Life as I see it

2009-12-15T22:59:00.000+08:00

Blogging from iPod touch application

2009-12-15T22:49:00.000+08:00

Hello everyone. Just to inform everyone I'm still around though I might be going a bit slow on the blogging thingy. But no fear, I am still here.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Adief Shafiy is 6 months already?

2009-10-20T12:35:00.004+08:00

Yup, it's been 6 month already since our new baby boy was born. Wow, how time flies huh. It just felt like the day after yesterday since he was born. Just imagine, another 6 months to go and we'll be preparing his 1st birthday party. Alhamdulillah, Adief is a healthy baby and easy to take care off. His smile and voice early in the morning brights up and cheers the day. Especially on weekdays. His mumbling and laughter in the car usually cools down the traffic jam syndrome.

Still can't believe it that he has grown so big. From as light as 2.5kg, he is currently around 7.2kg and still growing. Soon he's gonna be heavy as a 10kg beras pack. Anyway, hopefully he will turn up okay...

We love you Adief Shafiy

Adief today as at 9.00am

Miri - Land of Oils

2009-09-08T09:00:00.003+08:00

It's been a very long long time since my last confession...ooops, i mean my last blog entry. A lot has change since my last entry way back in April. Luckily wifey had the chance to cover for me in these few months time. She's becoming a better blogger than I am. But, just like to point out that this site is still active, though not as active as before. Work commitment is one thing. Opportunity and timing is another obstacle.

During this Ramadhan, i had the chance to visit a small town in Sarawak which is Miri. Before this, I've only heard about Miri upgraded to bandaraya and it's an oil town. Texas maybe???

Anyway, the schedule here during Ramadhan is quite pack and i don't think i had enough chance to explore the city. I did google it to see what interesting places that i could visit during my stay here. The National Park was out of the question, so i guess it's just city drive and stop wherever i could go.

During my few hours before leaving on another jetplane to Kuching, I wanted to go to the Bintang Plaza shopping mall in Miri. I did visit this place earlier during my arrival and I guess it's the most happening shopping mall there is in Miri. Unfortunately for me, the crowd was damm crowded. The road heading towards the parking lot was at a stand still and the parking at the nearby centre was already crowded. With a heavy heart, i decided to leave it and perhaps I'll bumped in to another mall.

Eiffel tower in Miri?

And so I did. Since Miri is a small town, i just drove off with the rented Persona and ended up in Imperial Mall. The Mall was quite ok and it had the anchor stor which is the Boulevard. Sorry folks, no Jusco or Aeon store here. The shops was quite interesting though. DVD's are hung in the shops and easy accessible. The price per DVD is RM6. A bit more expensive compared to Penang but way cheaper than KL. I did manage to catch a souvenier at the mall. I bought a Zee Avi CD at Speedy outlet( like they don't have it in KL). But, I guess you can consider it buying it locally since Zee Avi is from Miri, Sarawak. Though no special local rate was given. By the way, I am currently listening to the cd right now. She's got a very nice vocal and the tunes are quite good. One of the songs that made me smiling and loughing my heart out was Kantoi. Cool tune. Ohh and yeah, in Miri, Sunday is a no plastic bag day. So the picture below is how i received the cd after paying for the item. Go Green.

Love the tacks in this album. Kantoi...

With still about an hour to go before going to the airport, I decided to stop over a the Taman Awam Miri that i spotted last Friday in search for a Masjid to perform the Friday prayer.

The park was beautiful. Equipped with a jambatan gantung (suspension bridge) that did not look too frightening since it was supported by concrete pillars. On the ground there is a wet park for kids to play with the water. Quite similar to the one found in KLCC, but this one seems to be more properly situated in a greenery park and far away from tall buildings. Sofea and Adief would surely love this. I know i would.

After spending abount half an hour or so, it's time to move on to the airport. Though the airport was very nearby, i didn't know where else to go and ended up updating this blog at the airport supported by Starbucks free Wifi network and my D68 Celcom Broadband.

:: New Blog ::

2009-07-21T11:24:00.003+08:00

selepas beberapa bulan menumpang blog hubby tercinta, kini saya sudah ada blog sendiri ye kengkawan:-)kalau rajin jengah2 la..

http://phira78.blogspot.com

::Kepala saya weng weng::

2009-07-16T13:57:00.004+08:00

Hi kengkawan, pagi ni saya telah meninggalkan kunci rumah dan kunci kereta di dalam rumah...camne tah boleh lupa nak ambik..elok je gi tekan door knob tu...elok je tekan and tutup pintu baru teringat kunci tak amik...terus tanya nasiah(mil's maid) dia ada amik tak kunci rumah...sekali dia kata tak ada daaaa...abisss la...kunci spare dekat hubby..n hubby pulak ada kat penang...last2 call mama(mil) mintak tolong papa antar kan kunci spare...tq papa tolong antar kunci...seb baik la diorg ada simpan..kalau tidak tak tau la camne nak buat...so sementara dah terkurung kat luar umah sendiri, ni la aksi-aksi sofea yg kebosanan + seronok dpt lari2 kat corridor...

itulah kejadian sengal dipagi hari khamis...

Losing all in get-rich schemes

2009-07-13T21:00:00.001+08:00

Losing all in get-rich schemes

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:: Teluk Chempedak ::

2009-06-23T14:53:00.006+08:00

Semalam 1st day saya masuk office lepas 60 hari on maternity leave...memang rasa macam nak nangis je nak gi keja..ala2 macam budak sekolah nak masuk sekolah lepas dah cuti lama...dah la fikir nak tinggalkan adief yg dah 2 bln dok berkepit dgn mommy je...pastu tak dapat tengok aksi sofea yg suka panjat sane panjat sini dan dengar sofea berceloteh...tapi nak buat camne kan..tanggungjawab beb...tapi entry ni bukan nak ngomel pasal nak kena masuk keja..tapi nak cite skit pasal our 1st vacation with new family member ke Teluk Chempedak.. Actually bukan la saje2 pegi bercuti ni..tapi hubby ada kerja kat kuantan so dah alang2 masih lagi tgh bercuti, dengan muka tak malunya saya nak ikut la kan..rasanya lepas ni mesti bos susah nak bagi cuti..kalau ikutkan was-was jugak nak ikut sebab nak kena jaga sofea n adief sorang2 time hubby gi keja..tapi perasaan nak berjalan tu lagi kuat so ikut jugak la...we all bertolak dari kl hari rabu malam lepas hubby balik dr ipoh...kesian dia...sepanjang perjalanan tu sofea n adief tido je..memang senang hati la masa tu...sampai kuantan dalam pukul 11pm terus check in kat Hyatt... On thursday tu suppose hubby kena pegi keja after lunch..so pagi tu still ok lagi la kan...tapi belum ape2 lagi sofea dah start panjat atas meja la, main switch la...adief pulak merengek tak boleh nak tido so kena le berkepit...dalam hati ckp abiss la aku..tapi depan hubby tunjuk cool je sbb dia dah awal2 tanya boleh ke jaga sorang2 ni...dengan confidentnye saya jwb la boleh kan...karang kalau tunjuk muka cuak nanti mesti dia kata "I've told u"...hehehe...sekali tu tgh cuak2 tu hubby's collegue cakap kerja postpone..friday baru ada...masa tu mmg melompat la dalam bilik tu..sofea pun terkebil2 tengok mommy excited semacam...hehehe...petang tu we all lepak je dalam bilik sebab anak2 (lately, suka sebut perkataan ni;-)) tido...sofea tido sampai nak dekat maghrib...malam tu baru la keluar pegi makan kat area luar hotel...jalan kaki je sbb dekat...malam tu dapat lagi berita gumbira...memang kerja hubby kat kuantan tu kena postpone terus...so mmg dtg bercuti je la kat kuantan tu....i likee...hehehe Pepagi lagi hubby dah search internet konon nak carik hotel lain...tapi bila call hotel2 lain semua dah penuh...so we all decided stay je la kat hyatt ni sampai saturday..kira kena bayar sendiri la for one nite..ok la tu kan 2 mlm free...aktiviti hari jumaat tu pulak, lepas sembahyang jumaat hubby bawak pegi berjaya mega mall..gi lunch sane...sampai sana mkn dekat pizza hut..lepas order je tetiba adief meneran...rupanye dia ukk ukk...sofea pulak memang dah tak terkawal..sementara tunggu pizza nak datang, hubby dukung adief kat luar sampai adief lena...saya pulak suap sofea sup dgn cheese stick sambil sofea memanjat2 baby chair yang ada kat situ...huhuhu...then hubby pun datang balik kat pizza hut bwk adief yg dah tertido...sofea pulak dah masuk dalam stroller...tak sampai 5 minit dia pun tido...masa tu tetiba rasa macam heaven je sbb boleh makan dengan tenang...lama x dpt makan dgn tenang sejak dah ada anak ni...hehhehe..lepas makan tu merayau la dalam mall tu...hubby dukung adief, saya pulak sorong sofea dalam stroller...sempat la rembat beberapa keping dvd...best sgt!!balik tu dah siap2 tapau nasi ayam utk dinner..rasa tak larat la nak kuar lagi... On saturday morning pulak hubby bwk sofea gi swimming...seronok la cik kak tu dapat debushh..puas la dia berendam sampai kecut2 tangan dgn kaki..saya pulak turun lambat sikit sebab nak susu kan adief...masa turun tu mmg adief tido je dalam stroller...dapat la amik gambar kat swimming pool tu...dalam pukul 10.45am tu naik la bilik n get ready nak check out...memang agak huru hara gak la time tu..tulah 1st experience jalan jauh sejak dah anak dua ni...memang mencabar tapi bila tengok sofea happy sampai tersengih2 nampak gigi, hilang semua stress...tunggu la bila adief pun dah pandai nak enjoy macam kakak sofea... Balik tu memang terus shoot ke kl...sampai genting sempah tu call tokma tanya ada rumah tak..so singgah la rumah gombak sampai malam...sampai rumah pukul 11 lebih malam...letih...tapi yang paling letih hubby la...yang, thanks bwk kitorg jalan2..we love u...rasanya belum terlewat nak wish Happy Father's Day to u...sofea n adief are lucky to have u as their daddy... selain tu nak wish jugak Happy Father's Day untuk babah n papa..thanks for being such a wonderful father..we love u always... ni ada gambar skit masa kat teluk chempedak..

:: Pantang nak abiss dah..yeayyyy ::

2009-06-01T17:12:00.002+08:00

Salam semua…lama betul tak post ape2 dlm blog ni…dah 43 hari dah lepas bersalinkan adief langsung tak update ape2…hubby je yg update…tu pun bila dia ada free time…esok cukup 44 hari..yahooooo…bestnye…
Kat sini saya nak cite la pengalaman bersalinkan Adief Shafiy …sebelum ni hubby ada post kan tapi ni biar la dari my own experience pulak…
16 April 2009(Khamis):
Pagi tu saya n hubby pegi klinik Dr. Ashar untuk check up 38wk..tapi disebabkan dr. ashar masih lagi bercuti sampai 20hb, Dr Sharmina yg gantikan…so masa check up tu ada la mintak dr sharmina checkkan sama ada dah ada bukaan ke tak…so kena la seluk…dr sharmina kata lom bukak lagi n rahim masih tinggi…so mmg lom masanya lagi la…lepas balik dr check up tu sempat la gi tgk exora..
17 April 2009(Jumaat):
Ada blood spot…kalau ikutkan masa before bersalinkan sofea mmg ada blood show..so dah suspen campur excited dah masa ni..
19 April 2009(Ahad) dan 20 April 2009(Isnin):
Petang tu pegi rumah mama kat Gombak..lunch(late lunch) kat sane…shana dgn syarul pun ada…shana sibuk mengajar mama nak order kain online..so join la diorg tgk design kain yg berkenan..tgh pilih2 tu tetiba ada rasa mild cantraction…pastu suruh la shana timing kan…memula every 10 min contraction dtg…mmg tepat2 la kan..tapi yg peliknya nape contraction ni tak sesakit macam sofea dulu..semua dah suspen suruh hubby bwk saya gi hospital…tapi kitorg rileks je…sama mcm time sofea dulu…kalau separuh org mesti dah tekan panic button…so dlm pkl 6 ptg tu balik la umah…contraction masih ada n constant…smp rumah terus mandi n hubby pulak mandikan sofea…pastu hubby call kak jajie mintak tolong bwk sofea pegi umah MIL…dlm pkl 7 lebih tu masih lagi rileks kat rumah tunggu kak jajie n abg zekri dtg…hubby pulak sempat lagi gantung langsir yg dah dibasuh siang tu…masa sofea nak keluar tu tetiba rasa mcm syahdu pulak..sebenarnya rasa mcm nak nangis tapi control je la…sofea pun elok je salam n peluk saya n hubby….dlm pkl 8 lebih tu ckp kat hubby kita pegi jelah check CTG…kalau kata false alarm ke kita balik la…hubby pulak ckp u beranak je la ari ni..so dia takde la risau kan…hubby drive gi APSH ikut DUKE highway…bwk pun steady je sbb saya takde la rasa sakit sgt…then sampai kat parking kat basement APSH dlm pkl 8.40pm…masa tu hubby tanya nak tunggu lepas contraction datang ke baru nak kuar dari kereta…saya cakap takpe la…leh tahan lagi..kalau sakit nanti just berhenti je la kat tepi…pastu kuar la tapi tak bawak beg pun lagi…sekali elok je sampai kat entrance tu tetiba je TUSHH…waterbag pecah…terus saya pegang kuat2 tangan hubby cakap waterbag pecah…kebetulan ada satu van ni baru amik patient kat situ..so ada lah wheel chair..org tu pun offer la nak wheel chair ke…we all pun cakap nak…hubby terus lari gi balik kat kereta nak amik beg…so hubby pun sorong la saya gi EnA…pastu dialog hubby cakap kat nurse “rasanya isteri saya nak beranak dah ni”…hehhee…cam kelaka pulak…pastu diorg pun terus la bawak saya ke LR…nurse check tgk dah bukak 4cm…then dia masukkan ubat buang air besar n suruh tukar baju…pastu nurse tu cakap Dr. Ashar takde sbb masih bercuti, doc lain yg akan ganti…masa tu redha je la…nak wat camne kan…lepas gi toilet nurse tu bagitau Dr. Ashar dah balik…so dia yg akan sambut…lega sangat masa tu..so tunggu la kami suami isteri dalam LR tu dgn penuh debaran…sempat lagi sms kengkawan n family…nurse pulak kejap2 tanya tahan ke sakit...saya cakap still boleh tahan lagi..sekali dalam pukul 11 pm tu dah rasa sakit makin kuat…nurse check dah bukak 6cm…pastu dia tanya lagi nak pain killer ke…saya cakap saya nak pakai gas la…nurse pun ajar la cara nak sedut gas…lepas sedut gas tu tetiba rasa high je…boleh lagi gelak terkekek2 dgn hubby cakap rasa high la…masa tu mmg tgn hubby la jadik mangsa bila contraction datang…memang sakitnya tak terkata la kan…dalam pkl 1:45 am tu ckp kat hubby rasa tahan dah ni…hubby pun panggil nurse…nurse check 8cm..still tak boleh push lagi…dia kata dalam ½ jam lagi kot…dalam hati ckp ya Allah…lambat lagi ke…then dalam 5 min pastu mmg bebetul rasa mcm nak buang air besar…hubby panggil lagi nurse..bila check tgk dah 10cm…terus la diorg pasang ape2 yg patut n panggil doc..alhamdulillah tepat pukul 2am 20 April 2009 dgn sekali push je kuar la cahayamata kedua kami bernama Adief Shafiy…rasa lega sangat masa tu…semuanya selamat…
Tak sangka pulak skang dah ada dua cahayamata..sofea pun nampak dah ciri2 kakak penyayang…harap2 nye la…hehhe..to my beloved hubby, thanks so much sbb jaga kami anak beranak dgn baik sejak dr awal pregnancy lagi…I love u so much…semoga kita dapat mendidik anak2 kita dgn baik…aminnnn..

Stem Cells

2009-05-28T14:00:00.000+08:00

A few weeks before Adief was born, both of us agreed to keep his stem cells this time. We were not quite prepared for it when Sofea was born back in 2007 plus the sales person managed to get hold of wifey the night before Sofea was born. 2 weeks ago wifey called me up saying that there was a bad news.

It seems that Adief's stem cells was infected with bacteria during the extraction process. The cause of the bacteria couldn't be pin pointed exactly only that the sales person from Stem Life did tell wifey that this kind of case did happen only that the probability is very low. So as a result, there were no use for us to keep the stem cell anymore since it could not be used for now or for the future.

Well, I guess it's when you call it that takde rezeki. We can't blame anyone on this. I'm sure everyone did their part well. So, i guess no stem cells for now. Hopefully we won't be needing it in the future.

Ps: Feez, i think we'll be needing your contact in Stemlife in the future after all. Insyaallah.

Stem cells

Picture from : http://healthcare.zdnet.com/?p=629

What's in a name?

2009-04-30T14:39:00.000+08:00

By now, my 2nd child would be approximately 11 days old. He was released from the hospital on the 5th day after being lightbathed from the jaundice attack. One of the most difficult thing to do when you have a new child is choosing a name. A name you choose today will be used by him from this life and on to the next one. It's your identity and it reflects who you are.

Some parents go for some superb fancy name. Others just choose the common name that is easy to pronounce and have good meaning. Whatever the reason be, i'm sure it is in the best interest of both parties. Before giving a name to our new baby, there were a few suggestion from other people. Those included Adrian Sofian and many more. Though Adrian Sofian would be suitable if we had a pair of twins last time, we decided not to go for it.

The name Adif came cross to our mind a long time ago, i think it was sometime in the early stage of pregnancy if it was a boy. The only thing missing was the second part of the name, which is the hard part. So until the baby was born, people kept asking us what's his name and i will always answer, just wait. For now, just call him baby or adik. Well, it's probably because we have not decided on the finalise version. Hey, it took month for Proton to name their MPV Exora right?

On that morning on the baby's 2nd day, it was time to name this baby. Luckily there's thing thing called the internet and the rest was history. A few list was listed down and it came down between Syazwi or Shafiy. The name Syazwi meant keharumanku while the Shafiy meant yang menyembuhkan. We couldn't actually find the actual meaning of adief though there was someone quoted that it was okay to name it adief. So in the end it was Adief Shafiy coz Syazwi sounded like a bit hangging.

