Stupid experiment, rasakan! :)

Assalamualaikum w.b.t.

I did something stupid, it started off last year and the impact is felt until yesterday. So here goes.

Every calendar year, I have been allocated a certain amount of travel budget. In 2014, I miraculously managed to utilize the budget and walk away a happy camper. In 2015, by the time I was done with the US trip planning, I realized I still have some budget left, but I was running out of time to use it. I wanted to let the budget slide when suddenly the topic came up when I talked to Anton.

So based on his advise, I find the cheapest ticket that suit my remaining budget (that is not under any kind of promotion), buy the ticket with tentative travel date in 2015. Once all claim is done, I can change the travel date to my actual travel date in 2016 (changes cost bear by yours truly), which is fine, its only a fraction compared to the budget that I would consider to be under utilized.

Long story short, I bought a round trip ticket to London from Lagos with Royal Air Maroc. Its a 4 hours flight to Casablanca and few hours transit before another 3 hours flight to London. Date is adjustable. So throughout 2016, I've been trying to squeeze in my travel so that I can utilize that ticket. Some failed (unconfirmed) arrangements happened one after another, and I was pressed to use the ticket.

Suddenly there was a light bulb moment. Why not I travel back to Malaysia from London, using MAS :) taadaa.... I've been wanting to fly with MAS (long haul) since MH370 happened. just to show my solidarity with our national airline.. So that was what I did, for Raya Haji. This was how the travel looks.

Date               Day           From              ETD     To                  ETA           Flight         Airline
8 Sept-16       Thursday   Lagos             0630     Casablanca    1100          AT0554      Royal Air Maroc
8 Sept-16       Thursday   Casablanca     1330     London         1650          AT0800      Royal Air Maroc
10 Sept-16     Saturday    London          1155      KL                0745 (+1)  MH003      Malaysia Airlines
11 Sept-16     Saturday    KL                 0850      Alor Setar     0850          MH1204    Malaysia Airlines
15 Sept-16     Thursday   Alor Setar      2125      KL                2230         MH1253    Malaysia Airlines
17 Sept-16     Saturday    KL                 2315      London         0555 (+1)  MH002     Malaysia Airlines
18 Sept-16     Sunday      London          1810      Casablanca    2135         AT801        Royal Air Maroc
19 Sept-16     Monday     Casablanca    0100      Lagos            0530         AT0555      Royal Air Maroc

Tengok pon pening kan...hahaha.. and I have to explain one by one each time people here asked, how do you travel this time? (We asked the questions a lot here.. somehow flight plan is not a private information among the expats..haha)

I didn't realize it was a stupid plan, until I arrived back yesterday. Imagine I started my journey back in Malaysia on Saturday, Ija picked me up at Putrajaya 8PM

17th Sept (GMT +8)
2000H : Ija picks up
2100H: Reached KLIA, check in
2315H: ETD, but the flight was delayed due to technical issues

18th Sept (GMT+8)
0200H: Departed to London
1500H: Arrived in London

18th Sept (GMT+1)
1000H: Arrived in London
1810H: ETD to Casablanca, Alhamdulillah departed on time
2135H: Arrived in Casablanca

19th Sept (GMT+1)
0100H: Departed to Lagos, on time
0530H: Arrived in Lagos.

The thing that I failed to realized is, Lagos is not my final destination...hahaha.. bodoh kan..

I booked a domestic flight back to PHC at 0700H same day, but after discussing with my colleague, in anticipation of delays etc, I switched my booking to the afternoon flight.

1515H: ETD to PHC (we were delayed due to bad weather)
1700H: Finally departed to PHC
1800H: Arrived in PHC waited for the bus to RA
1830H: Arrived in RA

1830H 19th Sept GMT+1 is equals to 0130H 20th Sept GMT+8

So in total, I spent 53 hours on the road for the leg back from KL to PHC... hahaha.. amek kau, nak sangat pengalaman kan...

Serik weh.. biaq la bayaq mahai sikit. Tak nak dah travel camni. The moment I got home, took shower, had dinner, solat maghrib and tak dan isyak I was totally knocked out! Mangkit midnight for Isyak.

Pengalaman kan... hahaha..

Till next time. This year nampaknya akan ke London lagi...another pertimbangan kurang bijak dari saya ya tuan2 dan puan2..

p/s; KBB p tanya how many days I was away. Bila jawab 1 and half week, dia macam tak caya, tanya dia balik, rasa macam lama ka...? dia cakap ha'ah.. Aik.. sibuk pulak orang cuti lama..hehehe. (menurut firasat hamba, tak la lama mana pon..) :)

Under the weather

Assalamualaikum warahmatullahi wa barakatuh..

Last weekend I was on Bonga to deliver a training. Got there on Friday afternoon after an episode of commotion with the immigration sitting at Caverton terminal in Lagos. Long story short, my trip was delayed by few hours and I got a detour to two immigration offices..hehe.

One was located in MMIA (the international airport) and another was at this private hangar for all those filthy rich Nigerians (duit mana depa dapat tak tau) to keep their private plane. This is one of them.

On second day on Bonga, guess what? My P comes. I had the hint before the trip, but I wasn't sure as sometimes the signs can come and I only got my period one week later. Regardless I managed to pack some ponstan and there was already some sanitary pads in my bag, but its always not enough.

I consumed ponstan on regular basis when I was on Bonga, reason being is I was having training session, there is no way I can appear even remotely unwell. Uh uh..not gonna happen. On that 2 days I consumed 10 tablets of Mfenamic Acid 250 gm. I know its not good, but its not every month, and I really need to fight all the pain.

On the last day on Bonga, managed to capture few pictures outside the E deck. Wish I can venture more but I was too tired for the whole weekend, having to speak for almost 8 hours a day.

Thats the escape boat, should we need to evacuate the vessel and run (or swim?? hehe)!!

Finally got home on Tuesday afternoon after of course some more delays...(what's new?). Yesterday resumed coming back to office, only to feel something is not right. The aircond seems much colder and already I was not feeling good. Despite layering up with thermal clothing on the inside, I succumbed to cold. Took half day yesterday. Went back and made some 'mat saleh' style chicken soup. The taste is not bad, consumed 2 oranges to boost my immune system and went to sleep with a bad headache. I was holding my head till I fall asleep.

This morning, I am even more prepared. 1 tumbler of Ahmad's Lemon and Lime tea, and these supplies :)

Dah layout siap-siap atas meja. And that is my last Vicks, updating my shopping list balik raya haji nanti. That panadol is courtesy of Tawheed, my colleague. I ran out of mine. Again, have to update my medicine list..

So hopefully I can survive another day in this cold office. There are only 5 of us in this space that can easily hold 12 people. Not much heat generation, and we rely on centralized air conditioning unit, so you do the math.

