarded the right truck, but when the truck turn right instead of left to the army camp, I was worried. The truck was heading away from the house, and when the truck stopped to pick up more students from other school, I dragged my sister down from the truck. Not knowing where we were, we continued to walk. 

I thought we were heading back to the camp, but we were actually heading toward the town. At that time, it was almost dark, but Allah was great, my dad saw us when he was on the way back home from PD town. He stopped and took us home. That was one scary experience that I had, and every time I think about it, I shuddered. We might not be here anymore.

My sister also has a good voice. She can sing, and when we were young we always like to imitate the rock band like Deep Purple, Uriah Heep, Led Zepplin and many other bands. She would be the singer and the guitarist, and I would be the drummer. She would be fighting with my brother Zahir for lead singer. I missed those moments.

She was also an athlete like me. Eventhough, she was not as active as me, but she played hockey. She was also a runner. But her favorite past time when she was young was watching TV. She would lie down in front of the TV and would be there until her bed time. She hardly open her book, but yet she scored in her exam. 


We both went to US to further our study. I came back alone, but she came back with a hubby and a daughter. Yeah! She married to an American guy, and her daughter is an American citizen. She has another daughter who looks more like her American relatives than us, and both are adorable.

To my sister, Ami, I wish you, a very Happy Birthday. May Allah bless you and grant you all your wishes. I believe in you, and you can make it, and I cherished our childhood memory.  


Salam

Hor Fun, Nasi Himpit, Chicken Rendang and Three Layered Coffee

I had a good lunch today. Where did I go for lunch? Not at a fancy restaurant, but at The Treats in KL Sentral. I like eating at The Treat. Sometimes I go there for breakfast too.

As usual, whenever I go there for lunch, I will order Ipoh Chicken Hor Fun Noodle, and my friend Yati will always order Prawn Noodle. When I got there today, MK was already waiting for me.

I just have a quick glance at the menu just to check that there is no new food. True enough, it is the same set of food they offered. When the girl came to our table, I told her, “Hor Fun and Three Layered Coffee.” 

MK ordered Nasi Himpit with Chicken Rendang and warm water. When the food arrived, hers looked so good compared to my Hor Fun. But somehow today, the Hor Fun was not as good as usual. Do they change the cook? I can’t say, but something was missing. No oomph even though I added cili padi to make it hot.

When I looked at MK enjoying her Chicken Rendang, I decided to order the same thing. When the Nasi Himpit arrived, the first thing that I tasted was the kuah kacang (peanut gravy). Hmmm…not as good as my cousin kuah kacang, but the chicken rendang was really good.


I enjoyed the chicken rendang. Tender, hot and spicy.  When I finished my food, I felt so full. Was there any consequences from the heavy lunch? Definitely! I was sleepy the whole afternoon. How much did it cost us? Not much compared to other places in KL Sentral.

Bad Monday!

What a day today! I have more bad things happened to me today than good things, and I hope it is not a precedence for this week.

It started early in the morning after my morning prayer. I was about to sit at my study table when the chair moved, and what else, bedebum la….. I fell, and I was lucky that my head didn’t hit the floor.

I was stunned and didn’t move for about five minutes. I felt shooting pain on my right leg also on my arm, but it didn’t last long. I got up and walked slowly down to the kitchen. I didn’t feel any pain then, but when I was caught in the massive jam, I felt slight pain in my back.

Oh ye, talking about the massive jam this morning it took me two and the half- hour to reach office. I could have reach Johor if I go down south.

The jam started from the Serdang R&R. It was all due to the closure of SMART Tunnel. It seems like SMART Tunnel has become very important to all who comes from South heading toward city center.

While caught in the jam, I was glad that I checked twitter on the alternative route to KL. Based on the update, I took Maju Expressway to KL. It just took me seven minutes to get into East West Link. No traffic jam there. Yeay! Thanks to twitter, else it will take me three hours to reach office.

Eventhough, I was stuck in the jam, I was happy because someone called last Friday to inform me that he is sending my laptop back today. I was expecting a call from them in the morning, but when they didn’t call me, I politely SMS their boss, and five minutes later, the support engineer called and said he will give me a loaner laptop.

“What happened to my laptop?” I asked because I don’t want any loaner laptop. In fact, while my laptop was in the repair center, I had Chee Leong’s laptop with me.

The guy can’t answer, and I insisted that I talked to the boss. He understood why I needed my laptop, and he promised me that I would get my laptop in the evening.

