somewhere over the rainbow

~au revoir~

2010-11-01T17:38:00.003+08:00

afscheid.

paalam.

addio.

adjö.

farvel.

hwyl fawr.

näkemiin.

adeus.

zbogom.

adios.

;)

2010-08-23T14:50:00.002+08:00

Lets see...

Show encrypted text

I'm a Gleek ;)

2010-08-01T11:17:00.005+08:00

I may never say it, but I am now!! I love GLEE!! so very much ;)

too bad they do not have the video for this one ;(

another favorite ;)

I am so digging the season finale, heck the whole season, can watch and listen to them over and over again ;)

p/s: not that I just watch it, just that never blogged about it ;)

Preterito Indefinido

2010-07-31T22:32:00.004+08:00

Hoy fui a la clase española. Nosotros (yo y compañeros de clase) escribimos este paso. ;)

Miguel nacio en Penang en 1950 en un familia rica. Estuvo en Penang hasta los 5 años. Su familia se mudo a España. Tuvo su primero coche con 12 años. Luego su familia perdio su dinero. Ingreso en un monasterio y aprendio a conducir el coche para correr en las carreras. Salio del monestario para ser piloto. Conocio a una modelo muy guapa y se enamoro.

Se casaron en Monaco en las carreras en 1970. Tuvieron un hijo y dos hijas en los primeros 5 años. Pero su hijo Miguelito enfermo y murio. En 1978 tuvo un accidente en Alemania muy grave. Se volvio loco y su esposa lo abandono. Pero conocio enfermera muy guapo y sexi y se casaron. Pero su primera mujer volvio y mato a la segundo mujer. Despues Miguel estudo muy triste y se suicido. Con 30 años. Fin.

For the benefit of all people, (including me), here is the translation

Miguel was born in Penang in 1950 in a rich family. He lived in Penang up to 5 years. His family moved Spain. He had his first car at 12 years old. Then his family lost their money (went bankrupt). He joined a monastery and he learned to drive the car to race as career. He went out of the monestario to be a driver. He met a very nice model and fell in love.

They married in Monaco in the careers in 1970. They had a son and two daughters in the first 5 years. But Miguelito his son was sick and he died. In 1978 he had very a serious accident in Germany. He went mad and his wife left him. But he met a beautiful and sexy nurse and they got married. But his first wife turned up and killed to second wife. Later Miguel was very sad and commit suicide. He was 30 years. End.

Some grammar mistakes here and there, but do we have telenovela in the making or what? ;)

p/s: we each came up with a sentence, that is why you get all these ridiculous story..hahaha...

2nd grade...

2010-07-27T16:07:00.003+08:00

You are a second grade friend cum ex BFF when....

The only updates of the other person's latest happenings, you'll get to know via blogs and FB, not in the random (inpromptu) meet up that you used to have.
You will no longer get invites to do fun things together (tgk wayang ke..makan2 ke...)
You need to book the other person's time 3 weeks in advance.
Cancellation will not come with apology, not even tentative date unless you asked for it.
That person won't feel anything celebrating birthday without you.
No more foolish emails flying around that can distract you from work.
You stop talking about future travel plans together.
You basically stop talking.

Enough said, you are second grade...hhm...now it sounds like takde grade langsung nih...

p/s: this does not apply to friends I knew via blog ;)

Waka-waka is Do It, Do It!!

2010-07-22T09:56:00.003+08:00

When I was in the stadium, waiting for the kicks off, this song were playing repeateadly (plus the catchy Coke commercial + UN advert) So now I can never listen to this song like I listen to any other song. Some feelings are just to hard to fathom....

Waka-waka (This time for Africa) by Shakira

You’re a good soldier
Choosing your battles
Pick yourself up
And dust yourself off
Get back in the saddle

You’re on the front line
Everyone’s watching
You know it’s serious
We are getting closer
This isn’t over

The pressure is on
You feel it
But you got it all
Believe it

When you fall get up, oh oh
If you fall get up, eh eh
Tsamina mina zangalewa
Cuz this is Africa
Tsamina mina, eh eh
Waka waka, eh eh
Tsamina mina zangalewa
This time for Africa

Listen to your God
This is our motto
Your time to shine
Don’t wait in line
Y vamos por todo

People are raising
Their expectations
Go on and feed them
This is your moment
No hesitations

Today’s your day
I feel it
You paved the way
Believe it
If you get down get up, oh oh
When you get down get up, eh eh
Tsamina mina zangalewa
This time for Africa

Tsamina mina, eh eh
Waka waka, eh eh
Tsamina mina zangalewa
Anawa a a
Tsamina mina, eh eh
Waka waka, eh eh
Tsamina mina zangalewa
This time for Africa

(Lady Singing)

Voice:

Tsamina mina,
Anawa a a
Tsamina mina
Tsamina mina,
Anawa a a
Tsamina mina, eh eh
Waka waka, eh eh
Tsamina mina zangalewa
Anawa a a
Tsamina mina, eh eh
Waka waka, eh eh
Tsamina mina zangalewa
This time for Africa
Django eh eh
Django eh eh
Tsamina mina zangalewa
Anawa a a
Django eh eh
Django eh eh
Tsamina mina zangalewa
Anawa a a
(2x) This time for Africa
(2x) We’re all Africa

*I definitely lived up to the song!! ;)

Movies and More Movies...

2010-07-22T09:10:00.000+08:00

During the 9 hrs flight from Cape Town to Dubai, I could not sleep at all. I don't know why, so I tuned into ICE (Information,Communication and Entertainment). Emirates In Flight Entertainment. They offered quite a wide range of movies, musics and games. I watched many movies and these 3 are worth to mention here:

Remember Me

This is the first non Twilight movie played by Robert Pattinson that I watched. Its a sad movie, about how a son struggle to make the father realised that he is needed not just because of money, because of other things as well. Its also about a brother who would do anything just to spare his little sisters feeling the same way that he did. Its a family struggle trying to keep it together after losing one of the member. Its about how a boy meets a girl. Its about some things that are simple in life that we tend to overlook.

This guy (Pattinson) can actually act, (in Twilight, he just act pale..or was it just make up?hehehe..) but the emotional depth potrayed here, not only by him, but the rest of the cast, makes it one of the soppy film I ever watched (same level with My Sisters Keepers). Verdict? I like.

Everybody's Fine
I watched this movie because of Drew Barrymore, little that I realised, I got more than that. Its about a guy, having just lost his wife, tried to get the kids together for a weekend. The kids of course being forever busy, stood the father up. He did not gave up, despite his medical condition, he make plans to pay a suprise visit to his kids in the city. Its kinda heartbreaking seeing him going through his journey, and although all the kids accepted and welcomed him nicely (bukan macam Tanggang halau mak dia la...) but something was not right somewhere..I recommend all people who still has parents to watch this. You will understand and appreciate why we need to see them while we still can. Its a bit funny at times but mostly it was sad and emotional...

Green Zone
So wanted to see this in the cinema but too bad during the show, none of it aired in Seremban. So I watched on air. The story is about a US army officer challenging the intel that led to Iraq invasion. He and his team were tasked to investigate the places that is supposedly holding the Weapons of Mass Destruction but they came back empty. Not once, not twice but 3 times. He began his search of truth on what is really going on. This movie has been accused as anti-America because it gives an idea what kind of conspiracy is going on in Pentagon. It is based on a non fiction book written based on real time experienced of US army personnel.

There it is, my very much delayed 3 in1 movie review. Nothing much but I think worth to share. Now go watch Everybody's Fine!! ;)

Bragging Rights for the Next 4 Years

2010-07-21T12:13:00.009+08:00

I know by now people would be sick of reading what I wrote on this label, but I have to get this one out..hang on, this is the second last post on this topic, lepas tu takde dah..tutup cerita and we start a new one OK?

The title is actually quoting what my colleague said to me first day I got back to work from you know where. He was among the first one that I told about my trip, a big fan of football himself, of course he was both excited and jealous of me when he knew about this 3 months back. Since then he gets excited everytime he saw me and too bad at that time he could not share it with anybody at work because I asked him to keep it a secret until I return.

I only told few key people in the office (breakfast kaki, and some of the cik-kaks gang). I did not even told my boss, as he is the kepochi type. He would make a big fuss over just some rumours ;p. Just before I left, we had a Dept dinner and somehow, one senior guy poked me to spill the beans, I keep a straight face, won't budge even a bit, denying what ever they were guessing (which was right anyway..hahaha..)

When I left, two guys in my dept (who were kept in the dark) somehow managed to find out and they started to spread the words..Imagine when I came back, I felt like celeb of the day..hehehe..but then till today not everybody in the company knows yet. I only told those that are close to me, and by this week, all the talks have vanished, they found new topic of the week already ;)

So there it is, 'Bragging Rights for the Next 4 Years' this one did not comes from me,OK ;) This guy actually dreamt of watching World Cup live too, but his immediate planning was his coming Euro Trip, so now he is determined to make it to the Brazil in 2014.

My trip to World Cup has sparked quite a few 'things', some good and some bad but I guess everything is all right now ;)

At VISA's booth! They painted your face and took your picture, later they gave cards with passcode and get the pictures from the internet..

See my journey since 2008 here!!

Cape Town : I have learnt....

2010-07-20T16:22:00.005+08:00

Cape Town is an expensive city (transport, food, and general accomodation). But since we stayed in the backpackers lodge, its pretty much bearable. Just to give some idea, a can of Coke (325 ml) cost about R8 (~RM4) compared to our price, max RM1.50..tak ke mahal tu? Newspaper can cost R12 each, depending on which day, the lowest I get is R5 (I bought just remind myself of my birthday)
Halal food are aplenty, that is why I did not really focus on the food in my post. The location itself near the sea, so you can get a lot of seafood stores, tapi kalo hari-hari makan seafood pon bosan jugak kan? Best seafood, is at Kalky's in Kalk Bay.
The southern metro train line is the only ones that offers hop on hop off ride. Which is good as you can stop at most of the tourist attraction, Simons Town (they may fix the rail later..) Muizenberg, St James, Kalk Bay and Fish Hoek. Do not stop at Wynberg, very dodgy place, unless you have arrangement to meet someone there, else, can just skip.
If you have international driving license, rent a car would be a good idea as you can get to much more beautiful places. But the rent is ~R200 per day + petrol ~R9 per litre, so you do the math. That is what I meant when we follow the DayTripper, it was worth it.
Souvenir, only shop at the tourist attractions' gift shop (Table Mountain, Castle of Good Hope and the Craft Market) The one on the street cekik darah..seriously. We tried asking for price of certain craft things (wooden teaspoon, kecik je pon tablespoon size) R25 (RM12.50) a piece, no chain whatsoever. I would be happy to buy if the seller is the one who made it, nampak sangat orang tengah amik untung..the price at gift shop is much better, although much more expensive if you compared with other country (one fridge magnet ~R35 (RM17.50))
Spoke to few other tourist and the locals, Cape Town has the most things to do and to see, compared to other town in South Africa (Jo'burg..etc) So definitely a good place to go.
Place for solat is almost nonexistent, (if you minus the Auwal Mosque). We did not find the mosque earlier as it is not clear in the map. Its actually very easy. From the main Buitengratch Street, you will see a boutique hotel Dutch Manor, turn into the street, the mosque is 2-3 doors away. (next to Dutch Manor, there is Nurul Islam mosque, but it is under renovation now..)
Hop On Hop Off bus is really worth it. You can try to cover all the attraction in one day (first bus at 9 am). We started late, around noon time, therefore we did not have much time to cover all. If you were to travel to those places by taxi, it will cost you more than R120 definitely
Like any other developing country, beggars are all around. For South Africa, unemployment rate is 40% (Malaysia berapa ek?) so any tourist will have at least one chance to be approached by these people. General rule of thumb, dismiss them politely. I was approached by this decently dressed guy asking for money to pay for shelter, for him and his son. We said no, and he just went away.
Its the company that matters, in our case, the company at the house. Most of them are American undergrads. They are on 2-3 months summer break and travel all across the Africa. After the game, the went back home straight, no drinking on the street. Nobody came back wasted, and they are the decent lot. Apart from the last night when a new group check in, there were some havoc around 2-3 am. Not sure what was the issue though..but the group that we hang out with while watching few games together are definitely the nice lot.
If ever going for backpackers style lodging, bring one small pan (at least boleh masak maggi) as they normally provide stoves in the pantry.
World Cup tickets: doesn't matter which category that you buy, local people get to sit at first tier (some lucky foreigners may also gets it). Good seats are given to those who bought Team Specific Tickets (TST). The only perks of Category 1 is you'll be seated close to the goal, not somewhere in the midfield, but level wise, they can put you anywhere...

That's it, as much as I can remember...all in all, it was a fun experience!! Glad that both of us made it ;)

Diamonds & Memories are Forever...

2010-07-20T12:11:00.009+08:00

6th July 2010

Our last day in Cape Town!! For the last day, we managed to squeezed in few more main places to visit...(haha..sempat lagi tu..). It was drizzling when we went out and not far from the house, we spotted rainbow!! The background is Table Mountain.

About 5 minutes from our house, stood the Afrogem factory. I actually planned for one diamond factory tour, but since the company did not reply my email, I decided to let it slide. We pass by this factory everyday and spotted the Free Tour signage and decided to give it a try on our last day. We were taken to the manufacturing floor where all the jewelleries were made.

Ija bought few stones (nice cut btw) since the jewellery design is just asi-asi . But the stones are real bargain. For a total of 4 stones that can be made into one ring,one pendant and a pair of earring, she only paid less than RM 1K.

We target to go to The Bo Kapp Museum, but it was dissappointing. The museum sopposed to show the history of Muslim in Cape Town, I expected to see the items that was brough together by all these slaves from all over (maybe cooking utensils from Indonesia probably since Dutch did transport most of the Muslim slaves from there.) But what we see was just a house, with not much artifacs, the best that they have is posters showing how Bo Kapp used to be during British colonization. The second house link to the museum gave more about Islam, but still not much. I noticed that they emphasize much on the religious leader and some places where this leaders were buried was dedicated as shrine. We came across one shrine at Robben Island.

One old man that was manning the place was kind enough to show us one of the first mosque in Bo Kapp. This is after I asked him why all the mosques was locked when we tried to go in the other day. I could not get straight answer from him, but good enough we made way to the mosque, Auwal Mosque (est 1794). It was not even Zohor yet, so nobody was around, but it was not locked. The old man passed us to one young man that is studying inside the mosque. This young man, Sayed, is a Muslim revert, we spoke quite a while and from him I found out about the true Islam in Cape Town.

Although there is a big population of Muslim people in Cape Town, they are still looked down upon by other religion. This is because the Muslim youth is not living the Islamic ways. They partied and drank like nobody's business and some even got involved in crimes. Eidul Fitri is not gazetted as public holiday, but mostly the bosses acknowledge that their Muslim employee need that holiday and it was arranged internally within the organisation.

There is no objection from the government to practise Islam, but the Muslim community is not strong yet, they have no say in the cabinet. Probably that is the reason why it is so hard to find musolla in the shopping centre although the halal certificate is all over their fast food joint.

I wanted to know more and I think I can spend all day talking to that boy, but we planned to go to the Castle of Good Hope before 12pm. So we have to leave.

We got to the castle 5 mins before the ceremony begins. At 10am and 12 pm everyday, there is guard exchange ceremony that took place in the castle. We stayed until the ceremony is over and took a tour on our own (for guided tour, we have to wait and since we are running out of time, we just strolled by ourselves)

We bought lunch at one of the fast food in the area and took taxi home.

We did some last minute packing and managed to say goodbye to the lady in the cafe, Browyn. There were a few nights that we had dinner at this cafe, my favorite was tomato and lentils soup with toast, yummeh..no pictures though as we mostly forgot to bring the camera when we went out for dinner. The white lady is Stacey, the house admin, she helped us with all the day trip, taxi and safari bookings.

The taxi came at 3pm, we have to check in at 4.30pm. The airport is just 30 mins away but since we want to settle some tax refund, we decided to go early.

While waiting for check in, we had drinks at Mugg and Bean as our farewell bid to Cape Town.

It was showing repeat of Spain vs Paraguay.

We departed 2 hours before the Netherland vs Uruguay kick off, when the plane passed by Green Point Stadium, there was an undescribable feeling inside me. Definitely a memorable journey and I highly recommend to all those nature lovers out there, Cape Town is a must visit place, beautiful and will instantly takes your breath away....(macam nyanyi lagu pulak...hehehe..)

Of Bo-Kapp and Kirstenbosch

2010-07-20T11:16:00.010+08:00

05th July 2010

We decided to take it slow today..(yes dieya..kitorang dah pancit..hehehe..) So started the day by walking to Bo Kapp and took pictures of the iconic colourful houses. Some of the Cape Town postcard took its background here..

I told Ija, "best kan kalo rumah kite camni, nak bagi direction kat orang, rumah aku yang biru cair..in between rumah kaler pink and kaler hijau, takla sesat orang nanti.."

Wanted to enter the Museum, but I guess we were too early. Then we head to Waterfront Area, to do some souvenir shopping ;) The giant red thing is actually made up of coca-cola carton, when we first got there, it was only at the waist level. After almost 1 week, they almost finished the head, that is how much coke was consumed during the world cup in Cape Town. Oh ya..we had breakfast at Love Revenge Cappuccino again ;) Outside the shopping complex, a football focus show was going on. There were quiz session and I didn't bother to participate because the questions were tough!!

We also went in the FIFA shop one last time (never failed to enter each time we went to Waterfront!!). The merchandise prices are above the roof!! I actually wanted to buy a Spain sweater (yang tulis España ye..bukan tulis Spain) but they were out of stock.

There is a craft museum next to the shopping centre and we bought most stuffs there. Price is much better than on the street, and they accepted cards as well.

We liked the Hop On Hop Off bus tour, so much, that we decided to go on it again!! We packed some lunch and board the bus at Waterfront, this time we planned to stop at Kirstenbosch Botanical Garden. Although it is winter season, we can still see various species of indigenous flora that was planted there. During summer they actually have concerts in the garden.

I could spend all day here, enjoying the cool breeze and lovely sorrounding, just take the stresses away ;) We board the bus at close to 4pm and that is the last one. Its almost dark when we get to the last stop, in the city area. We walked back and have dinner at the house.

I snapped this picture when the bus passed by 12 Apostles going to Sea Point. Isn't it amazing?

Safari Day Trip

2010-07-18T10:12:00.006+08:00

04th July 2010

I remember one of the first thing I wanted to do if I ever get to South Africa is to go on Safari Day Trip. So, its a must in my planning from the very beginning. I sureveyed quite a few game drive, and made up my mind to pick Aquila Game Reserve. Sounds familiar? yup, Amazing Race Asia was there. They were supposed to get a clue from the lions' place if I'm not mistaken.

They package includes a pick up from the place we stayed. We chose the early morning ride. The driver came at 0530H and drove us to the northen part of Cape Town. It took us 1.5 hrs drive to get to the game drive area. The outside temperature at that time is freaking 4.5 degC!! I was doubting can we ever see any animal in this cold weather. Package also includes breakfast and it is served in this magnificent cafe.