It had 12 letters on it. The same as his big sister. So in the end it was Adief Shafiy. And so it was written in the form, and so it was printed on the birth certificate.

To Adief, maybe if you're reading this someday, we hope you like your name. It's a very unique name and hopefully the meaning will really reflect you. We love you.

The Attack of the Jaundice

2009-04-21T12:45:00.000+08:00

Just received a call from the nursery informing me that the baby's jaundice reading is quite high. 15.8 on the jaundice scale...err i think. So the baby has to be sun bathed by the famous light. I guess it runs in the family, only this time much sooner. During Sofea's time, she was at least 4 days before being admitted to the nursery.

After settling the admission records, i went down to the nursery to visit him. For the time being, there are 4 lights put under him. Hopefully the baby will get well soon.

ps: get well soon un-named baby
from dad, mommy and Sofea

The baby has finally pop out!!!

2009-04-20T14:31:00.000+08:00

At about 0200hrs on 20th April 2009, wifey has finally given birth to our second child at Ampang Puteri Specialist Hospital. This automatically voids the counter at the top of the page. The contraction started around 3pm on the 19th while we were on our way to my in laws. Having experience our first child, first thing's first, don't panic. So we moved on with our plans which was to have lunch and so we did.

But the contraction was getting more constant and this might be it you know. So we went back home at around 6.00pm. The only difference between this one and the previous one is that this time we have another load to handle which is Sofea. So along the way, i've already called my sister to standby to pick up Sofea in case something urgent happens. So after wifey had taken her bath and i have bathed Sofea, it was time to wait to make sure that this is the real thing. I however did manage to hang back the curtain that i washed earlier to kill time. The thing is, wifey couldn't remember how the pain felt when the real contraction occured.

But since it was constant and everytime the pain increases, i guess we had no choice but to go to the hospital. As soon as Auntie Jie and Uncle Zekri picked Sofea up to go to Carrefour, i guess it was time for us to make our move too.

No speeding was necessary because the situation was still under control. Thank God for DUKE highway which enable us to reach Ampang Puteri much sooner than we think. As soon as we parked the car, i expected another contraction to take place in the next minute or so. Just as we were walking towards the elevator, suddenly wifey squeezed up my hand and said " Rasanya air ketuban dah pecah "....What the??? Nooo.... Ok, stay calm. And with a coincidence, there was a wheelchair right by the entrance of the elevator. So i grabbed the wheelchair and put wifey down and speeded up to the Accident and Em.ergency area. I guess this could be considered as emergency right?

So they take wifey up to the Labour Room and the opening was at 4cm. Hmmm, could be soon, could be a little while. So back i went to register wifey and once it is done, i resume my place at the Labour Room. Another coincidence is that originally our Gynaecologist was suppose to be on leave and only be back on the 20th. At first, the nurse said that another doctor will be taking over but what do you know, the doctor said he would take this one. Thank's Dr Ashar. Sorry to disturb you on your first day of work after your long holiday.

So the next step was to wait and wait and wait summore until it reached 10cm of opening. I was beginnig to feel kinda sleepy and tired. But the contraction started to get a bit rough starting from 1120 pm onwards for an interval of 10 minutes of less. I could see the pain kept increasing everytime it occured. By 1.40am, i saw wifey kinda couldn't take it anymore. The nurse checked the opening and it was about 8cm. Wow, that long to make a progress of a few centimeters. She also said that it may take about another half an hour. Hmm, another half an hour?? Wifey will be pancit by than. I stayed on with wifey for another 10 minutes and by the time that last contraction occured, i knew she was just to damn in pain so i called the nurse.

She than re-examine and this time it was 10cm in opening meaning we are ready to deliver. Once the doctor put on his PCK boots and apron, the show was just about to begin. At the next contraction, the doctor asked wifey to push the baby out. She pushed hard for a few seconds and i could see a glimpse of the baby's head ready to enter this world. One push was all that she needed and the rest was Hee Hee Huuu. The baby finally came out as usual in blue and grey in colour. Crying while the nurse stat to vacuum her mouth and nose.

Wifey had already closed her eyes resting tiredly but with a sense of satisfaction that she finally managed to give birth to our second child after carrying him for nearly 39weeks in her tummy. The rest of the process went on smoothly after I azan and qamat to him as a reminder that we have once made promise to Allah The Almighty.

We had a night off without the baby as it was too early in the morning to take care of him. Luckily as there was the nursery.

Alhamdulillah everything went on smoothly. The doctor came back on time for work, we made it to the hospital on time, Nasiah came back to take care of Sofea as for me, i get 2 days unrecorded leave plus an additional 3 days that i intend to take to settle things with the wifey and 2 kids. Who would have thought that one day we would have a pair of child :)

Pukul Berapa Datuk Harimau ???

2009-04-06T12:00:00.000+08:00

Pukul berapa datuk harimau???

Pukul 11
Pukul berapa datuk harimau???
Pukul 12....
Aauummmm......Arrrghhhh, lari lari.... harimau lapar nak makan

Do you still remember those kind of games when we used to play during our childhood ? Well, i certainly do. But the point about this entry isn't about the game at all. Confused? Stick a little while.

Now, how does the harimau knows that it is 12 o'clock or any other time. Certainly he has a watch to see what time is it. The point that i would like to highlight is that he has a watch to tell him what's the time and so do i, now. Wifey was kind enough to present me with a new swatch watch that i have been eyeing for quite sometime everytime we pass by a watch shop. Previously i was going to try to save up RM20 for the next 11 month so that i could buy this watch. And guess what, i haven't even started. Hehehe. It's just a simple plain normal swatch watch but hey, if you like it than you like it. She bought it for me when we were out last weekend at KLCC after watching Confession's of a Shopaholic.

After not wearing one for nearly 7 month, i finally have a watch again which i can refer for time instead of lighting up my handphone for time. Feels good. I like it.

Wifey says it's for me to keep track of time when the contraction begins and for bearing with her throughout the whole 2nd pregnancy period. But deep in her heart, i know it's because she loves me :)

ps: i love this watch. My first truely original swatch. Woohoo!!! In your face Rebecca Bloomwood. *lol*

The 6th Prime Minister of Malaysia

2009-04-03T10:06:00.004+08:00

I am currently watching the swearing in of Dato' Seri Najib as Malaysia's 6th prime minister after succeeding Dato' Seri Abdullah ( now Tun Abdullah ). Alhamdulillah the ceremony is going on smoothly.

Not much to tell, is just that i hope Dato Seri Najib will steer the country to a more greater heights in every way. This is the 3rd prime minister since the day i was born. It's not often you get to watch this ocassion.

To Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, happy retirement. To Dato' Seri Najib Tun Razak, congratulations and the best of luck in leading this country to greater heights.

Innalillah....

2009-03-30T11:04:00.003+08:00

Both of us were quite shock to heard the news that Sofea's pedeatrician ( Dr Haliza Mohd Shafiee) from Ampang Puteri has passed away. Previously we saw a glimpse of her picture as a missing person on Nightline on Saturday at 12am. But we heard the bad news yesterday on Buletin Utama that confirmed her death.

She was a good pedeatrician though the waiting period in her clinic does take up a lot of our time, which i guess in a way shows that she was good. Seems that we will have to find a new pedeatrician for Sofea's unborned brother.

Semoga roh beliau ditempatkan bersama-sama dengan orang yang beriman.

Extracted from http://www.nst.com.my/Current_News/NST/Sunday/National/2517710/Article/index_html

KUALA LUMPUR: The bodies of two doctors missing since Wednesday were found yesterday in a ravine near the Klang Gates in Ulu Ampang.

Dr Haliza Mohd Shafiee, 53, and Dr Amin Tai Abdullah @ Tai Yen Ming, 57, were believed to have slipped and fallen into the ravine while jungle trekking at a popular spot in Bukit Tabuh near Taman Melawati, Ampang.Their bodies were spotted by the pilots of a police helicopter at 2.15pm in a search operation launched in the area after a car belonging to one of the doctors was found near Bukit Melawati.The pilots radioed the general location of the bodies. Police, using tracker dogs, found them later.

Dr Haliza's body was brought out of the ravine first at 3.30pm while Dr Amin's body was retrieved 15 minutes later.Both bodies were badly decomposed and were sent to the Kuala Lumpur Hospital for a post-mortem.Dr Haliza, a paediatrician, and Dr Amin, a paediatric surgeon, both employed at the Ampang Puteri Medical Centre, had been reported missing by their families on Wednesday.

Closed-circuit television camera recordings showed that they left the medical centre at 11.30am on Wednesday in Dr Haliza's Nissan Latio.Selangor police chief Datuk Khalid Abu Bakar said the Latio was found at 6am yesterday. It is believed police had tracked the vehicle through its global positioning system device.

Khalid said a guard at the Klang Gates dam had reported seeing the duo trekking in the area, something they apparently did quite often."They were reportedly close and both liked to go jungle trekking." The families of both doctors declined to speak to reporters. Ampang police chief Assistant Commissioner Abdul Jalil Hassan said the deaths of the two doctors had been classified as sudden death and police did not suspect foul play.

:: I'm 35 weeks pregnant ::

2009-03-25T14:48:00.002+08:00

Lama betul tak berupdate blog ni kan...hubby pun busy dgn kerja office dia...xde masa nak update...harapkan saya lagi la...busy tu tak la sgt tapi more to MALAS...sebab tu tak boleh ada blog sendiri...hehehhe...oklah kali ni biar la saya pulak menceceh skit kat sini...update ape2 yg patut...skang ni saya dah 35 minggu pregnant...keadaan saya teramat la besar dan berat...rasa nak bergerak pun susah...kalau nak jalan tu mmg macam penguin la...bayangkan la dedulu bila jln kat shopping mall, sure hubby n sofea tertinggal kat belakang...skang ni dgn kadar kelajuan biasa hubby berjalan sambil dukung sofea pun i boleh tertinggal jauh kat belakang...betapa penguinnye saya...pastu skang ni selalu la kena penyakit...demam la, batuk la, selsema la, sesak nafas la, sakit belakang la dll...byk betul dugaan....bukannya nak komplen cuma sekadar nak luahkan rasa hati je...itulah ujian untuk ibu2 mengandung ni...mudah2an dapat la byk pahala...aminnn..

Sepanjang saya pregnant ni hubby sgt la membantu...dari segi house chores, jaga sofea sampai la buat breakfast untuk saya...kalau hubby takde tak tau la saya boleh handle ke tak...hubby byk bersabar n tak pernah komplen walaupun sekali...kalau komplen dalam hati tu saya tak tau la kan...betapa sayangnya hubby dekat saya...cewahhh...ayat...hehehe...betul la kan..kalau dia tak sayangkan saya mesti dia tak sanggup buat semua tu kan...hehikkk...i love u so much darling...jiwang kejap...

Update on sofea pulak, sejak 2 menjak ni sofea memang semakin banyak bercakap...ada2 je benda yang dia belajar...bijak anak mommy n daddy ni...memang sofea la buah hati pengarang jantung mommy n daddy...suka buat we all ketawa...camne la sofea bila dah ada adik nanti kan...mudah2an sofea akan jadik kakak yg baik ok...sejak sofea lahir sampai la skang rasanya takde la susah nak jaga...kira kategori anak yg baik la n senang nak jaga...kadang2 wat perangai tu biasa la kan..ada ke baby or toddler yg tak buat perangai??suka menyepah tu memang hobi dia...anggap je la tu satu proses pembelajaran...hahahhahaha..nak sedap kan hati...

On work plak, tgh settle kan keja2 yg pending...lain2 tu dah pas2 kat staff..hopefully diorg boleh la handle bila saya bercuti nanti...biar la project ikut schedule..kalau tak siapa lagi nak menjawab dgn bos...harap2nye boleh la bercuti dgn tenang....

Okaylah...rasanya dah panjang gak entry ni...tapi takde gambar la...later2 la kalau ada gambar boleh post...kepada kengkawan semua, doakan kesihatan saya dan baby ye...bye

Leaving on a jet plane

2009-03-04T16:32:00.002+08:00

I'm leaving, on a jet plane. And I know when i'll be back again.... I am currently in KLIA waiting for my flight to KK. Unfortunately, there is a slight delay and movement of gate. Oh well, it's like the asam garam of travelling eh... and I will be back on Friday to claim my 3 day weekend. Woohoo.... OK, c ya...

Darth Wifey in the making

2009-02-24T14:05:00.004+08:00

This is a picture of Darth Wifey in the making : ) Wifey was having difficulty of breathing a few days back due to asthma ( according to the doc ) eventhough she doesn't have one previously. Maybe it's because of the pregnancy. They say anything can happen during pregnancy. Low blood, high blood, medium blood and all kind of sickness.

The nebulizer at the clinic did help her to breathe proper again.

ps: Darth Wifey vs Obiman Kenobi, who will wil the Duel of the fates..... : )

Puteri Gunung Ledang the Musical Season 3

2009-02-20T18:53:00.000+08:00

My office was kind enough to offer free tickets to all the staff's and spouse to watch the much anticipated Puteri Gunung Ledang the Musical Season 3. All you need to do is answer their survey system whether they wanna go or not. Hey what the heck, it's free. The survey was conducted much much earlier, probably in the month of October or November 2008. Even I almost forgotten about it until came the date.

This is my 3rd visit to the much prestige event. Once was thanked to Mr Idwal who provided free tickets to us back in 2006. The other time was on August 13 2006 where i took my parents out in conjunction with theri 41st anniversarry.

We took the mattinee show at 3pm and were seated at the Grand cirlce seating. The view is quite nice but compared to stall seats, you could see the actors a little bit bigger. For this season, the plot of the story was still the same as the previous one. But compare it to the 1st edition, there were quite a number of enhancement that were made to keep the audience expecting for more. Some of the enhancement made was a re-mixing of the songs that were earlier sung, new props including a gigantic boat that sailed from Tanah Jawa to Melaka and probably one of the most major ones included was the usage of firecrackers and smooth magic show of dissapearing and reappearing of the characters. Though they are not trained magician, i give it a thumbs up. It's a superb performance from all of them.

The show ended at about 6pm with an autograph signing session from the major actors including Tiara Jacquelina, Adlin Aman Ramli, AC Mizal and the hero of the show Stephen Rahman who played Hang Tuah. You can only get their autograph if you purchase the original merchandise and willing to que the very long line. As for us, we just waited there and could not see anything as the crowds were gathering around the tables where the autograph signing ceremony took place.

Overall it was a good show. A lot of revamping has been done as compared to the original version back in 2006. I think they should continue this show for a couple more years to come.

Sofea's 2nd birthday party

2009-02-17T17:15:00.000+08:00

Last Saturday was the day that we were to celebrate Sofea's 2nd birthday since the actual date was on a weekday. It just felt that it was just yesterday that we held her 1st birthday. Hmmm, how time flies faster these days.

So as planned, we will keep it small and simple. I don't want to overcrowd the house with people which in the end ended up everyone squeezing their butt just to get through to the kitchen. So that morning, i took a bit of time to clean up the mess and shoved everything at the backroom (as usual) so that it would look nice when everyone came. The task was completed in the morning itself.

Since this year, food be be bought and brought, i see no point to trouble the kitchen section. I only went out in the afternoon to get a barrel of KFC and later that evening for 2 large and 2 regular pizza from Pizza Hut. As for desert, a 2kg Barney cake and cupcakes that was brought by Tok Ma. For the main course, i 've already ordered from Nasiah ( Sofea's maid ) to cook for us. Fried macaroni with beef with the red coloured one. Dunno if you guys know this or not but it's one of my favourite. No rice will be served this year as it is on a tea time. Drinks are the same as usual which is my specialty drink, Syrup + Soda.

By 5.30pm, everyone had arrived except for Aiman and co as they had to attend to music classes first before coming to Sofea's party. As usual a party would be kicked off by first singging the Happy Birthday Song and blowing off candles and cutting of the cake. As this is an unformal event, it's a free and easy event.

After having food, next in line was the present opening ceremony. It's everyone's favourite part i think. This year, there were no more music theme gifts as compared to last year. We could call it a development kind of gift. Below are the summary:

Nen - White board + marker and wrtining table and chair

Atok - A lot of cash money.

Auntie Jie and Gagi - Plan Toys block + Barney towel and water canister

Abg Aiman, Kak Nadia and co - Magna Doodle (Doodle Pro) and play doh set

Tok Ma/Bah + Adiq & Mai- A bottomless box filled with clothes.

Mak Ngah and Pak Ngah - Building blocks

Pak Lang - Teddy bear

Me and wifey - an electric motor car with remote control enable dubbed as my putra that i did not have :( + a free spiderman car

So those were the list of presents that were given to Sofea on her 2nd birthday. Thank you all for your lovely gifts.

The party ended around 9.30pm when auntie Jie and Gagi departed back to their house ( 2 storey above ours) with next in line waiting, the clean up process.

I ended the day at 3.00am after cleaning up and keeping everything back to their place.

Ps: Luckily this event only comes once a year, for now...

New Proton MPV named Exora

2009-02-17T12:34:00.002+08:00

This practically means that i did not win the naming contest and have to take 7-9 years of installements. Dammit :(

Adriana Sofea is 2 years old today

2009-02-11T10:30:00.000+08:00

Today is the day where our beloved daughter will turn 2. Woww, you've grown up so fast and big right in front of our very own eyes. Like the malay saying, pejam celik pejam celik, tetiba dah 2 tahun. It seems just like yesterday when we first hold you in our arms. Now look at you, all grown up and capable of doing so much.

So, to our beloved daughter, we wish you happy 2nd birthday. This is a poem from www.poemsource.com

Every Year On Your Birthday
Every year, on your birthday,I think about how glad I am

that you were born,how thankful I am

to have you in my life.

Every year is another year

filled with the special joys you bring

just by being yourself.

Every year, when you open your birthday gifts,

realize what a gift you are

to everyone who knows you,

especially me.

Happy Birthday!
By Joanna Fuchs

0 days - 2 minutes from the oven

1 year

2 years old

Do read my previous post Birth of a child: A new life experience on how Sofea was born.

Eeeee, gelinya ikan-ikan ni!!!

2009-02-06T08:00:00.001+08:00

I'm sure a lot of you guys out there have tried this so called new kind of therapy. It's called fish spa. All you do, is soak your feet in the tank and the fishes there are suppose to eat your dead cell on your feet. As simple as that. Now who says the world is getting complicated?