At 3pm, the tech support brought my laptop. Yup physically it was the same, but when I switched it on, everything changed. The disk was set to the standard configuration and software. I feel sad. My familiar setting was gone, and what in front of me was a brand new thing.

It took me until 7pm to install my iTunes and some of my files, but somehow something is still missing. Maybe, I used to scattered my files on the screen, whereas this one looks very empty. Hmmm…maybe tomorrow I will mess it up, and try to bring the missing piece back to my laptop.

Wish me luck. Salam.

When I almost fell off from my chair...

I didn’t post any blog yesterday as I was tired. Too tired until my brain was kind of dead. I can’t think. Furthermore, I was not really feeling well, and I went to bed quite early than normal.

But today, I’m back to normal. Maybe I have the much needed sleep and rest. But I had a shocked today when I sent my car for services. I thought my black beauty just needs a service to the air-condition, but I was wrong. The black beauty compressor was kaput. Guess what? The cost to replace it exclude the labour cost is RM7K.

I almost fell off my chair. The car is just over two years old, and the warranty period ended in Feb. Damn! Why does it have to kaput immediately after the warranty period? Why can’t it be in January or February?

Gah!! It’s a big cost. If we decided to repair, we would have to wait for a week or so for the part to come from Singapore. Mean while, if you want a free sauna, my car is available. Any takers? 

Oh! Wait. It’s not available as the black beauty will stay at home, and my faithful Grandis will be my companion until the compressor get replaced.

By the way, when I was at the service center, I saw my next dream car. It is VW EOS, but my hubby said, "It's for the young people." Heh! My replied to him, “I’m young at heart.”

Anyway, since on Thursday, I saw five rainbows at a different location, here is ‘Somewhere over the rainbow’ by
lsrael "Iz" Kamakawiwo'ole. This version is Syafiq and MK favorites. So I’m dedicating this to them.

Enjoy it! Salam.

Lucky me!

I considered myself to be lucky today. On the way back home from work, I saw five rainbows. Each time, it was at a different place.

The first one that I saw was when I exited from KL Sentral heading towards Jalan Travers. At that time, the sun was very bright, and it almost blinded me. It seems rainbow likes to appear there. At one time, I saw twin rainbows.

The second rainbow that I saw was near Jalan Bangsar. Heh! I almost kiss someone’s car as I was busy looking at the rainbow. Luckily, I managed to brake on time. As I progress along the NPE, I saw another rainbow. This time, it was near the RTM.

When I saw the third rainbow, the sky on my right was very bright. I could see the blue sky and the white cloud, whereas the sky on my left was very dark. I could only see few white clouds. I was really admiring the sky. It was beautiful. Luckily there were not many cars on the road. 

As I approached the Pantai Dalam Tol, the sky turned into mixture of black, orange, gray and blue. It was pure magical. I never saw like this before except on TV or from pictures. And I saw another rainbow too.

I thought that was the last rainbow that I would see, but I was wrong. As I was near the Sg Besi Tol, I saw another rainbow. This time it was very clear because the sky was very dark.

As I passed the Sg Besi Tol, I wondered what does it mean when I got to see five rainbows in one evening. Does it mean I’m lucky? Maybe. Because it was magical.

Sekian. Salam.

I'm Happy

I took a half day leave today to do some personal errands. Remember the offered that I received that required me to respond by 21st May,2010. So I went to the office and submitted my acceptance. Before that, I have to get ‘penghulu’ to certified my marriage certificate; otherwise, my hubby has to stay behind while I go on the trip.

The next step after this will be to go to the Immigration Office and renew my passport. I didn’t know that my passport had expired in June last year. But I’m not worried because nowadays, I can get it within a few hours. 

To renew my passport, I have to take another half day to go to Putrajaya. Maybe I would do it next week. If my husband training in Singapore is on, I might take the opportunity to go there too for holiday. 

Oh yea! Before I left office this afternoon, I had received a call from the dispatch boy. When I saw the number is from the receptionist, I know it was about my iPad2. He knew that I was waiting for the delivery, and when he called he asked, ”Where are you?”, and I said at my place. 

“Hah! You have to buy me one ‘nasi kukus’ if you want your iPad,” he said jokingly.
I replied, “For you, no problem.”

I can’t wait for him to deliver, so I went down and took the package myself. I was so happy, but I know someone who would not be happy when he found out about my latest gadget. For your information, I'm a gadget lover, and two things I don't mind spending my money on are gadgets and books. 


For the time being,I better hide my iPad from him.

Sekian. Salam.

Oh! My little Girl....

