Candak Sotong Weh!!!

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).

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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.

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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.

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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

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

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

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

1. Shoe no 1, I bought it to be worn with long skirt for a school reunion.
2. Shoe no 2 is used mostly for work (noticed that it is worn out, tunggu waktu nak arwah je..) .
3. 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.
4. Shoe no 4 is my official work out shoe, while shoe no 5 is used for jalan-jalan.
5. Shoe no 6 is the famous nonetheless flip-flop.
6. 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

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 !!

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!!

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?

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

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...