Haaalllllluuuuu....

Assalamualaikum warahmatullahi wa barakatuh...

Phhewww...no post at all in June. Sibuk nau puasa dan beraya kot..hehehe. Maybe. Its been a week since I came back to work. Puasa ganti baru sehari and doesn't look like I can finish all the puasa ganti, let alone puasa 6 this Syawal. Dua minggu beraya di tanah Malaya, enjoy sakan, mana nak posa. Konon nak posa bila balik sini, less distraction kononnya...

The first few days, layan jetlag, posa? gone..After that I was down with flu, sampaikan kena work from home as I could not stand the office aircond, its a centralized system, therefore we could not manipulate it. Now I am still recovering. Syawal tinggal lagi kurang lebih seminggu, and my cough is still lingering, so not likely I will clock any puasa days anytime soon. Tu la..waktu sihat kat Malaya tak nak buat, bertangguh... padan muka. Try better next year OK?

Speaking of raya, the normal topics that comes with it is open house. I've been holding mini makan-makan session here for the past three years and this year the tradition will continue insyaAllah, and this time around I have the extra help from my new neighbour. Hari ni nak plan detail on who does what. But based on our earlier discussion, most likely the menu would be:

1. Nasi impit
2. Kuah lodeh
3. Sambal kacang
4. Sambal ikan bilis
5. Rendang ayam
6. Lemang instant? - am not keen, but she insisted it
7. Biskut raya - specially imported from Malaya. Nak buat kat sini memang tak la..dengan butter mahai nak mampss
8. Kerepek - also specially imported from Malaya. Penuh my hand carry ngan biskut raya and kerepek..hahaha. 
9. Special appearance of kek lapis - this is a surprise for my neighbour. Dia tak berkesempatan balik raya lagi, raya haji baru balik to Miri, so I took the liberty of belikan kek lapis and bawak balik sini :) would love to see her face when she gets it!
10. Toffee date pudding - ni sebab nak pakai stok kurma yang bertahun-tahun dah kejung dalam my pantry. Hopefully it will turn out fine. 

I think by normal open house standard, we still lack of one main dish...but I maybe wrong. The mat saleh doesn't eat much. So we'll see how the discussion today turns out. 

On the same note but different token, I've been thinking a lot of getting another house in BJ. The apartment that I bought in 2013 was completed in 2015, and I've been furnishing it bit by bit. Its a small 2 bedroom apartment, so there is not a lot to be done. Lagipun most of my stuffs are either in SP or here with me.

It is a small apartment and last year I hosted the DIC girls and their family for buka puasa and it was crammed.. So imagine if I want to have open house, confirm la sempit kan. Besides, it is quite small to fit my family when they came for a visit. So that is why I am heavily considering buying a landed home. Now that I have the luxury to live here, I suddenly becomes pampered...huhuhuhu...

Now I am in the midst of applying for a new job. Shell Malaysia does not allow back-to-back overseas posting (even though ramai je trotting the globe one expat job after another :P) and I have to find a job in Malaysia. The job market is really tough for the past 2 years and not many jobs are available. Spotted one potential job, but still things are a little bit shady. So if ada rezeki dapat kerja in KL, my plan is to save up deposit money for a landed property in BJ. I love the area, so its a no brainer. I am not looking for a new development, a second hand house would do. A link house is fine as long as landed, nak banglo besaq2 sapa nak duduk? nak maintain lagi..banyak la pulak kerja. So based on what I want, the asking price right now is between RM 800-900k. Freaking expensive! Ko tengok la area mana..haha. So easily 30% deposit will come to RM 240k. Why 30%? Sebab that would be the 3rd house under my name..hehehe. Bunyi macam kaya sangat la kan.. but actually not. 1st house in SP is for the family, am not making any profit of that property. Kalau takdak rumah tu memang kami masih menyewa kat Flat DBKL.

Second house is this one in BJ. So if the link house plan comes through, I will most probably rent out the apartment. Nak kata buat duit sangat pun, maybe tak kot.. takat rent out satu pintu, barely cover the maintenance and monthly commitment to the bank.