Today is a Wesak Day. Wishing all my Buddhist friend, Happy Wesak Day and hope everyone had a great day today. 

We didn’t go anywhere except to Mines Shopping Center in Balakong. Normally, I avoided going to the mall on Public Holiday because it will be  packed, and getting parking will be a nightmare.

But for this trip, it was my husband who decided to go to the mall because he succumbed to his favorite girl's demands. Yes, Zara has been whining, harping, crying for PSP. We already have two units, but it belongs to Amir and Zaki. Sometimes they will not let her play with their PSP. So after patiently waiting for more than a year, she created a scene at Kajang Metro on Saturday and continuously repeated it until today.

We went there at 2pm after Syafiq came back from his Math tuition. Upon reaching the mall, there was a long queue for cars to enter the parking. They closed the entrance to the mall parking because it was full. People have to drive their cars further up to park at the Mines International Exhibition and Convention Center (MIECC).

But luck was with us. As we near the parking entrance, the park- attendant removed the barricade, and we happily went into and grabbed the first parking that we found. Before we went hunting for the PSP, we stopped at Big Apple Donut first. That’s the family favorite donut joint. I wanted the cappuccino flavored donut, but the boys took it first. They don’t want the chocolate flavored donut anymore.

We went to the uppermost floor at the mall. The first shop that we stopped at was offering RM 670, 4GB memories, the PSP’s case and the screen protector. 

The second shop quoted RM700, and 4GB memory. The price is for black-colored PSP, and if we want other colors we have to pay a little bit more. My husband wanted to buy it there, but I walked out from the shop because I felt that was a little bit expensive.

The third shop we stopped at quoted a little bit lower than the second shop, but the guy was very cocky. He thought that we didn’t know anything about PSP. I was quite pissed off with him and walked out from the store. I called my husband outside and I told hi that I don’t like the sales guy.

So we went back to the first shop. The sales guy offered RM680 for red colored PSP, which my little girl wanted. ‘This is better,” I told my husband. We bargained a little bit more, and we ended not only with Zara’s PSP, but with 2 new batteries for the boys, upgraded their PSPs’ software, bought the casing for them, and I also bought the external hard disk for me.

I was happy because this guy was very helpful. He practiced a good customer services, and I don’t mind spending my money. To the second shop, you need to improve your customer services else you will lose more customer.

My little girl was very happy. Now she had red bicycle and red PSP. I told her, if she didn’t go to school, I would give her bicycle and PSP to Khadijah, my grand-niece.

She promised that she will go to school, and to show how serious she is she hooked up her pinky finger to mine. Hehe....lets see whether she keeps to her promised.

Sekian. Salam.

To all my Teachers.

It’s a Teacher’s Day today. Wishing all the teachers, especially to my former teachers and to my kids’ teacher, Happy Teacher’s Day. Thank you for the time you spent to teach us, entertained us and sometimes bored us to death. But no matter what we are grateful to you.

Since today is a Teacher’s Day, I have to something to say about my teachers throughout my school life. I can’t remembered much about my teachers when I was in Primary school, but there are two teachers that I owed them very much.

First teacher was my Bahasa Malaysia teacher, who basically encouraged me to write. She always used my karangan (essay) as an example to read in front of the class. Being someone who is introvert, I didn’t like it.

The second teacher was Mr. Jesus. He was my coach for the track and field. He coached me until I was 12 years old, and when I moved to Junior High School, he was still interested to coach me, but I declined. Under him, I represented my school and district in track and field. Maybe, if I continued to train under him, I might be running at the state level. Ahhh…That’s history.

When I was in Junior High School, I had few teachers that either I owed them or hated them. The first one was my history teacher when I was in Form 1. She came to the class, sat at her table, opened the book and said,” Okay, let’s read this chapter.” It continued until the bell rang. No explanation to the topics. She was also my English teacher, and one day she asked us to make sentences. Mazlan, who the bravest in the class, raised his hand and said, “My history teacher taught me how to read.” Everyone was stunned with his remark including Miss Rukumany. And from that day, she took the effort to explain about the topic.

The second teacher that I owe to was my Form 2 History’s teacher. He was a totally opposite of my form 1 teacher. He came in, and started talking about the topics and in between, he made jokes. We have to read before we go to his class; otherwise, we would not understand him. Because of him, I like history. He made it fun.

Another teacher was my Geography teacher because he was handsome, tall and young. All the girls have crushed on him. Oh! Not only he was good looking he was a good teacher too. I still like geography until today.

