Real Survivors

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Bluesy Monday

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

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

No 1: Done

No 2: Done

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

1. Dieya
2. Shaz
3. Nofa
4. Rahimy
5. Shin Loo

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

No 4 : Will do rite after this ;)

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

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

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

Life is a Long Series of Drama...

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Travel Insurance

This is the first time ever I am planning my own trip. Hence, I did more research compared to those other time. Its now confirmed that I am going to Cape Town, South Africa. Few people raised their concern wrt safety of the venue. I know people are skeptical when it comes to African country. Well, I have my doubts too, when I first went to Phillipines, but I went there with colleague and on business trip, so the concern is not really there.

After going there, I think most of these things are the fear for the unknown, and therefore this time am going to persuade Ija to take any of the travel insurance available to our case. We have to be prepared, better safe than sorry. I have looked at HSBC, still looking at other insurance provider. Will discuss with Ija on which one to take.

Why do we need insurance during travelling? Read HERE

Tickets Confirmed!!

We have been doing research for air tickets since last year, and that time flight schedule is not out yet. Typical ticket price to Cape Town in the range of RM 6K to 11K, depending on which airline we pick. Since we are travelling using our OWN money, the cheaper the better. So I thought of waiting for at least MAS travelfair to score a great deal. It was in Feb, little did I know the travel period for the whole month of June is a blackout period, which means to discount, no bargain and no offer, which translate to normal price!!!

So we waited for MATTA fair which was last 2 weekends. And to my horror suprise, South Africa is not one of the targeted destination. Not even one booth that I saw have travel tour to South Africa. The ticket price for all airlines have no promotion for South Africa, what the ****? One of the biggest event will be going on in June, and yet nobody in Malaysia is interested to go?

I know that Malaysians like to go to more 'popular' sites, Europe, Australia etc...but this a world class event!! Come on people!!

So at last Ija and I decided to purchase return ticket from Emirates. We are scheduled to depart on 27th June and coming back on 6th July. That is a long break ;) Ticket price is RM 5151. This is considered quite cheap. We have to transit in Dubai, so total one way journey is almost ~20 hrs.

Update : Shaz pulled out due to personal reason. So just me in Ija in 'Escape to Africa'!!

In Sickness and In Health...

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

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

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

Something Sweet ;)

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

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

Women of Independence : Day 2

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

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

Here are some pics from the two days ;)

Us with Tan Sri Zarinah Anwar

With the flying girl from Sabah bah..

With Dato Nooryah

All of us

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

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

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

I'm It!! : Tagged by Cik Aida

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

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

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

So here goes...

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

The story:

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

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

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

4. Tag other 8 blogger friend...

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

Women of Independence : Day 1

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

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

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

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

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

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

Moving On...

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

Move on...

The Day That Was....

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

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

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

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

Those who came...

Geng Cik Kiah dah start sesi bersembang.. :)

All ladies who attended

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

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

Tazkirah : Surah Al Baqarah Ayat 282

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

Yang bermaksud;

[282]

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Dan adakanlah saksi apabila kamu berjual-beli.

Dan janganlah mana-mana jurutulis dan saksi itu disusahkan.

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

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

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

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

Cerita Parking

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

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

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

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

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

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

Dear all,

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

Regards,
Managing Director

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

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

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

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