Itu ja nak update kali ni. Nak share somewhere, but since my IG is now a more public space with I don't know how many strangers now followed me, malas la pulak nak share benda2 camni kat IG. And another thing is nobody reads blog anymore..haha. So it is now has became my private sanctuary. :)

Till next time, wassalam. 

A cast member is walking out..

Assalamualaikum warahmatullahi wa barakatuh..

Something unexpected happened today. Somebody decided to pull out from and agreement that we have. Its a social agreement nonetheless. I should not be so offended, but somehow I am. Guess you can't control your heart eh? 

I seriously didn't see it coming. So this is how getting rejected feels. It sucks. I have no choice but to move on. I should be thankful that this person agrees to enter the agreement in the first place. So now I need to find a new person to replace that void. Its OK, have faith that there is other people that is willing to help me with it. Allah is with me. Have faith!  

Till next time, wassalam. 

p/s: 29th Syawal, my last day of puasa 6! yeay! alhamdulillah... :)

Post Raya Depression

Assalamualaikum warahmatullahi wa barakatuh..

 

Amboi tajuk..tak agak2..haha. My Solat Apps says its 27th Syawal, and I've been back to work since 10th Syawal, so I came back at the time all the open houses are about to start. My FB timelines are filled with people either hosting or attending open houses.

 

I hosted one (can't really say its an open house) the previous weekend. Cooked mee rebus, rendang daging with pulut kuning, roti jala with kari ayam, and for dessert I made chocolate brownie and kek suji CMG. Nak kata puas makan, macam kenyang jugak la, siap ada leftovers which took me almost 2 weeks to finish, but still I craved for many other foods as well.

 

I just realized, on each of my trip back, I've never really go for 'jalan-jalan cari makan'. Normal catch up with friends and family pakai main tangkap muat nak makan kat mana. Waaaa... As of now, my cravings include:

1. Pasemboq
2. Durian - not so much of cravings per se, but more of teringin dok tengok orang post gambaq durian dalam FB..huhuhu

I have another 3 days to go for puasa 6. I will finish on 29th Syawal, insyaAllah. Am seriously thinking of making pasemboq as a mark for my 'raya' celebration..hehe.

 

Malam ni kena rendam kacang hijau for the tauge, and maybe by Sunday I will be able to enjoy my pasemboq, that is, if I didn't change my mind in the course of this week. Haha.

 

On another note, am sponsoring the fun run this Thursday. The menu would be:

 

Appetiser :
Cucoq udang with kuah kacang

 

Mains :

1. Nasi putih
2. Sambal kering - kentang, tauhu, fucuk, suun (made the tauhu last weekend, now sitting nicely in the fridge, and I just realized, I have tooo many fucuk and suun, so better start consuming now.
3. Kerabu daun selom - I cannot NOT have this :)
4. Snake gourd kootu - Snake gourd is a vegetable that is of peria, petola family, originally came from India, I used to have it in my garden but somehow it refuses to grow anymore. Will share the recipe if its a success.
5. Ayam goreng berempah.

 

Dessert:
Kuih sagu

 

That should be it. It looks a lot, but its not actually. The previous fun run I had a theme going on, but this time I didn't really have a proper plan, so the theme is 'wing it'! haha. We'll see.

 

Until next time. Wassalam.  

Travel back in style. Haha

Assalamualaikum warahmatullahi wa barakatuh,

Yesterday adds on the the interesting working event in Nigeria. We had to be evacuated from the office by helicopter! So here's the story. There is this one group of people that call themselves Biafran.

Biafra was a loose territory of ethnic groups in pre-colonial Africa prior to the coming of the colonialists.Pre-colonial maps of Africa show the location of Biafra and the Bight of Biafra was renamed to Bight of Bonny by the Nigerian Government.^[2] An attempt was made in 1967 to restore the old Biafran territory as an Independent state from Nigeria which caused the civil war. Biafra, officially the Republic of Biafra, was a secessionist state in south eastern Nigeria that existed from 30 May 1967 to 15 January 1970, taking its name from the Bight of Biafra (the Atlantic bay to its south).[2] The inhabitants were mostly the Igbo people who led the secession due to economic, ethnic, cultural and religious tensions among the various peoples of Nigeria. The creation of the new state that was pushing for recognition was among the causes of the Nigerian Civil War, also known as the Nigerian-Biafran War. - Wikipedia

So for the past years, we've heard of movement  by these Biafran to claim their independence. They have many things going on, they even have their own radio, which is now banned and recently the director was detained by the Nigerian government. Then there was a court order for him to be release, but apparently it did not happened. So his supporters took it to the streets. They hold protest in few places, and yesterday it was done in Port Harcourt. So happened that the location of the protest is near RA. People in the RA can actually heard gunshots that was fired by the police to disperse the protesters. They even smelled the teargas that was released. The road heading to RA was closed.

We received series of text messages keeping us updated and one that came quater to 4PM says that bus from IA to RA has been canceled. We are asked to wait for the next update. By 5PM we were notified to make way to helipad, we are going home in style bebeh! In chopper :)

They have to make the decision very quickly, because by 6.15 PM it gets dark, and risk levels are elevated for night operations. We were loaded to 3 choppers on 1 trip and I cant remember how many trips they made, but everybody is back in camp by 8PM. Not even 2 years, yet I've experienced many interesting things, and most importantly, I can laugh about it. Yes, security is a big issue here, but so far it has been managed well, and I am fine. Alhamdulillah.

Till next time, wassalam.

  

Salam Ramadhan 1436H

Assalamualaikum warahmatullahi wa barakatuh...

Rata-rata orang sibuk post menu berbuka. This is my first lonely Ramadhan ever. Last year I welcomed the holy month in Brazil, together with geng Cik Kiah, in the midst of World Cup hype. It was fun, but this is the first time I am all alone. Its the sixth day today, and lets do some re-cap of what was my iftar menu looks like :)

Day 1: I was onsite, lived in a house boat, so makan ja la apa depa bagi, I had rice, fried fish, kari telur (gaya depala), boleh tahan, and raw cabbage with raw carrots, onions and cucumber. I asked for vegetable, but they don't have it, so I asked for salad, to them, that is salad.. hahaha...

Day 2: Got back from site, reached home around 6.30, whereby the Maghrib is at 6.45. I knew I would be late, so I called my nanny asked her to cook me some rice, chicken and some vegetable. I called her at 5pm. When I got back, the chicken was still thawing...aiyo... nasib..nasib.. Last-last pukul 8.30 baru makan nasi.