I also have a clashed with my English teacher when I was in Form 3. You may read it here to find out why. She was a good English teacher, and for almost a year, I was totally ignored by her. But I survived and scored my English in my exam.

When I was in Port Dickson High School, I have the worst physics teacher. He came in to the class, asked us to open the chapter we need to do the experiment and then left the class. No explanation and nothing. If he did explained, no one understand and dared to ask him. He was very fierce. The whole class suffered.

Lucky for me, I changed school in my final year of high school. I attended King George V in Seremban, and I got a better physics teacher. I have to thank her for my result. If I still attended PD High School in my final year, I might have flunked my physics.

In the new school, almost all my teachers were okay except for my English teacher. He’s teaching method was very funny. Instead of using the exercises book, he asked us to write on a small piece of paper and passed it to him. Except for writing essays or precise, we will be tearing our exercises book to write all the dialogues, the sentences or what ever he asked us to do.

Yup, there were so many good memories in school, and sometimes I shared it with my kids. Just to inspire them to do better in school. Finally, to all my teachers, thank you from the bottom of my heart. Without you, I would not be what I am today.

Sekian. Salam.

So Relaxing...

It's a great day today. After the tough week I had last week, today was very relaxing. I started my day by visiting my favourite hair saloon. I went with my little girl. It was supposed to be my quarterly girl’s day out with my little girl, but my hubby followed us. So I have to cancel our plan.

I don’t know what got into me, but I cut my hair short. Really short and the result is not to my liking. When Zara saw me, the only thing that came out from her was “Ahhhhh….”

“What?” I asked.
“Nothing,” she said and walked away.

We then went to Saujana to pick Syafiq from his rehearsal. He will be playing his guitar for Teacher’s Day this Monday. Well actually he didn’t want to play, but his teacher and friends requested him to play. At first he was quite reluctant, but after I give him my blessing, he was raring to play. Furthermore, this will be his last year in High School. 

Actually he attended the audition two weeks ago, and he was selected to go for the second round. But my dear son, who is shy, didn’t go for the audition. When I asked him why he didn't go, he replied, "It's a school day, and I don't want to bring my guitar to school." What an excuse!

So when I picked him up from school, I asked him how was it. He smiled because the headmistress complimented him and like what she heard. ‘Kiss the rain’ by Yiruma is the song he will be playing. Enjoy the music.

It's Mine...

It was a very tough week I had this week. I was really struggling with the financial reports that I need to do. But Alhamdulillah, I managed to complete it by Thursday, and today, I was so relief that I felt like a big rock was lifted from my shoulder.

As I continue to look at some weird numbers on the spreadsheet, I received a call from Syafiq saying that the package from LA has arrived. Yes, my dear friend, Roberta Bell aka @rb2221949 sent a package for Zaki for his birthday.

Not five minutes later, I received a message from Roberta on the package. She said that the package was already in Malaysia. I quickly responded to her and informed her that I have received it and thanks her for that.

Since Zaki was away at school, I asked Syafiq to hide the package in the kitchen cabinet. I wanted to surprise him, but somehow he knew about the package except he didn’t know the content of the package. So when I reached home, he ran down from upstairs, and told me there was a package for me. I smiled.

“This package is for you and not for me,” he said while holding the package. I told him that RB is sending something for him.

“Really? Let me see,” I said and took the package to the dining table.

When I opened up the package, he saw two LA Lakers' T-shirt. He knew the t-shirts were for him. He tried it, but it was big for him. But he didn’t care. He proudly wore the t-shirt and showed it to his brothers, sister and dad.

“Ayah, see nenek Bell sent this for my birthday,” he said and pointed to the yellow t-shirt that he wore.

His dad said, “Nice of her.”

Then Amir tried the gray t-shirt and said, “This fit me. Can I have this one?”

“No. This is for me,” he said.

“Well, you can give Amir one because that’s grey t-shirt looks good on him,” I said.

“I’ll think about it,” he said and took the t-shirt with him to his room.

“Ibu, tell nenek Bell thank you,” he said and put the t-shirt in his wardrobe.

“Okay, I will” I said.


And now he is sleeping, happy to know the long awaited t-shirts have arrived and in his wardrobe. And to Roberta, thank you for the t-shirts and the kids love it. May Allah bless you for your kindness and enjoy your trip to Belize.


Sekian.  Salam

I feel free and lighter.

For the first time after so many years, I went to work without my backpack. Yes, I left it at home because my laptop is still in coma. My vendor is still waiting for me to give the go ahead to send it to third party to recover my data.