I tried mine at the Alpha Angle last weekend and ended up laughing like nobody's business. I cant's speak for everyone out there, but for me who is a very ticklish guy, man those things tickle. Reminds me of the Thai massage that i used to get Bangkok. Once you put your feet in, they swarm your feet like it's the last meal that they are going to have for a very long long time. They attack from all angle, even at the nails and they never stop too. After about a few minutes, i guess i got the hang of it. But once in a while, yes those ticklish feeling comes back.

The results, errr for me did not had much effect i guess or maybe 10 minutes ain't just enough. Maybe i should try soaking my feet for about an hour and probably i would see results or probably they would have eaten my whole feat out. I guess the dead skins collected through the years of my life were just too thicked or too much for the fishes to handle.

Will I try again, hmmmmmm probably yes. What a way to make money. You let the fishes work for you.Woww!!!

Dances with Sofea

2009-02-05T14:45:00.000+08:00

We went over to Alpha Angle last Sunday to pick up some stuff. As we were relaxing ourselves with a glass of cold teh tarik at the concourse, there was this chinese music that was over the air to entertain shoppers. The concourse at the time too was clear of all obstacles making Sofea running around freely like a bird. Errr, Is that the correct term to use?

Eat your heart out Sehati Berdansa!!!

Anyway, this is a minute of a video footage of her dancing along with the music. I guess, she's been watching too much Barney huh.

Award?

2009-02-04T12:08:00.000+08:00

Got this award from my sister in law. Never got an award before for writing. But anyway, thank you.

If any of you reader want this award, please feel free. Dear Mr / Miss XXXX, i now award you with the awards above. I know you're all a fantastic friend because you are the only ones who read my blog :)

Ps: I'll put this on the right side corner ok.

Mini Cuti-Cuti Malaysia : Taiping

2009-02-04T08:00:00.000+08:00

As mentioned in the previous post, we took advantage of the long Chinese New Year holiday to do a little cuti-cuti Malaysia. It's an act of spontanious actually as i called every resort that i could find in the internet. There were only one room left in Fuliyean Hotel. So without hesitation, i just took the last room available. We took off to Taiping right after Haniff's wedding. The traffic condition was still okay and by the tine we reached the hotel it was about 5.20pm. Oh, by the way, we did had a little help from a Garmin Mobile XT GPS which i had installed it my N95 earlier before we left for Taiping. It did help a lot.

The room rate was RM95 and it had 1 twin bed and 1 single bed. Cannot complain much as i don't think there were any rooms available in the hotels nearby. Once we checked in, me and Sofea went out for some pisang goreng as pointed out from the Garmin nearby food locations. Yup, it was delish but i still think the pisang goreng bawah pokok in PD tasted better.

Later that night, we went out for Dinner at Tesco. There were more cars here compared to Tesco back in KL. It took us about 30minutes to finally park our car. Didn't Taiping used to be a town of quiteness filled with retired people?

Anyway, we had our dinner at Jom Bali. The food was okay though. After dinner, we went back to take a stroll of Taiping in the car. As there were not much thing that we could do, we decided to rest at the hotel. Suprisingly, at 10.45pm, the traffic is quite heavy for a small town.

The next morning, i went out for a walk to buy breakfast. There was a mamak restaurant nearby that had nasi lemak and also roti canai. Good enough for breakfast. We finally checked out at 12pm and head towards Zoo Taiping where Sofea will get her first experience going to the zoo. It's my third visit to the zoo actually.

After parking our cars and purchased the tickets, we started off with our zoo exploring. There are a lot of animals which a zoo normally has. So we tried visiting each and one of them. The crowds there were quite huge. It can even match the crowds in Hong Kong Disneyland i guess.

But one thing not in the liking is Sofea kept on saying nak kokong which means carry me. Oh man!!! But what to do, i guess i just have to kokong her. It was a very tired stroll down the zoo where in the end, we went back to the entrance and que for the train. It's not a matter of seeing the animals anymore, but just wanted to take a ride in the train.

The girl in the red dress is Sofea's twin

After finishing our little trip, we had our lunch at a chicken rice shop back in town and finally found Maybank which had moved from the town to a place nearby Doli. Folks in Taiping should no Doli. My GPS map did not have Doli in their navigation.

So after reloading our Touch n Go, we went back to KL ending our mini cuti-cuti Malaysia. A few things i noticed have changed since my first visit to Taiping back in 2003. The flyover has been completed, new Giant and Tesco and the Maybank have moved. Yeayyy!!!

Note: I love my N95 even more with this Garmin Mobile XT GPS

Oh Mama, saya mahu kahwin!!!

2009-01-30T11:10:00.000+08:00

*LOL* Got your attention didn't I? No, it's not about me, but it's about my friend. Since there was a long holiday weekend in conjunction of Gong Xi Fa Cai, i received 2 wedding invitation from my friends. One is up north and the other down south while I am in central. At first i wanted to go both but due to certain conditions, we had to choose one. I decided to go up north. Sorry Jahruddin coz i could'nt make it to your wedding. I'll try and visit you here okay.

Us with Haniff Zainuldin and Darwin Nashiqim

My friend who got married up north was a former colleague who sat next beside me in our little cubicle which is not so cubic. He was quite annoying at first ( jangan marah, nanti kene jual) but turned out to be an okay dude and i felt that he was kinda of my little brother who i didn't have. Plus he is way younger than me.

So on the eve of Chinese New Year, we departed from Sri Kinabalu around 12.15pm hoping to reach Ipoh on time. There were quite a number of cars on the road but achieving a speed of 110km/h was achievable. By the time we reached the hall, it was about 2.45pm. The lauk was only left overs :( but still eatable :) But since we were already late, there were not so many crowds around so we could enjoy our food with less stress. We took our own sweet time plus the hall was air conditioned.

After finised eating, i managed to chit chat with the groom and catch up with old time sake. Before we left, we took some photograph before heading towards Taiping town for our mini cuti-cuti Malaysia.

To Haniff and Darwin, congratulations to you both and may your lives be filled with happiness and joy.

ps:
Congratulations to Jahruddin Jais and partner too. Sorry guys cause i couldn't make it.
Me and wifey have a lot more weddings to attend this year. Even in recession, everyone seems to be doing ok. Alhamdulillah

Gong Xi Fa Cai

2009-01-29T10:57:00.001+08:00

Me and my family from Life as I See It would like to wish all chinese readers out there Gong Xi Fa Cai, aka Selamat Tahun Baru Cina.

Tahun ni tak Kongsi Raya dah

We all went to Aeon Jusco Au2 last Tuesday to hang around and buy some provision for the house. Lucky enough for us there was a lion dance show at 8pm. So we waited for the show to start. Sofea got an orange from the lion and couldn't stop telling everybody that she got an orange from the lion. First row!

See how excited wifey is compared to Sofea

Marilah sembahyang

2009-01-23T16:26:00.000+08:00

The Quran says, teach your sons and daughters to pray when they reach 7 years old. Well, we decided to teach Sofea much earlier. This is a scene where Sofea shows of how to pray along with her Atok and Nan. Enjoy the video.

ps: we may need to work on the kopiah

Battle of the netbooks

2009-01-23T14:52:00.003+08:00

I got my netbook way back in August last year from wifey. It was a gift for my birthday cum anniversary. Fair enough as the prize was quite expensive and it had to be for 2 ocassion. After a few months being in the market, the netbook segment began to boom. A new breed of computers that could do the basic job without the cost of an actual laptop computer. One by one the manufacturer started releasin their models. Mostly all of them offering an identical specs. It was always an Intel Atom processor, Hard disk drive or Solid State Disk, screen size from 8.9" to 10" and so many others.

Please ignore my very the messy workstation

A colleague of mine recently bought one. Being the latest in the market, it had a 10" screen, 160GB hard disk drive, 2GB of RAM, Windows XP Home Edition and it even came with a built in HSDPA modem for mobile broadband. It cost him Rm1750.

My netbook at the time of purchase cost RM1600 for a 8.9" screen, 80GB Hard disk, 1Gb of Ram and Win XP. Another colleague of mine also bought the Dell Inspiron 9, the one bundled with the Maxis Broadband offer. Besides them, there are others out there in my office who also owns one too but did not bring it to the office.

With everyone starts buying netbook, i don't feel quite exclusive anymore. Dammit. :) But all in all, My MSI Wind Netbook still kick their ass baby. Compared to the other 2 models, the keyboard in the MSI is still the best one where you could type on. But from a ladies, point of view for a physical form, it might differ. But hey, looks vs practicality? You be the judge.

:: Lunch Date ::

2009-01-20T16:51:00.003+08:00

Today i had a lunch date with my x-housemate masa kat usm..we met at klcc..mmg best la walaupun dapat jumpa kejap je..dapat la borak-borak n update our latest news..we had lunch at Delifrance...food was superb tapi takde gambar sebab masing sibuk bercerita n makan2...byk jugak good news from them especially jue n alya...i'll hope everything will run smoothly for both of u...aminnn...lepas ni kita kena jumpa lagi la...at least buat monthly activity kan..BTW thanks alya belanja makan;-)

me n Jue
ude n alya

A gift from a Hajj

2009-01-12T11:43:00.004+08:00

This is a gift from by my Hajj bro in law to Sofea. The dude on the camel sings while the camel crosses the blue coloured desert. Thanks Zekri. The camel has red blinking eyes too. Not really sure of the meaning of the song though.

While this replica of the Masjid Nabawi was given to my papa from him. A nice looking one with minyak attar too. All in all, thanks for the great gift from the land of Mecca. We really enjoyed the kurma, nuts and sejadah.

:: Kad Nikah ::

2009-01-09T17:08:00.004+08:00

I've been tagged by wati aka my besann...1st time kena tagged..dah la tumpang blog my hubby kan...hehehe...takpe la ye yang..redha je la...

back to tagged game, wati requested to see our kad nikah...ni kad nikah JAWI tau wati..takde gambar feri...hehehhe...simple je...takde plak dia letak kl tower ke or klcc;-)

:: My first tudung ekin ::

2009-01-09T12:09:00.005+08:00

Yesterday my hubby bought me(forced by me actually...hehehe) a tudung ekin from his colleague...so today i'm wearing the new tudung..yippiee...i like it very much...the material is very soft n so comfortable...very easy to wear it....just sarung n pin...zassss...dah siap....abiss promote dah ni...pasni cik tipahvogue leh bg diskaun kat hubby saya ye kalau dia nak belikan lagi...hehehe...anyone interested can click on the link...here is the hasil of tudung ekin...tadaaaa..nice huh!!perasann..

p/s: ignore my sembab face..this picture taken early in the morning

A closing memorabila

2009-01-09T08:15:00.000+08:00

Must have ice cream....grrrr

How was your last day of 2008 spent? Were you one of those people that gathered with the crowd to mark the new year or the one sitting at home watching tv as it all happen? For me, we usually spent the last day of the year sitting down in front of the tv and strike 12, we would head off to the balcony witnessing the fireworks display around KLCC from the comfort of our living room. That has been the same thing for the past few years.

But for the so called last day of 2008, we made a little different and infact we might even remember it for the a few years to come. As usual after dinner at rumah Kent, we would usually go home and wait till12am. But as Jie, wifey, me and sofea was chit chatting while reading the newspaper, i than saw and advertisement on paper saying discount on Baskin Robin's ice cream. And from that moment on, the topic shifted from new year too ice cream. Wifey even taught Sofea how to say Baskin Robin in her own language of course.

So after much persuasion, we then head down to Aeon AU2 for the ice cream. Once i reached there i was shocked. My God, this many people to buy ice cream? Hell you even have to take a number before you are being entertained. The crowd was so pack till you can't feel the aircond anymore. And they keep coming too.

We had to wait for a while till our number were called. We bought 1 quart and two double scoop ice cream for us to take there. The total bill was around RM50. The staff there are all quite new and i guess they were heaving trouble as the crowd swarm in like nobody's business. Hey, it's their first 31st of the month since the mall was only opened on 5th Dec.

Finally after we paid the ice cream and got our take away pack, we sat down lepakking while enjoying our ice cream at the entrance of the building. Sofea too was really enjoying herself running around freely while enjoying her expensive discounted ice cream. After finishing up the ice cream, we head home as we don't want the ice cream to melt.

That is roughly what we did in the last day of 2008. Maybe not so much impact to others, but for me it's totally something that you could look back and think of. Taking que numbers to buy ice cream. What's next eh?

ps: happy new year 2009

:: Sofea buli daddy ::

2009-01-08T12:47:00.005+08:00

This happened when we went for breakfast at McD, Alpha Angle a fews a go..tgk la camne daddy tolak baby chair tu...sofea rileks je..betapa penyabarnya daddy sofea melayan sofea sambil mommy sofea mkn dgn tenang...i'm pregnant ok...hehehe..good excuse huh!;-) daddy tolak bukan takat dlm McD je...sampai ke supermarket tu...lucky no mcd staff yg kejar kot la takut hubby bwk lari the baby chair..cool rite the baby chair..ada roda lagi...

:: Special Birthday Card ::

2009-01-07T12:26:00.008+08:00

Surprised from him

I got this birthday card from my hubby on my birthday last month...just want to share with u all coz i think the card is very sweet n cute n romantic ;-)

most of the situation always happened in our marriage...hehhee...at least i know that my husband is normal...kuang3x...i hope u really meant it darling that u're very clear that i'm the one for you..bcoz i know i'm not the perfect wife or perfect mommy..

but i'll try my best okay..

bila baca the last page tu felt like jatuh cinta sekali lagi...hahahaha...duuupppp...hehikkk..sesekali kalau dpt card camni from ur lover mmg best sgt...oklah..better stop now...karang melalut pulak...

p/s: r u sure u still want to share ur blog with me???

:: From the desk of the wifey ::

2009-01-07T12:08:00.003+08:00

Hi everyone, this is my first time to post something into my hubby's blog...and i think this is the 1st entry for 2009..it's not too late rite to wish everyone HAPPY NEW YEAR!!better late than never;-)

emm...actually i don't want to spoilt the originality of this blog, i mean in terms of the way of my hubby's writing..but he gave me permission to share what i feel in my own way...so here i am..maybe one day i'll create my own blog if i post more entry than him...hehhehe...

enough for the introduction...later i'll continue ok...adiosss

Retro Entry : Wifey's mini birthday celebration

2008-12-31T11:30:00.000+08:00

I better get this publish before 2009 comes eh. Since wifey's birthday fell on a weekday, we have already celebrated her birthday much earlier during friday night dinner at Gombak. But to make it a suprise, i decided to do a little extra for wifey.

During lunch hour that day, i walked to Sogo to survey for a small cake that we could eat after dinner time. So after looking around for quite sometime, i found the perfect cake. A chocolate cake with pecan and the size of that cake was stated as 15cm. Hmmm, my guess is that must be the diameter of the cake. So i decided to purchase it as a dessert after dinner.

Before that, i did manage to run around sogo to look for the perfect birthday card and what do you know, it's perfect. It makes me feel that my marriage is normal as it was depicted in the card. If you wanna see the card, contact wifey directly ok.

Before coming back to the office, as an extra for my wife, i bought her 3 roses at Masjid India. Well, you just gotta guess why i just bought 3 instead of a dozen.... Give up? The roses are for her as a suprise when she gets home as i put them much earlier at home before we come back home.

So right after dinner that night, we sang song of happiness wishing wifey happy birthday and eat the cake.

Retro Entry : Dinner at Victoria Station

2008-12-31T08:00:00.000+08:00

This was the weekend before wifey's birthday. Earlier that day, Sofea was kidnapped by Tok Ma, giving us a little bit of time to pre-celebrate wifey's birthday dinner. Well, you don't get that kind of privacy and romantically anymore when you have one kid that will not stay still for even as long as a minute. Believe me, talking to experience.

Birthday girl

So before we picked up Sofea, we had wifey's birthday dinner at Victoria Station. Luckily it was quite easy to get a seat there, oh and yeah they valet park my car too. Woohoo.

What did we have. Well, basically wifey had lobster vs chicken steak ( i think ) and i had the salmon steak vs tenderloin steak. They are a two different kind of dish put on a single plate. Though not the normal regular size, you get to enjoy the best of both worlds. For drinks, a bottle of Sparkling Juice, which eventually we tapau coz i couldn't finish it all by myself as wifey couldn't drink it because of it's gassiness.

So overall, a delicious meal indeed and kudos to Victoria Station.

ps: Victoria Station was the first venue we celebrated wfey's birthday as a couple, 6 years ago.

Smoke over KLCC

2008-12-31T00:57:00.004+08:00

These pictures were taken on our way to KLCC on 21st December 2008 at around 3pm. Until now, i am not sure which building that actually caught fire as there were no news that were reported during the news nor the newspaper the next day. Anybody knows, please tell me.

By the time we reached KLCC, the fire was already out. There were a few fire engines near the LGM building. But for certain it ain't the LGM building that caught fire.

Selamat Menyambut Awal Muharam 1430 Hijrah

2008-12-28T19:13:00.004+08:00

Selamat menyambut Awal Muharam 1430Hijrah kepada semua umat Islam tidak kira di mana anda berada sekalipun.

Barangsiapa yang membaca doa awal tahun ini, insya Allah dirinya akan terpelihara daripada gangguan dan godaan syaitan di sepanjang tahun tersebut.

Doa awal tahun

Maksudnya:
Allah SWT berselawat ke atas penghulu kami Muhammad SAW, ahli keluarga dan sahabat-sahabat baginda dan kesejahteraan ke atas mereka.
Wahai Tuhan, Engkaulah yang kekal abadi, yang qadim. yang awal dan ke atas kelebihanMu yang besar dan kemurahanMu yang melimpah dan ini adalah tahun baru yang telah muncul di hadapan kami. Kami memohon pemeliharaan dariMu di sepanjang tahun ini dari syaitan dan pembantu-pembantunya dan tentera-tenteranya dan juga pertolongan terhadap diri yang diperintahkan melakukan kejahatan dan usaha yang mendekatkanku kepadaMu Wahai Tuhan Yang Maha Agung dan Maha Mulia.
Wahai Tuhan Yang Maha pengasih dari mereka yang mengasihi dan Allah berselawat ke atas penghulu kami Muhammad. Nabi yang ummi dan ke atas ahli keluarga dan sahabat-sahabatnya dan kesejahteraan ke atas mereka.