The game drive started at 9 something, we we put on the 4 wheel drive with another 4 persons. We were also given a blanket each, (must be due to the cold weather..hehehe..) The driver greeted us and explained about how the drive will take place. The animals are free roaming and we may not get to see them, but he will try to find them for us. We can also go on quad bike like these kids did. Thanks but no thanks, I'll freak out once the elephant or rhino gets close and then I froze, how??

First 30 minutes, we didn't see anything and just about when I wanted to ask for refund, we spotted the white rhino and the baby. It is huge...Later we went on the see zebras, springbrook (national antelope for South Africa). They have this Big 5 which are (rhino, giraffe, elephant, lion and springbrook). All these animals are featured on SA's stamps. We get to see all of them, plus the giraffe, well the giraffe were very far, so we only get to see the tiny bit.

The lions were placed separately from the other animals, for fear they will hunt them. We enters the gate to lions area and according to the driver, sometimes, the lions are up in the mountains, and we may not get to see them. But we did, they just had their meal...(nasib baik singa tu sume tengah kenyang...)

After 2 hours of game drive, we were driven back to main building. They also have huts all over, in case you want to take the overnight package for the night safari.

The driver drove us back close to 12. The journey passed by miles and miles of grape farm, (not wineyard though..) Both me and Ija fell asleep on the way (bangun kul 4, mana tak ngantuk?)..hehehe..

Got home around 1330H and after lunch at Nando's We decided to call it a day :)

Table Mountain & 2nd game day : Germany vs Argentina!!

2010-07-15T20:04:00.015+08:00

03rd July 2010

We started the day by taking taxi from the house to the cable car going up to the Table Mountain. It was only about 20 mins from the house.It cost us R30 for both of us. We can also walk up to the peak - 2 hrs walk in the cold weather, no thank you ;). Luckily the weather was good and the cable car can be operated. So we took the cable car up. One trip can fit 60 persons.

The view from top is simply magnificent. There is a cafe and gift shop on top of the peak. The cafe is so cozy,both me and Ija decided to have coffee there while hanging out, looking at people. After a while we browse through the rest of the peak. There are few points to see different parts of Cape Town from up above. We could also see the Signal Hill where we went during our second day here.

Anybody up for this?

We got down around 12pm to make way to the stadium. There were a lot of taxis and van waiting take passangers. A van driver approached us and offer R60 for both of us to go to the Waterfront. We think its a reasonable because from house to Waterfront also cost us another R35. So we agreed. The van kinda dodgy, they waited until its full then only they made a move. Going downhill suddenly the van died. It was at an intersection, people were honking, finally the driver managed to start the van and when we got to the city centre, it died again...We were placed to his friend's van and squashed to sit in between the existing passangers until Waterfront. The taxi pass by Green Point, and I saw the Fan Walk.

Fan Walk is a route from city center (Fan Fest) where are the concerts were ongoing dedicated for the fan to walk to the stadium. So I decided to drop at the fan walk and join the rest of the people walking.

We spotted one stall selling halal food and decided to get our lunch there. I bought the Boerewors roll. It tasted so good, I was so sorry I did not bought two.

From the stadium, Ija make way to waterfront while I enter the stadium alone, yup, she did not have the tickets. I think its a bit pushing it to drag her who was not a hardcore fan like me to begin with to both games (ye la..satu game dah berapa hundred USD, I am lucky enough that she agrees to come with me to Cape Town)

From here, the story gets kinda interesting. After the first game, I sort of know the layout of the stadium, and from my ticket, I am getting a third tier seat!! So I figured probably I go down, take pictures during the players warming up, and later go up right before the kick off. So I asked the FIFA volunteer to enter the first tier area, I was rejected, I was told to take pictures from my seat :(

I was not ready to give up, I stayed at the walkway to first tier and when nobody saw me, I jumped the seat and voila, I'm in ;) So there I was, sneaking in and tried to blend in the Argentina's supporters. Having a baby blue sweater sort of working for me ;) I met one Ghanaian lady, she was there by herself too. I told here where my seat at, she just suggested that I stay, in case any seats were not taken..hehehe...So I did, during the warm up session and total first half, I could not really concentrate for fear that the actual seat owner comes and claim the seat!!! Come half time, one American guy came up to me and said..

" You are sitting at my seat, I want my seat back."

Me of course having no objection whatsoever, walk away and go to my third tier seat, no problem.. I got these pictures already..hehehe.....

This is after I got to my OWN place..hehehe...what a view, eh?

I guess by now the whole world know how they game went ;) After the game, I walked to waterfront to meet Ija and we walked back home. When we got home, the Spain vs Paraguay game was about to kick off.

So we decided to hang out in front of the TV with the rest of the backpackers and watch the game together. Seems like the whole house is rooting for Spain, yeay!! After the triple penalties that can cause heart attack, Spain finally made their way to semis and will be up against German!!

Happy Birthday to You...

2010-07-14T10:21:00.003+08:00

Today is a birthday of someone who used to be close to me. We were classmates for 7 years and somehow after graduation we parted ways and did not met. We did not mantain the contacts anymore. Something happened I guess, that made things the way we are. We used to talk for hours to end about all the things in the world. From current issues, to hopes and dreams, everything...

To date, still my one and only meaningful conversations I ever had is with this person. We are similar in lot of ways but still two very different people. Now I miss this person a lot. The reason I remember so much is that our birthdays is exactly 2 weeks apart, so we never forget each others. I wish this person all the best, may Allah bless you, though I know you don't read this, but this is just a wish from a friend to another.

*Hate that I am being melancholic comes July 14th..every single year...

Historical Lesson in South Africa

2010-07-13T22:12:00.004+08:00

2nd July 2010

What is the first thing that came to our mind when people say South Africa? Apartheid of course. It still baffles me how people can diffrentiate others just by skin colour and their races. Apartheid regime ruled South Africa from 1948 to 1994. In all those years, many people has rebelled towards apartheid and many of them are political leaders.

South Africa was ruled by the Dutch for 250 years, before English took over for another 100 years, so they were never really freed until 1994. In all those years, the Dutch and English ruled other countries as well, (including Malaysia) hence you could expect the same rebellion taking places in those countries. The leader (rebels) from all over the world were taken into custody and sent to maximum security prison situated at Robben Island. The island housed a prison complex and only facilities to staffs of the prison.

After apartheid was knocked down, the political prisoners were released and criminal prisoners were relocated. So the complex was restored and opened for visitors.

We bought the ticket to Robben Island Tour on my birthday but the trip was cancelled due to bad weather, so we differed to this day.

We took the 9am trip. The jetty is situated at Waterfront, the boat is the big one (like the one going to Langkawi) . On the way to waterfront, we spotted this!!

The tour on the island is led by ex-prisoners, and they told us first hand how they were treated back in those days. We were taken on the bus tour, and the guide is this man Yassin. He was really entertaining. He started by asking around the bus where we all came from, and he relates his narration to each and every country that was on the bus. His ancestors were both from Malaysia and India, so he said to me, we probably some 3rd or fourth cousin..kelakar la pulak...;)

He made a lot of jokes, one that gets the most laugh is,

Q: Why India can never win a football match?

A: Because everytime they gets a corner, they open a shop.

We passed by few main landmarks. This one is the house where the pioneer rebels Robert Sobukwe was kept. I always thought Nelson Mandela was the one who started it all, apparently I was wrong. Read more about the late Sobukwe here.

We we are also taken into the inmates cell, shown artifacs of how the prison cards look like. We had the chance to go to the block where Mandela spent his 27 years in imprisonment. In each cells they posted personal experience of former inmates, on how they were arrested, under what act they were charged, so on and so forth.

We were also shown the limestone mine, where the prisoner was tasked to work there during day time. Limestone is white as it is, the scorching sunlight in the day makes it hard to work. This task were given not to get the limestone, but serve as a sort of punishment. Many of the prisoners were blinded due to that punishment.

My camera battery died here during the beginning of the tour, so I do not have that many pictures, more with Ija, but have not met her yet since we came back. So I kinda forget what we did for the rest of the days...bole tak? hehehe...Will update once I got the pics from Ija.

Day Trip : Worth It!!

2010-07-13T18:20:00.009+08:00

1st July 2010

When we consulted the house admin on how to get to certain places, we found out that we could not go to this one particular place, Cape Point, which I really really really wanted to go. Reason being is that there is no public transport going there and both of us do not have international driving license to hire a car. So she suggested we follow on a day tour. I found out about that in the net but at first I thought it was not worth it. But seeing the difficulties that we faced, I am willing to take the tour.

So we paid R545 for a day tour. The driver pick us up at the house around 0830H and later went on to pick up the rest of the pack. We have with us 2 French ladies, one American guy, 2 Indian guy, 2 more American (a guy with his father..sweet kan? but he's married, - yup, I checked the finger, boleh? hehehe...) 2 German guy, a Korean kid (he's still in uni) and a Columbian lady.

Our tour guide, Alex, is very good, he was willing to answer all kind of question. From him we found out that the train rail to Simons Town are out of order, that is why we could only got to Fish Hoek the other day (even people at the station didn't think to tell us that..)

So off we go to our first destination, Hout Bay with options to go to seal island. Both me and Ija went there already via Blue route yesterday, but we did not go to the seal island. So this time, we did. The boat is big but the waves are more nasty, turbulent waves to get to the island. There were few moments that I thought I would have thrown up. The island is not actually an island. Its just a big rock where most of the seals rested.

We bumped into a group of Indonesian that is being sponsored by Coca Cola to watch the World Cup (they won contest maybe..)

Next to Simons Town to visit the penguins, yay!! But we passed by this cliff with magnificent view and stopped to take some pictures,

Nak amik mcm aida, tapi salah shot..;)

We also passed by this part of the Cape Peninsular, they actually drilled onto the hill to make road. It look pretty scary though..

We finally hit Simons Town, we passed by the stone factory that was once used during Amazin Race Asia (the challenge where they have to find 3 marked stone out of thousands other stones) but we did not stopped there. Simons Town is popular of its Boulder's Beach, that is the place where they keep the African Penguin. The birds on its own will destroy their own food by stamping on it, so the center actually put a fence to new plants and opened parts by parts once the plants are ready to be eaten. (Yes, they ate plants apart from fishes..I just knew it too..) Entrance fee is R35 but included in the tour already.

Last but not least is what I have been waiting for, Cape Point!! We got there around 1330H, just about lunch time. At it is included in the package. We did asked for vege menu, as we are not sure what kind of meat that they have. We combined with another van (same co. tour) and the other driver bought us chicken salami, it was nicely wrapped. I told Ija just take it, sebab orang dah belikan, so just being polite, we took the chicken and later left it at the house pantry.

Entrance fee to the Cape of Good Hope Nature Reserve was R70 but it was paid for (in the package). We were driven to the cable car station going up to the light house. There is also staircase for those who opt to do a 'healthier' way. Me and Ija climbed up with majority of the people. The view from the light house was magnificent!!

Next we cycled from the Cape Point to the Cape of Good Hope. It was around half and hour cycle downhill. On the way we bumped into ostrich and baboon. We were told not to stop as babboon can get really nasty. We took more pictures here, more here.

We got home exhausted, like any other day and crash to a really good nite sleep ;)

Iniesta, te quiero!!!

2010-07-12T06:23:00.007+08:00

España won!!! I didn't sleep a wink, all the time on edge. Finally the best deserving team won!! The Dutch got what they deserve. After that kick on Alonso's chest, De Jong should have been red carded. They were since the beginning aiming for the Spanish players, not the ball. It was a tough match, and yes the Dutch played well, but as Spain supporter I am ecstatic!!! Now the guy in my office should be well shut his mouth up.

One remark that he made when Spain qualifies, 'Ya I was hoping Spain to win, because it will be a lot easier for Netherland to win the cup, compared to playing with the German' So brilliant guy, so much of easy target huh? ;)

I applaud the whole Spanish team, they did great!!! and my no 6 Iniesta just seal the deal ;)

~the cutest capitan ever~

Man of the Match: my man!!!

~they deserves it, seriously!!~

p/s: Nasty counts on the free kicks and yellow card, crazy!!

Birthday & Beautiful World of Cape Town

2010-07-11T00:45:00.009+08:00

30th June 2010

It’s my birthday!! I bought Ija a breakfast meal. There is this place in V&A Waterfront, called Love Revenge Cappucino, we had muffins each and I had tea, while Ija chose coffee. The muffin was very big, we could not finish at one go. It tasted healthy too..(not too sweet etc). I forgot to take the pictures. Ija didn’t even remember my birthday, guess she was still excited about the trip and forgot the whole thing ;p

Already bought the ticket to Robben Island yesterday and we went to Waterfront to catch the ferry. But due to bad weather the trip was cancelled and we have to differ to some other day. Since we are already at the waterfront, we decided to catch the Hop On Hop Off bus. For R120 a day, we can choose either Blue or Red route. Since the Red route covers most of the town area, which we can cover by walking, we decided to take the Blue Route. There are 20 stops altogether, but we only managed to stop at few places.

We passed by The Cape Town University, scenic route of Cecil Rhodes memorial, Kirstenbosch Botanical Garden, Birds Park and few others. The tour is accompanied by audio narration in 17 languages explaining the histories and how certain places got their names. It was very informative and definitely relaxing. We sat on the second deck enjoying the view and chill breeze.

First place that we stop, Hout Bay, it’s a fishing area, with jetty offering services to go to Seal Island. The funny thing is, in the early days, Hout Bays merchant used to issue passport as marketing gimmick to attract people coming to this area. It was until one point, the passport holder tried to enter a European country using that passport and got away with it. Each passengers were given one and in there lies discount coupon to few shops in Hout Bay. We did not really shopped for anything.

We got onto the bus to and later decide on the bus on where to stop next. The bus route pass by few scenic beaches and breathtaking views. We also passed by the famous Twelve Apostle and approach the most expensive area in Cape Town, Sea Point. We decided to hop off there and see how the Upper East side of Cape Town feels like. Conclusion, too many tourist, doesn’t feel like Cape Town at all. But the beaches were incredible, waves were quite high and apparently the area is a surfers area. We also stumbled upon people doing paragliding.

After hanging around for a while, we hop on the bus again (blue bus come once in 45 minutes) and stopped at the city centre. From thereon we did some browsing for souvenirs in the city to be brought home before walking back.

The weather is cold as it is winter now in South Africa. On day time the highest it can get is 19 degC. At night it can go as low as 11 degC. I only took a shower on the evening, as I could not stand the coldness. The bathroom is outside the room, its on the alley going to the living room and its open air (the alley) . So you can imagine, after a bath while walking back to the room, some 2-3 minutes walk is done at 10 degC. (For Malaysian standard, memang tak tahan...). So for my morning pick up, till we get out and get decent breakfast, I need some hot drinks. There is pantry available but was a bit hesitant to cook food there, as I didn't know what was cook in the pots and pans before. (Nak samak..adus...duduk kejap je pon..)

But using the kettle is not a problem, so we stopped by a local convinient store and bought some local tea for my morning pick up ;)

p/s: till today I have not had post birthday cake yet. celebration with family will take place end of month when I go back SP ;)

So Cute!! ;)

2010-07-11T00:40:00.002+08:00

I just could not resist watching these and posting it ;)

with Puyol half dressed, and Sergio Ramos kicked the bottled to sort of 'clear' the line...just so cute ;)

Game Day!! Portugal vs Spain

2010-07-09T14:02:00.023+08:00

29th June 2010

After first day not going according to plan, we decided to consult the admin of where we stay, they also provides services to book certain trips and activities. So second day we decided to stay in the city since we don't want to be late for the game ;)

We started to climb the Signal Hill (the starting point is like 10 minutes walk from where we stayed) around 10 pm. Bumped into one local guy. He was asking us where to go. Turns out he is concerned about us. We were told to keep our cameras in the bag, the actual place is safe, but getting there, the road is a bit quite. We were also told to be vigilant, do not let any strangers talk to us.

We were the first one that gets to the hill, it was windy and freezing cold, then hill overloking Cape Town city, waterfront and Green Point Stadium. The Noon Gun ceremony was initially intended to signal the sailor, such that when the gun is fired at 12 pm, sailors around Cape Town waters will reset their watch.These days, it was continued in honour of the ceremony.

with one of the navy on duty, Alistair

The other tourists arrived in taxis and vans, seems like we were the only two that climbed by foot ;p After the ceremony, we went down and make way to Bo Kapp, a supposedly Muslim area. There is one restaurant, and we decided to have lunch there. The tagline is 'Malay Cape Food' but when I looked at the menu, only one that I can identify with Malaysia, Pienang Curry (yup, spell that way). The rest is more Indian than Malay, lots of other curries, and main dish is beriyani. But the thing that ticks me the most is this. Anybody ever heard of this?

We didn't even finished lunch when the rain started pouring, and both of us did not have neither rain coat nor umbrella. After lunch, we decided to find a mosque, but most of the mosque are locked, we made way by foot to the city, and bought ourselves raincoats before heading to stadium. The day was getting colder and it was only 2.30pm. Passed by waterfront and the Japanese-Paraguay was shown on the big screen. Not many people as it was still raining.

So we made way to stadium and waited till we can get in. 3 hours before kick off, the gate is opened. There is a fan zone that consist of sponsors camps set up all over. I was like a kid in a candy store jumping from one camp to another. 1.5 hour before kick off, we went to look for our seat. We got the second tier seating despite paying the Category 1 ticket. I saw from my place that Eduardo, Portuguese goalkeeper came out for warm up.

I quickly ran down trying to get a closer look. I got a close up look on the whole team ;)

too bad that my favorite no 6 did not come close..so lelaki ini je la yang enterframe..hehehe...

It was an entertaining game despite the bummer that is only one of my favorite team will advance to q-final. I really enjoyed the live game experience. I was lucky that the ticket that I bought one year ago, is for this particular match. Where and when again I get to see Spain vs Portugal, only Allah knows.

We went back exhausted, partly due to the endless walking, which is compounded by walking in the rain, but satisfied ;)

Journey Begins...Waka-Waka Day 1

2010-07-09T12:38:00.005+08:00

We (Ija and I) started our journey in KL Sentral. We planned to take the ERL to KLIA. Since this is Ija's first overseas trip, I insisted on taking the ERL, to mark our journey, plus I think its the most hassle free and green mode going to KLIA. Her family from Shah Alam sent her to KL Sentral and I made my way via Komuter.

Met at 2230H and we board the train to KL Sentral. Checked in to Emirates counter and both metally and physically be prepared to the longest journey we are going to take.

Leg 1 : KL to Dubai (6 hrs) then transit for 5 hrs

Leg 2 : Dubai to Cape Town (9 hrs)

Since Emirates is the official partner for the World Cup, we get live updates on plane for latest results. Touched down in Cape Town at close to 1700H , local time (-6 hrs Malaysian time). We were greeted by the taxi driver, and drove us to Zebra Crossing backpackers travelodge.

It was dark when we reached the backpackers (sunset at 6pm). We book a room for two but since there is some arrangement problem, we were given the room for 6 just for the two of us. We do however have to switch room to smaller ones on Friday when a bigger group check in ;)

Day 1 28-06-2010:

We walked to the water front, breakfast at Mugg & Bean, a famous SA coffee shop chain, then we proceed to city center.