Day 3: This was the most fun day. We had the progressive dinner planned and I nominated my house for dessert. Starter at one house, main course at another and last stop was my house. The house placement was done by the organizer. We were given direction at each step of the way, basically you don't know what you are getting, until you reached the house. It was kind of interesting. We can afford to do that since we are all living in the same area. My main course was at Madam Sandra's house and she teamed up with Icy, a Pinoy ladies, both of them cooked up a storm! Ada kari ayam, daging masak hitam, buttered prawn, mixed vege (yes, our kind of mix vege..hehehe). I really enjoyed it. Masa nak balik Madam Sandra siap bagi tapau lagi . The daging and udang is still in my fridge.

Last stop was my house, I hosted another group, I served pulut mangga (mango with glutinous rice) with basil and lime sorbet. I included the sorbet on the pre-text that the pulut mangga would be too sweet and rich. Konon pandai la sangat nak balance the flavour. Sekali, mangga tu masam daa... Tak berapa nak manis. So jadila dessert yang masam, apa kes? The pulut mangga was not a hit, cos I definitely miss the mark with the sour mango, but surprisingly, the sorbet stole the show. The guests loved it! Recipe from Jamie Oliver taken from Food Network page. Here is the link.

Day 4: Had some nasi impit with kuah sup and bakso. Hasil tapau from Bu Evi's party the previous weekend. Since its a Sunday, I was a bit rajin, I made some kuih cara berlauk and gave out to other Muslims in the camp. Bu Evi juga dapat, suka bangat deh rasanya :)

Day 5 : Again, had another leftover from Bu Evi's party. A rice dish made by maybe one of the Lebanese ladies. I taught my nanny how to stir fry pucuk manis, the way I like, and I finished up 2 pieces of baked chicken that has been sitting in the fridge for quite some time. I can't remember when I made that.

Day 6: This morning saw an email from Madam Latha. She offered some food for my iftar today and she's even sending some for sahur tomorrow morning. Alhamdulillah! Rezeki murah betul...

Almost a week into Ramadhan, and I have not slaved in the kitchen for even a day to prepare a complete meal. Syukur sangat-sangat. Well, even if I am cooking, at most I will cook some rice, stir fry pucuk manis (paling senang in the world!) and lauk mostly whatever I have frozen in the freezer or the fridge. I still have few servings of frozen pajeri nenas, serunding toksah cakap la..ada ja lagi..

So yes, I am alone, sedih tu ada jugak, but the blessing is, my iftar dish is not complicated at all. Masa kat PD, pusing bazar ja dah setengah jam, yet, every day kena decide nak beli apa..hahaha... I actually have more time for other things. So this year, kena habis khatam Quran okeh? banyak sangat Allah dah mudahkan, kenapa nak kufur nikmat? Ok, InsyaAllah I will.

Salam Ramadhan semua, wassalam. Till next time :)

Politik Parti Sosial

Assalamualaikum warahmatullahi wa barakatuh...

I've been wanting to write about this for the past few weeks, but somehow my laziness gets over me (alasan!).

Here, in the camp, we have limited people that we interact with. You will see the same people on weekdays and weekend. You will also see the same set of people in the bus ride to work. If you are involved in the normal routine activity like fun run, you will see the same group of people, maybe occasionally we have visitors joining the run, but normally its just us.

Last few weeks, a Dutch guy threw a farewell party for himself. His party is all about booze, dancing, free-mixing, so its a clear cut no for me. At these parties, music are always very loud, you can barely hear each other and I am not really a party person. Somehow, Kim decided to throw a get together at the same time as well, but his invite is only to selected few people, whereas the Dutch guy invited the whole camp. I knew from earlier on, some of the Brits were not keen on attending the Dutch guy's party, not sure whats the reason. Most of Kim's guests are the Brits, and I was actually the only Asian invited. He later then revised the invite and extended it to Pak Anton, which I was pretty much sure that Anton would go to the Dutch guy's party.

True enough, I ended up being the only Asian at Kim's house, with the rest of mat and minah saleh (mix of English, Canadian and Australian). I left his house around 11.30 PM while the rest were majority still there. The following day, I had a lunch date with the Asian gang, one last Nasi Lemak session before Kak Rosiah left us for good. And from Anton, I found out that some of them at Kim's house, including him later attended the Dutch guy's party. It must be at midnight then. Crazy white people..hahaha...

The things is, its normal in a community, you tend to have few cliques. Suddenly its all back to high school. Though we are not really different in terms of social status, but we do have some group of people that we tend to be more comfortable with. I know some people that is totally out of my path. There is this two couples, only the husband acknowledge me, i.e smiles when we passed by each other, the wife, simple cast that empty look whenever I'm around. One of the couple frequently attended the fun run, and in that juncture, somehow the wife realized that I existed! Once I was 'established' to her social circle, she no longer gave the cold treatment. The other couple which are still here, no change, I bet they don't even know my name. Well, suit them, I am here to be friends with those that are willing. Pinggan tak retak, nasi tak dingin, orang tak hendak, kita pun tak ingin. :)

I guess it happens everywhere, but the fact that we are confined to one place, makes all these even more apparent to us, well, at least to me. Last year, during my raya open house, I invited quite a handful of people, Some just ignored the invite (maybe they did not read their email). I stopped sending invite to those kind of people. Social gatherings are being held almost on constant basis and one time during the fun run, I overheard them (the mat saleh) talking about a dinner plan at the restaurant, and guess what, one of them forwarded the invite to me later. Its a nice gesture, but declined it. This is not the first time Kim had a get together at his place, only this is the first time I was invited and attended. So does that means, I am now in another circle of social network? Maybe. Its political actually, with no clear mileage, maybe for the sake of future job and acquaintances..

Whatever it is, I need to stay true to myself. I won't go to events that made me uncomfortable. But my fear is, for this year's raya open house, I will have to invite more people. Well, maybe not, it will be during the summer holiday, so maybe not many people will be here .. hahaha.. (kedekut!)

Till next time, wassalam..   

Shell RA Triathlon 2015

Assalamualaikum warahmatullahi wa barakatuh..

Last weekend we had a triathlon held here in the camp, I volunteered to be one of the water giver. I was stationed at a junction where participants are supposed to turn to a cycling loop.

Participant's registration

The whole circuit was:

Swimming : 10 laps : ~49.5m
Cycling : 3 laps: ~21 km
Running : 1 lap : ~3km

R-rated photo..hahahaha...!!

The organizer cum champion of the day explaining the rules and regulation

On your mark, get set, go!!

While I was there, as the participants passed by, I cheered them up, just to give some moral support and to keep them going. Here's what I found, out of some 30+ participants, there are few types:

1. Those that smile at me as I cheered them along.
2. Those that smile and say 'thank you' as I cheered them.
3. Those that are too tired to response, but later when the event finishes, came to me personally to thank me for cheering on them.
4. Those that has their game face on, no response as I cheered and of course nothing said afterwards.