Sumber dari: http://www.darulnuman.com/mhikmah/muharam.html

Happy Birthday to Wifey

2008-12-22T12:21:00.005+08:00

Today is my lovely wifey's birthday. Age??? Hmmm, it's just mind over matter. If you don't mind, it doesn't matter. So this entry is a special dedication wish for wifey and sofea's mommy.

How do I begin to tell you how lucky I am

to have you in my life?

I'll start by saying what a gift you gave me

the day you became my wife.

You're my best friend in the good times

and my rock in times of sorrow.

You're the reason for sweet yesterdays

and my promise for tomorrow.

I never thought I could feel this loved

until you became my wife.

You made this year and every year

the best one of my life.

ps: Poem tu cilok punye, but with good intention :)

Punky Brewster vs Sofea

2008-12-19T15:13:00.003+08:00

For some, punky brewster might trigger their memory way back to the 80's. It did have some effect on me as i have seen the sitcom way back in the 80's. Not much that i remember on the story, but i do remember that there was a little girl who had freckles on her face with her hair being tied up and always seen in purple. ( ikat rambut kiri dan kanan).

Just a few days ago my daughter's hair had been tied up just like punky brewster. It reminded me of the once famous tv show. So, what do you guys think. Any similarity? : )

Nasi Lemak

2008-12-19T12:21:00.003+08:00

Gambar perhiasan - not actual product

Nasi lemak,

nasi lemak,

mari makan nasi lemak

Kita makan tiap hari,

Biar sihat di siang hari,

ada sambal, ada telur...

bla bla bla...

Forgot already about the whole nasi lemak song that i used to song back in Standard 1, which was basically 22 years ago. Anyway, this morning we got a nasi lemak treat from one of our colleague, because she won an award in the Departmental Recognition Program. Thanks Ms Tai.

ps: Who remember this song from the beginning till the end?

TV in a Waja?

2008-12-18T08:15:00.000+08:00

That's right folks. My Waja is now currently equipped with a tv tuner. Besides that, it can also play dvd, div x movies via cd/dvd/usb thumbdrive, mp3, mp4 and also listen to that radio. With this thing, it does make my car feel a little bit of that bond and continental feeling again. Cool eh?

But everything does come with a price. With my new toy, i no longer have steering button controls but i do have touch screen though. Take a look and tell me what you think? Not even the Waja CPS can match this baby. It's worth the money spent. I just hope this thing can last for a long time.

Hari Raya AidilAdha 2008

2008-12-17T08:25:00.000+08:00

It may be a bit late but i'm just gonna write it down anyway. As the usual practice, we don't have a lot of activities to do during the AidilAdha Raya. As usual early in the moring we headed to the mosque to perform our Raya prayers. This time we prayed at the temporary mosque at UTM KL as the old mosque has been demolished to make way for a new mosque. Lucky for us this time as we made it just seconds after the prayer had started.

After prayers, we then headed out to the Kent's house. As usual the satay goreng and lontong was served for the day. Aiman and the gang and Jie arrived a bit later. It was also raining the whole day. Not the usual weather on Hari Raya. We just had breakfast, talk about the latest issue and whatever things that we could talk off.

Later in the afternoon as the rain was still pouring, papa gave me a coupon to take the daging qurban as he said that he was lazy to take it as it was raining. Okay then, it's kinda of a routine every year for me to take the meat. On the way back, Sofea felt asleep so after sending the meat, we headed home.

As we didn't tapaui anything from the Kent's house, we decided to have our dinner at the Pizza San Francisco at Wangsa Maju. Hmm, there i had salmon steak which was on promotion while wifey had steak. Both of us had iced chocolate. Hmmm, ice chocolate. Sofea however just could stay put and was already making headline at the place. After finishing our meal, we headed straight home as the situation there couldn't be control anymore.

Note:

To my bro in law who is now a Hajj, we have to start calling him Tuan Haji Zekri now. Fulamak, Tuan Haji beb. Power!!!Sofea, you could call hime Uncle Haji Gagie. Congratulations and Alhamdulillah.

Cuti - Cuti Malaysia - Port Dickson Day 4

2008-12-16T08:20:00.001+08:00

It’s day 4 and our last day of our Cuti-cuti Malaysia 2008. We began the day as early as 8 in the morning where all of us headed down to the coffee house at Glory Beach Resort. Again the number of people there were so high that the food on the counter were all swooped in as soon as they were replenish. The food served for breakfast there is considered to be the standard breakfast meal which includes, mee hoon goreng, nasi lemak, sosage and baked beans, bread, cereals and fruits. There were also an egg station plus coffee and tea.

Me and wifey decided not to have a go at the swimming pool. The number of crowd at the pool was the same as the day before which means damn crowded. At first we wanted to have a walk at the beach but the crowd there was no more less than the crowd in the pool. So we just took Sofea for a play in the playground and hang out by the pool for a while till 10am.

Before 12noon, we had already checked out from the resort saying bye-bye to Glory. Our destination is to the PD Ostrich Farm. The ticket entrance is RM8 for adult. But if you have a Jusco J Card, the charge is RM7. Hey, membership do have it’s advantages. Well, at ostrich farm, there are ostrich, ostrich, ostrich and more ostriches. Besides ostrich, they also have other animals such as lamb, monkeys, chicken, peacock, rabbits and also crocodile, though I didn’t quite see one except for it’s cage. Hmmm, I wonder where it went to?

At the souvenir shop, we bought ourselves a fridge magnet as usual. We also tried out the satay ostrich which is priced at RM10 for 6 sticks. Well, at least I can tell everyone else that I’ve tasted ostrich meat. Overall, the stay taste like usual satay meat. I don’t think I could tell the difference if given both choices.

As it was already lunch time, wifey suggested that we go to the pisang goreng stall. So we went there but unfortunately, they will only be opened for business at 3pm. So where else to go except for a nearby mamak store. So all of us had a go at the mamak store, Ashraf. The clock was only 210pm after we finished lunch. Because wifey wanted so bad to have a go at the pisang goreng, so we told the others that we would wait till 3pm. We didn’t force them to wait but voices coming out from their unser finally made them to stay with us.

To kill time, I wanted to go at the Tanjung Tuan Lighthouse which will require a few puffing to reach the lighthouse itself. All the young ones didn’t want to follow. In the end there were only 3 of us that made the journey. Myself, mama and babah. The climbing took us about 20minutes. Along the way, we could see the beautiful greenery forest and many types of trees. You could hear crickets along the way. We also saw a few monkeys along the way.

Once we reached the top, there it was, the lighthouse. A breathtaking view can be seen way up there. You could view the entire Melaka Straits right from left to right. Unfortunately, I couldn’t see the Sumatera island as claimed by the review. But I’m quite sure I did saw it once when I was visiting PD during my schooldays. After taking a few photographs and admiring the view, we went back down. The rain started pouring down and we were soaked up. But it was fun alright. It made me feel like a kid again. You get to play in the rain. Woohoo. How cool is that. Salute to Mama and Babah for managing to reach the top of the hill.

The clock was already 3.30pm meaning that the pisang goreng stall must be opened by now. So we stopped there to tapau some pisang goreng before heading back to KL. I think the stall is called Click click Poly based on one of the banner there.

Along the way to KL, there was a few traffic at the highway but still manageable. We stop over at the KFC drive thru for Sofea’s dinner and also 2 glass of Ice Chocolate from San Francisco Pizza.

Overall, we did have fun for our trip to PD. Besides the usual swim at the pool or sea, this time we visited a few interesting places at PD. During our entire trip the weather was ok. The people visiting PD was also another problem as almost all of the hotels were fully booked. But overall, it was an enjoyable trip. I forgot to calculate the budget but I think we did manage to keep it below RM300. I guess we can match the tv show Destinasi Bajet eh?

Cuti-cuti Malaysia - Port Dickson Day 3

2008-12-15T08:00:00.002+08:00

It's Saturday and it's time for us to get packing again. And again today Sofea only woke up at 10am. I guess all this packing and swimming has really drained her out as she needs the extra time to recharge. Strange enough though, she seems to be very energetic at night and does'nt show any sign of tiredness.

After finished with breakfast and packing, we checked out from the Bank's resort at 12noon. We then headed straight to the PD common beach. Sri Rusa i think. Well, you know the one with the Pasar Malam and Petronas station. We met up with my in laws and the rest of the gang there. Wifey and Sofea had their lunch first before i had the chance to take Sofea out to sea to build our plan sand castle.

Eventhough the weather then was quite hot, the wind that blew the waves from the sea managed to cool us down. Hmm, i guess not really knowing what a sand castle is, Sofea just took her sand castle tools and shoved the sands. As for me, digging and did trying to make the castle appear nice went disastrously as the final product look like the Bukit Antarabangsa landslide. Oh well, i guess you could blame it on the hot weather :). After about an hour playing in the sand, we finally hit the showers and headed towards Glory Beach Resort where this is our final destination stay in PD.

The check in process did take quite a while as there were so many guests checking in. There were also many functions that were held here in conjuction with the school holidays. Sofea only took her evening nap for just a few minutes. She woke up about 5 minutes after i put her down to bed. Overall i think she must have slept around 30mins.

That evening, me, wifey, sofea, shana, syarul, mai and adiq hit out at the beach. The water that was not as clear looking as compared to telok kemang or the sri rusa area. Plus there were so many people there. Each and everyone doing their own activity. There was even a vollyball match and a sukaneka i guess. Talk about the pool, the crowd there reminded me of the crowds that used to hit Sunway Lagoon when the free ticket promotion by Berita Harian took place. Basically, there wasn't much place that you could go in the pool. But hey, let's just make the best of things huh.

For dinner, we head out to the infamous Pasar Malam at PD. We all cramped in Tok Bah's Unser. Lucky for me as i wouldn't face a problem to find a parking spot. Each of us bought our own meal to eat. As for me, char kuay teow and ayam percik was my choice.

As the clock reached 10.30pm, it was time to put Sofea to bed. It took a lot of persuasion before she finally agreed to go to sleep. It didn't take that long to put her to bed as she was tired. To wifey, sorry because we didn't manage to go on a date, just the two of us. As long as there is the si kenit, it's gonna be tough to go on a date.

Note
Sofea seems to be good in trying to injure me. First when she bumped the back of her head straight at my nose which resulted in a severe nose bleed when we were at De Palma at Kuala Selangor. It took a while to stop that nose bleed. When i was carrying her back to our spot of picnicing, she suddenly dropped one of her toy ( a Barbie watering pot) right at my left feet toe which resulted to bleeding. It was quite a pain at first (salt water + sand effect) until the system stabililised. Hey, i'm no cheerleader that could heal instataneously.

Save the cheerleader, save the world

To Sofea, if you are reading this one day, know this that you always have a way of making me injured, especially with blood injury. But i forgive you anyway cause you're my daughter and I love you.

Cuti-cuti Malaysia - Port Dickson Day 2

2008-12-13T10:35:00.000+08:00

As we were suppose to check out and check in again at the same place but at a different room, we decided to do a little sight seeing in PD. Plus I guess Sofea was so bumped that she woke up that morning at around 10.15am. After we finished packing up, we then checked out at 12 noon.

First on the list was a PD Mini Zoo. This is a paid entrance. It’s A RM 7.00 per person. Luckily Sofea was not charged. The mini zoo lived up to it’s name which was mini indeed. But overall there were quite a lot of animal you could see. The environment set was in a jungle or forest so beware, you might get ants or even mosquito bites. Among the animals that we could see are Ostrich, many types of chickens and ducks, peacocks, monkeys and their cousins, rabbits, cow, goat, camels and horses, tortoise, snake and not forgetting mother goose. I think Sofea was a bit scared with the ostrich because of the size. But there was one thing that she was really scared of which is a giant ostrich replica.

Next stop was to recee the Glory resort in which we are suppose to stay the next day with my in laws and the family. After finished surveying the place we proceeded towards Central Market. We didn’t set foot on this place but just see the shop from inside of the car. There doesn’t seem to be much shop of interest to us. There were a few shops that were selling clothes, and souvenirs but hey, we don’t need them.

Since wifey was already feeling hungry, at first we wanted to search for the KFC at PD Town. Along the way we saw a place called the PD Walk. Hmmm, sounds interesting so we checked it out. There were a few shops selling a few stuff like clothes, food and etc. Sofea fot herself a barney bolster pillow while wifey settled for luch at the Station Kopitiam. The food was quite okay.

Since there was a small shopping mall right beside the PD Walk, we decided to take a look. There was the Store there so we browsed through. I bought myself a ¾ pants for tomorrow’ day out which is playing sand with Sofea. After we finished our little shopping, we decided to head back to the resort. But before that we stopped for a while at Telok Kemang to buy some stuff.

The previous day, Ain had told wifey that there was a delish pisang goreng stall situated under a tree, near the Guoman junction, behind a house that has a horse. What the hell?? A house with a horse? Could you be more specific? Hehehe. But hey, what do you know, we actually found it. So wifey bought the pisang goreng. And what do you, the pisang goreng was really delicious. It was the small type of banana which was very sweet and it also comes with the sambal kicap. The sambal kicap was nice. I highly recommend it for those seeking out pisang goreng as ther tea time snack. Oh by the way, it is located at Taman Tiara.

Later that evening we all jumped in to the pool. Only this time Sofea seems to be quite scared at the adults swimming pool even though we hold her all the time. She would run go back and fourth from the wedding pool and then back to the adults pool and back again.

For dinner, we had already tapau ourself from the kopitiam shop. Since Sofea was acting rather hyperly, we took her to the playground downstairs and finally took her for a car ride. We drove as PD town. But because Barney was on, she just wouldn’t sleep. It is just after Barney finished and we turned it off she would go to sleep. That night after putting her on bed, we watched a 3 episode Heroes season 3 marathon played on my MSi netbook before retiring to bed.

Cuti-cuti Malaysia - Port Dickson Day 1

2008-12-12T10:40:00.000+08:00

We are currently enjoying our Cuti-cuti Malayia trip to Port Dickson. I considered myself very lucky in managing to grab the Bank’s resort when it was opened to everyone for grabs. Luckily I tried myself at the right time and managed to book 2 nights in the banks resort eventhough we will be moving from different rooms every night. But what the hell, better 2 than 1 night eh?

We departed from KL around 2.30pm after having lunch at Mash Nasi Ayam in Keramat. To It was a clear road to PD except for a very heavy rain when we were approaching Seremban. Luckily it was a by the time we entered the Seremban – PD highway. We stopped by the road side to tapau some goreng pisang before heading out to the resort.

Check in was smooth as there were no hastle. After finishing enjoying our goreng pisang, Sofea was already anxiously to get herself wet in the pool. So we finally hit the pool around 5.20pm and went back up around 6.45pm. And I’m telling you, it’s not easy to get a little child out from a water even though her fingers were becoming more like the experiment of hypertonic liquid towards a potato. Get what I mean?

Later that night we headed out towards town for dinner. For the convenience of everyone, we decided to tapau. We headed towards the Mutiara Seafood. It’s right infront of the Sri Rusa Pos Malaysia. The food was okay, but service and time taken to prepare the food, well let’s just say it is not for those preferred to be treated as a king and is always in a rush.

We enjoyed dinner and finally put Sofea to bed. At first we wanted to watch heroes which I have already downloaded to my lappy here, but hey, just can’t resist the bed plus we were quite bumped.

Dikala bulan tersenyum - Smiling Moon

2008-12-04T12:30:00.000+08:00

As the journey to Sri Kinabalu began at about 8.35pm, suddenly a sudden scream from a little girl at the back of the car.

" Moon, .... moon,..... moon".

"Nampak..... ada ..... ada..."

" Tuu....." said Sofea

We quickly gazed towards the window and finally saw it. The MOON... Smiling down on us.

Well, actually it's just the ordinary bulan sabit moon. But only this time, the moon was in the shape of a smile. And then we also saw 2 bright light at the top of the moon. At first we thought it was just the ordinary star. But it was brighter than the usual star you see every night.

Only the next day we found out at the newspaper that it was a special phenomena and it only occures every 5 years. The two birght lights were Jupiter (Musytari) - fifth planet from the sun and the other one is Venus ( Zuhrah) - second planet from the sun. And we got to see it. Woohooo. Score!!!

Smile everbody

Equipped with my Nikon D60 at the boot, we stop for a while by the road and snap some picture. Maybe it won't win me best photo of the year, but i guess it's something. Well, what do you expect from a standard 18-55mm Kit Lens with no tripod eh?

X-Files - Bayi 9 bulan hilang dalam kandungan?

2008-12-04T10:27:00.003+08:00

This article is taken from Berita Harian ( www.bharian.com.my) dated 4 December 2008. So what do you guys think? Any thoughts? Alien abduction, orang bunian ?

Bayi 9 bulan hilang dalam kandungan
Oleh Ridzuan Ahmad bhnew@bharian.com.my

ALOR STAR: Impian seorang anggota tentera untuk menimang cahaya mata sulung hasil perkongsian hidup selama dua tahun dengan isterinya tidak tercapai selepas bayi yang dikandung suri rumah itu disahkan hilang selepas sembilan bulan mengandung. Pasangan Mohd Fazli Samsudin, 27, dan Nurul Shuhada Mat Isa, 20, tidak dapat menahan kesedihan dan terkejut selepas dimaklumkan doktor pakar di sebuah pusat bersalin swasta di sini bahawa rahim wanita terbabit kosong ketika melakukan imbasan terakhir, Isnin lalu sebelum dijangka bersalin semalam . Nurul Shuhada disahkan mengandung pada Mac lalu selepas menjalani pemeriksaan di Hospital Angkatan Tentera (Resat), di Kuala Lumpur dan dijangka bersalin pada 29 November lalu.
Nurul Shuhada berkata, sukar baginya menerima kenyataan apabila bayi yang dikandung selama sembilan bulan hilang dengan sekelip mata sehingga menimbulkan satu misteri kepada dirinya, suami dan keluarga. “Kerana tidak berpuas hati, saya kemudiannya dibawa keluarga ke sebuah lagi pusat perubatan swasta di Jitra untuk membuat pemeriksaan kali kedua namun keputusan tetap sama. Malah, doktor mendakwa rahim saya normal seperti wanita yang tidak mengandung,” katanya ketika ditemui Berita Harian di rumahnya di Kampung Masjid Lama, Hutan Kampung, di sini. Nurul Shuhada yang menetap di Kuala Lumpur untuk bersalin di rumah ibunya di Kampung Masjid Lama, Hutan Kampung, di sini sempat membuat rawatan terakhir di Klinik Kuala Muda dua minggu lalu sebelum diarahkan merujuk ke HSB, semalam.
Beliau berkata, sebelum kejadian, dia tidak berasa sebarang perubahan cuma mengalami lenguh pada anggota badan selain perutnya memulas. “Saya pernah bermimpi ada objek seperti kapas putih berada di tepi badan saya seolah-olah seperti sedang menyusu dan objek itu sentiasa mengusap badan saya. Mimpi itu terjadi selama tiga malam berturut-turut selepas itu saya mengalami demam panas,” katanya. Sementara itu, Mohd Fazli yang bergegas pulang dari Kuala Lumpur kelmarin selepas dimaklumkan berita itu oleh isterinya, masih terkejut dan menganggap ia sebagai dugaan Allah kepada mereka berdua.

ps: my sympathy to the couples

Retro Entry : Happy Birthday Papa aka Atok

2008-12-03T15:00:00.000+08:00

A bit outdated but not totally outdated :) We celebrated my papa's b'day on 14th Nov. This is hist 72nd birthday. I repeat 72. Woww, talk about oldskool. There were 7 Big candles and 2 little ones. So, go figure.