With my folder in hand, trying to take the metro to get to our first destination. Initially we plan to go to Chart Farm near Wynberg for some sightseeing and later head to Simons Town to pay a visit to Africans Penguins. There is a metro line going to those places. The staffs at the station were very helpful. We were told for the two places, we can take the hop on hop off Southern line train for R30 (~RM 15) for all day ride. So we bought the tickets and started our journey. First stop in Wynberg. When we got off, we started asking around on how to get to Chart Farm. To our suprise, not many locals know where the place was. So we started to walk around the Wynberg station area, trying to find our way. We decided to ask one shopkeeper. The owner was nice enough to let one of his boys to show us part of the way but they have some concern look on their face.

The boy can only point us untill the Wynberg Police Station. From there on it is another like 1 hour walk and we were told by locals no taxi goes to that area..hhmm... looking at the sorrounding near us, the town is kinda dodgy place. Many people loitering around and I don't think it will be safe for us to walk another 1 hour or so.

So we decided to board the train and continue our journey to Simons Town. The train stopped at Fish Hoek, and we were told that it was the last stop. Both me and Ija were a bit confused. So we got down and started walking around. Since we could not get to both of the destination on the first day, we decided to go with the flow ;)

We stopped by Kalk's Bay and bought a postcard (yes Shaz, the one that we sent you, as your address is the only one that I can remembers on top of my head) Ask the friendly shopkeeper where can we get a good seafood meal. She quickly points us to Kalky's. We bought a deluxe platter and plan to stop by at St James before heading home.

At St James, we met a local Muslim, Rushaan and exchange contact nos.

It was around 1600H that we started to make a move before it gets dark. We had the deluxe platter for dinner and we could not even finished the fries (it was that much ;)

We did not planned to explore the night life as it is kind of new territory to us and besides, its not advisable by the locals, especially the two ladies.

Am a bit slow updating...so kena sabar la ye? you wanted ALL kan dieya ;)

I am back!!!

2010-07-08T08:03:00.002+08:00

Letihnya...touched down last night, sebab excited punya pasal I didn't sleep to catch the Spain vs Germany match. Nasib baik Spain menang, yeay!!!

Lots of things to tell, just in a nut shell, I had the time of my life watching two games at Green Point Stadium, Cape Town, first being Portugal vs Spain and second was Germany vs Argentina. I spent 1 week ++ at Cape Town, exploring the beautiful place ;) Nanti ye cite.. !!!

Am on My Way...

2010-06-27T00:42:00.003+08:00

Currently logging in from the free internet kiosk at KLIA,waiting for departure. Finally it comes true :) Will tel more if and when I have the chance.

*wishing for a safe journey!!

Oh Noooooo!!!!!!

2010-06-26T07:37:00.000+08:00

What I fear the most has comes through. Portugal will have to face Spain for the round of 16 match in order to get to quarter finals. Bummer!!

Portugal vs Brazil was quite a carefully played game as both teams had little at stake (considering Portugal could easily qualify based on the humongous goal they get during NKorea defeat.) Its going to an entertaining match, could not wait ;)

Pengawas Blog

2010-06-22T21:02:00.004+08:00

Just when I thought I am entitled to free speech, somebody proved that I am not. This happens last week. Person A called me and asked to see me urgently. We never really spoke (takat hi kat pantry doesn't count rite?) and our job did not really cross path. So I was a bit suprised to be called on such an urgent basis. 'Aku buat salah ke?'

When I reached A's places, my blog is on A's screen.

Me : 'Damn...macam mana dia bole tau ni?' (dalam ati la...)
A : Is this your blog?
Me : Yes....
A : There are certain things that you wrote here cannot be written tau,
Me : Aaa? Pasal ape ek..? (I remembers very clearly not to put any co's P&C stuffs here)
A : Like this stuffs...(A scrolled to the post and and pointed to the said 'thing') This is confidential tau, we can only released this once a quarter to the public
Me : But I wrote in general (mind you, it was the general economics state at that time, no figures involved). This one I heard all over radio, (the other 'thing'-meaning bukan confidential la kan?)
A : Ya, but you cannot write this tau, people can manipulate the market share (or was it market price?) with this info.
Me : Ooo...yeke? (serious muka tak paham...) takpela..nanti I edit, I remove.
A : Ok, please ek..
Me : Ok, by the way, who told you about my blog?
A : Ade la... (refuse to disclose the informer)

I know for a fact that A did not read my blog. Last few day's I bumped into A, and A asked whether or not have I removed the item, meaning A did not go off and on to monitor what I wrote etc..etc..

So the informer still is mystery, and my dear colleague, I naikkan pangkat you jadi Pengawas Blog. From now on it will be a bit hard to share what I thought about work. I don't plan to privatize this blog so I just have to be a lil bit more careful in my writing. Ok tak PB? :)

p/s: I made a pact to myself, by end of World Cup, my post about football will be more than about work..hehehe...

7-0 and 2-0 sweeetttt..... :)

2010-06-22T10:28:00.007+08:00

I only watched the first match Portugal vs N Korea. Balik rumah at 7.30pm terus tercangak depan TV. Dinner ke mana, apa kemana, this morning I woke up with growling stomach. Serves me right! but it was really worth it. I was very nervous watching the game, the first 20 minutes both teams seems not to be handling the ball very well, probably due to wet pitch. The rain was so heavy, I pity the players very much.

After the first goal by Raul Meireles, my only hope was Portugal to be more defensive, that is all I asked. N Korea did have some good tries, all are long ranged and rather wide, none that really tested Eduardo and the defence.

Second half was the most entertaining. Portugal really capitalised for the lack of NKorean's defence. The chances were many and good enough it materialize in the form of goals (many of them..hehehe...)

My man of the match : First I thought of giving it to Raul Meireles, for most of the good moves, and yes he was all over the pitch. But then in the second half, I realised Christiano Ronaldo deserves it as well. He was not the usual one man show, he did pass on what supposed to be a good shot to someone else and turns into brilliant passes (Like the goal Liedson scored). The final goal, he really earns it after almost 90 minutes hardwork, creating set pieces for the rest to put their name on the goal sheet. He also have tone down a bit on the attitude everytime he was tackled, not so much of the cry baby anymore.

Raul Meireles

One of the time you can see C.Ronaldo smiles ;)

Very heavy rain in the first half

Moving on, I am anxious to see them fighting Brazil (who happens to be a bunch of drama kings as well). They have to play a bit more defensive. I'll say they play defence like when they played Ivory Coast and play attack like they played NKorea. If they managed to combign the two, holding Brazil to a draw is a possible chance :)

Spain won as well!!! (I really need to bake a cake...ade kaitan?) I did not watch the game, but with 2-0 definitely it was an entertaining one. Never mind, watch highlights ;)

p/s: Lets just hope Ivory Coast did not trash NKorea more than 7-0!!!

Feedback

2010-06-20T00:24:00.003+08:00

Something we get day in day out. Formal and informal, whether you like it or not. It may be in a form of passing remarks, or a recommendation via email. I am sharing 3 different stories, one same theme.

Story 1
Miss A had a workshop. The facilitator is someone from a consultation company. Initially, during the prep stage, the facilitator, Mr B were asking too much of basic data and info, which drives Miss A to the wall. Come the week of workshop, it went very well. They achieved more than what they planned to do. This is largely contributed by Mr B's proper preparation, and also Mr B is a very experienced person, he shared many useful tips with Miss A and her colleagues. Impressed by how well the whole things went, Miss A wrote an email listing all the good stuffs that Mr B did and forwarded to Mr B superior. She even took the intiative to gather feedbacks from the rest as well.

Story 2
A company,C has been doing so well for the past few years has been appointed as the host of an important meeting. The meeting gathers most of the other co's leaders which is in the same business. The session went well and many activites were lined up for the leaders throughout the day. One of the session, a check on the ground was conducted, one of the guest leader, D gave a very bad feedback and in a way demotivates most of the people in Company C. The staffs upon hearing the remarks became very defensive as they were so used to hearing good feedback. They even start labelling leader D as sour grape, as his company were not doing great off late.

Story 3
An engineer, Miss E was assigned to mentor a trainee, F. Being an engineer, she is busy and did not expect to hand hold the trainee to get his job done. Trainee F was demotivated as he feels that nobody is guiding him. Things went on for a few months right to the time when F is about to finish his internship. Miss E graded F, and due to some reasons, trainee F did not get an 'A' for his internship. He decides to confront Miss E, however the confrontation did not went well. It happens in one of the meeting room where many people walks by. Some staffs heard very high voices were raised. Apparently the trainee F shouts at his supervisor Miss E, and in her defence, she raised her voice as well during the argument.

Many things that we can learn just by observing people around us. That is also a feedback ;)

Cantiknya Crocs ni.....

2010-06-18T14:06:00.003+08:00

I am going for a trip, so am thinking to buy one comfy shoe. So I browse for those blogs that sold ori crocs at half price, but found nothing that I really like, price is around RM 80-85 for off road design. So I browse the official Crocs Malaysia webpage...man I am drooling right now, memang tau diorang ni...

Click here

Now dah berbelah bagi nak beli yang RM 80+ ok-ok design or nak beli yang cantiks ni at more than double the price.

Lucky that they do not have Portugal punya, if they have it, this post won't be about choosing anymore, I'll be parading my crocs. Spain punya a bit too vibrant for me, I like France punya but I don't like France, then how?

Argentina's one look nice jugak...macam mane ek? Adui.....

They are the first one in!!

2010-06-18T06:32:00.002+08:00

Yesterday I watched the game with no expectations. I support neither Argentina nor South Korea. I just tune in for hope of watching a good game. And indeed, it was a good game :)

I hope both teams do well because I just love to see more of Messi dribbling and passing the ball while escaping 2-3 opponents at one time, and I would also be proud to have Asian team getting the next round. But apparently Maradona's side was better then.

For the first half I think Korea's defender were either sleeping or day dreaming. They look as if they were somewhere else. That own goal really jumpstart Argentine's goal fest. Second half actions were much better. The managed to shot on target quite few times and Park Ji Sung proven that he's worth the captaincy and regular MU line up. His moves were fluid and at times looks effortless.

But I really takes my hat off (bukan tudung a..) to the combination of Tevez and Messi. Man, they really outplayed Korea's defence and shake things up quite a few times. Korea's keeper Jung Sung Ryong redeemed himself quite a few times with good saves. But the 6 striker team was unstoppable and managed to add another 2 goals on second half.

Overall it was an entertaining game, its what a football all about, creating chances and taking opportunities. I did not see any defender from both teams hogging the penalty box like the Swiss and Ivory Coast did. (which reminds me of Greece when they won Euro 2004, I think..)

The most fun I had was hearing the commentator's remark. I don't know what his name is, but he is damn funny. His remarks are so hillarious. One of which that I remembers, when one of the Argentine (I think Messi) had a shot, and the ball went well above the post, to the spectators, he said "That might have just decapitated some of the fans". Funny!!

My man of the match : Its actually a three corner tie, between Park Ji Sung, Tevez and Messi, because all three of them really gave all out and they were everywhere, but in the end I pick Messi. Because of him, Higuain was able to score at least the 2 final goals and create the first hat trick for this year fiesta ;)

Funny Wedding Questions

2010-06-17T14:48:00.003+08:00

A friend sent this to me, fresh from the person herself,

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As usual, you get people asking you many questions at weddings, especially if your younger sister is getting married before you. Here are some of the popular questions that were posed to me in no particular order (and some were rephrased):

Q1: How come you let your sister marry before you?
A1: Oh well, if my sister finds a boat before I do, why not let her jump first? :)

Q2: What did your sister give you (for langkah bendul)?
A2: Nothing. I'm not into her or her fiance bribing me to get married :)

Q3: How come your sister's nose is different than your's?
A3: (pause) Well, I guess Allah loves diversity. I love my nose. Don't you? :P

Q4: So lepas ni your turn la?
A4: I hope so. But if my youngest sister goes first then that's ok. Marriage is not a competition for our family :0)

Q5: Are you single because you are choosy?
A5: I'm hardly choosy. I am very particular that the person is MALE, heterosexual, a Muslim or wants to be a Muslim. (Then, I would like him to have good iman, akhlak and adab.) Okla, he has to be funnier than me! ;-)

Q6: Do you have a particular type?
A6: Yes. The person has to be MALE, heterosexual, a Muslim or wants to be a Muslim. Didn't we cover this? :-)

Q7: What is the price of the hantaran for you and your siblings?
A7: We're pretty cheap. Most of the time my parents leave it to the groom's family.

Q8: When do we get to meet the special guy?
A8: When he finds me I'm sure we'll let you know :)

Q9: Do you think you are too focused on your career?
A9: That is untrue. I can decide to leave any time. I would like to be a housewife cum investor. Houses are easy to find. The wife status will come.

Q10: Are you not worried that your sisters are all getting married?
A10: I can't worry over things I cannot control. I'll get PIMPLES! :P

What can I say? I love laughing my heart out.

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Me? I feel you too my friend, we are in the same boat..hahaha...funny how people just could not accept a younger sister got married, leaving us the older ones still single, I wonder though...dosa ke? ;)

It was a sad night

2010-06-17T07:07:00.004+08:00

Last night I watched one of the biggest upset for this round of WC campaign. Spain got beaten by Swiss. At first I was relaxed, but towards some 20 mins in the game, I realised that Spain was put under the same physical challenges as Portugal last night. Its size vs. skill. The Swiss defenders are all big people. David Villa can barely pass them. First half not much happened although there is some brilliant passes from Puyol to the midfield.

Second half was getting more interesting, Spain attacks, and almost all of the players past the midfiled. However Swiss were very quick to capitalised for the lack of defence in Spain penalty box. That no 9 (can't remember the name, too lazy to Google) sprint right through and tried to shoot, Casillas blocked it but the ball bounced back. There was quite a commotion in front of the goal and by chance they managed to score. Pique even get himself injured in the process. That was in the 53rd minutes.

Torres was only put in on 70th minute. He and Jesus Navas both did quite break the Swiss defence and managed to open up few tries, however it was not good enough. I can say that Spain did played a good game. They surely do the backheel thingy better than Portugal. They had most of the possession but too bad they just could not score.

I thought Portugal will be in tough position, but it is now looking even worse for Spain. From what I heard Chile is playing a good game as well. But then it is not the end of the world. France lost their opening game in 1998 and later went ahead to lift the cup, anything can happen.

So far the only favorites that live up to standards are Brazil, Germany and Argentina. The rest are still vague.

My man of the match : Andres Iniesta, he was relentless and hardworking throughout the game despite being heavily challenged by most of the Swiss.

You know where I get the pics ;)

The Group of Death

2010-06-16T06:20:00.011+08:00

Watched the Portugal vs Ivory Coast last night. I was on the edge all the time. I do expect a good fight between the two, simply because I.Coast is the biggest African star. I have mentioned this many many times before, Portugal need to step up their game. The finishing was not good at all. But the one time heart stopping kick from C.Ronaldo on the 10th min was really worth it. Both teams actually was not on top of their form, sloppy passes everywhere, they easily lost the ball to opponent somewhere in midfield.

Portugal have the least chance to get in the box. Everytime a white shirt enters, there will be 3 orange shirt cramming that poor one player. I pity Liedson the most. He is thin, so when all this big mean Oranges are all over him, how much can he actually do? I think for the first 15 minutes they were just reading the game, but after being tackled unnecessarily by Ivory Coast for quite some time, they just need to return the favour.

All in all Portugal did not play their best last night. The saving grace for them (and maybe for Ivory Coast too) was solid defence. Ricardo Carvalho with Fabio Coentrão did a good job blocking attacks by especially Gervinho. That kid can really play.

When the camera showed Drogba was warming up, I was thinking, we need Simão, seriously, he's vital to help at least Liedson or C.Ronaldo get some space to at least try a shot at goal. But then, Carlos Queiroz decided to take Deco out. Portugal just lost the combination without Deco to support Simão. They ends up 0-0. A fair results for the two but definitely complicates their chances of moving to the next round.

I did not watch the full game of North Korea vs Brazil, but from the highlights, I would not write North Korea off yet. They did scored 1 goal against Brazil. Now that NK has tasted how is it like playing among the greatest team (Brazil), they will up their game with Portugal, definitely. It will be a tough journey for Portugal, and I hope they will do well.

C.Ronaldo going head to head with Drogba

My man of the match : Ricardo Carvalho

This is the best pics I can get. Too much of C.Ronaldo all over FIFA webpage ;p

pics from FIFA website

os melhores Portugal!!!!

p/s: I love the white loose jersey ;)

Me and Football

2010-06-14T17:15:00.006+08:00

I have some spare time now, so let tell you a story of me :) and of course, football!!! I remember when I was quite young (in primary school) Liga Perdana Malaysia was such a big hype. My parents both from Kedah, so can imagine the whole family are loyal supporter . One of the days I would follow my dad to Stadium Negara to watch the final between KL and Kedah. We would be switching places after half time (depending on where Kedah's goal is). Back then people sold burgers for 50cents each towards end of game ;)

I grew up liking to watch football. But I never really supported any team in particular. I don't like to talk about it with guys either. They always came across as Mr Know-It-All when it comes to football so that is quite a big turn off for me.

I remember watching the final of 1998 World Cup. The game ended in the wee hours and I remembered going to school and discussing with my classmates about the how only Roberto Carlos was playing for Brazil, the rest were just filling up the pitch. Nostalgic rite?

And then 2002, I was in UiTM. The TV room in Teratai 1 (my college) is installed with Astro (2002, you imagine how many household had astro? even my house didn't have it yet!!) And to make things better, my room is on the same level with the TV room!!! So there I am, alone in the TV room, watching I don't know how many games. And the only other spectator was my junior. So both of us will be like freaks, shouting (softly..hehehe..its still a college y know) and complaining, commenting on where appropriate. At that time I started supporting Portugal already, and yup, Christiano Ronaldo had not played yet. Their biggest star was Luis Figo and Pauletta, sometimes Maniche. I remember even making a picture of Nuno Gomez as my wallpaper..hahaha.... so dieya, you are not alone ;)

2006, I started working here. I came in during the World Cup fever, and gets my updates via web because I was waiting for an outgoing trainee to pass her Astro to me. RTM and TV3 reception is bad around here, don't ask me why.

4 years later, here I am, still loving every bit of the game and this year I have bigger things planned ;) Those that is close to me already knew, but let me just let the cat out of the bag when the 'thing' is over. Its a bit premature to make a big huha..

And oh, one more thing, my friend Ija, celebrated her birthday this year during the Kick Off, 11th June. So me and my friends pulls a prank on her, suprised her at her home during the opening match. And to my suprise, I was suprised to!!! Since they will not be able to get me on my birthday due to 'some' reason, they decided to throw me an advanced birthday celebration ;)
All of them are not football fans. The nicknames are just to humour me..hehehe

Yup, they are not football fans, where and when on earth did Rooney, Beckham and Ronaldinho played for Portugal!!! ahahahaha.....

And Shaz, C.Vela is real, he played for Mexico, so you were not seeing things. Thanks a lot you guys ;)

D Day - 15

2010-06-11T10:34:00.002+08:00

World Cup is starting today!!! Am not gonna watch the Opening Match between Argentina vs the home team South Africa. Will be out for dinner with colleagues.

Who I support? Portugal of course ;) Boa suerte!!

p/s: Must get this month's edition of 4-4-2.

That's Creepy Ok?!!!

2010-06-10T19:12:00.006+08:00

I have been stalked (I think) by few Chinese blogwalkers. They have blogger account but do not have a blog.