Only yesterday I was able to reflect, what I can take away in all of these.

Be consistent in good things that you do. People reacted to it differently, don't be bothered by it. People's recognition should not dictates how we treat other people. (Easier said than done...I know).

Regardless how the participants reacted, I was satisfied that I all of them made it to the finish line, and I find joy in cheering for them smile emoticon

It's about me, it's not about them, yeah.. I am selfish that way.. Hehehe...

Group pics credit to Pak Anton Sutheja.

Now I am aspired to train, at least to try improve my swimming..hahaha.. I could only do breast stroke and I didn't even dare to go to the deep end of the pool, I always hang about the kiddies area, malu kan... hahaha.. I should spend my time here well to pick up all these things, things that I can find thousands of excuses back home to not do it. Chaiyok!!

Wassalam.

Bon Cafe

Assalamualaikum warahmatullahi wa barakatuh,

Last night we had a Bon Cafe session. When I first came here, I missed the first two Bon Cafe session. I keep asking myself where is this Bon Cafe? I've been around the camps both on foot and on my bike, but I have not seen any cafe that I have not been in. It turns out, Bon Cafe is a session meant to provide updates to us the expat community. Its being held at the activity centre.

The session last night was to update on the security condition and the plan during the upcoming presidential election. At certain level, depending on how the election goes, potentially there will be some civil and political unrest and we might have to be evacuated to a safe location, where is defined as safe? Depends on the situation here in Rivers State and the other neighbouring state as well. Nigeria is an interesting location. Last year, we had evacuation exercise in preparation if Ebola spreads more than anticipated.

Late last year, we were woken up by the divestment move, 25% manpower are being let go, this is even before the crude price drop. This year, with the crude oil price dropping and not recovering, some projects may take a back seat and we are still not sure whether there will be other wave of divestment happening or not. And now, the presidential election....fuuh.... and I am only 1 year old here.

More to come I guess, with the market not looking that good, one can only hope for the best. Euro drop, and ringgit drop as well, so we'll see. WK predicted our stay here may be cut short. I wish I can finish my 4 years tenure here, for the sake of my financial and my personal experience as well.

Anyhoo, Allah knows best, its all part of His plan. Wherever he puts me, I am going to be fine, insyaAllah.

Till next time, wassalam.

Weekend round up : Kerabu Daun Selom

Assalamualaikum warahmatullahi wa barakatuh..

I have tonnes of things to settle over the weekend (over every weekend actually). But I keep on postponing and the list keeps piling up. The only thing that I am more than willing to do during weekend is cooking and trying out new recipe, and invite people over for lunch/dinner.

The other week, I had Annie and Geoffrey, Pak Anton and WK for dinner on Saturday and just yesterday I had Chiew and Theresa, with Lirang and her husband, Ignace for lunch. I've had successes with few recipes :) but too bad I was rushing it most of the times that I did not managed to take proper pictures.

For last weekend, here are some that I tried.

Sedihnya gambar blur... :(

I have been collecting chicken carcass in the freezer, there must be like 4 of them. So how best to use them, except to make chicken stock ! The recipe is super easy, taken from one of the earliest JO's book. I ended up with 3 containers of chicken stock, and quite a considerable amount of boiled chicken flesh mix with vege. It should taste good when I made into sandwich filling or pie filling or something. For now all goes into the freezer. Mental note: Beli rosemary, it was required in the recipe. but I did not have it then, to lazy to go to the shop, so less one ingredient there. 

Off late, I have been seeing a lot of kitchen hacks posting, mostly on FB, one of those is this, so instead of throwing the top of the carrot away, I want to try growing it... we'll see how it goes, this is day-1. 

Vanilla Ice Cream with crushed ground nuts

I have come to be accustomed of having something sweet after main meal. Salahkan mat saleh dan orang-orang di sini..hehehe.. mesti nak ada dessert. When I had my open house last year, one of the guest brought me a 4L tub of vanilla ice cream, freaking 4L!! How am I supposed to finish that? I did not touched it last year, until I hosted the fun run the other day. I made Eplekake and served with vanilla ice cream :)

I still have half of the tub, and somehow it feels not right just having the ice cream as it is... Childhood memory kicks in, I blended coarsely some ground nuts. You would not believe the things that I stocked up in my pantry. I have almost everything..hahaha... Sprinkle the nuts on top of my ice cream and voila!! Sedapnya....

Tekak mengada pulak...lama tak makan masakan pedas kekdahnya, and my daun kunyit in the garden has slowly turned yellowish, so might as well I made something out of it. I was very lazy to take out other protein and thaw it, so the easiest is to make Masak Lomak Tolo. No cili api, only cili afrika yang pedas nak mamps!! I underestimated the hotness level, and hamek kau, super podeh!! Should know how to estimate next time :)

For dessert yesterday, I made banana cake, the batter is fine, but I wanted to lined the bottom of the cake with sliced banana. I was not sure how it would turned up, so I made a testing batch using this ramekin :) It does not turned out good. Then I thought of lining the top with slice banana, but seeing that the cake rise quite a fair bit, I scraped the idea. So in the end I just bake the whole cake without any sliced banana anywhere, and since I halved the sugar content, the cake was not sweet. To add a bit of sweetness, I served it with my vanilla ice cream..hahaha.. selagi tak habis, selagi tu la any kind of dessert, will be served with ice cream :P

Ginger torch flower or Bunga Kantan

This is not from my garden, I had some planted, but no flowers yet. This was taken from the activity center. Its growing everywhere here and most of the time it just died there. So when I saw some good ones at the activity center, I took some and have it frozen. I took some out just to take photo..hehehe.. and used one to make kerabu daun kesum.

Lauk semalam, Lirang and Ignace love the kerabu, and of course all of them loved the Sambal Terung Pipit. I can live with these two dish every day and not a single complaint :)

Sharing the recipe so that I won't forget.

Kerabu Daun Selom :

Ingredients:
3 red chillies (*)
2 tbsp dried shrimp (*)

Half of red onion (*)

Half cup of grated coconut

3 tbsp of kerisik (#)

Lime juice

Salt

Brown sugar

Daun selom (sliced coarsely) (~)

1 stalk ginger torch flower (bunga kantan) (sliced thinly)

1. Pound all the (*) together. Saute without oil, add a little bit of water, to make sure that chili is well cooked.
2. Add in the coconut and kerisik, stir well and use low heat.
3. Add in lime juice and salt to taste, its ok if the taste is a bit strong as this will be added to the chopped daun selom and ginger torch flower
4. The original kerisik would have a hint of sweetness to it, but the packed one that I bought was not sweet. I suspected they used the coconut that has already been extracted out the milk, that is why it was not sweet. So to balance the flavor, I added in some brown sugar.
5. Cook until it is dry. Let it cool and mix with the chopped daun selom and ginger torch flower. Ready to serve with white rice and all other dishes. 