But my dear old boss has a different idea. He said, “Get them to come over here and you sit in-front of them when they recover the data.”

Wow! I wish I can do that, but I don’t think they can bring their equipment to my company just to extract my data. Until this is sorted out, my laptop will be separated from me. I’m sad to be separated from my dear lappy.

Mean while, I was given a temporary laptop, which is big and heavy. I felt like carrying brick behind me when I took it with me. Since I have back problem, the temporary heavy laptop has lost its privilege to be carried around. It is now locked in my drawer in the office. 

When I left this morning, I felt weird, as if something is missing. I kept on checking my handbag. Even though I felt like something missing but I like it. I felt free. Nothing hanging around my back or my shoulder.

While my back is happy that I don’t have to carry laptop anymore, my handbag is complaining like hell. Why? Because my handbag now is full of things in there. If you drop anything in there, you might have to remove everything from the handbag.

Do you want to know what I have in there besides my phone and purse? Do you really want to know? Okay, nothing fancy like other women, but what I have in there are book, phone charger, my external drive, my thumb drive, my lipstick, lotion, compact powder, pen, my id tag, and some other stuff. 

So I’m thinking to get a bigger bag so that I can put in my laptop too. Do I sound crazy? Nah…..


Sekian. Salam

Why?

Today I have to go to my little girl’s school. I’m not sure what really happened, but she seems to lost her interest in school. It used to be a battle with Zaki early this year to get him to school, and now, it is Zara’s turn.

She started behaving this way since last month, and I did call the teacher to find out what happened. She said Zara was okay at school, and mixed well with other students. She didn’t give any problem to teachers or other students.

She didn’t go to school on Thursday and Friday last week. She used me as her excused for not going to school. Last Friday, I have to leave early, and she was still sleeping when I left. When she didn’t go on Monday, I already see the trend, but she promised me that today she will go.

But when she didn’t want to go to school today, I was quite mad. She was trying to bargain with me saying that she will go to school tomorrow, but I can’t accept it. The midyear exam is coming, and she already lost quite a number of days.

Together with my husband, we took her to school. When we reached there, she didn’t want to get out from the car. I have to coax her out. The teacher was already waiting at the gate. She held to my hand tightly when we entered the gate. I spoke to the teacher to find out what happened, and when the teacher took her hand, she refused to let me go. She started to cry.

“I have to be strong,” I said to myself and pried myself out from her hold. I quickly went into the car while the teacher took her into the classroom. 

As I had my breakfast, I wondered what really caused her to behave like this. Is it because she was tired of school? Or the current school is less fun than her previous school, or she has a problem with other students there.

I really don’t know because every time I asked, she will come out with different stories. Let’s see how it goes tomorrow.

I got it!

It was a tough day today. There are too many new things to learn, and when the boss demanded everything to be given there and then, it made the work tougher. But I survived. This situation won’t be long, and it will be over soon once I get the grip of it.

Since I was tired, I have no idea what to blog tonight. On top of that, my kids need me to help them with their homework and revision. The midyear exam is coming soon, and if I don’t sit with them, no one will not study. I don’t mind actually because this is the time they will share with me what they did at school.

By the time I went to my room, it was almost 11pm, and I was really tired. But when I entered my room, I saw a stacked of letter on the study table.

“What’s that?” I asked my hubby.
“Just some letters that I took from Saujana,” he said.

As I was going through the letter, I saw one particular letter that I have been waiting for since March this year.

“Dear, I got it!” I said excitedly while reading the letter, “and I need to reply this soon.”
“Oh! Okay, calm down. Tell me what you get,” he said.

I told him, but he didn’t seem to share my excitement. This is one of a lifetime offer, and I really need to grab it. Otherwise, I would not get the chance again.

I put the letter away, and started to plan what I need to do. My husband didn’t say anything. He just listened, but I know, his brain is wrecking some plan on how he can get the offer too.

Oh yeah! I can’t share with you yet, but when the time is right, I will let you know. Now, I’m too excited to go to bed. What should I do? Read the letter again? Hahaha…why not?

I can't live without you...

I kind of felt lost today in the office because I missed my laptop. My laptop is in the repair center since last Thursday. I felt like I lost someone very close to me. Well, my laptop has most of my things. 

It was taken to repair center on Thursday, and I expected the tech support guy to resolve it latest by today. But I was disappointed when I didn’t receive any calls from them.  Since I desperately wanted my laptop back, I gave them a call. What a disappointment. They still didn't know how to decrypt my data. Arghhhhh.....