They (more than 1) have been reading (not sure of that) and leaving very not relevant comments on my blog. The point that tips me off is this one:

Blogger profile :http://www.blogger.com/profile/06612093605582105780
Comment: your son/daughter is so cute............................................................
My post about: Isreal and US

Bukan ke tak relevant tu, and creepy, probably talking about my niece or nephew, as seriously don't have kids..

Some other includes;

Blogger profile :http://www.blogger.com/profile/07236645203581407000
Comment: 路遙知馬力，日久見人心。...................................................... (which means 'Distance tests a horse, time will tell.' ) ...what the ????
My post about : Buat Jahat

There are few others that I have deleted. Seriously, its creepy. If you want to read and leave message, be decent, at least comment appropriately, ini tak, ntah ape-ape.....the two that I deleted sounds like some proverb copied ans pasted.

Takkan nak privatise the blog just because these few sick people?

They Really Chose Not to See It..

2010-06-07T22:27:00.003+08:00

I am watching NCIS DC now. Contiued from the last week episode where it stops after DiNozzo shot Ziva's Mossad bf. They put it in the damn TV series and explain really well how Americans feel about their lifelong counterpart, the Israel. TV in some ways reflects the reality, and this one really does.

NCIS knew that Rivkin shot their agent without a strong basis, yet the best they can do is ask him to leave the states.
Gibbs knew that Ziva witheld information that causes a US agent to be killed, but he still trust her anyway.

Bottom line, American government realised what Isreal is doing is bad, really bad but they chose to let it slip. I really could not comprehend what power the Israel had (and still have) over the US until they are so scared to stand up what is right to humanity in general, and to the point that they went all out to protect their alliances with the Zionist. Seriously I am baffled.

TV imitates reality and yet I could not get the logic.

~Pasir Bercerita~

2010-06-01T10:33:00.001+08:00

I found a cool video on this blog.

Tried to embed it but, I guess I was too much of IT blind, so go and watch it from the source, self explainatory, enjoy ;)

Yahoo Video - Amazing Sands

4 years and counting...

2010-06-01T10:20:00.002+08:00

Today, alhamdulillah, I turn 4 in this company. Although the journey is not so smooth, I had my good days, and fair share of bad ones. Hope I can do more to contribute, and continue to work for my own sake.

There are days that I just wish I don't have to come to work, but there are days I just look forward to. All in a days work. At this place, I've made new connections, some more meaningful than others, I learn a way of living, I was able to provide more to my family and maybe later myself. Its a passage, a stopover, a transit, until I get to a better place. The grass is always greener elsewhere, but don't forget the land that we are stepping on, those land that has given me firm support for the past 4 years.

InsyaAllah, I will do my best to continue what I do and maybe better ;)

Candak Sotong Weh!!!

2010-05-31T09:34:00.017+08:00

Always wanted to do this since I watched Majalah 3 back in school days. So when my friend Jija offered me to join she and her ex-classmate, I jumped right in ;)

We depart from KL at 10pm on Friday nite. Believe it or not this is my first time taking bus at Hentian Putra (I don't have that many east coast connection). Reach KT around 5 am and Jija's friend, Baya pick us up and we crashed at her place in Hulu Terengganu. Later that day around 3.30 pm, we made a move to Jeti Lembaga Perikanan at Chendering (some 20 minutes away from KT).

There were 8 of us altogether, another 3 girls were Jija's classmate, and the rest were friend of one of the classmate. Simply put, I went on this adventure with total strangers (apart from Jija)

We depart around 5.00 pm. The boat is quite comfortable, handled by 3 men. It has its own pantry, sleeping place, 2nd tier sleeping place, and a place to do 'small business'. I dare not do 'big business' in the open sea ;p

We heard the pakcik were betting how long can we survived without falling sick. According to the non first timers, last time they went, they threw up almost immediately after the boat moves. This time we took the anti-seasick meds. So we were still smiling and laughing till we reach the target area, some 1.5 hours away from the jetty.

The pakcik help us all to set up the 'candat' and taught us how to 'candat' sotong (squid fishing). The guys gets the first squid, none of the girls gets any yet, and the skies quickly turned dark.

I was getting seasick, my friend Jija has already vomitted twice. I could not look for fear I will feel sick too.

One of the pakcik prepared dinner, it was white rice, with kari ayam and fresh fried squid. I took a taste at the squid, but I could not even finish one small pieces. I can feel that it sort of get stuck in my throat. I know that if I continues eating, high chance that I will throw up. With that I did not eat dinner. The rest was happily digging in (except for 2-3 of us). The fresh squid actually tasted sweet, its a pity I could not digest it.

Happy faces gets to eat!!

At close to 10pm, I finally managed to catch my one and only squid!! I caught the medium sized, the other guy gets the biggest. The length is from his hand to this elbow, that long!!

See how big it is? Compare to the ones that we see in the market..

After around 12pm nobody gets any squid anymore, there were few occasion, the squid was eaten by big fish, hence scared the rest of the squid to come nearby us. One of the pakcik suggested we change venue. We move to another area where he sets baits for fish. We ends up getting two big fish.

Me posed with one of the fishes, a haruan tasik, weighted 35 pounds (~15 kg)

It took the pakcik and his friends almost 30 minutes fighting with the fish before we can actually brought it up. That was around 4 am in the morning.

Come 6 am, we were preparing to get back to Jetty, again one of the pakcik (seriously I don't know their name...sorry..) fried us the squid, and this time I can eat it. The plate was swipped clean by us in no time ;)

Hungry people early in the morning....

Group pics as soon as we made on shore safely ;)

As both Jija and I traveled by bus, we could not bring back any bounty. Plus, we have to rush back to KL. The rest went on to Baya's house, and I think they barbecued the squids and fish.

Baya drop us in KT, Jija and I showered backpackers style, at a surau, before we went to Pasar Payang to buy some keropok lekor to bring back. We also sampled some local delicacies, but most of it are too sweet for my taste buds.

I left Terengganu that day with a new adventure, I plan to make a family trip back here again and maybe go for another 'candak sotong' adventure.

This is my favorite picture, taken at almost sunrise, explains one thing the best, Serenity...

Hutang Tag 2 - Kasut

2010-05-28T11:30:00.001+08:00

The reason I was procrastinating on this tag is because of two main reasons:

I have my shoes all over Malaysia..(cecewah....all over KL, PD (home and office) and SP actually) and also...
I don't have my camera with me ;)

So since I resolved the second issue, I can sort of do this..hahaha....

Shoe no 1, I bought it to be worn with long skirt for a school reunion.
Shoe no 2 is used mostly for work (noticed that it is worn out, tunggu waktu nak arwah je..) .
Shoe no 3 is the official work shoe. Issued by the company, it is my safety shoe, it has metal at the toes area, to protect the foot if any fallen object fall onto it (not that I expected any..).We have to wear it everytime we go into the plant area.
Shoe no 4 is my official work out shoe, while shoe no 5 is used for jalan-jalan.
Shoe no 6 is the famous nonetheless flip-flop.
Shoe no 7 is the latest addition to the family, bought it to standby in case shoe no 2 can no longer service me.

Actually I have more shoes, some in my trunks, some in KL, and some in SP. As you can see it, when it comes to shoe colour, I prefer either black, white or sometimes brown. The most odd colour as you can probably see is in shoe 4,5 and 6 (any blue rays)...you see my blog header, isn't it obvious what my fav colour is? hehehe.....so not adventurous kan? As for design, I prefer flat shoes, I am terrible when it comes to wearing heels...asyik terpelecok..so I better not wear it ;p.

Now am thinking to buy one comfy crocs.. Nanti nak pegi jalan jauh....hehehe..(anything can justify buying new shoes..hahahaha...)

My First Ever Finished Project - Mary Jane Booties

2010-05-27T10:14:00.003+08:00

At last!! something that I can claim credit to. I made this for my niece Tisya. She is now 4 months +. The booties is sized for 6 months infant. For a pro knitter, it will only take 2 hours to finish each foot. But for me the kint-green, I took 2 days to finish this tiny lil cutie ;p

Mostly because I was stuck at certain technique (slip slip knit, yarn over and bind off), that I have to refer to my book. When I did that, I lost count and have to disassemble the whole thing and start from scratch... well, they say practise make perfect rite?

So here are some pics during the making,

The pattern require garter stitch, the easiest of all (suits beginner like me)

One booties done, awaiting for finishing.

Finsihed it using cross stitch needle and the same yarn

Two booties ready to be buttoned up

Voila....dah siap ;)

This project is easy enough for me to complete. Now I don't have to think hard on newborn baby gift already. The only thing is that this can only be worn by girls. I have one more pattern that can be worn by both girls and boys. I am going to do that one, and will share once its done ;)

Credit for the pattern taken from HipKnitized

p/s: still a long way to go before I can make a sweater .. ;p

I was Wrong !!

2010-05-25T13:12:00.003+08:00

Remember when I wrote about NCIS? I thought the collaboration of LA and DC team was after the current LA running season in AXN. But when I watched NCIS last night, it was actually before the whole season started. It ends when Callen was shot.

But I thought the current running season in AXN is first season? Or the collaboration in NCIS is actually their pilot episode? I'm not making any sense am I?

We're Hunters!!

2010-05-24T17:41:00.005+08:00

This is my first full blown treasure hunt. Well actually we named it Walk-a-Hunt. It was organised by the co's Sports Club. We started off in PD, at 8 am.

When: Last Sat, 22nd May

Where : In Awana Genting

Who : My team, 3 of us,

Team name : Proton XX (all of us driving Iswara and all are girls!!)

It was raining very heavily and alhamdulillah by the time we hit the highway, the rain stops. But it continues to drizzle as we enter MRR2 and Karak Highway. It was a very misty drive all the way up (I was driving). We reach Awana at 10am, waited for the rest of pack to arrive. It was later followed by briefing by organiser (some event company) and flag off at 1230 pm.

During the briefing, I figured that the question is really tough!!

my colleagues (the guys, with wife and kids. the two boys are the cutest, plus they were born 3 days apart)

Comprises of 3 sections, questions with clue and we were required to find the answers within certain area. Second one was pictures, they took a close up shot of certain things/signage and ask us to match where the actual stuffs is located and third of course the treasure. We had a copied strategy from the winning team last year. We took a lot of snaps and group together to match with the clues. I mean no point walking around and forgetting what you saw rite?

One of the shot I took, one of the answer is in this pics...

It was damn hard!!Time given was 4 hours, but by the second hours I can see many people kinda loose their radar already, as the place is not that big, but the questions were tough, to the point we just bantai most of the stuffs.

Hard at work...tengah bantai mana yang tak tau....hahaha....

After the hunt ended, me and my hsemate crashed and dinner was served at 8pm. When they revealed the answers, we knew we did not have any chance of winning, but to our surprise, we got 7th place out of 30+ teams that were competing!! awsome!!

After that we went up, and managed to catch Shrek 4, double thumbs up, am so watching the 3D with my sis ;) Went back at 2 am!!

Anaz tag along as his team mates pergi berjudi ;p

We sat at 2nd row from screen...nak sangat....

The next morning after breakfast, we check out and went back again, but we did not enter the theme park, as we were kinda tired. At 12pm we already headed back to PD. Stopped by Gombak for a quick lunch and reach PD on 3 pm.

Since I am holding the camera, not many of my pictures available.

We plan to join again next year, best!!!

Sanggul Arab - Is it Haram?

2010-05-21T11:36:00.007+08:00

I received this in my email. For sharing, and worth to ponder

It's a trend nowadays that many muslim Malaysian women are into the new hijab wearing i.e. wearing a shawl-like syrian style hijab. I posted on my Fb status recently stating that I too, would want to wear the syrian women hijab style with high bun but unfortunately my hair is short thus cannot tie or do a bun at all.I also received few suggestions to buy fake buns online or at Arzu, KLCC.

I used to study in an arabic-medium school and had learned that when you wear tudung, you're not supposed to show any indication that your hair is long by tying your hair really high/do a bun until men can notice the presence of your long hair eventhough you wear your cover/hijab. That defeats the purpose of wearing a hijab.However, I can't remember the hukum whether it's haram or harus or makruh.

Being curious, I googled about this sanggul arab issue and found the hadith related:

Quote:: “ akan muncul dalam kalangan umatku di akhir zaman, kaum lelaki yang menunggang sambil duduk di atas pelana, lalu mereka turun di depan pintu-pintu masjid. Wanita-wanita mereka( isteri mereka atau anak perempuan), berpakaian tetapi seperti bertelanjang ( nipis&ketat). Di atas kepala mereka pula(wanita) terdapat bonggolan (sanggul atau tocang) seperti bonggol unta yang lemah gemalai. Oleh itu laknatlah mereka semua. Sesungguhnya mereka adalah wanita-wanita yang terlaknat”- hadith riwayat Ahmad , jil.2, ms. 223.

Rasulullah s.a.w bersabda:
Quote:: “dua golongan penghuni neraka yang mana aku sendiri belum pernah melihat keadaan mereka didunia: golongan yang membawa cemeti seperti seekor lembu lalu menggunakannya untuk memukul manusia dan juga kaum wanita yang berpakaian seperti bertelanjang, menggoyangkan badan dan berlenggang- lenggok, kepala mereka ada suatu seperti bonggol di kepala unta yang bergoyang-goyang. Mereka tentu tidak akan memasuki syurga atau mencium baunya sedangkan bau syurga itu dapat dihidu dari jarak perjalanan begitu dan begini” –hadith riwayat Muslim. Hadith no 212-

I would say that I was tempted at first as I saw some women/celebraties/ tv presenters looked really pretty wearing the syrian style hijab with high sanggul/bun.

Sometimes, bila nak cantik, manusia selalu lupa pada hukum walaupon dah belajar.I am one of them. Bila nak buat benda jahat, laju je.

Anyway, in wearing hijab,niat perlukah menghalalkan cara? I dare not jatuhkan hukum or say that it is haram wearing the fake sanggul arab.However, at the moment, I'll just forget about buying the sanggul arab thingy.

Renung-renungkan...dan selamat beramal.... :)

I Melted

2010-05-19T17:43:00.004+08:00

I had a meltdown at work just now, fresh, like 20 mins ago.

One of my work requires me to do a health check, audit sort of thing, and one item is check per month. We are supposed to gather a group of people, look at the questionnaire and answer it to ensure that the system that we claimed is working, actually really works. If at all any loopholes found, we will take it as an action item and work on it. Some of the items that was checked requires participation of various field (department) . A whole year long schedule was developed and all the supervisors of these department was informed. We (my team and I) had the engagement sessions to explain what this activity was all about since early of the year. So the supervisor will nominate their subordinate, who will be prompt to take part in this monthly activity.

Normally I sent the invite to this target group of multidisciplinary people 3 days before the actual health check supposed to take place, together with the questionnaires on what are the items to be looked for. It actually serve some sort of internal audit, but then again, what kind of audit gave out the questions upfront? A not so strict audit, because we are not in the business of finding fault, we intend to look for room for improvement in our current system, thats it.

So what happened today is that, I have already sent out the materials upfront, I went to control room and met with the person that is supposed to take part, A

Me: So macam mane? Ok tak hari ni kita nak buat PSFO (that is the program's name) hari ni?
A : Buat ape?
Me: Interview la, kan dah bagitau...
A :Its not fair you come 5-6 person want to interview me, trying to audit me, I am not ready.
Me: Ha? not ready, takpelah, saya reschedule,bile ye?
A : I don't know.
Me: Well then, I'll speak to B (the supervisor)

I gather my stuffs and started to walk away, while I heard A is talking very loudly to the rest of the people in the room (some 8-10 of them)
A : Diorang ingat senang je nak datang sini audit aku, tak boleh, I'm not ready
(not his exact words, but something like that...he kinda membebel panjang jugakla while I walk away to B's room)

At that point I just wanted to ends it there, and reschedule some other time, when he is 'ready' --> whatever that means...Its not like I am testing him and giving him fail or pass anyway..dduhh...

So I ask B for another window to reschedule, B was suprised why his men is not ready as he know that I notified much earlier. B tried to reason with A on what was the issue. I stayed quite far knowing that B is also a loud person (but for good reason) . My supervisor walks in, he is part of the team as well. I went near while they are still reasoning with A.

C, A's counterpart also shared his 'feelings', dissatisfaction when we did the session last month and he was involved. He was not satisfied that the MD is part of the team, and felt as if he was put on the spot during the whole session. Of course, we, the rest of the team, didn't feel that way. In fact all the findings that day was not his action item, no consequences to him, and in the end of the process we did not blame anybody for any flaw in the system.

So I guess that is why A and C and maybe some other guys were feeling as if they were being put on the spot.

During the first round that he was raising his voice in front some other 8-10 guys, I already felt the heat, but I still managed to calm myself. He was being very defensive, and offensive (keep attacking me) at that time, that is why I walk away, consult B.

When I walked back there the second time around, I thought things would have calmed down, but no..he keep on raising his voice (more like shouting) and at that point I could not look at anybody's face anymore. At that time, I just could not contained myself, I know I was about to burst into tears anytime. I walk away, and my tears were falling down, banyak pulak tu...

I don't know where to go to calm myself, so I walked into a meeting room, another 2 managers had their room adjacent to the meeting room, so it was pretty quiet. I calmed down but my tears were still there. Suddenly B came in, trying to sort things out with me, at that time I was still feeling upset (emotional pun ade,) and once I started crying, I could not stop. B did not coax me, but rather trying to find the solution. Suddenly, my other supervisor walk in (yes, I report to 2 different people). At that point he noticed I was crying and sobbing and trying to explain things to B. The other 2 managers suddenly realised that there is commotion in the meeting room. They came out. I was sobbing and probably out of words, and B explains to them. After discussing about 10 minutes, we agreed that we should postpone today's session and I will look at other system for the internal audit.

It was very embarassing, I was sobbing in front of 4 guys, last time I sob like that was during watching My Sisters Keeper. I guess the reason why I felt really upset and emotional was because of the way A has treated me in the first place, with no respect at all. He even raised his voice, to make sure that the rest of his colleague heard what he said. He humiliate me in front of other people. The rest of the guys probably loose their respect to me already. This is compounded by my own timing. I have been busy , particularly this week, as I am in the middle of this workshop. I drop the rest on my plate, be in the workshop, causing many other people to chase me for many other my suspended work. I drop those things and cycle in to the plant to do the PSFO, and only reached there to be shouted at. Sakit hati OK....

My biggest pet peeves is someone humiliating me in front of public, face to face in front of other people.

I know that there will be no respect for this person anymore. Fine, if you do not want to cooperate with me, I'll find somebody else who will.
I can also go through the questionnaire on my own, check your system, and highlight the flaws without involving you in the first place, would you want me to do that? I am being nice enough to pass you the questionaire upfront. So you prefer to do other way? Fine with me.

Tarik nafas......hembus....tarik nafas....hembus...still feeling a bit upset, but much better...

NCIS vs NCIS LA

2010-05-18T11:27:00.004+08:00

My Monday blues is normally cured by Kick Ass Monday (8TV). They have my favorites lined up.

Currently running is NCIS (the original one) and Criminal Minds. Last night was like having a yummy carrot cake with cream cheese topping on top. The original team was required to work with LA team to solve a murder case of a Navy Private. Double serving for me :) . I like the coldness and how tacky Gibbs can be, also how the whole team operates. The new franchise NCIS LA is really an eye candy. With O’Donnel as the mysterious Callen, the team really provides good drama. Last night episode maybe towards later season for NCIS LA, as I have never seen Macy in current running NCIS LA plus the HQ at different place.