(#) Kerisik is another coconut derivatives. Its easy to make, but a bit labour intensive, Take grated coconut and saute without oil on low heat. Stir continuously to avoid the coconut from getting burned. When all the coconut has turned brownish, pound (using mortar and pastel) until it becomes oily (shiny). Pounding it while its hot helped to extract the oil better. Use it as additive in various types of Malay dishes. Instead of pounding it, you can also use the dry blender, or food processor, but the result would be a bit different, I guess.

(~) Daun selom is mainly found in South East Asia, but its not a common vegetable. In Malaysia, those that are familiar with Malay dish will be used to it, but I know some (many non-malay Malaysian) that don't even have a clue about the leaf. The taste is bland by itself. We used it as ulam (ulam is any raw vege that you eat with pounded chili concoction - sambal belacan). 

In the north (Kedah) where I came from, we used daun selom as one of the condiments in Laksa Kedah. 

Initially I don't know what is the English name for daun selom, but thanks to Google here it is water dropwort. But I bet, the mat saleh also would not be able to recognize this leaf. I brought it all the way from KL and planted it here. As I said, I can eat it everyday, so I do need the constant supply :) 

After quite sometime not posting pictures, I realised, I am losing my photography skill. (Not that I am super talented in photography to begin with). So, new year resolution (yeah right!!) I need to get back on with my DSLR and take better pictures. Sedih doh tengok gambaq tak semenggah tu... huhuhu..

Till next time, wassalam...

To Golf or Not To Golf?

Assalamualaikum warahmatullahi wa barakatuh...

I am very bad at networking. I can be in the same room with some very big shots and high flyers and yet I could not even strike a conversation with them, unless they started it first and if they are really good at it. Then I can get along. Most of the time I can only pass the pleasantries, and then that's it. Its hard for me to engage all these big shots as I do not have common interest with them. Here, its the same thing. I have easy access to two GMs every week during the fun run, but did I bond with them? No I did not...wasted.

Why do I want to connect with all these people in the first place? To survive of course!! With the tough O&G market now, we don't know what might happen. I've heard from my ex-colleague, when I was applying for this job, my name was mentioned or referenced to somebody in Qatar. I have no contacts in Qatar, and maybe its my rizq (or sheer luck) that I have good words put on me that I managed to secure this job. But how many times can I rely on luck to land me a job. I have to do something.

It started late last year when during lunch, one of the Dutch expat was strongly pushing me to take up golf. And I fell right to it. The ideas keeps coming back after that. Yes, its a good networking tool. When I told WK about taking up golf, his remark was I beat him into this.

To me its not about beating anybody to anything. To me this whole working life is a game, its not a competition, because if it is, I would loose over and over again. I am not really that good, I know there are many other talented people, better than me. I am treating these whole thing (working life) as a game, and I merely wants to survive the game till I decide to step out of the game.

To stay in the game, you need to be involved. And for now the next part of the game, is enhancing my network and connection, since I am not a natural born people person (I am selective with whom I can get along, and I could not fake it), golf is the next best tool for me.

I don't even consider golf a sport, a mind games probably. A sport is something that can bring your heart rate to a certain minimum level, and I doubt golf can do that. Well, maybe it can, I had high heart rate by just watching a football game, and I was sitting on a couch..hehehehe..

Regardless, I would not count it as my exercise, its going to be my networking tool. Lets see how I survived the golfing thing :)

Meanwhile, these are pictures from last week, I hosted the first fun run of the year. Only 9 of us in total. On normal week, around 25-30 people would turn up. Most of the people were still on leave last week, but this week should be more, glad that I have done my bit, as the year gets busier, I will not be able to host as much as I want.

Till next time, wassalam.

My 2014 - Kinda late, I know :)

Assalamualaikum warahmatullahi wa barakatuh...

Ninth day of the year, and only now I am putting up my first post. Again, I am not super busy, I was just super MALAS..hahaha. I guess its high time for me to do a bit of reflection of how my 2014 went.

Indeed, its an eventful year for me. Packed almost my whole life away and moved halfway across the world is no joke. Here, I learn how to keep my mind sane alone. I've been living almost alone in PD for the past 7-8 years, but that's different. Here, the definition alone was brought up to a much higher level. Reason being is, apart from being alone and far from close friends and family, I can pretty much say that I am a little bit cut off from civilization. The life in the camp is so confined, that at times I just wants to get out.

I am lucky, this job comes with perks, I get to travel more than before. This year alone, I've stepped on 5 new countries :) My first taste of Europe and Southern America. In March, I went to France and Britain, followed by Brazil in June, the back to Britain and a small part of Scotland in October and last but not least, during Christmas, I had a short trip to Spain. Hold on..its only 4 countries then, because Britain and Scotland is under UK..hahaha. (Nama pon Geography dapat B time PMR). I traveled back home only once during raya puasa. I stayed here during raya haji, and my sister sent a message saying  that mak nangis pagi raya.....gosh..!! So this year, I have to make a trip back for raya haji as well. Mak kan...?

2014 probably sees me trying and testing on more recipes than ever. Staying outside Malaysia makes you appreciate makcik-makcik dan akak-akak yang jual kuih tepi jalan. Nak apa, keluar cari, dapat. Effort level maybe 50%, tinggal nak tak nak je. I am so hopeless at cooking, almost everything must come from a recipe. I've googled even a simple cokodok pisang recipe. (malu weh!! hahaha). Well, I guess I have to, once I made something, if it didn't turned out well, then I'll be finishing it all alone, so it HAS to be good.

What else....? Ohh ya, I think I lost 5 kg all throughout 2014. Effective loss maybe, because I have not been eating and exercising well the past few weeks, and the weight plateau. Good eh? Hahahaha.. I have to put on more work, now that the loss has reached stagnant phase. The treadmill that I bought has not been fully utilized, the stack of DVD for basic pilates la, zumba la, dancing with stars la has yet waiting to be played. So yeah, I have my work cut out for me this year. Doa tak malas cukup.

I am still not giving up on my dreams to update my travelogue here..hahaha...cita-cita tu penting, I will follow up, insyaAllah, I promise. Else, I may actually forget all those things. I think enough rantings on 2014. My resolutions for 2015? nothing new, I have list of a dozen of things that I have yet to do/ pick up. So I might as well get on with that first.

On a more global level, 2014 has not been a good year for Malaysia. We are probably the most popular South East Asia country, the whole world would have known us now, with all kinds of calamities and test that we faced in 2014. I pray for a better 2015 for all of us, insyaAllah.

p/s: The crude oil prices dropping is very worrying. The company has been on divestment mode for security and sustainability reason here in Nigeria, but this new situation may extend the scope of divestment even further, wallahua'lam. Rezeki ada di mana-mana, we don't know what the future holds, pray for the best, and don't loose hope.