The celebration was held small and simple. My sis Suzy brought the cake from KLCC while the rest of us brought our empty stomach for some Laksa Pahang and cake. Earlier that day, i went to Guardian to purchase the Sugar level device checker thingy. As usual, the gift is not from me but from Mama. I'm just the guy that goes to the shop and buy it for her. "Papa, your gift kita hutang dulu ek".

My sis offered my papa and mama an umrah trip for next year for his birthday. Hmmm, Alhamdulillah la. The dates are not confirmed yet, subject to free of schedule.

The cake was very filling and delicious. Though small but very Rich in taste. Overall, it went well. So happy birthday to papa again.

Allah selamatkan kamu,

Allah selamatkan Tuan Haji Shuib,

Allah selamatkan kamu!!!

Semoga dipanjangkan umur, dimurahkan rezeki, diberi kesihatan dan hidup diberkati Allah.

ps: cum papa's birthday, It has been 17 years since my trip to Europe and 13 years since my trip to Umrah

RM 10 withdrawal - finally

2008-12-01T14:06:00.005+08:00

Look at the bank book. Oldskool baby!

After nearly 72hours, i finally managed to withdraw my RM10 from CIMB Bank. You see, it's not that hard to request a signature sample from the Dayabumi branch. All you need to do is request it earlier and by the time i get to the bank, everything is in order. So no issue. That's all i ask for. Customer should come first eventhough i'm just the ikan bilis type of customer.

Now according to the teller, my account should be active by tomorrow. Let's just hope she's right. Thank you to the CIMB Bank Jalan Tun Perak branch for a job well done.

How hard is it to withdraw RM10?

2008-11-28T18:24:00.000+08:00

A simple answer would be easy and a shorter version would be ez. All you have to do is que to the atm machine, punch some number and there you are, RM10 deducted from your savings account. For those not in favour of the ATM machine, fill up form, take your que number and walk up to the counter and there you are, a RM10 bill.

I have a Bank Bumiputra savings account since in 1996. The Bank was later transformed to Bumiputra Commerce Bank and finally to CIMB Bank. I was Given a Juwara card and then later to the ugly coloured BCB ATM card. When the bank was transformed to CIMB Bank, they say the customers could continue using their old card.

Since started working in 2001, the tiger head bank was my primary account that i used and therefore the balance i had in BCB was made as some sort of backup in case there were any emergency. Since there was no emergency and the lack on Internet Banking at BCB, i just kept the card in my wallet as a backup if i needed some extra money. Unfortunately, no such situation ever occured. As far as i know, i still had a few ringgit in there.

Came one day when i was curios about my account, i used the ATM facility machine. I tried to withdraw a RM10 but it said that the account is not active. Ok, fair enough. I tried to deposit some money via the CDM machine. Unfortunately, it said that the card is inactive and please see the bank.

Right after Friday prayers today, i went to CIMB branch at Masjid India. The teller updated my book and according to her, i must withdraw some money to get the account active again. So i filled up a form and started queing up again. By the time my turn came, the teller was looking rather curiously at my savings account book. He went to see his supervisor (i think) and he told me that he couldn't see my sample signature at the book. What the hell? It's not my problem. All i had to do was sign that damn thing and the bank staff would laminate it. How the hell should i know whether could i see it or not under the UV light. The person that did that should have some sort of QC control. So the supervisor then told me that it's better for me to go up to the CIMB at Dayabumi where i first opened my account. The other way was that i would have to wait 1 or 2 hours time to get a signature specimen from Dayabumi branch. What the hell? 1 or 2 hours time just to confirm that I am Me. I gave up hope and left.

On my way back to the office feeling unsatisfied, i then went to the CIMB Jalan Tun Perak. This time the que was a little bit longer. When it's finally my turn, the same process went on again. The staff said it's easier for me to walkup to Dayabumi. Hold on, i don't have all day to go to Dayabumi just to confirm that I am Me. Easier said then done.

I then asked them whether could they request the specimen now and i will come by next monday. She then said, tunggu "Isnin lah" ( Wait till monday then ). I questioned them why couldn't you just request for the specimen now rather then wait till monday. If i walk up on monday i will have to wait again and again just to get that stupid specimen and they themselves will have to request it anyway. It's just a phonecall and a fax away. After arguing then finally she agreed to it but they will require my biometric finger print and keep my banking book. Well fine, it's not that i could do anything with it anyway. After all the comotion i finally walked out and said thank you. I will comeby again by next monday.

What did I gain after all this.

1- Anger

2 - Tired and pain

What didn't I gain

1 - My RM10

2 - My account reactivated

3 - Confirmation of I am Me.

What do i have to do again

1 - Come by to the Bank again to get my RM10

2 - Take back my banking book + activation of account status.

What did i learn.

According to one of the banker, if i deposited money through the counter, my account status will still be inactive. Therefore to keep your account from being inactive, you have to withdraw money. Hmmm, quite weird don't you think so. It reminds me that i have not withdrawn any money from my ASB since a few years but continue to deposit money. Wonder whether my ASB itself is inactive because i did withdraw any money.

So conclusion, withdraw money to get your account activated. Depositing in money doesn't count. Banks, please have a better QC when asking for signature specimen.

ps: should have just put in RM1 to withdraw in the withdrawal form. That would really brighten up the day.

Congratulations Nizar

2008-11-28T15:31:00.004+08:00

I was at APSH waiting for wifey's turn to be called to be checked up by the doctor. Then suddenly a familiar face went in to the clinic. It was Nizar, my friend and neighbour since primary school. Seems that his wife's waterbag already broke and i guess it was almost time to deliver. Wow what a day for the good old doctor. After the doctor checked his wife out, i guess they had to go straight to the delivery room.

I received a text message saying that his wife has safely delivered their second baby with a whooping 3.12kg in weight and 55cm in length at 8.30pm on 26 Nov 2008. Hmm, much bigger than Sofea.

Anyway, Alhamdulillah that everything went well. Congratulations again to Nizar and Sharmila for being blessed with their second child.

Putrajaya Waterski World Cup 2008

2008-11-11T00:38:00.000+08:00

We were over at Presint 6 Putrajaya last Saturday for the said event. It seems that wifey’s company was some sort of involved in ammending one of the booth. So once again Sofea and me have been forced to go the said event. We reached there around 10 am heading up there via the KL – Putrajaya highway. It’s my first time there. The road were very wide and there were not many vehicles on the road. Only setback is the toll is quite pricey. It’s a RM4 for one way.

Upon reaching there, the sun was way on our head. Luckily the booth had fans running that in a way helped us to cool down. Wifey’s booth was responsible for handling games. One of the being the famous buzzer sound if you touch the track, the one you could see Mr Bean playing.

As wifey was busy manning the booth, I took the opportunity to see a few stunts from the water-skiers. Hmm, they are really good. I’ve never seen an event like this before. All the participants were from overseas. While I was into watching the game, little Sofea was also busy exploring the palladium seats. Luckily it was not full house so there was quite a number of place where she could explore. The hot sun and heat did not slow her down

Right in front of the booth was a small man made beach complete together with the sands. As we did not know they were such a thing, wifey made the move by putting Sofea into the “sea”. At first it was just a little “water tasting” but hey, who could resist water. Finally she was stripped down except for her diapers. Oh well, as long as she’s happy and doesn’t get sick, I’m okay with it.

After her “gedebushh”, she was rather feeling sleepy and finally fell asleep on my shoulder. That gave us an excuse to go back a little earlier than scheduled. It already 3.30pm by then. So we headed back home after that.

I never knew there were such place in Putrajaya. The facilities and landscaped there was rather excellent as well as their cleanliness. There were also a public pool there where they charge you RM2 for 2 hours. Not bad eh. For that, I respect the architecture of Putrajaya. You rock!!!

The event management that managed the game booth ( including the clown )can be contacted at:

Desantris Maya Sdn Bhd

8-1, Avenue 1, Avenue Ampang,

68000 Ampang

Selangor Darul Ehsan

Phone : +60342925001

Fax : +60342925002

Raya is Over?

2008-11-10T08:30:00.000+08:00

What?? It’s over?? But I haven’t even started yet. *lol*. Dammit, missed the deadline. Well there you go, time really flies this time aroung. Don’t know why, but really it is moving way faster than it should.

Well since it’s a stale story, I guess it’ll just be better to let the picture do the talking. Overall, last Raya was okay though the fever really had me fighting there. Finally it went away on the fourth day and luckily it was no dengue fever.

Thank you seems to be the hardest word ?

2008-11-09T00:05:00.001+08:00

I was searched by one of my bosses early in the morning according to one of my colleague. Not even before i have arrived to work yet. As his room can see clearly who walks in and out of the office, i was called upon even before i had the chance to put my backpack on my workstation yet. It seems he has a problem with his computer. I've checked it out and it seems his processor was runnig at 100% and the memory usage keeps on increasing even though there were no programs running. He said that he needed the laptop to be ready before afternoon.

So okay then. Being a guy who likes to help out others, i stayed on figuring what could be the problem as it was not detected by the Anti Virus. According to a friend of mine, that laptop was recently fixed by the IT department. He said the IT department said the problem was because of the battery. Wait a minute ? Come again.

Now i've heard some stories but this isn't one of them. I know that if a laptop runs on battery the performance is somehow lower. But changing a battery because the CPU is utilised at 100%?? Where did the dude graduated from?

After carefully analysing, i finally found a process that was running within windows and utilising the memory like nobody's business. After researching it through Google, i finally found the cause. The culprint process was winmgmt.exe. Not to be confused with WinMgmt. Yup, the capital letters.

So after spending so much time, i decided to go commando to the registry editor deleting every single registry that had connection with the culprit. Copied and restored the original WinMgmt exe and dll file, the CPU was running at correct resources again. By then, the boss was still out of his room in a meeting so i left the laptop there.

Before going back home later that evening, i went back to the office again and asking him whether his laptop is okay? He said no and it still had problem. WTF? i went straightly to the computer and checking the memory and cpu usage right in front of him. And then he said, oh it's ok. That was it.

That was it? What ever happened to a simple thank you. I waisted half a day doing something that a whole department couldn't do and not even a simple thank you. Yeah thanks a lot dude. Be sure to look for me again when the lights, thumbrive or radio is not functioning well. Oh by the way, this was not part of my jobscope. I'm hurt.

Moral of the story:
1 - where's my thank you
2 - 100% cpu and memory utilisation is not caused by a problematic laptop battery.

Hari Raya 2008 - Day 1

2008-10-15T09:00:00.002+08:00

I guess it’s a bit too late to tell the story but you know what they say, “raya kan sebulan”. So roughly I still have about 15 days left before it ends.

Though I was really looking forward for the hari raya holidays, it was not all according to plan. The last day of the fasting day, I caught a fever. At first I thought that a couple of panadol would wipe it out but it kept coming back. After 5 hours, it will continue to attack. Luckily the panadol would relieve the pain for a while.

But what made it worse that I had the most painful sore throat that I have ever had. The kind of sore throat that would require your full endurance and determination to swallow the saliva. What more to drink a glass of 100 plus as the doctor prescribed? After 4 days of fever, luckily it went away. I went to see 2 clinics. Luckily the second one’s medicine was a bit stronger I guess. A Rm2 for a pill of antibiotics. Luckily I just had to take 6 of em. At times, I myself wondered if am I infected by dengue? Oh No, not now. So at the 3rd day of Hari Raya as the fever went away, I was very glad that it wasn’t what I suspect that it was. Fuhhh!!!

Now back to the raya story. As implemented by a lot of married couple, the alternate system does has it pros. For this year, we were suppose to celebrate it with wifey’s side. But this year, they would be celebrating the first day in KL as well and as informed earlier, they too would go out and visit relatives house. As my parents would not accept guest (even their own children) at night, I guess it would be better to have breakfast at my parents and then spent the rest of the day with my in laws.

So went over to my parents house and drop off Sofea before heading for the UTM’s mosque. I would say it was a good decision as this is the last time we will conducting Raya prayers there. They would be tearing down the mosque to make way for a new mosque complex to be build. I am not sure how long it will be ready but one thing for certain, I’m gonna miss it. I’ve been going there ever since we moved to Jalan Kent way back in 1985. Hopefully the new complex is gonna be awesome.

After the prayers, we went over to my parents house for breakfast. As usual the family’s infamous sate goreng is served together with the kuah sate, rendang and also lemang combined together with a cup of coffee. Now that’s what I call a perfect breakfast.

As soon as Jie and Zekri arrived, we continued with the tradition of forgiving. Bermaaf-maafan together with the handing over of duit raya. We managed to take some photographs at the same old spot and as soon as it is done, we headed out to my in laws.

By the time we arrived there, my father in law had already gone out to work. There was a case of motorcycle theft. So went out anyway without him to the relatives’ house at Petaling Jaya and Shah Alam. It’s not that I don’t want to mingle around with everyone, but the thought of opening my mouth to speak and swallow the saliva would only worsen the condition of throat and fever. So I finally opted the say, “Silence in golden”.

After the Shah Alam visit, we went back to my in laws place where the relatives were planning to ber-raya at my in laws place. Well ok then. We went back and waited for them to arrive. By 6pm, my fever was really burning up. All I could think of at that time was to reach for my jacket and lay down and hopefully everything would be ok.

We reached back at our place around 730 pm whereby I automatically surrendered and lay down on the floor with my jacket and comforter on hoping that thing would get better. As expected, after about an hour of panadol, it would finally kick in and I was feeling a bit better by then. For the rest of the night we spent it by watching TV and for me having a hot bowl of maggi which usually works wonders when I have a fever.

Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri

2008-09-29T15:18:00.003+08:00

This past one month has been a real hectic month for me. A hectic at home, work and play. Thus that is why the on updating of my so called little blog. I will continue to write more after the Hari Raya holidays.

Anyway, i would like to wish all of you

Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri

Maaf Zahir & Batin

Sofea: "nak nak....nak duit raya??!"

The Big Three Zero

2008-09-10T13:55:00.003+08:00

Well, at first I did not want to write about it but things have been gone a bit on the rough side at work and I guess it prompted to blog about it anyway.

So what’s all about this three zero? Actually, as at today I have journeyed to a new era. I have left the number two and moved on to take my step in the circle of life. Well actually it’s my birthday.

I began receiving wishes as early as midnite from wifey. Then I received an sms from my mother in law which I only realized it at 630am. I wished my mother happy birthday and she wished me back. As on my way to work received 2 sms wishing me another birthday. Surprisingly it’s from my car Insurance company and from my dental clinic. Now that’s what I’m talking about customer relationship. There’s always a first of everything.

And as I was busy doing my work, an old friend of mine wished me too. Thanks Anep.

For this year I don’t think we’ll have much celebration as it falls in the month of Ramadhan. But I did pick up a gift for Mama. I hoped she will fit in it and likes it.
That’s about it for today. How time flies very fast. Didn’t realize I have already entered the three stage. I’m in a whole new game. If I look back at the past years, I am grateful of living this life. I have my health, a wife, a daughter, a coming child, a job, a car, a house in progress and so many more. Though compared to others I may not be that of a great achiever, but as I mentioned earlier. It’s a whole new ball game out there.

Thanks to all my friends and family that had wished me. Semoga diberkati Allah dunia dan akhirat.

Selamat Hari Merdeka ke 51

2008-08-31T00:00:00.001+08:00

I would like to wish all Malaysian Selamat Hari Merdeka ke 51.

Perpaduan Teras Kejayaan.

ps: I hope that this picture stands through the test of time

Cendol oh cendol

2008-08-29T15:09:00.004+08:00

After friday prayers, i went back to the office through the road from the Coliseum heading towards the EPF (you know, the US style road direction). Stopped by a stall selling cendol drink. The cost is RM1.30 now. My friend told me that it used to cost less last time. But for the price of RM 1.30, the taste is awesome. Furthermore, the brader also included corns inside the cendol drink. Try it for yourself before the fasting month. Cukup berpuas hati : )

Excellent !!!

Winner of Permatang Pauh By Election

2008-08-28T14:05:00.000+08:00

Barney can kickass all politicians

As me and wifey were already in front of the tv to catch the result of Permatang Pauh by election, guess who’s the winner in Sofea’s (child) eyes? Yup, for her Barney the Purple Dinosaur was the clear winner of the election. No need to shout, throw bottle, spit, slander and other sort of stuff that they do in the the most violent election ever held in Malaysia.

It’s just so nice to stop and think and look at a more simpler life. I sometimes wonder why can’t we have a simple clear thinking of what our child have. Why do we need to fight amongst ourselves. Our number are not that many in this world but yet we still fight with each other. In the end we ourselves are going to be extinct. Come on people, wake up and smell the reality. Why can’t we unite, especially the malay’s. Why can’t we have that unity feeling when we were all cheering for Malaysia during the Commonwealth Games 1998 or perhaps during the badminton battle between Lee Chong Wei and Lin Dan?