Its fun and exciting though to see multiple drama cast on the same show. I sort of melt when Gibbs meet Callen..hahaha..(ntah hape-hape...) . CSi always did and there was one time the cast from Without a Trace helps in one of CSi Vegas case.

The thing is I am digging NCIS, definitely food to my soul..really? ;)

p/s: every end of scene, they froze a shot, make it into black and white ala potrait, I really love that

p/p/s: DiNozzo is both hot and entertaining at the same time :)

Hutang Tag 1 - ABC

2010-05-17T18:55:00.007+08:00

pics ehsan pakcik Google

Been tagged by Dieya, well, actually hutang satu tag dari Aida, but due to some technical error, I can only do this one first, Aida jangan marah aa...once problem solved, hamba akan langsaikan hutang zapatos tu..hehehe...

So, banyak ni, 26 points, looonngg story ;)

A- Azita, that is what most people call me
B- Buji, older families (mum,dad, cousins, pak menakan, mak menakan) calls me by this name . Want to know why? exclusive to the member of the family, so tak boleh bagitau..hahaha
C- Cerewet? ohh tidak sama sekali....only when it comes to smelly people and stuffs, I'll get cranky really fast.
D- Daughtry, listening to him right now, suara seksi woo...
F- Five for I have 5 sisters, one older and the rest younger...setengah dozen you adik beradik I...
G- Girls...yup all my siblings are girls...GIRL POWER..haha..
H- Headache? Heartache? seriuosly I don't know what to put here...
I- Independent, very independent. A bit proud to ask for help most of the time.
J- Judith McNaught, one of the first novelist that gets me started reading novel omputih...Enid Blyton doesn't count because I read the translated series.
K- Knitting, something that I will always like to do (seriously!!!) and I will die trying and K for Kris Allen too!!!
L- Love Actually, my all time favorite movie. Accidentally bought the pirated VCD kat Petaling Street. Cakap kat apek tu nak Runaway Jury..pastu dia hilang jap, datang balik dia bagi plastik hitam ngan VCD kat dalam. Lepas tu rush pegi bas stand Klang, sebab takut kena cekup beli pirated VCD, sikit pon tak tengok..dalam bas nak balik Shah Alam, baru sedar...too late then. After that I promoted the story to many people and somebody did not return the VCD to me. I ends up buying the original DVD via Amazon, hambik ko..ori DVD terus, minat punya pasal...;)
M- Movies, love it very much!! Tolak cite tamil je..hahaha..yang lain sume layan. Someday I will publish my collection here ;)
N- My full name, being Malaysian, lu pikir la sendiri N is what ;)
O- Orange and citrus really tackles my taste bud, to the point I go on a mission in finding the best Orange/Lemon Cake (found one already :))
P- P for Portugal!!!! I supported them since pre- C. Ronaldo time OK, since Pauletta was their top scorer and Luis Figo was the leading man ;)
Q- Que..porque yo?? (ni lagi satu tak tau nak tulih apa)
R- Rock kapak rules!!! Zaman sekolah dulu, punyala hafal sume lagu-lagu rock kapak ni. Tiap2 hari mesti dok melalak ngan GBS (geng bas sekolah). Sampai satu hari ada sorang junior komen, Kak Ita ni, nampak je pakai tudung, lirik lagu semua hafal...dalam tudung tu penuh lagu gamaknya...ooppsss...
S- Snooker...not the game, this is my famous pose in uni. Cuba bayangkan orang duduk dalam kelas dan mula melabuhkan kepalanya ke atas meja sambil tangan kiri atau kanan (bergantung kepada kepala jatuh atas tangan mana) terlunjur melepasi meja sambil mata tertutup layu....takke macam orang main snooker tu? hahaha... my class mate always made this statement...tu Azita dah start main snooker (their subtle way of mengumpat aku tido..hahaha)
T- Tea, I prefer tea over coffee
U- Umbrella, some of the things that I put in the car and forgot to take out. At one time, there is like 3 umbrellas in the car. And oh...I went to UiTM for my dip and degree
V- Volleyball. I only know how to serve, dig a little, but smash or somersault berpusing memang la tak boleh buat..
W- World Cup jugak (tiru Dieya..hahaha) am going to watch 2 games !!!! Excited!!!
X- X rated? X- files? X-men? Xylophone? bukannya tau main pon..hahaha...
Y- Yankee? Yoyo?
Z- Zita, when people call me like this, suddenly I feel like I am Mrs. Micheal Douglas ;p

There it goes, as you can see, more ??? than relevant point..hahaha... ;)

Fresh New Pictures

2010-05-13T18:23:00.003+08:00

After being out of KL working life for almost 4 years now, I kinda misssed the hustle and bustle of the city. I went to a seminar at KLCC today. Not wanting to spend loads on the parking, I chose to go by LRT, like those good 'ol days ;).

It still have the same coaches ( no pink ones..hehehe..) They still have the free copy of The Sun at the station, but now there is additional Chinese daily (not the famous one though) and also Malay Mail. I saw more stalls in the morning selling variety of kuih (tapi tak sedap...)

It was raining on the way back, so there is still people making money out of the weather, few Indonesian ladies stood by selling RM5 umbrellas. The crowd are pretty much still the same, although I may say that most of the commuters are getting more civilised, having patiently waited for the people to come out before rushing to board the train.

Somehow on the way back, I caught myself eaves dropping a conversation between two patrons. (not really eavesdropping, as they made no intention to have the conversation privately..) It was between an old Malay man (maybe in late 50s going to 60s) and a Chinese school boy. The man was asking for direction and the boy explains on how to get where was asked. Somehow they start to have a little chat. Some of the gist that I caught was the boy telling the old man about his mother and a younger siblings. How he kinda fought with the mum and how he have to do most of the work (I think). And the old man start sharing his wisdom, in a way giving advice to the boy, on how to deal with the mum. There were quite few things mentioned but I have forgotten some of it.

The sweet thing is, the boy and the man can really talk and to make a teenager opens up and talk about their problem is not easy. I have been there once, we are more comfortable seeking advise from someone that knows no better, our own friends. Some parents could not really talk to their kids and always ends up blaming the rebellious teens for all the things that goes wrong.

I was seeing a very right picture on how our society supposed to function, the old guiding the young, irregardless what races we are, because we are all human, we need each other. And the fact that this boy can talk and take advise (at least that is what I see) from a total stranger is really refreshing.

I really hope I can be like that, where people can talk to me, and we can all talk to each other.

Why Malaysia Lost to Japan?

2010-05-12T17:50:00.004+08:00

I have always liked watching live sports on TV. I played badminton in primary school. Takat rules and regulation 10-20 years back, I was really well versed. And yesterday, in the midst of Thomas Cup madness, I sort of switching back and forth in between Channel 801, 811 and the rest (711, 701, 708...etc,etc...) just to keep up to date with all the hype and happening.

As we know both teams lost (Uber & Thomas) but the mens' team really irks me. They lost will little dignity as they walked out of the court. Based on my personal analysis, one single root cause, the biggest one in fact....see whether it makes sense ;p

They lost because they played badly. The played badly because the did not think Japan is a good team. They think Japan is not a good team because they always thought that they are much better. They thought they are much better, evident obviously by how they dressed. You see that sleeveless shirt that they were wearing? They think by showing off the almost nonexistent triceps can actually up their game huh? And with that shirt, they proudly walk into the court thinking, 'Hey, I look good, my muscles are potruding, these Japs are going down...' Boy were they wrong!!!

These are actually what I thought was going through the mind of the second doubles when they were playing really BADLY.

My real salute goes to Sonia Cheah sister of Lydia Cheah. She really did put up a good fight. And she had good skills too. The only thing missing from her is international experience, but even then she really entertains the crowd. Hope to see more of her and her spirit in the mens team, seriously...

Shhhh......

2010-05-11T16:35:00.002+08:00

Aku ada rancangan jahat (cecewah...cakap Melayu..hahaha).... sekarang aku dah tak boleh konsentrate sebab pikir rancangan jahat aku ni..

Rancangan apa? rancangan jahat la..jangan bagitau orang....sshh...... ;p

Lunch Talk : of Labour and all....

2010-05-06T17:53:00.005+08:00

Still owe 2 tags, both from Dieya & Aida, but I have to get this one out first. Your tag on the weekend la ek? ;)

For the past two days, I have been attending First Aid course. Today, during lunch I sat with some of the participants, all of them are males. Somehow one first aid story leads to another. The next thing I know they were exchanging war stories of how they witnessed their wives giving birth. Only one guys has no experienced yet. The wife is going for delivery, in end June. So the other 8 gents were discussing quite in detail, how they saw the wife 'suffered' through child labour. The kind of strength a woman has to endure such pain, post natal stuffs and all.

They were even comparing natural birth, epidural induced and the C-section method. This father to be is nervous. He mentioned that he and his wife went for pre-natal classes and they were shown a video of natural birth, of course it was terrifying, and the wife quickly made up her mind to opt for C-Section. The gents all around the table give a practical advise, since they have seen almost all of it. I refrain from giving any comment since I am a single lady, and by right have no clue what/how a childbirth is all about.

But to the best of my judgement, these guys were right and came up with to me was a practical advise. I am amazed... Another part that amazed me was how they decribe the feeling of holding their child for the first time and also how seeing their wife in labour pain does add to the depth of respect to women, especially their wife and mother. To me, as a woman, hearing them saying all that is enough appreciation a woman could ask for.

It dawn on me, to find these kind of men, to earn their kind of respect is hard actually. Particularly when I have seen many bad examples especially in my own family, this group of gents is really a steal, and I was glad to be among their presence. I wish all men have their same attitude and appreciation. I really do, and maybe someday I'll find one, insyaAllah...

One Day In Your Life

2010-05-04T10:55:00.003+08:00

Wanted to update blog, but I'm drained for ideas. Suddenly (bukan suddenly, I choose it) I listened to this song. This is my favorite MJ's song ;) Quite old actually, he sang this in his first solo album if I'm not mistaken...

One day in your life
You'll remember a place
Someone touching your face
You'll come back and you'll look around, you'll . . .

One day in your life
You'll remember the love you found here
You'll remember me somehow
Though you don't need me now
I will stay in your heart
And when things fall apart
You'll remember one day . . .

One day in your life
When you find that you're always waiting
For a love we used to share
Just call my name, and I'll be there
You'll remember me somehow
Though you don't need me now
I will stay in your heart
And when things fall apart
You'll remember one day . . .

One day in your life
When you find that you're always lonely
For a love we used to share
Just call my name, and I'll be there.

p/s: sentimentol la plak....

To a Very Dear Friend

2010-04-22T11:31:00.007+08:00

Friend,

I know you are hurting, probably confused, and frustrated at the same time. I would too if I were you. But hang in there. We've been friends so long...this one maybe our biggest test (you would have thought doing a Masters while working is hard..) but this is the hardest. The test of friendship. We are practically family, sisters, born in the same year, although by different parents.

We lived more than half of our lives together, lets not make this one test the end of it. For the sake of all of us..Nothing can beat celebrating life with you and the rest of the girls. So, for now, hang in there, just bear with us.

This (whatever this maybe) will pass us by, and like I said before, the next thing we know, we would probably be laughing about this over a good dinner, like we did many many times already.

Hang on dear, we will always be there with you, and we'll figure something out to get all these cleared up. ;)

Ni semua Aida punya pasal...

2010-04-17T18:08:00.009+08:00

I like photography, and naturally it should comes with editing pictures as well. But being IT blinded as I am, the best editing that I did was crop..(budak darjah 6 lagi terrer..)..besides, I am too cheapskate to but all those fancy photo editing software ;p

I like the editing done in Aida's post, so I asked how did she did it? It turns out there is free picture editor online (nampak sangat IT blind lagi..hahaha..) So I gave it a try, and voila!! Let me present to you the pictures of my growing list of nieces and nephews ;) (in chronological order)...

Aren't they cute? ;)

Tengokla sape mak ngahnye...hahahaha.....

Letih la...

2010-04-13T10:05:00.005+08:00

Letih betul dengan orang yang suka serang orang lain dalam email, and at the same time copy the whole world including your subordinates and bosess. What is he trying to prove? Understood that you want to 'help' the company, but can't you just shoot the mail to me and copy my boss? In case you scared that I won't respond. But why include others? To share the learning? or to publicly humiliate me?

You are suppose to share the learnings once all things has been sorted out, not during the argument took place. Or maybe you want their opinion, then why did you include them in CC, not in TO list?

The way I see it, this person wants to do two things, main thing is to 'help' the company. The ulterior motive, is yes, to make himself look smart, while others are just dumb-a** who just did not know how to do their work. Simply put. Sucker!!!

Mood: Tengah bengang giler......

Me and My Big Mouth

2010-04-09T22:15:00.005+08:00

I am very introvert, would not open up to new people. Am more vocal here in the cyberspace. I would only voice to people that I am comfortable with. And beneath my thin lips, more often than not, I may have hurt other people. Those who are close to me would know that I meant no harm, no pun intended.

I was in this thread in FB, all of it ex-ROTU gang an time after time we would say hi to each other and inform about the latest happening in our lifes. One of the guys just got married and he was sort of telling people how good it is to be married, and keeps on asking the juniors to quickly get married. If it is just one time, I don't think I would be very annoyed, but he keeps on repeating it and the tone of 'ke best-an' kahwin is more the *** part rather than marriage as a whole.

So me and my big mouth (or rather my itchy fingers), started responding to the thread...

There it goes, the commotion for the day...in a way I feel bad having written all that, but I really feel that we should be constantly be reminded of the intention of marriage in the first place ;), at least from Islamic perspective.

Tazkirah : Surah Al Imraan Ayat 28

2010-04-05T18:22:00.011+08:00

Assalamualaikum....

This is way overdue. We had a session last Thursday, but I was so occupied last few days that I just do not have time to get this out. The ayat below was discussed quite 'heatedly' as it was talked about in so many angles.

[28]
Janganlah orang-orang yang beriman mengambil orang-orang kafir menjadi teman rapat dengan meninggalkan orang-orang yang beriman. Dan sesiapa yang melakukan (larangan) yang demikian maka tiadalah ia (mendapat perlindungan) dari Allah dalam sesuatu apapun, kecuali kamu hendak menjaga diri daripada sesuatu bahaya yang ditakuti dari pihak mereka (yang kafir itu). Dan Allah perintahkan supaya kamu beringat-ingat terhadap kekuasaan diriNya (menyeksa kamu). Dan kepada Allah jualah tempat kembali.

My initial interpretation is as simple as the the tafsir. It states the warning of being to close to disbeliever. For example a Muslim,being too close to a non Muslim colleague to the point that they do almost everything together, where as there are other Muslim that this person can be close to. This does not mean that Islam discriminate the non Muslims. We understand that being too close, you tend to do most of the things together, simplest act is dining. Not saying that we could not eat with a non Muslim, but certain aspects tends to be overlooked once you are too comfortable being in a certain circle of friends. Eating at a place which does not serve pork does not mean that it is halal.

Of course, you can take the high road and try to educate the non Muslim on what can and what cannot be eaten / done, but I am saying its a much bigger challenge and my hat goes to those who can really stand firm and not compromising Islamic value each and every time they are around non Muslim close friends.

However, the topics actually gets bigger that night, what else can it be? Politics!!! I should have noticed that much much earlier. The debate always revolves around Malay party (UMNO) coalition with other party (MCA+MIC), which to some people its against Muslim in general and PAS has benefited a lot of votes based on this stand alone. However, due to very interesting turn of events, for the past 2 GE, we've seen PAS even created a coalition with non Muslim parties (DAP+PKR), which goes totally against their fight in the first place. And what does all these affect Muslim in general? We split, not 2 but 3 main camps so far. Whatever that the Holy Quran said is true. If you look deeper, we'll find almost every prohibition in it is true. Al-Quran is indeed the most complete guide to our life.

History of the ayat in prohibition of supporting the disbelievers (in this case is Christian and Jews) is supported in other ayat, Surah Al-Maidah;

[51]Wahai orang-orang yang beriman! Janganlah kamu mengambil orang-orang Yahudi dan Nasrani itu sebagai teman rapat, kerana setengah mereka menjadi teman rapat kepada setengahnya yang lain; dan sesiapa di antara kamu yang menjadikan mereka teman rapatnya, maka sesungguhnya ia adalah dari golongan mereka itu mereka itu. Sesungguhnya Allah tidak memberikan petunjuk kepada kaum yang berlaku zalim.

and also in Surah Al-Anfal,

[73]Dan orang-orang yang kafir, setengahnya menjadi penyokong dan pembela bagi setengahnya yang lain. Jika kamu (wahai umat Islam) tidak menjalankan (dasar bantu-membantu sesama sendiri yang diperintahkan oleh Allah) itu, nescaya akan berlakulah fitnah (kekacauan) di muka bumi dan kerosakan yang besar.

The way I understand is not to be too close to the non believers, at the expense of fellow Muslim. Allah has also warned us for the kind of non-belivers, that is although they seemed divided (different parties) they are actually working towards the same goal, the type that in time, will jeopardize Muslims as a whole. I mean, look at Singapore, do you know that wearing hijab in not allowed in their school? Exactly my point!!

Well, it is up to us Muslim, in what is our best way to defend and uphold our belief and religion, InsyaAllah...

Real Survivors

2010-03-29T21:17:00.003+08:00

I've been blogwalking, (which I happens to do a lot lately) and stumbled on pretty amazing blogposts though..

See, all my life I live in Malaysia. So I never experienced living in any other countries (well, a one week trip could not be considered as living rite?) . My first overseas trip was to Phillipines, and back then I was already worried about food. Pinoys have pork in almost all of their dishes. It is almost impossible to find a halal eateries in central Manila. I went to an outskirt area, about 2-3 hours drive from Manila, Tabangao, where there is no Muslim at all. Strict vegetarian is close to non-existence, said my Pinoy colleague. So to prepare for the trip, my colleague and I packed ourselves loads of Maggie Mee, crackers, squashed bread and Campbell Instant soup, good for one week ;) We survived just fine.

See, I came across many blogs that belongs to Malaysian living abroad, and more often than not the blogs talk about what else? Malaysians top craze, FOOD. Living in different countries, they have shared how they managed to whipped up some Malaysian food. Most of the things that we totally take for granted. Those things that when I crave for it, it will be just a 10-15 minutes drive away.

For instance, there is this one lady who lived in Doha, made her own mee kuning!! We here in Malaysia bought the yellow mee in market, and off late many consumer reports came up with findings that higher bromic acid are detected in these products. Plus, there has been too many consumer reports exposing unhygenic premise producing such product. Now, making it from scratch is a much better options right? I think so.

I also found about a lady who made 'apam balik' , something that is available on daily basis (at least in most part of peninsular Malaysia). Just the other day, I read about some Malaysian student in UK craving some 'cendol' and a colleague just explaining during lunch time on how she used to help her cousin make cendol when she was small.

Living outside their comfort zone has caused these people to be creative, going the extra mile just to savour the exact same delicacies that we can get anytime we want. So what does this tells me? Instead of just buying it, why not try to make it?