Till next time, wassalam. 

Secret Admirer?

Assalamualaikum warahmatullahi wa barakatuh...

For the past few days, I have been strolling old emails to screen through any good job that I have done which worth mentioning in order to complete my technical assessment. And somehow or rather, I stumbled upon many many personal emails. I group my emails by date, not by topic, hence all work related and personal emails are in the same folder.

I realized I am not the same person, say 5-6 years back. I think I was better then. Somehow, I have declined, in terms or my inner peace. This morning I found this, forwarded by a friend 6 years back.

Secret Admirer?
Saya bertanya kepada emak, "mana satu pilihan hati, orang yang sayangkan kita atau yang kita sayang? "

Mak jawab, "dua-dua bukan.."

Saya tercengang..Mak mengukir senyuman.

"Pilihan hati mak adalah yang sayangkan kita kerana Allah.." Saya menarik nafas dalam-dalam.

"Macam mana nak tau orang tu sayang kita kerana apa?" Mak diam sekejap berfikir dan kemudian tersenyum.

Rasanya mak dapat menduga apa yang sedang bermain dalam hati anak perempuannya. Mana mungkin saya mampu menyorokkan rahsia hati dari mak sedangkan sekilas saya pun mak mampu membacanya. "Yang paling tahu hanya Allah.." mak merenung dalam-dalam wajah anaknya. "Kerana hanya Allah mampu membaca hati hambaNya.. " mak menyusun ayat-ayatnya. "Dan keikhlasan kerana Allah itu akan terserlah keberkatannya tanpa perlu sengaja ditonjokan oleh seseorang tu.."

Saya memintas, "Tak faham.."

Mak menyambung "Cinta di dalam jalan Allah.. Bertemu kerana sama-sama mencari redha Allah.." Mak menyambung lagi, "begini, setiap insan yang bergelar manusia telah Allah ciptakan berpasang-pasangan. Rasa ingin dikasihi antara seorang suami dan isteri suatu fitrah. Automatik boleh ada daya tarikan magnet tu.." Wajah saya merah, sedikit cemas jika mak dapat mengesan gelora jiwa muda ini.. Mak menyambung "Setiap manusia telah Allah tetapkan rezeki,jodoh dan maut sejak azali lagi..Persoalannya ialah.. Siapakah jodohnya itu?" mak berhenti seketika. Saya tunduk malu, cuba menyorokkan rasa panas di pipi. Emak buat-buat tidak nampak.

Secret Admire

"Kakak, mak dulu masa besar ada secret admire.. Rajin betul dia hantar surat..Masa tu mak dah tahu yang bercinta sebelum kahwin ni tak halal..Dan masa tu mak tekad tak mahu layan sebab mak takut arwah tokwan kena seksa dalam kubur.. Mak sedar mak anak yatim, anak orang miskin, adik beradik ramai.. Mak nak belajar sungguh-sungguh.. Lama budak tu tunggu mak.. Akhirnya mak bagi kata putus, mak hanya akan membalas cinta dia jika dia sah suami mak.. Dan dia memang bukan jodoh mak, maka tak pernah dia menerima balasan cinta tu." Mak merenung jauh. Saya merapatkan badan kepada emak, semakin berminat dengan kisah lama mak..

"Mak memang tak ada perasaan lansung pada dia ke?" saya menyoal sambil memandang tajam wajah mak. Emak ketawa kecil. "Walaupun mungkin ada, mak tak pernah bagi peluang pada diri mak untuk mengisytiharkan perasaan tu.. Mak takut pada Allah. Mak bukan seperti rakan sebaya mak yang lain.. Mak, seperti kakak.." mak memandang saya sambil memegang pipi dan dagu saya. Kemudian tangannya mengusap rambut di kepala saya.

"Mak anak ustaz ustazah.. Tapi zaman tu ustaz ustazah nya masih berkebaya pendek dan ketat. Tok wan mak kiyai. Mungkin berkat doa keturunan sebelum ni yang soleh-soleh, hati mak tertarik sangat pada agama walaupun tiada sesiapa yang mendorong.. Bila di sekolah, mak pelajar pertama yang bertudung.. Mak membawa imej agama. Kawan-kawan dan cikgu-cikgu panggil mak dengan gelaran mak Aji.. Sebab zaman tu hujung 70an dan awal 80an tak ramai lagi yang bertudung betul menutup auratnya..Zaman tudung nipis dan nampak jambul. Kemudian kawan-kawan mak sikit-sikit ikut bertudung. Akhirnya kami semua dipanggil di perhimpunan. Kami dimarah guru besar kerana bertudung sedangkan ustazah kami bertudung tapi nampak jambulnya.." emak melemparkan pandangan ke lantai. "Selepas tu ustazah jumpa kami secara persendirian. Ustazah kata dia tak mampu nak pakai seperti kami. Dia suruh kami teruskan.." sambung emak. Ada getar di hujung suara emak. Kisah silam perjuangan emak di sekolah dahulu sikit-sikit emak ceritakan pada saya. Itulah juga salah satu inspirasi kepada saya untuk bangkit semula setiap kali terjatuh ketika berjuang di sekolah dulu.

"Mungkin kerana personaliti mak, mak menjadi tempat rujukan kawan-kawan mak.. Jadi, bila mak nak ambil sesuatu tindakan, mak kena fikir betul-betul sama ada tindakan mak tu akan menyebabkan Allah marah atau tidak. Mak ayah berdosa tak? Dan maruah pembawa agama terjejas tak? Kalau mak membalas cinta si lelaki tadi, bermakna mak sedang menconteng arang di muka-muka pembawa-pembawa agama. Orang akan pandang serong terhadap orang yang bertudung sedangkan kesilapan tu hanya seorang dua yang buat. Besar fitnah akan timbul apabila orang-orang agama mengambil ringan batas syariat duhai anak.." mak menelan air liurnya. Saya diam. Fikiran saya sedang cuba memahami maksud mak saya.

Adakah ia suatu diskriminasi?