A few days ago I read in the newspaper a so called pious dude conducted a Solat Hajat (Request prayer) along with a few thousand people asking Allah to destroy certain people just for the sake of this by election. Oh my God! Astaga. You are praying for Allah to destroy your own brothers, be it in Islam or Malay? What has the Malay people of Malaysia become? Did he include in his prayers to help other Muslim brothers in such as in Palastine and Iraq as well? As far as I know, Not. That kind of prayers would be way better of, but instead, he choose to request that certain individual be destroyed by God. If the individual has done something wrong, why didn’t he prayed for them to be shown the correct path? Shame on you dude.

Sometimes it’s just best to see from our children’s perspective views and thinking. Hence that is why Barney was the clear winner of this by election in the eyes of my daughter.

Sofea can see Barney even with her eyes close

3rd Wedding Anniversary

2008-08-28T08:30:00.001+08:00

MSI Wind U90 vs Nokia E71

My wedding anniversary is not today but on 6 August. Obviously this is a retro entry. I have not had much extra time to blog around during office hours these days as the new management makes us work till the last bit of out energy and time.

I have been asking wifey what would she really like for her anniversary and she did give me a few choices or option. One of them being an original Coach / LV handbag which costs a bomb. And for me, hey it’s just another handbag only that it’s the original stuff. The bottom line for me, it’s just another handbag. Most of the people probably won’t believe it’s the real thing anyway.

But than it came to her just before a few days of our anniversary that she hinted she wanted a new phone. A PDA / Blackberry type of phone. Coincidentally a colleague of mine just bought a brand new Nokia E71 which had a full qwerty keyboard features, 3G, Wifi and a cool slim looking look. I didn’t gave it a serious thought at first but seems that from the reaction of her face when I mentioned it, I could read the message clearly.

Coincidentally that the day before our anniversary, I went over to Low Yat Plaza on a CCTV footage retrieval mission and for no reason I stop and asked a few shops on the price. The 3rd shop gave me the best price as compared to the other two. After thinking about it, I guess it would make a great 2 in 1 gift. Because that it is quite pricey, the present will be covering for 2 occasion which is anniversary and her birthday as well.

I surprised wifey at exactly 12am on 6th August 2008. She was already asleep at the sofa by then. I kept quiet about it and did not mentioned that I have already bought it. So surprise!!! She did like it a lot and have used it the next morning.

When I was at Low Yat, those two things weren’t just the things that I was looking for. As I was surveying for a Kodicom CCTV DVR card, I came across a few shops selling these new nettops or netbook. A small version of laptop. At first I was eyeing on the Acer Aspire One with Hard Disk and Windows XP. Unfortunately, the model that came with the hard disk and windows is only due sometime at the end of the year. So I came across a this new cool netbook. The MSI Wind.

It features an Intel Atom processor, a 8.9” display, an 80GB hard drive, a 1GB RAM and weighs at only 1kg. How cool is that. This is basically the same spec that is offered from Acer except that it hasn’t arrived yet. The next best competitor is the Asus 901 which has nearly the same spec but looses out in terms of disk capacity. So, I guess we can forget about the Acer Aspire One and the Asus.

So after hinting it to wifey, she agrees to return the same as this is a 2 in 1 gift. Fair enough and the pricing is almost identical. So we went over to Imbi plaza to purchase the netbook during the weekend. Finally we made a bargain at an middle east sales guy shop as it offered a lot of goodies compared to other shops.

So at the end of the day, both of us were happy with our 2 in 1 gifts. So Happy 3rd Anniversary honey and may our marriage lasts forever.

ps: Our wedding anniversary falls on the same day that Mawi was crowned the AF3 champion.

PCM Gathering @ Titiwangsa 3rd August 2008

2008-08-27T17:00:00.003+08:00

Again this year I have been “forced” to join wifey and her cyber friends with the perkahwinan.com.my aka PCM gathering. This year it’s held at Tasik Titiwangsa as opposed to the Lake Garden last year. Only this time I have a pal along with me which is Sofea. Well, last year she was around except that she couldn’t walk but just lying down on the ground Luckily she is around as I am the type of the anti-social type of person.

The event was scheduled to be held at 9am till 11am. We reached there around 9.10am. The picnicking crowd were already down at the grass on their mat. Like last year it was a pot luck event. Wifey brought her specialty of Trifle.

And I forgot to mention that the theme was red. So we get to watch everyone dressed up in red. It was just a usual get together gathering event except that it had an gift exchange program this year. As I did not know anyone, I just tried to behave the best that I can.

As usual, Sofea does not like to stay put in one place. So I followed her around up and down the hill. There were even a band practice in conjunction with the World Marching Band event. An additional bonus I guess as we get to see them practice.

We finally left the event around 12pm after finally finishing up the event and mingling around. I could say that this years event was better than last year due to the location and weather condition which technically is hot and warm. But the placement of the setup was better as compared to last year. Overall it was an okay event.

Where are those Jalur Gemilang ?

2008-08-27T09:15:00.001+08:00

My flag on my wajabee

With only a few days left before the 51st Merdeka Day, the Jalur Gemilang flags have started to be put up all around buildings and houses. But what I see lack is the flag flying on cars. They were not as many as they were as compared to 10 years ago. Back then, the flags were quite expensive. I remember a housemate of mine bought it for me (which I paid back) for the flag that cost RM8.90. At that time, I guess they were quite expensive with the economic instability. But I can see a lot of those flags flying around on cars, bus and trucks back then..

But seems for this year, not many vehicle owners put up their flags on their vehicles. I don’t know what is the problem anyway. A flag for your car which can be bought at MyDin only cost Rm1.90. That’s RM7.00 cheaper back in the 90’s but yet very few put them on. Surely the flags mean something to everyone.

Is it because they are not patriotic, too lazy to buy the flags, scared of scratching their cars or maybe they put it up but then the flag flew away? For me, this is the second flag that I have put up since the first one flew away at Raub after attending a friends wedding. Come on rakyat Malaysia, think of it as a festival where this is the only time you get to put up flags on your car. With the national flag on your car, it doesn’t matter what car you’re driving. They will certainly look good and fabulous. So come on, fly those flags. Throw away your political believes. The flag is the symbol of the nation.

Selamat Hari Merdeka ke 51. Perpaduan Teras Kejayaan.

Hong Kong Trip - finale

2008-08-27T00:00:00.000+08:00

As for the coming week, I am totally on my own in another’s man country as wifey has returned back to KL. Yup, it’s just me. So for the balance 6 days that I have, I decided to make the most out of it. Right after class, I did go out and enjoyed what can be enjoyed at Hong Kong at night time.

I re-watched the Festival of Lights on Monday, again at the Golden Bauhnia square, near the HK Exhibition Centre. And this time, I was ready with the D60 in my hands and the broadcast for the day was in English. Even though this is the second time watching the show, I never get bored of it. Somehow it is a very enjoyable show to watch. I wouldn’t mind watching it every night.

As for Tuesday, I decided to visit the Night Market again but not at Mong Kok or Ladies Street. First I visited Sham Shui Po where I read in a brochure that they sell lots of electrical stuffs either brand new or even second hand. So I decided to have a go. What did I discovered there? Lot’s and lot’s of electrical items. From cables to DVD players, to mobile phone’s to amplifier and all sort of stuffs. It was heaven for me. If I have not been careful with spending, I would have bought a lot of cool stuffs. But luckily my consciousness kicked in, so I just settled for a few cables for DVD and Astro as they are quite costly in KL. Before heading back, I stopped by at the famous Men’s Street at Yau Ma Tei. It’s just like Ladies street only it’s a smaller version. The stuff sold there are more focused on men’s interest as opposed to Ladies street. By that time, the weather was quite windy.

By the time I reached back at the Hotel, the Hong Kong Meteorology department (I think) has already issued the warning Typhoon signal to no. 8. Well basically no 8 means that it is quite serious. This is due to the moving wind of Typhoon Feng Shuen which hit the Philipines a few days back ago. Never imagined in my life that I would experience such weather. Basically, this means that class will be postponed as stated earlier by the HK police and the course outline that was issued earlier to us.

So for the next morning, the class was postponed until the authorities lowered the signal back to no3 and class resumed as usual at 2pm. Because wifey had requested a few thing to buy at Mong Kok, I did go out anyway to purchase them. It was business as usual but not all of the shops were in business as a few of the shops were quite damaged due to the typhoon that whacked them earlier. Nonetheless, I did finish shopping and headed back.

For the day before the Examination and Graduation day, I just couldn’t just sit in the room all night. So I walked out in Wan Chai area and had dinner in a muslim Chinese restaurant. On the way back to the hotel, I came across a plaza that sells PC and console games. Wow, another hit. This is just one of my interest as well but as I wasn’t into PS3 at the moment, I guess a window shopping would do fine. So for the rest of the night I stayed up all night until 2am to study. Yeahh!!! Woohooo!!!

So the day had finally arrived. The examination and graduation day. But in order to graduate, I need to score 70% on my examination. The question’s prepared by the HK police was quite tough and tricky. Plus, my partner would be doing the same questions but in a different random order. Never expected that. For the practical examination, luckily we would covertly cooperated with each other. Lucky enough, all from the class pass the examination and qualified for graduation. So at 2.30pm on Friday the graduation took place. It was finally over. 2 weeks of drilling brains and calculation bits and bytes were finally over. We enjoyed the rest of the evening by talking to each other and exchanged contacts. You never know you might come across each other’s pass some day and at the same time expanded my networking friends in overseas.

As Friday was the last day that I would spend the night in Hong Kong, I decided to make the most out of it. It has always been hard for me to say goodbye to a place that I really like. I would usually spend some time admiring the view from afar and at the same time think hard on what’s to come. What better place to be than to re-visit the Peak. This time I managed to head up to the Sky Terrace to enjoy the magnificent view of Hong Kong Island from evening till the sun set. The view was spectacularly amazing to see those tall buildings starting to light up one by one. I stayed up at the sky terrace from 7pm all the way till 815pm.Before going back down, I stopped over at the Hard Rock Café souvenir shop to purchase a few items. And yes they are also expensive here in Hong Kong. I bought a HRC T-shir for Sofea which cost HKD100. Convert it and you get the idea of how much a small t-shirt cost. After shopping, I headed back down and had dinner in the room which I bought from the Minar Indian Restaurant. They have a very delicious Chicken Fried Rice for the price of HKD 68.

As Saturday approached, it was the day to say goodbye to Hong Kong. I walked up to the Admiralty MTR station and claimed my refund for the Octopus card. Walked up pedestrian walkway facing the harbor and taking some photograph in front of the Hong Kong Police headquarters. I took the Bus at 11 am which would drop me straight at the Airport.

Once I checked in, it’s time to have lunch at the Popeye restaurant. Yes, it’s halal. Probably the only halal fast food restaurant in Hong Kong. To kill time, I visited almost all of the shops they were at the airport before departure back to Kuala Lumpur.

Finally back in your own ground, your own soil and your place of Tanah Tumpahnya Darahku. After leaving Sofea for 2 weeks, finally I get to see my little girl again and from her reaction once she saw me, I feel that the feeling is mutual. Yes, no matter how cool, sophisticated modernized other country is, there is no place like home. Yeah there maybe problems in your country, the salary might not be that high as compared to other places, the petrol is overpriced but when you are abroad at other people country, you tend to appreciate more on what your have and how lucky you are to be born in Malaysia.

A message for those who like to condemned your own country, I say think again, go out and think of how lucky you are on what you have. If you don’t like it, think of how many immigrants who were willing to sacrifice everything they have just to be here. They would give anything just to be in your shoes. That sure does mean something.

Renung-renungkan dan selamat beramal.

Hong Kong Disneyland - Day 8

2008-08-15T00:00:00.000+08:00

Although it does seems that it is quite late to finish this story, but nonetheless i will finish it up. As this is is the last weekend for me and wifey will be spending time with each other at Hong Kong, we decided to save the best for last. What else is there to do except enjoying ourselves at Hong Kong Disneyland.

Before heading to Disneyland, we decided to have a look at the CityGate Factory Outlet. There were a lot of branded boutiqus shops. They are not rejected items, but the collections there are from last seasons collection. And the prices are cheaper of course. Wifey and i did manage to do our last minute shopping there before finally heading out to Disneyland.

To get to Disneyland, we had to take the train at the Disneyland Line. Yup, the Disneyland line is totally dedicated to Disneyland alone. The train there are customised and are different from the normal MTR train.

Finally we arrived at the station. Woohoo!!! Me and wifey were jumping joy to have finally reached there. Though they say it is the smallest Disneyland, but hey at least i've been to Disneyland. Have you???

We took a few pictures from the entrance right till the gate. Disney tunes from Little Mermaid, Aladdin and others were on the airwaves that made us more welcomed. Once in, we began at the Main Street USA.

HK Disneyland basically has four parks. Mainstreet USA, Tomorrowland, Adventureland and Fantasyland. At Mainstreet USA, you would probably recognized the design. It’s quite a familiar surrounding if you’ve seen pictures of Disneyland. It hosts a lot of souvenirs shop and a nice place for you to take pictures.

As we arrived there around 1230 pm and the nearest show was on at 130 pm, we decided to wait for a while to catch the High School Musical show live. So we waited for a while under the trees to avoid the hot sun. So at exactly 130pm, the show kicked off. If you’re a fan of High School Musical, then you’ll love this. Though their mode of communication / presentation are basically mixed between Chinese and English language. The show ran for about 30 minutes. Once finished, we proceeded to Tomorrowland first. We rode a few rides there. Among them were a space ship thingy (forgot it’s name), the Buzz Lightyear shooting game and the indoor rollercoaster Space Mountain. Damm those rides were cool.

At around 3.30pm, there was another show that was Mickey’s Water Parade. Basically it’s like the parade that you see during Merdeka Day, but the participants are from Disney characters and yeah, there’s a reason why they call it a water parade. As the day was really hot, they would be going around while firing water guns at the crowds. But as compared to the weather at that time, I think it was really worth it to get a little wet. It was a real experience if you’ve always wanted to meet up close with the Disney characters.
After the parade, we proceeded to Fantasyland. Oh yeah, we manage to cross over Cindarella’s castle. Never imagined that it was small. In the pictures it looked so huge but reality speaks for itself. We rode the Merry Go round and the tea cup. And the not to be missed It’s a small world ride. The it’s a small world afterall song was in our heads for quite some time. There was even a signage Selamat Jalan at the end of the ride which made us both proud.
Other things that we did there were queuing up to take photographs with the Disney characters. We did manage to take pictures with a few including Mickey and Minnie Mouse, Snow White, and Goofy.

At 5.30 pm, another round of High School Musical was on. Because wifey loved it so much the first time, so we had a go at the second round. By 6.00pm after the show, we ventured to Adventureland, which was basically sort of a jungle. The place where Tarzan lived. We took the jungle cruise ride and rode the rakit to Tarzan’s house. Think of it as a house tour :)

Just hours before the closing of the fireworks, we went in to the 3D theatre show. One of my favorites here I guess. It was a 3D show starring Donald Duck and other Disney cartoon characters. The show was in 3D. In spite the 3D vision, it had extra effects such as wind, smell and water effects. For example whenever Donald were blown away, we felt the air too as there were special side effects hardware attached at the seats. Now that’s what I call world class.

After the show, we had a round of last minute shopping for souvenirs. We ran here and there as fast as we could so that we wouldn’t miss the fireworks show. In total RM, I spent around RM350 for a few T-shirt and some fridge magnets. Talk about expensive.

At exactly 8pm, the fireworks show began. Oh yes, it was truly a magical world of Disney. Besides the normal fireworks that you usually might see, this one had additional features with tunes played from Disney’s show. And it does seems that the fireworks were like blowing up according to the melody. One just had to be there to really experience it. The show went on for about 20 min or so. Once finished me and wifey hanged around the park for a while as we knew the train station might be crowded. So we took a few pictures here and there before finally leaving Disneyland. Though we were really sad to leave Disneyland, we were very happy to feel young at heart again and to finally experience the Magical World of Disney.

We hoped the we could go there again sometime, most probably after the park has expanded and to bring Sofea along so that she could enjoy and experienced on what we have been experiencing. Though a bit pricey, it was worth the cost as you never know when you will be back here again.

My Hong Kong Trip Part 5 - Day 7

2008-07-30T00:00:00.001+08:00

With only 2 days for the weekend, we had to utilise the time given to the fullest. After a long discussion, we decided to go for the Ocean Park on Saturday. What is Ocean Park? Well it could be described as a theme park with additional shows and performances by animals. Uhmm, maybe that's not the best definition of it but do read on.

Wifey queuing up for the bus is so hard on the knees

As early as 9.30am we were already on the move to towards the Admiralty MTR station to purchase the tickets and getting ready for the bus. We were quite in a shock to see the line that was queing up for the bus. Let's just say it nearly circled the building next to the bus station. But luckily there were a lot of busses on standby so we did not have to wait that long. The journey took us around 30 minutes to reach there.

As we were on our own with no tour guide, we took the approach "Redah je lah". With the map as our guide, we moved on to the peak of the park. The park had 3 very very very high escalator ride. I don't think i've never took a very long ride on an escalator. It took forever to reach on one part of the park. As we moved up, we could see the beautiful scenery on the south part of Hong Kong Island. As we were still lost of not knowing where to go, i guess it's best to head out for the shows that were on. So we rushed out to the Ocean Theatre where there were suppose to be some show on dolphin. As we arrived there quite late, we were denied of going down to the arena where there were still some seats available. I'm not sure why the staff there did not let us go down there. So we had to settle peeking from somewhere at the top of the Ocean theatre.

There were some show on dolphin and sea lion. It was quite entertaining for an animal show. But to be frank, i think the animal show that i've been to at Bangkok was more rocking than this one. After the show, we qued up in a very very long line under the hot sun to go on a ride on a doughnut on a stick (not really sure what it's called). The doughnut will go up while rotating and you could see a panoramic view. Cool too!!!

We then continued our journey to see the sea lion in action. There were other attraction available such as the roller coaster ride but we were not up to it due to the very long que and couldn't bare the hot sun. It was a very hot summer indeed. We then decided to visit a more cooling attraction there is. So we head up towards the aquarium area. It hosted a lot of sea creatures. I guess you could say that it's like the Aquaria KLCC (not that i've been there before ) and the Underwater World at Langkawi. I'll just let the picture do the talking :)

Next, to visit the second half of the park, you need to get on the cable car ride. The cable car ride journey was exhilarating. It was a very long ride with you high up on the air while viewing the South China Sea ( if i'm not mistaken). Since the Ngong Ping 360 was closed during that time, i guess this ride will do. The journey must have taken us around 15 minutes. It's a must try attraction.