Suddenly I feel the urge of making something, ideas?... ;)

Bluesy Monday

2010-03-29T14:07:00.009+08:00

Its half an hour after ***** (somebody will get warning letter for blogging writing at this time, hehehe..) and I am damn bored and sleepy....Received an award from Aida, TQVM!! for beautiful blogger..lagi sekali ye..beautiful blogger, not beautiful blog...tang mana beautiful pon cek tak tau..hahaha...

Buat 1 entry tentang award ini
Ucap Terima Kasih dan letak link pemberi award pada entry tersebut
Senaraikan 15 blogger sebagai penerima Award.
Beritahu penerima Award , supaya dia tahu yang dia adalah penerima Award
Senaraikan 7 perkara tentang korang....

No 1: Done

No 2: Done

No 3: Very tricky as I said before, I don't have many readers, and I know one is on long hiatus (maternity leave la..but I'll try, sure tak cukup sebelah tangan jugak!!)

Ngam-ngam sebelah tangan, which is only 30% from the original request, nasib la...

No 4 : Will do rite after this ;)

No 5: I can really copy paste from my old long forgotten Crabbie Column, but in case I came short, I will do that..

Am an introvert person, that is why you see all this long winded ramblings, simply because I don't really talk much.
Hates guys who lingers around lingerie area, I know you are the hubby, but for God sake, tak boleh ka pi jauh2 sikit? Your spouse is not the only one shopping there, there are a lot of other women that is seriously not comfortable having men looking over what type of bra you are choosing. Guys should be banned from lingerie area, they look like pervert, all of them, and don't use that 'I'm buying a lingerie for my mum' excuse OK? (tetiba emo..)
Still very much loves Linkin Park songs, although nowadays listening to more downbeat, catchy pop tunes.
Simple minded person but always prepare myself for the worst case scenario. yup, am a complex personality person..
Never really consulted anybody when making decision (big, let alone small). Only tell certain key people (mum included) once a decision has been made. So actually no one has ever talk me out of anything yet..hahaha..
Favorite taste,smell and spices includes garlic, black pepper, lavender, lemon, and cinnamon
A friend once said that I could write a book, but up till now have not decided what book is it going to be, or will there ever be a book? hmm...time will decide..hahaha..

There you have it, from the beautiful blogger of the day....(*mode perasan nak ma**us) hehehe....;)

Life is a Long Series of Drama...

2010-03-23T21:09:00.008+08:00

Its been a while that I started following on new drama series, probably because not many new ones that makes it our way. Am right now watching 'Mercy'. Saw the ad like one month ago and quickly intrigued to watch it. This is yet another medical drama. Come to think of it, there are too many of them. I used to (still am) crazy over ER, well, because of them I know how they detect internal bleeding from an uninjured body ;) Then there is Greys' Anatomy, which there has never been one single episode that I did not shead a tear.

Not just medical drama, law and police kinda drama also flood the small screen. When that happens, what else can compliment that? CSI type would do. Used to be only the original Crime Scene Investigation that dominates the screen, but now we have NCIS, Criminal Minds, Without a Trace, etc..etc..

I used to say to my bos, they have all kind of professions turned to drama, but have we ever watched one about engineers? Not talking bout software engineer but the core 4 mainstream engineering; Civil,Electrical,Mechanical and Chemical. A full season, maybe 13 or 26 episode? Well, there is one that came close to that, Micheal Scofield of Prison Break was a Civil Engineer and the knowledge that was applied to escape the prison was damn superb!!

Well, my bos respond was that all of these profession that gets to be in drama actually pays so bad, that they have to create more ways for people to be interested to actually do the job (sort of like promoting the profession via drama). Well, that is one way to look at it, although am not sure whether that is entirely true (doctors and lawyers gets good pay though, later in their career).

I think its maybe that the job is too demanding and interesting at the same time, and it pays to show public to what extend did they go in their line of duty. Most of the stories, although its just a fiction, worth sharing and educational at some point. And maybe the public would appreciate more (we always hear about people complaining about doctors' services in govt hosp, or how bad the police at catching the ever increasing snatch thieves). I know things could be better , if we compared what we see on TV (mostly American drama by the way) to what we actually experience live in our daily life, but I guess on some part the job dilemma is pretty much the same.

So what do I think about Mercy? Well, it maybe not the most medically educational drama, the content maybe 30%, or 40% top contains medical facts, the rest is just plain drama with all emotions wrapped up. The most action pack medical drama to me is still ER. Will I still watch it? Of course ;) Mostly for the drama..hehehe....

p/s: dieya, any TV series about a bunch of accountants? just wondering...

In Sickness and In Health...

2010-03-18T08:18:00.005+08:00

We (my colleague and I) have been going to KPJ Seremban after work for 2 days in a row already. Hopefully we don't have to go there today. Two of my senior colleagues were admitted. One due to chest pain, and after diagnosis, it is a heart attack. Apparently one of the veins has two blockage. She underwent angiogram and was disharged yesterday. The same day another senior colleague was admitted due to abdominal pain. After check up, it is confirmed she had kidney stone in her urinary tract and she is now pregnat. Therefore the Dr could not conduct x-ray to determine the exact location and size.

Nowadays, we see people dropping like flies, mostly due to common diseases. My colleague, the one with the heart attack is actually an active person. She always ride bikes, jog and she rarely eats out. But still, she gets it. What is the determining factor to stay away from all this illness? My thinking is combination of good lifestyle, healthy eating habit (yeah...cut down on the seafood y'all...that will settle in your veins) and last but not least pray hard!!

I am for sure struggling on the lifestyle bit. Its very tempting to use the elevator instead of staircase even just one floor away. I arrive to work quite early and always park at the nearest spot, so why not park a little bit further, and walk a bit? hhmmm...worth a try..

Something Sweet ;)

2010-03-17T09:24:00.001+08:00

This is indeed the sweetest thing I read today;)
http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/16032010/58/champions-league-mourinho-inter-send-chelsea-crashing.html

I feel the satisfaction as early as 3rd para when Drogba was sent out...hahahaha...(gelak jahat!!)

Women of Independence : Day 2

2010-03-10T10:03:00.004+08:00

Day 2 was kicked of quite aggresively when the chairperson introduce Major Patricia Yapp as the presenter. She came in second after Dr. Noeleen Heyzer Executive Secretary for United Nations.
Major Patricia's presentation was the most interesting as she took us with her journey on embarking a career as jet fighter pilot. She even taught us on how to symbolise F-18 and MIG-29 at the training ground ;) . She is very much entertaining, but does carry a big message. Anything is doable as long as you put your hearts and minds to it and mother's support is sometimes all that you need to succeed. So to all mothers out there, (if there are any), support your child in any field that they ventured into, even how impossible it may look. At least they have tried.

Another speaker that wows everyone was a teacher from Philipines that gets a planet named after her. Dr Josette Biyo gets the recognition when she won an education fair in US. The thing that commands people respect is that, after receiving her PhD, she was offered to teach at major universities in the US, but instead, she continues teaching at middle school in her home town in Iloilo, a rural part in Philipine (not even a city). She is determined to teach the students from young, and care less about the monetary reward.

Here are some pics from the two days ;)

Us with Tan Sri Zarinah Anwar

With the flying girl from Sabah bah..

With Dato Nooryah

All of us

The event was meant for networking, but I did not bring my name card, so I just collected along the way ;). I do have one though in my purse, and that one I gave to Houzan Mahmoud, when she promised to send the report of human trafficking and prostitution in Iraq. Below is the link to the organisation that she is with :

http://www.equalityiniraq.com/activities/117-prostitution-and-trafficking-of-women-and-girls-in-iraq

Its suprising though to see that most of these women do not have their own wikipedia entry. Considering they are the pioneer for women in general to be in their position. If you search for an artist name, you'll get the whole length of their career history, which is sometimes not really that significant, if compared to these wonderful women. That shows how society in general view women and how they achieve women's achievement.

I'm It!! : Tagged by Cik Aida

2010-03-10T00:09:00.009+08:00

I was visiting my regular blogroll and it turns out that I'm it. Have been tagged by Cik Aida yang kini berada di bumi Espanyol. So here are the rules...(lama weh tak jawab tag-tag ni...)

1. Go to your photo files…Select the 8th photo folder.
2. Select the 8th photo in that folder.
3. Post that photo along with the story behind it.
4. Then challenge 8 blogging friends to do the same! "...

Soklan : Apsal 8? 6 tak bole ke? mesti orang yang invent tag ni suka no 8..bnyk soklan plak...nak jawab, jawab je la....hehehe...

So here goes...

1. Done : Kenduri Kakdik Jan 09
2. Done
3. Done : as attached;

The story:

This was taken during my younger sister's (Kakdik that celebrated her birthday on the 6th March) wedding on 3rd Jan 2009. No, that was not me in the picture. The one wearing kebaya on the left hand side is my younger sister, Ayang. The one in white baju kurung is her best friend, Alin. To Cik Aida, my sis met her best fren when she was schooling in Pahang...hahaha.. adik kite Sekolah Teknik Chenor. Actually Pahang is quite close to my heart as I was born in Temerloh, back in those days a lot of Kedahans move to Pahang, and my late grandma move to Temerloh, Charok Puting in particular. The whole village was opened by Kedahans, so eventhough I was born and raised until 5 years old in Pahang, I could not speak Pahang dialect, because the whole village, the first generation is Kedahans...I still have two aunties in Pahang, one in Bera, and another in Kg Awah.

Ooppss...lari tajuk. hahaha...The receiption was held in Dewan DBKL in Bandar Tun Razak, the whole family theme was green + peach. Alin and Ayang was the one who helped me prepared the high table dish. I think Ayang has already told Alin about the theme colour, and she brought baju kurung that is in the same colour tone. Alin has a boyfriend named Ali (funny rite..hahaha..). She is a tru blu Pahang gurl, but which area, koi kurang periksa ye Cik Aida.

So there you have it, its a coincidence that this story ade sangkut paut ngan Pahang..hahaha..

4. Tag other 8 blogger friend...

Hmm this is the tough part. Nobody really reads my blog except for few people (kalo kira tak sampai sebelah tangan..hahaha) So whoever is reading, YOU'RE IT!!! You know who you are....hehehe....

Women of Independence : Day 1

2010-03-09T08:30:00.003+08:00

Yesterday was International Women's Day. It was all over the radio. This year I had the opportunity of coming to this yearly event, Women of Independence. Shell sent 30 of us from all business in Peninsular Area. This is where leading women all accross the world were gathered to give their thought and shared their both success and war stories to inspire the participant. I got to know about this conference last year but after the seminar had passed. This year I grabbed the opportunity as soon as the email notification came out.

Its a 2 days agenda. First day today, I did not sleep a wink, not even dozed off. All the speaker were very remarkable women in their own rights. All together there are 7 speakers today, namely a Shell alumni, Tan Sri Zarinah Anwar, who is now heading the Securities Commission, glad that I at least spend 2 minutes personally to get her words of wisdom. The Chairperson encouraged the participant to reflect after each speaker had finish, what is our one action plan, that is realistic to be achieved in the next week, or in the next month. I thought that was easy but boy was I wrong. After hearing those inspiring women struggle in their own rights, it hard to put ideas into just one action.

The most moving speaker was Houzan Mahmoud. She is an Iraqi, her topic was Voice of the Voiceless : Tokenism or Activism,Exposing Gender Based Violence in Iraq. She spoke about her background being raised in the reign of Saddam Hussein's dictatorship, the consequences of foreign interference (USA and its allies) in Iraq, and how Iraqis are living to-date. Sad to say in a war torn country, human rights no longer exist. Even though the west influenced media such as CNN and BBC applaud US 'assistance' to free Iraq from Saddam, they only created much more problems. Iraq is to date second highest corrupted country next to Somalia who is leading the top spot.

Such chaos has disabled a country to function properly, and with that the people has no rights at all. She brought tears to our eyes when she mentioned about human trafficking, parents resorting to selling their kids for prostitution for living, and many other injustice conducted. At that moment it hit me, we are too wrapped in our problem that the order of magnitude is way below than what other people across the world is facing. We complaint about our government, but how many of us actually do something? She is a political refugess, having lived in UK and all over the world, she still doing work to help the people of her country, fighting for their rights, urging the government to take action on all of the issues mentioned above. And, we complacent in our current situation, what are we doing? Nothing!!

She did said that what she and her friends is doing, its not a profession, its not a work, but its a cause. She lives for a cause to make her country as equal as other country, where people irregardless gender, race and any other diversities gets equal opportunity as the rest of the world. Do you have a cause for living?

p/s: my boss let me come on condition that I share this back with the rest of SWAN colleague back in PD. One of the reason I was paying very much attention, but its a blessing in disguise, I am truly glad that I came.

Moving On...

2010-03-08T11:05:00.001+08:00

I see the tell tale signs, but am not sure, and it is confirmed today. Anyhow I'll still move on. Nothing much I can do about it. Not gonna joepardise a relationship because of this. Accept the fact that we are human, and people makes choices even if it broke someone else's heart.

Move on...

The Day That Was....

2010-03-07T23:12:00.008+08:00

I had a good day yesterday too... Like dieya, I attended my Spanish class. Am in A2 now..weee...after one year hiatus, it all got a little bit rusty. So Friday nite I bought a Spanish dictionary (bijak tak? esok nak kelas, malam ni baru beli..hahaha)

So I went to the class, new professor, te llamas Ladis. Whole class is filled with women !! We did revision, and after the first hour, things are starting to come back to me..I wasn't that rusty after all ;)

In the night, I went to PJ, for a tahlil arwah. I had quite a detour before getting to PJ as I went to pick up arwah's mother in Serdang. We get into PJS2 area just nice, but locating the actual lane is very confusing. PJS2/14 is not next to PJS2/15. So in the end, we passed by the entrance 3 times before actually making the right turn to make it for the tahlil.

Her passing was a blessing in disguise, as it unites some of the old faces that we lost contact since we commissioned in 2002. It has been 8 years since we parted ways. Though many could not make it to various comitment issue, the turn out is not that bad as well.
Some pixies...

Those who came...

Geng Cik Kiah dah start sesi bersembang.. :)

All ladies who attended

Me and Buntang (Farez)-last AJK standing, the rest could not make it.

p/s: thanks dieya for the fridge magnet ;) And yesterday was my sis b'day but she did not even know I have a blog, so no need to wish here then..hahaha...

Tazkirah : Surah Al Baqarah Ayat 282

2010-03-05T13:56:00.004+08:00

I have joined this usrah for almost a year now. A lot that I have learnt, many of those is inside the Holy Quran itself, just that I have never really bothered to look up. Last night the discussion goes into details based on Surah Al Baqarah Ayat 282.

Yang bermaksud;

[282]

Wahai orang-orang yang beriman! Apabila kamu menjalankan sesuatu urusan dengan hutang piutang (bermuamalah) yang diberi tempoh hingga ke suatu masa yang tertentu maka hendaklah kamu menulis (hutang dan masa bayarannya) itu dan hendaklah seorang penulis di antara kamu menulisnya dengan adil (benar) dan janganlah seseorang penulis enggan menulis sebagaimana Allah telah mengajarkannya.

Oleh itu, hendaklah ia menulis dan hendaklah orang yang berhutang itu merencanakan (isi surat hutang itu dengan jelas).

Dan hendaklah ia bertaqwa kepada Allah Tuhannya, dan janganlah ia mengurangkan sesuatu pun dari hutang itu.

Kemudian jika orang yang berhutang itu bodoh atau lemah atau ia sendiri tidak dapat hendak merencanakan (isi itu), maka hendaklah direncanakan oleh walinya dengan adil benar); dan hendaklah kamu mengadakan dua orang saksi lelaki dari kalangan kamu.

Kemudian kalau tidak ada saksi dua orang lelaki, maka bolehlah, seorang lelaki dan dua orang perempuan dari orang-orang yang kamu setujui menjadi saksi, supaya jika yang seorang lupa dari saksi-saksi perempuan yang berdua itu maka dapat diingatkan oleh yang seorang lagi.

Dan jangan saksi-saksi itu enggan apabila mereka dipanggil menjadi saksi.

Dan janganlah kamu jemu menulis perkara hutang yang bertempoh masanya itu, sama ada kecil atau besar jumlahnya.

Yang demikian itu, lebih adil di sisi Allah dan lebih membetulkan (menguatkan) keterangan saksi, dan juga lebih hampir kepada tidak menimbulkan keraguan kamu.

Kecuali perkara itu mengenai perniagaan tunai yang kamu edarkan sesama sendiri, maka tiadalah salah jika kamu tidak menulisnya.

Dan adakanlah saksi apabila kamu berjual-beli.

Dan janganlah mana-mana jurutulis dan saksi itu disusahkan.

Dan kalau kamu melakukan (apa yang dilarang itu), maka sesungguhnya yang demikian adalah perbuatan fasik (derhaka) yang ada pada kamu.

Oleh itu hendaklah kamu bertaqwa kepada Allah; dan (ingatlah), Allah (dengan keterangan ini) mengajar kamu; dan Allah sentiasa Mengetahui akan tiap-tiap sesuatu.

We did this in our daily life. More often than not, we tend to forget with whom we owed money and who did owes money with us. Islam is a way of life, not just a statement or a status in the ID. Al Quran is actually the most complete guide one can ask for. Even to the very detail part as how to borrow and lend money, Allah has established the best way to do it. Its simple, but still if we did not follow it, many issues may came up.

This will be a bi-weekly/weekly feature, InsyaAllah, and I will try to post something that we can all benefited in our daily lives.

Cerita Parking

2010-03-03T16:26:00.003+08:00

Our company welcomes a new MD last year. After being used to the old MD, people were very quick to compare and judge, you know..we ARE human..hehehe..

So the new MD has made quite a lot of differences, not in the way we works, but more in a way how he approached the people personally. The old MD was very good with names and faces. During my first day that I joined, I met him, and after that he memorise my name and face almost immediately. He was a very people person, to the point that he asked me for link to HOT FM streaming online when he heard me listening to it during working..hahaha... Enough about old MD.

Although the new MD only memorise my name after 2-3 times of presentation session, and I don't know how many times looking at my jacket... I still thinks he is a very much a people person too, in different way. Since he came in, he has lured maybe 10% or a little bit more of the staff into more active and healthy lifestyle. First there was the cycling team, then the continuous mount climbing expedition and now the craze for grilled food. (Almost every company's function has grilled lamb now... Anyhoo...today's snippets is about parking.

The management team, we called them OMLT, has their own dedicated parking space, all painted with their indicator. The new MD is an auto freak, he owns maybe 2 BMWs, and some other high end car (don't quote me, I am bad at cars..hehehe..). So his dedicated parking spot is the first one (nearest) to the main entrance. (That's the perk on being an MD right?) And on his row the spots were reserved to other OMLTs. My parking spot was normally across theirs, and all of the spot is roofless. So basically we are getting the same amount of sun as the OMLTs cars are (no perks there..)

So the new MD is an auto freak, which translate to he loves his car very much, and what do these kind of people do? They park in the shade!! His spot is as exposed as anything you can imagine, only one small palm tree that barely shades his sideview mirror ;) So he started parking somewhere else, a bit further, but has trees. Seeing this, people start talking, that he is taking too much space, etc, etc...well, I know some people understand where he is coming from, but some people just like to make issues out of everything.