Luckily I have CL laptop with me. Otherwise, I will be twiddling my thumb, and that will definitely get someone upset.  I’m supposed to return CL’s laptop, but I hold it back because I need to copy some of his files into my laptop. Maybe, these data didn't want to live together, that's why my hard disk decided to go on strike. 

Even though I do have a temporary laptop, I find it is difficult to do my work because all my working files are in my laptop especially my mail. I have to use web mail instead of MS Office, and I can't archive my mail using web mail. My mail box is going to explode anytime and when that happens, my mail will be very quiet. Furthermore, I have thirteen years of archived mails  in that baby. That's a lot of mails in there.

Before I left for home, the tech support guy called me, and said he might need to bring in someone from outside to look into the problem. That’s going to cost some money. Will I pay for it?  Nope. Not from own pocket, but maybe I need to persuade my boss.

I really hope he agrees to pay, else I have to say goodbye to all my work, and I might end up crying. So baby, don't make me sad. Please make sure the data can be recovered. 

Not only I'm going to lose all my work related data, I am also going to lose my iphone backup, my songs collection, my ebooks and the most precious thing in there, my wip manuscripts will be gone. I don’t think I have the energy to start all over again.

She never stopped asking until she has it.

My little girl has been asking for bicycle since the past two weeks. Every morning, when she opened her eye, the first thing that she said was, “When are you buying my bicycle?” and I replied, “Next Saturday.”

I didn’t know that she tracked the day, and today she reminded us again, about her bicycle. Since it is long overdue, we took her to KSH Bicycle Shop. She was very excited about it because finally she will have her bicycle. We went to KSH Shop in Taman Tun, but it didn’t have bicycle for kids. The guy in-charge told us to go to Bandar Utama branch.

When we left the shop, she asked, “Where is my bicycle? Are we buying or not?” 
I replied, “Yes but it will be at other shop.”

When we reached the shop at Centre Point in Bandar Utama, she was happy because she can see kids bicycles hanging on the wall. We took the green color and asked her to test. She just sat on the bicycle and didn’t try to cycle it. My hubby wanted to get the white color, but she said, “I want the red color.” 
“Red? Are you sure?” asked her dad.
“Yes and I want the bell too,” she reminded her dad.

We also bought another one for Zaki. These two kids were unfortunate because they never get the chance to learn how to ride bicycle earlier. My hubby locked all the bicycles after Syafiq was knocked down by a car on a way back from his football practice. But since her blue eye girl kept pestering him about bicycles, he gave in. 

The moment we reached home, Zaki who just came back from school, rushed out to see his bicycle. Heh! These two can’t wait, and they pushed their bicycles to the playground in front of the house.

Since they never learn to ride bicycle before, it was fun to watch them. I just watched from my balcony. Zara’s bicycle has the training wheel so she has no problem, but not for Zaki. As a beginner and no training wheel, he fell few times, but he never gave up.

When he came back, he said, “I fell down few times and my friends laughed at me, but I’m going to show them that I can do it.”

Yup, that’s my boy!

By the way, this song is stuck in my head since last night. It is “Bila Resah” By Anuar Zain. I have to thanks Chee Leong for singing this song at the CFO’s Farewell Dinner last night. Enjoy it. Salam.

It was fun!

Oh! What a fun day I have today, but in the morning, it didn’t go well. A motorcyclist ran into my car, and he sped away knowing that it was his fault. I was shocked and didn’t check my car. I was more concerned about him, but the moment he sped off, I knew he was okay.

After that episode, the day went very well. I reached Bukit Kiara, 30 minutes before the event started. When I stepped into the function room, I smelled nasi lemak and the sambal sotong. Apalagi, Bismillah lah. It was good.

The communication session in the morning was good too. My big boss was in a relaxed mood today, and she cracked few jokes during her presentation. I never seen her like this before. Maybe, she has less pressure now as she will be leaving us soon. 

After the communication session, we took three hours break for lunch and Friday’s prayer. Lunch was great. We have Tom Yam Soup, Kerabu Mangga (Mango Salad), Fried Mee Siam, Thai Pineapple Fried Rice, local kuih and fruits. My new boss from UK loves it very much, but I didn’t really enjoy my lunch. I was stuck between my new and old bosses. Tell me if anyone of you can enjoy your lunch when you are stuck with your bosses.