Once a the other part of the park, we proceeded to see the Panda Bear. Two of the are called Ying Ying and Le Le. It was a long que, but hey, when else do you expect to see a Panda Bear? There were a few numbers of Panda Bear there but two of the were sleeping and only one of the were active.

Other things that we do at the second part of the island was take a ride on a bungee ride, visited the Dolphin university ( psst, dolphin are graduates too and this one understands chinese) and watched an acrobatic performance. After that, we walked along the park, took the cable car back to the top and exiting the park to return to admiralty via the same bus.

As the day was a damn hot and tiring day, we had our lunch + dinner at Tsim Sha Tsui for white rice + ikan goreng kerapu and ayam masala. Woww, i think that was the best meal ever. After dinner, we rushed over to the Arena of Stars to watch the Symphony of Lights. The symphony of lights is a light and sound show. They are decked out in lights, which at the flick of a switch, glow in miriad of colours depicting Hong Kong's vibrancy. The lights were like dancing according to sound that was played. It was a true classy event. Other attraction at the Arena of stars is a giant Bruce Lee statue, a few Hong Kong superstar's hand prints and stars on the floor, like the one you see in the US in hollywood.

After taking enough picture, we headed back towards the hotel after a long, tiring, hot day. Both of us actually got sun burn. Lucky enough we did not get a heat stroke!

Next stop, Hong Kong Disneyland !!!

My Hong Kong Trip - Part 4 (day 5 & 6)

2008-07-26T23:38:00.001+08:00

What's visiting Hong Kong without bringing back souvenirs from the famous land of shopping. By shopping, i meant shopping at the infamous Night Market at Kowloon. So for day 5, our agenda was strictly for surveillance on shopping at night market. To be more specific, Ladies Market at Mong Kok. So after work, we took the MTR from Wan Chai to Mong Kok. Once we arrived, there they are ... the good stuff. All you could probably hope for and maybe more at a night market. For Malaysian, i would say that it is a bigger version of Petaling Street. Reminded me when i was in Bangkok's Cha Tu Chak and Suan Lum night bazaar too.

wifey getting ready to shop till you drop

From clothings to wallets, watches to sunglases, handbags to decoration, neckties and all sort of stuff that you could think off. Yup, this is definately heaven for shopper holics who has the same taste like me and wifey. Before we came here, wifey's main objective here is to purchase branded handbags and wallets (copy). So i guess the mission is clear, 1 - purchase handbags and wallets, 2 - purchase other stuffs and souveniers. Unfortunate for us, the day that we went probably wasn't the right timing. At first when we arrived, a lot of shops were displaying catalogs from branded items, but we ignored it at first since we had the rest of the night to stroll down. After walking down from end to end, we were geared to go to the shopping mode. But when we searched all around, none of the stalls were displaying the catalogs. We even asked around and all of them decline. And then it kept us thinking, maybe they had received a tonto saying that a raid might be conducted by the local KPDN. Well, it is illegal to sell fake branded stuff. So since we couldn't achieve objective no 1, i guess we'll have to settle for objective no 2 (for now).

So we were in shopping gear. We purchased a lot of stuffs to bring back to our loved ones and friends back in Malaysia. For instance, i bought a total of 45 fridge magnets to distribute back. never in my life i have bought that many magnets. After roughly calculating and bargaining with the stall owners, it comes down to the final price of around RM4.00 per magnet. Well, lets take it this way that i treat all my colleagues to a plate of rice worth RM4.00. The important thing is sincere right?! Other stuffs we bought were T-shirts, neck ties, purse pals, and other small items. For the stuff that we missed out, we came back again the other day as we still had time to achieve objective no 1.

The very next day, we came back again to Mong Kok and this time we were lucky. The stalls were displaying again their catalogs for customers to choose from. Handbags, wallets and watches were the main attractions. So we stopped by at a few stalls. The system is, the seller will take you to their office located nearby at their stall. You will then be taken to a special room where all the good stuffs were placed. This is where you opened up your eyes, carefully choose which of the stuffs that you really like and bargain hard with the seller. It's all up to your bargaining skills. If you could speak Cantonese, i think it would be a better advantange. So we finally chosed the stuffs that we wanted, bargain with the seller and paid him off. After that, we went back to the streets. We did tested out what happens if we did not want to purchase anything. Well, eventually nothing happened. We could leave the room just like that if we did not want to purchase anything.

Now that both objective were completed, i eventually did a little shopping that at first wasn't in the list. What was it? A Digital SLR camera. Yup, a Nikon D60 camera. At first i didn't want to purchase such thing, but there was a small voice in my head kept saying, " buy me, buy me". Oh well, finally i used up the powers of the credit card to purchase the camera. The price, well you could say i saved up a few hundred ringgit if I purchased it in HK than KL. Hmmm, i guess i will have to extend the buying big stuff period to another year. So for the rest of the entries in the blogs, the pictures were taken using my precious Nikon D60 aka my very new toy :)

In the streets of Wan Chai Hong Kong after a long shopping trip

My Hong Kong Trip Part 3 ( day 4 )

2008-07-24T23:39:00.000+08:00

By this time, the weather at Hong Kong still wasn't on our side but if we had to wait for the weather to be ok, we'll be missing on a lot of great stuff to do. So as at wednesday ( day 4 ) of our trip, we decided to make the most of the evening by visiting the infamous Victoria Peak. At first we were still quite confused on how to get there, but thanks to the internet at the guide pamphlet, it was quite easy to go there. In fact, the bus stop was just around the corner. We took the double decker bus no 15 to reach to the peak.

It was kinda drizzling on our journey up there, but we could still enjoy the view from the bus. The buildings there seems like that they were made of Lego blocks stacks all together in a big green board. The building were all very close to each other and most of them were very very tall. At a certain point, they did look like domino blocks to me :) The road leading to the Peak was very winding, but being a Malaysian and had gone up to Genting and Cameron Highland, the journey was not that tough.

The bus ride took around 30 minutes plus the peak hour traffic. Once there, we could see the famous Peak building that i've seen on website, the building that look like a T shape. We quickly went in the building and rushed over to the Tramp. But i did wonder why do we need to go board the Tram since we were already at the peak of the Peak. True enough, after we boarded the tramp, eventually the tramp was going down to it's station. Looked like we were cheated, we were already at the very peak, and after we rode the tramp, it wasn't going up, it was going down. So we had to purchase another ticket to go back to the Peak. Once at the top again, we rushed over to Madame Tussauds, the place that was part of my master list in Hong Kong.

I've once visited it at London when i was a kid and i have loved it since then. With this trip, i was looking forward to it. I've read it in the internet saying that the Hong Kong madame tussauds does contain some local celebrities, but that's ok. We were greeted by Bruce Lee and also Jackie Chan at the main entrance. So for the rest of the story, i will let the pictures do the talking as a picture tells a thousand words :) Do you know who they are ?

My Hong Kong Trip Part2 ( day 2 & 3 )

2008-07-15T16:47:00.006+08:00

Cum Monday was the day for me to start my official work in Hong Kong. I waited outside the HK Police gathering poit at about 8.15am. There i saw one guy waiting at the same place and finally i went out to him and said hello. Lucky enough that he was one of the participant too and from Singapore. I guess he's the only closest neighbour that i will find here. And after a while, another 2 more local participants came and we were finally brought inside. The HK Police HQ were quite cool and modernized.

In class we were briefed about the 2 weeks course and other matters. We also had to undergo self introductory in front of the class but it seems to be no problem because most of them understand english except from a few participant from China mainland and Macao. For the rest of the day, we did a few class exercises such as dismantling a hard drive, learning about hard disk, partitions and stuffs. You know, all computer forensic related stuff. The class ended for the day around 530pm. It only took me 5 -10 minuts walk to reach the hotel. Actually i could have reach the hotel quicker as it was just across the street. But unfortunately, one have to use the pedestrian bridge to cross over and that bought me some time.

We managed to dismantle and destroy the hard drive

Once back at the hotel, we then discussed the basics of survival. That is food of course. So, after gone through our halal food list, we finally decided to head towards Tsim Sha Tsui as there seems to be quite a number of halal foods there. So we took the MTR train from Wan Chai towards the TST MTR station.

Once at TST, we couldn't really find the place that we were suppose to go to but luckily we bumped in to a place called Ziafat. It even had the halal certification so we head straight inside. After looking at the menu, we ordered Garlic naan, butter naan and also 2 legged tandoori chicken. Our order was ready in about 10 minutes. Damm, the sizzling and smell of the chicken and naan was breath taking. LOL. Not even Chanel, Hugo or issey miyake can match this one :) The price plus tax was HKD 110 or about RM 46. Not the cheapest naan and tandoori that i have ever had but enough to satisfy my stomach. Never imagined eating naan in Hong Kong.

As the weather wasn't at our side on tuesday evening where it rained all day in the summer, we decided to have dinner at an Indian restaurant called Minar. The signboard said halal food so we took their word for it. We had Chicken fried rice + chicken kebab. Again, the food at HK so far had not failed us before. The taste was excellent and the quantity was enough for both of us to share. We then walk to a nearby shopping mall called the Pacific plaza. It was an ok mall but unfrotunate for us, the shops there closes quite early as compared to KL. As we were inside in one of the anchor shops, the announcement that the shops were going to close were announced and it was only around 830pm. But oh well, no problems here. We took one last spin at the mall, and bought ourself an expensive coffee at Starbucks (HKD 35) there before heading back to the hotel.

As there were nothing to do at the hotel, we tuned in to Star Movies Chinese (different from our Star Movies English) and watched a movie called Silverhawk. Overall it was a great story and not forgetting that it starred by Malaysian's Michelle Yeoh. Yeayyy!!!! Malaysia Boleh !!!

My Hong Kong Trip - Part 1

2008-07-08T22:16:00.007+08:00

After serving the Bank for over 4 years, finally it was my time to go for overseas courses. And just my luck, all those waiting in patience finally landed me a trip to Hong Kong for 2 weeks for a computer forensics course. Wohoo!!! Now that's what i'm talking about overseas trip baby. 14 days as oppose to 3 days for an overseas course. All that waiting finally paid of.

I was scheduled to departure for the course on 15th June 08, the same date as Father's Day. Though i was looking forward to go on this trip, it did made me kinda sad to leave behind my daughter for so long and especially on father's day. It did cross my mind to bring her along as wifey was tagging along with me for a week. But finally we decided not to take her along due to certain reason such as we don't know what it's like in Hong Kong, acessibility of Halal Food, weather and also she is still quite too small to remember things and places. It would have made our trip more difficult as we had that extra baggage. Plus, i don't think wifey could manage to bring her back to KL with her bags and a small child on an airplane just by herself. And for those reason, she had to stay behind. If she was a bit older, then we might have brought her along.

We departed from home around 6.30am, stop by at Rumah Kent to pick Papa up. He promised to send us to KL Sentral. We finally reached KL Sentral around 6.55am. We were quite saddened to leave Sofea behind, and at the same time i think she had an instinct that she was going to be left as she was quite gloomy that morning and not her usual ceria self. After checking in our bags at KLIA, we had breakfast and finally board the plane. It was a MAS Boeing 777-200. My first time on such a plane. It was equipped with the lcd screen where you could watch movies, play game, or listen to songs. The 3 hours 25 min sure was quite jiffy as we were entertained all the way.
After finally reaching Hong Kong airport, we finally took the Airport Express to the Hong Kong MTR station. The Airport Express Train is the equivalent to our KLIA ERL express. The journey taken to ride the train was around 30min. After reaching the Hong Kong MTR station, we had to walk to the next station with our bags along to the Central station. The station was quite far i guess though we only walked inside the station passage way. I have never seen so many crowd in a train station before. Plus the Hong Konger's were really walking at a fast speed, young and old, men and women. After finally reaching at the correct station, we took the MTR to the Wan Chai station stop which in theory, the closest one to the Hotel. Well at first it does seemed quite far a walk, but as time progresses, i guess it's not that far :)

We finally checked in to the Wesley and given the room 2012. Our first impression of the room was, what a small room. The room at Sri Malaysia was wayyyy bigger than this one. But after analyzing the buildings nearby, i guess the size is quite standard as all the buildings seems to be very tall but narrow, due to lack of space.

After relaxing in the room for a while, it's time to explore the Jungle out there to find ourselves the basic survival stuff, food. We decided to try the Causeway Bay area and find some of the Halal restaurant food that we had printed out. Finally we found a middle east shop with Halal food, but was shock down to our knees when we saw the price of the foods. It's like nothing we have ever seen before. Not even the hotel prices in KL could match them. At first ee thought that this particular shop was expensive so we went on for search at an Indonesian restaurat called Warung Malang.

They sell nasi campur, the usual that we always have in Malaysia. We ordered 2 nasi campur and 2 drinks. The cashier finally counted and said sembilan setengah nine and a half. Now this made more sense, so wifey gave her a HKD100. But to my shock and laughter (in my heart) she returned back only HKD5. What the devil??? Did you mean to say that 2 nasi campur and 2 drinks cost us HKD95 or RM 40. Back at KL, RM40 could easily support you for the next 3-4 days of complete meal, but here is just a 2 person meal??? I was already missing my D'Tebing Rm5 value meal and i don't think RM5 is enough for you to buy food in Hong Kong. True enough as we stroll down the street peaking at eating outlet there was, the price at Warung Malang was considered a standar price. Damn

Click picture to reveal the actual price!

This is not the warung malang price, but from Shalimar.

How lucky am i to stay in Malaysia

After leaving the restaurant, we had a walk along Causeway Bay area and went inside the Times Square shopping mall. I have never seen so many people walking about and this is the first time that the number of human is more than the number of cars. There were very few cars on the road. For people, It was like a traffic jam but a jam that was filled with human beings walking about. It was like a Jusco member day sale, only at a bigger place.
Petrol price in HK = HKD17.43 (RM 7.32) per liter as compared to Malaysia RM 2.70 (HKD 6.42)

I guess we're not worse off

After finished with the shopping mall, we finally walked back to the hotel, which suprisingly was a long way back. We did however stop at a few supermarket to see whether they are any Malaysia products available for sale. Sadly, i couldn't find any Maggi mee, but suprisingly Ayam Brand products were available. Go Cap Ayam!!! In Hong Kong, you have to be careful on the product on sale as they might contain lembu pendek ingridients.

After reaching the hotel and experiencing what the city is like, we doze of to sleep after watching tv. Luckily they were a few english channel available such as Star World, NGC, Fox News and 2 other more channel.

Greetings from Hong Kong

2008-06-17T15:30:00.002+08:00

I am currently in HK attending a 2 weeks course here. So far it's been ok except for the weather which is currently raining everday. Hopefully it will be a bit better in a few days time. The food here are very expensive compared to malaysia. The streets are always crowded with people. There's not a single corner without a human being. Transportation wise so far so so good as the trains are quite efficient.

That's it for now from me. I will release the full details when i return home :)

More Home Cook Meals :-)

2008-06-10T11:32:00.005+08:00

Actual product of WIfey's salmon steak

As part of the so called ubah gaya hidup (change our lifestyle), we took up the challenge by not going out of the house at all. Seriously, we did not even open the entrance door or set foot outside of our compound. The furthest we went is at the balcony overseing the swimming pool and it's surrounding. The result, i guess we managed to save some petrol because we did not require to move the car.As for food, wifey was in the gear again to cook.

For breakfast we just had baked beans with bread. Even Sofea shares the same meal as ours. And for lunch, wifey cooked for us chicken soup. Yum yum. I call it Chicken soup for the petrol hike. Maybe the chicken soup book author can work on this and probably even be a best seller. But don't forget my commission.

Chicken soup for the petrol hike! Next best seller

For dinner, a very special meal never been prepared before. Salmon steak. Wallaa!!!. Salmon my favourite. It was prepard very well with salads and a special internet black peper sauce. Hehe. Meaning the black pepper sauce recipe was from the internet.

Actual servings as depicted above and below

The taste, marvellous!!! Well done wifey for the delicious meal.
Note to self : i might get use with this. Guessed the price hike did made a different in lifestyle :)

Petrol prices up again! Now at RM2.70

2008-06-05T10:16:00.008+08:00

My reaction can be translated to the picture of Sofea above

As at 5pm yesterday, i kept on visiting the online newspaper to see what's the new petrol price structure is all about, but to no avail, nothing was updated. In a few minutes time, i received an email from my colleague who is kinda related to politics. According to him, the prices of petrol will go up to 80cents per litre. At first i wanted to ignore it, but coming from him, i do have to say i kinda trust him. So quickly i messaged wifey to fill up her tank. Luckily enough, she managed to fill it up early before the que starts coming in.

I officially heard the news on Radio 24's news at 6.30pm that confirmed by 5th June 2008, the petrol will increase by 78 cents. Oh my god, that high??? So i rushed quickly to the Esso station at Keramat after informing a few of my contacts through sms'es. By the time i got there, the que was already starting to build up. Luckily i qued at the correct lane which eventually did not take that long to que. There were already 4 cars in front of me, but hey, what the heck. Might as well go for it. And at the same time i keep praying, please don't let the credit card machine fail now as i have only Rm10 in my wallet.

Fill it up before before you go go!!! This was only at 6.35pm.

The bad
After about 15 minutes of queing up, finally it's my turn. Inserted my Amex card, and finally it was okay. Pump it up to the max at the meter showed RM60.01. In other words, i would be pumping in 31.25 litres of petrol. I guessed that's the last one that i'm gonna get for this price. The next time i pump in at the same amount, i will only be getting 22.22 litres of petrol. That's less 10 litres for what i'm getting now. Technically, i will only be filling in 1/3 of my Waja tank compared to 1/2 as before. So that's the whole news. Usually i will pump in around RM80 for 2 week. With the new price, i will have to fill up RM 112 to get the same amout of petrol. That's RM 32 more. Times 2 is RM64. Times 12 is RM768. That's the additional expenses that i have to incure for the upcoming year. And that does not include long journey trips. This is just the daily commute from Wangsa Maju - Jalan Kent - BNM - Jalan Kent - Wangsa Maju + a few nearby destination. That night by the time we headed to home around 10pm, all petrol stations were still busy like no one's business. We even had trouble getting home as the road that was heading to home was filled up with cars. Finally we took the incoming lane to bypass the jam. There were no other choice. Either face the upcoming cars or stay stuck for the next hour. Petrol stations are the last place on earth you want to go yesterday if you are really in a hury.