So, to tackle the issue, this memo came out;

Dear all,

At our recent Management Away Day, we re-enforced our commitment to Diversity & Inclusiveness. To be consistent with our views on this, and LEAN behaviours, effective Monday, 1st March 2010, the other OMLT members and I will no longer have reserved parking bays for our cars. We also hope that the move will help to improve availability of parking bays for all staff on a "first come first served" basis.

Regards,
Managing Director

Mixed reaction were received right after the memo went out. I see some people jumping (not literally) with joy. Some are so eager to park at the MD's spot. And some I see have parked in the OMLT's spot for few days already.

My reaction? Seriously, I think its not a big deal. Having the opportunity to park at the management's parking bays is basically nothing much to shout about. Its not like the lots have roofs or anything like that. Its not even super duper near to the entrance anyway. The spot that I parked now is merely a 2, 3 metres the most away from the OMLT's space. So whats the fuss? I honestly thinks that the OMLT deserved their own parking spot, just because they deserved it. They are the management and you don't get there just by working for 2-3 years. It takes a lot of hardwork to get where they are right now. They were once a 'balaci' like us too. So what's wrong in enjoying your fruit of labour, even if its just a dedicated parking lot without a roof. Is that too much to ask?

And all of these people who are jumping with joy when the memo came out, for me they just showed that they are the type wanting to go up too fast, maybe have little respect for the people above and probably do not have a sense of appreciation to the oldtimers. Am I being too judgemental? Yes I am.

p/s: I will only park there if all other spots are taken (which I don't think so), considering the spots are like 'pisang panas'. Pantang kosong, people starts to their car to that spot. And maybe if I work during the weekends..hehehe....

Is that all?

2010-02-24T19:12:00.009+08:00

I went to a classmate's wedding last Friday, it was a beautiful one. I don't know her husband but their first date was our high school prom nite, sweet rite? And her sister's speech brought tears to many eyes that night. After that, the three of us went out for a cup (ye ke a cup...) of coffee. Just doing some catch up and turns out that I was being 'tarbiah' by Cik Kiah.
Its the most hottest, if not dreadest (is there such words?) topic ever, marriage!!! She is apparently now on an active manhunt mission. How do I put this...she is actually persuading me to enter all possible channel to find a man, for the intention of getting married. I have friends asking me to join all this matrimonial sites, just so that I can find a man to get married to.

But the thing is, I don't really feel the need to go that way, not just yet. I am yes. single, available and not seeing anyone right now. Of course I intend to get married, I mean which girls doesn't. She kept questioning till when? Honestly, even I don't have the answer. All I want is a man that is put first and foremost Islam as his way of life. I mean not just some Muslim guy who is printed on their IC the word Islam. I mean those who really walk the walk and talk the talk.

Then comes the taboo subject (taboo to me, but not in Islam), polygamy. What if there is no more good single guy in this world, and the good ones are married, will I be willing to take any of those guys, just so that I can get married? Quickest response, no.

Am not against polygamy, by all means if a guy can demonstrate that he is able to provide for more than 1 wife, then go ahead. But for me to share a husband with another woman, I'm sorry, thanks but no thanks. I am greedy when it comes to having my life. If that happens, I don't mean to brag here, I would rather stay single. (at least that is what I feel for now)

To me, life as a person, specifically as a woman, not just about getting married. Of course, its fitrah, wanting to get married, have kids, grow old with your spouse and the whole enchalada, but I know there is more to life than getting married. I know for a Malay, going 29, I am labeled as spinster. You know what? I don't care for even a bit. The thing that I care the most now is taking care of my parents and myself. The rest, if its fated, then so be it.

This friend said, tawakkal tu boleh, tapi kau dah usaha ke? Seriously I have never really work on to marriage direction, not really, as long as I remember....maybe I'm supposed to do something, but my heart is still not up for it.

Am I giving up on falling in love and getting married? Not really.
How much longer will I wait, till I make the first move, knowingly aware that my biological clock is ticking? Honestly, I don't know.

I know one thing for sure, I have lots of other things to achieve, and getting married is maybe towards the bottom of the list. (at least for now). The rest, like I said, let fate decide.

And one more thing, I want a guy that can go on living without me, but choose to be with me. I don't want those you die I die kinda thing, not for me, not for him.

There it is...phew... this IS a long post. ;)

My Sister's Keeper

2010-02-19T09:38:00.006+08:00

Once in a blue moon, I will have this yearn to cry for no particular reason. I just need to release all this feeling that has been bottled up in some way. I know its weird but I guess that is my medium for venting. So I resorted to one of the things that I like, movies!!!

Last time I had a good cry was watching Sepi. I mean REALLY crying, most of other movies, I'll probably shed some tears comes the touching part. So last nite, out of nowhere, I watched My Sister's Keeper. The film was produced in 2009, and not sure whether it made its way to Malaysian cinema. Its a story about a girl whom the birth was genetically engineered to save her sister's life who has cancer. Her blood, bone marrow and numerous cells were taken since she was born, in the effort to save her sister's life.

When she turns 11, she sued her mother, asking for her to be medically emancipated. Its a family movie, a very heartbreaking one. I was crying, sobbing at some point throughout the whole movie. This morning my eyes hurt. But it sorts of release the emotions that was bottled up inside of me for whatever reason. The film also make me wonder, what if it happens to me or my family, you can never say never...

You may have heard of caffeine fix, or chillies fix, but for me this is my tears/cry fix. Definitely worth it!!

Mak Apan hilang.....please tolong laa

2010-02-17T14:09:00.003+08:00

This was in my inbox this morning...

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Pagi tadi di opis, dalam pukul 9, sedang gua kaver line klik fesbuk sikitsikit, Apan mundar mandir belakang gua dengan muka kusut masai.

Dari tadi gua tengok Apan hilang punca di sekitar floor dept gua. Muka macam ada masalah.
"Lu kenapa ni Apan?” - Gua tanya demi meminta kepastian. Gua dengan Apan ni kira ngam juga la. Budak Kedah, umur muda sikit dari gua dan tak berapa hensem (gua lagi hensem). Kalau tatap muka dia lama lama boleh naik menyampah juga.Dia baru setahun kerja dengan kompeni gua. Sebelum masuk sini, Apan banyak hendel bisnes sendiri dan selalu rugi.

Apan berbisik...."Mak gua hilang la..”(dengan nada perlahan)
Gua punyala terperanjat! “Mak lu hilang?, bila hilang?” - dada gua tiba-tiba mengepam keluar masuk laju laju. Berdebar tak payah cakap la, kencang macam kuda.
"Petang semalam..dah cari merata tak jumpa”.

Apan berlalu meninggalkan gua menuju ke bahagian budak budak human resource. Gua tak tahu apa benda yang dia sedang fikir dalam kepala. Gua nak tanya lebih lebih risau kena pukul pula.Apa yang gua tahu sikit sikit,mak dia memang duduk rumah tak kerja, ayah dia kerja penolong kanan lagi dua tiga tahun nak pencen.

Kira kira lima belas minit kemudian, dari jauh gua nampak Apan berjalan semula masuk ke tempat gua. Kali ni muka dia tak kusut macam tadi dah,sebaliknya ceria macam muka Lan kumpulan the typewriter.

"Mak gua dah jumpa..” - kelegaan jelas terpampang di bibir Apan.
Gua cepat cepat bersyukur: “Alhamdulillah...Jumpa kat mana?”,
Dan dengan penuh keceriaan, jujur, ikhlas, tawadduk serta wajah disinari warna warni rama rama yang tiada belas kasihan pada gua, Apan membalas padu:
"Dalam sinki penteri.”
Gua terus tendang kompiter sampai bersepah atas lantai.

MUG la Apan..MUG..!!, pronunciation macam jahanam! macam sialll! Sia-sia gua berdebar. Pagi pagi sudah bikin hati membara. Please tolong laaaa......

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

This made my day..hahahahaha.....!!!!

Carrot Cake

2010-02-15T11:21:00.005+08:00

I almost forgot!! To Cik Aida, here's the recipe. Very easy and I think you'll pass in no time ;)

Ingredients:
2 eggs
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 1/2 cups grated carrot, about 3-4 carrots
2 tablespoons orange juice
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1 1/4 cup flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

How to make it:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (~175 degC). Grease and flour a 9 inch square baking pan. In a large bowl, beat together the eggs and sugar until creamy. Stir in the vegetable oil until well combined. Add the grated carrots, orange juice and walnuts and mix well. Add the flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg and stir until just combined. Pour into prepared baking pan and bake for 25 - 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Allow cake to cool and then frost.

Normally carrot cake is glazed with cream cheese frosting. Just beat the cream cheese, with some sugar and lemon juice (ni main agak2, no specific measurement, to suit your taste bud), but I normally serve as is, malas nak sapu cream cheese, nak-nak kalo buat cuppies, banyak keje.. :)

Selamat mencuba ye puan-puan ;)

In a Snapshot

2010-02-15T10:55:00.007+08:00

At last, my 'project' is done. It all started on 13th midnite, when they lit the furnace, and expected to go on for the next 20 hrs or so. However, we can only plan, few things happens during the process that makes the whole process took more than that. And I was in control room almost 95% of the time.

I started work on Friday the 12th, morning, 8am-ish, then stayed back waiting for preparation works and all, furnace lit in the midnite, so it touches 13th. Somehow along the process, pumps were not pumping, certain temperature got high, etc, etc....So ends up we only reaches the final steps yesterday morning, 14th Feb around 7 am-ish. Even then we could not stop, but the monitoring was not as intensed, so I decided to go back at 9 am. Call back the panel, they finally wrapped up around ~3pm.

When I calculated back the amount of hours, I was in CCB almost 42 hrs. And in between those time, I only went back like 2 hrs to shower and change(for 2 days) . I was literally living in CCB!! The shift is divided to 3 shift, (one shift works for 8 hrs). So imagine the shift guys comes in and out and the next day, the still sees me there. Here are some of the comments that I get:

Tak balik lagi?
Ko tak tidur ke? Nanti pengsan kang?
Ko bawak tilam la tido kat sini...

I know they were concerned about my well being, and there are few that suggested I took a nap at the massage chair (yes, we have OSIM or was it OGAWA? massage chair) in the CCB. But no way am I going to sleep there, with some 10+ guys roaming the room..(malu sehh...)

So yesterday I went back, took a shower and fall deep into sleep on my couch...yup I didn't even make it to the bed..

I guess one of the reason I can stay awake for that amount of time is probably just because I have been trained before (well, all those sleepless nite in uni and in PALAPES, does train the body to expect the worse). I survived the whole duration with only one mug of coffee(it makes me have headache anyway) and lots and lots of water to keep myself hydrated. Also, I took like 15-20 mins nap (on chair) just when I feel like I could not open my eyes anymore.

Will I do it again?Hmmm....let me think about it ;p

'Makwe?'

2010-02-12T21:02:00.006+08:00

Its 9 pm....bosan siutt.....waiting for the furnace to be lit up. Just now they confirmed that will be done in about 2 hours time. Gan was saying to Shafiq, 'makwe' ni dah tunggu lama dah....
Lawak jugak when he refers me as 'makwe', well the terms for me, only suit young chic (not more than 25's, preferably high school grad, or some interns. I am way past the 'makwe' stage...hahahaha......

Goodness, they will be lighting up the furnace, then another 6 hrs before the actual thing can start, why do I have to wait? to monitor of course. I will spend the night with some 20+ guys, doing what? looking and staring at the monitor....hahaha....jangan jealous (anybody wants to switch places? )

Prepare to burn my midnight oil tonight, gambate!!!

p(^^)q

Back to Real World....

2010-02-12T15:06:00.003+08:00

After I was high on few days with Kris Allen, am back to the real world. Today, like any other day, I came to work this morning. Knowing pretty much what to expect.....NOT!! (well I kinda half heartedly expected this). Yes, I have been asked to stay back for this particular work that needs yours truly to monitor it on hourly basis.

Nothing great or fancy, just some stuffs and they need the extra eye to look into it. I am not doing the actual work pon...So here I am in the Control Room waiting for the work to start in another couple of hours. The whole thing will take 22 hrs, not sure if I have to stay throughout, but if I have to, I have to. The girls will be heading to Penang for our retreat and I will be stuck here.......

Lucky that my February is saved by Kris much earlier, seriously ;p

I Watched Kris Allen LIVE!!!!

2010-02-09T11:21:00.010+08:00

Warning : This post is more 'keduniaan' than ever..hahaha...donia..donia....

One more reason I was happy on Sunday is that I got this text saying that I won the Kris Allen showcase (on Monday night) ticks. Although at that point of time, I was still unsure about whether or not the sms is fraud or not, I still could not help to feel super duper excited. Since I worked over the weekend, workload are little bit less on Monday. So I asked for half day leave.

I went to MV hoping to get in line for the autograph session and yes I did, no 131 out of 200 (well actually more than 200 as they keep on adding more people later. Waited in line for like 3 hours (I did sneak in and out in between). Obviously I am among the old ones, there is a few aunties, which stay in the line for their kids, and there were even school kids with school uniform waiting there....

The autograph session went very quick, we're not even allowed to take pictures, or chose which inlay for Kris to sign, all must be done on the front part. The bodyguards were strict though, we can only shake hands, but some girls walk away giving Kris a hug ;) not me though... (nak mampus? hahaha)

The end results, a signed copy of Live Like We're Dying

So I went to the Gardens to collect my showcase tickets at around 6.45 pm, though at that time still unsure whether I have been duped or not. At last, got my pass!!!

Went in at around 8pm, people were running in and the astrolife passes allows me to go right in front of the stage. Kris only came out at 9pm. The show was superb, although I wish that he sang more of the Idol songs, but what the heck, he was good irregardless what song he sings. Crowd was crazy, although not as energetic (if compared to a rock concert). I must say the band was reeaalllyyy good. Am at the very front, and the stage for Kris was made potruded from the main stage. So I can only get his backside most of the time. But since the guitarist was good looking as well, I didn't mind looking straight ahead ;p

This is the good looking guitarist, kinda look like Det. Flack a bit..hahaha....

Since I got two passes, and a friend could not join me last minute, I gave the other to this guy, Nate who happens to stand in line before me during the autograph session.

It was really tiring as I was either standing or walking from 3 pm till 11 pm. That is whole 8 hrs!!! I went back sore all over. I said am only going to do this again if and only if either Kris Allen or Linkin Park coming, maybe can squeeze in BSB (if at all they come). But probably will be looking for more like Micheal Buble kinda performance.

What's Up Doc?

2010-02-07T10:12:00.005+08:00

When I'm bored....I bake, when I feel like I need to do something...I bake, when I feel like tasting something different....I bake and definitely when I'm happy, guess what? I bake too ;)

My catalyst loading went well yesterday, and I decided to bake something as a reward to myself. I actually had this oven quite some time already, made few stuffs on it already, namely my almost famous Eggless Pinwheel cookies and what else, my favorite, carrot cake.

(rupa ada sikit buruk..coz yours truly masih in beginner stage, but the taste is superb!!)

So went back after Maghrib, head to PD town to buy the ingredients. Nothing fancy just the normal flour, sugar, carrot and stuffs. I was making carrot cake, and the only exquisite ingredient is walnut. PD town only have 2 main supermarket (cowboy town, what do you expect?) So I went to The Store, and suprise, suprise...they don't have walnut, not even almond, what more pistachio. The only nuts that they have is kacang panggang cap tangan, stocks for CNY ;p

So I tried the other store, Billion, and they have it, just that 50 gm cost RM 4.50!! I would need 200gm, easily RM18. So the next best thing is salted cashew..hahahaha...belasah la, janji bukan kacang panggang cap tangan.

I went back, make the batter and started baking.

I used my 'tried and works' recipe and instead of baking it in a pan, I bake it in small cups. To ease the eating process later ;) So I bake two tiers, set for 20 mins. The lower one took more than 20 mins to get done. The top one only took like 15 mins and it starts to crack.

I took it out, sample one of it, tasted weird though.... The carrot is not cooked and even the bottom is not browned yet.

The lower tier was done in ~30 mins. So I have to re-bake the top layer to make it cooked nicely. At first I thought because it was much smaller compared to pan, it would take shorter time to cook, but boy was I wrong. So lesson learnt, carrot cake is carrot cake, it will need the time to properly cook the carrot, irregardless the size.

And this morning this is the results. The biggest is for Ops, blue container for Lab people and smallest for Shafiq & Jignesh.

Ain't Life Interesting?

2010-02-03T20:44:00.004+08:00

Wanted to update this but ran out of ideas. Currently watching the AI Denver Audition and suddenly it hits me!!! My sis text me earlier and told me Kris Allen is coming to KL!!!! Day : 8th Feb (freaking working day) , and I am in the middle of unit shutdown now, and no chance of even going back this weekend. Also, to make matters worst, the performance tickets are not up for sale. It has to be won via some radio contest, lucky SMS through...I was never that lucky.

So to cut story short, I cannot see Kris Allen this time around ;( He will have paid performance in Singapore on the 10th, and on any day I will buy the tickets in a heartbeat, but not this time. I'll have to be here, in PD, working!!!

And that is not the best part, ready.....? I am working on the freaking Chinese New Year weekend, not kidding, plant start up being brought forward to capture the high margin. And in this volatile market condition, who am I to say no? I have to cancel my Penang trip with the girls, which is such a bummer...

So February this year is definitely not my fav month, ain't life interesting?

TM Sucks BIG Time!!!!

2010-01-18T13:47:00.008+08:00

My house in KL has been emptied for quite some time when my sisters are on semester break and went back to Kedah. Since we took the package deal, phone and internet charges are still being charged to us. That is freaking RM 88+ RM 39 = RM 127 per month!!!!. Ok, so to cut the story short, I wanted to terminate the service, because each of us has mobile, and my sister is planning to buy the broadband.

I went to Kedai TM today, paid for all the months that we did not used, and wanted to terminate, and they said CANNOT!!! because the account holder is my father, so my father in Kedah suppose to terminate our KL account, I asked 'waris pon tak boleh ke?'. The answer is NO, annoying!! And I can only go back to SP end of the month with the phone and modem in order to terminate the service. And for Jan, we will still be charge for RM 127 (when we are not using it anyway).

I asked about the business hours for their Kedai TM in Kedah (since they have different weekends than KL), they service clerk as me to call 100, what the hell? I was there, might as well I ask, rite? So much for service centre.

And when I call the 100 no, the directory given was so confusing, as most of the menu will direct to self service product explaination stuffs, SUCKS!!!
I called in 103 for direct line no and the customer service rep told me all these Kedai TM dont have direct line, REALLY? You are kidding me right? No direct line? What kind of Kedai are you, TM some more you know...!!!!

After dialing in for the 3rd or 4th time (the 100 no) I finally managed to talk to the customer service rep. I only ask a single question,
'What is the operating hours for your outlet in Kedah'... but no they ask me at least 3 questions back, my name, my phone no, alternate contact no. Why for do you need all these info for? I know it just took like 2 minutes of my time, but I was already mad and upset from previous 'services'. Seriously the system is not customer friendly at all. SUCKS big time and also, the amount that I paid and did not use, TAK HALAL, HARAM OK!!! The board of directors menjawab la kat akhirat esok for all those kind of money that made into their account. I'm sure I'm not the only one.

Memang patut 'POTONG!!!!"