Oh yea, while waiting for the afternoon session to start, we received our department t-shirt. The t-shirt color is dark blue and green colors. We wore that for our bowling session. There were eight teams, and my teams were team #8, and we were the only team that has five people in there. The rest of the team were made of 4 people only.

All teams played two games, and my team won a prize. A consolation prize for not being the best team or having most strikes, but as a champion from the bottom. Yup! My team has the lowest scores. What can I say when some of the team members never played before. By the way, I injured myself in the second game. I injured my thumb, my back and my leg, but I’m happy I won the consolation prize. 

The event ended at 6pm, and everybody took a break before dinner. The theme for the dinner was red or shade of red. Hmmm….I was lucky as my friend loaned me her red tudung. 

We also invited our friends who has left the company. At 7.30pm, the party started, and our big boss gave her short opening speech. It was then followed by our cute, youngest and freshest little brother singing “Perpisahan” for CFO.

The cute guy was our company MXS GOT TALENT champion. His voice was superb, and he sat at the same table with me. Ahhhh…we got to interviewed him. He just graduated from France and joined the company six months ago. He joined our department two weeks ago. Welcome Syafiq to ISD.

After Syafiq sing, dinner was served. I have no regret with my beef sirloin, but for those who chose chickens and fishes, both were not very nice. After dinner, it was a time for us to sing to CFO. I led the group, and we sang Without You and Let It Be.

After our song, that’s where the fun start. It was karaoke time. Almost everyone has to sing including the guest of honour. There were so many hidden talents in ISD. Ahhhh…maybe all this while, we were so busy with our works that we didn’t get to go out and enjoy ourselves. The party became alive when Faizad and CL sang “Fantasia Bulan Madu” and “Rozana”. Both were rock songs. 

The party ended when the CFO has to leave. We sang Auld Lang Syne to her as our final song. We sent her off at the lobby, and she drove away in her red Ferrari.


Sekian...Salam

No Practice!

Yesterday, I blogged about how I was searching for the right song for the upcoming farewell dinner on Friday. Yeah, the search continues until 5pm today After going through few songs, the group finally decided to sing "Without You" by Air Supply and "Let It Be" by The Beatles.

I’m not sure how its going to turn out because we didn’t really get to practice. Everyone was kind of busy. But there are few “karaoke” singers who can really sing, so let them be the lead singer. I'm going to be just one of the backup singer. I will blog about the dinner later.

By the way, tomorrow’s session will be a whole day event. From 9am till 5pm, it will be for communication session and team building, and it will be followed up by dinner at 6.30 until 11pm.

That’s a long meeting. I’m not worried about that because we will get a break here and there, but what worry me most is getting to the venue. Getting to Bukit Kiara before 9am will be challenging because of the traffic jam. Furthermore, I'm not familiar with the route to get there. Guess, I need to leave home by 7am, if I don’t want to be late for the communication session.

Looking at the agenda, there will be bowling session too. Last time I play was with my kids, and there was gutter rail to keep the ball in the lane. Heh! This time, I guess, most of the time it will land in the gutter. Anyway, let's see whether I can play tomorrow as my back still in pain. If I do, I hope I can still get some decent points.

Oh yea, just to update you on my office laptop which when into frozen mode last night. It is still in ICU.  The engineer told me that he need more time to fix and test the hard disk. Meanwhile, I will be twiddling my thumb while waiting for my baby to recover. But for today, my hubby was kind enough to let me used his laptop to office.

Okay. I gotta go now. I’m tired and sleepy. Sekian. Salam.

I'm sad....

I am sad and very hurt today. I was okay in the morning. In fact, I was very happy this morning when my hubby gave me a package which he took from the mail box. I knew the package was from my friend in Canada. I also had a nice chat with my new boss, Mr. G. We talked about work and his home country. Such a nice gentleman. Polite and soft spoken.

After he had left for the other office, I began my mission in searching for the right song for us to sing this Friday. I listed four songs to be chosen by them. The first song was Umbrella by Rihanna and followed by Memories by Barbara Straisend. Both were not accepted as they find it difficult to sing.

The third song in my list was I’ll be missing you by Puff Daddy. They liked the song, nice and easy to sing, but we can’t find someone who can rap. Our Mr. Rapper has resigned. 

The last song in the list was Somewhere Over the Rainbow. It was very well received, and they loved it, but somehow after we listened for a few times, it was not an easy song to sing it in a group.

Finally after cracking my head, I remembered one of my favorite song, Under the Broadwalk by Bruce Willis, which I would sing along whenever it is played on the radio. Yeay! Finally, it was accepted.