"Kakak.. Jatuh cinta perkara biasa. Apabila kita jatuh cinta pada seseorang, itu tandanya ada sesuatu keistimewaan pada seseorang tu. Apatah lagi orang yang kita jatuh cinta tu di atas jalan dakwah ni..Tetapi kita kena ingat.. Kita tak akan dikahwinkan dengan seseorang atas sebab jatuh cinta atau saling cinta mencintai.. Bercouple mungkin.. Tetapi bukan berkahwin.. Kerana kita berkahwin dengan jodoh kita, jodoh yang Allah dah tetapkan sejak azali.. Dan tak mustahil orang yang kita paling benci itulah jodoh kita yang kita akan dikahwinkan dengannya.." Tiba-tiba air mata saya mengalir. Argh! Ego saya kalah bila mendengar hujah emak. Emak meneruskan, "Allah itu Maha Adil.. Dia tak pernah menzalimi hambaNya..Sesungguhnya, yang selalu menzalimi hambaNya ialah diri hamba tu sendiri.. Sebabnyam hamba tu degil. Dia mahukan yang bukan haknya, yang bukan milik dia. Mencintai seseorang tidak semestinya memilikinya.

Dalam Islam, kita dah diajar untuk saling mencintai antara satu sama lain seperti diri sendiri.. Jadi apabila kita mencintai saudara perempuan, kita bebas peluk dia. Tetapi bila dengan lelaki, kita ada batas-batasnya. Orang kafir kata batas-batas ini suatu diskriminasi, tetapi sebenarnya batas-batas syariat itulah yang memelihara kehormatan seorang lelaki dan seorang perempuan. Cuba kakak renungkan, kita mengenali seorang insan yang amat baik, sempurna agamanya dan rajin. Lalu kita jatuh hati padanya. Ditakdirkan jodohnya dengan insan lain, kita pula dengan yang lain.. Tetapi itu tidak bermakna ukhwah antara kita dan dia terputus.. Kita dan dia sama-sama mencari redha Allah.. Kita dan dia masih boleh sama-sama bekerjasama untuk mencari redha Allah.. Perbezaannya, dia halal untuk isterinya sedangkan untuk kita, dia tetap lelaki ajnabi seperti yang awalnya." emak berhenti seketika..

Bukan luar biasa

Tentu kering tekak emak menerangkan kepada saya persoalan hati ini. "Kakak.. jadi di sini mak nak kakak faham, jatuh cinta bukan perkara luar biasa.Dan berkahwin pun bukan suatu jaminan untuk tak jatuh cinta pada lelaki lain.. Kerana itulah ramai isteri yang curang, suami yang curang.. Ada orang tukar pasangan macam tukar baju. Apa yang penting ialah kita kena perjelaskan pada diri kita supaya setiap kali kita jatuh cinta, jatuh cinta itu kerana kita jatuh cinta kepada Pencipta dia. Kita bagi tau pada diri kita berulang kali yang kita mencintai Allah, kerana itu kita mencintai si dia. Letakkan Allah sebagai sempadan hati kita, segala perkara yang kita cintai dan sayangi termasuk mak abah adalah kerana mencintai Allah.. Dan apabila kita membenci seseorang atau sesuatu, beri tahu pada diri sendiri berulangkali yang kita benci sekian-sekian hal kerana Allah semata-mata.. "

"Kakak.. Hati kita ni walaupun dalam dada kita sendiri, ia tetap bukan milik kita. Kita tak mampu untuk mengawalnya.. Hanya Allah yang boleh memegangnya.. Sebab tu kita kena dekatkan diri dengan Allah.. Sebab kita nak dia pegang kukuh-kukuh hati kita. Bila dia pelihara dan masuk dalam hati kita, itulah nikmat lazatnnya bercinta. Masa tu biarpun satu dunia menyakiti kita, kita tak rasa sakit sebab kita asyik dengan nikmat bercinta dengan Allah..Bercinta dengan Allah sangat berbeza dari bercinta dengan manusia. Kerana tentulah pegalaman bercinta dengan lelaki kaya,rupawan, sempurna dan bijaksana tak sama rasanya bercinta dengan lelaki miskin, hodoh,cacat dan dungu.. Betapa nikmatnya cinta Allah, hanya mereka yang pernah merasai sahaja yang mampu mengerti. "

Redha

"Kakak.. Walau siapapun jodoh yang Allah hantarkan untuk kakak, terimalah dengan hati yang redha.. Tak mustahil dia adalah orang yang kita benci. Kalau yang kakak sayang, tak jadi hal lah.. Tapi kalau dapat yang kakak tak nak, lantaran kelemahan yang ada pada dia, ingatlah bahawa dalam diri setiap insan telah Allah ciptakan dengan kelebihan masing-masing. Dan mungkin kakak ada kekuatan yang dapat mengubah si lelaki tadi supaya hidup dia bermakna dan mungkin kakak sahaja yang mampu mencungkil kelebihan yang ada pada dia.. Mungkin juga si lelaki ini ada sesuatu kelebihan yang kakak sangat-sangat perlukan yang satu dunia tak mampu bagi pada kakak.. Alangkah bertuahnya kakak kalau kakak mengerti setiap pemberian Allah dan belajar untuk bersyukur.. " Sekali lagi berjuraian air mata saya turun. Terasa lemah lutut hendak berdiri.

Emak menarik tubuh saya dan memeluk erat. Pelukan emak sangat-sangat kuat. "Emak dah didik anak emak dari belum lahir untuk mencintai Allah.. Sekarang emak serahkan anak emak yang mak sayang sangat ni pada Allah untuk Dia pelihara.." Emak mengakhiri kata-katanya dengan suara sebak dan air mata yang mengalir ke bahu saya.

I need this now more than ever, thank you Allah, for guiding me back right this very moment when I am straying from your path.

Redha, regardless what is the end result, what I do now will be accounted for in the akhirat, as it is, I have countless bad deeds, is it worth to add more to it just because my heart says so? I don't think so.

Take Care Will Ya?

Assalamualaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh,

Last night was a bad night. I had dinner at ~6pm and everything was fine. While trying to finish the latest book that I bought, I kind of dozed off. Suddenly around 10pm, there was a surge of chills, the hair on my arms risen. I don't feel good. Within minutes, my stomach was growling, it feels like there's turbulent happening there.

Last time I had the same symptom was quite a few years back, I knew then there were too much gas and seriously it was not comfortable at all. I lied down for quite sometime, I did nothing, in hope that it will just eased up. But boy was I wrong. It got worse, now its going up to the head. I dragged myself to the kitchen. I had the maid cut off all the ginger a week back (a delayed attempt to make ginger candy). Took out some and boiled it.

I drank half glass of it, and instantly I knew what was coming. The whole dinner just eased themselves out to the toilet sink. It was disgusting, I was like in some kind of horror movie. I had probably a good 5 minutes of gagging at the toilet sink. I suspected not all came out. When things are better, I finished the ginger water, and tried to get some sleep. I tried to fill up my stomach, but to no avail. I was tossing and turning, halfheartedly hoping the remaining would come out so that I can get a good night sleep. It was excruciating. Well, I maybe exaggerating, but seriously even menstrual pain could not give me that kind of discomfort.