Blasphemy Most Foul

2010-01-10T12:53:00.003+08:00

I received this via mail last week, but only decided to put it up after the recent attack on 3 churches in KL-S'ngor. Not only that, the government has granted RM 500K to help rebuild the church!!!

And what do we Muslims get in return? More bad names and more violence act added to our resume.

This all originated from the grant of using Allah's name given to Herald Wekly, and obviously government is way too late in doing the damage control. Many angry Muslims are roaming the streets and the one that could not control their anger resorts to all the acts just to prove their point.

Blasphemy Most Foul

In the days leading to the decision of the case brought by the Titular Roman Catholic Archbishop applying to use the word Allah in the Malay version of the bible, the Muslim community sat muted whilst being schooled by the non Muslims on their own religion. At the helm of this muted movement were politicians including their ulamas, political alliances and Muslim intellectuals who all agreed that it is permissible for the use of the word Allah in the Catholic weekly Herald publication.

The first effect that we shall see from the decision of the Kuala Lumpur High Court dated 31.12.2009 allowing the Church to use the word Allah in their Malay language publication is the birth of Allah’s son. From now onwards, the Christian God in this new publication shall be referred to as “Allah” and Jesus Christ as “Anak Allah”.

The Muslim calendar, ie the Maal Hijrah for the year 1431 shall be well remembered by all Malaysians as the year where the trinity of Allah accompanied by “Anak Allah” shall be celebrated in the books of the Christians in the mother tongue of the largely Malay muslim populace and marked by the lunar eclipse event.

In Surah Al Ikhlas, verse 1-4, Allah says ‘ Say: He is Allah, the One and Only; 2. Allah, the Eternal, Absolute. 3. He begets not, nor is he begotten; 4. And there is none like unto Him.

For the unlettered and unschooled in Islam, verse 3 simply means that Allah “does not give birth”, nor is “Allah given birth to”. It is incumbent for all Muslims, both lettered and unlettered, to uphold the sanctity of the concept of monotheism in Islam and never to allow Allah to be portrayed as having the attributes of a human being, the ability to beget a Son of which the echelons of the political community using Islam as their brand name in Malaysia have so easily facilitated and consented.

Those responsible for allowing this event to take place shall have to answer in their graves and in the hereafter for committing the greatest of all sins, “shirk” or polytheism of the highest degree. No argument can justify the usage of “Allah” and “Anak Allah” in any kitab here; yet those in a position to prevent this occurrence has shamelessly come to the defence of The weekly Herald to teach us how to pray to our ONE GOD.

What is the rationale for using the word “Allah” in the Christian books and how does this promote racial integration or even “One Malaysia”? If anything, this event draws the divide between the races even more. It is a deep shame that we have to live with for the rest of our lives, losing a battle that need not have been fought at all. It is not the fault of the Titular Roman Catholic Archbishop that we lost our pride and identity, we are our own doing. The pride of our community today fell due to treachery by those who fought and won political battles using the name of Islam. In the Quran, Allah warns us most of all against people who sell their religion. Allah says in the Quran, “..do not sell my religion for a paltry sum..”. In this case before us, the situation involved is even worst, they sold their religion for free.

Zainul Rijal Abu Bakar
Presiden
Persatuan Peguam Peguam Muslim Malaysia

As a Muslim, I could not agree more with this guy.

The Trouble with Love is....

2010-01-07T16:05:00.004+08:00

I could not hold this anymore. just finished talking to a friend (more like a big sister). She's pregnant with her 7th child and her 'beloved' husband is now having a young girlfriend. She was looking for a shoulder to cry on. She keeps telling me how she loss sleep over the man's behaviour.

That is the problem with women, they love somebody to much and keep everything very dear to them. I keep on telling her its not her fault that the man went out with some young chic. He's probably having the so called 'mid life crisis' - (konon...), man seems to have excuses for all the things that they do in life.

Women makes the biggest mistakes when they love a man more than they love themselves. I guess probably that is the reason I'm not married till today, a friend once said, I'm too in love with myself. Some people define loving yourself by taking good care of themselves, which means you keep in good shape, physically fit all the time.

Well my way of taking care of my self is more on the spiritual side, I have guards, walls, or whatever you may call it, so that I won't be hurt. It would be a lie if I say I never got hurt, but I NEVER let myself to love anybody more than myself (apart from my mother and siblings) but people outside, friends especially, I'm sorry to say, I love myself above you. And I guess that is why I rarely been bogged down if a friend suddenly 'dissapeared' or people don't like me. Because I know nobody would love me like I do, so why bother?

Back to this friend's story, I told her to be strong, she has kids that depends on her. Some other day she will loss appetite and will not be eating after an overnight argument with the 'man'. In the end she and her poor baby will suffer. I tried to remind her to be strong, women are not supposed to rely on men to make them happy, we must make ourself happy. I sort of said something like this to her.. ...

"I know that it is hard, you are husband and wife, he is the father of your kids, but you must be strong, you must not let him determine how you feel, you must take care of yourself, nak-nak lagi ada yang dalam perut tu. The baby will count on you to take care of her, the 'man' don't give a damn. If anything happens, he will surely blame you, so you have to be strong, insyaAllah, Allah is with you.."

The man is egoistic, she said that he told her, if ever you are feeling oppressed, zikir, solat sunat, Allah will help you (pandai kan nasihat orang?) and when my friend did all these and still feels depressed, he said nampak sangat Allah tak sayang my friend. How can he say that, you guys imagine, a woman, pregnant, + kids at home + busy with work, suddenly the husband main kayu tiga with some young chic, hati siapa tak hancur? And he is so bold making that kind of statement.

So again to stress my stand. Do not ever love anybody more than you love Allah, your mother and yourself. I pray the best for her.

p/s: I know some people would give me this statement, ko senang la cakap, ko tak kahwin lagi, cuba dah kawin tgk macam mane?
my answer would be, I learnt from others' mistakes, and I would be a fool if I still repeat what others do, not to say I know everything, am learning at the same time, but I always prioritise myself above anybody else (except my mother) insyaAllah I'll be fine.

Something to do next year!!

2009-12-31T16:12:00.003+08:00

I received feedback from work today. Perfomance can be improved by miles...hmm...so I have to excercise some self discipline. I realise lately I have been having to much time on the net.

Either its bloghopping, browsing for recipes, and many other stuffs. I have to cutdown, or at least limit the timing and only do all this sort of of stuffs on night time? Ohh please let me be strong, so that I can improve in my time management. Those little boxes on the right may be visited less frequent, and I maybe not being updated more often. Well at least until I get my act altogether, lets try for the 1st Q, we'll see.

Gambate!!! p(^^)q

Allah Lebih Sayangkan dia....

2009-12-31T12:19:00.004+08:00

We are welcoming the new year, bet many are recollecting their moments of 2009. I never thought it would come to this day. One of my closest friend passed away this morning. She has been sick for quite a while. Last communication I had with her was during her birthday on 3rd Dec 09. She was opting for traditional meds after being in and out of hosp for 2-3 times. She sounds hopeful, I wanted to see her quite a few times but I guess she was to embarrassed with her condition. I should have insisted. And now I could not see her forever....

My dear friend, Rasidah Md Yusof passed away this morning at the age of 28. May she rest in peace and may this be a reminder to all of us that living is not just about living, how prepared are we to go 'there'?. May Allah bless her soul and I know Allah loves her more than I do.....

Al Fatihah...

[1]Dengan nama Allah, Yang Maha Pemurah, lagi Maha Mengasihani.

[2]Segala puji tertentu bagi Allah, Tuhan yang memelihara dan mentadbirkan sekalian alam.

[3]Yang Maha Pemurah, lagi Maha Mengasihani.

[4]Yang Menguasai pemerintahan hari Pembalasan (hari Akhirat).

[5]Engkaulah sahaja (Ya Allah) Yang Kami sembah, dan kepada Engkaulah sahaja kami memohon pertolongan.

[6]Tunjukilah kami jalan yang lurus.

[7]Iaitu jalan orang-orang yang Engkau telah kurniakan nikmat kepada mereka, bukan (jalan) orang-orang yang Engkau telah murkai, dan bukan pula (jalan) orang-orang yang sesat.

Aminn......

Tafsir from here

Muallaf - The best ever!!

2009-12-29T10:46:00.006+08:00

I watched Mualaf last Sunday with my sister. The cinema was half filled. One row of non Muslim guys were behind me , I think more than 5 of them. This the best Yasmin's film ever, here's why:

It talks about religion without offending others.
Strong and good Islamic values
Strong good family values
Dialouge were spontaneous
Filem ilmiah terbaik abad ini, no nonsense rempit or love or whatsoever
Gets you thinking how far do you know your religion and others?
Favourite scene- when the sisters about to go to sleep, they forgave everybody that hurt them during that day and later recites Ayat Kursi.
Like any other Yasmin's movie, I cried throughout....touching to the very core...

Was thinking to get my colleague to watch, highly recommended, but we don't have cinema in PD, and when I was looking for showtime in Seremban, NONE of the TGV,GSC or MBO is showing Mualaf at all!!!! What is wrong with Malaysians? Suppose we should have this wajib tayang in every states, WTH??

I regret that people in Seremban dan sewaktu dengannya will have to travel extra far just to watch this movie. Its bad enough that Malaysians gets to watch this movie much later than S'porean, and the rest of the world, and now not all big cities are showing it. Truly dissappointed...

Year End BBQ

2009-12-22T10:09:00.008+08:00

Tangan gatal nak menulis but I don't know where I put my camera cable and just writing won't do justice to the story. Anyhoo...we had the BBQ last Wednesday. May people turned up but we still have lots of leftovers.

Some prep work behind the scenes...

The guys started lighting up the fire at 5.30pm ish, I rushed home to make the main dish, Vege Fried Rice and Seafood Fried Meehon. Arrived back in Sports Club around 7.00 pm. Already there were one batch of burned chicken... hehehe.....

The weather does not look good, dark clouds were all over us. And right in the middle of the sea I can see the rain is pouring, not a good sign. While some of us moved the food to dining area, which is quite far from BBQ area, the rest of us are still hopeful and even continue 'burning' the chicken under umbrella..huhuhu...

Half of the crowd...the rest under shades, out of the picture ;)

Somebody suggested we should have games, but everybody is so caught up catching up and trying to rescue burnt chicken, so we did not played any games.

Finish clearing up around 11pm-ish, had a lot of helping hands, glad that we managed to pull this through ;) If we can get the same crowd, definitely we can do it again next year.

The Cake is in the Oven

2009-12-14T13:49:00.002+08:00

Its end of the year, many people is clearing leave. From this week til new year, we only have 4 work-days a week ;) heaven!!! I have thought about this quite a while, wanted to do a get together with colleague, nasib baik I have Sakina, my cohorts for this pet project. She did the invite,RSVP and such, while I plan for the menu and sort of plan who does what.

The plan : BBQ at Sports Club
The time : This Wed, Dec 16th, after work till midnite?....depends...
The people : SRCPD's staffs, last count, 31 of us ( I was kinda expecting 2 to respond, tapi manalah tahu, the response is overwhelming..hehehe..)
The menu : Still in planning, but roughly have the idea, obviously have to be vegan friendly.

Today after work heading to Jusco S2 to buy more stuffs.

p/s: we did this because we know the co. will not do anything since the budget cut and all...so why not do it our own ;)

Why oh why???

2009-12-10T13:10:00.008+08:00

Something irks me yesterday. I suddenly feels the urge to watch movie, browsing TGV and latest they are showing The Storm Warriors....my sis favorite Cheng E-Kin and Aaron Kwok is back with the second installment movie that comes from comics. I think the first one was maybe 10 years ago, or more...

The thing is nobody is available yesterday. I asked this one person whether or not that person is free and up for a movie. Then I get the call;

That person : What movie you wanna watch tonite?
Me: The Storm Warrior,
That person : What?
Me : The Storm Warrior, chinese movie
That person : Ooooo...chinese movie then count me out.
Me : Ok...

What the h*** was that? Its not just this person, in fact many other my friends have reacted this way. Why is it that we always see that only the Malay watch Malay movies...(well at least this one you can blame on the low quality, Yusof Haslam, Razak Mohaidden kinda movie) .

And if at all any HK movies are showing, only the Chinese watch it?

Why is it that Malaysians (all Malay,Chinese,Indian alike) only watch the movie that is of their native tounge?

Why is it that the only genre/type or movie that can unite all these 3 main races is only those come from outside (American movies, Brit movies..etc..etc)

Did we not have a Chinese friend, and Indian co-workers, that the least we should do is open our mind to these alternative entertainment. That I believe will indeed increase our tolerance towards other races.

I have only 1 (ONE) friend so far that watch both Chinese and Malay movie with me. No other people can do both at the same time with me.

Its not about the movie, its about why are we quick to accept foreign stuffs, rather than learn to accept those that is closer to us? Why?

By the way, I have watched Infernal Affairs 3 (a HK triad movie) alone in cinema and I was the only Malay at that time.

It is true that all these HK, Bollywood movies are not local, but they are supposed to be more dear to us rather than all the 'mat saleh' movie, at least in terms of the language, the people and their culture.

Maybe this doesnt make sense to some people but all the small things like this gauge our understanding of other races, and entertainment is actually the most effective education yet.

One more thing, a movie should be watched because of the story line, cinematography and many other factors, not just the language, at least in my opinion ;)

My Mind is Made Up

2009-12-09T08:19:00.001+08:00

Not a Twilight fan but am saying this.

I'm Team Jacob

Hands down. Period. ;)

And I Pronounced Thee.....

2009-12-07T12:55:00.004+08:00

I was watching TV last weekend like nobody's business. I got to watch the catch up episode of Giuliana & Bill series on E! and also their marriage in Italy episode. I was like aawww..... most of the time. First off I like Bill A LOT, back when he was the contestant in The Apprentice, very handsome, charismatic, and very good businessman (back then he was known as cigar business owner).

When he married Giuliana, I think its a marriage made in heaven, as they look compatible with each other. At the beginning of the episode, both mentioned that they were in no hurry to get married, but somehow fate decides and the proposal came after 10 months they known each other. I must say that the whole interview-proposal-engagement-wedding sounds like fairy tale to me.

I don't know why I'm writing about them, but I like the couple, both of them, and I wish I'll find someone who will be good to me as Bill to Giuliana, and maybe just maybe I can have that kind of wedding and all....

p/s: guess I'm going to be one the loyal fans for the couples weekly episodes ;)

Creepy...or Coincidence?

2009-12-02T16:44:00.006+08:00

Have you ever thought that you are unique, that no one likes what extra things that you like, (nope, defintely not talking about vampire craze as many has jumped in the bandwagon for the past 2 years). I am talking about me, yes me...

I thought I have weird combination of interest and my blogging topics were diversed, not the kind that a typical girl would blog about.

I like football, a lot since my friendster blogging days I have blog few entries about football. And this new blog, I have done the same as well.

I like languages, I took Spanish class , level 1 class, but for the second level I could not continue because at that time not enough people are enrolling for Saturday class. So it kinda stop halfway. Am trying to continue maybe next year.

So here's the thing, today is my lazy day of all day (boss not in, so you do the math). I blog-hopped and stumble upon this one blog. The girl actually dig both of the items above, and not just on high level, down to the very detail...

1. She's a fanatic football fan, and somehow we both blogged about Barca winning EUFA Champions Leaugue in 2006 (and both in friendster blog!!!) (see how far I blog hopped?)
2. She also took Spanish Class at Instituto Cervantes,KL in A2 now. Had I continued the class after whole semester of no Saturday class, I would have met her...hahaha..what a small world :)

I left a message on her blog, let see if she responded, if she does, I'll link her blog here..

Actually I have another creepy/coincidence thing back in uni, maybe some other time I'll blog about it. :)

p/s: I have a sneaky feeling that we are born in the same year, why? I don't know..hehehe...

A Little Bit of This.....

2009-12-02T09:41:00.007+08:00

Its been a while I have written, despite that I have so many things to talk about.

I watched the 2 eposides of History Channel special on Tun Dr M last Sunday. He will always be my favorite PM of all time and definitely best leader after Prophet Muhammad PBUH. My respect for him is even more than before after seeing the documentary. Despite all the allegation that were thrown to him, I believe that all the things that he have done for Malaysia are for the people's best interest, although people themselves did not acknowledge it. He is a no-nonsense person and speaks from the heart.

Maybe there are things that he did wrong, but hey, he is human to you know, and we humans make mistake. I was closed to reduced to tears when he said in the documentary that he failed in his 22 years to develop the Malay. I say he did not, although it was not a 100% success, but he did managed to shift Malay mindset, develop more Malay professionals than British or anybody could ever anticipated in short 50 years period. Not to mentioned, Malaysians graduate are employed worldwide more than ever before. I for one, is a product of his tenure, and so far am proud of myself and satisfied of what Malaysia has given me so far.

I have this quote on my workstation from him to get through the day,

"We must not antagonise everyone. We must win their hearts and minds. We must win them to our side, not by begging for help from them, but by the honorable way that we struggle to help ourselves. We must not strengthen the enemy by pushing everyone into their camps through irresponsible and unIslamic acts. "

Dr Mahathir Mohamad

Oct 16, 2003 in speech to a summit of 57 Islamic countries

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
On another note, I watched the Barca-Real match on Monday and it was an entertaining ones. I only managed to catch the second half. Although C.Ronaldo was taken out due to injury, but the whole game was fast paced and both teams did their best. Barca is brilliant at counter attacking and Ibrahimovich goal is a result of precise pass from (I can't remember who) . Real did work hard but Puyol and Pique proves to be the solid defence Barca is ever thank for. Valdes was not tested much compared to Casillas on the other side (at least for the second half that I watched).
I have not seen much of Kaka, but believe me once he and C. Ronaldo found their pace, these duo will become unstoppable. However, Messi who has just been announced Ballon d'or (aka European Footballer of the Year) for 2009 is yet the true star. He can get the ball, entangled by 3-4 players and still managed to get away with it. His agility and quick footwork is amazing, and so does Iniesta.

I have always like La Liga compared to BPL. As a Portugal fan, if at all they made it for the final in SA, their greatest rival would be the Spanish team. Many of the Portuguese players either had played or now playing in La Liga, and the patterns and way of playing are very much similar. German would be the one to fear as well, but am thinking Spanish is much bigger threat.

There it is, a little bit of this and a little bit of that....

Erk...

2009-11-25T14:18:00.005+08:00

I have not been picking the needles close to one week now, too busy...yeah rite!!! More like too lazy..hehehe...

Anyhooo, how did my interest in this handwork begins? Back in primary school my mum used to do crocheting, and I took liking in it. Soon I learnt how to make 'tali air' and then progress to other stiches. Crotchet is definitely easier than knitting. My mom used to have stacks of photocopied patterns, we only understood the symbols, the rest are in Japanese.. ;)

I even made some doilies to used as TV covers back when I was in secondary school. Last I did crotchet stuffs was when my older sister got engaged. We (mum and I) crochet 7 in total if I'm not mistaken.

Anyhoo...till I have good projects to showcase, layan je my last art piece ;) very the simple, but I like.

Will be on leave tomorrow for Aidiladha, supposed to be working now instead of updating this blog, tapi macam dah check out, my brain is jammed for work.. ;p

Selamat Hari Raya Aidiladha ;) Don't overdose on the daging korban!!

~~somewhere over the rainbow~~