I also had a great time during my lunch break. I went out with friends, and we discussed our plan. It was a great discussion, but not the food. We have great ideas and plan what we wanted to do.

While I was doing my work, I saw a message coming to my Facebook. That’s the beginning of my bad day. It was so offensive, and I found it very abusive. I didn’t finish reading it. I seldom lost my temper and get angry, but this afternoon, I was really mad. I replied a short message, and for someone who never used the F-Word before, I used it this time.

From that moment, my day was spoilt. Eventhough, I tried to be jovial, but I can’t. I was so sad with what happened; it brought tears to my eye. At least I managed to talk to someone who helped me to improve my mood.

And tonight, while I was working on my office laptop, it crashed. It just frozen, and when I rebooted, it cannot find the booting disk. I knew I was attacked by a virus. And this afternoon, a spammer hijacked my Facebook causing my account to spam others. Luckily someone alerted me, and I changed my password immediately.

It was really a bad day for me. I hope tomorrow will be a better day, and my technical support team can fix my laptop. Otherwise, I will be crying tomorrow as I do not do any backup to my data.

New Boss, Old Boss and A Song

Aaahhhh…. My new boss is in. Finally, after more than two years without a proper head guiding the team, he is finally in. Yeay! I heard few positive things about him already. Good looking, soft spoken, nice and bla..bla..bla… Well at least he made a positive impression but not sure how long he is going to be here. The last time they brought somebody in, the guy left after two days.

So now I have two bosses. It feels like having two husbands, where you have to entertain them, and get things done whenever they wanted. Since the new boss is still new, it is just like new husband where he has lots of new things to learn. So he only sat at his place, and read all documents and gauging the office environment. So far, he hasn’t asked anything from me yet, and I also avoided asking him anything.

Normally my old boss will speak in English to me, but today he spoke to me in Malay. Maybe he didn’t want the newcomer to know what we talked about since the new boss doesn’t understand our language. I found it funny, but it’s good for him. At least he will improve his Malay.

As I was busy printing the document for my new boss, my department secretary approached me and asked me whether I can find any good English song for the CFO farewell party.

Hmmm.. I have lots of English song but most of them are rock songs, country and blues, and oldies. It really makes me think what kind of music will be appropriate for the event.

I started searching and looking at my collection. Hah! I thought Boney M will be a good choice but then none of the songs suit the occasion. From Boney M, I went through Celien Dion’s song, and then to Black Eye Pea, but the one I like most is, I’ll be missing you by Puff Daddy. But the lyric doesn’t suit the whole occasion.

Hmm…I am still searching, and I need to get everything ready by tomorrow because the party will be on Friday night. I wonder whether we will butcher the song with only 3 days of practice. Let’s see the magic of ISD.

Sekian. Salam.

My little niece engagement...

Yesterday, 1st May, was a special event for the family. My niece and her fiance decided to take the relationship to the next level. They have been going out for eight years. It was a small event. Initially it supposed to be a family affair only, but when you live in a close knit neighborhood, you have to at least invite your immediate neighbors.

The event started at 3.30pm, but as usual, the day was full of activities. In fact, it started a month ago when my oldest niece was busy planning for the day.


The party from the groom-to-be arrived at my sister’s house at 3.40pm. They brought four gifts, which were flowers, chocolate, clothes and the most important items, the rings. Yup, Wan gave two rings to my niece. Nice!

Tepak Sirih - not part of the gift

Clothes 

Bouquet of flowers

Godiva Chocolate

The two rings

In exchange, Dikna gave five gifts. They were cupcake, fruits, sirih junjung, toiletries, bunga rampai. 

Bunga Rampai

Sirih junjung

Toilettries

Cup cake

basket of fruits

The gifts from both parties were put out in the middle of the living room where everybody can see it. Then the men from both sides sat around them to discuss and negotiate on the coming wedding, and how long the engagement will be.

My Bang Ngah was the spokesman from my side, and he was supported by Bang Zahir and my cousin, Zul during this negotiation. At the end of the discussion, the rings were handed to my Bang Ngah. He then passed it around for the rest of the family members to see.

What were they discussing?

FInally it was the event of the day ,"menyarung cincin" where Wan’s mom gave the rings to my niece , and then it was followed by the Special prayer. After the prayer, everybody enjoyed the foods that were ordered specially for the event.

Menyarung cincin

Well it gives my sister one year to prepare for her youngest daughter wedding, but there will be one wedding bu end of the year. It will be the only boy in the my sister's family. Yeah! Let's the preparation starts.