Tracing back, I think its the canned sardine that I ate that has caused me the whole episode. I can't remember when I cooked it. Living alone here, I have picked up a habit of storing the leftover in freezer, same case for the canned sardine. Its just that this time, I think I moved it to the fridge when I was going to London. We always have occasional power trip and my house are the few that always get impacted. It may be the case the power was lost and whatever inside the fridge started to go bad. The freezer, I am not so worried, that is because the remaining ice could still provide temporary chilling and only if we totally lost the power for 2, maybe 3 straight days, then only I have to start throwing everything away.

I have not told a single soul about this, wanted so much to tell somebody, but somehow the words just doesn't come out. I have became a very private person. I hate it that I don't have 'tempat mengadu.' I am not comfortable with anybody yet to a point I can call them in the middle of the night in case I have some problem. Or the person will be first to know these kind of things that happened to me. Darn, its so hard to build a relationship at this age, or maybe its just me? Whatever it is, for now I have to endure this on my own. I could not tell my mom, she'll freaked out, definitely, and that is not good. I only have Allah as 'tempat mengadu' and probably this blog..hahaha..

Hadith of the day:
Abu Hurairah also reports that Allah's Messenger, peace be upon him, said: "For every misfortune, illness, anxiety, grief, or hurt that afflicts a Muslim -even the hurt caused by the pricking of a thorn - Allah removes some of his sins." Ibn Mas'ud said: "I visited the Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him, while he had a fever. I exclaimed: 'O Messenger of Allah! You have a high fever! ' He said: 'My fever is as much as two among you [might have]. ' I asked: 'Is it because you have a double reward?' He replied: 'Yes, that is right. No Muslim is afflicted with any hurt, even if it is no more than the pricking of a thorn, but Allah wipes off his sins because of it and his sins fall away from him as leaves fall from a tree'."
Fiqh-us-Sunnah, Volume 4: Sickness, Expiation of Sins

Hopefully last night's episode did expiates my more than Mount Everest sins. InsyaAllah.

Till next time, wassalam. 

The worst place to work

Assalamualaikum warahmatullahi wa barakatuh,

I came from a  company called Shell Refining Company in Port Dickson, we are in the downstream business. For the past 5 years, downstream business were under scrutiny due to depleting resources and many other constraints. The company tried to promote the motto "A good place to work" in order to keep the morale high. Though we may not enjoy the benefit as much as the people in Upstream, we enjoy the company nonetheless. Bonus were not that high, cost being slashed, forget about the additional benefits that the Upstream colleague enjoyed, we never get to experience that. Travel is restricted, and most of the trainings are in house. But because of the people, we enjoyed our work, we cherished the camaraderie, we helped each other, and somehow despite the lack of resources, we can always count on each other. We went through the thick and thin of the industry when the crude price record an all time high and we were being penalized for the slightest glitch possible.

Now, I am here, an Upstream company, you can say that I am enjoying all the monetary benefits, but honestly if I can come up with a motto, this particular company, SPDC, based on the people's attitude, can be called "The Worst Place to Work". Its a big organization, and as a friend said, these kind of set up leads to inefficiency, very true. One project involved soooo many people, but still the work was far from perfect. Common issue that I found here:

1. Meetings NEVER start on time. (Well maybe once for the past 8 months that I am here)
2. People have commitment to stay put in a session until the end. A workshop, may start at 8am, they will come at 9am and by 11am they will be going out again, saying they have something else to attend, and that is the last of seeing them, and yet, they claimed that they are involved in the project.
3. They have serious commitment issue, no MOM with action party has ever been circulated. Nobody takes responsibility, but many would claim they have done this and that. To me that is b*llsh*t.
4. They also have compliance issue, few times we get request to do work that is meant to retrofit a certain design that does not meet the standard, helloo.....there is design basis in DEP, use it, you did not even use DEP , now you are asking us to do all sorts of things to cover your ass. There is specific project guideline, with proper Technical Assurance sign off to make sure all are in compliance, but how come it gets to this stage? What is this Technical Assurance doing? His signature is all over, the documents, which clearly does not meet the standards. WTH??
5. The people will only commit to meetings if it is being held in hotels, then you'll get people that was not involved in the work, attending it full time. WOWW!!
6. Every meeting that dragged on to lunch time, no lunch would be provided. I was told each employee were given pocket money for lunch, and yet the complaint about the meeting that does not serve lunch, once the topic is opened, they can drag on discussing (complaining) about it for a good 30 minutes.

Seriously, if its not about the money, I don't think anybody (non-Nigerian) would stand working here. I am here for the experience, in terms of work scope, I am learning a lot. But I think I learn more of how to control my anger here. SERIOUSLY.

Life in the RA on the other hand, is a bliss. So that is the main trade off. 

Guess this update comes much earlier than anticipated....huhuhu...next one will definitely be about garden, till then, Wassalam. :)

Belated Hari Raya in Port Harcourt

Assalamualaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh,

As usual, I will try to have a small makan-makan to celebrate friends for Raya. This year, though its now way past Syawal, I still want to make it happened, plus the fact that I have just moved into the house, makes it a double celebration!! :)

The menu is simple, rendang ayam, lontong (with instant nasi himpit that I brought in my container) and various kuih raya. I did made Puding Jagung, but it does not turned out the way I want it. However, there is one kuih that I introduced to the Port Harcourt community, buah melaka, and its a hit!! :)

No pictures of the food though as I was rushing back and forth and I was practically everywhere.

Here are some of the pictures of my guests.

Latha and Theresa

More ladies :)

The guest that preferred the other side of the couch

Andrea, Rafael , Robert

That's it for now, next update maybe on my garden, insyaAllah :)
Wassalam.

I'm Home!!

Assalamulaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh...

Alhamdulillah, I am no longer homeless..hehehe.. After almost 8 months staying in the guest house (well, tolak maybe close to two months of accumulated leave travelling all over), I have finally moved in.

This the picture before I moved in.

Some pictures in the course of moving...

These two gentlemen helped me assemble some of the small stuffs, the big ones were put together by the packers.

Since both of them did such a great job, I decided to cook some authentic Malay food for them. :)

Jogo de americano (place mat) comes all the way from Brazil.

Pajeri Nenas

Ayam Goreng ala Nyonya

Landon and Wai Kiong

Me and Landon

I am fully settled, I guess..hehehe.... This Saturday, I am having a belated Hari Raya do for the people that is still remaining in RA. They left when the summer starts, but with the Ebola outbreak, only staffs returned back for work, the families are all not returning. Until when, we don't know. Even the school is not re-opened yet. Tentatively they are looking at mid October to resume the school session, but if there is new outbreak, or more fatalities, it will definitely be delayed.

We'll see. As for us in the RA, chances of getting is quite low as we are not directly exposed. Anyhoo, I'll update more. Till then, wassalam.