A lot more cars were queing up behind the waja. It got even worse after this

The good
By the time i left the petrol station, the que was really starting to build up. Luckily i was done. Watched the news at 7 with papa. The good news is that the Government will going to give a cash rebate of RM625 for cars less that 2000cc. It will be paid when you renew your roadtax. And the waja's roadtax is due on August. Woohoo!!!. Luckily i was in the group. So technically RM625 /12 = Rm52 per month. Well i guess it's better than nothing. Luckily the Waja is 1600cc which qualifies for this and cheaper roadtax. Can't complain there. I guess the waja will be serving me for long. For those of you complaining about abolish roadtax, well how about this. Get yourself a car less than 1600cc. It's about less then RM10 per month.

Next course of action
In these tough time, i guess we will have to really cut down on our expenses. They said change our lifestyle. From car, change to motorcycle, from motorcycle to bicycle, from cab to lrt and from lrt to bus and finally from any of these transport to walking. But then you will have to spend more on mineral water :) I'm already cutting down the expenses to the max including not to use the air cond to and from the office. What else could i cut down on. Just something to ponder...

The effect
As of today as i was getting to work, the cars around me seems to go way slower than usual. Some of them even drove at 30km/h. What the heck??? I know they want to decrease the usage of petrol but, isn't it if you go slower the more petrol you consume since you will need to always step on the accelerator instead of letting the car cruise? I hope today i made it on time before the 9.00am "dead" line. Hope this is only temporarily. If not, i have to face the petrol hike and also the late attendance again.

Note: I hope D'tebing doesn't increase their price arising from the petrol hike.

"Harga petrol di Malaysia masih diantara yang terendah di rantau ini"

Wifey Rogers Roasters

2008-06-04T17:19:00.004+08:00

Last Sunday, wifey was kind enough to prepare me with a home cook meal. The meal is Chicken Roasters. Similar but different as compared to the Kenny Rogers Roasters set. What i meant by similar but different is, the chicken is similar to the one found at Kenny Rogers, but different in terms of side dishes. What where you thinking eh?

Similar but different compared to Kenny Rogers Roasters

The taste was marvelous. To prove how good it was, just see the picture below. Can you guess what happened to it? Hehe. Some carnivor beast came into our house and finished it off. Even the CSI can't figure this one out. Bravo wifey!!!

What could have done this to a poor creature???

Sofea meets Bumblebee

2008-06-04T17:07:00.003+08:00

Me like bumblebee

On Saturday, Sofea finally met her match. The Ultimate Bumblebee. Haha. Actually the bumblebee was purchased sometime in October 2007 and had always been on a display with my other Transformers collection. Since she's a litte grown up now, she's starting to explore more on what's there in the house. Thus she showed to me the bumblebee and i finally let her played with it.

Let's burn rubber!!!

She was quite amused with it since it could move about and play a few phrases and song encluding the transformers theme and Whip It by Devo. Hopefully she doesn't spoils it. It's my precious!!!! ( Smeagol kinda way)

Sofea's crocs rocks!!!

2008-06-02T10:04:00.005+08:00

We went over to Great Eastern mall last weekend after having failed to visit the Jom Heboh carnival at Bukit Jalil due to myself. Hehehe. (not the type of dude who likes to hang out at crowded places). So as a consolation, we went over to GE Mall instead.

Just the usual window shopping + dinner. After receiving Sofea's birthday gift from Auntie Jie for nearly 4 month, we finally put the shoes on her. And it fits. Maybe not that fitting but after we tested at home, she seems to be able to walk properly. So we tested it out at GE Mall. At first we thought that maybe she couldn't walk very fast as it was still new, but we were wrong. She seems to be running and walking around at her usual pace.

psst, these are original crocs shoes. Thank you Auntie Jie
orang gila je yang beli kasut macam ni :-)

So i guess after this we will continue to use them before it doesn't fit her anymore.

Whoo!!! I can see you in 3D

Zero late comer

2008-05-30T11:28:00.003+08:00

As i swipe today's attendance, being the last day to work for the month, i finally managed to clear my bad record last month. I was given a warning letter on my poor attendance last month. (the first one i received after serving the Bank for 4 years). Total late coming for last month was 4 times. This month, 0 (zero) late. Woohooo!!!!

This was all due to the change of my department director and the hypocrit admin manager. (not going to mention name). If he was doing his job from the 1st day i reported duty, all of us should have beend expelled from the bank way long before. When the new guy comes in, all of a sudden he's being mr ketua darjah or cikgu disiplin - just a sense of dissatisfaction.

Hey, i come in late 1 - 5 min but repayed them by additional hours. I think that's fair enough, don't you think so.

Note: Hopefully this continues :)

Hutang aka 555

2008-05-28T14:42:00.003+08:00

I was having lunch with my colleagues at the usual D'Tebing. When it was time to pay up, i showed Pakcik Abu Bakar my RM50 notes. He was busy collecting money from other people to return the change to another customer and finally managed to do so. By the time it was my turn, he said to me was "esok lah" (tomorrow). So i nodded and said OK.

So, i guess today's lunch was a postpaid meal as i have to pay him by tomorrow. Luckily i'm a regular. A first of many experience i guess. Never knew the great book of 555 still existed in KL.

Note to self: Pay today's your lunch by tomorrow.

When backup fails

2008-05-27T11:25:00.006+08:00

We've all heard in our workplace to always make backup. Always make copy of your files. You never know when your computer might crash. So here's the thing. Yes, a few people do make backups and copies of their files, and a few don't even bother. It's when their computer crashes when they start to go in panic mode.

Reminds me of the Limp Bizkit song Rollin, "Backup backup, tell me what' cha gonna do now"

And the same old dialogues that often you hear is, "dammit, i should have made a backup of it."
The next step is they call the IT guys,
"hey, my computer / hard disk just crash. Is there a way that you can recover them. I have very important files on the disk. I need to do a presentation to the boss and those files contains valuable information. I stayed up all night preparing for them"

The IT guy would then ask "Did you make a backup copy of those files anywhere?"
The client will then reply, " If i did would i be calling you"
The IT guy would then go "(in silent mode) !@$#@%%&$%^$ (This is when you wish you could use the fist of death)"

So the lesson learned so far is always create a backup. It can be in a form of CD, DVD, external drive, diskette and other sorts of media. But what happens when your backup fails???

As i was minding my own business today, my manager called me up to his room. He said that his USB thumbdrive when plugged in gives out the message " The disk is not formatted. Do you want to format it now. Yes / No". Lucky him for not falling to the trick by answering everything to Yes. Unfortunate for him, the thumbdrive was the backup of his work as the original source was already deleted from another thumbdrive. So this is the classic case of when your backup fails and you have no more primary source. Ironically, a colleage of mine just asked me yesterday on the same problem. So i guess it's a desease when thumbdrive fails one by one.

Lucky for him that i was in a good mood. Opened up EnCase and confirmed that it was gone. Looked up in Google and finally found a tool that might help. Downloaded in and walla, it does the job. The tool was called PhotoRec. It did recover thousands of files, but if you are one of those file naming freaks might get a little panic for a while. It recovers file but you will have to forget about those file names entry. It has it's formats of naming convention and being a technical guy, i wouldn't mide coz that's how the system goes and works. So lucky for my manager that a lot of his files were saved but good luck looking for the right ones as it returns thousands and thousands of files that you may not even know existed. But i recommend the tool. Thumbs up for PhotoRec.

Picture source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/xxoos-jal/1449102918/
Do you really think a hot dog can save you in your time of need?

The moral of the story, if you were planning to back up something, make sure the destination is a reliable source. Forget those cute small type usb thumbdrive as that was what caused my manager to be in trouble in the first place. If you were going to choose a thumbdrive, i would recommend a normal size thumbdrive as so far they have never failed me compared to the small cute looking ones that you usually hang together with your set of keys.

ps: I've got to backup my hard drive one of these days.

Shish Kebab

2008-05-26T15:46:00.006+08:00

For breakfast cum lunch, wifey was kind enough to try out a new recipe. I guess you've all figured it out by now. Yes, it's shish kebab. In definition, Shish Kebab "is a dish consisting of small cubes of meat threaded on a skewer (şiş in Turkish) that are grilled or roasted" taken from Wikipedia. It differs from Doner Kebab, Chelow Kabab and Kathi Kabab. So that's the answer to wifey on why her kebab doesn't have the pita bread like the one used in Kyros or Melawati Kebab.

Though modified from beef to chicken, the taste was good. We enjoyed it for a change of meals. To wifey, Congratulations on a meal well done!

Operation Dumbo Drop @ Genting

2008-05-23T15:34:00.003+08:00

Here's a picture update of Sofea at Genting during the operation Dumb Drop. SOrry for the later entry.

On top of the world @ Genting Highlands

2008-05-22T22:21:00.009+08:00

This entry was scheduled to be published earlier, but due to the unexpected workload that i am currently facing, i just had to postponed it to a more suitable time. It all started with the balloting process in the resort system. And what do you know, i finally managed to get one after working for 4 years in the bank. So this is an opportunity that shouldn't be missed. Plus with the free 3 tickets that wifey obtained from the Berita Harian cover page soon to be expired which help boost me to finally take the trip up there.

Scheduled on 9 -11 May, the final crowd that had confirmed to join us is my little family + 2 of my bro in laws. We wanted to take my mother in law at first but she declined. Asked Jie whether she wanted to tag along but she couldn't confirm the invitation. So finally the crowd was the one that i mentioned earlier.

We managed to reach the Genting View resort at around 5pm after facing challenges of going here and there plus a few road hoggers who thougt that their car were going on a super sonic speed and thus keeping it on the right lane. Talk about patience. The resort location was not at the peak of the highland. More towards the base though. Anyway, the weather was quite nice. Not that cold nor warm. It's just that it isnt damn cold. After checking in and take a few minutes rest, we decided to climb at the peak plus we were very hungy. By climbing i meant climbing the hills with the trustee WajaBee. And what do you know, it has enough power to climb the peak of Genting. This is the first time it was driven up to Genting after owning it for nearly 5 years. Good going.

Click!

As we arrived at the indoor theme park, the crowd started to build up. We had our dinner at Marrybrown. After finishing dinner, we took a walk inside the theme park as there were no plans for the night. Just doing some jalan-jalan and some sight seeing. Before heading down, we bought some famous amos cookies to eat at the apartment.

Dammit. I'm not tall enough

Wait till i grow taller!!!

The night did not end there as Sofea did not want to sleep. Wifey had brought her in before 11pm and by the time i went into the room at 12am, she was still active as ever. Finally i just had to go to bed with her just to keep her on the bed and finally dozz off. Again the night did not end there. As i was about to shut my eyes off, i was attacked by the killer mosquitoes. I managed to whack 2 of them and thought that it was the end. But the war did not end there and continued on until i lost track of the time.

The next morning as i was getting ready and cleaning up the room a bit, i managed to take revenge on the killer mosquitoes. Because they were fully loaded with Sofea, wifey and my blood the just couldn't fly anymore. And that's when the revenge took place. I managed to kill 8 of them with my bare hands. Talk about revenge. As all of us were finally ready to go, we proceeded to the peak again and finally entered the outdoor theme park. We just had to buy an additional ticket as we had only 3.

The park was already started to fill with lots of people. We just walked in the park and finally took Sofea on the dumbo ride. Of course wifey will have to hold her. From her facial expression i think she kinda enjoyed it. Next on the agenda was the famous antique car ride. It's a ride that could not be missed. The que was building up quite fast and like other normal person, we too had to que. Finally it was our turned. Wifey floored the accelerator shooting us at lightning speed. Hahaha!!! just joking. Sofea took the wheel and enjoyed the right. They've even improved the steering wheel by putting a kinda pillow thingy at the centre. When we reached at the end point, Sofea did not want to get out of the car, but as the crowd were piling up, we just had to go.

Next stop is the train ride. The waiting period was really long. I think longer then waiting for the KTM Komuter to arrive. But finally the train finally arrived and it was next on our list of rides. It circled the centre of the theme park, or rather giving us a summary of all the activities on the park.

Am i cute or what???

As the time was pointing to lunch time, our stomach began to growl and we stop to have our lunch. The food was not that good as oppose to the price we paid. Foods are damn expensive here. After having our lunch, we then continued with our activities. This time, i had to skip the ride as i did not met the minimum requirement. No, i was not short but unfortunately they put a weight limit on the ( i can't remember it's name, but it's right in front of the merry go round) ride. What??? The max wieght that they could tolerate was 70kg. Can you guess my weight is?

By the time wifey and her brothers finished the ride, Sofea was already asleep. So we proceed onto the next floor. Go Kart, aaaah that was something that they did not specify how heavy you should be. So i joined in the crowds. After more than 30 mins of queing, finally it was my turn. I took the last car at the position. Onced the light went green, i floored the car again to lightning speed. Notttt. The car was damn slow man. At least my car was. As i was building up speed and momentum, suddenly there was a middle east girl hogging the track again. What's worse she didn't even let me pass trough until there was enough straight line to manage me to overtake her. Without even using my brakes as i hoped the car would build up more speed, suddenly i was overtaken by another car. What the??? Here i am flooring it with precise cornering but still nothing. Oh well, might as well enjoy the ride then.

Aummm!!!

After i got off the car, Sofea had already waken for her beauty sleep. We took a ride in the ferris wheel before proceeding to the dinosaur island for the boat ride. Again queing up waiting for the boat. I estimated that the time taken to wait for the boat was way longer with the time waiting for the antique car and boat ride put together. Finally it was our turn and we got on the boat. Luckily there was a show on the dinosaurs inside of a cave. Sofea did not felt scared as it was all dark with the dinosaurs popping out one at a time. All she said to me was "Aummmm" which in normal terms mean cat or tigers or lions. I guess she didn't know how to make the dino sound. After the end of the boat ride, we took some photos and exit the dinosaurland as the weather was getting to be chiller and foggier.

Sofea's uncles wanted to take a ride in the rollercoaster so we let them be. We then however took sofea for a ride at the a ride called the MASA (space shuttle thingy). Once we were done, we went back another floor down. Since the park was still open and there were not many people left, we finally had a go at the merry go round. Damn it was fun. I think wifey was the one that enjoyed the ride the most. We had a go at the merry go round for 3 times. As there were still time, i was left with sofea once again coz wifey and her brothers wanted to have a go at the (weight discriminate) ride again. So i took Sofea to play at those coin operated vehicles, only this time they did not require and coins. So i pressed the button more then 10 times so that Sofea could have a go at it and not to mention me saving nearly RM10 for not having to put a single coin. Hehehe.

Taken for a free ride

As the day was becoming darker we had to leave the park but not before a caterpillar monorel ride. We searched the station and finally found it. So another round of the outdoor theme park before heading back to the apartment. We had our dinner at a restaurant at Gohtong Jaya. The food taste was good but damn expensive for a 4 + 1 meal. It costed RM 88. If we had known it was going to cost us a bomb, might as well we just have Kenny Rogers at the theme park which eventually will cost cheaper, even with Genting price. What a rip off. That night after watching Akademi Fantasia, we dozed of to bed with no more attacks of the killer mosquitoes.

The next morning was a free and easy activity or dive into the swimming pool i might add. The so called heated swimming pool were not heated. It was damn cold. But after a while our body managed to adjust with the tempreature, though still cold. So after the swim, we all packed our stuff, stop at Genting Sempah for lunch and headed back home to wish both our mothers, Happy Mother's Day.

Outcome of our trip
The good
1) A nite at the apartment cost only RM8
2) Not that far from home. Less then an hour journey
3) Nice weather
4) A lot of activities to do
5) Free 3 tickets (for this time only)

The bad
1) Food and other stuff are expensive
2) Queing for the ride
3) Discrimination to those who weigh more then 70kg
4) Had to buy additional ticket

So all in agree that it was a good getaway and mother's day gift.

Where the heck is that partition?

2008-05-20T16:10:00.005+08:00

As i reached my office today, a colleague of mine was smiling ear to ear when he saw me and said, "Aaaaa, Mr. rizman, my saviour"... I was like what the??? It seems that he had a broken external drive. It was never really broken mechanically but virtually. The master boot record and partition has been deleted thus in Windows says that it is an unallocated space. I am not really sure what he did but he must have done something to make the partition go away.

Reaching out for my dusty old EnCase manual, referring back to partition recovery, i finally managed to rebuild back his partition and Voillaaa, they were all in one piece. I have been practically involved in computer forensics and this is the first time i have come accrosed a drive with a deleted partition (excluding the class exercise). Who might have thought that these kind of problems came from your own colleague and not from the people outside of the organization.

With this accomplishment i felt productive again!!!

Everything happens for a reason

2008-05-15T12:17:00.004+08:00

True enough as the topic has described. The reason for me not updating my blog is because my hands are quite tight at the moment. I just received 26 CPU's, a laptop, a cctv recorder and even a fax machine to be forensically analysed. For God sake, it's a fax machine!!! What more do you want.

I will try my best to update it. Do visit regularly as a lot of stories to be shared soon. Tungguuuuu!!!

Make believe interrogation process

Me to fax machine: "Do you admit to all the crimes that you have done"

Fax machine to me: -

Me to fax machine:" Speak up or i'll rip your paper and your ink cartridge!!!!"
Fax machine to me: -
Me: "!@$#^#^#@$*(^%^". Damn this fax machine is tough

A walk in the park

2008-04-23T11:23:00.009+08:00

Eye on Malaysia at Titiwangsa

To try out my so called "new toy", we tested it out at Taman Tasik Titiwangsa last Saturday. It was already 5.30pm by the time we reached there where the crowds began to grew. We let Sofea go round around the park as she please while at the same time wifey played with her bubble gun toy to get Sofea moving on her feet. And at the same time while trying out the new toy to capture a few candid photos of Sofea. So here's a few of the results. So what do you think? Is it worth to spend a few thousand ringgit on a DSLR camera?

CLick on the photos to see the bigger picture. Enjoy!!!

Cak!!!

Apa ada kat sana tu?

Your journey is still far ahead

Going our separate ways

Alamak!! Dah nak hujan la

Goodbye sun. Sofea has to go home now :(

Disclaimer: All photos were unedited, only resized to enable them to be uploaded.