So insyaAllah, kalau ada rezeki, here is my plan:

2018: stay in the apartment - save up deposits
2019: purchase the landed house in BJ. Hopefully the market is still slow. Been monitoring the price since last year, not much movement, economy kan still slow.. korek la duit mana-mana to make up to the deposits. InsyaAllah hopefully can move in the same year and start furnish sikit2..
2020: have my first open house kat rumah baru! yeay! InsyaAllah, semoga dipermudahkan. That now has become my very own 'Wawasan 2020' hehehe..

Why do I share all the details here? I noticed that many things that I have today, are a result of once a dream. When I dream of things, I visualize it and somehow Allah make it easy for me to work towards it. Talk about power of visualization! Betul ni, tak tipu...

First example that I can relate to is back in 2005, I was job hunting, fresh after graduation. Masa kat career fair, I passed my resume to Sony Malaysia, waktu tu dah berangan nanti email aku ada nama @sony.com.my ...gituuu.... hahaha.. Walaupun tak dapat Sony, look where I ends up now. Alhamdulillah!

And this expat posting, was something I visualized as well, years before I get the chance to actually apply for it. So tak ke pemurah Allah SWT tu?

Satu lagi ja visualization that has yet to come true.. that is to get married..hahaha. Well, rezeki yang ada ni pun dah syukur sangat dah. If I can find someone to be married to in this lifetime, its going to be a big bonanza bonus :D.

Panjang sangat la pulak kali ni despite not having any readers around..hahaha. Takpa. Bukan selalu pun update. Till next time, wassalam.

Her part 1

He opened his eyes, the spot next to him was empty. He reached across the bed, his phone says its 2.36 AM. He peeked around, no lights coming from the bathroom. Where is she? He made his way to the kitchen, partly thirsty and partly curious to find out her whereabouts. He passed by the living room, not a sign that anybody was there. He gets to the kitchen, it was so quiet, everything was so still, you can even hear if a pin drops. The dishes are neatly arranged, as how they left it after supper. Now he became more curious, where could she be?

With a glass of water in his hand, he wandered around the house, skimming through every inches, to find any sign of her. Still, nothing. He is now at the last room. He can't remember the last time he went into the room. The door was ajar, but there were no lights. He recalled that she asked for that room to be her private room, not that everybody is not allowed to enter, but she wants the whole room to herself. He agreed, thinking that maybe she wanted the room to be her project space. Since then, he forgot about it.

He pushed the door slowly. The room is partly furnished. Its hot in here, the air condition unit was not turned on. There is a few shelf at the end of the room, with few baskets with balls of yarns. There is a working table with a small sewing machine set up on it. His gaze fell in the middle of the room. A figure curled into a 'C' shape. Her knees was up to her chest, hands in between her stomach. She was lying on an Afghan carpet. As soon as he stepped on it, he can feel his feet sunk. Well, this is comfortable, he thought to himself. She was on her side, facing towards the window. There is a bottle of traditional ointment, with the cap on the side. He can smell the ointment when he gets closer to here. Also, there is a bottle of water, half full, with a pack of pills that is unfamiliar to him. Mefenamic acid 500mg, that's what was said on the label.

She looks as if she is in deep sleep, few drops of sweats trickle down her forehead. He is on his knees now, looking over to her. Why is she sleeping here? What's wrong with her? She moans slowly, she changes side, facing him now. Her eyes are still closed, but she looks as if she's battling with some thing. She cringed and slowly she opened her eyes. 'What are you doing here?' She asked, her voice sounds week.

'I was looking for you. Why are you here?' He whispered softly, not wanting to appear disturbing to her.

'I'm having my menstrual, stomach cramps.' She didn't really answer his question. He seems puzzled. It was all boys camp in his house, he has never seen this, neither did he sees his mom in similar situation.

'What can I do?' Clueless. Yes he is.

She grabs something from the sofa bed nearby and passed it to him. 'Please fill this with boiled water. I didn't managed to get to the kitchen.'

He takes the water bag. Without much question, he made his way to the kitchen, fill the kettle halfway with water and put it on the electric stove. While waiting for the water to boil, he turned to his phone. Few taps away, he has some general idea what to do. The kettle whistles. He lifted it, fill up the bag and screw the top tightly. He made a detour to the main bedroom before he gets back to her. He grabs a spare comforter and two pillows from the cupboard.

TBC...